18 - Checkmate Recruitment

[KNOCK]

The door slowly opened, with a man in his 40s peeking through it. He seemed unfamiliar with his visitor.

“And who are you?”

“I’m Sakuto Hitori.” Sakuto answered. The door was only slightly open, but he, overpowering the man’s strength, opened it fully from the outside. “I have unfortunate news that I must reveal to you, Mr. Touriki.”

“What is it? How do you know me?” The man seemed a bit startled by the unforeseen invasion.

“Dear, what is it?” A woman approached the man, leaving the one-year-old kid she was playing with and curiously observing the guest.

“Kouta has unfortunately passed away. We buried him-”

“I don’t care.” The man quickly replied. His wife, however, seemed to be much more worried after hearing the information. Something about her gaze told Sakuto that a fraction of her heart wasn’t indifferent towards his son.

Sakuto himself tried to contain his anger to himself.

“You may not, but I do.” Sakuto replied. “I would also like to inform you that he will be remembered as Kouta Hitori. That’s my last name.”

Sakuto stepped into the house. The man tried to keep him away, but failed to do so.

“Where the hell do you think you’re going?”

“Kouta told me that once he stops fighting, which was supposed to be never, he’d let me use his hand wraps and combat equipment.” Sakuto said, gently pushing the man away as he tried to block his path. “Mr. Touriki, you reek of cheap cigarettes.”

The man raised his arm. Mrs. Touriki instantly flinched, and Sakuto himself chose to ignore the advance. He dodged the incoming hit and turned to face him.

“Please, Mr. Touriki, do not attack me.” Sakuto said. Watching the scared wife revealed quite a lot to him. “I am a soulful and I don’t want to incapacitate you.”

“We sold his belongings a long time ago” She said in a slow yet sorrowful voice. “I apologize if you were promised something.”

“It’s okay.” Sakuto said. He went back to the door. “I’m sorry about the news and my sudden intrusion.”

“Don’t you dare invade our household and speak of him.” Mr. Touriki angrily exclaimed. “Get out before I call the police.”

Sakuto slowly walked out. Though, before stepping out, a sudden sense of anger clouded his mind. His fist was clenched, and his face seemed hellishly upset. So much so that he turned around and used almost all of his force to slam his fist into the man’s stomach.

The latter instantly bent over in pain, slowly taking a few steps back and falling over. His wife took a few moments to approach him. With nothing more to do, at last, Sakuto left...

“I didn’t tell them about Kouta being a soulful. They might have connected the dots.”

“I had to hold myself back too.”

“Maybe Kouta wouldn’t want me to kill his dad.”

He walked outside a bit before seeing something strange on the street. More specifically, someone strange, and even more precisely, someone that he would hope he wouldn’t see.

“Hey, you...” The guy approached him, by that point Sakuto had even forgotten his name, only the circumstance he was in. One of Aki’s other friends was with him too.

“Dear God...” Sakuto said to himself. “Really?”

“Is it him?”

“Yeah, he’s the guy that hit me for no reason!” the guy said, and he and his friend quickly approached Sakuto. Sakuto didn’t want to fight, it felt like even if he wanted to swing at them, he wouldn’t be able to.

“Come on, dude. Walk with us. We got a lot to talk to you about-”

But then Sakuto remembered that he didn’t have to hold himself back anymore. And so what if there were two of them and one of him? He would have beaten both of them to a pulp without soul prowess, with it it would’ve been the same as flicking two grains of sand away.

“You guys don’t wanna do this.” Sakuto warned them, taking a step back. “I’m a soulful, you know?”

“So that’s why you sided with that girl?” The guy asked, getting a little uncomfortably close. “You chose some random criminal over us?”

“She wasn’t a criminal.”

“And how do you know about that? Do you know her? Answer for your actions-”

“Oh for fuck sake, if you’re here to fight, then fight already!” Sakuto yelled, punching one of them in the stomach and making him curl up in pain before kicking him away. Just like with Kouta’s father, Sakuto had to fall back so as not to straight up kill him.

The other guy tried to swing at him, but Sakuto quickly grabbed him by his throat and started choking him out. The grip wasn’t strong enough to crush his neck, but was strong enough to be impossible to escape for a soulless nobody.

“W-wait...why...”

“Why?” Sakuto said, tripping the guy down and holding him on the ground, keeping the choke. “Because I hate every fucking one of you, and none of you can do shit to me-”

“What am I doing...?”

He suddenly let go of him. The latter caught his breath and quickly got up, trying to run away, not even paying attention to his wounded friend. Sakuto remained on the ground, staring at his hands.

“Why did I do this now?”

“I had the chances and the strength to do this to them at any moment, right? Why now? Is it because I’m a soulful?”

He slowly stood up.

“Nah.”

“It’s because right now, I’m free from whatever social prison they have.”

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Hayk had prepared extensively for this day. Keeping it in the back of his mind was the reason for him depleting almost four packs of cigarettes in just a few days. He finally entered Kaito Kamiki’s office. He had an extensive disguise on, but it seemed that the security would’ve let him in there regardless.

Taking a brief moment to ingest the layout and the appearance of the surprisingly humble office, Hayk raised his gaze to meet that of Kaito himself.

“Thank you for staying true to our agreement.” Kaito said. “Please take a seat. Our conversation will either be very lengthy or very short.”

“There isn’t a single reason for me to neither respect you nor to obey you.” Hayk said. “Kaito Kamiki, I can see through your formality.”

“You preach independence and strength, and yet you haven’t the slightest clue about how the world functions.” Kaito sighed. “There aren’t any soul expressions that I’m aware of that can cure blindness or plain stupidity.”

Hayk exhaled, deeply angered. There was really nothing he could do against those remarks.

“Let me explain to you how things are.” Kaito continued. “Imagine a box that is filled to the brim with balls. The majority of the balls are blue, but very few are red. If it came down to a fight, although the red balls would eventually win, the destruction would leave nothing behind, the box itself would be pulverized.”

“So that’s why one of the red balls decided to become a purple ball. Blue can’t see or idolize red, but it can do so with purple. The purple ball was an anchor that would retain peace in the box. It was a red ball through and through, but it appeared in a way that would charm the blue ones and keep them at bay. Even when the box gets shaken as hard as possible, and the balls keep colliding and punching each other, stability is retained because of one single purple ball.”

“And because of you and your little group, Hayk Nakama, the ball was removed.”

“So what? Maybe tell the ‘ball’ in question to not hunt other red balls?” Hayk objected. “And stop using metaphors, call things by their names.”

“Diego and his colleagues were the anchor retaining peace.” Kaito said. He himself started to grow rather irritated. “And the soulful academy as well...you just had to go out there and destroy it, didn’t you? I’ve been lining things up for so long, and then you came in and decided to defecate everywhere.”

“You wanted more soldiers.” Hayk said. “Do you want to escalate? Or are you that scared of Otto Richter? I heard he’s making moves around here.”

“Election season is soon, Hayk.” Kaito said. “Whoever gets elected in Washington D.C. gets to run the world. And he will either be a blue ball or a red ball.”

“I’m done talking to you.” Hayk said, getting up.

“I’m not done, though.” Kaito quickly said. “I’d like to propose a deal.”

“A deal? With you of all people?” Hayk lashed out. “I know what your intentions are. I’m not gonna be a part of it.”

“You already are a part of it, whether you like it or not.” Kaito said. “Here’s my offer. You and your subordinates will join the Heisei’s secondary division. I’d love to have the numbers replenished after your follower decided to murder everyone there. In exchange, you will all be cleared of your charges of terrorism and given protection and special privileges as members of the Heisei.”

“Are you serious?”

“You wouldn’t want to constantly have the soulless knocking on your door, right? At some point, even for someone like you, it would get draining. I don’t even want to imagine how it would be for the rest of your team.”

“You want me...to work...for you?” Hayk asked.

“A good chunk of my soldiers are gone, so I’m gonna need some replacements.” Kaito smiled. “What do you think?”

“That’s not even ridiculous, that’s just...pathetic.” Hayk began to walk away.

“You look like you’ve sweated quite a lot.” Kaito said. He grabbed a plastic water bottle that was on his desk and chucked it at Hayk, the latter catching it just in time before it hit his head. “Here, take a sip.”

“What’s with the hospitality?” Hayk said. He looked at the water bottle, the cover seemed to have been tampered with. He turned it around and noticed that instead of the brand name, there was something...written. Some lines of text and numbers that were difficult at first to understand.

After Hayk put a little more effort in understanding the writings, he froze in place.

“What’s wrong, Hayk?” Kaito asked, his smile turning into a smirk. “Do they seem familiar to you?”

“How the fuck...”

“The Heisei has been watching your associates for these five days, Hayk. Even if they’re constantly moving around, the Heisei will track them down.” Kaito said, standing up. “If you walk out of this room, I will send them one simple order, and they will hunt them down, one by one.”

“Bullshit!” Hayk said. “You’re bluffing!”

“You wouldn’t like to find out if I am, would you?” Kaito said. “After all the pain you endured fighting the elementals, wouldn’t it be unfortunate if all the soulfuls you tried to protect vanished in an instant?”

“And don’t think of fleeing or letting them know.” Kaito continued almost immediately, interrupting Hayk who was about to spit more nonsense that would dig him deeper into his grave. “You won’t get to them in time. You’re in my office right now, aren’t you? I don’t believe I’d let you run away so easily. Of course, out of respect for your intellectual capabilities, I’ve already excluded the possibility of you trying to fight me.”

Hayk’s breathing was erratic and uncontrollable, akin to the inner workings of his mind. His so-to-say independence had been compromised since the start of his fight with the elementals.

Two men in military uniforms entered the room. In between them there was a slightly older man with a black beard and swamp-colored eyes. Despite his intimidating stature, he had some type of kindness in his appearance.

The Heisei’s uniform was the original piece of clothing from which the elemental uniform was derived. It had the white and gray-ish outfit beneath that was suited for combat, and in the outer layer, there was the standard Heisei cloak, a pure white piece of clothing with black outlines on it, which was sewn in a special way as to not disturb during combat. In the back, there were black symbolic writings indicating that whoever bore the clothes was a part of the Heisei.

“Great timing, Captain Zervos.” Kaito said. The man he greeted was the captain-commander of the Heisei.

“Mr. Kamiki, you should have warned me that...he...was going to be here.” Zervos said, quickly taking a step back. “He’s not a threat to you, but he is to anyone else.”

“Don’t worry, he’s been neutered.” Kaito said. “If he tries anything, he’ll lose everything. Anyhow, I’m here to suggest some reforms to the Heisei. More specifically, some additions to our manpower.”

“I’m listening.” Zervos nodded.

“From now on, the following soulfuls will become a part of the secondary division: Ichika Hanasaki, Ausra Alekna, Hayk Nakama, Oskar Weber, Rin and Dima, whose full names unfortunately we couldn’t properly find...and finally, the guy that killed Diego Solano himself...”

“...Sakuto Hitori.”

Hayk listened through the list, biting on his own lip out of anger, even causing it to bleed. He clenched his fists and despised himself for his powerlessness in that situation. And he was, in fact, sweating.

“At the same time, order the Heisei to remain on standby. Throughout the next few days they’ll receive special orders.” Kaito said. “The spearhead is receiving a new addition too.”

“What?” Zervos questioned. “I understand forming the secondary division based on these...agreements with Hayk Nakama that I’m not aware of, but who do you have in mind?”

“From the elementals, or, more specifically...whatever remains of them.” Kaito said. “It was going to be Diego, but as he’s dead, the soulful he recommended will take his place. Ichigo Sadamitsu will join the spearhead, effective immediately.”

“Understood.” Zervos bowed his head a little.

“What are you looking at?” Kaito asked Hayk. “You said that Otto Richter is making moves, correct? Do you not think that you might be his destination?”

The two left the room, one feeling strange and a little concerned, the other utterly defeated. Kaito remained in his office, leaning his head on his hands.

“Looks like the gamble paid off, but I’ll need to confirm and set up a few things first.”

“I assumed that winning the elections would be a nigh impossible task considering how bad the soulfuls’ reputation has been tarnished, but with what’s going on in America, there might just be a possibility.”

“I’ve prepared for the thunderstorm, but I wouldn’t skip a chance to use an umbrella.”

“And yet, at the same time...”

“One of them, Sakuto Hitori...my agents told me that he matches the description of the target Diego killed, and that he has an unusually scary soul presence.”

“Strangely enough, Mukawa was there too when he was ‘killed’.”

“There’s foul play here.”

“Just who are you...Sakuto Hitori?”

The end of Part 2