The strategy of team missions is simple. Unlike the authorities we don't have a wide information network, so we send out scouts to identify safe patrol routes where the chances of being spotted are little. Further from that, we have past statistics of the demon sightings which allow us to narrow down the patrol region. This is just for us to increase the chances of an encounter. Any more than that is pure chance.
"Doesn't look like luck's on my side today," I couldn't help but murmur.
Sadly, I can't share this opinion with anyone. Why am I alone? Because my leader doesn't give a damn. His definition of maximizing the chances of an encounter is to cover as many days of the week as possible. He sends us out alone on different days.
After running around and searching for three hours, I returned to the hostel at half past midnight. There by the entrance, I saw Blue curled up into a lump, wagging his tail.
I crouched down and whistled. Just as he saw me, he sprang forwards and jumped right at me.
"Okay, stop! Don't lick my face!"
As I stood up, he stretched and swung his tail around, sniffing my legs and hands.
"I already gave you food."
Woof!
"No, I don't have biscuits with me."
Woof!
"It's lucky you're cute," I took out a small pack of cookies and enjoyed him rolling and jumping around as I fed him one by one. As I sat, he situated himself on my lap and stuck his tongue out while putting all his paws in the air.
This exercise is a stress reliever.
I started petting his head.
"These things aside, I think I should try and talk with someone in my team for once," I said.
Woof!
"Enough spoiling for today," I said as I stood up and put him down. He woffed a couple of times before I signaled him to go away.
"I wish I were a dog," I couldn't help but wonder.
I knock on Joseph's door. A moment later, he steps out. Even as his eyes looked somewhat sleepy, he still seemed to be on guard.
"47. Why are you up?" He asked.
"I just returned from a mission," I replied.
"Uh...congratulations?"
"If you don't mind, I'd like to have a small chat with you," I said.
"It is past midnight, 47."
"We fought whole nights during the screening, surely a chat is not an issue."
"Why me?"
"It's not exactly the right time to go to a girl's room. Colin would slam the door in my face and the last remaining person is openly hated," I took a small pause and continued, "but you already knew that, didn't you?"
He took a moment of silence before continuing, "Yeah. But I woke myself up listening to you. Come in."
As I entered his room a sweet smell reaches my nostrils. His room was tidy and everything seemed to be in place. The pillows on the bed were a bit out of place. I did disturb him after all.
"Go ahead, 47," he urged me.
"I wanted to hear your personal thoughts, about where we are headed as a team and a division," I should start somewhere else and then slowly cut to the chase.
"Despite the rocky start we had right after the screening, we seem to be finally on track. I have to say it is largely thanks to 47 and 1 for coming up with the idea of the constitution," he said.
Our small set of rules is what we used to force everyone to work together as a team and every single one of the survivors agreed with it. Ichika led the discussion where we finalized the rules.
"My question was regarding the conflict we are about to face."
"We lack information to act upon demon smuggling. Furthermore, without mastering Kai, it is almost impossible to move to the next stage," he said.
"What do you think is necessary for us to clear the assignment?" I asked. If he doesn't pick up the clue here, this conversation would be meaningless.
"A working knowledge of the demon smuggling and to learn the origin of demons. I spoke too vaguely but I believe it is the right path," he said.
"How do we acquire said knowledge?" I followed up.
"The mages, people in power. I would say the instructor, but that isn't an existence we can rely upon, is it?" After saying that he continued, "I'm sure we will figure out a way into the system and get to know more about demons. But until then, we conduct these useless operations having no other choice," he concluded.
I nodded in reply. I couldn't deny anything of what he said. We have not talked much before but his views matched mine.
This was absolutely meaningless.
I stood up to leave.
"You were not here for that, were you?" His voice stopped me from leaving.
"I'm sorry?" I pretended.
"This wasn't the conflict you were referring to," he said, "you wanted to discuss the internal conflict, right?"
"What do you mean?" If he saw through me, deception was useless.
"You wanted to talk about the teams, I believe," he said.
"What about the teams?" If we were at this point, there was no turning back.
"You're not happy with how we operate are you?" He asked and continued, "Is it because you were shot that night?"
"No," I said.
"So you were unhappy from the start. I see, now it makes sense," he said as he reached a conclusion of his own.
"What makes sense now?"
"When we were forming teams, you voted to be in Ichika's team because you knew how she would go about handling it. But then she didn't take you in, and you're left with no choice but Colin," he said.
What he said were facts.
"What's wrong with that?" I asked him.
"Nothing. You have every right to worry about yourself. But with today, I feel as if I understand your working principle until now 47," he said.
"I don't agree with Colin's ways. I don't believe that is how we should operate–"
"A team leader is free to decide the team's policy," Joseph interjected, "and not everyone is the same. Colin has the right to say we operate alone," he said.
"We wrote the rules so that we could cooperate as we did during the screening, didn't we?" I asked.
"And that is where you are wrong." He answered in an instant
What exactly is he trying to say here?
"Colin did not cooperate with anyone during the screening. Just in case you're not clear."
"He cleared the screening by himself?" I am a bit skeptical of that.
"Apart from the times where teams were forced, Colin did not cooperate with anyone," he said.
He is supposed to be really strong if that is the case. I tried to confirm this again
"If you had to rank the fighting ability of Colin compared to others, where would you put him?" Now I genuinely wanted to hear his opinion of Colin's strengths.
"You and 1 in our division, 3 in the second, and 7 in the third. You guys are strong, but I tell you. Colin is right there with you people."
From what I understand, Colin believes in the fact that you should be fighting alone. And now that he's a team leader he has the authority to put that policy into action.
"Isn't it the responsibility of a team leader to make sure the team members are safe at all times?" I asked.
"That is just a moral perspective. The rules don't say that now, do they?"
This was a big disadvantage. The rules allow the leader to create policy for the team and Colin believes in fighting alone rather than together. It is going to be difficult for people like me. Of course, while making the rules if I had tried to pass this rule any differently, people wouldn't have agreed to it.
"From what I have seen, you're quite the hypocrite 47," said Joseph.
Perhaps he was done with his views on Colin, so he dropped a few words about me.
"What makes you say that?"
"You're complaining because you don't like the style Colin has adopted. If that is the case you should've been fine in any other team. Yet you only voted to be on Ichika's team. It gives the impression that you don't care about this assignment."
Given all that information, it is quite clear that this guy has been keeping his eye on me. Not that I care.
"Is there anything wrong with that?"
"If you don't care about the assignment then why did you get through the trouble of making a constitution?"
I thought for a moment but I quickly realized if I spoke any lies here, this guy might just see through it. I spoke honestly.
"I wanted things to be peaceful."
He looks at me analyzing my thoughts. It seems he is more capable than I originally thought. My decision to talk to him might just backfire if he informs Colin about this.
"So you're the type who likes peace but at the same time also prioritizes your safety over the importance of assignment," he said.
"I do consider the assignment very important."
"That is out of fear of the Instructor. Correct?"
"You may say that, but didn't you also vote to be on Ichika's team?"
"Yes, I did. But the difference between us is that I would've trusted her judgment and gone there if she wanted me to. You on the other hand were making sure that danger on yourself would be the lowest by being there,"
I didn't feel the least bit sad about thinking like that. But I was a little frustrated.
Joseph doesn't look like he wants Colin's methods to change. Does he have an ulterior motive? Or he just doesn't care.
"I won't speak about this with Colin, you can rest as–"
We both turned our heads at once. We could hear a commotion down near the mess. We looked at each other in confusion for a moment and went down to see what was happening.
It was quarter to one in the morning. This late at night, it probably has something to do with someone on a mission.
"Who else went out beside me?" I asked Joseph.
"I don't know."
This wasn't a helpful response but an expected one. Teams operate on their own.
As I headed downstairs I realized most people were already there. Out of the crowd, I spotted Courtney headed in our direction. She looked both tired and disgusted.
"What happened?" I asked her.
"Piss off!" She said and went past us.
"That was unnecessarily harsh," said Joseph to the leaving Courtney but she paid no attention.
"That's who she is. Let's try again, shall we? Kelan!" I called him out.
"Yeah?" He turned to me. His mouth open, taking heavy breaths in.
"What happened?"
"Katie's team was out on a mission, and they were attacked."
"But you're on Ichika's team. How are you involved in this?" Joseph asked. He was right.
"Well, Katie asked us for help and we went there."
"Where are they now?" I asked. Ichika and Katie were nowhere to be seen.
"We don't know. It was chaotic, we were split," he said.
I looked closely. There was one person in the middle of it, someone who was being openly cussed out by others. Without any care for it, he stood up. Coincidentally, his eyes met mine and at that moment, Kelan hid behind me.
"Trystan did something?" Joseph asked. He was a bit surprised to see Kelan acting that way.
"This guy is crazy. He threatened to kill Taylor when we competed during the screening's first stage," said Kelan, "just stay away from him."
There is no way Kelan would ever forget that.
"How is he involved here?"
"I don't know. I am willing to bet he killed someone," said Kelan.
That cannot be true. After the screening, we had rules to prevent that.
Just as I was about to ask Kelan what he meant by that, Ichika and Katie enter the room. Between them is a girl, whose name I did not recognize. She was crying and injured, both of her shoulders being supported by them.
Alex stood up and got a close look at her. The room wasn't that big and everyone was silent so we got to listen in.
"What happened?" He asked.
"We got ambushed. They knew we might be coming and they had a trap prepared in advance," replied Katie.
"How did the police even know when we were going to show up?" Alex asked.
"They weren't the police," said Ichika.
"What?" Alex asked with a surprised tone.
"Yeah. Some local people I assume. But not the police," said Katie.
"The question remains. How did they know?" Alex asked.
"We visit the place once in a while, it seems someone has their eye on--" right in the middle of that explanation, Katie's eyes landed on Trystan.
As if something snapped inside her, she moved towards him taking heavy steps. Before anyone could stop her, she grabbed him by the collar and slammed him against the wall.
"What the hell is wrong with you!?" Shouted Katie.
"I saved your teammate," said Trystan.
"You killed three people including two policemen," said Katie.
I'm sorry, what!?
You could hear simultaneous gasps throughout. Joseph's eyebrows shot up in utter disbelief while Kelan beside me had a grim expression.
Katie's eyes had blood in them. No one spoke a word. Her descriptions of his action speak in and of themselves. Her gaze was drilling holes in his face but Trystan barely flinched.
I looked at Ichika, gesturing for her to explain. Trystan was a member of her team and thus his actions were her responsibility.
"Christine's mask came off. Her identity was revealed," she said.
That wasn't a convincing argument. Even if her real face was seen, this shouldn't be a problem.
"She accidentally wore her disguise on the mission," said Ichika.
"The people who were killed saw her in that disguise, I am not stupid enough to let that go through," said Trystan, still under Katie's grip.
So you killed them!?
"There could be other solutions to that," said Katie.
Trystan's eyes narrowed. He urged her to explain said solutions.
"Like transferring her from this school. We could even try and change her disguise," said Katie.
"You would only be putting her away from danger. If she was discovered, they might put us all under investigation," said Trystan.
"Well, we could have moved away from this school and severed this connection," said Katie.
It would not be easy, but this is the optimal and non-extreme solution.
Trystan did not respond to that, not the slightest expression of guilt on his face.
"Ichika, educate this fool. He might just kill us one day if he feels like it," Katie said as she released her grip on him.
She was calm enough to realize that what happened could not be changed and she won't go fighting with Trystan and risk breaking the rules.
I looked around to see the reactions of everyone. At this point, we were quite used to seeing deaths. This must have brought forward memories of the past...of the screening. You could hate Trystan for what he did, you could just look down remembering when you were in his shoes, or maybe you have another reason to feel sad, or guilty, or you accept this reality all over again.
But can you see past that?
Just as Katie was leaving, she bumped into Colin.
He took a good look at her and turned to the situation trying to gauge the situation. A smile appeared on his face.
"Now I don't know what happened, but I can tell. Someone's murder boner kicked in, didn't it?" He said looking at Trystan.
Trystan left. And a moment later many followed him.
Kelan asked me to come, but I quietly gestured I was going to stay. Joseph chose to stay, too.
"What the hell happened here?" asked Colin.
"Christine wore her disguise to the mission and she was seen," Ichika replied.
"It is undoubtedly her fault here," said Alex.
Sadly, I lack the words and facts to refute that. But this won't end here. From here on out we are at war with the authorities you could say and the girl beside me knew that we are on the hit list of the police from now on.
"It would be in our best interests to stop the missions for a while," said Ichika.
"You can do whatever you like," said Colin
"Try to understand here, we would be in grave danger...all of us!" Ichika tried to explain.
"Do I look like I care?" said Colin.
Please tell me he's joking.
Ichika looked like she was fed up with him. But there was no point in trying to persuade Colin. Being a leader, he could decide the policy all by himself.
Ichika looked angry and frustrated while Colin just smiled. After a minute of glaring at each other like that, she left.
As Colin was leaving he left a few words for me.
"Only cowards run away from the fights," he said.
I had no intention to argue with him but I did say,
"I'm sure you'd like that engraved on your grave."