4 - Fired

“Alright!” Diego clapped in celebration. All of the elementals were summoned to a post-battle conference, however, the meeting had more purpose other than just discussing strategy.

“First off, I want to thank myself for coming up with a brilliant strategy to destroy their members and likely destroy their morale.” Diego said, walking around the meeting room. “Everyone, give it up for the flashiest and most fearsome soulful ever, Diego Solano! Woohoo!”

The audience hesitantly applauded.

“Secondly, I want to give a special thanks to Ichigo here.” He said, walking up to him and wrapping his arm around his shoulder. “This little guy is the one who actually executed the plan and helped me create an opening to strike.”

“Well done.” William said.

“Don’t you ever dare pull me out of battle again, brat!” Hwang yelled. “You too, William! How dare you doubt me?!”

“Easy, Hwang. Look after yourself first, you have some awful luck with losing your arm...” Diego said. He took a deep breath before continuing. The one who seemed most uncomfortable at the meeting was...

“Now, let’s do a bit of reflection. Our plan was to create a diversion attack, separating the bunch into favorable matchups while their heaviest hitter was being held off. As part of that plan, me and Luca, as two rather powerful soulfuls, would eliminate the separated fighters. The plan relied on disrupting their communications, forcing them to partially retreat and delivering killing blows to reduce their total manpower. Makes sense, right? All of this has already been said quite a few times.”

“Now, the roles were rather simple, and I do believe everyone had succeeded.” Diego continued, this time his voice started to get more and more sinister. “Ichigo’s role was to pretend to be me and force the separation itself.”

“Yes, sir.”

“You will never be me.” Diego said, putting his hands on Ichigo’s shoulder. A few awkward and rather intimidating moments of silence later he brought him closer and hugged him. “And that’s a pretty good thing, honestly. Good job. You turned the tide of war in our favor.”

“T-thank you...” Ichigo said, as his confusion calmed down.

“William was supposed to both break up any subgroups they might have had, and to assist anyone he could in the battlefield.” Diego continued, walking towards him. “You did your job well, you forced the creepy one away. If only your attempt to assassinate Kouta Touriki would’ve been successful...It’s whatever.” Diego tapped on his chest, smiling. “Excellent job, William. You played your role.”

“Next time I’ll get lucky enough to kill him.” William grunted.

“Then give me some good news next time!” Diego chuckled. “Now, Hwang...I’ll have to give you my props. Removing three of their fighters from the battlefield was a great accomplishment. You outdid yourself.”

“Right.”

“And now, to close this show so-to-say, I’ll have to speak about a much more bitter circumstance.” Diego sighed. The room fell dead silent.

“As one of the stronger soulfuls here, no offense to anyone, I was tasked with the quick and efficient elimination of one of the targets. I eliminated him rather fast, and it looked like Mukawa out of all people was there to give me a helping hand too.” Diego explained. “But something keeps bothering me. William, is it true that Luca engaged in combat at the same time as you did?”

“Yes, it is.” William replied. It looked like Luca was slightly disappointed once those words were spoken out loud, as if he had just been ratted out and faced quite a severe punishment.

“Right. Now, I don’t have a problem with it.” Diego continued. “What I do have a problem with is...” He turned to face Luca directly. “Luca Rosso, elder brother of Matteo Rosso, our fallen comrade. How did you, the elemental who can control water itself, fail to kill your separated target?”

“He was strong.” Luca replied. A sense of terror invaded his soul. Nobody really believed him. A single drop of sweat slowly ran down his neck, a result of both the pressure he was under and the aura of heat enveloping Diego.

“I see. Well, it’s understandable.” Diego sighed, walking away. “It really is! Guys, William failed to get his kill because his opponent was stronger, same with Hwang or even Ichigo. It’s a perfectly reasonable circumstance. You lost because your opponent was stronger than you, right?”

“Yeah...e-exactly.” Luca stuttered. He got visibly upset at himself for talking like that, but at the moment, Diego’s soul presence was suppressing anyone and everyone in the room.

“Luca, do you think I’m stupid, or do you think that I’m incompetent as a soulful?” Diego asked.

“What?!”

“Ichigo, my boy.” Diego asked, switching his conversation mate. “What happens when someone is about to use a divine acclamation technique? How can you tell that they’re about to use it?”

“By...their strong soul presence?” Ichigo answered.

“Correct!” Diego exclaimed. “See, Ichigo knows everything about soul combat. I taught him everything I knew, and I dragged him with me to do as many tasks as possible to ensure he gets the proper experience. So he, as well as everyone else in this room who fought in the battle..." He took a deep breath before continuing. "we all know that you were about to use one, Luca. But you ended up not using it at all.”

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“I thought that...it wasn’t necessary.” Luca replied.

“I think it was.” Diego said. “Had you used your acclamation, your target would’ve been dead for sure. So, why’d you end up canceling it? Could it be that you failed to bring it out? Was your soul prowess unstable for a moment?”

“Or maybe...”

“Did your wounded pride not allow you to use it?”

“Dibs on the last option being true.” Hwang laughed to himself.

“See, Hwang is laughing.” Diego said, stepping a little uncomfortably close to Luca. “But I think it’s something to cry about. You thought your opponent was so inferior to you that you could allow yourself to hold back? While your own comrades were risking their lives fighting a monster?”

“We still got a kill, right? You got a kill. That’s what matters in the end, right?” Luca said.

“Yeah, you’re right.” Diego approached him. He put his hand on Luca’s shoulder. Looking away, Diego said with a calm voice. “The results are what matters.”

“Yeah...”

“Luca, take off your uniform.” Diego said.

“Uh...what?”

“Take off your uniform and lay it on the desk. Non-elementals are not allowed to wear the official uniforms.”

“What?!” Luca instantly flinched, pushing away Diego's hand. It revealed a deep burn mark on Luca’s shoulder and the blackened fabric of his uniform.

“My God you’re dense...what I’m trying to say is that you’re no longer a member of this group, courtesy of your dumbassery. Get the fuck out of this room and never show yourself here ever again.” Diego said, summoning his rapier. The room felt a little hotter, just hot enough to make everyone conscious about it.

“You can’t...”

“I actually can. I’m the leader of this group.” Diego interrupted him. “Perhaps your pride will guide you to a better position or let you acquaint yourself with stronger allies...although I doubt that. I really, really doubt that.”

“You don’t-”

“You’re fired, Luca.” Diego said.

“You’re a prideful mess yourself...” Luca said after a pause, slowly standing up.

“If I was as prideful as you, I would’ve ignored the operation and fought everything I saw, resulting in nothing.” Diego said.

“He’s got a point, you know?” Hwang commented. William silently nodded in agreement.

“Don’t talk down on me, you pig!” Luca lashed out.

“Hey, don’t disrespect my allies.” Diego calmly said, creeping up behind Luca. “I’ll reunite you with your sack of shit of a brother.”

“Go on.” Diego continued, shoving Luca forwards, almost making him trip and fall down. “Leave. Leave and never come back.”

“Actually, please don’t.”

“Stay right here. Confront me and get into a fight with me. Force me to defend myself..”

“Let me say ‘screw it’ and burn everything I want to ashes...”

The soulful left the room.

He found himself zoned out, even imagining those events. In his mind, the entire room was already engulfed in flames. He quickly shook his head and reached into his pocket. reached into his pocket, only to notice that his small mint storage was missing. As a matter of fact, he had forgotten to take them earlier that morning too...

“The second point of this meeting is as follows.” Diego explained. “While we are still at a state of war, and while there’s a high chance they’ll focus on separating us and killing us one by one, we still have to attend to the bigger project-”

“Pardon my interruption, but I have to say this.” William said. “How do we avoid being killed just like we killed one of them?”

“We either fight them, or avoid them.” Diego said. “No need to apologize for interrupting me, you brought up a very good point. If it is not Kouta Touriki or Hayk Nakama we are up against, we can fight. We only fight those two if we have a concrete battle plan or external support. Besides, it’s not like we’re going on the defensive now.”

“Right...”

“Anyhow, despite the war, and despite us losing one very useful soul expression, the soulful academy project is in full swing. Mr. Kamiki specifically ordered the opening ceremony to be held as soon as possible.” Diego continued.

“The whole point of that thing is to recruit soulfuls, no?” Hwang commented. “It’s like raising pigs.”

“Whatever analogy works best.” Diego sighed. “The meeting is over. Prepare your speeches and don’t get yourselves fucked up too much. In three days, we will officially open the elemental-sponsored soulful academy.”

He felt his fingers twitch a little.

“It’s gotten to this point, huh?”

“It’s almost laughable.”

“Ichigo.” Diego said, turning around and almost staring him down. “Have you got any cigs?”

“You...wish to smoke?” Ichigo asked in disbelief.

“Well, I wasn’t gonna eat them, was I?” Diego replied. “Can you get me some cigs please? Just...anything to smoke.”

“Since when is that a habit for ya?” Hwang said. “You could always set yourself up with a woman, you know?”

“No, I’d rather not.”

“I don’t know what I’ll do to someone in this state.”

“Especially in that type of setting.”

He took a deep breath and sat back down, trying his hardest to rest. He felt a little light headed, the sensation of his rapier piercing his victim’s body still lingering in his mind. He took a few deep breaths. He stood up and reached for his flask, taking a few sips and emptying it completely. The drink was rather strong, it got Diego, a seasoned drinker, a few moments to take it in.

“It takes about a week or so to get the mints when I order them.”

“That’s why I always keep a stash.”

“Ichigo, go get me some mints, will ya?” Diego asked, putting his phone away after sending a very excited message to Mr. Kamiki regarding Luca's removal from the team. Ichigo slowly nodded and left the room alongside the others. The fiery elemental was left alone with his thoughts. The water elemental, however, who was lost outside and full of powerless anger, received an unexpected phone call from an unknown number.