8 - Second Godkill Planning Meeting

“Everyone, this is the second time I get to see all of your faces at once.” Mukawa said. Everyone was gathered in the same meeting spot, except the two half-dead soulfuls and the two kids. “I have quite the assortment of news for you today. But first, we’ll go over the strategy of our operation.”

“Did you confirm a time and date yet?” Haruki asked, almost as if challenging Mukawa with that question. Mukawa glared at him, discontent.

“That is to be decided.” Mukawa said. “Right, as for the strategy, we’re going to compile-”

“What good is an operation that will take an unknown amount of time to happen, then?” Haruki interrupted him with another question.

“You know exactly how much I dislike getting interrupted, so just keep this for later, alright? Thank you.” Mukawa said. “Anyhow.”

“We’ll efficiently position all fourteen, or, since so many of you are so pessimistic and doubtful, twelve of our fighters, assigning a unique role to each one of them, making sure they can utilize their soul expressions the best way possible.” Mukawa explained. “We will have primary fighters, support fighters and distractions.”

“Starting off first, Rin.” Mukawa said. “You’ll be our most reliable support. You’ll make sure-”

“I reject that role. I will be an active fighter.” Rin said.

“I just said something about being interrupted, didn’t I?” Mukawa complained.

“My divine acclamation has multiple phases. Each phase will prove greatly useful at weakening or restricting him.” Rin said. “If the final phase is reached, he will die without an exception.”

“Right, starting off with some great news! In that case, we have one more victory condition on our hands.” Mukawa said. “Next up, from the Heisei. Captain Jian, you’ll be fighting from the backlines, providing ranged support. If you shoot, please shoot with enough strength behind it to make it worth it. If someone is about to be ambushed, shoot immediately as a distraction maneuver.”

“Understood.” Jian nodded.

“Ichigo, you’ll be a primary fighter. You’ll be the most primary fighter out of all of us, fulfilling multiple roles. You’ll utilize your acclamation’s properties both offensively and defensively, worst case scenario, you’ll help others to escape combat in case someone gets wounded.”

“Sounds good.” Ichigo said. “Rin, we’ll stick together. If someone is badly injured, I’ll take them and you away to a safe space and you’ll quickly treat them.”

“Got it.” Rin nodded.

“Captain, or, should I say, ex-captain Zervos.” Mukawa said. “You’ll also be fighting him directly. Your ability to destabilize or weaken soul expressions will make sure he doesn’t pull anything crazy out of his ass. You’re arguably the most important fighter on the battlefield, which uhh...also makes sense considering that aside from his son, you’re his main target.”

“Ooh, our old captain is the debuffer! O~o Interesting!” Yuuka seemed fascinated with the idea. “Just like in the old days.”

“I understand.” Zervos said. “I have been training pretty intensely. I do believe...I can do well.”

“Good. See, that’s what I wanna hear the most.” Mukawa said. “Anyhow, next up, Alby Jr. will fight at a distance. Since his soul expression allows him to have auto-tracking and reinforced ammunition, we’ll load you up with bullets and have you launch hell itself at the target from a safe distance.”

“R-right...”

“Haruki, you’ll be up there with me. Your phasing will be pretty useful for combat, besides, if you wish to fight him head-on, your wish is my command.” Mukawa said.

“Me and Kana will create as much of an opening for you as we can.” Haruki said.

“Right. Kana, naturally, thanks to your soul expression that makes you a threat up-close, you’ll stay by his side.” Mukawa explained.

“And you think this much is enough?” Zawadski asked.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“No. That’s why Sofia and Asami will help us out too. Sofia’s ability is useless now, so she’ll stay a bit back, making sure our comms don’t get too scrambled or disorganized. She’ll be overseeing the operation and taking over management. Believe me when I say this, it’s way more important than it sounds.”

“And finally, Asami. If Zervos is going to weaken the target, Asami is the opposite - she’s going to make us stronger. She has the ability to enhance the output of a soul expression. Once she’s close to you and she says her blessings, you’re free to go. It will exhaust you more than usual, but the results won’t disappoint. It was with her enhancements and Sofia’s location tracking that we managed to find that damn submarine.”

“A buffer?!” Zawadski jumped up in excitement. “Holy shit, that changes everything!”

“Haah, uhh...p-pleasure to be working with you.” Asami quietly replied.

“Ichigo, you get what ideas I have? You do?” Zawadski nudged his comrade.

“I do, but I also think that using her to aid our supporting units could work too.” Ichigo said. “If her ability functions the way I imagine it does, she’ll be our most valuable support troop.”

Asami almost turned into a tomato.

Mukawa seemed a little hesitant to read the next name.

“Hmm? What is it, you gloom?” Yuuka teasingly asked.

“You’ll uhh...” Mukawa said. “You’ll be off the battlefield for the majority of the operation, you’ll only get active when most if not all other options have been rendered useless. Just...don’t kill any one of us when you do your thing, alright?”

“Okey! :D”

“And at last, the annoyingly immortal prick, Zawadski. I’m pretty sure you can imagine what your task will be, but aside from distracting him and wasting his time and energy, you’ll have another objective to complete.”

“And let me guess, it’s something to do with that.” Zawadski smirked, pointing at the dagger in Mukawa’s hands.

“Exactly.” Mukawa took a deep breath. “Everyone, I have a feeling that no matter how hard we try, our own strength might not be enough. Sure, we do have victory conditions, or we might just be able to overwhelm him with sheer numbers and the multitude of abilities, but in the end, we’ll have to resort to this plan.”

“To think the Heisei would be supporting Otto, albeit indirectly...”

“I haven’t yet tested this dagger because I cannot. It is a one-time use tool.” Mukawa said. “That much was explicitly stated to me.”

“Haruki, Kana and Zawadski primarily, as well as every single other participant will have the following objective - allowing this blade to make contact with Kaito Kamiki.” He said. “It will be difficult, it will be dangerous, but I promise you that it is one of our most reliable victory conditions. To be fair, I seriously doubt that Kaito will just allow Rin to reach the final phase of her acclamation or let Yuuka Hoshikawa anywhere close to her.”

A brief silence overtook the room.

“We must all acknowledge that Kaito is a fucking monster.” Mukawa said. “This isn’t a show of strength, this is a multi-layer operation. We beat him with tactics, not raw strength. Is everything clear?”

Another silence took place. But Haruki, to no one’s surprise, raised his hand again to speak.

“Will you address the main questions now?” He asked Mukawa.

“The time and date, correct?” Mukawa replied. “It all depends on Sakuto Hitori and Ichika Hanasaki. More specifically, their recovery.”

“Obviously, if they do make it, which I’m certain they will, they’ll assume the roles of the capital strikers, the, the, the big guns, the main fighters. Their power will be enough to keep Kaito busy, add on top of that our objective, victory conditions and just the diversity and amount of different soul expressions...Kaito will have no chance.”

“And when will they be healthy?” Zervos asked.

“Well...” Mukawa took a deep breath and sighed. “We will have to wait.”

“Rin.” Jian said. “What is the estimated time needed for them to recover their full strength?”

Rin looked at Jian, and looked at Mukawa, and she and Mukawa had an entire conversation within mere seconds. She finally spoke up.

“I cannot predict it accurately. I cannot estimate it either.” Rin said. “They are too unnatural, their conditions are too complex and unknown. I do not have an answer for you.”

“Which translates into, ‘we’ll just have to wait and see’. Understood?” Mukawa said, playing around with the dagger in his hands. “There’s no point in theorizing, it just wastes brainpower.”

“Isn’t that what you’re doing right now, though?” Kana suddenly asked. “This is all theory. Sure, the plan sounds perfect and full-proof on paper, even with the addition of those two, but...what if we never get to that stage?”

“What...?”

“What if he attacks us first?” Junior asked.

“He won’t. At least for the foreseeable future, he won’t.” Mukawa said. “He doesn’t know where we are, neither does he know about the weapon.”

“And the boy?”

“I feel like we’ve had this conversation before.” Mukawa said. “If there’s nothing new, I’m ending this meeting and getting back to doing...whatever I was doing before. Everyone, I suggest you hold joint training sessions and learn to fight alongside each other. Do not use divine acclamations under any circumstances, we don’t want to risk exposing our location. Meeting is over!” Mukawa exclaimed. It looked like he ran away from certain topics...