10 - Taste Of Doubt

The next day, Mukawa, despite only sleeping for an hour or so, woke up to a rather unfortunate surprise.

He was left speechless.

The town’s old population had been evacuated, but the men that stayed behind chose to aid Mukawa in whatever they could. They all served various purposes - the most prominent one being supply and information delivery. Since the settlement was cut off from the outside world, global news was intercepted in nearby settlements, and there really weren’t too many of them.

Once the ‘information delivery’ arrived, Mukawa read all about the news. He raised alarms all over towns, waking up everyone who could be awake. After sharing the news, he chose to take some time for himself, to think about things.

Not only were so many lives being taken because of him, but the entire operation risked being exposed if any of the locals decided to inform any of the authorities about it. Despite the news of the GSC ‘disbanding’, it still had ears everywhere.

...

They were in one of the tents, doing nothing in particular. Just thinking about things.

“You guys think he’ll fold?” Sofia asked.

“No way.” Haruki said. “Someone like him, he’s too stubborn. You know that too damn well.”

“What is he even supposed to do?” Asami asked.

“He’ll find a way.” Kana sighed. “He just assumed that Kaito would be laying idle in his bedroom jerking off all the time. It’s fine, he’ll find a way.”

“He already knows what he has to do.” Haruki said.

“And he’s not going to do it.” Kana said. “Especially now that Sakuto Hitori himself said that it can’t happen.”

“Oh come on, the guy’s comatose.” Haruki complained. “He won’t recover in weeks, probably months. I’ll just go in there, do the thing, and save the world. If he kills me afterwards, so be it. I’d know I’d die as someone who had saved the world.”

“Wait...what?” Kana asked, intercepting the awful news that Haruki accidentally said. “He won’t recover...in weeks?!”

“Ah, yeah, my bad...” Haruki sighed. “I forgot to tell you, or, more specifically, I didn’t want him to know that I knew. But I overheard a conversation that he had with Rin. It’s not looking too bright.”

“That means...” Sofia quickly got struck with the severity of the circumstance.

“He, m-maybe she was wrong!” Asami spoke up. “She can be wrong too, right? What if he can still...”

“I’m not surprised you still have faith in that.” Haruki said. “But I choose to believe in reality, not in miracles.”

“Knowing Mukawa, he’ll probably demand we carry the operation out as soon as possible.” Kana said. “Fuck. Fucking...damn it.”

“No, I’m not doing this.” Sofia said. “Without those two monsters on the battlefield, there’s no way we’re going to win.”

“But if we delay it even more, by that point, millions of people might be dead.” Haruki said. “That piece of shit got us.”

“What’s the chance Mukawa is willing to wait this out?” Kana asked. “He was okay with Otto Richter organizing a global genocide. He participated in that sacrifice. He’ll be okay with more people dying, this is yet another sacrifice.”

“Mukawa is nothing like Otto.” Haruki said. “Otto was a cold-hearted strategist. Mukawa is an empath who cries over every life he doesn’t save. You saw it with your own eyes, he couldn’t sleep at night because he thinks he’s the reason Otto did what he did.”

“And yet he didn’t try to stop him.”

“To be fair, how would he stop him in the first place?” Haruki refuted. “Otto was a one man army. Mukawa wasn’t even a soldier. He was participating in a pre-existing operation. Here, he’s the one in the lead.”

“And when the leaders are empaths...everything is right, and everything goes to shit.” Sofia sighed.

“So what do we do?” Asami asked.

“We have to somehow confront Mukawa about it.” Sofia continued. “We need to tell him that he needs to make a sacrifice.”

“I agree. I’ll take the blame for leaking this info, I don’t care. He scolds me all the time.” Haruki said. “If we can’t convince him, I’ll just shoot the kid and get this over with.”

“Jeez, what is it with you killing people?!” Kana seemed upset. “Not the first time you’ve insisted on this option.”

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“Because it’s the easiest way to prevent a potential global catastrophe.” Haruki said.

“I am not like Mukawa.”

“Whereas he sees life as something beautiful, as something that is sacred and needs to be protected...I see it as a variable, a resource.”

“I am his antithesis. That is the reason our group has managed to survive for so long.”

“I’m the splash of cold water to halt his emotion-driven decisions.”

“Unless, of course, you guys are adamant on participating in...not even an operation, a suicide mission. A half-assed suicide mission.” Haruki said.

“You want to call dibs now?” Sofia asked.

“Never said I’m calling dibs. As a matter of fact, I’m the one who wants things to work out the most.” Haruki said. “But I know for sure that challenging someone of Kaito’s caliber without all of the Heisei’s power is a stupid move.”

“We have some estimations of his s-strength.” Asami said.

“It’s not about what we know, it’s about what we don’t know.” Kana said. “I have to agree. If we’re going to carry it out, we better know that things will work. Because if they don’t...”

“Then we’ll be handing the old captain and the kid to Kaito on a silver platter...which is exactly what he wants.” Haruki sighed. He got a cigarette out of his pocket and left the tent. “Give me a second.”

He lit it outside and smoked to his heart’s content. Slowly watching the tip of the cigarette dry away, and the ashes fall on the sandy ground, he took his time to gaze at the slightly cloudy skies.

“Mukawa...”

“Why the hell do I still help you?”

“...”

“Right.”

“It’s because you do the right thing, don’t you? Back then, when we were still supposed to be intelligence agents, or at least we were supposed to pretend to...”

“You were still as stubborn as ever.”

“And there you are.” Haruki said, watching Mukawa slowly approach him. “What’s up? What did you come up with?”

“I asked you not to smoke here.” Mukawa grunted, entering the tent. Haruki tossed the cigarette on the ground and stomped it to put it out, and followed suit. Everyone looked at Mukawa as if he was the single most important thing in the world.

“Get yourselves ready.” Mukawa said.

“We’re moving out?” Haruki asked, pretending to be surprised. His eyes were silently disappointed, and some of the soulfuls present shared that feeling. “Tomorrow?”

“No, today. We’re moving out today.” Mukawa said.

“Did you tell the Heisei about this?” Kana asked, trying to knock some sense into him. They were all a bit scared of the idea.

“I’m going to. Now.” Mukawa said. “Come on.”

He was beyond frustrated when no one moved an inch. Except Asami, who was ready to follow him to the depths of hell.

“I said we’re moving out. Do you need to repeat it one more fucking time?” Mukawa asked. He had bags underneath his eyes.

“Nobody’s going to move out, Mukawa.” Haruki said.

“What?” Mukawa seemed lost in confusion. “You’re...”

“Yes, we are.” Haruki said. “We’re here to tell you to get your shit together.”

“I thought I did. I thought I did it for long enough to create all of this.” Mukawa argued. “And now that the time has come, you’re backing down? What are you, a bunch of cowards? Is that who I was surrounded by?”

“The time hasn’t come.” Kana said. She held her hand out, signaling Haruki to let her speak. “We need to wait.”

“Right.” Mukawa said. “How big do you think the number ‘one hundred thousand’ is”

“And how big is the number eight billion?” Haruki asked. “If we underprepare and fail, there won’t be anything left to stop him.”

“We’re doing this for your own sake, Mukawa.” Sofia said. “With just twelve people...”

“See? We have twelve people. Not great, not terrible.” Mukawa said. “You’re severely underestimating how difficult it is to fight off twelve competent soulfuls at the same time.”

“And you’re underestimating who Kaito is.” Haruki said. “Since you only understand ultimatums, I’ll present you one right now.” That statement startled everyone.

“Either you make the sacrifice and wait for the proper time, or I kill Hiroshi Kamiki and end this problem for good.”

“Right, go ahead, kill him.” Mukawa said. “I’m sure that won’t make the already angry monster of a soulful even angrier. Hey, I’m sure he won’t just do what he intends to do by hand.”

“And while he does that, we’ll have time to prepare. We will save more people that way.” Haruki said. “Like I said, this is the only optimal solution.”

“...”

There was a grueling silence. The tension could cut the air.

“The only optimal...solution?” Mukawa asked.

“Yeah.” Haruki replied.

Mukawa punched Haruki.

The strike wasn’t destructive or lethal, but it was genuine. It was a right hook to the jaw. It hurt Haruki quite a bit as the latter didn’t expect it at all, even knocking him off balance. Haruki, on the ground, held his chin and looked at Mukawa as if he didn’t even recognize him.

Mukawa slowly left the tent.

“There’s no optimal solution.” Mukawa said. “There’s no way to quantify and trade with life.”

No one replied.

“There will be a third and final meeting soon. If you consider yourselves humans, you’ll attend.” Mukawa said, leaving. He had never been in a state like this. Usually, all disagreements with Haruki would result in simple shouting matches. But Mukawa, after landing the punch, at least, was calm like the sea, collected, focused.

Kana helped Haruki slowly get up, and Haruki watched his ally leave.

“Are you alright?” Asami asked, worried.

“I’m fine.” Haruki said, keeping his gaze on Mukawa. “Worry about him instead.”