Exodia 198: Lovers of the Blutschwur (1)

The fated day came around faster than anyone would expect and the operation had all of its actors assembled.

A total of 24 people, excluding those who are in the information division, relaying orders to the squads. Somehow, even students from the Chinese division were participating. Only the stronger few.

Squad 1—Qin, Anastasia, Tatsuya, and Yoko.

This squad would be the advance squad tasked with defeating the Major Arcana. Judging from the information gained from Ishtar, one of the Tarots captured after the incident in Nagasaki, there would be around 10 dangerous enemies, the Major Arcana, and low-level homunculi, who could be dealt with easily.

Unfortunately, the one thing that did not come out of Ishtar's mouth was the abilities of the Tarots. She shut her mouth, without spilling a word.

Tatsuya Aikura was not originally supposed to be on the operation's vanguard—he was not supposed to be involved at all—however, his desperate and earnest requests earned him a spot.

Squad 2—Akane, Kuroha, Lin-Hua and Qiang.

This squad was filled with heavy hitters. This was a team meant to burrow through the forces of homunculi so that Squad 3 would be able to get to Emika. This squad was also supposed to come into contact with Major Arcana. They would also be a diversion so that the next team will be able to find and rescue Emika.

Squad 3—Kana, Maria, Edward and Sebastian

These people are involved in rescuing Emika. Maria would be able to temporarily control homunculi while Kana would be able to run around with Emika, fast and secured. Her Singularity would allow her to. Edward would serve as a guard and Sebastian would protect them with his Eyes of Order.

Squad 4—Kaguya, Calira, Daiyu and Alix.

This team was another squad with the purpose of fighting the Major Arcana. There were three squads with that purpose.

Squad 5—Hysaka, Kyoka, Ryoka and Aikura.

This is the main squad that would directly attack Regulus, in an attempt to stall and kill him.

Squad 6—Alita, Tanya, Shouto, and Hayami.

This squad is the minor squad, focused on mowing down the weaker servants—homunculi.

Tanya is a Russian third-year who is considered one of the strongest. Her Singularity allows her to mess with people's sight. It may be a simple Singularity but a dangerous and annoying one, indeed. Of course, if her Singularity was all that she had, then she would not be considered one of the strongest.

Even amongst teachers in Altheria, her physical constitution and her mana arts are considered the best.

Those were all of the battle squads involved with the operation. There were other squads too. The other main squad was the Intelligence Squad.

Via telepathy, the Intelligence Squad sends information to individual squads because headphones would be inconvenient for instructions within the squads.

Telepathy is far more accurate and indefinite compared to communication through headphones. Radio waves can be blocked by a simple barrier, however, the waves of telepathy are harder to block and it is, almost, undetectable.

·———·

Currently, all squads were heading to the island on the same battleship. In the main room, filled to the brim with monitors, was the Intelligence Squad, Kyoka Sakai and Ryoka Kamish.

"How long until we reach the island, Eda?"

Eda was the head of the Intelligence Squad. They were Magi who directly served Ryoka Kamish as the servants of her household.

"Around 2 hours."

She answered, mercilessly stabbing the keyboard with her fingers.

"Tell me when we're just outside of their radar range. Because, then, we'll progress with the initial stage of the plan."

"Principal. I have a few questions."

Kyoka walked up to the woman.

"Fire away."

"Firstly, why did you come along? It's clear that you are one of Weissmann's targets, so why?"

"I can't leave everything to my students and hide at my school. That's shameful."

"The only reason I'm bringing it up is because it makes us leaving Shoya Sasaki useless."

She stayed silent for a second.

"Perhaps, however, Shoya is an Emperor and I am not. I doubt, even if he captures me, that he'll be able to carry out his final objective."

Ryoka was very confident when speaking to Kyoka. The Student Council President nodded her head in agreement and proceeded to her next question.

"Why do we not have any actual officials helping us? I know that there's a problem with the Bureau but..."

"You know that I'm the Fairy Magia, right?"

Ryoka dumped herself onto the nearest sofa and lit a cigarette before putting it in her mouth.

"Yeah, well, 'Fairy' isn't a good nickname. Once upon a time, I was but a budding young Magia. I was unaffiliated like I am now. There was a problem with corruption among politicians and officials so..."

She exhaled smoke and blankly stared at Kyoka.

"I slaughtered every single politician and official suspected of corruption. At first, they called me the Bloodhound, however, after they were proven to be plotting something, they gave me a new nickname. Fairy. They said it was because my power and beauty contrasted each other. And ever since then, I haven't been good with the government. They're scared that I'll go wild."

Kyoka put her hand on her face and shook her head, slightly in disappointment but also shocked.

"That is unfortunate."

She muttered.

"Actually, that was an excuse."

"Hm?"

"If I did go to the government and officials for help, they would use it as leverage against me and control me for the rest of my life. I don't want that."

"No one wants to be a slave."

Kyoka said in a low voice.

Ryoka widened her eyes, confused as to why Kyoka responded that way.

"I thought you would call me a coward."

She joked.

"I was in a similar position to a slave once. It did not feel good. Nobody wants to be a slave. It was your own choice, so do not feel guilty, Principal."

The President comforted her. The Principal smiled, crushing her cigarette against the sofa's arm.

"Yeah, yeah."