8 - Hayk Nakama’s Gamble

The next morning, all of Hayk’s disciples were there exactly on time. They sat on the old mats, and they were ready for the worst. When Hayk came in, he didn’t spare a second, he stood in front of his followers and began his speech.

“First of all, I’d like to make one thing known.” Hayk said, before yelling. “I did not set off the fucking bomb!”

There was dead silence.

“I did not do anything.” Hayk continued. “If you don’t believe me, that’s on you. If you don’t want to believe me, at least believe the fact that I have a functioning brain.”

“What he means is that making such a move would escalate everything to a whole different level.” Tsunehiro elaborated. “Now that mass soulless casualties are involved and an elemental has been slain, the soulless masses want an answer. So the GSC will try and solve the issue as fast as possible. Which might mean deploying the Heisei.”

“So our job right now is to make sure that the Heisei doesn’t get involved. At any cost. Because if they do, we’ll be outmatched in every single way.”

“I heard about them...” Sakuto thought. “The GSC’s spearhead when it comes to soulful conflicts, or any conflict in general. Their most elite fighting unit.”

“And how are we supposed to do that?” Ausra asked. “It all comes down to what they decide.”

“Here’s the catch, we have a say in what they decide.” Hayk replied. “It’s a plan that me and Tsunehiro thought of, and Rin yelled at us for it, because it’s dangerous and all that crap...but it’s the only option available. I'd rather apologize later instead of begging for permission now. All we need to influence their decision is, say...a soulful in the GSC whose words will convince them. And only one of us can do that.”

“You want me to infiltrate the meeting and push an agenda, right? Using the trust they have in me as a member and a potential elemental...” Oskar asked, accepting his responsibility through his slow and even anxious voice.

“Spot on.” Hayk said. Everyone stared at Oskar, the silence was overwhelmingly tense.

“Fine.” Oskar sighed. “No better option out there anyways.”

“The bombing and the death of that lackey will be the hot topics for the meetings. You’ll have to make sure that they limit the conflict to just the elemental group, you’ll have to tell them that if the group and the GSC needs to retain their good appearance, they’ll need to carry out the job themselves and make a show out of it.”

“Will he be there?” Oskar asked.

“Naturally.” Hayk sighed. “He will be the man you’ll have to convince.”

“You’ll need to make sure you’re heard, Oskar.” Rin said. “We will give you a wire, but I doubt you can sneak an earbud in without suspicions arising, so...yeah, we can only listen. I hope everything works out for you.”

“Dima will stay close to you as backup to escape.” Hayk said.

“And I’ll intervene if you get into a fight.” Tsunehiro said.

“No you won’t.” Hayk said. “You’ll stay here, by the control center, and guard Rin and make sure we don’t get attacked.”

“I can hold my own too, you know?” Rin said, a bit offended.

“Hayk, I need to be available-”

“I’m not having this discussion with you again. You’re staying here. They won’t fight, they’ll only escape.”

“And what if they can’t escape?”

“Just...” Hayk got caught off guard by that question. “If Oskar fails his objective, we’re all screwed anyway. Now, the next step of the plan is to actually eliminate them. We’ll divide and conquer.”

“Ichika, Ausra, you two will act as bait. You two will traverse the city with your soul presences flared up, there’s a good chance that one or two of them will be on patrol. Once you engage them, you’ll call for my assistance using these magical little devices. They’ll transmit your locations to me, and I’ll help you deal with them.”

Hayk approached the girls and handed them two small gray objects, each with a button attached.

“Finally, we’ll attack the asshole that started everything in the first place.” Tsunehiro explained. “Oskar will confirm where Hwang will be later today. Once that information is available to us, we’ll assassinate him, nice and clean.”

“Kouta, Sakuto, you two will do the job.” Hayk said.

“He’s new, you know?” Rin said.

“This is why I love hearing your voice, Rin. You object to everything I say, and you get me to justify my decisions, and actually convince myself that the insane crap I spew out of my mouth every day isn’t really too insane” Hayk said. “Please, never change.”

“He was strong enough to kill Matteo. I’m sure he’ll be strong, especially fighting side by side with Kouta who’s a monster himself.” Tsunehiro translated. ”Who he just so happens to be buddies with...”

“We’ll be fine.” Kouta said, assuring Sakuto who appeared to be concerned.

“Of course you will.” Hayk said. “Your gravity manipulation isn’t a joke.”

“Gravity manipulation?!” Sakuto thought, internally shocked after hearing that revelation. “That’s what Kouta has? Is everyone here just straight up overpowered?!”

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“And I don’t even know what the geezer himself has, some type of teleportation thing! There’s no way I’ll keep up with them unless I get lucky with my ability!!”

“Rin will remain here in case we need to treat someone who’s injured.” Hayk said. “That being said, are instructions clear?”

“Yes!” Everyone exclaimed.

“Then get some rest. We all move out right before the meeting starts...which is at four. Kouta, teach Sakuto a thing or two about using his weapon. Make sure he’s ready for what’s to come. You’re all dismissed.”

...

Sakuto’s phone rang when he was outside.

“Hello?” he said, sounding disappointed, because he knew who was calling, and what type of interrogation awaited him.

“Hello? What happened to you?” Aki sounded upset and impatient.

“What do you mean? I’m right here.”

“No, what happened to you?! You ignore my calls, you...you still haven’t given me a proper explanation on why you hit your friend...”

“He wasn’t my friend, first of all.” Sakuto said. “And I gave you an explanation already.”

“No...that’s...oh my God, stop acting so fucking childish! What the hell is up with you? I want you to talk to me.”

“Talk to me about what? About myself?”

“Are you mocking me?”

“Nah, I just know this conversation won’t change anything.”

“Talk to me.”

Sakuto’s stomach felt a little heavy, he wanted to keep everything a secret from his friends, but something made him confess anyways.

“I’m a soulful now.”

“You’re what?”

“A soulful. You know, like the ones from the elemental group.”

“You’re working for the elemental group?”

“No, it’s uhh...it’s a separate group. Some of my friends are there too.”

“What do you mean a separate group? What friends? Who are they?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Dude, why are you hiding everything? What the hell is wrong with you? Why don't you trust us?”

“I do.”

“I don’t.”

“Then why not talk to us about it?”

“It’s confidential.”

“I can’t be bothered to tell you all the details.”

“Talking to you and your kind feels bothersome and even painful. But I never felt this way with people like Kouta or Oskar.”

“This is disrespectful.”

“Oh, is it now?” Sakuto asked, closing his eyes and attaining a wide smile.

“What is up with your tone? Sakuto, just...what is wrong with you?”

“A lot of things, I bet.” Sakuto continued. “Not all of them are prestigious enough to be given a shit about by you. You know, had you paid some attention, maybe you’d make your own list.”

“Whatever’s up, I’ll get you back in better shape.”

“Ya won’t.”

“My God...it’s all because of those random weirdos you talk to, isn’t it? Instead of talking to normal people, you talk to some unsuccessful fighters and some losers online that you barely ever met...you get into those kinds of environments-”

“Just skip the lecture and get to the point.” Sakuto said, letting the truth slip. “You’re not gonna change my mind about things anyways.”

“What is this disrespect that’s coming from you? I wanna meet you, and so does my friend who you punched for no reason. You’ll apologize to him.”

“There was a reason.” Sakuto replied. “And no.”

“What do you-”

Sakuto hung up the call. He received a few more calls, but shut all of them down, until Aki himself gave up.

“Dammit.”

“Maybe I could’ve approached this a bit differently...”

“I guess there’s no coming back now without swallowing what’s left of my pride.”

“Maybe I should’ve just...left things the way they were?”

He looked at Oskar in the distance, next to Dima, standing by a vending machine. His expression of regretful somber quickly faded into that of confidence.

“No...because if I go back, I won’t feel alive anymore.”

Sakuto approached them.

“Oskar, is your electromagnetic stuff always active or do you have to manually activate it? He asked.

“The second one.” Oskar replied. “Why?”

“The can is shaking in your hand.” Sakuto said. “You usually never care about what you do. This is the first time I’ve seen you like this.”

“Well, there’s a first time for everything.” He sighed. “And it’s ugly most of the time. Everything’s in my hands...and it’s easy to blow everything over.”

“It’s gonna be fine.” Dima said, patting Oskar on the shoulder.

“Shit, I hope so...”

“Also, Kouta said he wanted to teach you how to release soul prowess.” Oskar continued. “Think of it as shooting flying slashes out of your weapon...yeah that’s...basically what it is. Super useful for you since you don’t have any offensive abilities.”

“Right, thanks for letting me know.” Sakuto said. “I’ll get straight to it then. Take care.”

He left the two.

“He wants to learn it before the operation? Are you sure he’ll manage?” Dima asked, taking a sip of his own drink.

“He’s a ridiculously fast learner.” Oskar said. “What do you think of him?”

“Can’t say anything now.” Dima said. “Haven’t gotten to talk to him too much, or even at all...from what I heard from Kouta, he’s good at fighting, he’s smart...you know, maybe he’s not a reliable source considering how much he praises him.”

“You don’t seem too upbeat saying all of this.” Oskar said.

“Dunno why you think that.” Dima shrugged. “Something just feels off about him. Maybe it’s just the presence...could be a sign of something else.”

“He’s a good guy.” Oskar said.

“Do you trust him?”

“Yeah.”

They went back inside the gym. Sakuto and Kouta were training, it seemed that Sakuto had already gotten a grasp of what the technique is about. Hayk and Tsunehiro were going over the details with Rin, they set up a laptop which was supposed to be the brain of their operation.

They tested Oskar’s wire, they tested the location trackers on Ichika and Ausra, and they trained until the hour came.

And at last, the teams moved out. So far, everything was looking great. The weather was slightly cloudy, a gentle wind blew in the streets. From the perspective of the average citizen, it was a perfectly ordinary day. For the soulfuls, this day decided their fate.