8 - Steal The (Spot)light

The event ended, and the audience was slowly starting to leave. Diego watched with content, praising himself for managing to last the day. All that was on his mind was to get back and get drunk.

“Ichigo, can you take care of the cleanup? Talk to some fans too.” Diego asked. “Please. I uhh...I’m better off going home.”

“That’s not a problem.” Ichigo said. A brief pause later, he noticed something. “Mr. Diego, your hand...”

“I know.” Diego said. “That’s why I’m asking you to take care of things.”

“Please restock.” Ichigo said. “I’ll cover whatever needs to be done here.”

“I will, don’t worry.” Diego said. “I knew I could trust you.”

“Ichigo, since I have nothing to do, and since I doubt Diego will make it tomorrow, I’ll prepare my own presentation for the lecture.” William said. “I’ll take my leave.”

“Right...” Ichigo sighed.

“Here goes another night...”

The night seemed somewhat peaceful, despite the awfully loud celebrations just a while before. He gazed into the sky, trying to let go of his worries and just focus on what needs to be done. He went further away from the backstage for a few moments for a breath of fresh air.

However, lurking around the area...

“Quite a bold place to meet up, Otto.” Mukawa said. “Both you and your soldier...I’m surprised the Heisei didn’t sniff you out yet.”

“And what if they do?” Otto asked. He and Erwin were standing side by side, while Mukawa faced them a few paces further ahead. “They have no base to suspect or detain us, let alone attack us.”

“Still, we should've gone directly to my place.” Mukawa said. “The thing I prepared for you is there.”

“Tell me more about it.”

“A soulful I managed to get my hands on. Followed him to the moment he was ambushed by Diego, snatched the body, kept it nice and warm...soul determination can do wonders, kept him in a weird comatose state.” Mukawa explained. “I don’t think he’ll be waking up anytime soon, though. Should still be eligible for your replication to activate considering he was allied with Hayk.”

“And why should I care about him? Do you know his soul expression?” Otto asked.

“I do not.”

“And how are you going to find out what it is?”

“By having you copy it!” Mukawa exclaimed with sarcastic excitement. He clapped his hands. “Sounds like a jolly plan, doesn’t it?”

“Replication needs to come into contact with the soul expression to work.” Otto said.

“And some soul expressions are always active.” Mukawa said. “Listen, you’re better off trying the thing before trying to argue with me. Just accept the damn thing.”

“Right, because I’m sure it’ll be worth my time.” Otto said.

“If I’m spending so much effort sweet talking about it, then it is.” Mukawa quickly fired back. “Besides, I know something’s off with him. He has a fucking scary soul presence, and that should mean something coming from me.”

“I see...” Otto said, a bit intrigued but also slightly concerned at the idea. He turned around and walked towards an area further away from the backstage. Erwin followed suit. “I’ll take your word for it.”

“Where are you going?” Mukawa asked, catching up to them.

“I smell some blood in the water.” Otto said. “Ichigo Sadamitsu, was it? The elemental that can control light...I have a certain idea in mind which will be key to our plans.”

“I can guess what you want to do.” Mukawa sighed. “Go ahead then, he seems to be alone. The Heisei and Kaito left. No one’s gonna stop you. Just don’t cause too much collateral damage.”

“You’re one to talk about collateral damage!” Otto chuckled. “Blowing up bombs at elemental speeches just to fuel the fire.”

“My associate did it, not me.” Mukawa said. “I made sure to beat his ass for it.”

“Unfortunately, he made a good call.” Otto said. “I can tell you know it was one too. Regardless, it opened up quite a lot of opportunities for us. We’ve crossed the point of no return.”

“Ooh, scary.” Mukawa said, his expression remaining still as stone. “You seem very excited.”

“After I take light manipulation, and whatever you have prepared for me, I’ll still have room for one more. You can find me that one last soul expression, and with that, your job as a soul expression radar will end.” Otto said. “I’ll be strong enough to confront Hayk when the election season is in full swing. You’ll need to take more direct action yourself too.”

“You want a back massage too?” Mukawa asked. “Any other orders I need to follow? Maybe remind you to smoke every five minutes or bring you a coffee?”

“Let us not forget what is at stake.” Otto said, walking away with his right hand following suit. “One more thing, Mukawa.”

“Hm?”

“Will you get rid of the soulful you captured after I replicate the soul expression?”

“...”

“Don’t let your empathy get in the way of what’s right.” Otto said, leaving. “It’s not like the actions we take don’t hurt me either. It’s simply a sacrifice we must make.”

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“And now...”

“Erwin, here’s a question for ya.” Otto asked, as the two of them positioned themselves a bit further away from the backstage area, where Ichigo was. He was still alone, lost deep in thought. “Our opponent wields light manipulation. Our objective is to copy the soul expression and flee while remaining undetected. Any solutions?”

“We can fight him head on!” Erwin said.

“Won’t work. The less he knows, especially when it comes to our identities, the better. Wouldn’t wanna set off any alarm bells in Kaito’s office just yet.” Otto said.

“In that case, let’s wear face masks and attack him!” Erwin said.

“Now that’s more like it.”

“And you’re the one who needs to make contact with him, right?” Erwin suggested. “What if I bait him to activate his invisibility or any soul expression, and you sneak him, replicate his ability, and jump out?”

“Sounds good.” Otto said. “We don’t have any face masks, though.”

“Want me to snatch some from the crowd?” Erwin asked.

“No.” He smirked. “We won’t need them either.”

Ichigo felt something in the distance. A presence he didn’t recognize, but one that indicated that he should probably be concerned about it. It felt a little unnatural.

“Who’s this?”

“Is it them? Do they know that I’m alone?”

“I’ll call for backup. I don’t wanna take any chances!”

“Sir Otto, he’s taking his phone out!” Erwin whispered to Otto, who was hiding behind cover. “He’s not gonna take his chance fighting alone.”

“Then we don’t let him do that.” Otto said. He aimed the replicator and fired off an icicle at Ichigo’s phone, knocking it out of his hand. Otto quickly ducked back behind cover.

“That’s genius...” Erwin smiled in fascination, almost accidentally raising his voice too much. “He’s gonna think it’s the ice manipulator.”

“Did you expect anything less from me?” Otto shared a friendly laugh. The only person not laughing was the victim of this elaborate scheme.

“Damn it! It’s the ice manipulator...” Ichigo thought, quickly reinforcing his body as hard as he could. “She shot at my phone to sever my means of communication, and I still don’t know where she is!”

“I’ll make sure she can’t see me either.”

“There it is.” Otto said. “He used his invisibility. His soul expression is active. Now, Erwin!”

Otto struck the ground with his blade, and large formations of ice began to rise from beneath - reaching Ichigo. The latter leapt and avoided the attacks. At the same time, Erwin flanked around him - with his presence very high. Ichigo couldn’t make out who exactly it was, he saw Erwin’s general appearance but couldn’t make out who he really was.

But when Ichigo was focused on Erwin, Otto was already behind him. His invisibility was a useful tool, but when he was being overwhelmed by the intensity of battle, it was rendered pointless by his own rising soul presence. Otto landed a very light slash with the replicator.

“Behind me?!”

“Which one is it-”

Ichigo quickly turned around. Before he could identify Otto’s face, the latter used the second soul expression that he had copied.

With a large explosion, Ichigo was knocked back, and Otto used the impact to quickly get launched away from the battlefield. Seeing the outcome, Erwin left too.

“What the hell was that?” Ichigo wondered. “The ice manipulator and the explosion girl...”

“Wait...”

“Why’d they leave?!”

“They had my back, they even cut me...they could’ve gone for the kill.”

“What the fuck was this? God damn it...” Ichigo trying to calm himself down. He sat down on the formation of ice. “Nothing makes sense...”

“At least my phone is still in one piece.” Ichigo said, picking up the device. It only had a few small cracks on the screen, and miraculously, it was perfectly functional otherwise.

Far from the battlefield, Otto enjoyed the spoils of his activities. He looked at the third hollow slot on his blade getting filled, there was a bright yellow gemstone in its place.

“Three down, two more to go.” He said to himself.

“I can’t take half measures against someone of your caliber, Hayk.”

“How long is it gonna take them?”

Hayk and Rin were sitting in the hospital’s hallway, next to one of the rooms. Hayk held a cup of coffee in his hands while Rin had a packet filled with medicine.

“Might take them hours, there’s no telling. He needs intensive care.” Rin said. “He started to deteriorate into a living corpse. They told me I’m better off leaving his room for a while, even though I know exactly what they’re doing and what they should do...”

“Good fucking grief...” Hayk said, taking a deep breath.

“If we didn’t bring him here, he would’ve been dead for sure.” Rin explained.

“It’s security I’m concerned about the most.” Hayk said.

“It should be good. We’re here.” Rin calmed him down. “There’s nurses with him. We told them that if anyone that wasn’t us visited, they’d let us know immediately.”

“Right.” Hayk sighed. He still seemed concerned. But suddenly, his entire mood changed. The doors were opened, and a pair of nurses left it rolling Tsunehiro’s hospital bed.

“Hey, hold on. Where are you taking him?”

“To the operation room.” One of the nurses replied. “He has a blood clot in his heart, he needs surgery as soon as possible.”

“Right. Go on.” Hayk said. He quickly signed the papers that the nurse offered him regarding Tsunehiro’s treatment. The nurses quickly continued their journey and went into the elevator - there was only a visitor in a brown trench coat and a face mask present. The elevator’s destination was down.

“I scoured this place for soul presences. They should be good.” Hayk said. “But we could follow them just in case.”

“Right. Let’s go.” Rin said. They went towards the second elevator, which was on the bottom floor. The first elevator had already reached its destination - the first floor. And a few moments later, they felt something happening in the lower floors.

“What was that?” Hayk quickly asked.

“No idea. Felt like a soul presence-” Rin was interrupted by an intense explosion in the lower floors and the loud ringing of alarm bells in the hallways. The hospital’s workers ran around announcing ‘code red’, and soon, the message was broadcasted over the speakers.

“Rin? What’s going on?!” Hayk asked.

“Code red...is used to announce a fire...” Rin realized what was going on. “No! Fucking...damn it! Tsunehiro is getting ambushed!”

She pressed the elevator call button, but it was too slow. The thick smoke from the first floor was starting to creep up to the sixth floor where they were.

“The elevator’s disabled!” Hayk said, summoning his sword and sending an array of flying slashes to carve a path downstairs. They both jumped down the hole, finding themselves in a smoky maze.

“Can you sense any of them? Come on, anything?” Rin asked. Unable to find her way around the maze, she accidentally wandered off into the first elevator, the doors of which were open for the world to see. Inside, two corpses...

“No...he already made his escape...” Hayk said, standing in the smoke. “No, not like this...how did he know? He tailed us, didn’t he? And he waited to be separated...fuck...”

“Fuck!!!”

While Hayk was devoured by rage, Diego, wearing a brown trench coat and a face mask, was running as fast as he could while holding onto Tsunehiro’s somehow still alive body.