Plans

UNKNOWN LOCATION

(prior to this point, Asaka and the others came off the "floating rock" and stole a car big enough to fit all of them but the subsequent journey was a very quiet one. There was no communication between them or even to the other members of the group)

Everyone who entered the room was visibly angry, for different reasons.

"What a spectacular failure that was " Asaka said, as he sat down. "The plan was for me to reveal my identity knowing we would definitely have the fragment. Now I'm sure every officer in the city is after me"

"What happened down there?" 1 asked.

Everyone was silent until 2 decided to respond.

"1, I warned you to change the plan but you refused to listen. 10 failed to keep tabs on the kids and was apprehended, I was in the toilet momentarily and some of the kids came upstairs to the second floor and 5 here stabbed one of them in the chest. Potentially killing them..." 3 was enraged as he heard this.

He walked up to 5, grabbed him by his jacket and slammed his diamond hardened forehead into his face, breaking his nose in the process.

5 turned one of his arm into a jagged blade as he was thrown to floor but as he got back to his feet, 6, who had been treating 9's shattered leg, stood in front of the both of them.

"Before you guys tear each other apart, just know you're going to have to find a hospital because I'm not treating anyone who gets injured from this silly squabble. Also, 9, are you telling me a kid did to your leg? Your bone is broken in several different places. Healing this will be a headache. Did they hit you with a sledgehammer or something?"

9 remained silent.

3 turned angrily, as 2 finished talking.

"As I was saying, after they noticed their friend had been stabbed, the students went into a frenzy and as you can see" She said, pointing to 9's leg. "That didn't end well for us"

With blood dripping down his face, 5 sat down and smiled but everyone could tell he was pissed off.

"2 abandoned her post and left me with homicidal kids who didn't hesitate to try and freeze me to death" He laughed, "I was merely defending myself"

3 was slightly angrier than before, but 1 continued speaking.

"What happened to the fragment?" He asked

"a translocating kid swooped in and disappeared with it" Asaka responded.

"that means our priorities have changed now" 1 said, scratching his chin. "We have to find a way to get the fragment back and then get back the rest of the group who were arrested."

2 shook her head in disagreement. "That's not good enough. The rest of the team come first. Once we get them out, and we've regrouped, we can then start thinking about finding the last fragment"

"my decision Is final, 2"

"Well then count me out of whatever botched plan you make. I'll find a way to rescue them on my own"

1 shook his head and there was silence until 5 spoke.

"There might be a way to get them both simultaneously" He said, as all heads turned towards him. He had a menacing smile on his face.

"we could force the hands of the authorities. Say, if we were to kidnap one of those bratty kids at that Academy or make it seem like they're our targets now, we could try to make some sort of deal"

1 looked as though in thought after 5 finished speaking.

"That's not a bad plan" Asaka said, "I suggest that translocating kid or the one who broke 9's leg.

3 looked around the room, extremely confused. "1, there's no way you're actually considering this. They are children. They shouldn't even be on our radar. 2's plan was reasonable, make the group whole again and then go after the fragment"

"I'm with 3 on this" 6 said.

After a few seconds, 1 made his decision. "We are going with 5's plan"

3 shook his head and walked away. [ I didn't sign up for this] he thought.

*

Fuhira walked into a room with 10 and 8 who were both in specialised shackles made for powered individuals. The fist and arms were completely covered up to the elbow. They were cylindrical in shape and both cylinders were joined together to restrict movement. They were also connected to the shackles around the legs via a chain.

Inside the cylinder, there was a syringe containing a strong sedative that when activated by a remote, went into the arm of the apprehended person, and incapacitated them in seconds. Their mouths were also bound.

The room was a small cube made of a powerful metal with only one entrance and a small "window" for ventilation.

4 was already there in the same shackles and was very surprised to see two more of his comrades apprehended.

Fuhira smiled, "That's right, you're in the middle of nowhere with your team getting captured one after the other. Whether or not you tell us what your end goal is, we won't stop until all of you are behind bars. You should also know there's now a "shoot to kill" order on all your friends. It's only a matter of time until they're all dead or captured."

He looked around the room, smiled and walked out.

Yagita was waiting outside when he exited.

"You look happy" She said.

"Yeah," He replied, "let's go get the rest of them "

By the time the students woke up, all the teachers were awake. Hirime and a few other teachers went to the hospital to check what had happened to Shihata.

Yashiro was last to wake up. Rando, Rani and Minako were in the room looking extremely sad. He sat up realising his head was bandaged.

"How's Shihata?" Yashiro asked, "any news?"

They all shook their heads.

"I can't believe I was that useless" Rando said. It seemed that all around the room, that was the common theme.

Before Yashiro could say anything to lighten the mood, Takegai, who had been in the hospital appeared in the room with a slight smile on his face even though he still looked worried.

"Shihata's stabilised" He said, "she's still unconscious but the doctors said she'll most likely be okay. Besides, miss Hirime is there."

The kids in the room look relieved.

"Are you guys okay?" He asked

They all nodded.

"How are the other teachers?" Yashiro asked

"they're all awake but they're all partially blaming themselves for what happened to Shihata" Rani replied.

A nurse from one of the ambulances that came walked into the room and saw Yashiro sitting up.

"You shouldn't be sitting up just yet, young man. You took a pretty hard hit to the head. Guys I think you need to give him some time to rest" She said, addressing his friends, Who got up and left immediately after Rani hugged him.

After the room was clear, she addressed Yashiro.

"Get some rest. What you guys did was incredibly brave. You should all be proud of yourselves"

She walked out of the room and Yashiro tried to go back to sleep but shortly after, Ichisuda walked in and sat next to him.

"I heard you were nearly unstoppable earlier today. What happened?"

Yashiro smiled, "it finally happened. I was able to enlarge every muscle in my body at the same time. I was so much faster, it was great"

"I'm impressed you managed to do it in such a short amount of time"

"It happened after I saw Shihata get stabbed. My mum was in the museum that was robbed and it was the same man. I lost my temper and that's when it happened."

"It seems your anger may have boosted the activation signals. Either way, I'm proud Yashiro. Just remember that sensation and visualise it everytime you want to use your powers"

Yashiro nodded.

"How's your head?" As he asked this question, Yashiro realised that although Ichisuda was trying to hide it, he felt guilty but still had to do his job as a teacher. So, he lied and said, "It's fine really. I'm okay", when in reality, his head was hurting a lot.

"That's good." Ichisuda responded, and stood up. "Get some rest, we'll talk later. I'll go check on the other students"

Yashiro was finally alone with his thoughts and all he could think about was how powerful 2 was. He realised that even though he "unlocked" what he considered a new ability, she still toyed with him. He thought about this for a few minutes and came to the conclusion that there was still a lot he had to do to become strong, before he eventually fell asleep.

A few hours later after things had settled down, the Academy grounds were filled with concerned parents and some members of the press.

The press were outside the gates of the main entrance while the parents were checking on their kids to make sure nothing was wrong.

Some of them, insulting the teachers for their "incompetence" as they did so.

The press were no exception. They asked Fujimoto and Hirowa, who stood outside addressing them questions like, "How were the assailants who refer to themselves as the order of Blight able to get past the Academy defences?", "how are you going to reassure parents that this sort of thing will not repeat itself in the future?".

Fujimoto responded by saying, "Firstly, we want to apologise to concerned citizens and the parents of our dear students. The security team that was placed on the Academy grounds had an intruder amongst them, so they knew how to disable our electric fences and gate and unfortunately we were unable to stop nor predict their attack.

All we ask of the parents and the public now is forgiveness and an open mind willing to trust that we will continue to do everything within and beyond our power to keep the children safe"

Meanwhile, while they were being questioned, Izume was at the back of the teachers building, away from ear shot, "letting off steam".

She fired several shots at targets she had set up about 150 metres from her and was completely obliterating them with every shot she took.

Everytime she thought about how helpless she and the other teachers were, her anger intensified to the point where she fired a shot from her gun but didn't control the output and completely destroyed the gun.

[Shit, get it together, Izume] she thought.

"I thought I'd find you here" Ichisuda said, slowly approaching her

"how are you so calm, Ichi?"

"I'm not" He said, "I'm quite angry, and disappointed in myself. I feel like the kids will think less of us now. They probably won't listen as much anymore"

" I don't see how the Academy is going to recover from this. Poor Shihata."

After that, Zuno and the other teachers joined.

"We just have to do better. That being said, don't beat yourself up too much Izume. The kids will need us and we need to be in the right minds to reassure them and their parents that they'll be safe." Zuno said.

Jokingly, Tokiho added , "Besides, sweet talker Principal Fuji is talking to the press. The public shouldn't be too mad at us"

Takari shook his head. As mad as all the teachers were, he was still the angriest.

"I can't help but blame myself. I saw him lurking around yesterday night. That Asaka fellow. I could've used my mind control to really find out what he was up to but I thought nothing of what he said. I didn't think he'd be part of that evil group."

Ichisuda placed a reassuring hand on Takari's shoulder.

"You are not to blame for this Takari. None of us could've anticipated him being a double agent." The others nodded in agreement, Ichisuda continued. "Besides, Zuno is right. Right now we have to keep our heads up for the kids. We will all deal with the order of Blight alongside the police at a later date"

"We should just be glad Shihata is alive" Izume added with a smile, while Takari nodded.

The teachers then discussed what their next moves with the children were. Although a tragedy had occurred. One thing was certain. It was a bonding experience for both the teachers, and the students. One they didn't know would lead to much bigger things.