Reconstruction
By: Aviantei
Chapter Twenty-Two
Recruit II
"Where are you taking me?" Kuroh asked. They hadn't been wandering around for too long—no longer than half an hour—but it hadn't been a straight shot. It was always heading down one road one moment, then dashing across a random crosswalk the next. They'd gotten on one train that headed across town, but even then Urumana hadn't taken any concrete path. On the one hand, Kuroh could understand taking him straight to their destination, but there was a certain point where he couldn't help but feel like he was being toyed with.
"So, so serious, Yatogami-chan. Doesn't that get exhausting?" Kuroh didn't bother to deign that with an answer, and Urumana sighed. "Fine, fine, I know when someone doesn't want to play along with me. I'm capable of taking a hint." And yet he hadn't answered the question at all. "If I were pressed to give you an answer, I'd say I'm taking you to where you need to go."
Talking in riddles again, Kuroh thought, his exasperation growing with each and every step they took together. Were he dealing with anyone else, Kuroh might have drawn his sword with the threat to be straightforward, but Ichigen-sama had gotten along with the man (though Kuroh couldn't quite comprehend why), so he was restraining himself out of pure respect.
That restraint wasn't bound to last long.
But I need to do it. This man is the only one who has a possible clue to find Shiro.
Neko missed him. None of her hyper energy had faded, and she still could be cheered up by a good meal at the right time, but Kuroh knew she'd been lonely since he was going out most days.
(Kuroh was lonely, too.)
"Is this how you treat all your customers?" Kuroh asked, managing to keep most of the bite out of his voice. Urumana just hummed as he turned yet another corner. "I'm starting to wonder how you're still in business."
"To be technical, you're not a customer because I'm taking pity on you." Kuroh grimaced, since he couldn't deny it. Urumana's smile didn't fade in the slightest. "But, yes, I use the same methods, no matter what. It's part of my process—and I'm still in business because it works." He stood in front of the door of a tall apartment building, flashing Kuroh a grin. "We're about to head upstairs. You wanna run away?"
Kuroh didn't bother to answer, storming his way past Urumana and through the door.
As it were, Kuroh didn't have a concrete idea of where he was going, so he had to defer to Urumana, but he'd made his point well enough. Once inside, Urumana led the way to the elevator, pulled a key card from his pocket, and held it against the scanner before pressing a button for one of the highest floors. He even went far enough as to hum along with the music playing all the way up.
It was better than getting nowhere, though. There was that much.
Once the elevator completed its climb, Urumana sauntered out the door, Kuroh on his heels. It was nothing more than a long hallway with a door partway down, and Kuroh's head swam to think of the cost of such a place. Pulling out an altogether different key, Urumana opened the door, leading into what seemed to be a rather expansive penthouse. Someone peeked their head over the couch in curiosity, but they didn't display any immediate ill intent, so Kuroh kept his hand away from his sword for the time being, while Urumana headed through an open doorway.
"Are you planning to explain—"
There was a shout of surprise, though not from Urumana. Someone had collided with him in the door, a young man who looked stunned for a moment before recognizing just who he'd bumped into and shouting, "King!"
Urumana Nezuto.
The Green King—otherwise known as Yggdrasil's Odin.
"Yo," Urumana said, raising a hand in a way. "Looking good, there, Nigei. Something good happen to you?" The so-called Nigei let out a nervous laugh. "Lemme guess. Our lovely lieutenants are kicking up a fuss again?" The clansman's grimace was confirmation enough, and Urumana strode right past him. Nigei gawked after his leader, while YMB was gawking at Kuroh in return. "Come along, Yatogami-chan! You haven't met my seconds-in-command, have you?"
Kuroh slipped through the path that had been left open for him, though he kept his eyes sharp. Ichigen-sama and Yggdrasil had never been enemies, but Ichigen-sama wasn't around anymore, so Kuroh had no idea how he felt about being in the middle of another clan's territory with no one even knowing where he was. "If you were going to use all your resources to help, I feel like you could've done so sooner."
"I don't give out freebies, Yatogami-chan. Ahem, Liah-chan, Tarashi-chan, if you could." A man well over two-meters tall and the woman who'd been sassing him both fell silent in an instant, both of them dipping their heads to Urumana. "Ugh, knock that off, will ya? Gives me to heebie jeebies. Now." Urumana hopped up onto the closest table, taking a seat with his legs crossed. "Me taking pity on you was just to give you this chance—
"Welcome to the negotiating table, Yatogami Kuroh."
"Alright," Izumo called over the bustle of the whole of HOMRA assembled in the bar, "let's get ourselves started everyone!"
Of course, attempting to get everyone to go quiet at once was an impossible task, or at least for him. Mikoto could've handled it just by standing up, but he was a very different sort of man than Izumo. Still, his opening remarks were enough to get some people to calm down, which created a slow ripple effect that made it all the way to the opposite end of the bar.
Izumo wasn't sure if it was getting easier. He also wasn't sure if things getting easier would a good thing or not.
"Well, I guess we should get right to it and agree that yesterday got some pretty unexpected results," he said. HOMRA had its own communication system, so he was certain everyone gathered there had at least some idea of what had happened at the hospital, but it was best to make sure that everyone had the exact same intel before they carried on. "In the middle of trying to help our guests here, Yata and the others happened to run right into not just the Blues, but also Níðhöggr—the Black Clan."
"Black?" HMA asked. "I thought those guys weren't active anymore."
"They haven't been for several years. But yesterday proved that they're out and about again—or at least some of them were." It was more difficult to say so with just laying eyes on one member, but Izumo felt plenty confident in his assessment. "Besides, he made it pretty clear there's a new Black Clan around. They're looking for something—and they don't care who gets caught up in it."
"Pardon me," Eri said, raising Mi-chan's paw in her hand. "Would you mind elaborating? Since Hitomi and I don't know much about the Clans, I think it would be best if we know more—especially if we can't avoid them going forward."
Her choice in words made it clear that she and Hitomi had no intention of backing down from their request, no matter what kind of danger they could be in. Izumo hadn't been planning on attempting to convince her otherwise, but she did have a point in that sharing information was going to be the best move.
"That's fine," Izumo said. "Some of us don't know very much about the Black Clan, either, since they haven't been an issue for a while." Anna in particular was one of them, the girl (sat in Eri's lap), tilted her head in silent question. "Níðhöggr used to cause a lot of trouble, attacking other clans. Their previous King seemed to be bent on nothing but causing chaos. In the end, they stopped whenever their King was killed, but their death was due to their own Damocles Down—ah, whenever a King extends their power to the limit and their sword crashes to the ground."
"The _ incident," Hitomi muttered, putting the pieces together.
"Yes, that's right. Even worse, it seemed that they were trying to self-destruct. The current theory is that they made themself an enemy just to set themself off—as if they were attempting to do nothing but push to the limit." It was an awful use of the power of a King, and it left an even more sour taste in Izumo's mouth after Mikoto had gone far enough to sacrifice himself so as not to repeat such an explosion. "Of course, whenever it comes to Clans, there's no guarantee they'll follow their predecessors when a new King is crowned. But everything that our friend yesterday said made it sound as if there's at least some connection to the previous Níðhöggr."
"So it's safe to assume we're dealing with the same fucked up people," HMB said.
"That is a good way to put it, yes." Anyone that wanted destruction for the sake of destruction was someone that Izumo couldn't see himself understanding anytime soon. "Whoever their current King is or what they're aiming to do, the new power they grant didn't seem very pleasant."
"You got that right," Yata said, grimacing. Izumo hadn't been impacted too much, but Yata had been there in the forefront. "After that pretty boy used his powers on me, it felt awful, like I was nauseous, and I couldn't summon my flames, either." Just imagining it was enough for Izumo to grimace, and almost everyone else looked the same. Once you got used to that fire burning bright inside you, even feeling it dimmed was almost unbearable since Mikoto was gone.
Letting it go out would no doubt feel cold, or even like death.
"So we're dealing with more dangerous people here. That's what you're saying," Hitomi said. After she'd come downstairs with Yata, she'd dropped onto a couch next to Eri and leaned back—the one thing missing from her image of bravado was kicking her boots up on the coffee table, but someone must've warned her, because she'd refrained. Even so, beneath that, there was a faint tremble in her voice that was no doubt an aftermath of being impacted by the Black Aura during the battle. "Are we even going to find Ruyaki at this rate…?"
Izumo's instincts told him to say something comforting that could help, but that felt irresponsible, not whenever he couldn't guarantee they'd be able to find who they were looking for, let alone keeping Eri and Hitomi safe in the first place.
And then Eri used Mī-chan to bop Hitomi in the head.
"It's going to be alright, Hitomi-chan," Eri said, a reassuring smile on her face. "We already decided whenever we started, didn't we? That we were going to do whatever we needed to do to find out what happened to Ruyaki, for better or worse. Just because there's another clan involved doesn't change anything, now does it?"
Don't know why I bothered to worry. That Eri-chan's got guts of steel. If she wasn't going to back down, then Izumo couldn't be going and having second thoughts, now could he? "Well said, Mademoiselle. As for HOMRA, we can't just sit by whenever another Clan comes to pick a fight, right?" Everyone cheered and roared their approval, which was all the support Izumo needed. "If you're here and willing to come along for the ride, then we'll keep working on your quest in the meantime. Sound good?"
"Sounds perfect," Eri said, and Hitomi nodded. Izumo noticed Yata's eyes lingering on the younger girl, but that was an interesting development he could poke at in a far less tense time. "If was thinking, though. If there's another Clan that's willing to attack unprompted, isn't it going to be dangerous for Hitomi and me to go around as we have been?"
"You're not wrong about that." It wasn't to say that Yata wasn't a good vanguard—he'd gotten them through their scrapes so far, after all—but it was much more dangerous whenever another Clan was targeting them. "That the new Níðhöggr can limit our powers makes them much more dangerous. No offense, Yata, but if that happens, you won't be enough to protect them. If you're going out, you're going to have to go with more people."
"…So long as we're not trapped here," Hitomi said.
"That wasn't the plan." Yeah, Izumo wasn't foolish enough to think that he could get away with trying to restrain either Hitomi or Eri from doing what they wanted. The best move was to just ensure they had proper protection whenever they did go out, instead of tempting them to run off on their own. "For now, I think it should be alright to go out—so long as you have at least two or three of us with you." Those numbers would at least be enough to buy time for the girls to get away in a dire situation where the Black Clan brought enough people to overwhelm their forces in battle.
"What about me?" Anna asked.
Everyone, Izumo included, fell to silence. It was Eri who asked, "You, Anna-chan?"
"I'm good…at finding things." In general, Anna didn't explain her unique skillset to anyone, but she and Eri must've gotten along well enough for Anna to trust her. That was something Mikoto had always let Anna decide for herself, and Izumo intended to follow in that practice. "If you want me to, I could try looking again."
"If you could, then we'd appreciate it."
That was all Anna needed, hopping off of Eri's lap to go over trot around the corner, pulling out the map she kept for such occasions. Yata, HMB, and HMC, as they were closest to the table, pulled away their drinks and made a show of pretending to dust the space off, as if Izumo hadn't given it a thorough wipe down just that morning. Whenever Anna returned and laid out her map, Eri and Hitomi both leaned forward, looking over it in fascination. Anna reached into her pockets, next, her marbles making their distinct rattling sound as she gathered them in her hands.
"This isn't a Clan Aura, right?" Eri said, sounding curious. Anna was focusing on the marbles she was holding to her chest, so Izumo strode over to them, taking it on the role of explaining.
"No. It's a Strain ability." There was doubtless much more to Anna's power and history before HOMRA, but she'd never offered the information, and none of them had ever asked. Whatever she'd been through before didn't matter, not whenever she'd long since decided HOMRA was her true home. "That said, I'm not capable of explaining all the ins and outs. But I can guarantee that, so long as Anna's power can find what she's looking for, what it shows us will be accurate."
Curious, Eri and Hitomi both leaned forward again to watch—not that anything was happening just yet. The results of the ability were impressive, but the build-up was unobtrusive, nothing more than Anna concentrating on sending her power out to search before waiting for the results to come back. The time could vary as well, and it seemed that they were in for a long haul, which wasn't all that surprising.
If finding the boy whose body had killed Mikoto was easy, they would've done it a long time ago.
Izumo caught himself frowning and shook the thought away. That was an altogether different matter and—if the Black Clan were out and about—nowhere near the priority. All things considered, it would be best to complete Eri and Hitomi's request as soon as possible so they could get out of the way before another Clan War exploded. And if Anna could give them a hint in that direction? Then there was no reason not to let her use her power if she was willing.
And then, in the respectful hush that everyone had given Anna to focus, a knock resounded on the front door.
In the next instant, everyone's head had turned to Izumo, waiting for his instruction. Given that the bar's operation hours were posted by the entrance, it couldn't have been any ordinary visitor. Well, if an enemy had come to pick a fight, there was no better time to do so then when all of HOMRA was assembled and ready to go.
His mind made up, he nodded to the others, who all kept themselves on alert. Izumo walked to the entrance in three quick strides, one hand tucked into his pocket and curled around his lighter. Other than that, though, she kept his stance casual as he flipped open the lock and swung open the door.
"Seri-chan?" he asked, not having expected her in the slightest.
Just like he didn't expect the clattering from behind him that came from Hitomi and Eri leaping to their feet, glowering at the SCEPTER4 Lieutenant with much more vitriol than Izumo's own clan members.
Nothing can ever be easy, now can it?
[Author's Notes]
Happy anniversary to this fic! I swear none of my stories are dead, no matter how much I get distracted by new, shiny things.
Massive thanks to TheRoseShadow21 for the review! You're a champ!
I have an appointment so I don't have much time to leave a note, but we did get a fun reveal this chapter!
I don't have a prediction of when the next chapter will be out, but it will arrive. Please look forward to it!
[17 March 2025]