Her hands shake, so badly in fact that the gun almost slips out.
She is unsure of what she should do.
Should she just fire the bullet?
Should she never have picked up the gun in the first place?
Maybe she should have just not come up here with them.
“OKEMIA?!
What do you intend to do?
Are you going to shoot me for all the things I’ve done in these recent years?
Do you INTEND!
ON AVENGING OUR UNCLE AND AUNT?
IS IT BECAUSE I WAS THE ONE TO KILL THEM?!
“YOU of all people should know! Should know it necessary, if you knew. ” He screams while the agony of his arm being cut off, seeps in greatly.
Si steps towards Okemia holding the gun she has in her hand.
“Kid it’s okay you don’t even have to do this. Come on, it’s okay to put it down. You don’t have this experience.”
Shaking so intensely she hurriedly speaks up.
“IT WAS ONE OF THE BIGGER PROBLEMS!”
She screams out.
“You as a brother, as a person, are horrible.”
“Ever since I turned 6 I wondered what happened to you, how the hell can a person change like that. You don’t mean anything to me.” Her eyes are radiated with intensity.
Gritting her teeth while tears fall down her face remembering memories of all that happened she snaps her arms in place.
Her finger slowly approaches the trigger.
BANG!
BANG!
Firing two shots, she hits her brother in the back, while the other hits the ground.
“Shit!” Si quickly restrains Okemia movements with the gun.
Hyuganatsu himself winces in extreme pain, the bullet seems to hit one of his lungs.
“NO WAY?! How can some ordinary gun manage to injure me to this extent?!”
“Because we infuse our weapons with our Tamaryoku, I had my pistol for so long it naturally became like that.”
Walking towards the chained to the floor with one of his remaining arms, Hyuganatsu, she laughs.
“Your sister really did put two in you? Didn’t she.”
She held her stomach which had stopped bleeding.
“Of course something as simple as a crude knife can hurt you, a somewhat basic thing when it comes to fighting with Tamaryoku.”
Standing up pulling against the chain and with one arm missing he revolts.
“Even if you manage to kill me? What do you hope to accomplish here?!”
“Do you not know that the evils in this world will continue to thrive? I only did what was right, so what if did egregious? People are always twisting what they think is wrong or right! ”
Standing more and more the intensity of his continues.
“Tch, listen to me! You couldn’t even accomplish half of the things I’ve done! Do you what our parents have gotten into?!”
He shouts in confused rage at Okemia.
“I will get out of this fight victorious! I will pursue the birth right that should have been given to me! I WILL remain on top despite my circumstances!”
The trees began to converge onto everyone, water began to burst up from the ground with great intensity, even metal formations began forming.
Fire starts burning from Hyuganatsu’s eyes.
“YOU HEAR ME, OKEMIA! WHAT WILL YOU WHEN YOU FACE SOMETHING LIKE THIS? WILL YOU BUCKLE AND FOLD OR WOUL—”
Rushing towards him the trees hold his body up, but they crumble before anything meaningful could happen.
The trees around him stop moving just for a moment, even the fire in his eyes slowly fades out.
Crumbling around him the metal formations began to destabilize.
His thoughts echo around, he can’t even speak if he wanted to.
SLISSHING!
The sound of the sword swing is heard after, he couldn’t even hear it when it connected with his neck.
His head rolls on the turning towards Okemia’s direction, she could only see the his expressionless face after death.
She turns away in shock, she still can’t believe her brother really died, even if she harbored negative feelings he still died right in front of her.
Amaiaruheitō whips the blood off her blade.
“He really talked too much…”
The trees that once covered the night sky’s light begin to crumble and wither away, the fall leaving a great impact on the ground below.
Si walks up to Amaiaruheitō.
“It’s all over now, I’ll confirm it when we radio in. Hyuganatsu Fuji has been eliminated…”
During this time, the rest of Si’s squad and Shirogane’s entire squad managed to secure the 9th and 10th floor.
Okemia’s father managed to complete the deal of his company being acquired, after that he was promptly arrested for charges relating to his son.
There were casualties this night for both sides, Kino was taken to urgent medical care, his squad members’ bodies were recovered and funerals have been planned for them.
Okemia’s father gave one of his reps a temporary leadership role in the company; he can’t leave his business without a leader.
The engagement of the mission started at 18:46.
It is now 20:12 as of the current moment.
For some of them, It feels like four days have passed already with how much was going on.
Standing outside the estate a lot of SDEJ officials are going back and forth, bodies are being brought out from the building.
Large trucks and blacked out cars are rolled up at the front door and proceed to parking lots.
“Yanagidate Masashi!” A voice calls out.
“Mr. Si?” Masashi looks over confused and a little bit tired.
“You did good.” Giving a thumbs up to Masashi he walks away.
“Hey Masashi!” Amaiaruheitō walks up to him with bandages covering her stomach area.
Looking shocked he still can’t believe she is walking and even conscious.
“You sure you’re going to be fine? I mean with that hole in your stomach, like what about your organs are they?”
Amaiaruheitō laughs a bit.
“Don’t worry my intestines will regenerate after a week or two, it’s just a section that got destroyed, it’ll take its time. It’s all thanks to my ability to manipulate blood that I was able to survive this.”
Masashi looks up and down.
“Hey! About your ability? How did you even manage to freeze that water?”
“It’s not that I froze it, I just solidified it, manipulating blood is not even the ability of my Kussetsu.” She giggles a little, “Since I’m tired out of my mind, I’ll give you a hint. Thrombosis, search it up, come back to me whenever and tell me about it.”
“Ah what a bummer…”
“Yo, Yanagidate!”
Okemia walks up to him, covered in a blanket.
“Right now in my head I have so many questions, like no way. Like no way really! How are you even involved with the government? I thought you were just a regular high school student like everyone else?”
She grabs her head still trying to make sense of it.
“I know this isn’t the weirdest thing that happened, like when that monster attacked us at school a few weeks ago. That was definitely supernatural, and now this?! Like this entire month leading up to the end has been crazy!” This chapter is updated first at novelping . com.
Masashi scratches his head in a daze.
“Yeah this world is kinda…. Crazy. But I promise to explain most of this in a time where it’s not as intense as this.”
Okemia looks at her phone.
“Ok ok ok, I’m just glad it’s kinda over at this point.”
“Hey, this might sound out of place. But can you still make it for the finals tomorrow?”
“Uh, I think so yeah, well I shouldn’t say think. I definitely will be there. To be honest I’m not really worried, despite the situation I feel like I got this.” She confidently proclaims.
“Maybe you do.” Masashi sighs.
“But how are you gonna get home? I mean your dad went to jail right?”
“Not to worry, I explained the whole situation to my mom on the phone, she’s coming here in a frenzy and she’s quite mad as well. So there is that.”
“But how are you gonna get home?” She curiously asks.
Amaiaruheitō grabs Masashi by his head and squishes him to herself.
“He’s gonna get taken home by my dear friend Hashimoto, I actually called him about 20 minutes ago.”
“Hey, you’re suffocating me!” Masashi struggles to get air, though oddly enough her bloody body smells like vanilla for whatever reason.
“Oh my bad!” Amaiaruheitō quickly releases him.
“Anyways, why wasn’t Hashimoto a part of this operation?” He questions.
“Well he wasn’t assigned for the operation in the first place, and he had other things to do so there is that.”
“Hey? Are you really sure you’re okay? I mean holding a gun isn’t something people our age would do, even shooting it. Even the situation with your father and brother?”
Okemia gives a half hearted chuckle.
“I mean…. I remember telling you and Surabukādo about how I would want to seek justice in the future, and I guess today is the future. It’s been eight days since then…”.
She fidgets a bit with the blanket around her.
“But that was scary, I mean I haven’t really got true justice. My uncle and aunt can never be brought back, I mean it’s been years since that. But I’m kinda glad… In a weird way.”
Masashi nods in understanding.
“It is wild that something like this even happened, it still is outlandish to me that the idea of this happening, happened.”
Okemia looks down at her still shaking hands.
“Yeah. But, I’ll ask you the same question? Are you really okay? Given everything?”
“Ah—”
Despite everything, Masashi wonders why he hadn’t thought about it.
Is he really okay?
Is everything that has happened to him even normal?
Can he consider himself okay given every single thing, not even including this night.
Just the whole picture so far.
“I guess I am stuck between being okay and not…. But I guess overall from these past few days, I’ve just been surviving.” He reassures himself by giving something of a real answer.
“Ah so I see, I guess I look forward to you telling me how you got cooped up with this.” Okemia gives out a smile in the busy sirens and chattering in the background.
Closing his eyes Masashi just smirks.
“I guess so…. I guess so.”
The night fades to dark, and in the end Masashi feels unsure of himself after everything.
It just doesn’t feel real at all, this world just doesn’t feel right.
RINGRINGRING!
“Hey Masashi!”
“Surabukādo?!”
Walking up in a hurried fashion he pants, his face says something else though.
“This week has been insane, like the first day of the exams on the 30th was crazy but the beginning of April was kinda hard too.”
It’s like nothing ever happened, it’s still insane to Masashi that he can still come to class.
The fact that he isn’t dead or anything, his hand trembles at the thought but he keeps his demeanor up.
Masashi chuckles a bit.
“So what’s your score for all of your classes overall?”
Surabukādo sighs a bit.
“For English I got 70 points, but overall I got a 3 for the report cards.” he began lifting his fingers counting each class.
“With Math 1 I managed an 86 but again overall 3…”
“Heh so you’re average now?” Masashi jokes.
“Hey hey! I’m not done! I got a 90 in chemistry, really loved that class by the way. And of course the report card on that is 4, for Japanese I scored a 87, of course that was the easiest! We speak Japanese after all!”
Masashi chuckles even more sitting down on the bench.
“Well you seem to be doing good…”
Surabukādo looks intently at Masashi.
“Hey if you’re laughing a lot, what about your scores?”
“Hehe… if you insist I guess. For Geography I got a 84, managing a 4 on my report card in that class. Uh with English I got a 70… But hey I managed a 3 overall. With my History I got a 79. With a 3 overall.”
“Ha and here you were laughing at me!” Surabukādo shouts
“Hey now, you didn’t give all your scores for the remainder of your classes and I didn’t either, so we were even!” Masashi points out giving a nerd impression.
“I guess so.” he pats Masashi’s shoulder.
“But we did pass, to be honest I have no idea why we thought it was going to be some huge test.”
“Like anxiety really does create bigger problems, then again they didn’t fully specify things about the finals. And I guess when that thing attacked the school it messed with schedules. So there is that.”
“Eh, I’m just glad I don’t have to stress over that again.”
“Hey Masashi! What’s with the bruises on your face, along with the bandage wrappings across both your hands?”
Masashi gets shocked for a moment.
“Well you see I fell down the stairs and managed to cut my hand on a bunch of nails, so yeah… that is why I’ve been wearing bandages on my hands and arms for these few days, while also having a band aid right under my eye.”
“Oh, I hope recover fast then.” Surabukādo stares up into the sky.
“I can’t wait for summer in about two months!
Like Imma be the life of the party for real.
Looking up, Masashi pats Surabukādo on his shoulder.
“I can tell, lowkey. I think I’ll probably join you for some fun, I think I finally know how it feels now!”
“See you get it!”
The winds of spring blow as the final day of exams are over and school should be coming to a close soon later, for one Masashi feels accomplished.
What a crazy ending to his time as a freshman.
“Yo Yanagidate!” a voice shouts his name out.
“Hyuganatsu?”
“Hyuganatsu?”
Both Masashi and Surabukādo shout in unison.
Shaking her head she walks up towards the both of them.
“Are you two twins or something?”
“H-hey what happened to your hair?!”
Having to cut the hair off her shoulders due to it being burned, her hairstyle resembles that of a bob being almost to the end of the neck.
“You really cut your hair?!” Masashi speaks a bit stunned.
She brushes her hair with her hand.
“Yeah the part that was reaching my shoulders got damaged and was dead… So I had to cut it off.”
“Ah, actually I really like it.”
“Well, thank you I guess. Hey, do you still remember what you said?”
Masashi looks up thinking about it.
“Oh yeah, the story.”
Surabukādo looks confused; he wonders what the two of them have going on.
“What do you two have going on?! Is there an event that I missed?”
Okemia looks on with a blank drowsy face.
“No there is nothing going on between us. He just happened to call the firemen when part of my house caught on fire, he was passing by when that happened.”
Another convincing lie.
Masashi can’t help to hide his laugh at the cover up.
Surabukādo eyes aim in.
“Oh! Well I hope everyone made it safe and no one was seriously hurt. I guess that explains your hair situation!”
“No, nobody was hurt, fortunately.”
Another terrific lie.
Chatting it up the three of them exit the school grounds, with their usual dap up Masashi bids goodbye to Surabukādo as he rides off on his new bike he bought.
“Woah when did he get a bike, I gotta step my game up.” Masashi watches as Surabukādo rides off around the corner.
“Hey get in.” Okemia urges.
“Huh what? You’re not going home or something? And why are you asking me to come in?” He looks confused at the white car waiting on Okemia.
“My mom wants to thank you, and it won’t take long I promise.” She sighs while closing her eyes.
“Hey and tell me how you’re involved with the government in the ride okay?”
Getting in the car Masashi is wowed at its luxury, he didn’t think a car that is unassuming even to the enthusiast would be so luxurious on the inside.
“Ahem. So you’re going to tell me?” Okemia turns to Masashi with a somewhat serious face, even though she is cracking up on the inside.
Explaining everything Masashi goes on from the beginning to start to finish, the sovereign of the UnWritten, even the hawk man that day, from his experience in said government.
To even the events that happened recently.
He spouts it out, leaving out a few details he really can’t explain or recall.
“Oh my goodness!” Okemia just sits there shocked, her arms crossed.
“So you got some real scary guy inside of you?! And if they remove him you’ll die?”
“Yeah pretty much…”
“My, I’m sorry… I don’t know, it’s kinda just…”
“Wait hey hey.” She tries to frantically lighten the mood in the car not expecting the story.
VRROOM
The car stops opening the door, Masashi steps out.
“Woah this place is magnificent!”
Looking up in awe, Masashi sees the large house along with other smaller houses.
It’s almost as big as her fathers estate.
Even getting up here, there was a whole other community of other wealthy people.
“So this is some sort of gated community?!” He questions.
“Kind of, you can think of it that way. Well come inside.”
Entering inside he is greeted by the many guests, a blond hair woman in a nicely designed dress walks towards the both of them.
She opens her eyes and gleams and Okemia.
“Okemia! My darling!” Her mother shouts walking towards her.
“Hey mom, it’s nice to see you too.”
Looking beside her she sees Masashi.
“Oh! And you must be that boy? Well, I can’t thank you enough.”
My daughter here has told me all about your escapades.”
“Oh really? Well it’s my pleasure, anytime.”
“Hey lets get going.” Okemia urges him to come.
“Where are you taking him? Okemia?” Her mom inquires.
“I have to show him something, it’s not anything like that.”
Walking up the stairs, her mother winks at Masashi while he looks back, she even laughs behind her hand.
Masashi shutters a bit, everything feels odd and slightly uncomfortable.
“Wait outside here I gotta change into something more comfortable.” She closes her door.
Looking around this fine hallway, he thinks of the large amount of space that could probably be used for so many things.
But it’s somewhat empty barring photos and decorations.
“Hey you can come in.” She mutters.
Opening the door Masashi is welcomed by a pleasant smell, he doesn’t know what he is smelling but it certainly does smell nice.
Leaning near her balcony she looks out the window while smoking a cigarette.
The soft blowing breeze fills the room.
“You still smoke?” He questions.
“Haha, yeah I do it to take the stress off, it’s one of the only things that helped me get over the situations that keep happening. I guess I picked it up from my dad.”
“I still remember that time when you first came to my job at the beginning of high school, asking for a cigarette. I told you you’re not above 21 so obviously you couldn’t smoke. But, you insisted so I had to sneakily give it to you.”
Masashi shakes his head remembering it.
“Hey you could have gotten me fired that day.”
Sitting on the edge of her bed, he admires all the things in her room.
Even the sweet aroma.
Turning her slightly she just smiles with the cigarette still in her mouth.
“Heh, well sorry about that. Just thought I could pull it off once.”
“But hey, thank you for what you did against my brother. Like really, thank you… even though it definitely has not gotten better. To me it lifted something off my shoulders.”
“You’re welcome…”
“Hey Yanagidate? Can I start calling you by your first name?” She turns around again.
“Yeah it’s fine by me, I mean… It’s not like we’ve known each other that well outside this whole situation. But I don’t mind it at all.”
“Ah alright then, Masashi. You can start calling me by my first name regularly as well.”
He wonders what is the point of that, if he has been calling her by her first name since this whole thing has happened and even a few times outside that.
He looks at his hand, still wrapped in the bandages and wonders if he can make a change.
He still believes he is only just surviving.
But bit by bit he hopes he can live somewhat normally from here on out.