Reclaiming the Throne

by GuiltyKingOumaShu

5 years has it been since Shu had fallen from his throne and lost his crown. But now, just as he is about to accept his crushing defeat and live with the bitter taste of loss, he makes the sudden realization that only death can end a king's reign. He may be a fallen one, but a king he still is nonetheless. He will reclaim his throne and reunite with his queen or die trying.

38. No more playing nice

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Hello, folks. I don't have much to say here aside from the fact that while I had fun writing the first half of this chapter, the second half felt like a drag and I somewhat feel like I rushed it to finally be done with it after dealing with it for far too long. I hope it turned out to be acceptable so that I cna finally move on to the interesting part of this arc. That being said, if you have serious problems with this chapter, feel free to mention it and I will force myself to revisit it until everyone is content. Here's to hoping that won't be necessary.

Guest replies:

Guest: Your words really touched me, friend. I am so happy my humble work was able to assist you with the problems you faced in your life. Knowing that my writing actually made a difference somewhere fills my heart with pride and happiness. Thank you for your kind review.

Anubhav: Sorry to disappoint, but as of now, there currently exist no plans to bring back Gai into Reclaiming the Throne. However, if you want to see more of him, keep an eye out for Reclaiming the deleted scenes. A new chapter might be on the way, featuring Mana's little fuckboi, erm, I mean king, of course.

As always, if you want to hear from me sooner, consider either logging in before reviewing so I can send you a PM, or joining my discord. Thank you.

Word count: 16.505 words.

Enjoy!

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I'm the voice inside your head
You refuse to hear
I'm the face that you have to face
Mirrored in your stare
I'm what's left, I'm what's right
I'm the enemy
I'm the hand that will take you down
Bring you to your knees

So who are you?
Yeah, who are you?
Yeah, who are you?
Yeah, who are you?

Keep you in the dark
You know they all pretend

What if I say I'm not like the others?
What if I say I'm not just another one of your plays?
You're the pretender
What if I say I will never surrender?

(The Pretender - Foo Fighters)

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38. No more playing nice

The tension was rising at Narita Airport's control tower, as the command center had been plunged into chaos just a little while ago.

First, the civilians of Tokyo had gathered in front of the SDF's base in protest. When Iwamoto had asked the police to help him out with dealing with them, he had only gotten weak excuses from the chief in charge, claiming that his men were understaffed and couldn't assist. It was only later that he found out from Lieutenant Koruba that the chief's daughter once had a fiancé, and, as fate would have it, his name had been on the list of prisoners currently held by the SDF, so there was that.

Sometime later, the protests seemed to escalate due to several sightings of Ouma Shus among them. In an attempt to show military strength and intimidate the civilians, a squad of Endlaves was sent out to prevent any further escalations.

But that's when things had gone really south. The Endlave pilots controlling the war machines had been bailed out, followed by the Endlaves themselves turning against the SDF soldiers deployed alongside them. What had been meant to intimidate the civilians, had instead caused them to become inspired. By showing them the SDF's weak side, they suddenly felt stronger and capable of opposing them, so they had attacked.

The mysterious hacker had jammed the radio signal in the area right afterwards, preventing Iwamoto and his lieutenants to give out orders to regain control of the situation. With their first line of defense so horribly breached, Lieutenant Koruba had been sent out directly to organize a retreat to the second line of defense in order to regroup and push the civilians back. Non-lethally, if at all possible.

Meanwhile, the chief of engineering, Kazumi Kudo, had attempted to kick out the hacker from the SDF's network…to no avail. To the contrary, she was completely kicked out herself and the mysterious individual that had had the nerve to call himself "King Ouma Shu" had taken over the system in the meantime, preventing further use of Endlaves and auto-turrets whatsoever. Whether the hacker was actually Ouma Shu was rather doubt worthy, yet who could even know for sure at this point?

The captives of Loop seven had somehow broken free afterwards and reunited with the civilians so desperately fighting to free them. However, Iwamoto was surprised to see the void users merely forming a defensive line around their relatives as they slowly retreated back into the city. Koruba didn't give chase and instead decided to hold the line in case it was a trick to storm the control tower afterwards.

So far, however, nothing had happened afterwards. Not that the situation hadn't been bad enough as it was.

With the civilians breaking in and the captives breaking out, the reputation of the SDF was pretty much ruined. It didn't really matter that the civilians hadn't actually broken the revived people out themselves and had merely acted as a diversion for the actual culprit to do so, the public would surely see it that way. And once word got out that even mere civilians had been able to beat the military, no one would still take them seriously anymore.

Leaning his head against the bridge his hands formed on the desk before him with closed eyes as if lost in thought, General Iwamoto knew that his days in the SDF were over. Normally he would already be stripped of his rank and be replaced by someone else, but he knew no one would come.

The prime minister, while clearly displeased with him, had refrained from demanding his replacement on the spot like he normally would have. There were no real actions taken against him. All that he had demanded from Iwamoto was to "fix that goddamn mess somehow." He hadn't cared how.

That's when Iwamoto realized what he had subconsciously known all along. There would be ne replacement for him because the government would not send new people into the quarantine zone. Which meant: No reinforcements and therefore no new general to take over. Looking at this positively, this meant that he would likely remain in charge until he either died or his lieutenants rebelled against him. On the flipside, though, that also meant that his branch of the SDF had been abandoned by the government from the very beginning.

They had never been meant to stop the void freaks of Loop seven. Never been meant to capture Ouma Shu and his band of terrorists. The SDF's and therefore the general's deployment had all been a farce to let the public believe the government was doing something to gain control of the situation. However, the politicians in charge had either never expected the SDF to succeed from the start or hadn't wanted them to as a whole, or otherwise they would have avoided no expense to secure Tokyo once and for all.

Iwamoto grumbled angrily as he looked forward with a serious expression. He had figured out the situation, but couldn't quite wrap his head around the why.

Why had the government given up on them the moment the lockdown had been in place, merely opting in to supply them with rations to ensure their survival, thus basically putting them on life support rather than doing whatever was in their might to save them? It's almost as if they knew Iwamoto hadn't stood a chance. Or perhaps they had known that the outcome wouldn't have mattered. The excuse of finding a cure to the apocalypse virus while he was securing Tokyo may have just been a lie all along. Maybe everyone knew that there was no cure. That even if Iwamoto had been able to secure Tokyo, none of its population would ever be allowed to leave again. Maybe that was why the security on the outer walls was so high despite Iwamoto having asked for more soldiers here in the actual fray. Maybe the government didn't want to assigns more soldiers to a mission they knew no one would come back from.

Iwamoto sighed quietly and looked down in realization.

They never had been the SDF to start with. Just a group of sacrificial pawns sent to hold the line. None of them had ever been expected to return. They had been written off as dead the moment they had been assigned the mission.

Iwamoto felt bad for the soldiers who had signed up for this mission voluntarily now. So many young men and women stepping forward in an act of patriotism. Putting faith in their country to go find a cure outside while they would make sure everything was in order on the inside. They hadn't been like Iwamoto, the unfortunate fool who had merely happened to be in Tokyo at the time of the incident. They had chosen to be here and therefore to die here. Even if they hadn't known it at the time.

So, where did this put Iwamoto and his soldiers? Knowing that his mission had been a farce from the get-go and no more support to be expected from either the SDF or the civilians of Tokyo, what could he still do?

Looking at this logically, he would have to ensure his men would survive. However, they couldn't do so by themselves. They couldn't fight everyone. Loop seven, Ouma Shu, the civilians of Tokyo. His military strength wasn't high enough to oppose them all. If support from outside was impossible to attain, he needed support from at least one of those parties on the inside to ensure his soldiers wouldn't get overrun.

Iwamoto refused to ask for the support of terrorists, especially Ouma Shu…the fake hero of Japan who dared to even form his own pitiful "kingdom" on Japanese ground, its capital even! In Iwamoto's eyes, they were the definition of traitors and couldn't be trusted.

The Loop seven captives they had questioned suggested that there was another force acting in Loop seven, different from Ouma Shu. The general would like to believe that this was true, because if it was, it would likely mean that Ouma Shu and that unknown force were at odds with each other. Otherwise they would have used their combined force to gain control over all of Tokyo, rather than just Loop seven and its outskirts. However, even if this theory was true and not merely a scheme of Ouma Shu to fool him, convincing that mysterious group, this so called "Mana", or whoever these revived people refer to as "Queen", would be nigh impossible. Not only didn't Iwamoto know how to contact this so called queen, he also didn't think she would want to hear him out after he had led several attempted attacks against her on her territory. Before the prisoners were freed, Iwamoto could have used them as a bargaining chip in possible negotiations, but now that he had lost that, he saw only little chance of success.

So, this only left him with the civilians. Regaining their trust would be…difficult to say the least, but perhaps not impossible. All he really had to achieve was to show that the military always was on their side and always would be. He could achieve that by putting the blame of capturing their relatives on the government, then cutting ties with them, declaring that his soldiers were now acting independently from them, which, in all honesty, wasn't all that much of a lie to begin with, given how the government had abandoned his men from the start. It became questionable whether or not the politicians would continue to supply them with food, vaccines and ammunition once he did that, but if they stopped, everyone in Tokyo would die in less than a month of either starvation or the virus infection. That blood would be on the government's hands and there was no way the people of Japan would allow that to happen. Well, maybe. It was a gamble.

Regardless of that, Iwamoto would have to capture Ouma Shu and squeeze some explanations out of him, preferably make him admit to his crimes in public. If he could manage to achieve that, Iwamoto's public standing would be restored and his soldiers would regain the respect and trust of the people. The situation in Tokyo could be stabilized again and with civilians and soldiers working together, they could at least make sure they could defend themselves from the threat of Loop seven. At the very least, Iwamoto could ensure that the enemy stayed confined inside their part of the city while everyone else could freely and safely move around in the rest of the quarantine area. Especially once Ouma's terrorist group was out of the way as well.

But that was the tricky part. How to capture Ouma Shu? He hadn't exactly been able to locate his exact hideout, assuming he really was acting independently from Loop seven. Even though Iwamoto's soldiers had increased their search in the industrial sector of Yokohama, they hadn't really found much of a clue. The hideout must have been picked really well if it was really was there. The General could risk everything on one bet and send everyone out there to turn every stone over in order to find it, but that would leave Narita exposed. If he was wrong and Ouma would attack from a different direction, it would be over for Iwamoto. And that was only assuming Loop seven wouldn't use the chance to attack as well. Granted, they never had until now, but maybe all they did was wait for the right opportunity. Troublesome.

Perhaps he could use the insight of someone else to broaden his view. There might be an approach he hadn't considered yet. He threw a glance over to lieutenant Takarada who was busy monitoring chief engineer Kudo's progress with retaining control of their systems.

Takarada was young and therefore a bit naïve, but offered the general a different view on things because of it. He also had just enough of a spine to stand up for his opinion even if it differed from Iwamoto's while never forgetting his place and downright opposing him as a result. This made Takarada extremely useful for providing approaches the general would normally never come up with. While Iwamoto would seldom agree with Takarada and do things his way, his input may often lead to adjustments in Iwamoto's original plan. Perhaps this man's opinion could be of value yet again, even if slightly annoying to deal with.

"Lieutenant, report." He thus addressed him with a stern expression.

"Sir, we have yet to regain control of the system, but we managed to gain access to the security cameras again. As we had feared, hanger 1's holding cells for the captives are all empty aside from a few of the guards being stuck in them. The turrets appear to have changed their targets just like the Endlaves before have."

"I see. Is anyone hurt?"

"From what I can see, there is only one soldier missing. The rest is unharmed, but trapped in the cells. However, there is one casualty."

"Lieutenant Sada, I suppose?"

"Yes, sir." Takarada said with a troubled look. "Or at least I believe so. The cameras are unable to scan his face, but the cell number matches. The sight is quite…unnerving to say the least."

"That's hardly a surprise. Given his deeds against the prisoners, it was highly likely they would seek revenge. Their escape was the worst thing that could have happened to him." Iwamoto stated with a frown.

"I may not have liked lieutenant Sada much, but what they must have done to him is just cruel. Not even he had deserved such a fate. Perhaps you were right about them not being safe, general." Takarada admitted defeat with downcast eyes.

"Well, we will find out soon enough now that they are free. Sada might have been an exception. At least I hope so. They did protect the protesting civilians, after all. And no soldiers were harmed from what we can tell, right?

"Yes, aside of lieutenant Sada, none of the guards in the hangar have sustained injuries. We will have to wait for Koruba's report to see how his force has fared, though."

"Now that it has come to this, what do you suppose we should do to get back on our feet?" Iwamoto asked curiously.

Readjusting his glasses with a serious expression, Takarada took a moment before he answered:

"Given our current situation, we will likely have to deal with opposition from the civilian population from now on. Operations in Tokyo will either become very hard or come to a standstill altogether. As it stands, even Ouma Shu holds more popularity than us."

Iwamoto nodded at Takarada's evaluation of the current situation. That's pretty much the same conclusion he had come down to as well. The question was what Takarada believed they should do to fix it.

"Yes, so what do you suppose our next actions should be?"

The brunette man was seen looking away for a moment as if unsure whether or not he should actually speak the following words out, yet decided to do so anyway with a troubled expression.

"If receiving reinforcement from outside isn't an option…" He began with a bit of hope, resulting in the shake of Iwamoto's head.

"It isn't, lieutenant. We are on our own."

With Takarada's hope crushed right in front of him, he could do little but continue his sentence with a sigh.

"Then I fear our only option from now on is to negotiate a truce with Ouma Shu. Once everyone hears that he has been right about the prisoners we had held in our base, we will look like the bad guys and he will have gained a lot of trust from the people in return. If we could get him to clear our name somehow, we might still have a chance to operate in Tokyo."

"Foolish." Iwamoto sighed at him while shaking his head. "Negotiating with terrorists means acknowledging that they are enough of a threat to us. The population will notice that and our public standing would be even worse."

"I honestly doubt it could get any worse than it is now, sir." Takarada said nervously."Besides, if the goal was to show that terrorists have no power over us, then the government should have put more effort into supporting us in the first place. I feel like we have been fighting a war with sticks and stones in here. Even if the politicians had underestimated the power of Ouma Shu and his void terrorists, they could have at the very least sent reinforcements and better gear in order for us to keep up by now."

"Indeed…" Iwamoto agreed with his lieutenant while scratching his bearded chin thoughtfully. "I am contemplating distancing ourselves from the government in order to save face, but this could have bad consequences for the rest of Tokyo."

Takarada gulped audibly and nodded in agreement. "If they stopped bringing in supplies…" He didn't dare finish the thought, knowing full well how devastating that would be. As starvation would become more and more of a problem, so would chaos rise on the streets as people would try to overcome it. Nothing but a futile struggle for in the end everyone would starve nonetheless.

"Tch, that brat might have had a point with his thoughts of independence." The general grumbled angrily to himself. "It's madness to form your own state, but it would be smart to be self-sufficient when the outside has clearly given up on the people living inside.

If his men hadn't been looked down so much by the population due to Shu's propaganda against them, Iwamoto might even have started making plans to work towards self-sustainability. There were plenty of farmlands to the west in Kujukuri they could have used to grow their own food in case of abandonment by the government, though that would have been pretty long-term planning given how it was currently winter and there would be nothing to harvest for at least half a year. Needless to say, such plans were useless from the start if the civilian population wouldn't cooperate. All the lands in the world would do only little good when there were no farmers to make use of them. And then there was the problem of making vaccines as well…

"We need a victory somehow. Something to show that we are capable of keeping Tokyo safe. Did Sada's stupid research lead us to anything we could use at least?" Iwamoto asked with a bit of frustration added into his voice.

Shaking his head slowly, Takarada took out his holo-tablet and checked some files on it. "We went through it, but he was mainly focused on finding a way to reverse the genetic augmentations. To no avail. He couldn't find a trace of human interference and therefore couldn't determine where to even start to reverse it. He did spend a bit of effort into finding a cure to the apocalypse virus, but never got to any useful results. It's not like the evolved have created antibodies for us to use. It's just that the virus as a whole seems to ignore them. Sada suspected their new strain of DNA to be the cause of it, perhaps acting as a detergent of some sorts, but if that's really the case, he couldn't determine what exactly caused the virus to ignore the evolved and didn't seem much interested in spending more time to find out. He seemed to have disregarded any option of us using the same way of genetic augmentation to gain immunity ourselves for some reason." Takarada reported in detail with a frown.

"That's because he hated them." Iwamoto grumbled absent-mindedly as he stared into the distance, absorbing Takarada's words.

The lieutenant looked away in his disappointment over Sada. "I had the same assumption but never could understand why. No matter who managed to perform this augmentation, it would still be able to save humanity if we managed to reproduce it."

"Perhaps, but it would also tread into territory many a man would deem unworthy of humans to put foot on."

Takarada rolled his eyes at that. "Of course. The only one standing in the way of humanity's progress is humanity itself." Altering human DNA, human guided evolution. To mess with the work of god. Some would say it was unethical to let science advance that far, yet Takarada had to ask those people: What was really the unethical thing to do here? To alter human DNA in order to overcome a virus that would kill billions of people or potentially sit on a cure for it and do nothing? To Takarada, the answer was clear, but many would still waver in what he considered to be a no-brainer question.

"Well, I am sure Sada thought the same thing back when we got in his way of experimenting on these evos."

"That's because his pursuit for knowledge was a bit too zealous for his own good. If you will allow me to be frank, I'll say that his research made him lose touch with his very own humanity way more than any genetic augmentation ever could have." Takarada said coldly as his face became rather expressionless. The face of a man who knew he shouldn't speak ill of the dead but yet couldn't completely refrain from showing disdain for the actions of said man.

"We are in agreement about that, lieutenant." Iwamoto nodded slowly at Takarada's words. Knowledge may have been power and therefore it certainly was important. But one should never lose sight of oneself. After all, what good was power when it controlled you, rather than the other way around? Sada's obsession with the evos had clearly driven him, rather than him making use of it. But the general digressed…

"So, in other words, we got nothing." He realized with an exhausted sigh.

"I'm afraid not, sir." Takarada confirmed as he put his tablet away once more.

Iwomoto closed his eyes, thinking. Well, this was certainly bad. He couldn't feasibly locate Shu in order to form a plan to capture him and he had nothing in his hand to offer to the public in order to regain their goodwill. If that's how it was, perhaps he should reconsider making a deal with Ouma Shu? He hated the brat out of personal reasons, but if it at least helped his men to survive in Tokyo, perhaps gulping down his pride and just doing it might really be the wiser choice. Besides, it was not like his name could suffer any more dishonor as it was. His military career was more or less over regardless of his actions from now on, so shouldn't he put his last days as a commanding officer to good use and help his men to the best of his abilities?

People would ridicule him for stepping as low as to cooperate with terrorists. It was a sign of weakness. Patriots would call him a coward, his own nation a traitor or even a terrorist as well, but if he did it right, he could take all of the blame and put it solely on his name, leaving his men free of any guilt. They would never be able to leave Tokyo again, but at least their names wouldn't be remembered as those of cowards and traitors. If at all possible, he would like his last act as commander to be him taking the hit for his soldiers.

But then he threw a look at the picture of his family on his desk and cursed as his anger flared up inside his heart again. To collaborate with the man who had separated him from his family in the first place was a heavy blow to take willingly. To put aside all the hatred he held for Ouma Shu for the sake of the men and women serving him dutifully. And it wasn't just that…once he brought so much shame on his family name, how would it possibly affect their future as well?

To be branded the wife and daughter of a traitor. Shunned and torn apart by coworkers, class mates and the press alike. As a soldier, Iwamoto had long ago resolved himself to die for his country and the people serving alongside him, but how could he die and leave his family behind with such a shame? They would resent him for that until the end of their lives.

Just as he was contemplating all this, the sound of breaking glass threw him out of his heavy train of thought. Looking up from the hands he had angrily buried his face in, he could see a darkish grey harpoon sticking in the wall opposite to the window that now had a hole in the matching size to the weapon in it. As weird as it was to see the classy object with an artistically crafted barbed blade and a beautiful crimson gem embedded into its pike, it was bound to get even weirder when he witnessed no one else but Ouma Shu appear in a white flash right next to it, holding said weapon. Letting go of it the very next second, the brunette king wasted no time to yell "Now!" into the room, followed by yet even more people appearing in flashes that seemed to be originating from his…right arm? Wait, was that arm infected? It was covered in virus crystals…or could it be…a void?

"Wha-…" Takarada, among many, was seen taking a step back with wide open eyes.

Before anyone in the room could even begin to comprehend what the hell was going on, they were already assaulted by a group of void swinging terrorists who quickly made use of the element of surprise to subdue their adversaries before they could react. A few of Iwamoto's personnel attempted to draw their weapons once they realized they were under attack when they already were greeted with void blades, maces, guns and various other lethal weaponry aimed at their heads. Every soldier, be it guards, communication officers or even just Iwamoto's secretary were perched together and forced onto their knees, hands held up where their assaulters could see them. Even Iwamoto himself felt the barrel of a firearm being pressed against his temple before he had managed to aim at his attackers with the pistol he had drawn out of the inside of his uniform. Forced to give up, he slowly lowered the weapon again and put it on the desk in front of him, followed by raising his hands as well, albeit not without uttering an angry growl in the process.

"On your knees, scum!"

"You move, you die."

"No playing heroes here, alright? Wouldn't recommend it."

"We should put you into cages and see how you liked that for a change, eh?"

Shu's soldiers could be heard all across the room as they threatened their captives. Taking a look around, Arima who kept standing next to Shu yanked out his void harpoon from the wall it had been stuck in and said:

"Seems to be clear for now. Go. I will keep an eye on the hostages."

The king offered him a short nod and stepped forward to face Iwamoto. The female Genesis who held a snatched pistol against Iwamoto's head quickly lowered it once Shu had casually gestured for her to do so, obviously not feeling very threatened by Iwamoto regardless. True enough, Iwamoto was seen eying the woman coldly from the corner of his eyes, yet wasn't foolish enough to attempt grabbing the weapon on his desk again. Probably since he knew he would be dead before he ever got to use it if he tried to.

"Greetings, Major General Iwamoto. Good to finally see each other face to face at last." Shu started the conversation by addressing the general with a polite smile. A courtesy the man with the graying hair didn't return as he merely growled at him with a scowl in return.

"Ouma Shu…"

If the king minded, he sure as hell didn't let it show. Never losing his smile, he merely gestured for the general to take a seat. "Please, there is no need for you to keep standing. Be at ease as we discuss the future of this city together."

When the general didn't move an inch aside from eying Shu defiantly, Shu's kind smile showed signs of annoyance for the first time. Silently, he threw a glance towards the Genesis standing next to Iwamoto which could have been interpreted as: "Would you mind…?"

The woman n question understood immediately and with a nod, she took hold of the general's shoulder and effortlessly pressed him down into his chair.

"You were told to sit down, old man." She told him which earned her an angry glare from him, but nothing more. "See, that wasn't so hard now, was it?"

"Hmph." Iwamoto grunted in response. Seemingly not intimidated by that mere woman's power to force him into his chair single-handedly or at least that's what his pokerface suggested.

"I understand that you wouldn't be very interested in doing what I say, general. With it going against your pride and all." Shu said with a sigh and scratched the back of his head. "Which is why I am trying to make it easy for you, but please note that even my patience may grow thin eventually. And trust me, you do not want to do this the hard way."

"Hah!" Iwamoto suddenly chuckled derisively and looked over at his lieutenant kneeling not far away from him, watching them from the sides. "Did you hear that, lieutenant? Assaulting people out of nowhere and threatening them at gunpoint is apparently the easy way. But then again, what else was there to be expected from an immature brat who would crown himself king of some imaginary country. Behaving as barbaric as the regime he is trying to establish, I see."

"Alright, fine." The brunette king said with narrowed eyes and began to smirk. "Hard way it is, then. It's not like I expected stubborn old fools like you to be reasonable anyway." He put his hand into the inside of his coat to take out an earpiece and put it into his right ear, then he grabbed a holo tablet from one of his pockets and laid it on the table for Iwamoto to take.

"What's this…?" Iwamoto asked Shu with a raised brow as he took the tablet and shrugged in an unimpressed manner.

"You'll see once you turn it on. You won't like it, that's for sure." Shu told him with a mere shrug as he pressed the button on his earpiece. "Here's Shu. Do you read me?"

"Loud and clear. So how did it go?" He heard Yahiro's response. "Since you broke the radio silence, I assume everything went well and you are in?"

Shu only smirked at that and shrugged in amusement. "Was there ever any doubt?"

"Hmph. Of course not." Ayase could be heard now. "Otherwise you wouldn't have been allowed to go in the first place."

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. Ayase, you can't tell a king what to do, you know." From the tone of Jun's voice, the king would assume the brunette man to be rather amused by Ayase's brash statement just now. It sounded like a teacher correcting a grade schooler with a knowing smirk and a raised finger.

"Well, Ayase might just be badass enough to try." Hare added with a quiet giggle.

While the king always enjoyed the conversations his friends' shared with each other, he kind of was in the middle of something important here, so he tried to get back to the topic: "I regret to announce that I have to kill the good mood now, unfortunately."

A sigh from Tsugumi followed his announcement. "He chose the hard way?"

"He sure did." Shu told her with a nod she couldn't even see.

She clicked her tongue and cursed. "That damn fool. Alright, I'll take care of the rest. You can start now."

"Thanks, Tsugumi."

"Are you quite done with your conversation, your majesty?" Iwamoto rudely interrupted after he had lost his patience waiting for Shu to finish talking to people he couldn't even see or hear. "Some nerve you have storming my command center only to take a goddamn call."

"Don't worry, general. I'm done. Now, back to the tablet, if you would." Shu kindly gestured for him to turn it on only to see that he already had. The holo screen that had come to life had greeted them all with nothing but a "no signal" warning.

"Having technical difficulties there, your lordship?" Iwamoto asked with a smug grin as he showed the tablet to Shu in quite the unimpressed manner. The brunette monarch, however, only smirked right back at him. The general would soon laugh no more.

True enough, once Tsugumi had done her magic, the image the tablet displayed changed and instead revealed a quite…unnerving sight. A living room could be seen, yet it wasn't in a state that would have made you feel right at home. For, you see, it was dark and the furniture that should have been arranged neatly to give off the impression of order and comfort was instead wildly scattered around in the room, either broken or otherwise damaged during what evidently must have been a struggle that had happened here earlier. Bullet holes could be seen on the walls as the camera was shook around clumsily by the guy filming the scene, probably using his phone to do it.

"It might be difficult to make out, but I am sure you can still recognize that place, no?" Shu asked Iwamoto with a confident grin after witnessing how the general's smug expression visibly crumbled and got replaced by one of shock.

"That looks like…my home?" He mumbled in quiet disbelief.

"That's because it is. What's left of it, anyway." Shu said coldly as he walked forward to grab the framed photograph of Iwamoto's wife and daughter resting on his desk. He eyed it with fake interest and smiled.

"Lovely family you have there. Cute little girl. It would be such a shame if something unfortunate happened to her, don't you think?"

Iwamoto's shock made room for anger as he got up and yanked the photograph right from Shu's hands. "How dare you…!"

But Shu only chuckled amusedly and wagged his finger at Iwamoto. "Easy there, general. I would consider my words more careful if I were you." He nudged his head into the direction of the holo-tablet resting on the desk so that Iwamoto would shift his attention back to it. Once more his expression changed upon seeing the new images it provided. This time into concern.

The cameraman had turned around to show the other side of the living room this time, where a band of armed and masked soldiers stood. This, however wasn't as shocking to see as seeing the people they were guarding was. Kneeling on the ground with feet and hands bound together with the help of some rope, Iwamoto's wife and daughter were held at gunpoint by said soldiers. Their attempts to scream were countered by a piece of cloth wrapped around their mouths each. All they could express was their panic and fear that was evident by their wide open eyes and tears streaming down from them. Their muffled screams were incomprehensible.

"You bastard!" Upon seeing his family threatened this way, Iwamoto lost all composure and raised his fist in an attempt to punch the man who was standing in front of him and smugly grinning at him without a care in the world. Without even flinching at the general's attempt to harm him, Shu merely watched as the Genesis woman next to the older man grabbed his raised fist before it could find its target. Without even breaking a sweat, she simply forced him to put it behind him and pushed it against his back to disable him. Iwamoto groaned at the difference in strength, yet never stopped glaring at Shu angrily.

"Release them at once, you…!" He furiously yelled at him, but Shu only narrowed his eyes on him.

"Oh? I am sorry but was that a demand?" He turned around to look at Arima standing behind him, rhetorically asking him: "It was, wasn't it?" He faced Iwamoto again. "How odd. Could it be that you don't know how this whole hostages-situation thing works, general?"

"Don't play your stupid games with me, kid!" The military man growled angrily. "Do you honestly believe I would let you go through with threatening my family? Who do you think you are?"

Shu's expression became awfully serious. "That's the thing, general. I know who I am, but all you see me for is a mere terrorist, so I figured if that's what you want to believe, I should live up to the name. So, after seeing this, are you willing to listen to me now?"

"I don't listen to a terrorist's demands!" Iwamoto declared defiantly, causing Shu to sigh at him disappointedly while shaking his head.

"You really haven't thought this through now, have you? I have two hostages where I only need one. What do you think will happen if you won't cooperate?" The king's expression became dark as he continued to speak. "Or is it that you think I am bluffing?"

"A man who harms innocent people is no man at all. Who would follow the orders of a terrorist that can only get obedience through oppression and blackmail? The moment you put your hands on my family was the moment you disqualified as someone worth of respecting, let alone listen to."

Shu's cold facade crumbled for a second once he had heard that. Even though he knew he was in the right here, that he wasn't doing anything wrong, the general's words still struck true in his heart, for he actually agreed with them. He knew that being a king was more than just having fun and bossing people around. That there were obligations and that if one failed to meet these obligations, they would be dethroned soon enough. A king could either rule by fear or trust. And as much as he wanted to be the latter, he could tell he was already dangerously close to the former.

"You know, I am inclined to agree, Iwamoto." Shu thus responded with a weak smile before he banished his weakness once more in favor for a steeled expression as he continued: "Only scum stoops as low as to harm innocent people, and yet if this is what it takes to fulfill my objective, then I will do so without hesitation. Even if I become hated and feared by everyone around me, I will still do it. I will become the terrorist you made Japan believe I am. If needed to, I will terrorize and instill fear in the hearts of every citizen of Japan until I get back what was stolen from me. And I will let no one stand in my way, you understand? No one. And most certainly not you." He walked back a few steps and took the void sword of one of his Genesis followers before facing Iwamoto again and directing its blade at him coldly.

"So I will ask you this only one more time: Will you obey me, or…?"

The temperature in the room must have dropped significantly just from him uttering those words, for if one were to look closely, everyone in the room had gotten goose bumps as a result. But where the SDF soldiers stared at Shu with worry and fear, the former Mananites merely felt the familiar shiver of being in the presence of the Ouma bloodline. Their new king was apparently quite capable of sending out the same intimidating vibes as Mana once had. And while not everyone was particularly happy with that, all of them knew better than not to respect such a display of authority. But not so Iwamoto.

"Tch." Still being pinned by the woman behind him, the graying man could do little but close his eyes in disgust. "I would sooner die than obey a mad fool like you."

Shu lowered his sword and looked down at Iwamoto stoically. "Very well then. But first I shall start with your family."

"Don't you fucking dare, you son of a-!" The general tried to object, but was silenced by his female captor.

"Quiet down there, gramps." Was all she said as she slammed him against his desk forcefully to shut him up.

Yet despite his harsh treatment, he still managed to speak. "Even if you killed them…I would still never acknowledge you. You would have to be a moron to think I would ever do so once you have their blood on your hands!"

"You are right. Maybe it wouldn't change anything. Maybe it would all just be a huge waste of time. But even if it turns out to be just that, I will still show everyone here that disobedience will have consequences. And who knows? Maybe losing half your family might change your mind?"

"You madman! I will kill you, you hear me?"He then spat out in utter hatred. "You are dead!"

"Right, right." Shu merely waved his words off in disinterest, eying the general with boredom. "So, who do you want me to keep alive? The girl? Or your wife?"

"Go to hell, Ouma!" He growled at him, refusing to take part in his games. After all, there was no right answer to that question anyway.

"So you want me to kill them both? You are surprisingly heartless there, general. And here I thought you cared about your family."

"What does a ruthless bastard like you know of love and family? Don't speak of things you couldn't possibly understand!"

Shu frowned. "I know surprisingly well how you feel." He sighed and looked away. "And I am not as happy to do this as you might think, either."

"Then why do it?" Iwamoto's lieutenant suddenly butted in with an angry expression. "Why behave like a monster at all when you can still feel resentment towards your own actions?"

That's when the king merely turned halfway around to look at Takarada from the corner of his eyes.

"Because life isn't all about getting and doing the things you want. Your general wanted the hard way, I will do it the hard way. Simple as that." He faced Iwamoto again. "So, is your decision final? Should both die?"

Iwamoto was seen closing his eyes in anger and desperation. It was clear as day that he wanted neither of them to die. If anything, he would have been completely fine with dying himself, but saying so would have served him little purpose. The Shu he just got the displeasure of knowing wouldn't be kind enough to give him that option. Iwamoto had made the unfortunate realization that all his previous assumptions revolving around Ouma Shu had been completely wrong. Where he had assumed him to be a weak-willed, impulsive, albeit slightly clever youngster, he had now found out that instead, Shu was more akin to a heartless bastard stopping at nothing to get his point across. The foolish brat he had made him out to be had truly been the bane of humanity all along. One could even go as far as call him a demon rather than a man and Iwamoto wouldn't be able to deny those words. Not a speck of humanity could be seen in these ice cold brown eyes of his. Not by Iwamoto anyway.

And so all the general could do was gulping down his urge to beg for mercy for his family, for he was sure that this was all Shu was waiting for. A sign of weakness to exploit until he eventually got what he wanted from him. If it at least would result in his family being spared, Iwamoto would throw away his pride for them on the spot, but when faced with not a human adversary, but the devil himself, giving into them already marked your own defeat. Whatever Shu was planning to do with his family, no matter what Iwamoto would try to do, their fate was already decided. And if Iwamoto hated anything about all this situation, then it would be his powerlessness to change anything about it.

"Hm, it would appear the general has already resigned himself to your decision, my king." Arima stated rather coldly and with impatience in his voice. He probably wanted to get this farce over with as soon as possible so that he could get to talk with Shu about things he deemed to be more important.

"Is that so?" The king thus responded with a disappointed sigh. Letting his eyes wander across the room, he eventually let his gaze fall upon the lieutenant from before, still kneeling on the ground not far from him. For a second, Shu appeared to think about something, then he wordlessly walked over to the man followed by kneeling next to him to be on the same eye level as him.

"What is it?" Takarada asked him defiantly.

"Your general is about to make a mistake he will likely regret for the rest of his life. As his underling, perhaps you would want to save him from committing a terrible mistake?"

"Don't you dare answer his question, Takarada!" Iwamoto was heard yelling behind Shu, but got eventually silenced by Shu summoning a certain medic's bandage void into his hand and ordering it to wrap itself around the loud man's mouth to shut him up.

"Don't mind the stubborn old fool, lieutenant. He is afraid of making a decision because if he did, that blood would be on him. But what he doesn't realize is that if he doesn't make a choice, he will lose everything as a whole. And tell me, what is more important? To have a white vest but nothing left to live for or having blood on your hands with people still worth living for? I think you know the right answer." The guilty king told him with a fake-looking smile to encourage him.

"This is…not my decision to make." The brunette lieutenant told him nervously while shaking his head unwillingly.

"Well, tough luck there, lieutenant. I just made it your decision. You will be the judge of who gets to live and who gets to die. Choose one or let both die. Pick wisely. Going once…" The king said nonchalantly as he raised one finger.

Visibly troubled by the sudden turn of events, he quickly looked around in a panicked fashion, attempting to find a way out. Shu, however, wouldn't give him enough time to think. Raising his second finger with a smirk, he kept going:

"Going twice…"

"I….I don't-…!" Unable to form a clear sentence, Takarada instead opted in on stammering mere fragments of it.

"Going three-" Shu already began raising his third finger and was about to close the deal when the brunette man in front of him hastily burst out:

"The girl, alright!?" Came his loud decision, followed by taking a deep breath and looking down. His reasoning followed afterwards, although in a calmer way. Sounding more…tired, defeated. "Spare the kid. She still has a future ahead of her…"

"Hm, I see…" Shu nodded at that, seemingly understanding where the man was coming from. "A reasonable choice, I suppose. Children are our future, after all."

Takarada let a sigh escape his lips and avoided the glare Iwamoto was sending his way. He knew he had acted against the general`s wishes of remaining silent, but in the end, he couldn't shoulder the responsibility of Shu potentially killing both. While having to pick one may have been a terrible choice to face, he thought he had at least picked the outcome no one could really blame him for, given the circumstances.

That was, of course, until Shu pressed the button on his intercom once more and simply said:

"Kill the girl."

With wide open eyes, everyone in the room merely regarded Shu in quiet disbelief. The lieutenant couldn't even help but yell out in shock. "WHAT! That's not what we agreed-"

"We agreed on nothing." Shu merely responded coldly, not even looking at the man as he shrugged. "I gave you the illusion of choice but in the end, you don't get to decide anything. Such is your role in all of this. I tell you how it's going to be and you accept it, whether you like it or not. And if you refuse, you get punished, just like Iwamoto is about to."

"Then why make me choose at all?" The young lieutenant shouted at him angrily.

"To show you that your choices don't matter. It's my way or no way. Got it?" He eyed the man sharply from the corner of his eyes, then faced away to make sure Iwamoto was watching the consequences of his defiance unfold right in front of him. Holding the holo screen in such a way that the general w as forced to look, the screen was soon showing one of the masked men in the living room undoing the young girl's shackles, followed by taking hold of her hand and yanking her up on her feet. He dragged her a few steps forward against her will and despite her heavy resistance, she was forced on her knees yet again in the center of the room. Iwamoto was seen struggling against his restraints similarly as the girl's mother was in the video transmission. Both cried and attempted to scream, yet their gagged mouths would only produce muffled sounds at best. Powerless as they were, they had to watch the man taking out a simple pistol from his belt, pulling back the slide on it to load up the first bullet and then wordlessly and without hesitation aimed it down at the poor girl's head. Scared to death as she was, she only could close her eyes in horror once she witnessed the clicking sound of the gun being loaded and directed at her. Tears streamed out of her eyes and she sobbed uncontrollably, yet no one aside from her mother seemed to really care.

The designated executioner took one last glance at the person holding the camera, seemingly waiting for his cue to pull the trigger. Something he didn't have to wait long for.

There was no sympathy, no remorse and certainly no hesitation in the guilty monarch's cold voice as he simply gave the order: "Do it."

And with just these two words, the sound of a gunshot was heard in the room, followed by it being plunged into silence, aside from Iwamoto's muffled scream, that was, followed by him sobbing uncontrollably afterwards as he watched his daughter's once shaking body now lie motionlessly on the floor, oozing out the precious red liquid that once sustained her now faded life. Shu merely watched him silently as no one else dared to speak up in that situation. After a while, however, he eventually removed Hare's void from the general so that the man could speak once again. With words still cold as ice, he then said:

"Now that you have seen the result of your resistance, I will ask you once more: Will you obey me?"

The graying man didn't respond, still looking at the holo screen in front of him with a broken heart. Losing her patience, the woman who had kept subduing him all this time attempted to make him talk.

"Oi, you were asked a ques-"

That's when Iwamoto used her moment of carelessness to elbow her right as she was leaning over him to grab him, followed by rapidly lifting his arm to make his fist connect with her face. As she grunted and stumbled back, he whirled around faster than even she could react and used his full momentum to hit her face once more with the very same fist he had just hit her with. Only this time, it was strong enough to knock her off her feet. From there, he used the moment of confusion to grab his gun that still rested on his desk and quickly pointed it at Shu with eyes flaring up with nothing but utter hatred.

"Die!"

For a brief second, you could see the king smirk in what seemed to be satisfaction before he pressed down on something in his void hand, followed by raising it quickly, revealing a familiar baseball-shaped canister whose lid now opened up to reveal a gleaming light to everyone in the room.

"Gah!"

"What the heck…"

"My eyes!"

While everyone was busy shielding their eyes from the bright light, Shu had swiftly made his move. Jumping forward, he smacked the blinded Iwamoto's wrist to make him loosen his grip on the gun, then caught it with his other hand. Once Iwamoto noticed what was going on, he blindly attempted to hit his adversary which, of course, was futile given his obvious handicap. As the king effortlessly dodged the blinded man's clumsy movements, he easily made his way behind the general and grabbed both of his arms to hold them together behind his back like you would normally see a cop subduing a criminal. Then he held Iwamoto's hands in place with his left hand and put his right one on the back of the older man' head. From there, the only thing left for him to do was to push it down against his desk with some force. The collision of the general's skull with the desk's wood produced a nasty sound and might have left an ugly bruise on the man's face, but as Shu didn't feel or hear the sound of bones breaking, he was sure he hadn't accidentally overdone it.

And just like that, the defiant general was subdued…again. His attempts to break free from the king's grip were met with nothing but failure as he utterly lacked the strength to do so.

Chuckling at that, Shu eventually asked the man: "Tell me, general. Do you hate me? Do you resent me?"

"Release me and I will just show you firsthand, you son of a goddamn bitch. I will end you, even if it is the last thing I will be doing, you fucking murderer!"

To everyone's surprise, Shu actually offered the man an approving smile. "A good response, general. Even if not exactly a smart one. But understandable given the emotional turmoil I've let you go through. I want you to hold on to that feeling. It might be useful when directed against our real enemies." Shu re-summoned Hare's void and used it to bind Iwamoto's hands together, then he let go of him, taking his gun with him. As he took back his spot in front of Iwamoto's desk, he playfully raised both arms to his sides and said with a smirk:

"Well then, general. You wanted to do things the hard way and reaped what you have sowed. Your family got captured, your daughter died. Your wife remains a hostage and ensures your absolute obedience. Should you still refuse, she would die as well and if that wouldn't break your spirit, in the end I would dispose of you as well to move down the list and force the next pitiful fool into submission the same way I did with you. With you being abandoned by the government and the public both, hope of ever getting the help needed to break free from my grasp becomes nil. Congratulations, Iwamoto. You have become my pawn to dance on my palm for the rest of your life if I so please. Bad end. You lose."

The brunette king was seen closing one of his eyes as he scratched the back of his head in a troubled fashion.

"Man, that does sound pretty bad, huh? So what do you say, should we perhaps give the easy way a chance now? It can't possibly be worse, don't you think?"

Confusion found its way in the general's hateful eyes as he raised a brow. "What the hell are you talking about this time, Ouma? I've just about had it with you stupid games!"

"Oh, I believe you will really like this one. Just watch."

Following the king's amused words, the holo screen still depicting the gruesome execution site lit up with the mysterious light of a void's power as both, Iwamoto`s wife and daughter began disappearing from sight and left behind nothing but silver threads dissolving themselves into thin air. The general's eyes widened up in confusion as he watched his family members simply vanishing from existence and needed a while to realize they hadn't been real all along. Only once the living room they had been held captive in began to flicker and fade in favor of showing him an empty warehouse of sorts in its place, did realization finally befall him. He had been played. The living room he had seen had been a holographic projection all along.

But even with that realization dawning on him, his mind was still way too worked up to let him respond in any meaningful way…and so instead all he managed to bring out was a confused: "….Wha…"

In the meantime, the execution squad finally removed their helmets that masked their faces and sighed in relief, revealing them to be nobody else but Shu's friends.

"Man, I knew it was all fake from the start but damn was that intense." Tsugumi said, sounding somewhat exhausted.

"Not for Yahiro, it wasn't. Shot that girl without the slightest bit of hesitation." Ayase's voice was heard, despite her not being seen on the screen. Turns out the cameraman had actually been a camerawoman all along.

The man in question was seen holstering his gun, then rubbing the fabric of his coat in annoyance.

"Speaking of which, I think the fake brat got blood on my clothes…how come that doesn't vanish as well?

"That's a bit cold, big brother." Jun said with a nervous smile. "Even when it was a fake."

"Classic Yahiro, caring more about his looks than shooting a girl." Ayase sighed in disbelief.

"Easy for you to say when you two don't get to walk around in this hideout like a freaking butcher."

While Shu's friends enjoyed their casual chat, Iwamoto gradually recovered from his shock and instead was seen pressing his eyes shut as he tried holding back his anger. Shu thought restraining the man was no longer needed, so he took Hare's void back into his possession.

" Ouma Shu…" Iwamoto finally said calmly, earning everyone's attention before he eventually slammed his desk with both hands and yelled furiously: "Do you think this is a motherfucking game!?"

"Well, considering your readiness to gamble with the lives of your own family, I could ask you the same…" Shu responded with a nonchalant shrug.

"Don't screw with me!" The general jelled as he kicked over his desk in fury and approached the king directly before being stopped by the monarch's guards. "Where is my family!?"

Shu could only sigh and spoke into his headset: "Tsugumi, put on the real feed."

"Gotcha, chief." On the Holo-screen, the dark haired hacker went over to her console and right afterwards, the image changed from the warehouse back to Iwamoto's living room, the real one, apparently. It was untouched and his wife was seen sitting there, watching the news worriedly. Iwamoto was so relieved to see her unharmed, he couldn't help but touch the holographic projection in a vain attempt of confirming its realness.

"The kid is upstairs, sleeping, before you think of accusing me of keeping her." Shu told him casually. "As you can see, we never actually went to your house, but that doesn't mean we couldn't." He added the last part with a cold undertone.

"How can I be sure this isn't another fake?" Iwamoto wanted to know.

"You could call her to check, but, as you said, this isn't a game, so let's just get back to business." The king told him with another sigh. He had places to be and a war to prepare, after all.

"What the hell is it you want, Ouma Shu?" The angry military man asked the king bitterly, now visibly way calmer than before. Naturally, since he didn't need to worry for his family's life anymore. At least for the moment.

"I want us to work together in defeating the real terrorists in this city. To achieve that, I came to bring you two offers, one of which you have already seen. Now, since the first offer was clearly not to your liking, shall we check out the alternative one?"Shu asked with a cheeky grin which clearly annoyed Iwamoto who furrowed his brows at him in disdain.

"Give me just one reason to hear you out after the stunt you just pulled."

"Simple, if you refuse, I will just go with the first offer. And next time it won't be fake." All of the king's playfulness vanished in an instant upon uttering these words, leaving no doubt about their seriousness. Even Iwamoto couldn't hide the fact that he had to gulp down his nervousness.

"Let's just hear him out, general." The lieutenant suggested hastily before Iwamoto could think of giving another stubborn response. "It won't hurt to hear it, no?"

"Why, thank you. Finally a reasonable suggestion coming from your side." Shu offered the lieutenant an approving smile before turning back to the general. "You should try following your lieutenant's example more, general. That guy is going places."

"Enough." Iwamoto grumbled angrily. "I will hear what you have to say, for now." After all, perhaps there was information to be gained from him, if anything.

"Right, so we witnessed what I could potentially do in order to make you do what I want. In truth, however, that's not how I particularly like to operate, mainly because it's the same way my enemies try to make me comply as well."

"Your enemies?" The general asked with a raised brow. "You can't be talking about us…"

"Of course not…" Shu told him while massaging the back of his neck. "Rather than an enemy, you guys were more of an annoyance, I suppose. Mainly because you refused to form an alliance with us and forced us to work around you rather than with you. That needs to change. We can't afford playing around like this any longer."

"An annoyance…" Iwamoto grumbled angrily, but Takarada was quick to get the conversation back on track:

"If you weren't talking about us, who is your enemy, exactly?" He asked.

"Loop seven, of course. The people in charge there used to back a rivaling queen who didn't really like my queen very much which is why the Genesis there didn't get along with my people at all."

Iwamoto raised a brow and threw a knowing look Takarada's way who chose to mirror his actions.

"Was that rivaling queen's name Mana, by chance?" Iwamoto asked carefully, trying to fill the gaps in his intelligence.

Shu gave himself mildly surprised upon hearing his sister's name.

"Why, yes. So you knew that much."

"The evos we captured kept mentioning a Mana, so that wasn't so hard to guess."

"The correct term for my people would be Genesis. Or homo sapiens crystallus, according to Keido." The king added the last part with a shrug.

"Yeah, about that…"

Realizing where this was going, Shu quickly raised his hand and cut into the lieutenant's query, unwilling to waste too much time here: "If you want to know more about them and their creation, you should consider joining up with me and talk to Keido himself. He does know the most about that."

Iwamoto frowned at that. Shuichiro Keido was a man that had committed horrible crimes against the people of Japan and the world as a whole, so the mere suggestion to talk to him without arresting or even killing him was downright infuriating, but then again…there was a lot of knowledge to be gained from that. Locking him up and probing him for information would be the better course of action, but he had his doubts this so called "king" would let him.

"So you are fighting Loop seven…" The general decided to disregard Keido for now in favor of keeping the conversation going. If he couldn't get Keido, he should try to get the most information out of Ouma Shu. "What would be your objective in doing that?"

The expression of the king darkened to such an extent, it felt like the temperature in the room dropped tenfold.

"After Mana's death, the queenless Genesis are now led by the organization that used to back her. They kidnapped my queen and tried to blackmail me into joining them in order to bring the apocalypse." He clenched his fists together with enough force to make them shake in anger. "I will stop at absolute nothing to get her back from them, even if I have to slaughter the Genesis standing in my way." An evil smirk appeared on the king's lips as he regarded Iwamoto mischievously. "You should know how I feel, don't you? I just gave you a taste of the way these people treat me, after all."

"That gave you no right to do what you did." The general shot back angrily.

"Ah, but your reaction was good. Your hatred for me was in no way inferior to mine for them, so if you managed to channel that hatred towards them instead, we could surely hit them where it hurts. Hard. Of course, I could make it worth your while, too. What do you say?"

"What could you possibly offer us?" Iwamoto said with a look full of suspicion. That brat may have been devious in his methods, but there was still hardly anything he could actually do for Iwamoto in his hopeless situation. The fact that this man was partly responsible for the mess he was currently in now, too, didn't inspire much confidence to choose to side with him.

"How does freedom sound?" Shu asked him with folded arms and a smug grin. "You help me getting my queen back and in return, I shall raze the quarantine walls for everyone in Tokyo to leave if they so desire. Of course, if you want to stay, I could offer you all citizenship instead."

A lot of gasps filled the room, mainly coming from Iwamoto's personnel. And naturally so. Iwamoto must have been far from the only one to make the connection that the quarantine area could possibly be a prison to them all forever. With the possibility that the SDF's public standing was irreversibly destroyed, the idea to back out of Tokyo was bound to gain traction. Nobody liked to fight a losing war. Still…

"The quarantine walls exist for a reason. If you end the quarantine, what would happen to the virus contained in here?" Iwamoto raised a valid concern to which Shu only shrugged in disinterest.

"Naturally it would spread, but that's hardly an issue. Vaccines exist and my queen can just offer every human residing inside Eden immunity."

"You keep mentioning your queen, but who is she? And how could she ensure people's immunity?" The lieutenant wanted to know.

"Her name is Yuzuriha Inori and she is Eve of the apocalypse. She basically controls the virus." He noticed how everyone in the room tensed up and was about to start an outcry which was why he quickly added: "Before you all throw a fit, she was not the one to bring the virus back. Neither was I, for the record. That was Mana. The people who backed her wanted her to bring the apocalypse. Now that she is dead and Inori took her place, they want her to do the same."

"This is…outrageous!" Iwamoto growled in a mixture of fury and disbelief. The virus was actually controlled by a human being? And this abominable person's girlfriend nonetheless? Was he to belive such nonsense?

Then again, it would explain the sudden return of the virus somewhat and also fill in the gaps in the connection with it and Ouma Shu. The virus returned together with the evos. Shu could have brought back the virus whenever he had wanted if he truly had been in charge of it, yet the virus had only returned once the evos had. His claim that someone else controlled it did seem plausible…at least as long as you were willing to actually accept someone controlling a goddamn virus of all things.

Yet nothing of this really mattered. Whether he had brought back the virus himself or with the help of someone else, he was still guilty. Whatever he had done when he had snuck into Loop seven all those weeks ago had certainly led to the return of the virus. He was without a doubt responsible, no matter what kind of excuses he chose to spin around him. Iwamoto wouldn't believe a single one of them.

Still, showing open resistance, while obviously the right thing to do, would inevitably doom himself, his family and the rest of his men. Ouma Shu was powerful and had the higher ground in this situation. Iwamoto had to play this out smartly.

"Who are these people plotting to bring another apocalypse?" Takarada had asked in the meantime.

"A secret organization called Da'ath. They were behind the first apocalypses as well. Last time, they made up the majority of GHQ's forces." Shu explained to him patiently, being surprised when Takarade sighed at him with a frown.

"Da'ath? Are you serious, Mr. Ouma?"

"Why shouldn't I be?"

"Because it's an urban legend. Next thing you are telling us the Illuminati are behind this as well?"

"Look, lieutenant. You can believe me or you can't, but the fact remains that somebody in Loop seven aspires to use my queen for their shady business so you can either help me get her back and earn your freedom, or you can rot away in this hellhole forever, 'cause as it stands, I will either get my queen back and end this quarantine or I will fail and we all die here. Unless you are confident enough you could actually break free yourself?" Shu asked them with a challenging look.

"What makes you believe we would actually want you to break us free? These men and women came here to keep Toyko intact knowing full well they might never return." Iwamoto agrued against Shu who could only chuckle.

"Maybe so, but that was still when you had reason to assume the government was actually backing you. Now tell me, Iwamoto Takeshi, can you face your men with honesty and actually claim that was still the case? Do you really believe the government will support you in your quest to keep Tokyo and its population safe? You must have already realized by now: Tokyo has been abandoned. Nobody cares about us anymore which is why I say we should take matters into our own hands. The outside world thinks they can lock us up and keep the problem away. I say we raze the walls and force them to deal with the problem instead of shoving it onto someone else."

The general hummed, clearly thinking about Shu's words. That brat was quite observant to realize all that despite being an outsider. And he did have a point. If Tokyo really had been abandoned, which Iwamoto assumed as well, everyone living inside was bound to die in here sooner or later. While that may sound like the purpose of a quarantine, Iwamoto couldn't wholeheartedly support this practice, mainly because he clearly could see the signs of the people in charge not even doing their best to help. If the government had actually done everything in their might to fix the situation, Iwamoto could have accepted his fate of dying here…but as it stood, the government has just thrown them away like trash and basically left them for dead. Dying for such a cause felt empty. There was no honor to be gained from it. It was, frankly speaking, a waste. So, if the government has abandoned them, Iwamoto had no qualms with doing the same. He wouldn't want to have his men die for some bigshots thinking they could send them in here and be done with it, after all.

But there was the problem of freeing the virus…if the virus was allowed to leave Tokyo, it would eventually infect everyone on the outside as well, including his family…true, there were vaccines to prevent death, but still…

That being said, Iwamoto hardly had a choice, had he? If he refused Ouma Shu here, he could simply force him to comply and endanger his family either way. As if he would let him! There had to be another way…

Wait a second, what if…

"So, do I understand this correctly, Ouma Shu? You want us to help you rescuing your girlfriend in exchange of freeing us, yes?"

"That's correct." The king nodded calmly.

"That means we are to join forces and eliminate the hostile forces in loop seven, correct?"

"Indeed. That should align with your interest as well, no?"

That was true. Loop seven was a threat to Tokyo no matter how you looked at it. Getting rid of it was something that needed to be done regardless of the situation. So, let's just say Iwamoto formed an alliance with this so called king of Eden to destroy the Loop Seven opposition and rescue that queen of his. He would have to deliver on his promise and free them all as he could hardly survive in Tokyo as long as the walls remained intact. Until they get to that point, Iwamoto, as an ally, would have enough time to get close to that queen that is said to control the virus, assuming what Ouma Shu had told him was actually true. The general could use this opportunity to learn more about the enemy and confirm Shu's words for himself. And, if this so called Inori Yuzuriha really was the root of this trouble, perhaps a well thought out assassination could end this mess once and for all? Even if it wouldn't stop the virus from ravaging the world, it could spread enough chaos for Iwamoto and his men to escape from Tokyo. He could reunite with his family and attempt to leave the country. He still had powerful associates that could help him slip through the blockade surrounding Japan. The things he would potentially learn from this so called "alliance" could pose to become a bargaining chip he could potentially use to buy himself and his family into freedom. He was sure the Russian, Chinese, European or American government would be eager to learn of this threat before it reached their shores, after all. The more he would learn in the meantime, the better his chances became.

Yes, the infection of the apocalypse virus would spread in this scenario, but as weird as it sounded, it might have still been the best outcome for him, his men and his family. After all, Shu had been right. Vaccines did exist. And if Iwamoto played his cards correctly, he could get his revenge on not only Ouma Shu for blackmailing him and deceiving the Japanese population, he could also get payback on the government who decided to use him and his men as sacrificial pawns. It would serve them right to have to deal with the virus spreading after refusing to help him containing it inside Tokyo. And it would teach that insolent king to mess with Iwamoto's family, too, seeing how his lover wasn't untouchable, either. Give that brat a taste of his own medicine, so to say.

This could be a chance. And maybe the only one he ever would get. His expression became dark once he realized that following this plan would make him a renegade, but what did it even matter in the end? If everyone had abandoned him, who could blame him for abandoning everyone else as well? To hell with the SDF and to hell with Ouma Shu. Iwamoto Takeshi would now be carving out his own fate for himself and his men.

But first things first:

"I will be frank here, Ouma Shu. I absolutely despise you and your methods and I will never acknowledge your so called kingdom, but you hardly leave me any other choice but to accept your proposal. That being said, if you really want us to work together, you would have to do certain things for us first, as I am sure you already understand yourself."

Shu, for his part, could only smirk with folded arms.

"Oh, trust me, general. The feeling's mutual. Working with a stubborn old fool such as yourself is bound to be a huge pain in the ass, but luckily for us, we don't have to become friends. Only allies. And yes, I am aware that I first need to mend your public image I have shattered for you to remain operational inside Tokyo. For that reason, I intend for you and I to make another broadcast in which I will try to undo the damage I did in my last one. Needless to say, you will also have to play your part from now on. Regardless of the fact of you staying in Eden once this is all over or not, for the remainder of our alliance, you will be working under me. So you better make peace with the fact that you no longer are the SDF, but part of the royal army of Eden. Is that much clear?"

Iwamoto frowned in displeasure, clearly not happy to go that far. However, it was a necessary evil, he supposed. He eyed Takarada and asked: "What do you think, lieutenant' Do you think Koruba and the men will keep following me once I did that? Would you?"

"Under normal circumstances, you would be running into danger of facing mutiny." The brunette man stated while readjusting his glasses, followed by offering him a calm smile. "But I think under these circumstances, you will likely find a lot of support. At least from me, that is. Lieutenant Koruba is also a reasonable man and should understand that this is just something we will have to accept for now. It's either this or…well…you know." The man gulped and Iwamoto nodded in agreement. They hardly were in the position to refuse, as he was well aware. He sighed and looked at Shu once more.

"Very well, then. I shall accept your proposal, Ouma Shu." He extended his right hand towards the brunette king. "Until we have defeated our enemies in Loop seven and freed your woman as well as ourselves, we shall remain allies."

"A wise decision, general." The king said as he accepted the general's handshake. "You will hear from my people soon regarding our next moves. Please note that I expect absolute cooperation from your side from now on. It is crucial for our success." Following this, he gave his men the signal to free the hostages and return to his side. His men were quick to comply. Both forces eyed each other coldly, but no one attempted to draw their weapons on the other, which was good enough for Shu for now.

"With this I will take my leave if that's fine with you?" Shu stated as he prepared himself to depart. However, lieutenant Takarada surprised them all by asking:

"General, asking for permission to accompany the king of Eden for the time being."

"What? Why?" Both Iwamoto and Shu asked the the same time.

"Ouma Shu is the leader of the evos, er, I mean Genesis, right? Wouldn't hurt to find out more about them, no?" He offered Iwamoto before turning to Shu. "Also, there is a certain individual I need to locate. She is a Genesis, so I would stand better chances at your base of operation, wouldn't I?"

Both men frowned at him. He wasn't wrong, but…

It was dangerous, Iwamoto thought. If Ouma Shu were to realize Iwamoto secretly planned to betray him the first chance he got, Takerada was sure to die…but gathering intelligence through him would be very efficient. Takarada wouldn't feed him false intel, after all.

He didn't need some military spy/informant following him around, Shu thought. What a pain. Then again, it would be a sign of goodwill to accept the SDF into his ranks. Right now, Shu was positive he came off as a pushy overlord forcing his subjects into submission. Perhaps if he could show this lieutenant that his kingdom wasn't as bad and oppressive as it would seem, the relationship between the former SDF and his kingdom could improve and form a more reliable alliance than merely the one they had forged out of convenience? It would be nice to have genuine support from a human faction for once. The betrayal of the Undertakers still was a sore spot for the brunette monarch. If he wanted a kingdom in which Genesis and humans truly could coexist in peace, accepting Takerada could possibly be the first step into that direction.

Sighing after coming to that realization, the king eventually said: "Fine with me, I suppose. But he will have to behave." He told the general.

Hearing this, Iwamoto closed his eyes for a second and thought about it. When he opened his eyes, he asked his lieutenant: "Are you sure about this, lieutenant?"

"Yes, sir. I think that it would be in everyone's interest for me to go."

"Very well. If this is what you think, I will permit it. We will stay in touch."

"Yes, sir." He saluted dutifully, then approached Shu. "I will be in your care for the time being, Mr. Ouma."

"That's king Ouma to you." One of the Genesis escorting Shu told him harshly.

"Er, alright. King Ouma, then. My bad."

"Welcome aboard, lieutenant." Shu casually greeted the man into his ranks, following by checking if everyone was with him before finally announcing: "If this is all, I will be on my way then, general."

"Yes. I suppose you will find the exit with Takerada with you yourselves? I will tell lieutenant Koruba to let you pass should you run into him on your way out."

"Thank you. Until next time." Shu gave a polite bow and turned around to head for the door, being closely accompanied by his followers who had assumed a defensive formation around him with him in the center. Before he left through the door, however, he added one more thing:

"General, I am sure I don't need to say this, but it would be unwise to try and betray me. I would hate to shoot a little girl for real next time. Remember that." Then he simply walked out of the room without waiting for the general's response.

It was quiet in the room for a short while before Iwamoto eventually kicked over a wastebasket in fury. "Son of a damn bitch. Don't think this is over just yet."

-GC-

"Mission successful, guys. Send over a guy to pick us up." Shu reported in satisfaction as he spoke into his earpiece. He then sighed tiredly and massaged the back of his neck. This talk with the general had drained him. It's been a while since he had had to act like a heartless monster. He surprisingly was still rather good at it. Somehow he wondered whether that was a good or a bad thing.

"Good job, Shu. That should get us a step closer to victory." Yahiro praised him, oblivious to the king's heavy thoughts.

"As expected of Shu." Hare agreed proudly.

"Still a long way to go, though. Even with the SDF, conquering Loop seven will be a tough nut to crack." Ayase admitted worriedly.

"That's true." The king agreed with her." We will need to prepare carefully. But for today, I think we have done good."

"Not looking forward to having to integrate the Mananites we rescued, though." Jun mumbled in disgust. "That's bound to be a pain."

"Yeah, no kidding…" Shu said as he threw a knowing look into Arima's way who sent a cold look right back to him, yet remained silent for the time being. That guy was bound to be trouble for sure. It was never easy, was it?

"Do you trust the SDF to actually honor the alliance, though?" Yahiro asked him skeptically. "I can't help but wonder if they won't just attack us the moment they know where we are."

"Of course I don't trust them. But if Iwamoto tries something funny, we will know what there is to do. I am not gonna play nicely next time and told him as such. If he wants to betray us, he will be sorry."

"Are you sure this is a conversation you want me to hear?" Lieutenant Takarada asked him nervously as he walked next to him, even if he couldn't hear what the other side said, just hearing Shu's responses was enough to paint oneself a picture.

The brunette king couldn't help but smirk. "Of course. If the general asks what I am planning, you can tell him what I just said. You and your general would be well advised not to underestimate me, lieutenant." He then dropped his smirk in favor of a friendlier expression. "But enough of that. You had a reason to follow me. Tell me, what is it?"

"I am looking for my sister. I believe she might be a…Genesis, was it?"

The brunette king nodded understandingly. "I see, I see. What's her name?"

"Takarada Ritsu, sir."

Shu stopped walking on the spot, eying him in disbelief.

"Did you just say Ritsu, lieutenant?"

The man's eyes lit up hopefully. "Yes, sir. Do you know her?"

"Unfortunately, I do…" He told him with a frown as he resumed his path. Looking around, lieutenant Takarada noticed that he was far from the only one to share that expression.

"Never knew that bitch had family…" One of the soldiers murmured angrily.

"I know, right? I heard she sold out her own mother for some jewelry."

"I heard it was just for fun." Arima added with an amused chuckle.

"I heard her mother wanted to kill her as soon as she had given birth because she realized Ritsu was a demon."

"Aw, come on! Even I wouldn't believe that one." The soldiers laughed at their own jokes.

"Enough! That's not funny!" The lieutenant yelled and attempted to shut the people around him up by shoving the closest one against another one rudely. "I do not know what you guys' problem is, but I will let you know that Ritsu is a good and lovely girl with a pure heart and soul."

That was the moment everyone around him burst out into vehement laughter. Even Shu couldn't keep a straight face.

"Good one, man."

"Yeah guys, come on. Everybody knows Saint Ritsu descends the battlefield on her angelic white wings and punishes evil."

"Yeah, she will transform into a magical girl and yell: "In the name of justice, I will punish you!""

"Guys, stop. I'm gonna piss myself."

Although Shu found this whole conversation funny as well, he eventually felt the need to end it once he saw lieutenant Takarada getting dangerously close to the boiling point at which even his discipline might have ended up failing him.

"Enough, everyone. We aren't home yet, so eyes forward and mouths closed." He ordered, although his voice betrayed him when he tried to hide his own amusement in this topic. Noticing this, his followers smirked, yet complied.

"Yes, my liege."

"Don't take it too personal, lieutenant." Shu then directed his words towards the angry man. "But you likely won't hear many good things about your sister."

"I noticed…" He grumbled as he eyed everyone around him angrily, who attempted to not look at him in order to avoid laughing again. One had to chuckle and got elbowed by his friend next to him to make him snap out of it. "But at least I have confirmation that she is alive, so there is that. What else can you tell me about her?"

"I think we should continue this conversation in private…" Shu told him as he gestured to the people around them. The brunette military officer saw himself forced to agree, albeit not without a bitter expression.

"Seems you have many people wanting to talk to you, my king." Arima noted casually, looking forward in a bored manner before throwing a quick glance into Shu's direction. "Hope you haven't forgotten me."

"How could I ever…?" The guilty monarch rolled his eyes at him. "It's not like you remind me every time I look into your general direction."

"Smartass." Arima growled in annoyance.

"Pain in the ass." Shu shot back.

"I see, you get along just fine with your subjects, King Ouma." Lieutenant Takarada noted with a smirk.

"Oh, shut up, both of you. This has been far too long a day as it is." He told them as he massaged his temples in attempt to prevent a headache to start acting up. He missed Inori. Her soothing silence beat this annoying bickering any day. It was even better when he caught her subconsciously humming a song to herself. Now THAT was something worth listening to, let him tell you.

Much to the king's relief, the rest of the journey ended up being one of silence as well. His soldiers would keep talking to themselves quietly, but he was able to block them out. Takarada spent most of his time talking to another lieutenant on the radio, explaining him what had happened which was annoying, but it was better than having him probe him with more questions regarding that bitch Ritsu. He would have never thought he would end up going to war with a Takarada again. Shu frowned. If this lieutenant ended up being anything like his sister, he definitely couldn't be trusted. Perhaps he should ditch him somewhere to be sure? If he had known about his blood beforehand, he wouldn't have taken him with him, that's for sure. What a pain. At least Iwamoto won't try doing something funny while his lieutenant was with him…right?

And don't get him started on Arima who seemed to be an absolute loyalist to the previous queen. The last thing he needed was some idiot stirring up trouble by rallying up his Genesis against him, not that Shu thought he would actually succeed in doing that. Shu thought he enjoyed a good standing right now and intended to keep it that way, but who knew how his people back home would react to the news of him coming back with a bunch of Mananites? There was no doubt he would have to deal with this issue sooner than later. If only Inori was here…she was good with talking Genesis into getting along. She had done so for many years…maybe Jun could help him out somehow?

He yawned. Man, just thinking about this got him tired as hell. How late was it already? He sure hoped he would actually get enough time to sleep before he was plunged headfirst into yet another battle, be it a mental or physical one.

Sure enough, by the time they ran into this Lieutenant Koruba guarding the entrance to the airport, he let them pass without a fight. Either Iwamoto or Takarada had managed to relay the information in time for them to avoid any trouble. While the Genesis and human soldiers couldn't avoid eying each other warily, no one acted up and Shu managed to leave the airport without another fight. The civilian crowd from before was nowhere to be seen, the only indication of them ever having been here had been the giant hole in the fence as well as the burnt barricades. The police and a couple ambulances were seen nearby, but Shu and his followers avoided making contact and simply snuck out where the eyes of the public were unable to see them. Then they decided to wait for their ride in some barely lit parking lot near the airport.

About five minutes later, a military SUV rounded the corner and came to a halt in front of them. Shu's bodyguards drew their voids warily, but got quickly ordered to put them down once the king recognized the driver to be Jimmy who greeted them with a frown. "Oi, that ought to be a tight squeeze if you all want to get in here."

"Don't worry, we can reduce the number drastically." Shu assured him as he held out his void arm. Getting the message, the former Mananites got into his void one after another. Arima, however, chose to stay outside with folded arms, clearly not seeing the need to comply which annoyed Shu, but not enough to waste his time and breath on arguing about it. Under the watchful eye of the Genesis soldier on the mounted gun on top of the SUV, Shu gestured for Takarada and Arima to get in on the backseat, while he went around and entered the front seat next to Jimmy.

"Congratulations on your successful mission, my king." Jimmy complimented him with a thumbs-up before he commenced to drive them back home.

"Thanks. I am glad we managed to finish this without having to shed too much blood." He told him while letting his head rest on his hand tiredly.

"Aye, this could have been a mess if we had simply stormed them head on."

"True, that strategy seldom pays out." Takarada agreed with him.

"And who are you?"

"Takarada Ritsu's brother." Arima told him with a smirk, causing Jimmy to nearly lose control of the vehicle in surprise as he turned around to face them.

"That bitch got a brother?"

"Oi, eyes on the road, big guy!" Shu scolded him angrily while hitting his shoulder.

"I would really appreciate if you would stop referring to my sister in that way…" Takarada replied with eyes shut from anger, trying to patiently control the urge to hit Jimmy. Not least because attacking the driver of the vehicle one was sitting in might not have been the smartest thing to do…

"Leaving Mr. Onii-chan aside…" Jimmy muttered to Shu. "What does that bastard do here?" He nudged his head into Arima's direction. This earned him a raised brow from the king.

"You know him?"

"'Course I know him. Bastard is the leader of Judgment. Or what's left of it anyway." The American added the last part with an annoyed roll of the eyes.

"What was that? You got something to say there?" The dark haired man in the back growled at Jimmy.

"Your filthy Mananites killed more of my friends than I can count. I say we just put a bullet in him and dump his corpse into the nearest river, Shu." The US soldier suggested while sending an ice cold glare back to Arima with the help of the vehicle's driving mirror. A glare the black haired man sent right back at him.

"You are welcome to try."

"Enough!" The king commanded harshly. "Or I will kick both of you out and let you WALK back."

Following this threat, the car was plunged into silence as everyone was unwilling to take Shu up on that offer. And so they quietly drove off into the night, back to a hideout that was, without a doubt, about to become even livelier than before.

Shu just hoped it wasn't about to become a hornet's nest that had been kicked open. That was pretty much the last thing he needed. However, if the atmosphere in this car was any indication, a hornet's nest was what he was about to get. He sighed.

Kingship sure sucked. And yet, ultimately it was a small price to pay to be with Inori.

He was willing to go to war for her, might as well do politics, too. How hard could it be?

He frowned. Don't answer that question.

He would think about it later. But now…just for a moment…

…let him rest.

His eyelids grew heavy, as did his head…now leaning against the window to his right, he gradually felt his mind slip away. Sleep would undoubtedly be short lived, but heck if he wouldn't try to get the most enjoyment out of it as he possibly could.

After all, who knew when he would get another moment of peace and quiet as the king of this troublesome kingdom where he could consider himself lucky to merely hear people arguing with each other by the time he woke up again, rather than the sound of them ripping out each other's throats…

…

On second thought, perhaps he should scratch that nap, after all…

---

Finally done. As I said, I hope the chapter was okay as I would just like to finally put it behind me in favor of working on cooler stuff. I think what's about to happen next will actually excite you all way more than any of the events in this chapter possibly ever could have, no matter how much effort I put into perfecting it, but if I get enough feedback telling me otherwise, I guess I will just revisit this one until everyone is happy with it. Wouldn't want to disappoint my readers, after all.

Don't forget to tell me your thoughts, critique or questions. You can either leave a review (don't forget to log-in, if you have an account), write a PM or join my discord here:

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See ya all next time :D

-GKOS