2 - Somehow Reunited

Most soulfuls were directly affiliated with the many worldwide factions. The overarching faction was the Global Soulful Coalition, commonly referred to as the GSC. Most soulfuls were registered in the organization and had to abide by certain guidelines, some of them even chose to become dedicated agents and carry out various operations if they had the capabilities to do so. Despite the existence of other groups, the GSC was ultimately the most powerful and widely recognized.

The elemental group was a sub-faction of the GSC, and it served a very specific purpose. There was no mistrust among their members for the most part, and they definitely didn’t lack in strength. But that group was being challenged by a party that existed outside of the coalition - a group of soulfuls that didn’t fall under any faction and aimed solely to protect themselves...

“What, you’re not gonna finish this?” The slightly older man asked the younger guy in front of him. “Kouta, have you eaten anything in the morning today?”

Kouta shrugged, still lazily picking at his plate of curry.

“Starving yourself isn’t gonna fix your life, you know?” The man said, seemingly disappointed. “Eat up.”

“I’m not hungry, alright? I appreciate that you’re looking after me, but I’m already full.” Kouta replied, now much more upset. “Here.” He said, tapping at his stomach. “See? I’m full.”

“Please don’t burden yourself with my appetite.”

He pierced a small piece of chicken on his plate, as if contemplating whether it was even edible. The bags under his eyes signified his heavy sleep deprivation, a result of the insomnia he had developed. He was rather tall and had a pretty muscular body, and his hopeless dark eyes matched his overall tired attire. His jet black hair looked like it needed some proper care.

The man in front of him, who was a mentor figure for rogue soulfuls like Kouta Touriki, was Hayk Nakama - a soulful who had moved to Tokyo in hopes of escaping what haunted him. Having long finished his plate of curry, he took small bites of the piece of bread in his scarred hand. In his blue eyes there was a sense of comfort, stemming from the knowledge that he’s trying his hardest for the sake of the kids he looks after. He had dark and slightly graying hair, paired with grayish facial hair that lightly covered his face. He wore a dark green sweater beneath a dark brown trench coat paired with dark pants.

“Oh, what’s up with you? Come on, you don’t like curry anymore or what?” Hayk asked, a little irritated this time. “There’s no spot that makes it better in this part of town.”

“No...that’s not the case.”

“Well, what if I ordered you some roast pork instead?”

Kouta just sighed, swaying his head in disagreement. He took a sip from his glass of water.

“Better fix your eating habits then. We’ll be getting busy soon.” Hayk said, standing up. “The meal’s on me, as always.”

“Huh? What do you mean by getting busy?” Kouta asked, lowering his glass. Hayk sighed, slowly walking alongside the table.

“We’re deep in shit now. Ichika was attacked by Hwang, and apparently an unidentified soulful helped her out. You heard about the school incident, right?”

“Yeah.”

“That was Ichika.” Hayk said.

“Why the hell...” Kouta sighed, clenching his fist in anger. “What did Ichika even do this time?!”

“According to her, she got attacked out of the blue. Anyways, I’ll be taking my leave now. See ya.” Hayk waved, leaving the place. As he walked along the old decorations of the restaurant, he fired off another remark. “You’ll join me once you eat your food.”

Kouta looked at his plate. He noticed the hot sauce poured all over it, without any memory of the event happening in the first place, and he got a little annoyed. Hayk lightly chuckled outside seeing that reaction, but soon, his mood was overthrown by a sequence of worrisome thoughts.

“Ichika getting attacked was expected. She told me that she had to frequently change locations, but why would the Elemental Group be so desperate in hunting her down? She’ll never agree to fight for them or to join them.”

“Maybe they think she’s too dangerous?”

“And what’s this about an unidentified soulful? Good Samaritans are way too rare in this game...”

...

“Who are we meeting with again?” Sakuto asked. He and Ichika were in a quieter part of the city that was otherwise burning with noise. The streets had little to no life, everyone feared that they’d get into another altercation between soulfuls and have their names added to the list of collateral damage. The weather was getting cloudier by the minute.

“The guy who's taking care of me and soulfuls like myself.” Ichika said. “And soon, you.”

“Is he a soulful too?” Sakuto asked. ”Is he strong?”

“One of the strongest there is.” Ichika smiled. “There he is!” She pointed at Hayk in excitement. Hayk was glad to see the gesture, he slowly approached the two.

“So, who’s the mysterious stranger?” Hayk asked, keeping his hands in his pockets. “Who’s your friend? I’ll get to know him before the grump gets here.”

“I’m Sakuto Hitori.” Sakuto said, extending his hand.

“Nice to meet you.” Hayk shook Sakuto’s hand and gripped it firmly. “And before you ask, yes, you are a soulful. There’s no doubt about it. Tell me, do you feel a type of energy reinforcing your body?”

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“Nope. I’m sorry, but-”

“Any specific abilities, elements, items or concepts that you feel drawn to? Anything that you feel like you can do?”

“No...?”

“Well, those were the standard questions...” Hayk pondered, scratching his head. “Let’s try something else.”

Sakuto’s hand was left hanging, he didn’t even notice the instant Hayk appeared behind him.

“Did you feel anything just now?” Hayk asked.

“Huh...?” Sakuto was caught off guard by the reappearance. He quickly sprung forward and turned around. “The hell was that? Teleportation?!”

“We’ll get to the details another time.” Hayk sighed, turning around and walking away a little, looking for someone. “God damn it, where the hell is he?”

Sakuto was confused, even a little overwhelmed. He zoned out, but that spell was broken by a ringing noise in his pocket. He picked up his phone which revealed Aki’s phone call. After staring at the screen for a bit, he decided to answer, looking very displeased.

“Hello?”

“Oi, Sakuto!”

“Yeah...?”

“What do you mean ‘yeah’?! Where are you right now?!”

“Why do you ask?” Sakuto asked, seemingly irritated. Ichika took notice of it, curiously looking at him.

“W-what? What the hell is up with you? I’m asking you!” Aki’s loud voice was heard even by Ichika at this point.

“Aki, I’m busy right now. I’ll call you later.” Sakuto sighed, distancing the phone from his ear.

“Oi, talk to me! Why the hell did you-”

Sakuto hung up. He sighed and tossed the phone into his pocket. At the same time, he took his time to re-experience the uncomfortable nature of his school uniform. It still had tears on it from his battle with Hwang.

“What was that?” Ichika asked, after a brief moment of awkward gazes between the two.

“A friend of mine.” Sakuto said. “At least that’s what I thought. The guy I knocked out in front of you was from the same friend circle as him.”

“Right.” Ichika said, feeling a bit ashamed. “Sorry if I messed up your relationships with them-”

“Don’t say that. You might have just liberated me from having to tolerate those creatures.” Sakuto replied. A new silhouette emerged further away, and Hayk looked eager to see him even though he was late. Kouta approached the group, but Sakuto, who usually felt at least a little alert when meeting new people, was instead shocked. “Wait a minute, is that-”

“Here he is.” Hayk said, patting Kouta on the back and pointing at Sakuto. The two looked into each other's eyes, and Sakuto confirmed his suspicion.

“Kouta?” Sakuto asked, his voice slightly trembling. He felt immense relief in finally seeing his old teammate.

“I thought he was a goner.”

“I called his parents, but they both said that they don’t associate themselves with him anymore. He abandoned all his social media, he stopped responding to me, and I never saw him outside.”

“For fuck sake, I thought he took the easy way out...”

“What the...” Kouta slowly said, his already tense hands shaking a little. “Sakuto, are you a soulful?!”

“I just found out that I am.” Sakuto responded, albeit a bit hesitant. “Since when are you one? And what the hell happened to you? What was the radio silence for?”

“How sweet, a childhood reunion!” Hayk exclaimed, clapping his hands. “Our dear friend Kouta is one of the strongest soulfuls out there. I’m sure he’ll be a way better tutor than I am, given that you too have a past...apparently...and also given the fact I’ll be getting pretty busy soon.”

“Sorry.” Kouta sighed in response. “Everything broke down in my life. I’m sorry.”

“Sorry?”

“Yeah. I shouldn’t have kept you in this anxious state. I should’ve just...”

“Hey man, it’s...” Sakuto approached him. “You might have given me blood pressure problems just now, but...”

“I’m sorry to break the moment, but we’re better off scattering right now.” Hayk suddenly said. “All four of us here, together, might alert some soulfuls with good enough perception. And we don’t want engagements just yet. Kouta, Sakuto, you two go on together. Kouta, make sure he learns the basics of soul prowess. Ichika, keep a low profile.”

“Understood.” Ichika replied, preparing to leave. She waved at Sakuto, but the latter was too shocked to even notice it.

“Sakuto, I haven’t introduced myself to you yet. I’m Hayk Nakama. Whether you like it or not...you’re now a part of all of this.”

“And what if-” Sakuto stopped himself mid sentence.

“No, I want to be a part of this.”

“I want to run away from all the boring shit in life and do this. This is exactly where I want to be. And I can’t leave Kouta alone now that I know he’s here.”

“What was that?” Hayk asked, as if he knew what the original sentence was going to be.

“N-nevermind. Right, I’ll be a part of this.” Sakuto said. “It would be nice to know what I’m supposed to do, though.”

“Learn to be a soulful, and then, survive.” Hayk said. “Think of this as enrolling in a course right before the exams. You have very little time to learn stuff and a very high chance of needing to fight in the near future. And I can’t have you under my protection all the time.”

“It’s fine, he’ll manage.” Kouta said. “He knows how to fight. He just needs to adjust himself a little.”

“Your source of that information being...?”

“I trained martial arts with him back then.” Kouta said. “Sakuto, I gotta tell you, fists alone don’t solve many problems. You’ll need to master using weapons.”

“My aim is alright.” Sakuto said.

“No, not those kinds of weapons. Just...tag along. I’ll tell you how things work.” Kouta said, walking away. Sakuto, albeit a little hesitantly at first, followed him.

“Well, that’s that I guess.” Hayk said, watching the two leave.

“Something’s off about this Sakuto guy.” Hayk thought, seeing him and his friend walk off into the distance. “He was in denial about having soul prowess.”

“But that’s not the issue. His presence feels weird, even scary.”

“He could be some type of experimental soulful weapon for all I know, I’m sure there’s plenty of people letting their creations run around and cause chaos.”

“But not awakening a soul expression after awakening soul prowess is strange. Usually everything is awakened in one go, even for powerful soulfuls. But it took an entire awakening event for him to have soul prowess in his body - which he can’t even control yet.”

“Either he’s an incomplete soul who’s getting dragged into a war he can’t keep up with, or he’s a soulful so unnaturally powerful that he needs multiple awakenings to become complete.”

He took a deep breath and sighed his heart away.

“Whatever the case is, I can’t let him fall in the wrong hands if that theory is true.”