The Hidden World

“What?” Erica said.

“Do you want to join us?” Yuki repeated.

Erica continued to stare at him a blank expression.

‘Hmm, I don’t really know how to explain my question. It was a pretty simple one.’

[Yuki, I think it’s more about the shock factor rather than she can’t understand it.]

‘Oh.’

“What do you mean by things to settle with them?” Erica asked at last. “Like revenge? What did they do to you?”

“That’s a long personal story that I may or may not disclose with you depending on whether or not you agree to help us,” Yuki replied. “Just know that they screwed up my life as well.”

Erica grew quiet and looked away from Yuki, staring off into space. After a couple of blinks, she turned back.

“What are you planning to do?” she asked. “I need to know this before I decide.”

“That’s fair,” Yuki nodded. “We don’t have much of a plan yet because I just thought of this idea about an hour ago but in the whole sixty minutes of thinking I made, I came up with an outline.”

“Really?” Erica said.

“You did?” Akira said, speaking for the first time throughout the whole conversation.

“Yes. It’s a simple one, though,” Yuki continued. “As you probably already know, the Shikaku are quite literally everywhere. They are in the government, in the media, and some might even be in this room. There’s no way someone can go against a group that large directly unless you are extremely overpowered and loved by the entire world.”

“That’s true,” Erica said, shrugging and nodding.

“And because of that, we can’t go against them head to head since that’s stupid and I just said why we can’t. So, I decided that we just do things the same way they operate. We’ll manipulate things behind the scenes but against the Shikaku. We’ll try to stop any plans that they are attempting to implement and we’ll go through with some of our own.”

“How are you going to do that?”

“I don’t know,” Yuki shrugged. “That’s why I wanted some more people to talk to about this. I need to bounce some ideas. So how about it?”

Erica pursed her lips and then did a sort of half nod, her head tilting sideways as her eyes went up.

“Sure, I’ll join,” she said.

“What, just like that?” Akira asked.

“It’s not like I have anywhere else to go. This might be fun. And messing with the Shikaku is a nice benefit.”

“Great,” Yuki said. “So. Any ideas?”

“Well, um, there’s one that comes to mind,” Erica said. “You wanted to manipulate things from the shadows or something like that, right?”

“Mhmm.”

“That’s a lot of hard work for just three people so we should recruit more.”

“Four people actually, though one isn’t actually a person, but good point," Yuki agreed. “Do you have a plan as to how we’re going to get these people?”

“We’re in Fenrir. This is like, guild central. We can create a guild and get people to join it.”

“But that would require going through legal hoops and applying at the GMD,” Yuki said. “And the GMD probably have someone that works with the Shikaku.”

“Oh, when did I say a legal guild?” Erica giggled. “I meant a guild in name. A dark guild if you will. The Shikaku are one as well.”

Yuki nodded.

“So, you’re saying that we should make a dark guild and recruit people to that guild to fight against the Shikaku,” Akira summarized.

“Yup.”

Yuki thought to himself, considering the idea. He quite liked it. More people would mean more possibilities and a wider range. The only problem was that more people meant more problems and a higher possibility of a traitor among them. More people also meant that Yuki would have to spend more time managing them.

“Do you know how to set a guild?” Yuki asked Erica.

“Of course. Otherwise I wouldn’t have suggested it.”

“Could you do that and recruit the people to join it?”

“Yes?”

“Great, that’s good to know,” Yuki said, nodding his head. “Then I’ll let you handle the set up and rounding up possible members. Once you’ve done that, then I will judge each of the people and accept those that I believe would be the most helpful.”

“Yeah, about the set up,” Erica said hesitantly. “There might be a small problem.”

“How so?”

“Well, in order to get better people you need something to attract them with,” she explained. “Normally that would be reputation of a guild but we won’t have that. So all we can do is money and words. We’ll also need a base and one that is hidden since we are an illegal guild.”

“So, it’s money problems,” Yuki said. Erica nodded.

“You don’t need to worry about that,” Akira spoke up. “How much do you estimate you need?”

Erica began to count of her fingers.

“I need some incentives, so maybe around one silver person to get them interested. The rent for a guild house would be around three to five silver a month depending on where it is and how good my bargaining skills are,” Erica said.

“So what if I give you ten gold?” Akira offered. “Would that be enough?”

Erica blinked.

“Ten gold!?”

“Akira, how much did you get from today’s hunting?” Yuki asked.

“Fifteen gold,” she said. “So if we look at our savings, we have around fifty plus gold in savings plus some credits that might total to about twenty thousand dollars?”

“Dollars?” Erica interrupted. “What’s that?”

“She meant to say ten gold in credits,” Yuki explained. “We can probably give you ten gold to start off. Would that be enough?”

“That’s more than enough,” she said. “Do you not know how much that is?”

“Oh, I know so don’t spend it all at once. Here you go.”

Yuki grabbed Erica’s hand and began to deposit gold coins one by one, making sure to cover it as much as possible. Erica nonchalantly placed them in her pocket and her expression reverted to neutral.

“Also. About the guild house,” Yuki said. “You can find a place for the first month or so but you don’t need to worry about that for long. Just use most of the money for some equipment and members.”

“I’m not even going to ask,” Erica sighed. “Anyway, what kind of people do you want?”

“Anyone that’s strong and loyal, really. I want to know; how are you going to recruit people? You’re not just going to go up to them and say ‘do you hate the Shikaku’ right?”

“Of course not,” Erica smiled. “That would be my third question. It wouldn’t really matter what I ask them anyway.”

“Why?” Akira asked.

“I’m a succubus,” she said. “I can alter their memories, even remove some if I need to. It’s not that difficult.”

Yuki suddenly saw a dozen new pathways open up for him.

“That’s good to know,” he said. “Anyway, do you need anything else?”

“No, I don’t think so,” Erica replied. She stood up from her seat. “I’m going to go get started.”

“Wait, before you go,” Yuki said, grabbing her arm. “I need a way of contacting you. Take this.”

He slipped the earpiece that was in his pocket into her hand.

“You can contact Akira using this,” he explained. “So feel free to talk to us whenever you want or need to. Also, you need some food.”

“I do need food,” Erica nodded, spinning back toward the bar.

“Want a drink as well?” Akira asked, holding up the bottle of champagne. “This tastes amazing.”

“I’ll take that as well. I can eat almost anything right now,” she said.

“When did you last eat?” Akira said with a worried expression.

“A week ago.”

“That’s horrible!” Akira gasped. She patted the seat next to her. “Come here, I’ll order something for you.”

Erica walked over and plopped herself on the stool.

“What do you recommend?” she asked, looking at the menu that the bartender had just handed to Akira.

Yuki looked at his watch and saw that it was almost time for the scheduled curfew.

“Akira, I need to go,” he said.

“But we’re going to eat,” she replied. “I can’t go now; I don’t want to leave Erica alone by herself here.”

“That’s fine. Actually, you can stay with her and help with the recruiting,” Yuki suggested. “I can go back to the hotel and you can always sneak in.”

“Oh, okay,” she said. “Then I’ll come back as soon as I can.”

Yuki nodded and picked up the bottle of champagne. He poured out one last cup for himself, filling the glass to the brim.

“You might want to order one more,” he said. Then he downed the drink in one swing.

He turned and walked out of the bar.

[See you later, Yuki,] Akira said.