"Oh, come on!" Ryu tears the paper apart and everyone in the room gives her an odd look.
"I'm guessing another one of your loved ones is on that list." Izumi doesn't need a verbal response her exit is enough of an answer.
He excuses himself and follows behind Ryu talking to her they were not going to Kill Hitori she's misunderstanding.
Ryu leaves for a moment alone and Izumi goes back taking a seat next to Lynx.
Hitoshi relaxes in his seat, "So, what exactly is your reason for going after my son? You came to me offering me your help but I only have 2 months until Himawari wakes up and that's not enough time for me."
"2 months is more than enough time to a human hence why they are here they are not blinded by the concept of eternity like we are. Should this Himawari perish what will that mean for you?"
"Nothing. I am the reason she keeps coming back to life no one can kill her and I've tried it's pointless. I want to unlink myself from her and death is not the answer. She uses ancient Card magic and that's the most dangerous and tricky type."
"I have a better plan in mind, you help me kill the Empress before your 2 months are up and I will permanently unlink you from the girl.
"Yamato you will find the 6 people I need and we can sure as hell count on Ryu for distractions.
"So, for now we leave the Tachibana's alone and only keep them guessing on what we're doing.
"We kill the Empress we kill all the witches and we'll have free reign to go after Ken Tachibana though I'm curious, Why?"
"I asked a witch to turn me mortal and she cast a spell saying I should bring her the blood of the two people I love the most, it was supposed to be my son and daughter but she was out with her mother.
"So I gave the witch the blood of my son and grandson. She said in order for me to be mortal they must die I obsessed over it until I made up my mind that I will be mortal, but the damn bastard is hard to kill."
"Woah, Savage." Aiko comments the two males turn their heads they completely forgot she was in the room.
"Don't you have people to look for?" Izumi asks narrowing his eyes at her.
"Oh, I already know all those people so consider them found Kaminari was a very busy man and a people's person so he knew a lot of people and since I hung around him a lot I knew a lot of people too."
"We have a problem." Lynx was meditating by the corner and he looks confused.
"What is it?" Hitoshi asks.
Lynx gets even more confused, "They are immune to my magic or something I don't understand what's going on."
Roku jumps up and down celebrating his victory, "It works."
Tori jumps up and down behind him while Snow is still sleeping.
Yuno and Tachibana walk into the room happy to see Tori being he's usual self again.
"So, how these little accessories you all have work is that if any witch casts a spell on you they will absorb it and I will be able to take the magic and use it for myself."
Roku snaps his finger and in a matter of moments it's a rainy day with strong winds and roaring thunder, "Spells like that won't take a lot out of me and I can keep Aphina's barrier up constantly without breaking a sweat."
Yuno looks at the ring on her finger and her mood sours up when Kim walks into the room she lowkey hates the chick now overnight she just turned into an Anti-Yuno hate club and she doesn't get, why? They hit it off fine in the beginning.
"Kai and Setsuno are off to watch Rex play soccer at the stadium close by, do you want to tag along?" Tachibana offers Yuno a fun time out smirking with the exact answer in mind.
Yuno shakes her head, "I just want to be right here where I can keep an eye on him."
"Who said he's staying? You're on Snow duty until we get back."
Yuno turns around and Tachibana steals a kiss taking Tori and running away. Yuno is frozen in disbelief he actually left her behind.
Roku snaps a finger in Yuno's face, "We have a certain Bino to visit Miss Lin, shall we get going?"
She turns and nods taking Snow with her driving to Bino's place
"That's him?" Roku asks both of them watching him take out the trash.
"Yes." Yuno gets out of the car and runs towards Bino giving him a tight hug she heard what happened to him from Dean who found him passed out on the floor a few blocks away.
"Goodness Yuno I'm still alive, did you come here to finish me off?"
"Nope, came to get rid of that nasty scar plus Roku wanted to come see you he's new at the Palace, mind if we come in?"
"Sure, come on in."
~
"Explain to me again why you're tagging along? I don't need your help." Aiko narrows her eyes at Lynx following her around.
"My magic doesn't work on the Tachibana's and if they start thinking I'm useless I'm going to end up dead so I figured I would tag along and make myself useless by helping you out with the sacrificial candidates."
Aiko sighs his answer was too honest she seriously was looking for an excuse to send him away, but she can't after hearing that which totally sucks considering it seems like she has a tail she can't shake off.
Ryu walks behind them and sighs, "I don't know about you two, but if those two think I'm letting them touch Tensho they have another thing coming,"
She takes Lynx by the hand and pulls him in the opposite direction, "You want to be useful that badly help me find a way to save him without ruining Izumi's plans."
Aiko rolls her eyes and keeps walking she was better off alone anyway.
Lynx and Ryu go back to the house and start reading through Grimoires and books.
Izumi and Hitoshi walk in to find the study is a mess, "And what are you two up to?"
"Figuring out a way to save Tensho without ruining your sacrifice thingy or whatever and I will find it, any progress on your side?"
"No, the Empress has the Lyres on her side they saw us coming and warned her. We need the element of surprise."
Ryu rolls her eyes and shakes her head, "Element of surprise or no you're out matched. We're all outmatched, if you want the Empress one on one you have to force her hand just because she can see you coming doesn't mean you need to make it easy for her to get out of her inevitable fate.
"Stop acting like you didn't live for decades times ten I'm sure you've picked up a trick or two over time."
Hitoshi takes a seat holding a glass of water, "What do you have in mind?"
Ryu ponders the thought for a second, "The Empress has a daughter, from one of the books I just read here I found out that your plan to kill the Empress and all the immortals she turned will not affect immortals that were born that way.
"Meaning that only the immortals she spelled will be affected so her daughter will be safe despite what happens to her, but what if we put her in a position where she has to choose between herself and her pregnant daughter next in line to take the throne?"
"Sounds interesting, but you'll have my full attention when you can tell me how we're doing that."
"Well, first off we need a big event that the Empress will have no choice but to attend and we make sure we have sweet little princess there once we have the field advantage we can discuss phase two."
Lynx turns around and smirks, "I know a go to guy for that who's been thinking off challenging the educational system so that people with abilities don't have to follow the drawn out procedures of college when they don't need too.
"If we can get him heard and have his crazy idea pitched and backed up within a few weeks we'll have Tachibana building a hospital for his girlfriend."
Ryu's smile widens, "Lynx you genius, and I think I know which building Tachibana will choose so while your go to guy is working on his little pitch you and I can already start setting traps.
"We sure as hell can expect the Empress there for the grand opening of the Mega hospital in Japan featuring Kaminari's crazy big company building."
Izumi looks between Lynx and Ryu brainstorming none stop, "I hate to be the guy who kills your fun and all, but where do we fit in this crazy plan?"
Ryu points a circling finger at Izumi and Hitoshi, "You want the Empress dead figure out how to kill her we're only setting the stage everything else is all on you, miss your shot and you can't blame us."
Ryu turns to Lynx to discuss how to get the blue prints of the building.
Lynx snaps his finger and points at Ryu, "Meet me outside the building tomorrow morning we'll go in and out of there to see the building in person before finding the floor plans, or better yet the structural engineer who can re-draw the map for us."
Ryu is thinking with her hand over her mouth she turns to Lynx poking his chest, "We need Aiko for that I'm not as connected as she is call her and ask her to dig up who it is."
"Cool, I have to go so I'll see you tomorrow."
Ryu nods at Lynx as he leaves getting back to her endless searching for a way to save Tensho she's been avoiding him for a while now she can't blame the guy for not looking for her since he's convinced she's dead.
~
Yuno stands up taking her jacket and putting it on.
Roku shakes his head in disapproval, "Miss Lin I hate to say this, but you cannot just leave without telling him the truth he needs to know what's going on, you're not protecting anyone by keeping secrets from them."
Bino looks at his watch it's 3AM and he's exhausted whatever they have to say better be good.
"I don't know where to start I'm just as confused myself, how about you explain this to him because I sure as hell don't think I can do it right."
Bino sits up he didn't tell Yuno about the guy Ryu was here with but part of him is hoping she's on the same page as him about what happened because he was afraid he'd get locked in an asylum if he told this to the wrong people.
"Alright I'll explain this as best as I can. One, we have the natural and the supernatural you two are the natural even though you have abilities this is the new normal hence why we call it superhuman and then there's the Super natural where you have the vampires and Lyres plus more.
"I am a product of both worlds coming together half human half witch a type of witch that is.
"Two, humans like you have what Is called an egg and that's what helps tell you apart from what we call the immortals they're not really Immortal, but the smart ones are.
"Three, you were attacked by a man I thought was just a legend. My mother told me about the first immortal. A man who is powerful and dangerous he seeked out the supernatural and was given unimaginable power introducing the many types of immortals out there but -
"Nature needs balance and when things started spiraling out of control nature took matters into it's own hands and a witch cursed him that he may only live to seek out and destroy the Immortals who were now abusing their power.
"He's back to do just that and according to the texts the in betweeners such as myself will be spared but we can't be too sure.
"I will be giving you this ring to wear at all times it will protect you from magic, you need to beware of who you trust if Ryu comes back play along we need a close spy and you're the only one she trusts."
Bino takes the ring and looks at Yuno.
Her phone rings it's Tachibana worried about her it's 3AM and she still isn't back.
"Calm down, we're on our way." She hangs up turning to face Bino, "If you have any more questions Roku will make time for the full story we need to go right now be careful."
"Alright, call me when you get home."
Yuno walks into her room with Snow in her arms.
"5AM? Where the hell have you been?" Tachibana startles her and she jumps up turning to face him with a tired expression on her face.
"Sorry, I was worried about Bino and it took a lot of convincing for me to leave he almost died alone and there was no one there to save him or help him I'm worried about him Ken."
"At least call I was worried about you."
"You have fun out there? Or did you fall asleep like usual?"
"In my defence I didn't want to go in the first place, but I'm about to get busy again I wanted to spend some one on one time with them while I had the chance."
"Well, I'm off to bed I can't even think straight."
"I'll be gone by the time you wake up so call me when you do."
Yuno nods hopping into bed while Snow follows Tachibana out looking for Tori by scent and finds him in Kai's room hopping on the bed and laying next to him.
Tachibana walks past Roku's room and turns back opening the door to find him chanting with candles all around him, "Go to bed kid, Kai and Setsuno are taking you out tomorrow or something you'll need all the energy you can get for their extravagant outings."
"I'm almost done you can never be too careful and I just want to make sure your ring works."
"Alright and thanks by the way I know being here is the last thing on your mind."
"You've got that right, but I have a feeling I made the right choice coming here."
"Let's hope you did."
Roku throws a candle at Tachibana and he chuckles in response, "Do you always have to have the last say? It's so annoying."
Tachibana laughs and winks at him, "I always have the last say Roku I wouldn't feel normal if I didn't."
"Why didn't you give her the right ring?"
"I'm not having this conversation with you, Goodnight."