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almondinflower2008-07-07 03:59 am
fromastudio) wrote in almondinflower2008-07-07 03:59 am
Streets of Nippon, 5/? [Atobe, Sakaki, Rikkai]
Streets of Nippon, part 5/?
characters Atobe-centric. Sakaki, Oshitari. Marui.
wordcount: about 5000 for this chapter.
genre: SF gangster AU, with half the plot ripped off from high fantasy.
notes: Sakaki reminisces about the past. Oshitari panics and wears caterpillar-print pyjamas. Rikkai looks cool.
Shin Tokyo stories all under this tag here, including previous chapters.
Back in Keigo's rooms, Sakaki poured out two glasses of the unfinished Shiraz. “Drink. It will make you feel better. Or do you want something stronger?”
He shook his head. It was good wine, a souvenir from Sakaki's last trip to Old Earth; the bitterness of it brought Keigo's senses back to the world around him: wet alcohol, air currents, comfortingly immutable furniture, and the smell of Sakaki's cologne, classic citrus and neroli, underpinning the flavour of the Shiraz.
“Oshitari told me you'd had an eventful day,” said Sakaki, setting his own glass down on the table. “From the first words you spoke when you woke up, it appears to have been even more eventful than I had cause to believe.”
In the nine years Keigo had known him, he hadn't changed at all. Costly, colour-coordinated clothing. A face that could have passed for any age between twenty-five and forty. Deep blonde hair, elegantly combed.
(“Grow it longer,” Keigo had asked once, before he'd joined Hyoutei. “I bet you'd look like Apollo if you did.”
Sakaki had smiled. “Child, it would never match your lost curls, no matter what I did.”)
Keigo had left the glass chrysanthemum on the coffee table, next to the unfinished tray of meatballs. He picked it up now, and handed it to Sakaki, who turned it back and forth in his hand, examining the petals as they refracted light into multiple colours.
“I can put you on a ship off-planet by tomorrow morning.”
Keigo's grip on the wine glass tightened. His nails dug into his palm. “...You must be joking.”
“On the contrary, I'm more serious than I've ever been. Your security takes priority over anything else we may have to discuss today.”
“I can stay secure without having to go offplanet! Yukimura's given me his word that he won't spread the secret.”
“You wish to trust the word of a Yukimura? If it'd been Sanada who'd given you that vouchsafe, I might have been more inclined to accept that reassurance – but no. The fact that they have discovered your identity means that it can be discovered.”
“It's precisely because he is a Yukimura that he found out." Couldn't Sakaki even see that for himself? That if his identity were so easy to Precognise then they would have been discovered by the old man's Oracles, years ago? Then again, Sakaki didn't understand psionic gifts, really, other than as something to be feared. "That and the fact that he has the most powerful Precognitive living working for him. It's just an unhappy marriage of coincidences.”
“Coincidences breed more coincidences, particularly when Precognitives are involved. The Tezuka family, too, are in the position to discover your identity. Better, since unlike any of the Yukimuras, Tezuka Kunikazu has seen you before. I haven't distressed you with the truth before this,” said Sakaki, “but you do look very much like your father.”
Keigo smirked. “Even more than I resemble you, Father?”
“Let's be done with that joke.” He looked down for his infodevice, and thus missed the abrupt disappearance of Keigo's smile. “There is another choice you could make, and that is to return. Given the current climate within the Upper House, your survival is by no means certain.”
“Is the old man as ill as the news reports say?”
“Even worse, I'd say. I think he has more than passed the limits of what rejuvenating treatment can offer; succumbing to old age, however, has never been a hobby of his.” Sakaki flipped his infodevice open, then looked at Keigo. “I believe he was – and is – genuinely fond of you in his own way.”
“Of course. I'm the only thing keeping his precious Silver Chrysanthemum from the wolves and the Chitoses and the Sanadas.” It came out more bitterly than he'd intended; Sakaki would not like that.
“You mean the Yamatos,” corrected Sakaki. “It's true that the Sanadas have been very vocal about their ambitions, but the strongest blood claimant is the late Princess Misako's son, Yamato Daitaro. Your nephew, so to speak.”
“Yukimura told me that Yamato Yuudai was still alive.”
“It makes no difference to the succession, although having a competent politician champion their cause no doubt helps the Yamato campaign.”
“You knew about this? Why didn't you tell me sooner?”
Still tapping at his infodevice, Sakaki replied: “Wouldn't it be better to ask yourself why you didn't know about this before? I thought I was past babysitting you, Keigo.'
He looked down, knowing that he was flushing; it had been a long time since Sakaki had last treated him as a child. It's not relevant. It has nothing to do with me.
So take the ticket and go offplanet. Leave it all behind, argued one part of him. It's nothing you haven't done before.
Leave it all behind? There was no way he could do that. His place was here, no matter what was happening.
Even if the past somehow caught up with the present.
“Very well, I'll investigate Yamato myself. As well as Yukimura, and the other issues that have been concerning me.” Sakaki stopped looking at his infodevice then; his eyes met Keigo's. “Don't send me away just yet. The benefits of my presence here outweigh the risks, and you know it. There's no one else who can keep the syndicate running. Oshitari can't, Ohtori can't, and Hiyoshi certainly can't.
“I'll precog all the futures. I'll make them work. I've done it before.” Keigo looked at Sakaki. “You're not going to say something stupid, are you? Like, protecting me takes precedence over the safety of Hyoutei?”
“And what if I do say so?”
“Then you're a complete fool.” Keigo's hands trembled; whether due to anger or something else, he wasn't sure. “What will you do then? Allow the police to swoop in and destroy the entire syndicate? Provoking even more investigation into your other activities. Didn't you tell me Shiba Saori conducted a search of your Roppongi offices last Thursday?
“Or were you going to join Seigaku and ally yourself with Inoue Mamoru? Rikkai wouldn't be able to let that slide and you know it. Hyoutei holds the balance of power in Kantou at the moment. It's our greatest opportunity – and our biggest risk.”
“Keigo.” His eyes were drawn to Sakaki's again, this time with some reluctance on Keigo's part. “Remember the commitment I made to you eight years ago. Compared to that, losing my financial interests in Nippon is a small price to pay.”
He was unable to say anything to that. He was nine years old again, curious and desperate, unable to see anything but the fascination of the adult who stood before him, golden-beautiful and impossibly strong, more unflappable than anything he'd ever seen – except the old man. “So you gave me Hyoutei because that's what I wanted, and now that I'm not capable of staying safe on my own, you're taking it away? How is that different from what the old man wanted?”
“I may have given it to you, but that doesn't mean you didn't take it for yourself. This,” he swept his arm out to indicate the president's rooms, “is your own talent and effort speaking. Never doubt that, Keigo.”
Then let it be real. Let it mean something. “Please,” he said. “For my sake. Let me stay.”
And just like that, he knew, he'd won the argument.
Never mind that it was immeasurably more risky for Sakaki to have Keigo discovered under his protection than to lose the syndicate. The police, after all, could only press charges; the old man would arrest, torture and execute.
Forgive me, Father. But this is something I have to do.
#
He was woken up the next morning by a furious knocking on his front door, loud enough to bring him awake all at once. He reached for his wristcomm band, lying on the bedside table; there were no messages indicating the occurrence of an emergency, but the digital clock in the lower left corner informed him that it was 0548 hours, just early enough to make Keigo cranky. He got out of bed and padded towards the bathroom. Whoever it was could wait until Keigo was presentable.
His visitor kept up the knocking for the ten minutes Keigo took to brush his teeth, comb his hair and change into a long-sleeved shirt and grey cotton slacks. Surely his knuckles must be bloodied by now? Keigo thought irritably. He would have liked to take a bath, but there was no way to relax with that relentless sound in the background.
He went to the front door and opened it. Oshitari was standing there, looking even more dishevelled than usual. He was still wearing the caterpillar-print pyjamas Gakuto had given him last October. He had forgotten to put on his fake glasses. It was quite possible, Keigo thought with distaste, that he had not even bothered to brush his teeth.
Keigo stepped back, pulling the door wide to let Oshitari in. “What do you want? I have to assume it's important, since seeing you awake before eight is nothing less than miraculous in itself. May I remind you that I possess a doorbell, an informations device, a wrist communication band, and an intercom, none of which you saw fit to use before attempting to break down my expensive teak door?”
“...I saw you dead. In a dream. Only it wasn't a dream.” Oshitari's eyes were wild; Keigo's own sense of alarm increased when he saw how unfocused they were. Oshitari was barely out of Precognitive mode himself. “Someone killed you.”
Would this run of bad news never stop? Keigo pulled up a chair. “Sit down,” he ordered. “Try to explain things to me in a slightly more lucid fashion. When exactly did you have this dream?”
Oshitari sat down, pushing away the tangled hair that had fallen into his eyes. “Perhaps half an hour ago. I woke up the moment it finished, so... I don't know when it was. You weren't here. You were a prisoner in a house somewhere. Really beautiful, in the ancient Japanese style.
“There was an old man and a woman arguing. They said something like, 'Is it really him?', and he said, 'It must be. The mark's missing, but that could have been removed surgically.' Then they argued some more – my vision wasn't really clear enough to tell what was happening – and then the woman nodded at a guard standing back there and he stepped forward and shot you in the head. You didn't even react. I think they had you drugged pretty badly. Then I woke up.”
Keigo's hand had gone unconsciously to his right cheek, to where his mole used to be. “Is that all?”
“About all I saw, except for one thing. One of the guards that caught you was wearing the crest of the Four Elements.” Oshitari took a deep breath. “Atobe. Who are you, exactly? What does the the Sanada family want with you?”
“Can we focus on the slightly more important fact of my impending death?” said Keigo. “My importance to the universe is well-established already, which is why I would prefer that the universe not go on living without me in it.”
“I don't know how to change it.” Oshitari looked up at Keigo; his eyes were gradually coming into focus. “I've never tried to changed the results of a vision before.”
Keigo was incredulous. “You haven't? What do you use your Precognition for?”
“I don't. You know the limits of my precognitive ability. I thought...you would be able to work through it better than I could.”
“Well, I haven't seen anything so significant as my own death, I'm sorry to say.”
He'd heavily taxed his abilities last night, though, trying to work out the best possible way to solve the impasse the Seigaku situation was becoming. It would be surprising if he had a single spontaneous vision within the next three days.
So between last night and this morning, my death has become a probability. Someone else must have discovered my identity. But how? Through Yukimura? As far as Keigo knew, Upper House politics hadn't changed much since his childhood days. There should be no love lost between the powerful, ultraconservative Sanadas, and the Yukimuras, who were largely famous for their libertarian leanings and their patronage of the arts.
For that matter, there was no evidence that Yukimura Seiichi was in fact, a member of the Yukimura family.
“I could talk to Kenya,” Oshitari said. “There are some fairly powerful precognitives among his friends.”
“Absolutely not,” Keigo said. The situation was complicated enough without getting Shitenhouji involved.
“Well, what are we going to do? Ask Rikkai for help? They probably want you dead.”
Which was quite true, but not as soon as within the next ten days, Keigo decided. In the short-term, an unstable Hyoutei would do nothing for Rikkai's situation.
“What you are going to do,” he said, “is take a shower, get dressed, and meet me in the meeting room at seven-thirty. Kajimoto Takahisa's team will be in by eight o'clock, and I need to debrief all of you by then.”
Oshitari raised an eyebrow. “So early? Is there something urgent?” The squadron leaders, Keigo knew, would have stayed up well past midnight last night, implementing the red-level security measures that he'd ordered.
“We're entering St. Rudolph territory today. We don't have a choice.”
#
“The Sasabe father-son team will be leading the raid on St. Rudolph.” Keigo looked around the room. “I'm sure everyone here is familiar with their reputation.”
Chief Inspector Sasabe and his teenaged son were well known for their capriciously harsh measures against syndicate members. Two of Atobe's runners had, during his days as a squadron leader, gotten themselves arrested for under the elder Sasabe's jurisdiction; getting them out had required judicious application of telepathy to several members of the Patrol. Sekozawa still has those scars on his cheeks. Ozu wasn't able to use his right hand for three months. From the reports Atobe had heard, their cruelty had, if anything, intensified since their run-in with Echizen Ryoma one year ago.
Kajimoto Takahisa nodded. He was sitting at the front of the room, hands folded in his lap; the picture of studied calmness. “Hanamura-san told me that there were body bags being carried out of the Ginka warehouse last night.”
Several murmurs ran through the room. Gakuto nudged Oshitari, while the Tanaka twins bent their heads together, deep in some wordless conversation. Keigo nodded at Kabaji, who tapped on his infodevice. A map of St. Rudolph territory appeared on the wall at the front of the room, the surrounding territories marked out in various colours.
“Seigaku's territory lies here. It runs all the way to the Miyazaki Mountains.” He used the red light on his infodevice as a pointer to highlight the large patch of blue to the east of Seiru territory. It was the largest territory belonging to a single syndicate, undoubtedly the legacy of Echizen Nanjirou. “Up till last night, Ginka had control of the land to Seiru's west. We should assume it is now completely under police control.
“If Seiru falls under Patrol control, the police will have an unbroken line of territory from the eastern border to Shin Roppongi. I shouldn't have to explain to you what that would mean for our transport and communication lines.” The Kakinoki and Gyokurin syndicates, to the west of Ginka, had disintegrated a few years back, allowing the police to take over substantial chunks of that area. That too, Keigo remembered, had been the work of Rikkai.
“But is a direct confrontation with the police the best way to act?” asked Oshitari. “Covert operations is one of St Rudolph's strengths. Perhaps it'd be better to wait and hope that the police don't find anything suspicious."
Keigo looked at him. “Not with the authority that the Sasabe family has been given. I saw them carrying laser rifles in my Precognition – and using them on the Seiru runners. They weren't simply arresting runners and searching for evidence; they were shooting them. I can only think that they know what I have just explained to you, and are trying to cut off our operation routes.”
Although the police surely, should not be so sure of winning a confrontation with the runners. Atobe doubted that Oishi or Tezuka would consent to outright battle with the other syndicates, and without Seigaku's help, even the entire Tokyo police had little hope of winning against a union of the runners. They'd almost have to bring in the military. Yes. That would do a great deal to inspire the citizens' confidence in their government.
Unless they knew the critical state that Seiru was in, and were thus confident of a victory today. But how would they know, and be able to prepare, on such short notice? Had Inoue gotten hold of a good Precog?
“You will have heard of the death of Mizuki Hajime as well. Given that a significant number of the runners there were personally loyal to him, rather than to the syndicate," -- Fuji Yuuta and Kisarazu Atsushi had already left Seiru to reunite with their respective siblings -- “I think it is fair to say that St. Rudolph is currently only running at two-thirds of its usual strength.”
“We will attempt to remedy that lack of strength. The Second Squadron will reinforce the Ginka border. The Fifth Squadron will be based in the southwest. Kajimoto-san, I'm counting on your runners to stay near headquarters, and fend off any air attacks.”
Kajimoto nodded. “You can count on us.”
Negotiation as to who owed whom what favours would have to wait until after the fight was over, but Keigo did not think that today's proceedings would be detrimental to Hyoutei. Jyousei Shounan wants to get out from under Rikkai's influence, too. I can tell. He watched Kajimoto in conversation with Tanaka Youhei. Hanamura Aoi no doubt thinks she can somehow influence Yukimura and Sanada through this unbalanced alliance, but I doubt that her president will stand it for long.
“All right. Are we all clear? Anyone not directly involved in these operations, you're free to go.” He nodded at the other squadron leaders as they left; some of them, especially Shishido and Gakuto, would be vexed at not being able to participate in the action, but there was more than enough work around Hyoutei at present to keep them more than busy.
In fact, if he didn't feel so strongly that they could not afford to lose today's battle, he would have only deployed the Second Squadron. Better to overwhelm them, and discourage the police from ever trying again, than to err on the side of weakness.
#
“Atobe. May I ask you what the hell you think you are doing?” Akazawa was wearing black combat pants today, with hiking boots, a nylon jacket with matching laserproof vest, and a belt with holsters for multiple firearms attached. Battle-ready. Kaneda and Nomura stood behind him, similarly dressed.
“Akazawa. Shall I assume that today, for once, you are actually in control of things?” He saw Akazawa's fist clench at his side. “Don't try to hit me. I promise you're not fast enough. We're about to save your territory from destruction, so I suggest you have a hard think about how you plan to display your gratitude when this is all over.”
“We. Don't. Need. Your. Help.”
“Akazawa-san. We do need the help.” Keigo's estimate of Kaneda's intelligence was continually going up. Then the boy looked up at Keigo. “Atobe-san. I'm grateful that you're interfering like this today, but I must ask that you don't do this any longer. Hyoutei interference in St. Rudolph affairs will not be tolerated after today.”
Keigo waved dismissively. “I assure you that we would not spare you the time of the day, if our interests weren't bound up in this. The less I can see of you, the better.” He turned and began to walk towards the exit. “You may need help sooner than you realise, though. If you raised your neck a little higher and looked around, you might realise that there's a lot more going on in the world than your petty political problems.”
He felt Akazawa move behind him. “Akazawa-san, don't,” said Kaneda's voice. Keigo smiled. Akazawa excelled at crisis management. And riling him up was the best possible way to get him into action.
Kajimoto was standing a block away from Seiru headquarters, just outside a convenience store. “Everyone has taken their positions,” he said. “And we've warned all the civilians in the area of the possibility of an impending fight.”
“Good work.” He then spoke into his wristcomm. “Jirou. Are you there?” He heard a long, drawn out yawn. “Jirou! Stop yawning, and tell me whether your squadron is in position.”
“Oh, it's you, Atobe! Everyone is fine here. We're all ready whenever they come. Huh? Wait, there's a patrol car coming now. Sorry, Atobe, I've got to go!” The wristcomm beeped. Keigo looked up at Kajimoto, and nodded. It had started.
“I'm going to fly out and have a look around,” he said. He opened the storage compartment and pulled out his safety helmet. “Your priority is to keep Seiru headquarters unbreached, so don't worry about moving unless any of the Patrol get within range.”
“Got it.” Kajimoto's eyes were an unnerving shade of violet. “Take care.”
The flyer whirred to life. Keigo stepped on the accelerator and drifted up and forwards, past the St. Rudolph headquarters. The wind was stronger today than yesterday, and it was nearly impossible to keep the flyer steady while hovering. Not the ideal conditions for an aerial battle.
Jirou should have no trouble with the Ginka border, and short of Seigaku entering the fray, I don't forsee Hiyoshi having any immediate problems. That left the south. He steered the flyer to the right, keeping at an altitude of about a hundred metres above sea level.
It took him about twenty minutes to get to the southern edge of St. Rudolph territory. He scanned the horizon for anything of interest, then landed on the roof of a nearby shophouse. No signs so far. Would they come? He let his thoughts wander through the possibility, relaxing into the precognitive state. It took five minutes of keeping his eyes closed before he saw the the flock of black-and-white flyers coming through the sky.
About twenty minutes from now. Hmm. He activated his wristcomm again. “Kajimoto. I expect an aerial force to reach you within the hour. About sixty to eighty flyers."
Sixty Patrol members – that wasn't a small team at all. How seriously was Inoue Mamoru taking the subjugation of St. Rudolph? He slid the keycard into its slot to start the engine. There was no use staying here; it would be futile engaging a force that size by himself.
His wristcomm beeped again. “Atobe. Are you there?” It was Oshitari's voice. “I just had another Precognition. You need to go to the Seigaku border right now. InSec's on their way there.”
Keigo placed his left hand on the handlebar. “Are you quite sure?”
“As sure as I am that you're going to die in ten days, if we don't do something about it.”
“Save it for later.” He hung up, and guided the flyer upwards again, this time speeding northeast.
For the fifth time in two days, what the hell was going on?
#
Hiyoshi contacted his wristcomm about twenty minutes later. “Atobe--”
“It's all right, I'm on my way there already.” When he arrived at the border, Hiyoshi was hovering above the highest building there (belonging to an insurance company of some sort), staring towards the east.
Keigo looked in the direction of his gaze, and swore under his breath. A procession of armored trucks was travelling down the main road that ran from Seigaku territory into Seiru, followed by at least fifteen silver cars. All the vehicles bore the emblem of the chrysanthemum. Internal Security. There's no doubt about it.
“They've got flyers waiting as well,” Hiyoshi said, nodding at a building in Seigaku territory about four hundred metres away. It was too high too see clearly, but Keigo could just manage to see the outline of what looked like unusually large LAFVs. Military-issue, no doubt.
“The land vehicles are probably firearmsproof. Do we have anything that could take them down?”
“Nothing long-range; some of the grenades and the stronger lasers might work. I've told everyone to aim for their tyres, but it might be better if I went out there first and tried to take down some of the trucks." .
Keigo looked at the younger boy. You don't want to risk anyone else, do you.
Unless they could force the members of InSec out of their vehicles, pitting the Hyoutei runners against them would be tantamount to suicide. Even without the armoured vehicles, it would have been a chancy thing; InSec operatives were much better trained than the Patrol.
Not a single Hyoutei runner had died during Keigo's presidency so far, and he wanted to keep it that way.
“We'll do it together,” he said. “Have you got the weapons ready?”
Hiyoshi looked surprised, then reached into his storage compartment and handed over a laser rifle and a dozen grenades.
“We go low, so that they can't target us,” said Keigo. It was a good thing that these flyers came with ground wheels. “You take the front trucks, I'll take the rear. Don't get yourself killed.” He twisted his flyer and began floating downwards, Hiyoshi after him.
I'll create an Illusion and confuse the drivers. I doubt anyone who works for InSec will be be fazed for long, but that should be enough time to bring a few of them down.
Out of the corner of his vision, he saw the one of the InSec flyers take off from the roof of the building Hiyoshi had pointed out earlier. Damn. They'd been spotted.
He hit the ground and sped through the streets, Hiyoshi alongside him, grateful that at least the area seemed devoid of civilians. One less headache to think about.
The first of the flyers was within shooting range within one minute. Keigo raised his stun gun – they required less precision than the deadlier weapons – and hit the rider in the arm. The flyer crashed into a nearby window and fell to the ground; Keigo and Hiyoshi sped past without even looking at the falling vehicle.
Hiyoshi got the next one and Keigo the third, but there were too many of them. Keigo retracted his wheels and rose in the air, sticking close to the buildings to keep his back covered. “Looks like we're not going to get near the road vehicles before cleaning these guys out first.”
“Understood.”
Although the task was easier said then done; how many of them were there, exactly? He narrowly avoided two laser shots, and then brought down a fourth flyer; they were heavier and less manouevrable than the Hyoutei LAFVs, which was a small blessing. He cast a telepathic illusion, which gave Hiyoshi room to shoot down another three pilots. The street below was rapidly becoming cluttered with ruined vehicles.
And then six of the silver-white vehicles fell out of the sky, with a splash of blood.
Keigo barely had time to process this fact before another three InSec flyers went down, and four bright scarlet LAFVs came hurtling through the empty space they left. At the forefront was a small, red-headed rider, helmetless, blowing a massive pink bubble of gum.
Marui Bunta?
A laser shot went past Marui's head harmlessly; he grinned. A flyer about five metres above him exploded; Keigo felt the heat as it descended to the ground.
Within a minute, the only InSec vehicles in the area were either on the ground or heading towards it, and four Rikkai runners were hovering in front of Hiyoshi and Keigo.
“Atobe-kun. It's good to meet you again.” Yagyuu Hiroshi inclined his head.
“Yukimura woke us up this morning to send us over here; he said you'd need the help,” said Marui, spitting out his gum. It fell to the ground and landed straight on the forehead of an unconscious InSec rider. “Shikuyoro! Jirou's told me so much about you. I feel like we're best friends already. This is Jackal Kuwahara,” he nodded at the helmeted rider to his left, “and the one to my right is Kirihara Akaya.”
Akaya shook his head impatiently. “Come on, Marui, we don't have time for introductions! There are vehicles to burn over there. And people.”
“Are there only four of you?” asked Keigo.
Marui pulled out a fresh piece of gum, this time green-coloured, and popped it in his mouth. “You don't need more than four of us. Heck, if you want to withdraw you can, Atobe-kun – don't bristle like that! Of course you'd be helpful, not all of us are as injury-proof as the kid here.”
Yagyuu said. “Marui-kun will be using his abilities to dismantle the vehicles. I would appreciate it, Atobe-kun, if you joined me and Akaya in the initial assault; I think your psionic shields are strong enough to withstand their telekinetics.”
“Sounds like a fair plan. What about Jackal and Hiyoshi? I assume you'll need some cover while you're working on the vehicles," Keigo said to Marui.
“Don't worry, Jackal's an expert at that. As for Hiyoshi-kun,” Marui turned. “Regroup your runners. We'll need backup to finish off these guys.”
Marui and Jackal flew up, towards the rooftop; Yagyuu, Keigo and Kirihara headed out towards the armored procession, maintaining their altitude.
When they got within a hundred metres of the vehicles Keigo was overwhelmed by a sudden, total, sense of panic. He drew his mental shields together.
“It seems that they have an Empath,” said Yagyuu. “Kirihara, can you place yourself between us? The protection may help."
An Immune? The curly-haired boy edged his flyer in between Keigo's and Yagyuu's; at once, the pressure on Keigo's shields faded.
In front of them, the first vehicle and second vehicles exploded. Men were already hurrying out of the vehicles behind, shooting up in the sky at Marui and Jackal, who were using a large billboard for cover.
Kirihara licked his lips. “All right. Let's go!”
They headed forward towards the scene of chaos and flame, Atobe's vehicle almost half a second behind. Because, just then, a thought had occurred to him, one that threatened to make sense of a great deal of the past twenty-four hours.
There's someone with both an Immunity gift and a Precognitive gift masterminding all this. And that person has power over Internal Security.
Which definitely begged the question of who.
That question would have to wait. He dodged a grenade that was exploding on the ground and began to fire his gun, even as Kirihara and Yagyuu rained bullets all around him and the smoke and scorched smell and fire rose into the air, transforming the streets of Shin Tokyo into a battle landscape.
On to thoughts in empty spaces. (Tezuka sidefic)
characters Atobe-centric. Sakaki, Oshitari. Marui.
wordcount: about 5000 for this chapter.
genre: SF gangster AU, with half the plot ripped off from high fantasy.
notes: Sakaki reminisces about the past. Oshitari panics and wears caterpillar-print pyjamas. Rikkai looks cool.
Shin Tokyo stories all under this tag here, including previous chapters.
Back in Keigo's rooms, Sakaki poured out two glasses of the unfinished Shiraz. “Drink. It will make you feel better. Or do you want something stronger?”
He shook his head. It was good wine, a souvenir from Sakaki's last trip to Old Earth; the bitterness of it brought Keigo's senses back to the world around him: wet alcohol, air currents, comfortingly immutable furniture, and the smell of Sakaki's cologne, classic citrus and neroli, underpinning the flavour of the Shiraz.
“Oshitari told me you'd had an eventful day,” said Sakaki, setting his own glass down on the table. “From the first words you spoke when you woke up, it appears to have been even more eventful than I had cause to believe.”
In the nine years Keigo had known him, he hadn't changed at all. Costly, colour-coordinated clothing. A face that could have passed for any age between twenty-five and forty. Deep blonde hair, elegantly combed.
(“Grow it longer,” Keigo had asked once, before he'd joined Hyoutei. “I bet you'd look like Apollo if you did.”
Sakaki had smiled. “Child, it would never match your lost curls, no matter what I did.”)
Keigo had left the glass chrysanthemum on the coffee table, next to the unfinished tray of meatballs. He picked it up now, and handed it to Sakaki, who turned it back and forth in his hand, examining the petals as they refracted light into multiple colours.
“I can put you on a ship off-planet by tomorrow morning.”
Keigo's grip on the wine glass tightened. His nails dug into his palm. “...You must be joking.”
“On the contrary, I'm more serious than I've ever been. Your security takes priority over anything else we may have to discuss today.”
“I can stay secure without having to go offplanet! Yukimura's given me his word that he won't spread the secret.”
“You wish to trust the word of a Yukimura? If it'd been Sanada who'd given you that vouchsafe, I might have been more inclined to accept that reassurance – but no. The fact that they have discovered your identity means that it can be discovered.”
“It's precisely because he is a Yukimura that he found out." Couldn't Sakaki even see that for himself? That if his identity were so easy to Precognise then they would have been discovered by the old man's Oracles, years ago? Then again, Sakaki didn't understand psionic gifts, really, other than as something to be feared. "That and the fact that he has the most powerful Precognitive living working for him. It's just an unhappy marriage of coincidences.”
“Coincidences breed more coincidences, particularly when Precognitives are involved. The Tezuka family, too, are in the position to discover your identity. Better, since unlike any of the Yukimuras, Tezuka Kunikazu has seen you before. I haven't distressed you with the truth before this,” said Sakaki, “but you do look very much like your father.”
Keigo smirked. “Even more than I resemble you, Father?”
“Let's be done with that joke.” He looked down for his infodevice, and thus missed the abrupt disappearance of Keigo's smile. “There is another choice you could make, and that is to return. Given the current climate within the Upper House, your survival is by no means certain.”
“Is the old man as ill as the news reports say?”
“Even worse, I'd say. I think he has more than passed the limits of what rejuvenating treatment can offer; succumbing to old age, however, has never been a hobby of his.” Sakaki flipped his infodevice open, then looked at Keigo. “I believe he was – and is – genuinely fond of you in his own way.”
“Of course. I'm the only thing keeping his precious Silver Chrysanthemum from the wolves and the Chitoses and the Sanadas.” It came out more bitterly than he'd intended; Sakaki would not like that.
“You mean the Yamatos,” corrected Sakaki. “It's true that the Sanadas have been very vocal about their ambitions, but the strongest blood claimant is the late Princess Misako's son, Yamato Daitaro. Your nephew, so to speak.”
“Yukimura told me that Yamato Yuudai was still alive.”
“It makes no difference to the succession, although having a competent politician champion their cause no doubt helps the Yamato campaign.”
“You knew about this? Why didn't you tell me sooner?”
Still tapping at his infodevice, Sakaki replied: “Wouldn't it be better to ask yourself why you didn't know about this before? I thought I was past babysitting you, Keigo.'
He looked down, knowing that he was flushing; it had been a long time since Sakaki had last treated him as a child. It's not relevant. It has nothing to do with me.
So take the ticket and go offplanet. Leave it all behind, argued one part of him. It's nothing you haven't done before.
Leave it all behind? There was no way he could do that. His place was here, no matter what was happening.
Even if the past somehow caught up with the present.
“Very well, I'll investigate Yamato myself. As well as Yukimura, and the other issues that have been concerning me.” Sakaki stopped looking at his infodevice then; his eyes met Keigo's. “Don't send me away just yet. The benefits of my presence here outweigh the risks, and you know it. There's no one else who can keep the syndicate running. Oshitari can't, Ohtori can't, and Hiyoshi certainly can't.
“I'll precog all the futures. I'll make them work. I've done it before.” Keigo looked at Sakaki. “You're not going to say something stupid, are you? Like, protecting me takes precedence over the safety of Hyoutei?”
“And what if I do say so?”
“Then you're a complete fool.” Keigo's hands trembled; whether due to anger or something else, he wasn't sure. “What will you do then? Allow the police to swoop in and destroy the entire syndicate? Provoking even more investigation into your other activities. Didn't you tell me Shiba Saori conducted a search of your Roppongi offices last Thursday?
“Or were you going to join Seigaku and ally yourself with Inoue Mamoru? Rikkai wouldn't be able to let that slide and you know it. Hyoutei holds the balance of power in Kantou at the moment. It's our greatest opportunity – and our biggest risk.”
“Keigo.” His eyes were drawn to Sakaki's again, this time with some reluctance on Keigo's part. “Remember the commitment I made to you eight years ago. Compared to that, losing my financial interests in Nippon is a small price to pay.”
He was unable to say anything to that. He was nine years old again, curious and desperate, unable to see anything but the fascination of the adult who stood before him, golden-beautiful and impossibly strong, more unflappable than anything he'd ever seen – except the old man. “So you gave me Hyoutei because that's what I wanted, and now that I'm not capable of staying safe on my own, you're taking it away? How is that different from what the old man wanted?”
“I may have given it to you, but that doesn't mean you didn't take it for yourself. This,” he swept his arm out to indicate the president's rooms, “is your own talent and effort speaking. Never doubt that, Keigo.”
Then let it be real. Let it mean something. “Please,” he said. “For my sake. Let me stay.”
And just like that, he knew, he'd won the argument.
Never mind that it was immeasurably more risky for Sakaki to have Keigo discovered under his protection than to lose the syndicate. The police, after all, could only press charges; the old man would arrest, torture and execute.
Forgive me, Father. But this is something I have to do.
He was woken up the next morning by a furious knocking on his front door, loud enough to bring him awake all at once. He reached for his wristcomm band, lying on the bedside table; there were no messages indicating the occurrence of an emergency, but the digital clock in the lower left corner informed him that it was 0548 hours, just early enough to make Keigo cranky. He got out of bed and padded towards the bathroom. Whoever it was could wait until Keigo was presentable.
His visitor kept up the knocking for the ten minutes Keigo took to brush his teeth, comb his hair and change into a long-sleeved shirt and grey cotton slacks. Surely his knuckles must be bloodied by now? Keigo thought irritably. He would have liked to take a bath, but there was no way to relax with that relentless sound in the background.
He went to the front door and opened it. Oshitari was standing there, looking even more dishevelled than usual. He was still wearing the caterpillar-print pyjamas Gakuto had given him last October. He had forgotten to put on his fake glasses. It was quite possible, Keigo thought with distaste, that he had not even bothered to brush his teeth.
Keigo stepped back, pulling the door wide to let Oshitari in. “What do you want? I have to assume it's important, since seeing you awake before eight is nothing less than miraculous in itself. May I remind you that I possess a doorbell, an informations device, a wrist communication band, and an intercom, none of which you saw fit to use before attempting to break down my expensive teak door?”
“...I saw you dead. In a dream. Only it wasn't a dream.” Oshitari's eyes were wild; Keigo's own sense of alarm increased when he saw how unfocused they were. Oshitari was barely out of Precognitive mode himself. “Someone killed you.”
Would this run of bad news never stop? Keigo pulled up a chair. “Sit down,” he ordered. “Try to explain things to me in a slightly more lucid fashion. When exactly did you have this dream?”
Oshitari sat down, pushing away the tangled hair that had fallen into his eyes. “Perhaps half an hour ago. I woke up the moment it finished, so... I don't know when it was. You weren't here. You were a prisoner in a house somewhere. Really beautiful, in the ancient Japanese style.
“There was an old man and a woman arguing. They said something like, 'Is it really him?', and he said, 'It must be. The mark's missing, but that could have been removed surgically.' Then they argued some more – my vision wasn't really clear enough to tell what was happening – and then the woman nodded at a guard standing back there and he stepped forward and shot you in the head. You didn't even react. I think they had you drugged pretty badly. Then I woke up.”
Keigo's hand had gone unconsciously to his right cheek, to where his mole used to be. “Is that all?”
“About all I saw, except for one thing. One of the guards that caught you was wearing the crest of the Four Elements.” Oshitari took a deep breath. “Atobe. Who are you, exactly? What does the the Sanada family want with you?”
“Can we focus on the slightly more important fact of my impending death?” said Keigo. “My importance to the universe is well-established already, which is why I would prefer that the universe not go on living without me in it.”
“I don't know how to change it.” Oshitari looked up at Keigo; his eyes were gradually coming into focus. “I've never tried to changed the results of a vision before.”
Keigo was incredulous. “You haven't? What do you use your Precognition for?”
“I don't. You know the limits of my precognitive ability. I thought...you would be able to work through it better than I could.”
“Well, I haven't seen anything so significant as my own death, I'm sorry to say.”
He'd heavily taxed his abilities last night, though, trying to work out the best possible way to solve the impasse the Seigaku situation was becoming. It would be surprising if he had a single spontaneous vision within the next three days.
So between last night and this morning, my death has become a probability. Someone else must have discovered my identity. But how? Through Yukimura? As far as Keigo knew, Upper House politics hadn't changed much since his childhood days. There should be no love lost between the powerful, ultraconservative Sanadas, and the Yukimuras, who were largely famous for their libertarian leanings and their patronage of the arts.
For that matter, there was no evidence that Yukimura Seiichi was in fact, a member of the Yukimura family.
“I could talk to Kenya,” Oshitari said. “There are some fairly powerful precognitives among his friends.”
“Absolutely not,” Keigo said. The situation was complicated enough without getting Shitenhouji involved.
“Well, what are we going to do? Ask Rikkai for help? They probably want you dead.”
Which was quite true, but not as soon as within the next ten days, Keigo decided. In the short-term, an unstable Hyoutei would do nothing for Rikkai's situation.
“What you are going to do,” he said, “is take a shower, get dressed, and meet me in the meeting room at seven-thirty. Kajimoto Takahisa's team will be in by eight o'clock, and I need to debrief all of you by then.”
Oshitari raised an eyebrow. “So early? Is there something urgent?” The squadron leaders, Keigo knew, would have stayed up well past midnight last night, implementing the red-level security measures that he'd ordered.
“We're entering St. Rudolph territory today. We don't have a choice.”
“The Sasabe father-son team will be leading the raid on St. Rudolph.” Keigo looked around the room. “I'm sure everyone here is familiar with their reputation.”
Chief Inspector Sasabe and his teenaged son were well known for their capriciously harsh measures against syndicate members. Two of Atobe's runners had, during his days as a squadron leader, gotten themselves arrested for under the elder Sasabe's jurisdiction; getting them out had required judicious application of telepathy to several members of the Patrol. Sekozawa still has those scars on his cheeks. Ozu wasn't able to use his right hand for three months. From the reports Atobe had heard, their cruelty had, if anything, intensified since their run-in with Echizen Ryoma one year ago.
Kajimoto Takahisa nodded. He was sitting at the front of the room, hands folded in his lap; the picture of studied calmness. “Hanamura-san told me that there were body bags being carried out of the Ginka warehouse last night.”
Several murmurs ran through the room. Gakuto nudged Oshitari, while the Tanaka twins bent their heads together, deep in some wordless conversation. Keigo nodded at Kabaji, who tapped on his infodevice. A map of St. Rudolph territory appeared on the wall at the front of the room, the surrounding territories marked out in various colours.
“Seigaku's territory lies here. It runs all the way to the Miyazaki Mountains.” He used the red light on his infodevice as a pointer to highlight the large patch of blue to the east of Seiru territory. It was the largest territory belonging to a single syndicate, undoubtedly the legacy of Echizen Nanjirou. “Up till last night, Ginka had control of the land to Seiru's west. We should assume it is now completely under police control.
“If Seiru falls under Patrol control, the police will have an unbroken line of territory from the eastern border to Shin Roppongi. I shouldn't have to explain to you what that would mean for our transport and communication lines.” The Kakinoki and Gyokurin syndicates, to the west of Ginka, had disintegrated a few years back, allowing the police to take over substantial chunks of that area. That too, Keigo remembered, had been the work of Rikkai.
“But is a direct confrontation with the police the best way to act?” asked Oshitari. “Covert operations is one of St Rudolph's strengths. Perhaps it'd be better to wait and hope that the police don't find anything suspicious."
Keigo looked at him. “Not with the authority that the Sasabe family has been given. I saw them carrying laser rifles in my Precognition – and using them on the Seiru runners. They weren't simply arresting runners and searching for evidence; they were shooting them. I can only think that they know what I have just explained to you, and are trying to cut off our operation routes.”
Although the police surely, should not be so sure of winning a confrontation with the runners. Atobe doubted that Oishi or Tezuka would consent to outright battle with the other syndicates, and without Seigaku's help, even the entire Tokyo police had little hope of winning against a union of the runners. They'd almost have to bring in the military. Yes. That would do a great deal to inspire the citizens' confidence in their government.
Unless they knew the critical state that Seiru was in, and were thus confident of a victory today. But how would they know, and be able to prepare, on such short notice? Had Inoue gotten hold of a good Precog?
“You will have heard of the death of Mizuki Hajime as well. Given that a significant number of the runners there were personally loyal to him, rather than to the syndicate," -- Fuji Yuuta and Kisarazu Atsushi had already left Seiru to reunite with their respective siblings -- “I think it is fair to say that St. Rudolph is currently only running at two-thirds of its usual strength.”
“We will attempt to remedy that lack of strength. The Second Squadron will reinforce the Ginka border. The Fifth Squadron will be based in the southwest. Kajimoto-san, I'm counting on your runners to stay near headquarters, and fend off any air attacks.”
Kajimoto nodded. “You can count on us.”
Negotiation as to who owed whom what favours would have to wait until after the fight was over, but Keigo did not think that today's proceedings would be detrimental to Hyoutei. Jyousei Shounan wants to get out from under Rikkai's influence, too. I can tell. He watched Kajimoto in conversation with Tanaka Youhei. Hanamura Aoi no doubt thinks she can somehow influence Yukimura and Sanada through this unbalanced alliance, but I doubt that her president will stand it for long.
“All right. Are we all clear? Anyone not directly involved in these operations, you're free to go.” He nodded at the other squadron leaders as they left; some of them, especially Shishido and Gakuto, would be vexed at not being able to participate in the action, but there was more than enough work around Hyoutei at present to keep them more than busy.
In fact, if he didn't feel so strongly that they could not afford to lose today's battle, he would have only deployed the Second Squadron. Better to overwhelm them, and discourage the police from ever trying again, than to err on the side of weakness.
“Atobe. May I ask you what the hell you think you are doing?” Akazawa was wearing black combat pants today, with hiking boots, a nylon jacket with matching laserproof vest, and a belt with holsters for multiple firearms attached. Battle-ready. Kaneda and Nomura stood behind him, similarly dressed.
“Akazawa. Shall I assume that today, for once, you are actually in control of things?” He saw Akazawa's fist clench at his side. “Don't try to hit me. I promise you're not fast enough. We're about to save your territory from destruction, so I suggest you have a hard think about how you plan to display your gratitude when this is all over.”
“We. Don't. Need. Your. Help.”
“Akazawa-san. We do need the help.” Keigo's estimate of Kaneda's intelligence was continually going up. Then the boy looked up at Keigo. “Atobe-san. I'm grateful that you're interfering like this today, but I must ask that you don't do this any longer. Hyoutei interference in St. Rudolph affairs will not be tolerated after today.”
Keigo waved dismissively. “I assure you that we would not spare you the time of the day, if our interests weren't bound up in this. The less I can see of you, the better.” He turned and began to walk towards the exit. “You may need help sooner than you realise, though. If you raised your neck a little higher and looked around, you might realise that there's a lot more going on in the world than your petty political problems.”
He felt Akazawa move behind him. “Akazawa-san, don't,” said Kaneda's voice. Keigo smiled. Akazawa excelled at crisis management. And riling him up was the best possible way to get him into action.
Kajimoto was standing a block away from Seiru headquarters, just outside a convenience store. “Everyone has taken their positions,” he said. “And we've warned all the civilians in the area of the possibility of an impending fight.”
“Good work.” He then spoke into his wristcomm. “Jirou. Are you there?” He heard a long, drawn out yawn. “Jirou! Stop yawning, and tell me whether your squadron is in position.”
“Oh, it's you, Atobe! Everyone is fine here. We're all ready whenever they come. Huh? Wait, there's a patrol car coming now. Sorry, Atobe, I've got to go!” The wristcomm beeped. Keigo looked up at Kajimoto, and nodded. It had started.
“I'm going to fly out and have a look around,” he said. He opened the storage compartment and pulled out his safety helmet. “Your priority is to keep Seiru headquarters unbreached, so don't worry about moving unless any of the Patrol get within range.”
“Got it.” Kajimoto's eyes were an unnerving shade of violet. “Take care.”
The flyer whirred to life. Keigo stepped on the accelerator and drifted up and forwards, past the St. Rudolph headquarters. The wind was stronger today than yesterday, and it was nearly impossible to keep the flyer steady while hovering. Not the ideal conditions for an aerial battle.
Jirou should have no trouble with the Ginka border, and short of Seigaku entering the fray, I don't forsee Hiyoshi having any immediate problems. That left the south. He steered the flyer to the right, keeping at an altitude of about a hundred metres above sea level.
It took him about twenty minutes to get to the southern edge of St. Rudolph territory. He scanned the horizon for anything of interest, then landed on the roof of a nearby shophouse. No signs so far. Would they come? He let his thoughts wander through the possibility, relaxing into the precognitive state. It took five minutes of keeping his eyes closed before he saw the the flock of black-and-white flyers coming through the sky.
About twenty minutes from now. Hmm. He activated his wristcomm again. “Kajimoto. I expect an aerial force to reach you within the hour. About sixty to eighty flyers."
Sixty Patrol members – that wasn't a small team at all. How seriously was Inoue Mamoru taking the subjugation of St. Rudolph? He slid the keycard into its slot to start the engine. There was no use staying here; it would be futile engaging a force that size by himself.
His wristcomm beeped again. “Atobe. Are you there?” It was Oshitari's voice. “I just had another Precognition. You need to go to the Seigaku border right now. InSec's on their way there.”
Keigo placed his left hand on the handlebar. “Are you quite sure?”
“As sure as I am that you're going to die in ten days, if we don't do something about it.”
“Save it for later.” He hung up, and guided the flyer upwards again, this time speeding northeast.
For the fifth time in two days, what the hell was going on?
Hiyoshi contacted his wristcomm about twenty minutes later. “Atobe--”
“It's all right, I'm on my way there already.” When he arrived at the border, Hiyoshi was hovering above the highest building there (belonging to an insurance company of some sort), staring towards the east.
Keigo looked in the direction of his gaze, and swore under his breath. A procession of armored trucks was travelling down the main road that ran from Seigaku territory into Seiru, followed by at least fifteen silver cars. All the vehicles bore the emblem of the chrysanthemum. Internal Security. There's no doubt about it.
“They've got flyers waiting as well,” Hiyoshi said, nodding at a building in Seigaku territory about four hundred metres away. It was too high too see clearly, but Keigo could just manage to see the outline of what looked like unusually large LAFVs. Military-issue, no doubt.
“The land vehicles are probably firearmsproof. Do we have anything that could take them down?”
“Nothing long-range; some of the grenades and the stronger lasers might work. I've told everyone to aim for their tyres, but it might be better if I went out there first and tried to take down some of the trucks." .
Keigo looked at the younger boy. You don't want to risk anyone else, do you.
Unless they could force the members of InSec out of their vehicles, pitting the Hyoutei runners against them would be tantamount to suicide. Even without the armoured vehicles, it would have been a chancy thing; InSec operatives were much better trained than the Patrol.
Not a single Hyoutei runner had died during Keigo's presidency so far, and he wanted to keep it that way.
“We'll do it together,” he said. “Have you got the weapons ready?”
Hiyoshi looked surprised, then reached into his storage compartment and handed over a laser rifle and a dozen grenades.
“We go low, so that they can't target us,” said Keigo. It was a good thing that these flyers came with ground wheels. “You take the front trucks, I'll take the rear. Don't get yourself killed.” He twisted his flyer and began floating downwards, Hiyoshi after him.
I'll create an Illusion and confuse the drivers. I doubt anyone who works for InSec will be be fazed for long, but that should be enough time to bring a few of them down.
Out of the corner of his vision, he saw the one of the InSec flyers take off from the roof of the building Hiyoshi had pointed out earlier. Damn. They'd been spotted.
He hit the ground and sped through the streets, Hiyoshi alongside him, grateful that at least the area seemed devoid of civilians. One less headache to think about.
The first of the flyers was within shooting range within one minute. Keigo raised his stun gun – they required less precision than the deadlier weapons – and hit the rider in the arm. The flyer crashed into a nearby window and fell to the ground; Keigo and Hiyoshi sped past without even looking at the falling vehicle.
Hiyoshi got the next one and Keigo the third, but there were too many of them. Keigo retracted his wheels and rose in the air, sticking close to the buildings to keep his back covered. “Looks like we're not going to get near the road vehicles before cleaning these guys out first.”
“Understood.”
Although the task was easier said then done; how many of them were there, exactly? He narrowly avoided two laser shots, and then brought down a fourth flyer; they were heavier and less manouevrable than the Hyoutei LAFVs, which was a small blessing. He cast a telepathic illusion, which gave Hiyoshi room to shoot down another three pilots. The street below was rapidly becoming cluttered with ruined vehicles.
And then six of the silver-white vehicles fell out of the sky, with a splash of blood.
Keigo barely had time to process this fact before another three InSec flyers went down, and four bright scarlet LAFVs came hurtling through the empty space they left. At the forefront was a small, red-headed rider, helmetless, blowing a massive pink bubble of gum.
Marui Bunta?
A laser shot went past Marui's head harmlessly; he grinned. A flyer about five metres above him exploded; Keigo felt the heat as it descended to the ground.
Within a minute, the only InSec vehicles in the area were either on the ground or heading towards it, and four Rikkai runners were hovering in front of Hiyoshi and Keigo.
“Atobe-kun. It's good to meet you again.” Yagyuu Hiroshi inclined his head.
“Yukimura woke us up this morning to send us over here; he said you'd need the help,” said Marui, spitting out his gum. It fell to the ground and landed straight on the forehead of an unconscious InSec rider. “Shikuyoro! Jirou's told me so much about you. I feel like we're best friends already. This is Jackal Kuwahara,” he nodded at the helmeted rider to his left, “and the one to my right is Kirihara Akaya.”
Akaya shook his head impatiently. “Come on, Marui, we don't have time for introductions! There are vehicles to burn over there. And people.”
“Are there only four of you?” asked Keigo.
Marui pulled out a fresh piece of gum, this time green-coloured, and popped it in his mouth. “You don't need more than four of us. Heck, if you want to withdraw you can, Atobe-kun – don't bristle like that! Of course you'd be helpful, not all of us are as injury-proof as the kid here.”
Yagyuu said. “Marui-kun will be using his abilities to dismantle the vehicles. I would appreciate it, Atobe-kun, if you joined me and Akaya in the initial assault; I think your psionic shields are strong enough to withstand their telekinetics.”
“Sounds like a fair plan. What about Jackal and Hiyoshi? I assume you'll need some cover while you're working on the vehicles," Keigo said to Marui.
“Don't worry, Jackal's an expert at that. As for Hiyoshi-kun,” Marui turned. “Regroup your runners. We'll need backup to finish off these guys.”
Marui and Jackal flew up, towards the rooftop; Yagyuu, Keigo and Kirihara headed out towards the armored procession, maintaining their altitude.
When they got within a hundred metres of the vehicles Keigo was overwhelmed by a sudden, total, sense of panic. He drew his mental shields together.
“It seems that they have an Empath,” said Yagyuu. “Kirihara, can you place yourself between us? The protection may help."
An Immune? The curly-haired boy edged his flyer in between Keigo's and Yagyuu's; at once, the pressure on Keigo's shields faded.
In front of them, the first vehicle and second vehicles exploded. Men were already hurrying out of the vehicles behind, shooting up in the sky at Marui and Jackal, who were using a large billboard for cover.
Kirihara licked his lips. “All right. Let's go!”
They headed forward towards the scene of chaos and flame, Atobe's vehicle almost half a second behind. Because, just then, a thought had occurred to him, one that threatened to make sense of a great deal of the past twenty-four hours.
There's someone with both an Immunity gift and a Precognitive gift masterminding all this. And that person has power over Internal Security.
Which definitely begged the question of who.
That question would have to wait. He dodged a grenade that was exploding on the ground and began to fire his gun, even as Kirihara and Yagyuu rained bullets all around him and the smoke and scorched smell and fire rose into the air, transforming the streets of Shin Tokyo into a battle landscape.
On to thoughts in empty spaces. (Tezuka sidefic)