(A New Fate! What will happen next to our heroes!? let us see what happens next.)
Bold = English Conversations
Bold Italics = Japanese Conversations
Fate 40
The Otsu four, the name given to the four people responsible for leading Otsu's population to the future they desire and the group that Sora was hoping to meet with at the moment. Sora had been spending the past few hours checking various spots to see if they would be there by chance but so far, none of their usual haunts have proved to be successful. "I didn't think finding the Otsu four would be the hardest part about getting them." Sora said to himself, scratching his head as he wondered where they could have gone in the first place.
"Did they leave Otsu already? That would be bad if that was the case…" Sora mumbled while scratching his head. The last time he met them was at a vineyard near Kazomotsu so they may be traveling around Ikaruga right now trying to create and redirect various criminal elements to settling down in Otsu. Maybe this is part of their plan to further expand Otsu in the future and also eliminate their competition in the process.
But that doesn't help Sora in this case where he was trying to find them in order to talk to them. He tried calling them but they seem to be busy, not responding to his calls. Not even Zhang Pi or Tetsu, two of the more diligent and punctual members of the Otsu four were responding to him. Sora couldn't help but feel concerned that something had happened to them but he couldn't let that be what dominates his train of thought. He needed to go and settle things with them here and now.
"Damn, I am not being very productive just walking around like this. Got to sit down and actually think for a bit." Sora said to himself, tempted to take another seat and think about possible locations the Otsu four could be at. But before he could do so, his eyes immediately caught sight of something that immediately raised his attention. He had been busy checking out various areas of Otsu that he didn't realize that he had managed to walk towards the area where the former NOL Otsu branch was based.
That fact would have been irrelevant were it not for the fact that his eyes were quick to spot Sofia and Vlad of the Otsu four walking into the building. That immediately told him at least Sofia and Vlad were interested in the area but for what reason he did not know. The fact is that he needed to go to them now while he knew they were in the area before they disappeared. Even if Tetsu and Zhang Pi were not with them, it was at least a start with two heads of the Otsu four.
"But why are they here?.." Sora thought to himself as he rushed after them. The fact that they were here in the first place would be weird enough if it wasn't for the fact that their entourage was also missing. Being the Heads in a city of criminals ambitious enough to want the crown for themselves was enough reason to have bodyguards but right now they were on their own, not even a single guard to watch the entrance. Was there something inside they wanted to keep to themselves without any risk of a leak?
Regardless of whatever reason that may exist, Sora was still going to talk to them, guards or no guards. He however wanted to see where their final destination was going to be as he made sure to keep his footsteps as light as possible as to not alert them of his presence. He knew what was down here but was that the only thing they were interested in? Maybe there was something else here in the former NOL branch that they would be interested in.
This seemed to be confirmed to be the case as both Sofia and Vlad walked towards where the offices were instead of the elevator leading to the cauldron. Sora wondered what they could hope to find in said office as they began to rummage through the ransacked tables for any information. "Make sure you leave no stone not turned Vlad. We got to make sure that the NOL didn't take all the information this place had." Sofia said as Sora couldn't help but be curious about that sentence and felt tempted to go and ask them about it.
"Do not worry Sofia, I have no intentions of letting the NOL hide anything from us." Vlad responded, quite serious for once much to Sora's surprise. Their eyes were focused solely on the various items where information would be contained. Whether that would be the several filing cabinets or the few computers that remained, physical and digital information were all examined and not left in a state that would suggest it was not examined. The dust that kicked around the area as a result would have made people sneeze uncontrollably but Sofia and Vlad held their noses, making sure such a thing would not happen.
What could The Otsu Four want from this NOL base that they would go through dust and potential sneezing to find it. Sora couldn't help but think about the possible reasons. Could it be that the NOL has potential dirt on the Otsu four and they were trying to destroy that info before it can get leaked? But wouldn't that information be outdated at this point? And if the information was digital, the could get a hacker to hack into the NOL mainframe and take the information that way.
If it was physical, they would have already gotten someone to sneak into an NOL facility, preferably while it was dealing with a crisis at that time and take the blackmail material at that moment. So why were they going through all of this effort for something that should be irrelevant in the world of the Embryo. Maybe it had something to do with their wishes? Maybe there was research about the Azure that they were seeking at that moment to see how feasible their wish truly was.
"Curious, aren't you Mr Minakaze." The moment Sora heard a voice behind him, he instinctively reached out to pull out the Rev Blade only to feel what felt like 3 nails be pressed on his neck. "Come on now. There's no need for such a reaction Sora. Aren't we friends?" Another voice responded as Sora immediately calmed down and turned around, seeing that behind him was Tetsu and Zhang Pi as he breathed a sigh of relief.
"Well sorry for reacting in what can be seen as a normal human reaction. You two did sneak up behind me." Sora explained as Tetsu shook his head, having already placed his hand on his Katana ready to cut Sora down. "True. Though you can blame Zhang Pi for wanting to tease you. I did tell her to be just direct with you." Tetsu said as Sora chuckled upon hearing that statement, figuring that was going to be something that he would say.
"Oh come on Tetsu, don't be such a bore. Some people just need to be teased." Zhang Pi said as Sora couldn't help but chuckle at that statement. "Oh. It looks like even without our guards people are still curious about us at the end of the day." Vlad said as he raised his hand out towards Sofia as she pouted a little. "I thought it was a good idea to give our boys a break from constantly watching us." Sofia said, giving Vlad a stack of 100 Blaybloo bills, most likely equaling 1000 blaybloo altogether.
"Were you two seriously making bets about our current situation?" Tetsu asked, looking at the two as if he was looking at two children. "What! Vlad was tempting me to make the bet!" Sofia complained, pouting a bit as Vlad simply shrugged his shoulders, "Well that's your own fault for falling for the bait. Not my problem that you cannot resist against my words." Vlad teased, prompting Sofia to pound on his stomach with her weak arms.
"Well… regardless of your reasons coming here alone. I must ask you why you are here in the first place? Surely it cannot be just to find us?" Tetsu questioned, expecting some deeper reason as Sora couldn't help but scratch his head upon hearing that. "What if I told you that was the exact reason why I am here in the first place." The moment Sora said that sentence, Tetsu couldn't help but stare at Sora with some shock before sighing and giving some money to Zhang Pi, suggesting that they had made a separate bet from Vlad and Sofia's own bet.
"Well in any case, you have found us… again." Tetsu said as Zhang Pi couldn't help but look at Sora with some curiosity in her eyes. "So tell me, what made you want to find us this quickly? Shouldn't you be instead with your girlfriend in this whole mess?" Zhang Pi questioned as Sora took a deep breath, knowing that he needed to choose his words carefully for this. "Well… right now I am separated from her. Not really by choice in this case." Sora explained as this intrigued the Otsu Four by what he had said.
"Can I ask you all a serious question? And I am going to be blunt with it." Sora said as the Otsu four were surprised to hear what Sora had said. The fact that Sora was being serious with them was not the bizarre part but the fact that Sora was asking them directly without any other questions first told them that what Sora had for them was truly serious. "Very well, ask your question." Tetsu said as Sora took a deep breath upon hearing that, readying himself for what was next.
"I want you all to tell me if you have met the imperator and she told you that your wish can be granted." The moment Sora asked his question, the Otsu four immediately became silent as that silence spoke more than any answer that they could have given. They looked at each other, wondering to each other how they should answer him as Sora took another deep breath. "I know that you guys have wishes that you all want to be granted, but I am here to tell you all that they won't be granted regardless of what happens next." Sora continued, knowing he had to say that before they got any other ideas, to sow on the idea that what the Imperator told them may not be all the truth.
The Otsu four remained silent, staring at each other and wondering how they should proceed. "I think we should take this conversation down at the cauldron. The place is quiet enough that nobody should be able to hear what is about to be said next, let alone think about approaching in the first place." Vlad suggested as Sora nodded his head in agreement. Soon he and the Otsu Four rode down the elevator with each other, Sora right in the middle with a member of the Otsu Four flanking him in a cardinal direction.
"I am guessing that you met the imperator yourself? In front of what she called god?" Sofia questioned as Sora simply nodded his head and gave a grunt, letting her know that she got that question right. "Did she also tell you that your wish can be granted if you go after a specific person?" Sofia continued as Sora did not hesitate to answer by nodding his head, knowing well that remaining silent at that point would simply raise suspicion at that moment. "And I am guessing that you don't even know where this person is right now and judging by the fact that you are separated from Makoto that you are also trying to find the person as well." Vlad questioned.
"You know, if you guys were not criminals in the first place, I would say that you all would have a future business in information gathering." Sora complimented. "But at the end of the day, I think being criminals suits you guys more." Sora added, smiling as the Otsu four couldn't help but feel a bit warm at that comment. "Flattery will not get you anywhere Mr Minakaze. But a compliment is a compliment." Tetsu said as Zhang Pi chuckled upon hearing that statement.
"Oh don't mind little Tetsu here. He just cannot help but want you to flatter him a little bit." Zhang Pi teased, prompting Tetsu to hit her stomach lightly with the scabbard of his katana. Zhang Pi merely chuckled as Sora smiled to himself, knowing that the Otsu four were simply enjoying themselves but at the end of the day, he still needed to take what he was going to be doing seriously otherwise he may find himself losing heart to stop them from achieving their dreams.
"But compliments are not something the Miracle Bringer gives easily without a reason no?" Vlad said as Sora was surprised it was Vlad of all people saying that. "Yeah you wouldn't be coming to us without a good reason am I right? And I am guessing that it's the person we are supposed to be finding and getting." Sofia continued, making Sora realize that he cannot keep on sidestepping this important conversation he needed to have with the Otsu Four.
"Indeed it is… you see that person you four were asked to find is one of my friends." Sora explained as the elevator stopped it's descent, allowing him and the Otsu Four to enter the room where the cauldron was. "And this friend of yours is important because she is what enables the god of this world to mess with the rules of time and space?" Tetsu said as his eyes narrowed upon saying that sentence. "Then tell us why we shouldn't go after this woman? She's clearly someone who can be the key to ensuring that our ideal Otsu is realized. Are you trying to tell us that our wishes are not worth fulfilling?" Tetsu questioned as Sora felt the gaze of all four members of the Otsu Four staring right at him.
Sora took a moment to pause and think carefully about his next choice of words. He knew that what he says will either make the Otsu Four willing to speak further to him about the current matter or completely shut him out of further dialogue and force him into a confrontation. It's for moments like these that he hoped to further develop his eloquence but at the end of the day, sometimes it's better to speak from the heart rather than try to coat things in honeyed words. "It's because there's no guarantee that Noel Vermillion dying will be a guarantee for your wish to come true." Sora said, speaking with sincerity in his voice as he waited with bated breath for their response.
"That may be true. After all the imperator was the one who told us about the wish denying girl and how killing her will grant our wish." Tetsu said as Sora couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief as he could feel that the Otsu Four were slowly starting to believe him. "But at the same time, what is stopping from what she says being the truth?" Zhang Pi questioned as Sora was surprised to her Zhang Pi say this.
"Sure, killing the girl may not be able to grant us our wish but at the same time, who cannot resist the fact that our wishes can be granted?" Sofia said as Sora couldn't believe what he was hearing. "But at the same time, we are not idiots. We are going to make sure that this is true no matter how slim information about it may be." Vlad said, allowing Sora to breathe a sigh of relief. "But if there is even a trace of truth in her words, we will do what she says and go after the girl." Tetsu said as Sora knew at this point, they were going to cling to any reason to get their wishes granted.
"That's why you all are here in the NOL headquarters. But what purpose does this place even have at this point? I doubt you guys will have any way of confirming the imperator's words through the data here." Sora said as he doubted that the NOL would keep super important information like Noel's purpose as a wish denying object. "Nothing. But the imperator knew how skeptical we were so she told us that we can find the truth for ourselves here in this place." Vlad explained as Sora wondered what the imperator could be talking about in this case.
"Tetsu. Over here." Zhang Pi said, her hand grazing and touching some metal that had fallen on top of each other. Tetsu approached the metal pile as Sora, Vlad and Sofia stepped to the side, realizing what he was going to do next as Tetsu took a deep breath and began to pull his arms back. His muscles began to tense as the metal around him began to shake and tremble. Metal bolts began to launch off their supports, unable to hold on as Tetsu swung his arms out wide.
This simple motion was enough for the metal to deform and pull apart, opening up like how one would open a can with a lid opening. Tetsu took a deep breath as he had managed to pull through the metal that had obscured a room from view. Sora was shocked by this, realizing that he and Makoto must have missed this room due to the metal debris. Or maybe Makoto was trying to keep this room a secret from Sora and did not bring much attention to it in the first place.
"A secret room…" Zhang Pi said as she noticed something strange about this room. "Do you think that someone was here before us?" Zhang Pi continued, pointing towards a pair of broken hinges before her finger went towards the splintered remains of what seemed to be a door. "I can only think of one person capable of doing such a thing." Sofia said as Sora could easily see this being Makoto's handiwork.
"But was the metal collapsing over the entrance also her handiwork?" Sofia questioned as Tetsu immediately shook his head. "Not possible, the metal here came from years of decay. This suggests that whatever fight that woman had here was enough to shake through the rusting foundation and cause it to collapse like so." Tetsu explained as Sora scratched his head. "Does it matter why this entrance was blocked? It's clear that whatever this room is it's very important." Sora said, his curiosity about this room and it's purpose growing over his desire to stop the Otsu Four.
"Are you sure you should be saying such things? Isn't your original intention to dissuade us from going with the imperator's plan?" Zhang Pi questioned, shocking Sora enough to realize what he was doing. "Of course I still will stop you all from killing Noel. But at the same time I cannot help but look at this room with some curiosity and wonder what could be inside here that nobody wants to be seen." Sora explained as Zhang Pi chuckled at the man's curiosity.
"So far, it looks to be a lot of nothing but books and papers that don't make sense." Sofia said as Sora couldn't help but approach and pick up one of the scattered notes and read it out of curiosity. "The truth of the world?" Sora said, shocking everyone as they rushed to look at the paper that he was reading. "… Haha real funny Comrade Minakaze. Good prank." Vlad said as Sora couldn't help but be confused by that statement. "What are you talking about Vlad, the paper clearly says that as the title." Sora said with an assertive tone, alarming the others that maybe Sora was the only one capable of reading through the gibberish.
Tetsu looked around before grabbing a piece of paper. He then took the original piece of paper that Sora had been holding and gestured for the Otsu Four to look for the set of gibberish that matched the heading written on the top of each paper. As soon as they gathered what looked to be total amounts, he handed it back to Sora. "If you wish to convince us about the imperator, you will read to us what the contents of this paper are." Tetsu said, saying it with a bit of a tone suggesting he would not hesitate to use violence against him.
Sora debated against doing so but at the end decided to respect their wishes. He didn't want to force his own beliefs down their throats without at the very least trying to convince them with words rather than with his fists. Looking at the pages, he was able to see the page number of the papers and immediately rearrange them to their correct order, that was rendered not needed when he realized that they had managed to find the first page of this topic and it came with an abstract that he can read from.
"I am just going to read the abstract as it basically summarizes everything we need to know. If you guys want to read the full thing you all are free to translate deeper from the notes here." Sora said, placing the pieces of paper in front of the group. "Just a word of caution, these are not the full set of pages. Either the rest are scattered or gone to time." Sora continued, giving Zhang Pi the rest of the stack of papers. At that moment, he held his arm in front of her, offering it to her.
"There's no need for my drive for you. We trust you enough that we don't need to do such a thing." Zhang Pi said, surprising Sora as he had expected for Zhang Pi to accept his offer to make sure he was telling the truth to the group. "We only have Zhang Pi use her drive on people we deem not trustworthy. You're not that untrustworthy enough to deserve our full caution. And it's not in your heart to lie about something as interesting as the truth of the world." Sofia explained as Vlad and Tetsu nodded their heads, agreeing with what the others had said.
"Even if we have our different goals?" Sora questioned as he felt a hand get placed on his shoulder. "Comrade Sora. We are criminals. We all have our different desires and goals but if we let what we want get in the way of cooperation with each other, Otsu will not be the city it is today." Vlad explained as Sora was surprised to hear Vlad make that statement. Sora smiled upon hearing that statement and nodded his head, looking at the abstract and began to read it.
The contents of this paper focus on the truth that our world is built upon and the lies created as a result. I have discovered that because of the existence of the Master Unit Amaterasu, humanity can never truly seize their own destiny for the Master Unit will reset the world by ensuring that her chosen one, one that can see her in the boundary remains alive to act as her eyes. What I suggest is for humanity to take control of their own destiny by seizing control of the Azure's eyes and forcing them to obey.
The moment Sora finished speaking the abstract, he couldn't help but wait with bated breath for the response that the Otsu Four will have for him. They were obviously in silence, processing what they had just heard as Sora hoped that the words he had read from this abstract would be enough to persuade them that going after Noel Vermillion would be useless. Yet at the same time he did not hold hope for that as the abstract itself suggested something else.
"The Azure's eyes… that was something the imperator described that Noel woman being." Tetsu said, confirming to Sora that the later feeling he was getting was coming true. "So seizing the Azure's eyes in this case means to either control or kill them. And you cannot say that this is made up by the person who created this room because we cannot read that handwriting." Sofia explained as Sora sighed upon hearing that. "That's true… but that doesn't mean I don't have to like hearing that."
"So… I think it's starting to be settled with all four of us what we have to do." Zhang Pi said as Sora sighed upon hearing that statement. "I really did not want to fight you guys again… especially now." Sora said, expressing his hopes that he did not need to fight against the Otsu Four as he felt a slab of metal get slammed right into him, forcing him out of the room and right back out the cauldron area. Sora coughed greatly as Tetsu emerged first out of the room.
"That will be noted… but if you want to stop us from going after your friend, you know what you need to do." Tetsu said as Zhang Pi came from behind, brandishing a pair of claws on each hand. "But this time, we will be joining too." Zhang Pi said as Sora immediately sensed danger coming his way and rolled out of the way as several bullets chased after him, prompting him to take cover in the process.
"I think this will be the first time you face off against all four of us at the same time." Sofia commented as Sora felt his body tense a bit. "I hope you don't mind Comrade Minakaze, as a fellow criminal you must know how unfair we can be to our own kind." Vlad commented as his sights were set for the area that Sora was at, ready to take shots towards him. "I know… I still hate having to fight you guys like this." As soon as Sora made that statement, he immediately charged out of his cover, just in time to escape from Vlad's anti tank sniper shot smashing the cover in two.
...As the Otsu Four and Sora began to face off against each other for their desires…
GREETINGS LOST SHEEP OF FANFICTION!? HOW ARE ALL OF YOU DOING ON THIS FINE DAY!? I am doing well personally, I am just excited that Monster Hunter Wilds is coming out soon so I will be definitely releasing one chapter next month so I can take my time enjoying and grinding through the game. It also explains why the chapter may be shorter than normal. I have been a bit busy preparing myself for Wilds and I hope you all understand.
SO WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT!? WILL SORA BE ABLE TO FIGIHT AND CONVINCE THE OTSU FOUR THAT THEIR WISHES ARE NOT WORTH THE LIFE OF A GIRL THEY DON'T KNOW!? OR WILL HE HAVE TO TAKE DRASTIC MEASURES TO SAVE NOEL VERMILLION!? ALL OF THIS AND MORE WHEN FATE RETURNS TO OUR HEROES AND THEIR DESTINIES!?