The Hidden World

[Yuki!]

‘Hmm?’ he replied, still running. ‘What is it? Did something happen to you?’

[Of course not, I was worried that something happened to you,] Akira said. [Why didn’t you answer the first couple times I called?]

‘She called to me before already?’ Yuki thought to himself. ‘I didn’t notice it at all.’

[Well, since you answered now I assume that everything is fine,] she sighed. [What happened?]

‘Did you find anything?’ Yuki asked.

[There were two people, Shikaku, who were waiting at the edge of the forest,] Akira reported. [They were in the same direction that your man was running to.]

‘And?’

[I killed them. What happened on your end?]

‘I caught up to my man, he’s dead now,’ Yuki replied, stopping. Before him was the back entrance of the Dormitory. ‘I’ll fill you in more when you get back to my room.’

[On my way.]

She quieted and Yuki opened the door into the Dormitory. As he had expected, there was no one inside; they were all at the tournament. The only reason he had came in from the back door was to be careful. He entered the elevator and was lifted up to his floor. Then he went to his room.

“Welcome back, boss~,” Uriel greeted him. “Have fun?”

“Well, I chased after a criminal and then was bombarded with magical blasts that destroyed a good part of the forest,” Yuki replied. “All in all, yeah it was a good time.”

“So why did you withdraw?” Uriel asked.

Yuki knew what she meant.

“Withdrawing was easier,” he answered.

“Really?” she said, pulsating as she thought. “I would think that it would be better to just lose during a fight. You’ll attract less attention by doing so.”

He nodded. She was right. Except for one thing.

“Uriel, you don’t have a body so you wouldn’t know this but trying to intentionally lose while also trying to not make it look like you were trying to lose is very difficult,” Yuki explained. “Sometimes, it takes much more energy to do so than it does to just fight normally. And so I didn’t go that route since I knew that I was going to be doing some actual fighting later on.”

“Mmm, I see,” she replied. “Well, mind telling me what you found?”

“I’m waiting for Akira, she should be here any minute now.”

Yuki went to the couch and sat. Then he crossed his legs, folded his hands, and waited. A few minutes later, a knock came from the door. He got up and opened it.

“Welcome back,” he said to Akira.

“I’m a bit winded if you don’t mind,” she said, breathing a bit heavily. “I’ll sit down first.”

Yuki stepped aside and closed the door behind her. He went to the couch and sat beside her.

“So, what I found for the day,” he started.

“If you don’t mind, I want to eat something first,” Akira interrupted.

“Hungry? I don’t mind, I’ll just talk while I make something,” he said.

He got up and went to the kitchen, gesturing to Akira to follow him as he did so. As he opened the fridge, he began to speak.

“So the person that attempted to steal the jewel was Nataru Katem,” he said. “He was the person in black and I was able to incapacitate him. He wasn’t collaborating with the Shikaku, he was part of them.”

“That’s not good,” Akira remarked.

“Nope, it’s not,” he agreed. “After I incapacitated him, I interrogated him for more information. It seems that he joined recently and wasn’t privy to a lot of the more sensitive details. What I did find out was that there are more people in the Academy that are part of the Shikaku.”

Akira let out a sigh.

“There are also apparently a lot of people in the various industries and government that are part of the Shikaku,” Yuki continued, putting two slices of meat on a pan. “For instance, the head of the Katem family is a member.”

“So what do we do then?” Akira asked.

“I’m not done yet. I’ll answer that after,” he said. “One of the people that Nataru said belongs to the Shikaku was Ludwig, the craftsman instructor. There is also one more person that hasn’t been identified yet.”

Yuki looked at his sizzling steaks and thought to himself for a bit.

“One thing that I gathered from this was that the Katem family was targeted,” he said. “Most likely three years ago when they started to decline. It was possible that they were going after Nataru as well since he said the new head went to him directly. And if that is true, we can then connect that to our previous conclusion that this whole operation was to remove the current headmaster.”

“That means they want to completely take over the school,” Akira concluded as Yuki placed the steaks on two plates.

“Yes,” he replied, dumping vegetables on the pan. “But we foiled this attempt. We also prevented them from stealing a priceless artifact. I don’t know what they wanted to do with it, but it probably wasn’t to just look at it.”

“So, my question?” she said.

“I’m not sure yet,” Yuki sighed. “I don’t want to get involved in this but it seems that I might have to. At the very least, I’m going to purge this school of the Shikaku. After that, I don’t know.”

He finished his cooking and handed a plate to Akira before walking back to the living.

“Uriel, you heard all of that right?” he said.

“Yup,” she replied. “I take it that you want me to do some more digging?”

“Correct, tell me anything that seems interesting or odd,” Yuki instructed. “It doesn’t matter how small it seems. Just tell me.”

“Is there anything in particular you want me to look through?”

“Everything.”

“Thank you that amazing answer,” she said. “That narrowed down everything very nicely. I’ll get to work then.”

Yuki nodded and looked at the food on the table in front of him.

“Forgot utensils,” he said, getting up.

“I got them,” Akira told him. She handed him a fork and knife. “So what are our options?”

“Well, there are two routes we can go,” he replied. “The first one is that we leave the school and go into hiding where we will live secluded from the world and try to have a happy life.”

“That sounds nice but seems a bit boring.”

“The second is that we purge this school and then transition to what we can reach,” Yuki continued. “If we do get rid of the Shikaku that are in the Academy, it will tip them off that someone is targeting them. And so we won’t be able to hide. That means we’ll have to meet them head on and try to disrupt their everyday operations.”

“That seems hard and annoying,” Akira remarked.

“That’s because it is,” he said. “We don’t have information on them which makes things very difficult. We also aren’t strong enough to fight the higher ranking members. We can defeat the bottom ranked ones but other than them I’m not that confident.”

They quieted and ate their meal in silence. Yuki contemplated their future course of action as he did so. Then he let out a sigh.

“I think so too,” Akira replied.

“We’re going to have to pay Ludwig a little visit,” he said. “Uriel, where is he?”

“Vacation,” she informed him. “He’ll be back in three days? That’s if there aren’t any complications.”

“Remind me in two days, I’ll need a day to prepare,” Yuki requested. “I have some questions that I need answered.”

“Need some help in getting them?” Akira asked.

Yuki looked at her with a cocked eyebrow.

“Yes I do,” he said. “I need some clothes. Also, how good are you at persuasion?”

“I can get rocks to talk,” she replied with a smirk.