Chapter 10- Impotent Forces
Kirito and Yui followed Yoshida away from the stadium, trying to blend into the background.
After all we're just a father and daughter doing our thing, he wouldn't expect anything less.
Thing is though he's making a lot of twists and turns. He's weaving through shared facilities into team facilities, into neutral areas but why?
Anyway… Kirito glanced at Yui who was striding alongside him carefully.
I need the distraction. That match was bloody difficult and kicking the ball of the pitch, that was… me trying to play hero in a place that I didn't know anything about. Typical!
A certain Scottish voice came into his ear.
"Still rattled Kirito?"
Yoshida was moving down into one of the fan towns.
"How can you guess Muldar?"
There was a laugh close to a snickering cartoon dog in his ear.
"It's obvious. Remember I can see your avatar from outside camera too."
Fureru… although normally you watch from heads up display to be fair.
The Scotsmans tone turned serious
"Seriously though don't sweat it, Asuna put you and Yui on tailing duty for a reason. You still have skills so keep on tailing him like a rash as she said."
Kirito nodded at Yui
"I'll bounce back, any idea where Yoshida is going though?"
There was a short pause
"Honestly I'm just as confused as you are Kirito. I don't know how you're feeling but with the twists and turns Yoshida is making he's making my head spin."
No kidding but why? We've been at this for over an hour now and we're well away from the Amity Stadium.
Felix would let us know if Yoshida was one of the good guys or not.
Would he now…?
No, you know better than that! Muldar stuck up for you while you were both in the Knights of The Blood and before that. Always one to have a chat and smooth things over with the other guilds if needs be. Also brilliantly perceptive which has its advantages…
Still that champion of transparency!
After what he said about me in his interview with the IBC after publishing his book of poems and prose about Aincrad. Gave me some warning and then stuck his boot right up….
He felt a squeeze of his hand as Yui turned her head towards a glass covered over stadium that Yoshida was going into called Vibrant Park.
"Let's keep on going Papa-Chan there are a couple of hospitality suites in this stadium. Maybe he's going into one of them?"
Kirito nodded
"Could well be."
Closing their distance ever so slightly the pair followed Yoshida into a sports bar where he found a table and sat down. Both Yui and Kirito took a position nearby. Then Kiritos daughter took a photo.
"Papa Chan, he's waiting to meet someone."
Good point but who?
Both father and daughter watched as Yoshida seemed to relax, have a drink and take notes. Fifteen minutes passed then twenty. He checked his watch.
Then a completely unexpected figure appeared causing Yui to flinch.
"Isn't she supposed to be a suspect?"
Kiritos' face was full of thunder as Megan strode into view.
"Something we should know about Felix?"
There was what sounded like a table being slapped in the background as the unlikely pair walked towards a lift leading to the VIP suites. As Kirito and Yui started to follow Yoshida a message flashed across their heads up displays.
"Put it this way it's something for me to be having a few "remonstrations" about. You two see what Yoshida is doing with Naismith. Don't forget your administrator privileges."
Nice reminder and Yui's been checking where Yoshida and Megan are going. So, let's go into the lift and head to the top floor.
A couple of minutes later they were on the high virtual plexiglass type floors of the stadium and yui was being sharper than glass.
"Dad there's only one conference room that's occupied. If we go to the one next to it then we can watch them talk."
As the pair watched saw Yoshida talk like a dog that had just a leash taken off them and they were hearing Megan talk freely too as they sat at a table.
"Gupta's been trying to sort something out. I don't know what though she'd said she'd get back to me on that."
Yoshida looked upwards
"Is the final round still proceeding?"
Megan nodded
"Yeah, it's been moved to another hidden location though."
Yoshida closed his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief.
"Thank goodness. At least those fools haven't managed to stop everything that's going on."
Megan looked around.
"No but those bastards are still after me and now Asunas playing too."
Yoshida raised an eyebrow
"Asuna's a good player, she'll be fine."
Megan shook her head.
"Asuna's a legend of a player but she's just that a player. Not a soldier!"
Then she teleported to another area leaving the Japanese rugby player in the room alone taking deep breaths. Then he raised a hand.
"I know you're out there. I have administrator privileges too."
Which means he's spotted us. Time to go into the room and face him.
Yoshida finally saw the two of them as Yui stepped forward.
"What were you doing with Megan Yoshida-san?"
The response was a diplomatic brush-off ignoring the kid.
"I'm sorry Kirito I can't tell you. It's for your own safety. "
Bad idea to brush off my daughter sir and
"…For our own safety but we're here to help!"
Yoshida shook his head
" Why no- Who brought you here?"
Brought us here? Brought him here…
"Felix Mulcahy, didn't he bring you here too?"
Yoshida placed his hands on the conference table.
"Felix? Then who is my primary diving bell?"
Kirito and Yui stared at each other in shock.
He's operating under diving bell protocol?! We need to let Asuna know.
But who could it be-
Yui beat to him to it.
"Rika or Lisbeth?"
The amateur rugby player turned towards the young girl recognition flooding his face. But before he could confirm her answer, he transformed into a white and red rugby ball which vanished as a whistle sounded.
Yui covered her mouth as she swore under her breath.
"…Papa chan, he's been logged out!"
Kirito turned.
"Can you trace him?"
His daughter gave him a pained look causing Kirito to gently squeeze her hand.
Once she would have been able to do that. But now…
"Not a chance Dad, I'm going to try something else though."
She brought up a console and sent a message…
Half a minute later a couple appeared wearing football shirts. Eugeo and Asuna or the new Cardinals and in the craziness of the situation Yui was trying to avoid her mouth relaxing into a smile and wincing instead as she stared over the jerseys they were wearing.
"I never knew those two were rivals dad."
Kirito shook his head
"They're not."
A bemused look came across Yuis face.
"Then why are they wearing Celtic and Rangers shirts?"
Alice had a small smile on her face as she wore the green and white hoops of Celtic.
"It is possible to like teams from the same city and still be together Yui."
Yui remembered something that Asuna told her once.
"Of course but it must be a pretty tense relationship given the two teams you're supporting…"
Eugeo winked while wearing his jersey cottoned on.
"Take part in the Old Firm Derby? Old, bitter enemies can have some common ground though Yui-chan. Besides how has life in the real world been?"
Yui smiled at Eugeo
"It's been different, happier with mum and dad…"
She paused
"But why can't you locate the missing rugby players?"
Alices' expression darkened.
"Because whatever's happening to them is being caused from offline and whoever's doing it isn't crossing the boundary that we can step in at. We can't stop anything unless it's to avoid direct or indirect killing…"
Reminds me of something Asuna in a select committee meeting said about the new Cardinal system.
"Checks and balances?"
Alice gave a quick nod.
"You've got a sharp bride to be. The most we could do would be to release them but theoretically… "
Yui stared at Eugeo
"Did Rika talk about this with you?"
Alice nodded
"It was the first thing that she did when people started disappearing. We did our best to track Hasketh and the other players ourselves. But whoever is doing this knows our limits of what we can do and is keeping well beyond them."
She gave the pair of them a sad smile.
"We'll talk to Megan when the time is right and see if we can persuade her to be co-operative. But that's the best we can do at this point. It's a shame though none of us are powerful-"
The end of Alices' remark was muffled by Shino.
"Everyone, log out as soon as possible for an urgent update."
What?!
"Can't it be delivered online?"
The response was quick.
"That's too insecure Kirito, you're all done for today in any case. Asuna's already offline."
Which means she must have got the news before us. But what could it be though?
Alice turned to Eugeo who had a sad smile on his face.
"We have to go too, there are other matters that need our attention. Good seeing you two though and good luck."
But as they disappeared and as Kirito logged off, something Alice had said tugged at him but he couldn't quite put his finger on why.
When he pulled off the visor of the Amusphere in the police station he sat up to see that Asuna was leaning against a wall and slowly shaking her head as she stared at her phone .
"What's happened?"
"My father received a message from the Justice Ministry saying that Sugou escaped from Tokyo Detention House and left the country one month ago."
What the…?
Yui covered her mouth as Shino stepped into the room, her mouth a savage line stretched across her face with her fists clenched.
"It's been confirmed. Even worse it was an inside job covered up by rogue ministry officials, which is why we haven't been told by our utterly useless, embarrassed albeit apologetic government until now! "
Kirito suddenly felt like his body temperature had plummeted as the full force of what Alice had said finally slashed through him.
None of us are powerful in the ways that we used to be,
Aren't we Kirito?
A/N: Well that was an utter arm wrestle of a chapter to write! A lot has happened since A Match For Their Lives began, a certain "politician" becoming prime minister, a rugby world cup, and a lot of events including Coronavirus. But a lot of the themes in this story remain the same even if it has become more and more alternative universe, including its main one of winning and losing particularly as we in the UK head towards a no deal. Thank you to those who've encouraged me with this story I hope I can continue to do you justice, with maybe just maybe increased speed!
P.S DaManWithoutFear I hope you don't mind my little nod to your fanfic rather later on in this chapter.