A Strategy for Impossible

Explaining the plan that she had in mind to Lord Konjo took some convincing on her part. But she succeeded at least and he left to the council. He called for another emergency meeting to rally all that he learned.

For them their hope was that they could get the Demon Hunters to agree to take action. While Yumi still had her doubts about what they could do, Saki seemed convinced enough that they could help. Self-centered and egotistical individuals were the last sort she wanted help from, but they were at a point that she couldn’t really argue with anyone over the matter. The help had to come from everywhere if they were to survive.

It was an easy enough thing for Yumi to understand.

With one plan in motion, they set out to prepare for the coming day. Though before they could do anything, Yuki and Nerine returned from their work. Both wore heavily robed outfits that disguised their appearance. ‘Doesn’t that make them stand out more?’ she questioned, as he drew back the hood only to find that it wasn’t actually Yuki. Rather it was some slightly disfigured and scarred looking man far older than Yuki.

Next to the man who she assumed to be Nerine was a young man with a simple and uninteresting face that no one would even bother to take a second to look at before moving on. ‘Who are these two? Servants or soldiers of the Lord?’ New guesses came to her mind as she tried to figure out their purpose.

While she sought to understand it on her own, Saki stepped forward boldly. “What have you been doing out there Yuki?”

“Yuki? Saki, I think you’re mistaken. Take a closer look!”

Not fazed, Saki stood next to the worn man and looked over at Yumi with an inviting stare. “No, Yumi, this is Yuki. He’s in disguise. Come on, drop your Field already.”

Suddenly, the sight of the weathered man faded away revealing the youthful and bright visage of Yuki to her. He smiled at her sheepishly. “Sorry about that Yumi, I forgot about my power. Woah…” The color in Yuki’s face drained out immediately turning him white as a ghost.

Yumi rushed quickly to his side with Saki turning around to catch him. They kept him from crashing to the floor and helped Yuki over to a neighboring room. Placed on a cushion on the floor, everyone gathered around with concern for his health.

“You feeling okay, Yuki?”

“Yeah, just a little lightheaded, Yumi. It’s fine.” He tried to motion with his hand to his friend on his health, but they weren’t completely buying it.

“He’s been maintaining his power since you left hours ago,” Nerine defended quickly, “He’s just worn out.”

“I’ll be fine. No need to worry. Nerine’s right. I’ve just been using my power a lot lately and for extended periods. I haven’t had much time to recover my stamina.”

“But Nerine doesn’t look that bad off,” Yumi noticed. She remembered seeing how rough it was for Nerine during their week-long hunt for the woman known as Masa. Like Yuki now, she got exhausted and spent the same as him. Though despite having to deal with similar conditions, she looked to still be able to function normally unlike him.

“Nerine has been in training and practiced with our power for far longer than I.” That seemed to be enough to convince them. Their posture relaxed and eased with the reasoning he presented. It certainly wasn’t the first time he nearly collapsed from overuse of his power. They didn’t need too much convincing, thankfully.

Chapter 432 – A Strategy for Impossible

Subjects changed quickly as Yumi accepted Yuki’s answer. “What sort of plan have you enacted? Lord Konjo wasn’t too specific on the details.”

Taking the redirect, Nerine stepped in to answer for Yuki, giving him rest. “It’s not complete and relies on help from the Demon Hunter to succeed.”

Hearing the name immediately ruffled Yumi and Saki to the notion of relying on them again. Saki took it in a better stride than Yumi, fixated on the emotions that remain hot within her. It hadn’t even been a day since they were taken into the jail of the dungeon of the Association and an untold amount of time since their capture and transport. “You as well…” Yumi had trouble finishing her own thoughts.

“As well?” asked Yuki, interjecting briefly.

“The council and Lord Konjo seem to be relying on aid from the Demon Hunters to win the battle,” answered Saki. She still had more of her composure than Yumi when talking about them. It impressed her a little how quickly Yumi grew to hate them having only briefly met them. Not that such intensity was a healthy thing for her. It was also not something she could deny. It only felt natural anyway.

Continuing her analytical approach of the situation, Nerine didn’t share the same sort of feelings about the group that everyone else largely labeled as an enemy. “They’re a powerful organization with knowledge that exceeds our own in fighting demons. Even if we are stronger than them, they have more experience than us.”

“Do you believe that we have a chance to win with their aid?”

“A low chance, but better than fighting alone. The important key to the plan will be the defense of the city. The longer that we keep the demons out of the city the better our chances are.”

“So you’re anticipating the walls failing?”

“With such a force, it is only a matter of time. Only by luck can we survive with the wall still intact.”

“Or you use those powers of yours,” inserted Yumi, recovered from her choking emotions. She pointed at the obvious fact in the plan. They continued to intentionally ignore such a possibility despite how it completely changed matters.

“We’re not abusing them, Yumi.”

“This isn’t even a real world. What’s there to be worried about breaking the rules here? My persona are already trying to kill me and are engineering the whole thing. We’ve gone past playing fair.”

“We can’t be certain of that. They set this up, but they haven’t appeared since.”

“It’s pretty convenient that the worst case scenario is happening. What else are we supposed to think?”

Saki dropped her hand on the table, breaking up the pointless debate. “It doesn’t really matter if they’re the cause or not. We have a war on our hands and we have to face it. It’s going to be more productive to focus on means of surviving and defeating this army.” There remained some reluctance from Yumi, but she pushed forward still wanting to know what they had planned for the defense. “So what are these guerilla tactics you’ve got planned?”

“We laid out traps in the field surrounding the city.”

“Lying down mines in the field for your enemy to cross is a standard tactic,” joined the demon. “That’s not going to fool them. We already know the city is riddled with traps for demons.” It wasn’t the first time he took part in the assault of a human city. In fact, the humans of the past were far more ruthless and cunning than the relaxed and complacent ones of the present. While some of the demons might be caught a little off guard by such types of humans that they have been seeing lately resorting to such tactics it wouldn’t last. It wouldn’t be enough to break the lines.

Yuki however disagreed with Manekamaru’s assessment of the plan. A dark smirk came across his face as he looked at the demon. “I’m counting on that expectation.” He began to go into the expanded details of their plan. The more he explained the strategy the more of the warmth disappeared from the room. By the time that he finished it nearly felt like the arctic inside with everyone stunned.

Even Manekamaru looked deeply disturbed by Yuki’s plan. “Such a frighteningly bold plan. I’ve never seen any human with such ideas. If you succeed…”

“If you succeed it’ll change everything,” Yumi muttered in half constrained shock. Hearing his plan in detail froze her spine. She knew that Yuki, when motivated, was smart, but it exceeded any of her possible expectations. The effects of what it would mean still left her struggling to keep it together.

Saki leaned forward keeping her unease in control compared to the others. “Are you sure about this Yuki? Things won’t be the same anymore if you go through with that plan.”

“Yumi asked me to find a solution and that’s what I did. This is my answer for the impossible scenario we face. It’s not something that we have to do, but you wanted a plan and this is going to be the best I can come up with.”

‘Putting this on me,’ she thought to herself. The stare that she got from Yuki told her as much. He wasn’t being cruel or vindictive about her ordering him to find a way to save the humans even if it meant using his powers as much as he wanted to avoid it. ‘He’s found a way that keeps to his intent to minimize the use of his powers, if he did use his power he could solve this whole thing so quickly. He’s so determined to not use them in this world…which has him with this deadly strategy against the demons.’

Processing it still, Yumi tried to think of it only as demons being killed. However, the scope of the plan still presented risks to the Capital as well. As minimized as they were, they had to still keep it factor. ‘Yuki’s weighed the odds and differences. This is the plan he has even if it does mean a risk.’ She knew that she had no other plan in mind. When they saw the demon army, she felt the despair from the overwhelming process of the demons. Her resolve wavered forcing her to reconfirm it. Despite all of that, she still didn’t know how they would win in the end. It seemed like a foregone conclusion that they would end up dead or they would be unable to save to the Capital. Neither option sounded good for their survival in the death game her persona setup for her.

Yuki gave her a choice.

There was no avoiding it. She had a reality to face. Yuki gave her a solution to the war. The cost was just going to have to be something that would be accepted in the end. ‘I told him to do it… It’s like he’s been telling me. This is my problem and I have to be the one taking the responsibility for the choices.’ The more that she remained in the world the more she understood how much her actions could not just be ignored. “Then it’s decided. We’ll go with Yuki’s plan.”

“Yumi, are you sure about it? There’s nothing clean about this plan.”

She nodded as the acceptance slowly took her over. “Without it we won’t be able to stand a chance. This is going to be our best option right now.”

“Nothing is simple with you,” Saki commented to Yuki about the plan.

“Sometimes simple isn’t enough.” Her methods were something that Yuki understood well enough to know why it bothered her. But he focused more on their bigger problem at the moment. While he came up with a plan, it wasn’t actually put into action. Apart from the fact that he wanted to make sure that Yumi agreed to it before progressing, since it wasn’t his place to act out of turn, he still needed one critical piece to actually get the plan into motion.

He needed the aid of the Demon Hunter Association.

Their aid he brought up before, but it still remained unclear if they would fall in line with the rest of the council with the falsified report that Lord Konjo took to them. They remained stubborn in their commitment to the defense let alone the offense. They seemed unwilling to be convinced of a real threat from the demons on top of their pride in their status as the protectors of humanity.

“But we still need those bastards,” complained Seiji, picking up on the reserved look that Yuki shared. It was clear from the beginning that Yuki needed them for his plan. And Seiji didn’t look forward to sharing sides with them almost as much as Saki. His sense of justice made him hate them more despite the limited interactions and Saki’s greater cause for hatred towards them.

Yuki looked over at Nerine, having already spoken for her efforts in the matter. “I’ll deal with them. We can disguise ourselves so they don’t know who we are. You just focus on everything else.”

“You sure about doing it all alone?” Yumi asked.

“We’ll be fine. There’s plenty to go around for us to do.”

Yumi stood up, managing to put herself in a more positive mindset. She looked over to Saki. With Yuki handling those matters, it left her time to try to work on improving herself. “If that’s the case, then I want you to train me more Saki with what little time we have.”