"Oh yeah, Yuri, we need to find a solution to the Mazoku legal issues."
Yuri sat down and looked at Akira.
"What do you think about all this, Uncle?"
"Well, what's done is done? Did they break any laws? They only used the weapons for self-defense. Since these MMA Fighters, Martial Artists, and athletes are popular, especially now to the public who view them as superheroes. The public will be on their side."
Yuri stood up and walked around.
"Yes, but that won't be enough, Uncle. Maybe, if we put you into office, your influence might do the trick."
"Maybe! But with the time we have left, that won't be quick enough."
Someone knocked on the office door.
*Knock *Knock
Everyone looked at each other. They did not know who it was.
Botan broke the silence. "Maybe, it's the site Engineer. He's been taking too long."
Sebastian opened the door, and it was Oda.
"Oda!" Yuri exclaimed. "You are alright. I haven't seen you since the ambush in the red-light district."
"Yes, Master. Botan had instructed me to manage the funeral for our fallen brothers. He thought it would be best that it was one of us from the group that was attacked that should manage it."
Yuri walked towards Oda and patted him on the back.
"What did you wish to report, Oda?" Botan said.
"I had just received more Subpoenas from more of our Mazoku members. The police want to confiscate the Magitek weapons, but they cannot get warrants against them yet. It will take a few days, but the police will eventually have them."
*Knock *Knock
Someone else knocked on the door.
"That must be the engineer. He's been taking soo… long." Botan said.
Sebastian opened the door again. It was the engineer. A 45-year-old man, wearing a construction helmet. He bowed and smiled as he greeted everyone.
Oda approached the engineer, then smiled and hugged him suddenly.
Everyone in the wide-open office was surprised.
"Itsuki!" he shouted. "How are you, my friend? You are looking very good. How is the family in Fukuoka? Are you guys still living there all these years?"
The engineer responded in the Hakata dialect, "Yes. The wife and my two daughters are alright. How about you?"
Oda shook the engineer's hand and grabbed it with all his might, then he executed a martial artist's move to take down an enemy to the ground while holding his arm at his back at the breaking point.
"Who are you!" Oda shouted.
Yuri and the others were shocked. "What the fuck is happening?"
Sebastian had only realized just now. The blonde little boy amplified by his full E-class Attribute Magitek Body took off the engineers vest, ran outside, and threw it at the bottom of a very deep dug pit.
"I say again! Who are you?"
Yuri now noticed it too. He grabbed the engineer's mouth but it was too late. He had already bitten off the cyanide pill in his mouth. His body then started burning from the inside and like a warp hole, every piece of its burning flesh was sucked into a piece of the capsule.
Akira had no idea what was going on and was pulling on his hair.
"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?"
Yuri answered, "It's an assassin. An expendable one at that. And he was using Magitek."
Botan was surprised too. "I knew that engineer for a very long time. No way, was he an assassin."
Yuri replied.
"He wasn't. It was a Doppelganger."
"A what?" Botan said.
"They copy people's faces, bodies, sex, everything, to infiltrate, spy, and assassinate. He is one of the AeroMage's men."
"Why are they after us?" Akira asked.
"Not us, Uncle. You! It wanted to leave the vest here in the office and leave it without us noticing."
Botan stood up. Looked at everybody.
"We already know who wants Akira killed. But the real question is…"
Everyone looked hard at Oda, even Sebastian.
He pointed his finger at Oda who looked stunned.
"Who are you?"
Oda innocently replied, "What do you mean? I'm a Martial Artist. I was at the hotel and followed the path of the Overlord."
Yuri walked to the door, closed it firmly, and made sure not to let Oda escape.
"What are you guys on about?" he asked them all.
"How did you know he was a Doppelganger?" Yuri asked, "Not even the AI was able to detect him. If the Cloaking Magitek can't be detected by other Magitek, then how did you know he was an impostor?"
Oda changed his facial expression and turned serious.
"I guess, my cover is blown."
"So who are you?" Akira asked.
"I am the Captain of the Imperial Guard…"
Everyone grew more alert.
"I am directly under and only under the command of Princess Yuna in this covert mission."
"Yuna?" Yuri said in surprise.
"So she did already know."
They all calmed down a bit. "Sit!" Botan shouted and pointed at the chair.
"Princess Yuna is not an ordinary royal. She is ambitious and very intelligent. I was at the hotel at that time because I genuinely am a Martial Artist, but I was hired by the Palace too. But I was also a believer in the power that you, the Overlord, promised us."
Yuri sat also, and listened more carefully, "So you also wanted to share that power… to Princess Yuna."
"Yes, my Lord."
"She had always wanted to be more than just political decoration. She wanted actual power, and match it with her magnificent political will, to bring Japan back to its former glory."
"It's all clear now," Yuri said.
"The princess wants a political alliance."
"Yes, my Lord," Oda replied humbly. "She had planned to approach you during Akira's Campaign Speech in the University, but the Yakuza had attacked, and chaos ensued, so she had to postpone it."
"That was why she talked to me. Out of all the people in the stadium. That sly fox…"
"Now, she says, that you have no time left… You need to set up a meeting, so she can make arrangements to help you… But it must be an even exchange."
Botan smiled. "So my best friend Yuri is going on a date with the princess!" He laughed.
Yuri stood up. And everyone else stood up too.
"Go. Tell her to overdress for the occasion. Because tonight will be the start of Japan's return to its former glory!"
Akira then asked Oda, "By the way, how did you know he was a Doppelganger?"
"I am always suspicious of everyone. It's a learned skill when you're protecting the most important family in the country. And because the photograph of the wife and two daughters, are stock photos, and the real engineer is an unmarried man. I mean, look at all the playboy magazines, and hot girl calendars in his office. And I sure as hell didn't know, where he lived."