3 - First Godkill Planning Meeting

Everyone was gathered there, waiting in suspense. Sofia, Asami, Zawadski, Jian, Ichigo, Yuuka, Alby Jr. and Zervos. A few moments later, Mukawa, Haruki, Kana and Rin entered the room.

And immediately, Jian took aim at Mukawa.

“Whoa, what hospitality.” Mukawa said, sounding more annoyed than intimidated. “I reckon you haven’t made up your mind yet.”

Jian remained silent, while Haruki, Kana and Rin took their respective seats.

“If she’s not sure, why are you holding this meeting anyways?” Zawadski almost mockingly asked. “You know, if you say some sensitive information, she’d be the first to report it and your plan will fall apart.”

“I’m sure she won’t leak anything. First of all, there’s no way to communicate with the outside world from this little paradise of ours unless I give the order.” Mukawa explained. “Most importantly, I’m sure that she won’t do anything drastic considering one of her good allies wants to assist me.”

He pointed at Ichigo. Jain, realizing the situation, slowly lowered her arm.

“See?” Mukawa asked, sounding rather proud of himself. “Check and mate. I’m sure you’ll change your mind, Captain Jian Fang of the Heisei.”

Jian took her seat. The whole situation still seemed impossible to digest.

“Right, I’ll open with a fair and a slightly too honest assessment of our predicament.” Mukawa said.

“Kaito Kamiki, the head of the GSC and the head of the Naja Stronghold, aims to develop his power further and trigger a soulful event that will kill every single soulless person. That is roughly 98% of the global population. Over the last month, while the Heisei people were trying to contain the Eura Stronghold, he has been carefully hunting down the rest of the stronghold heads. One by one, sometimes, one against multiple, he bested them in combat.”

“Sitting among you is Alby Stirrock Jr., the son of the now deceased head of the Ocea Stronghold.” Mukawa said.

“Wait a minute, that’s the guy that attacked me and Ichigo, isn’t it?” Zawadski quickly asked. Alby Jr. was startled, it felt like that question angered him.

“There’s an element in the story that makes little sense. Alby Stirrock headed to the Eura Stronghold, but ended up fighting the Heisei.” Mukawa said. “Either he was on a suicide mission, or the Eura Stronghold did something shady to him. My bets are on the second option. Anyhow, no fighting over shit in the past here! We have bigger problems to worry about.”

He approached the whiteboard behind him, took a black marker and began writing something. Once done, he faced the audience again.

“Operation Godkill.” Mukawa said, reading what he wrote. “It is a definitive operation intended to kill Kaito Kamiki.”

“Otto Richter had to plan an entire global genocide, which, I admit, is a dick move, to try and get Kaito to fight him. As we all know by now, his plan was to engage in combat with Kaito, replicate his ability, and use it to kill him. But even with thousands of soulfuls dying by the hour, Kaito didn’t show his face.”

“However, a little digging into his family life revealed an interesting few details about his adopted son. You know, the kid that we had to kidnap. We formed a hypothesis, that being that he’s not just a kid, he is some type of variable in Kaito’s plans. A sort of weapon or a catalyst or whatever the hell else he can be. We believe the kid will have Kaito running over here.”

“So...you basically want to repeat the war, but without the war.” Ichigo said. “But...how? The entire war relied on the fact that Otto Richter could replicate Mr. Kamiki’s power.”

“I’m glad you asked. I feel like you’re the only guy from the Heisei that I mess with.” Mukawa chuckled. He took the dagger out. It looked a little intimidating.

“This is Otto’s parting gift.” Mukawa said. “This is what he left to us before dying. A weapon that can copy and utilize an ability...exactly one time. This is the key to killing Kaito Kamiki.”

The part of the crowd that was unaware of this tool’s existence went silent in both excitement and shock. Jian was visibly a little shaken.

“We will do what Otto did, except this time, we have every advantage in the world.” Mukawa said. “An almost guaranteed chance that he will come out, the Heisei, including some of its monsters on our side, and even time to properly prepare and lay out a strategy.”

“Does anyone have any questions?”

“I do.” Zawadski quickly replied. Mukawa didn’t seem surprised. “Just to make sure, how many of us are there?”

“Fourteen excluding the kids.” Haruki replied, standing up and walking over to stand next to Mukawa. “More than enough firepower considering how-”

“Right, let me rephrase that. How many of us are there that are actually functional and not half-dead in a hospital bed?”

“Twelve.” Mukawa replied. A brief pause later he continued.

“But those two, under Rin’s great care, will make a swift recovery. The plan will be to overwhelm Kaito with our many abilities, primarily with Sakuto Hitori’s divine acclamation, and use it to create an opening for the dagger to work. Once that happens, he won’t have a chance.”

“I see.” Yuuka sighed. “Your plan relies on a corpse waking up v_v”

“What makes you think Sakyuto will make a full recovery in such a short period of time? I mean, did you even see what state he was in?” Yuuka continued. “You’re not convincing me yet, you know?”

“And better yet, what makes you think that our little group, even including Sakuto and Ichika, is enough to kill him?” Zawadski asked, sounding much more serious now. “I feel like you’re really, really underestimating what Mr. Kamiki is capable of.”

“Underestimating how exactly-”

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“We just need to replicate his power.” Haruki answered for Mukawa. “Maybe we won’t kill him with our raw firepower, but we will for sure land at least one hit with the dagger. If our power can’t match up to his, his own will.”

“We should plan the operation for twelve people.” Rin said. “As much as I want to be hopeful, I doubt those two can-”

“There’s no room for doubts here. If you still have them, feel free to get out.” Mukawa said, starting to lose his patience. “You won’t try to get them back on their feet, you will get them back on their feet.”

“You’re being too hopeful.” Rin sighed. “I’ll try my best.”

“Any other questions?” Haruki asked.

“Yeah, I got one.” Zawadski said. “Let’s say the twelve of us-”

“It’s not twelve, it’s fourteen.” Mukawa said. “If it’s some pessimistic garbage, keep it for another day.”

“You’re mistaking realistic thinking for pessimism. I know you gotta be at least a little delusional to try pulling something like this off, but come on.” Zawadski said. These words got on Mukawa’s nerves.

“Mukawa, as much as I want there to be fourteen of us, we need to form the battle plans on the premise that we have twelve.” Kana said.

“Oh come on, you too? Have a little faith in our doctor.” Mukawa grunted. “I didn’t spend all this time trying to get my hands on Sakuto just to get a breathing corpse instead.”

“Still, I agree. We need to plan for the worst case scenario.” Ichigo said. “And I’d appreciate it if you don't talk about him like he's a weapon or an item. How do you know he’ll want to fight in the first place? The guy just went through hell.”

“A lot of other people are gonna lose their friends too if we fail.” Mukawa sharply answered.

“You guys done?” Zawadski spoke up. “Can I ask my question now?”

“Come on, ask away.”

“Say all of us are ready to go, when do we move out?”

“There can be two possible times for the fight.” Mukawa said. “The first time is the one we can’t choose. If Kaito ever discovers this base, we’ll have to act on the spot. The second time is the one we can choose, though. It will be whenever all of us are available.”

“What stops him from discovering our location though?” Ichigo asked.

“See, this is where things get...weird.” Mukawa said. “Junior, you wanna take it from here?”

“I’ll try...” Alby Jr. said, walking up to Mukawa and standing next to him. “The first time the location of the stronghold operation was exposed, we had no idea how he got the information.”

“I was the one who did it.” Yuuka said. It did annoy Junior a little. “Hey, I was just following orders :P. And I only did it once! I didn't know about all of this shady stuff, you know?”

“See? She only did it once.” Mukawa said. “And yet, Mr. Kamiki found a way to intercept the stronghold heads again and again. Reports of a soul presence and a terrifying creature flying over Europe were located, so he was headed somewhere else, likely to...”

“We have a theory.” Haruki said. “His whole rampage can be seen as elimination of competition, but why would he go out of his way to kill soulfuls who are, forgive me, not even a threat to him? There is a different reason.”

“Once we consider that everything he has done up to this point has been a part of his plan, things start to click.” Mukawa said. "It's a pattern. He was drawn to them."

“We believe that all of this is connected to his power.” Haruki began. “He hasn’t just been killing people, he has also been using a specific ability on them.”

“Soul Devourer.” Sofia said, standing up and joining the speakers. “Otto Richter found out about its name, now we found out about its ability.”

“I'm sure the name 'Diego Solano' rings a bell in a lot of you.” Mukawa said. “Thanks to Junior’s access permissions, we got our hands on quite a bit of stronghold databases. He was, at some point, the head of the Ocea stronghold, likely as a temporary placeholder. And guess what, Kaito has a modified version of his soul expression. You do the conclusions.”

“That...asshole...” Ichigo said to himself.

“Now, assuming that Kaito can somehow locate his next targets, that being the stronghold heads...” Mukawa said, suspiciously staring at Zervos.

“I know. I’m supposed to be the next one.” Zervos said. “That’s the only theory that makes sense.”

Zervos also stood up and joined the speakers. Jian looked more and more lost as the seconds passed.

“Since Kaito can’t kill himself and eat his own soul, it’ll have to be me.” Zervos sighed. "Logically, I'm the target associated with Naja."

“Which is also proven by the fact that he hasn’t found us yet.” Mukawa smirked. “The old timer’s soul expression destabilizes and disrupts other soul expressions, think of it as a permanent jammer. Kaito can’t track him down because that connection can’t function.”

“God...damn.” Zawadski said.

“What about the kid though?” Rin asked. “Why are we assuming that he can’t be tracked down?”

“He can’t track me.” Hiroshi said. He had just entered the room, but he was listening for a while. "But I'll make sure he gets here and gets me out of here!"

“God damn it, do I have to chain you to a wall somewhere?!” Mukawa lashed out.

“Hiroshi...” Zervos said. “Can you track your father’s presence?”

“I...” Hiroshi felt a little betrayed that the good old captain was a part of all of this. But a part of him was glad to see him. The man had always wished him well. “I don’t think we can track each other.”

“So either Zervos has one hell of a jammer, or the kid isn’t awakened yet.” Haruki sighed. “Or, the option which I agree with, which is that there’s no connection. Simply because we haven’t been ambushed yet.”

“Then it’s settled. The meeting is over, unless, of course, someone wants to tell me something.” Mukawa said, eyeing Zawadski who was especially excited by the fact that he made Mukawa mad.

“Everyone, I heavily recommend you stay in combat shape.” Haruki said. The crowd started to leave...

“Captain Jian?” Zervos asked, approaching her.

“...what?”

“I...I understand this might be a difficult decision for you, but...” Zervos sighed. “I just...hope you make the right choice. Please.”

He left before Jian could respond with anything.

Mukawa was recording everything, he took the moment to approach Hiroshi.

“When will you understand that you’re a hostage?” Mukawa asked, placing his hand on Hiroshi’s forehead. “I’m sorry.” He muttered, before putting the latter to sleep. “I hope you like dreams where you eat a bunch of ice cream.”

“Haruki, take him somewhere he’s gonna live. Have people guard the place all the time. I gotta visit the tech guys.” Mukawa said. Haruki, albeit not feeling like it, did exactly that with Kana’s help.

Mukawa took a deep breath, as only a few people were left in the room.

“Hey, I uhh...I have to ask you something.” Ichigo said, approaching him. “I need to make a call to Tokyo.”

“You’re not planning to call Kaito on his personal number, are you?” Mukawa sarcastically asked. “Can’t let you make any calls. Can’t risk compromising the location.”

“It won’t be compromised.” Ichigo said. “We can call from...a different place, we can try crossing the sea if it’s necessary.”

“Like I said, reconnecting the phone network has its risks.” Mukawa said.

“I need to make a call to a hospital.” Ichigo said. “I need to ask about someone’s condition.”

“Ah, I...I see.” Mukawa said, looks like those words convinced him to do so. “One phone call, alright? For a maximum of thirty seconds.”

“Thank you.”