09: A Test Beyond
She turned to the grumbling boy beside her, whose persona had completely imploded as soon as they were left alone. Rustling through a heap of papers that were pushed into his hands by Aika as soon as he entered the office of their section, he smiled a rueful smile before focusing again on the words on the papers. The ninth Section of the twelfth Division had not had a Captain-Commandant for a while, and was led mostly by Aika, who seemed glad to pass on the responsibility. With a sigh she thought back on the events of the day.
The doors of the hall closed behind her and Yuuta, who sighed heavily. He smiled at her as he settled back into his usual personality, the incredibly relaxed schoolboy. "That went better than I expected."
"Better? You weren't supposed to fight anyone, and definitely not get a Captain-Commandant rank yet."
"Oh, because I can't handle it or something?"
"Hardly, and you know that. Your power is overwhelming, I don't get how you haven't beaten Walter yet."
"It's because I had to use Shirobuchi. I felt so light, it was so easy to move, there was no strain when using my mana, I felt… alive."
"Well, you've been using more of your mana than ever before, so that's understandable. But that's not what I wanted to talk about." She signalled him to follow her as she started walking toward the entrance of the temple. "You see, at Captain rank, you'd most likely have been dumped in some section where the Captain-Commandant would have not given you any responsibilities whatsoever since you're a newbie."
"And now?"
"See, there is a Section that's been missing it's Captain-Commandant for close to a year. And while Nashima-san has been leading it, you are going to get that position, if I know my father even a little."
"So? I can lead some people if you can lead this whole temple."
"I don't doubt you can Yuuta, listen though, I wanted to prepare you. There's a whole load of political dribble you might be dropped in now, and believe me, even you'd need some preparation. But hey, practical experience is the best experience I guess. I'll guide you where I can, but I can't really start using my influence at that level."
"It'll be fine. I'm sure Aika-san won't leave me to the wolves."
"Aika-san?"
They reached the entrance where Walter was waiting. He was lazily leaning on a wall, staring up into the sky. He stood up as he noticed them, and with an uncharacteristic broad smile, he shook Yuuta's hand congratulating him. "I must be honest, I'm a bit surprised you're the same rank as me now, Yuuta-kun."
"Oh, it's Yuuta-kun now?" Yuuta answered with a smile on his face as well.
"Well, I can hardly keep calling you Togashi-san now that we're equals, right?"
A slight cough from Shinka interrupted their conversation. "Best you keep calling him Togashi-san in public though."
"One of your political advisements?" Yuuta asked.
"Nibutani-sama, I think you've lost your grasp of the politics in the lower classes. He's going to need alliances. Aika-san, an old friend, has said he'll be heading her Section, so we can ally ourselves within the twelfth division at least. With him being your boyfriend he'll receive quite some scorn from the others. Aika-san was going to talk with the rest of your section though, to help you." Walter said.
"Which section do you head, Walter?"
"The fourth, but let's start that tour. Well… how about we just tour the buildings of the twelfth division. You'll hardly spend any time anywhere else. And if you're needed somewhere else, you now have a ton of subordinates who will tell you what you need to know." Walter snickered.
"Before you guys get away and I lose my boyfriend for another hour or so, I have a private question for him." Shinka stopped them.
Yuuta's eyes widened slightly, but shrugging his shoulders he followed her a short bit. As soon as Walter was out of sight she pulled his ear down harshly.
"Aika-san?" She questioned menacingly
He laughed. "Sweetie, no reason to be jealous. She insisted. And she's like ten years older than us."
"You don't get to first name-basis so quickly with just another person." She growled.
"We only use Walter's first name. Also, we were talking for quite a while when you went to pick up Saito-san." He explained calmly.
"Fine." She grumbled, letting go of his ear. He rubbed it, but never stopped smiling. She opened her mouth to complain, but no more sound then a surprised squeal came from her, as Yuuta suddenly picked her up and twirled her around. He held her up for a minute and kissed her, making the complaints sink away. "Never be jealous, your boyfriend isn't as cute as my girlfriend." And he took off, leaving her speechless.
"An interesting man, and an amusing boy so it seems." She heard her father's voice behind her. She blushed deeply. Turning on her heels she glared at her father. "What did I do wrong this time?" He said apologetically.
"Alright, first of you snuck up on me…"
"Which I would never have been able to do if he hadn't been distracting you!" he exclaimed in surprise.
"Shut up dad, I'm talking."
He raised his hands in a settling gesture, "Alright alright, I'm listening."
"What's with the test you suddenly decided to do? Eight Captains? Eight?! None of the other Captain-Commandants had to go through such a strenuous test. Speaking of, why induct him at Captain-Commandant rank? Do you have any idea what kind of position you put him in now? What if one of our own had gotten hurt? Why didn't you trust on my word?" She rambled on, slowly lessening in volume.
"Done?" He asked, smirking. Panting from her discourse, she glared at him but nodded nevertheless.
"To start, I do trust your word, like I said. If I didn't he would've been fighting a single captain and not eight. Next, because I trust your word, I inducted him at Captain-Commandant rank. I'm very aware of his current position, which is also why I did it. Power is not all in this world, I want to see him handle other things as well. That's always a possibility, and they were all aware of the possible danger. Well except for Shoichi-san, who was told that you had a suitor I didn't approve of."
Her glare deepened. "And what would he, of all people, have to do with that?"
"Nobly born people have this odd idea about marrying someone of equal or better status. You'd definitely been an upgrade for the Shoichi family." He calmly said.
"And you made him think I wanted to marry into his family?!" Her yell echoed through the halls.
"Calm down. I never said such a thing… I merely implied it to manipulate him." Takahiro said.
"Father, for the last time. You don't need to manipulate any of your subordinates to do as you wish, it's their job to do so." She responded, still in shock, but annoyance returning.
"True, but where is the fun in that?" He said as he started laughing. With a humpf, she briskly walked away, leaving him laughing by himself.
"Aika-san, are you serious?" He said, glancing at the stack of papers she was handing him. "I'll help you sort through them, but all of these reports are going to be have to be read and checked by you, and most likely cross referenced with older documentation of the section, or even the temple. All of our sections paperwork is in those filing cabinets behind you and against that wall."
Half of walls of the office he had been given were covered with filing cabinets. Square in the middle of the room a small desk was placed and a comfortable chair still remained behind it, currently occupied by Yuuta. To his left, he had a window, showing the training courtyards of the Twelfth. To his right, beside the filing cabinets, at the end of the wall, there was also the door that led to the shared office of the Ninth Section, where Aika and a couple of other captains sat, to help him. He had to address those others tomorrow and he could feel his stomach churning.
The other wall was covered with timetables and maps, most likely important one way or another, but he couldn't claim to care at the moment.
"Alright, see all these blue envelopes? There invitations from the other Captain-Commandants of the Twelfth, who will probably want to meet you early, those we can lay aside till tomorrow. Other colour envelopes are from the other divisions, you can leave those till even later. The red covers are reports, requests, necessities,… of the Ninth. Read and respond correctly. Green covered files are orders or reports from higher up the line, and blue ones are orders or reports from this division. Very rarely reports from other divisions show up, but those are exceptions…"
Just as he started to tune out, Walter entered, holding both a blue file, and a blue envelop. Aika stopped her explanation with a slight sigh. "And why are you visiting us, Walter?" She asked.
"Is that any way to talk to your superiors Aika-san?" He said, to which she rolled her eyes. "I'm here for two things. First," He handed Yuuta the binder, "this is the report all of the other ranked members of the Division got about you, Yuuta-kun." He moved the binder to the stack he was going to take home, which Aika had already begun sorting.
"And what's the other thing Walter?"
"An invitation for a 'business' dinner tomorrow." Handing the blue envelop to him as well.
"Great, then I can ignore all those other ones." Yuuta said happily. "It's like these people don't realize I'm not going to be here all the time."
"Yuuta-san." Aika said to get his attention. "You're going to need to go through these tonight." The stack was smaller than he had expected. Three thin red binders, the thick blue one from Walter, and a green one.
"Thanks Aika-san. For the invitations you can let the others write up an appropriate response, since I'll be coming in around seven after dinner with Walter. If possible I'd like you to provide me with the personnel files of at least the Captains, yes that includes you, tomorrow. Next I'd like a comprehensive list of all the other members of the Section, until I have time to root through all their files as well."
"Understood sir." Aika reflexively responded as she scribbled the orders down.
"You can still call me Yuuta-kun in private though. 'Sir' sounds odd out of the mouth of friends. Oh and that whole explanation about the colour codes and so on?"
"Yes, Yuuta-kun?"
"Let one of the scribes draft up a legend for me, 'cause I forgot half of it already. Also, I'd like you to clean out these filing cabinets, get their contents sorted and labelled correctly, and leave a list of where's what on my desk. What colour of folder is not being used?"
"Why? Just name one and I'll say whether it's free or not."
"Ok, use a black folder for all the personal files I just asked, and black folders are from now on for my personal reports and orders."
"No one else has his personal filing colour, but I don't see an issue using black if you want to. Why though? Why not just use the colour of the division?" Aika questioned.
"Why? I don't know, but I'd like to think that getting a direct order or something of the sort from a superior has a better effect than just an order from somewhere up the line. A nameless voice, you might say, is less effective, then a voice you can place." Yuuta tried to explain.
"I can see where you're coming from." Aika responded thoughtfully, as Walter nodded slightly, with a pensive expression. "I have to ask though, why black?" and Walter listened curiously.
Yuuta looked down at his black suit, "I like black, and besides," he continued as he opened one of the desk drawers and pulled out a number of charcoal black empty folders, "these were here." He grabbed some paper, and wrote out some orders, signed and stuffed them in one of the folders. "Here, you can pluck some lower ranked people from wherever with this order, to help you clean up. I want it done by the end of the week." He got up and started toward the door.
"And where are you off to?" Aika questioned as Walter opened the door for him.
"Dinner plans with the Shogun and Shochou. I can hardly keep them waiting. Any additional information I need you can stuff in the black folder I expect on my desk tomorrow. Oh… and if you happen to have time, you can send those personnel files to the Peak Lounge. Walter will probably be serving us anyway, he'll get them to me."
"Yuuta-kun, I'm not your subordinate you know."
"You kind off are in the restaurant though. Remember when you called me Yuuta-sama because I told our little Shogun that your name wasn't Nigel?"
"A decision I still regret to this day." Walter snickered.
"Oh shut it, Nigel!" Yuuta laughed.
He was still wearing the suit, relatively neat still, but the shirt was wrinkled from being underneath his armour and his pants were a bit dusty from the fight. "Say, Walter, before I enter the private dining room, is there a place where I can fix my slight dishevelled appearance?"
"You could've asked in the temple, there are dressing rooms and the like there, as I explained. Or did you only just notice?" Walter answered. Yuuta responded with his best boyish grin.
"I'm not supposed to let anyone out back, but I suppose I'll let you come along for a second." He shrugged.
"So even fellow high-rankers can't come everywhere?" Yuuta asked as they passed through the kitchen.
"This is a real restaurant after all, the normal public comes here too. Also, our rank isn't that high. We're at the lowest rung of the middle class. But then again, rising from here is almost impossible purely on strength."
"What do you mean? Nibutani is the warleader because she is the strongest, right? Couldn't anyone just attain that level?"
"What have you heard about our ranking system?" Walter asked quizzically, as they entered a small locker room.
"The Wicked Eye explained that we used the demon's army ranks to rank all creatures, Angels, Demons and Roamers alike. I sort of assumed that just transferred to our temple system as well, since Nibutani made it seem like that was the case." Yuuta responded as Walter started rummaging through one of the lockers.
"You wrongly assumed that." As he tossed a clothes brush over his shoulder. Yuuta deftly caught the projectile. Walter leaned against the lockers, as Yuuta started straightening his outfit.
"You see, Yuuta-kun, while strength makes a difference on the lower rungs of the ladder, you've reached about as high as you'll reach on power alone. Politics play a much bigger role in climbing higher from now on. Now, you've got a link with the upper-class, your relationship with Nibutani-sama, and you've got me on this level. That said you shouldn't expect too much out of me, as you can guess from my position, I don't play politics that well, but I can help you with your plots if you want me to."
"Plots?"
"There is a reason why the temple is divided into so many Sections and Divisions. This fosters a competitive feeling within every little pawn from the chess set. We might be… bishops if we work hard. But the higher-ups won't see us as more."
"You want to use me as a pawn then, or do you want me to use you? And what does fostering a competitive feeling between the branches have to do with politics?"
"Basically they want us to fight our way to the top. It wouldn't be the first time complete Sections were wiped out when the political manoeuvring goes wrong. Why do you think your section was headless for so long."
"Ok, so why haven't you started your climb to the top yet? You've bested me in every duel so far, so power is not the issue."
"Hmm… I always disliked the branching structures of the temple. Of the temple council itself as well. No one actually listens to the leaders. We defer to them in person, yes, but behind their backs everyone does what he wishes."
"And what does that have to do with me?" Yuuta asked as he straightened his tie, and gave the brush back to Walter.
"You're change incarnate. At least, I have that feeling. See, your personal file colour, your closeness with your subordinates, your caring nature, and your strength all will lead you to become a great person. Even if you hadn't snagged up Nibutani-sama. The thing is, I believe you just might be able to pull ability users together, at least the Japanese ones. One day you might usurp the temple council. And like I once said before, it's such a man I'd serve to the end of my days."
Confused, Yuuta answered, "You're putting way too much pressure on me Walter. I'm just a kid, no matter how powerful you all think I am, or going to become. For now, I'd be happy if I don't drown in blue envelopes, and that's it." As he tried to lighten the mood with a sullen smile.
"Hmm. We'll see Yuuta-kun. You ready to go now?"
"Yeah, let's go." Yuuta nodded, as he tried to hide how ill at ease he felt. Meeting his possible future father in law and Walter idolising him as a leader of godly skill for the second time today was not good for his nerves.
"Your boyfriend is late."
"Your Captain-Commandant is late."
"This is not associated with the temple, so you can't blame me." Takahiro grinned.
Shinka sighed. "You always have an excuse."
"It's not an excuse if it's the truth. Anyway, where is the boy?"
"He mailed me half an hour ago that he was on his way with Walter. He should be here about now." As she shifted on the pillow she was sitting on. "Also, stop calling him a boy. He has a commanding position within your own organisation."
"Like I said, this and that are separate things. I may have accepted him as an Ability User, but that doesn't mean I accepted him as your partner."
"What are you planning this time around?" She asked suspiciously of her father.
"What do you mean?"
"Last time you acted like this, you attacked a person with 8 people who can blow up the average person on accident." She glared.
"Nothing, I'm planning nothing. I just need to check whether he's worth you or not."
"I'm not twelve, I can figure that out for myself."
"You're sixteen, no you can't."
"Oh sure, you trust me leading armies, but with a boy? No, that's impossible. What if he does something I don't want?" She acted out.
"You were saying he wasn't a boy, and that's not the issue. You're physically stronger, but your heart becomes weak when you're in love. I've seen it happen before." Takahiro grabbed her by her shoulder over the table. "Listen, I just want to protect you. I don't want to lose you too."
"I think you're overthinking this a bit, father, he's my boyfriend, and he's an exceptional Ability User. He'll be able to protect me just as well as you ever could before long." Shinka caressed her father's hand lightly.
A knock on the door broke the silence between them. "There you'll have him." Takahiro said.
The door slid open. "Captain Commandant Togashi Yuuta has arrived." Walter announced and her father waved them in. Walter entered and strut to the table with Yuuta cautiously following. It was obvious he felt uneasy and wasn't caught up in the persona he had donned during the trial. He leaned in for a quick kiss, and settled on the pillow next to her. Her father's expression hardened because of the kiss.
"So, Togashi Yuuta, you want to ask me for my daughter's hand." He asked.
Yuuta opened his mouth, closed it again, and then blurted out "Her hand might be too far for now, after all we've only been dating for about a month."
"Twenty-three days to be exact." Shinka specified.
"Yeah, 23 days. So uhm… I'd like for us to get along for her sake." Yuuta continued.
"I haven't decided your worth yet, Togashi-san. You impressed me this afternoon and Shinka says you're trustworthy, which is the only reason I did not pin you to the wall with whatever weapon I found first because you had the audacity of kissing her in front of me. Walter, what are you still doing here? Go fetch the food." Walter briskly walked out of the room, avoiding Takahiro's wrath.
"Father, we've kissed a whole lot more than just now, also, you didn't let Yuuta order. You even saw us in the temple." Shinka said.
"Shinka, you're not helping!" Yuuta exclaimed as he saw Takahiro's expression darken even more. "Listen, Nibutani-san", Yuuta started as he turned to Takahiro again, "I like your daughter, she seems to like me. I can't claim we will stay together forever, as we are still rather young, as is this relationship, and we might grow apart still. Nevertheless I can promise you this. I will do whatever is within my power to prevent her from getting harmed in any way."
The men stared at each other, her father glaring at her boyfriend, her boyfriend staring back, not flinching one bit. Although she noticed he was very nervous, it was not readable on his face, so she didn't think her father would notice. As if the men could hear her thoughts, they both glanced at her at that moment.
She shrunk back under their intense gazes. "Fine. Togashi-san, I'll permit you to date my daughter." Her father settled back forming a tent with his hands, his expression only softening slightly. "But hurt her, and I will murder you." He stated.
Stress seemed to flow out of the boy beside her. "I would say the same about my family. And her too, naturally." He aimed a slight smile at her.
"You are aware he's serious, right?" She asked him.
He turned to her father, "Of course I am. A man of his stature wouldn't lie or make empty promises." Her father's eyes narrowed, trying to pin him down.
"Togashi-san, are you testing me?" Her father questioned him. "It's only fair after this afternoon, right?" Yuuta responded. She looked at him strangely. Just seconds ago he was nervous to his core, and now he's testing her father, one of the most powerful men in this country. She grabbed his knee and pinched slightly.
His eyes shifted, a questioning look aimed at her, and she threw one right back. "Togashi-san, I do not appreciate defiance in a subordinate." Interrupting them. "Neither do I, they tend to get people killed." Shinka added. She saw that same flare in his eyes she had seen so much during their training. She pinched again, and shook her head slightly. His hands clenched, but he nodded.
"I wasn't trying to defy you, Shochou. I simply have respect for you, and your position, and I doubt you'd get where you are today if you were that way. I suspect you are an incredibly devious politician, and those kinds of people rarely get cornered by their own words and actions."
"Politics, Togashi-san? Why would you think that?" Takahiro was taken aback by Yuuta's words. "May I speak freely?" which got a nod in respond.
"You knew about me before today, had even gotten people to research me before meeting me today. That in conjunction to what you knew from Shinka her reports made you form an image of me. This image was, according to you good enough for your daughter, but you had to make sure, so you devised three tests." During the monologue Walter entered with three plates and something else under his arm, but Yuuta continued, Takahiro and Shinka listening closely.
"Test number one was the fight in the temple, you needed to see whether I had the strength and potential to protect your daughter."
Walter placed their plates in front of them.
"The second test is this dinner scene right here. Under the guise of meeting me as normal people would meet their daughter's boyfriends, you wanted to see how I would react in a socio-political situation in which I was the weaker party."
Walter waited behind Yuuta.
"The last test is giving me the Captain-Commandant rank against Shinka's advise. You want to see how I would react to a leadership position, how I would cope with it, as, if I'd ever stand beside Shinka I'd need to have capabilities in this area too." Yuuta extended his hand toward Walter, who gave him ten black folders and then walked away. "Thank you, Walter." Yuuta called after him, skimming through each quickly to see what the contents were, before layering them on the stack beside him.
Her father kept an eye on him, while reaching over the table to grab the uppermost folder. He opened and closed it in one movement, immediately recognising the personnel files within and threw it back on the stack. He leaned forward pinching the bridge of his nose and Shinka nodded appreciatingly at Yuuta, who answered the perceived compliment with one of his slight smiles.
"Togashi-san, I'm impressed." Her father finally said, as he raised his head.
After that the mood in the room shifted immensely. Her father relaxed, and instead of the test Yuuta spoke about, it actually felt like a normal family meeting on the surface. They talked normally, and although her father still probed, it wasn't excessive and Yuuta handled it deftly. Shinka didn't have to step in anymore and the flame in Yuuta's eyes snuffed out.
At the end of the dinner, it seemed like her father accepted Yuuta as her boyfriend. A satisfactory result for both of them. The clap of another folder closing took her out of reminiscing. "Well, I should not have been reading this in the car." He said.
"Car sick?" She asks, grinning.
"A bit," He smiles back, "but I need to make notes too. You guys put way too much information in these things, half of it is useless."
"Maybe, maybe not, it depends on what you want to do with that information. Something you'd understand, right?"
"Uhm? So tell me why is it useful to know…" he stopped for a bit as he pulled a folder from the bottom of the stack, "this." As he points to one of the page. The line he was pointing at was from Nashima Aika's admission form. It read 'She was wearing blue stripe underwear on this day'.
"Ok, maybe not all information is useful. But you could… I don't know, distract her during a fight with that information?" She tried justifying the report. His face showed he wasn't biting.
"Ok, not everything is useful." She admits. "Why were you reading those files anyway?"
"I need to know about my subordinates." He stated simply. "Don't you know about yours?"
"I know about some. I know you and Walter, and others I come in contact with on regular basis."
"No one else?" He asks.
"I can't know everyone!" she raised her voice in her annoyance, "Have you seen how huge this thing is you're part of? You have about 800 subordinates in total, I have fielded armies whose numbers count 15000 and up. Do you expect me to know everyone?"
"I didn't mean anything by it. It just seems like you feel lonely at the top. You didn't even know Walter's name before we ate in the Peak Lounge the first time." He answered back, calmly. "I know how big our temple is. If I'm not wrong, we could field about 130.000 people if necessary so those numbers you threw at me don't shock me."
"How much do you know by now?" She asked.
"I know everything about my eight Captains, know how much people are in my section, 784 at this moment, I know the structure, and I've fished out some plots other may be planning based on the information they've gotten about me."
"Why? Why are you so accepting of this all? Why do you just naturally roll through these things like you've known them you're entire life." She asked, eying him suspiciously.
"I am who I am, I guess." He shrugged, as the car stopped. "I don't know anything more about me than you do. In fact, I'd claim I know less, after reading the report about me." He kissed her and got out the car. "Get home safely, see you tomorrow." And he was off.
The car accelerated, with a pensive girl in the back.
He sighed, as he walked up the stairs to his apartment. He didn't know why he was so casual about all of this. It was exactly as she said, his mind just assimilated the knowledge presented to him as if it wasn't new. Like he was remembering things. He knew something was different about him from the start.
The questions all of his friends had about his powers, the questions that Shinka had about him and even Rikka, Wielder of the Wicked Eye, who has knowledge about ages past looks at him like he's some kind of strange beast at times.
He didn't care. He started training to protect his family from himself, then he started training to be stronger and protect his friends, who are all stronger than him. He will push on and on. Now his eyes were set on usurping power in the temple. He would protect everyone.
These thoughts were his. And yet he himself felt strange thinking them. They felt sharp, edged, in comparison to his laid back personality. Was he going insane, or was he just revelling in this life he dreamed of not so long ago? He didn't know.
He sighed once more. He was himself, and that was the end of that. He pushed the door open, being greeted by his youngest sister trying to tackle him to the ground. He laughed as he dragged her along into the warmth of his home.
Author's NotesIt's done! Somewhat the same voice as the last one, but highlighting different aspects of the story. I'm curious to see what you think about it. This also the first chapter I had an official beta reader, so a thank you to Lilith Mitchell for putting up with me as we worked on the corrections (you see, I'm quite stubborn sometimes). Leave a review or send me a pm with your thoughts, I'm always eager to hear from the people who spend the time reading this experiment of mine, and as always
Thanks for reading