15 - Looming Hailstorm

“Sooner or later...”

“I’ll find him.”

“Because if I don’t, I won’t be able to forgive myself.”

As Ichika traversed the streets of Krakow, with an uncertainty enchanting her emerald eyes, she felt anxious and even scared. The fear was not in regards to the strength of her enemies, she kind of didn’t care about what happened to her. All of her mental prowess was channeled into worrying about her sibling.

That evening, she and Sakuto agreed to split up to make the search easier. She would take care of the south-western parts of the city, and Sakuto would explore the north-east sectors. The sky was dark, but the clouds weren’t textured - it looked like a dark gray cloth was cast over the world. And it was also pretty cold.

“I wonder what Yumichi would say if he saw me...”

“Maybe he will start rambling about his school life. Maybe he will tell me how much he missed me. Maybe...”

“Maybe he’s scared of me.”

Her train of thoughts was derailed by an incoming phone call. It was from an anonymous number. She stared at the phone for a little bit before finally picking it up.

“Hello?”

“We have your brother.” A deep and distorted voice said.

“Huh?!”

“We have sent you a set of coordinates. Come alone and unarmed, otherwise, we will kill him. We are soulfuls and we will detect any and all backup. And if you do not come...”

“We will make him suffer even more! Kyahahahaha!”

Katya put down the phone, laughing to her heart’s content. Next to her, by the table, was Yumichi - indulging in yet another box of ice cream.

“Hey, who was that?” Yumichi asked, shoving a spoonful of the sweet stuff into his mouth.

“We’re gonna pay a little visit to your sister.” Katya said.

“I wanna play cards!” Yumichi said.

“So be it!” Katya said, slamming the deck on the table. “You’re way more fun than that gloomy boy Nighty or that idiot Reiner...”

“We’re in the room.” Both Nightseer and Reiner said.

“And yet you’re not the ones who offered me to play with them!” Katya yelled. “You know, guys should be throwing themselves at the opportunity to play cards with a lady.”

“Is the so-called lady in question in the room with us right now?” Reiner asked.

“Asshole!” Katya yelled, shoving her fingers into the ice cream box and grabbing and throwing a small lump of ice cream at him. “Go die!”

“Maybe it’s not a good idea to swear when there’s a little kid nearby.” Nightseer sighed.

“He’s actually quite the gentleman, you know?” Katya said. She mixed the deck and split it, giving one half to Yumichi, and the other to herself.

“I’ll explain the rules now.” Katya said, staring into Yumichi’s soul, who was eating enough ice cream to kill a diabetic. “We place our half of the deck facing down. Every round, we each take the topmost card and place it down. Whoever has the higher value card takes both cards, suits don’t matter. If the cards are equal, we each put a card face down on top of them, and play another pair, and repeat that until someone wins the round. Whoever acquires the whole deck wins.”

“You’re playing that?” Reiner asked, confused. “That game lasts hours, it even lasted days that one time.”

“It’s a great way to kill time.” Nightseer said, approaching the table. “It all depends on who gets the aces.”

“It’s a game with zero skill involved.” Reiner said, also getting closer.

“And as the person who introduced that game to you, I knew exactly what I was doing.” Nightseer said. “It’s a stupid way to kill time and not worry about anything.”

“Alright then!” Katya exclaimed, slamming an eight of hearts on the table. Yumichi, who seemed to have understood the rules on the first try, put his own card down - an eight of spades.

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“An equal round first play?” Reiner asked himself.

“Heh, beginner's luck...” Katya gritted her teeth. She and Yumichi both put down concealed cards, and prepared to play again. “Come on then, show me what you got!”

Katya played a jack of hearts, and Yumichi played a queen of clubs. Reiner held his laughter in, he didn’t want to have more ice cream thrown at him.

“Ah, it’s...just a fluke. Let’s see what card I lost...” Katya said. She turned over her concealed card and came to a very unfortunate realization. She lost an ace.

“Looks like we already have a winner.” Reiner teased.

“Hey, the game’s only just starting!” Katya said. She played a queen of spades, and Yumichi put down a king of hearts. Katya recoiled in surprise and frustration, watching Yumichi take her sweet cards away.

“I-I can come back from this!” Katya said, slamming her next card on the table, which was a king of diamonds. “You don’t have a response to this, do ya?!”

Yumichi calmly put down an ace of spades.

“Are you sure you’re playing the game correctly?” Yumichi asked, unintentionally rubbing scorching hot lava in the wound. Katya looked completely and utterly destroyed, ready to disintegrate into dust at any instant.

“That’s just how the game works sometimes.” Nightseer said.

“It’s either that or the other game...God damn, we need some more things to play with this stupid deck.” Reiner said.

“How about poker?”

“We keep forgetting to buy a poker set.”

“How about blackjack?”

“Valid option.”

“Right...” Nightseer sighed.

“Can I have more?” Yumichi asked, proudly showing the three an empty box with remnants of vanilla ice cream barely clinging onto its inner walls.

“This was...the second box...” Katya said, shocked. “Hey, your teeth are gonna fall off if you keep eating that much!”

“Do we have anything sugar-free?” Reiner asked.

“No, that’s even worse! They just replace the sugar with a ton of chemicals!” Katya lashed out. “Honestly, we were supposed to lock him up somewhere, not feed him ice cream and play games with him!”

“We were supposed to take him to Lady Aizawa first.” Reiner said, throwing a little frustrated glance at Nightseer, who replied to it with that of his own.

“Katya, what’s the battle plan?” Nightseer asked.

“I go on with LV1 and...” Katya looked at Yumichi, as if trying not to offend him. “And I capture her. You guys can be on standby to help retrieve the body or fend off any backup.”

“Ugh, you’re gonna fight my big sister?” Yumichi asked, annoyed.

“Look, it’s just how things need to work out.” Nightseer tried to explain in a comforting tone. “We promise we won’t do anything extreme to her, but we need to confront her. I understand you’re worried for-”

“I’m not worried for her.” Yumichi said, his eyes looking a little...terrifying. “I’m worried for you guys.”

“Someone idolizes their sister quite a lot, doesn’t she?” Reiner asked, growing frustrated.

“Why couldn’t you all just be friends anyways?” Yumichi asked. “All that’s gonna happen now is that she will kick your butts and make you cry.”

“Is this guy saying this stuff on purpose to make us mad?” Reiner said, holding his prideful anger in. “Fucking hell, it’s a three-on-one in the worst case. I doubt she’ll even manage to hurt LV1 in the slightest.”

“Don’t underestimate her, she’s a tough nut to crack.” Nightseer said, as Yumichi walked away from the table to search through the fridge once more. “I looked through some archives. It says that Sakuto Hitori was the one who killed Diego Solano, but the one who actually fought off Diego and withstood his divine acclamation was her.”

“She’s also got some more deaths to her name.” Reiner said. “But none of that matters. She doesn’t have the slightest clue as to how LV1 even works.”

“In that case, Katya, let’s move out.” Nightseer said. “Grab the boy, prepare LV1 and let’s roll.”

They all left the hideout. Of course, they didn’t leave Aizawa’s sight - she was more than curious to see the confrontation unfold. Katya went to where a massive hole was dug, about the size of the mech she used to retrieve Yumichi in the first place. She kneeled down, and as her soul presence skyrocketed...

“Deploying LV1.”

The mech came to be. Katya entered it through the back of its head. The interior of that cockpit was almost overwhelmingly small. It only had an angled pilot chair and a pair of piloting sticks. As she got in and grabbed them, it looked as if she lost consciousness. But what truly happened was that it was transferred into LV1.

The mech jumped out of the pit. Nightseer was already on its shoulder, holding onto Yumichi, and Reiner was on the other one.

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you!” Yumichi said, now sounding a little angry.

Nightseer simply sighed. Deep inside, however, he knew that their enemy was pretty damn strong.

...

“I should tell Sakuto, shouldn’t I?” Ichika asked herself. “Or the Heisei, or anyone...”

“...”

“No.”

“They said that I shouldn’t bring any backup, right?”

“I can’t risk Yumichi getting hurt.”

“I’ll deal with it myself. He’s my own brother, isn’t he?”

“I don’t want to let myself down either...”

And so, with a determined expression, she headed towards the specified location.

“I’m more than ready to go there myself, and even sacrifice myself, if it means he’ll be safe.”

“I don’t want anyone else to be in pain because of me.”

“I’ll fucking kill them.”