The Eve of Cloud Break

Yuki frowned with the answer that Nerine came to for their dilemma. It did seem like the most likely answer. A simple solution that he had managed to dance around. “That could work for us. But we’ll need to be thorough enough so that they can be fooled if they want to confirm the kill.”

“Suggesting doing it in front of them so that they have less doubt about it?”

“These people are paranoid and meticulous about their plans. It’s going to be the only way.” There was one issue though as he let the plan slowly come together for him. Something that made it more complicated than the normal situation in which this happens. “What do we do after the battle? The Council would still be alive and the Association will know at that point. It’s hard to say how the Association will react. The most likely case will be they will act like nothing happened, but will still plot. So we’ll only be delaying things.”

“We can’t remove the Association because they’re the only power against the demons. Without any meaningful evidence they can’t be arrested either.”

The ideas that Yuki came up with were undesirable solutions to say the least. Their situation within the world at least gave him some partial insulation from the problem, but like with what he told Yumi it created a dangerous pattern. “Apart from leaving it up to the demons to kill them, which still leaves the Capital unprotected, there’s always the option of doing nothing.”

“You mean putting everything on getting out before they can advance another plot?”

“Yes. It’s certainly not ideal, but I don’t really think we can waste time getting deeply involved in matters here. We still have to figure out the clear conditions for this situation.”

“Have you not already figured out the conditions for clearing?”

“You’re like Saki and believe I’ve figured it all out already?”

“Well given your history, it’d make sense.”

“Sorry to inform you, like I said before I don’t have all the answers. This is going to be on Yumi to resolve.”

Chapter 437 – The Eve of Cloud Break

Even if the conclusion remained on Yumi, they still had to make sure they all reached that point. While over their dinner meeting the plan for dealing with the Demon Hunter’s conspiracy came together. They resolved to beat them to their assassination targets. Planning around all of the problems rising from their situation made it nearly impossible to manage. They carefully worked late into the night refining the details.

Their return to the estate transitioned them back to their usual schedule. While Yuki played spy, they had fallen a little behind on work with Nerine unable to fully keep up the same pace to replace an extra set of hands.

A dangerous game advanced forward into the next day. Watching out for any trouble from the Demon Hunters hadn’t changed. They already knew of their schemes for the Council, which cast even more shadow on their supposedly honest work for the defense. Yuki and Nerine watched all of the help that they got from the Association. Yet, just like before, even knowing that they were likely crafting more trouble nothing appeared.

All their suspicions did was make them more distracted than normal in their work. It took twice as long to finish their job and still with no more answers about what the scheme was for the Demon Hunters. Everything seemed completely on the level for once. Yet it seemed too good to be true.

He knew that they had to be doing something. It only made sense that they had a scheme going on. ‘I’m tempted to go undercover again. But I fear that there’s no paper trail like before. This plan is already in motion, whatever it is.’ The Hunters weren’t being noble in their efforts. Yuki just didn’t know what their play was. ‘I fear what they might do and the lengths they’ll go to keep their power. But what is going on here?’ Nothing came from any of it.

Yuki could only let time pass for them. The work became more important as they needed to finish it before the arrival of the demon army. Reports from the Lord told them the army started to make a move. The time ran down.

Two more deadly visits from Saki and Yumi occurred until it came to the final night. Upon the eve of battle, Yuki waited in the main chamber off the hall for them to arrive. Like previous returns by them, he anticipated a near death experience again. He sighed deeply to himself. ‘They only come back when one of them is dying. Though, regardless of their sparring, they have to return.’ Since they had returned yesterday, he wondered if they would be so badly hurt this time.

“They’ve had less than a day to try to kill each other. They probably aren’t even worn out.” He thought more about the situation. It was the final day before the battle. Those two knew what was at stake. “They probably went all out from the start…they probably killed themselves…” Another sigh came from him as he realized how much this wasn’t like the Yumi he knew from school.

He just hoped that they would show up soon. The night only dragged on longer and they still needed to rest. An hour more passed as he waited without so much as a sound from them. Yuki stood up and walked to the hall pondering his options for sleep. Just as much as they needed, he was short of his sleep from the late night wake ups and long days. “I can’t believe they haven’t shown up yet. They normally just wake me up in my sleep treating me like a Cure spell. If I just go to sleep they’ll show up.” Pacing around the hall, he weighed around his options.

Coming to an answer left him thinking about the risk of being a moment too late for them. They had so little regard for their safety counting on him as their healer to fix everything. It only worked if they made it in time though. They became unnervingly cavalier about their life within the digital world. Perhaps they started to accept reality more like a game rather than life, but they couldn’t trust that to be true. And they had no way of knowing, because none of the rules were explained to them.

Yuki walked over to the front door sort of hoping that they would conveniently just show up when he wanted them. Naturally, something that lucky would never happen. He still tried it nonetheless on the off chance it might actually happen.

Nothing.

He slid open the balcony door trying his luck further expecting to see the two stumbling through the gate covered in blood. Yet that wasn’t the case. He looked around to the sky if they might be arriving soon.

An empty sky.

All the luck wouldn’t make them appear if they weren’t returning. He started to give up the wait and turned his gaze to the ground for the first time. There near his feet he found the two of them soaked in blood and shallow breathing. They never made it to the door. “Dammit you two! How long have you been here?!”

Immediately, the Field spread out bringing life back into their bodies. The short results allowed them to move once more and enter the mansion, no longer spilling their blood for the neighbors to see. Yuki kept up the process as they moved inside and cleaned up the blood, something he found a habit as of late for him.

Yumi laid back against the wall, the cushions on the floor not enough for her. The pain returned for her now that her conscious state improved, but thanks to Yuki’s work that even started to fade now. She struggled with her breathing for a little more before it became more comfortable for her. The number of times she had been near to death made such pain less intense than she remembered. It was almost easier to fight through it. “Thanks!”

“What the hell were you thinking?!” shouted Yuki, likely waking up the whole mansion. He leaned down glaring at the two of them not even seeming to care about how close they came to death this time. “If I hadn’t looked outside you would have died out there!”

“But you didn’t,” she answered plainly. She hadn’t really planned for that to happen, but she couldn’t tell Yuki that. He was already worried enough about their safety. Another lecture on top of the one he already gave before would have shortened how much sleep she would get.

Saki sighed knowing already everything that he was going to say. It was hardly the first or second time. “We don’t need another round of lecturing from you. The matter’s over and you got to us in time. You also can’t be acting surprised when you knew this is the result.”

A grumble came from him as Saki pointed out the obvious. He knew that she was right about it. They already had this argument before and he resolved himself that this was just how it was going to be for now. “Fine…but I gave my protest.”

“And now that you’ve satisfied your need to keep your conscious clear, we’re going to bed now.”

“Saki…”

“Wasn’t that a little too harsh, Saki?”

“I’m just tired of repeating myself. He knew this would be happening.”

Yuki watched in silence as Saki walked away from him. He had nothing more he could say to her. She appeared to be in a worse mood than he expected. ‘I feel like she’s bothered by something more than just me being a repetitive nag about their recklessness.’ Unfortunately, he didn’t have the chance to ask her, not that she would be willing to talk about it.

Yumi looked back at Yuki feeling like she was watching their friendship at the breaking point. She watched him argue with her often, but not with the same sort of tone that she had with him now. No words came to her to give him. She only rushed to meet up with Saki hoping that she could find something to smooth things out.

A stonewall of silence erected between them.

Saki really wasn’t interested in a conversation. That much Yumi could tell just from the way she walked. There was no eye contact and her posture in her silence read clearly to Yumi. In their sparring together, she got a better sense of reading her than before. Secrets and feints still laid well guarded beneath it all that Yumi hadn’t managed to penetrate.

Silence held while they entered the room with Nerine missing from the girl’s room. Saki quickly changed while Yumi dragged behind her. She already looked ready to sleep. ‘If she goes to bed I’ll lose my last chance.’ Building up the courage to face down Saki, she stopped what she was doing and met her straight. “Yuki’s your best friend. Did you really want to end things with him like that?”

The futon was in reach for Saki. She acted like she ignored Yumi and kept going in silence to prepare to sleep. However, Yumi didn’t stop with the cold shoulder presented to her. Repeating her name, she wanted a response. Saki laid down on her back looking over to Yumi to satisfy her worries. “It’s fine, Yumi. The two of us have been through far worse that this won’t break us. Nothing this tiny would be able to do it.”

Yumi’s forehead pinched and wrinkled hearing Saki phrase it in such a casual way while dropping something even more ominous about their history that she knew nothing about. The implications made her want to know, but Saki already concluded the conversation at that point. She tried to work on sleep while Yumi stood around in her underwear. ‘Is that how it is?’

Morning of the battle finally came. Everyone gathered in the main hall as the Lord finished his thanks for their hard work. ‘He’s acting like it’s already a certainty that we’re going to win…’ Yumi thought. She didn’t nearly have the confidence in their success that the Lord seemed to have in them. Though it might have just been the only way he could cope as well. He had to believe they would win, since failure would only mean the death of every human in Japan.

Though everyone was mentioned, Yumi saw that they were actually missing someone. “Where’s Seiji? I haven’t seen him since he left to train himself.” He never appeared in the middle of the night, like she expected him.

“He’ll show up,” Saki replied with certainty, something that Yumi didn’t really expect given their more conflict driven relationship.

“You’re sure? Maybe we should go find him.”

“It’s not something he’s going to miss, even if he shows up late.”

“Who’s late?” answered Seiji from the threshold of the mansion. A fresh look in his eyes that had a renewed resolve spread out confidence in just his presence. Something had changed for Seiji, Yumi couldn’t figure it out exactly. She only knew this wasn’t the same Seiji that left. It made her wonder how anyone could change so much in only a week. It seemed impossible, but Seiji managed to do it.