6 - Eura’s Special Task Force

[PRAGUE]

The Global Soulful Coalition has been the single most dominant and important organization in the soulful realm. The stronghold operation worked in the background, ensuring more thorough control thanks to its structure and working towards the balance and integration of the unusual new world.

The Eura stronghold...

“Ace! I won, haha!” Katya slammed her cards on the small table, covering that of her playmates. “Eat shit, Reiner!”

“You just got lucky...” Reiner sighed. He was another member of Aizawa’s ‘special errands group’, a group that, as the name suggests, ran special errands for Aizawa. Pretty obvious, right? He was a relatively tall guy with dark brown hair and purplish eyes.

“That’s the whole point of the game, you dummy!” Katya laughed. “Off to the next round!”

“How many more?”

“It’s the third round of you being the fool, so I guess, we play until you’re the fool for 10 straight rounds!”

The room was very grim. A bit too grim, and it felt unnatural for someone as nonstandard and cheerful as Katya to be there. It made a bit more sense for Nightseer to be stationed here. Nightseer wasn’t a bad person necessarily, but his appearance might seem a bit intimidating. And Reiner? Well, he was also stationed here, as a part of the group. It wasn’t Aizawa’s fault that two out of three of his best soldiers didn’t go with her aesthetics.

The grimness of the room was expressed well by essentially everything inside. The dark gray brick walls, the floor, the wooden interior and the electric candles all made for a perfect medieval setting in the modern world. It was because everything took place inside a castle.

A small castle positioned a bit further from the busy urban areas of Prague, a castle like any other, but harboring soulfuls like no one else. It looked like a pit of darkness, albeit the colors of the bricks were gray. It looked devoid of any emotion or thought while simultaneously being home to the source of a dangerous philosophy. And yet, none of these variables stopped the group from just having fun during their time off.

“Nighty, you split the cards.” Katya said, giving him the deck.

“Why me?”

“Because why not?” Katya smiled. “You’re good at it. And you do it fairly.”

“Here goes nothing.” Nightseer said, mixing up the deck. After a while, he picked out one card and laid it on the table. It was a queen of spades. “Spades are the trump suit.”

“Again? Can we change it?” Reiner asked. “It’s been a spade for the past... I don’t even remember for how long.”

“Sure thing.” Nightseer said, retrieving the card and fetching another one, placing it firmly on the desk, this time, with no intention of changing things. “Jack of diamonds.”

“Hand them in twos.” Katya giggled.

“Alright.” Nightseer said. He gave Katya and Reiner a pair of cards each before giving one to himself, and repeated that loop until all of them had six cards each. The clash of minds was set to motion.

“Right.” Katya thought, observing her hand and doing anything but abiding by the poker face principle. “Six of spades, eight of diamonds, eight of clubs, ace of hearts and clubs, and a queen of hearts...not bad. Not bad at all.”

“Reiner is awful at this game. Judging by his reaction, he got his hands on the ace of diamonds. The strongest card in the game right now. But that’s not an issue, if he attacks me with it, I can deflect it.”

“The issue is Nighty...I haven’t the slightest clue what he has. Anyhow, it looks like I have to make the first play.”

“Defend yourself, Nighty.” She smirked, before laying her six of spades on the table. Nightseer sighed and deflected it with a six of hearts, and now Reiner was under attack. He protected himself with two nine cards of matching suits and the round concluded.

Reiner picked up two cards, Nightseer and Katya picked up one each. Reiner played a seven of spades.

“Tch!” Katya complained. “Really? You got lucky for the first time in a while...forcing me to drop a trump card...” She slapped her eight of diamonds on the table, protecting herself against the threat.

“I’ll intervene.” Nightseer said, dropping a pair of eights - an eight of spades and an eight of hearts on the table. Unfortunately, Katya was out of spades or trump cards. Her only option was to take everything, and go on an everlasting journey of transforming her hand into a fan.

“Now, it’s Nightseer’s turn. Come on, man.” Reiner said, readying himself as if he was heading into a fight instead of a card game. “Bring it on!”

“Okay.” Nightseer put down an ace of spades.

“Oh...” Katya said, intrigued. “I see what you’re doing.”

“There’s three options here.”

“He’s too dumb to take the card. Even if he wasn’t he’d have to take mine as well.”

“He read Reiner’s expression just as well as I did. He probably thinks that if Reiner deflected it, I’d deflect it too, and he’d grab the ace of diamonds. But I’m not gonna deflect it, I’ll take it for myself.”

“And the third option is Reiner defending. If it hadn’t been for me also having an ace, the round would end, and the ace of diamonds would be removed from the game, making him the wielder of the strongest card if he has something like a king of diamonds. But since I have one, I’ll also have influence in the decision...”

“Well played, Nighty.”

The decision was made, and the battle of the ace cards took place, ending in a decisive result. The ace of diamonds defeated the ace of spades...

“What’s this?” Katya said, looking at her pager. “A briefing?”

“It’s a shame we gotta drop this game.”

“We could still finish it.” Nightseer said. “It says the briefing will take place a few minutes later. But then again, we should probably prepare.”

“Why’d Lady Aizawa have to summon us at this exact time? Ugh...” Katya grunted. “I’ll make you some tea, you dummies. Let’s drink something before we go there because I’m too shy to ask for a drink while she’s talking.”

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“Whaddya think it’s about?” Reiner asked, as Katya left towards the small teapot. At least there were some plushies and cute signs placed around the dorms area where they lived, courtesy of Katya’s efforts, otherwise a passerby would assume they were being held hostage.

“Some type of small errand probably, like kidnapping or stealing or whatever the hell.” Katya said. “Honestly, who the hell does she think she is? Ordering us around like this...”

“I think it’s going to be some type of operation. Something far more serious.” Nightseer said. “I think the current circumstances call for some serious action.”

“You tell ‘em, Nighty.” Katya said. She poured herself and her comrades a cup of tea each, and reached for the counter to grab some snacks.

“Especially after that fiasco with retrieving the soul crystal, right?” Reiner said. “From what you told me, you were lucky you managed to escape. That creature got caught right in the...thing.”

“Yeah. Tough things happen to assholes.” Katya said. “Although it was fun imagining how much Sakuto Hitori hurt him. He probably tortured him too before killing him, hehe...”

“Whatever it is, I hope it’s nothing related to that Sakuto Hitori.” Reiner said. “Sounds like a handful to deal with. Why did Lady Aizawa even want him in the first place?”

“You don’t know the answer?” Katya asked, as if surprised that such a question was even asked in the first place. She brought the tea and snacks to the table and took a seat.

“She probably wanted to recruit a new soldier. You don’t remember?” Nightseer said. “She said that it’s so she could experiment on him.”

“Makes sense...”

Everyone took a deep breath once they looked at the kitten-decorated clock hanging from the wall.

“It’s time.” Katya sighed, her cheerfulness fading away. She, like everyone else, despite working with Aizawa for so long, was still intimidated by her.

They left the dorms, and slowly made their way towards the throne room.

The room was awfully dark, only lit by a few electric torches hanging by some of the dark stone pillars. At the end of the hallway there was the throne. It was made out of thick obsidian and decorated with small linings of silver and platinum. There was hardly anything else in the room where she spent most of her time. It was also conveniently close to the library; matter of fact, she carved a special entrance connecting the two areas.

The three soulfuls approached the source of the terrific soul presence and came to a stop a few metres further away from it.

“Thank you for making it on time.”

“Lady Aizawa, what do we have to do this time?” Katya asked, slightly disappointed. She wanted to crack a few jokes or verbal jabs, but Aizawa’s presence made it difficult to even speak properly.

The figure on the throne was still submerged in the darkness. But even through that darkness, a special trait of hers was impossible to dismiss. Her irises were completely pitch black, as if a pair of normal eyes was drawn over with paint that devoured any and all light that was unfortunate enough to fall upon it. Her figure was slender and somewhat tall, a silhouette of her hair could be seen - straight, chest length, beautiful and dark, somehow as dark as her iris.

She sat on the throne, which was a little higher than the rest of the room. She watched them from above.

“The task does not revolve around direct combat with Sakuto Hitori.” Aizawa said, in a calm and calculated voice. “There is no need to confront him. Rather, we must make a move that is going to reel him in.”

“And what do we do?” Katya asked.

“I will reveal the information in an orderly manner.” Aizawa said, taking a deep breath. “This stronghold, this home of ours that we have built, will soon be attacked by forces that wish to wipe us out without leaving even a trace of our existence. The Nacht experiment taught me a lot, and it is truly a shame that we could not secure the crystal.”

“She’s just yapping...” Katya pouted impatiently.

“But our mistake was attacking a superior enemy with inferior firepower.” Aizawa said. “That is why we must bring the fight here.”

“You...you don’t mean fighting the Heisei, right? I mean, it seems like a-” Reiner spoke, but soon realized that he was better off remaining quiet.

“Sakuto Hitori is my target.” Aizawa said. “He is nonstandard even among the nonstandard. An asset like him would be of great aid.”

“How are we going to reel him here? He won’t come here unless it’s with the Heisei and they’re planning a full-scale war.” Katya asked.

“The Heisei are of no concern to me.” Aizawa said. “The Naja stronghold knows that too. They will not risk their precious combat unit perishing either as prey or as collateral damage. Sakuto Hitori is a competent soulful, but his flaw is that he is surrounded by people he cares about.”

Nightseer seemed a little startled by that statement.

“He has an ally by the name of Ichika Hanasaki.” Aizawa said. “And that soulful has a brother called Yumichi Hanasaki. You will first kidnap the brother, and use it to reel the sister in. Then, once you incapacitate and capture the sister, you will leave the rest to me.”

“Pardon?”

“I will deal with Sakuto Hitori myself.” Aizawa said.

“So we...ooooh! I get it!” Reiner said. “A kidnapping to set up a kidnapping. That’s smart, honestly. I agree with that plan.”

“Sounds fun!” Katya said. “I’m all in.”

“Right...this...this seems like an optimal plan.” Nightseer said.

“Very well.” Aizawa said. She glared at Nightseer for a little longer. “I’ll provide the details of their locations to you at a later time. You’re dismissed. Katya, use your soul expression to its fullest extent while operating.”

“If action is to be taken, the disruptive cards must be removed from the table.”

“Or even better, subjugated.”

The three soulfuls nodded and simply left...

“A double kidnapping? I mean, it kinda makes sense, but...” Katya pondered as the three returned to their dorms. The unfinished cups of tea were cold.

“It’s best if we just follow the orders. She probably knows something that makes her believe this is the optimal strategy.” Nightseer sighed.

“What does she even see in that Sakuto guy?” Reiner asked, heading to his room.

“Did you shit your pants when he used his acclamation during the war?” Katya asked.

“No...?” He stopped and turned around.

“I hoped you’d say yes or stay quiet.” Katya sighed. “But you get the point.”

“Did you?”

“No.” Katya said, a bit annoyed. “But you get the point. He’s probably the best cause Lady Aizawa can invest in right now. But what do we know?” She sighed. “We’re just the ones carrying out orders.”

“There’s a meaning to that too.” Nightseer said, shaking his cup of cold tea, as if trying to stir some hope and warmth in it.

“I’m gonna get some shut-eye. Take care you two, be fresh tomorrow.” Reiner said, entering his room.

“Hah, meaning? What do you mean exactly?” Katya giggled. “You’re gonna find some deep sentimental stuff in a kidnapping?”

“I don’t know, honestly.” Nightseer said. “Sometimes I feel like I don’t know anything. Sometimes I feel like I don’t know why we’re even entangled with this stronghold in the first place.”

“It’s easy, we’re here because we have nowhere else to go.” Katya said, skipping around and eventually ending up at the table. “We get to do cool missions, we’re under Lady Aizawa’s protection, and we get to live in a castle. Dude, we get to live in a castle! Who else do you know that lives in a castle?!”

“Haha, no one.” Nightseer smiled. “I guess it’s not that bad after all. Well, it’s not like it’s bad, it’s just...weird.”

“Weird?”

“Yeah. I’m...I don’t know what I even mean, to be honest. I’m probably just tired. I trained a lot today.”

“Hehe, of course you did.” Katya smiled. “Go get some sleep then.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Nightseer put the cup down and went towards his room. “Goodnight, Katya.”

“Sweet dreams, Nighty.” Katya said, waving him goodbye.

“Ugh, I’m gonna have to clean up, am I not?”

“...”

“Kidnapping the sibling of Sakuto Hitori’s ally...”

“I wonder how that’s gonna turn out for us.”