Chapter 38
MAJOR SIRIUS-Lina Kudo Shields
BOOM
Lina watched as the GAA's strategic class magic was activated infront of her eyes and struck the monastery, and the shockwaves from the attack could even be felt here, a mile away from the place, and yet as the dust cleared, she stilled as she saw the scene infront of her.
"Impossible...." she gasped as she saw the monastery still standing there as it had before. The attack had not done a single thing to it, and she was not the only one surprised by this development as the GAA agent beside her stilled as well.
"Shit, we need to get out of here," the magician named Zhou Gongjin began but suddenly stilled as a shiver ran down her spine, and it was on pure instinct that she turned back and was surprised to see the two members of her team behind her lying on the ground, bleeding out as a singular person stood there smiling while looking towards them.
This was not Inei Yotsuba. No, this was someone else, a bald man wearing a simple karate tracksuit. Yet she could feel immense pressure radiating off of him, pressure that made her heart shiver as the bald man opened his mouth.
"Ohh, you have no idea just how big of a mistake that was," the man began, as Lina turned towards the comm in her ear.
"Everyone evacuate! I repeat, the mission is a failure, evac..."
"That is going to be useless, " the man said as he looked toward her, as the blue-haired GAA operative clicked his tongue.
"Your team members are already taken care of," and her eyes widened at those words and yet, just as he had said, she received no word from her team, as Zhou Gongjin spoke up from beside her.
"You, what are you doing here, Yakumo Kokonoe? " That name made her eyes widen, for even in USNA, the name Yakumo Kokonoe was well known.
She had read a file on the man but had thought him dead, but as he scanned his file, she realised that it was indeed him, Japan's last Shinobi.
"I had hoped that better sense would prevail, that we could avoid the blatant destruction that a war between our nations would bring," the bald man began as he causally walked forward.
"But it seems I was wrong. War is inevitable," and then it happened. Just as she was about to reach for her CAD, the man appeared behind her.
"It's over," and immediately she felt pain rip through her as the man punched her in the gut, as she found her face getting pushed into the ground the next second as the GAA agent tried to run away.
"Let me handle you first," and as her heart thumped, she saw the man aiming at his neck as her life flashed infront of her eyes.
"Stop!" the voice came from the front, and she could feel his hand stop inches from her neck, seconds from ending her life, as she looked up and found herself staring at an adult woman standing there, dressed in a fancy dress with a butler behind her.
"Maya Yotsuba, why do you stop me?" Yakumo Kokonoe asked while she stilled as she heard that name.
"Do you even know the person who behind the mask of Angie Sirius?" she asked, and she was surprised by that question.
"And that is supposed to matter why?" he asked as the woman smiled.
"Because, in ways, she is family," and Lina could not believe those words, and as the bald man holding her down was distracted, she activated her unique magic 'Parade' and modified her positional vectors allowing her slip through his hold as she emerged behind the woman that was known as the Empress of the East.
They may have failed in their initial attack, but still taking down Maya Yotsuba was still something she could do, and as she raised her CAD to attack the woman, her body stilled as in the blink of an eye, the world around her shifted. The Light of the day vanished as she found herself stranded in open skies, as literal beams of light rushed at her.
"Known your place...." the words came from teh front as the woman in question turned towards her, her eyes narrowing at her as her CAD was destroyed by one of these beams as Lina screamed in pain.
"Lina Kudo Shields...."
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MAYA YOTSUBA
The singular attack on the Monastery had changed the political landscape entirely. What little support Koichi had vanished the second news about the attack was made public, and now all of Japan was seething and asking for blood.
The negotiations with GAA and the USNA fell down, and now the Japanese military sought to give a response to the two states which had trampled on their sovereign borders.
War was now inevitable, and war needed weapons. And there was no better weapon than the Yotsuba. The Kudo family had been evicted from the TMC and replaced by the Shippou clan, a clan that was much more hawkish while being fiercely loyal to the Yotsuba.
Other than that, Koichi had found himself removed from the Saegusa clan head position, and now Mayumi Saegusa sat in as the clan head, cementing the Yotsuba hegemony in the TMC and hence Japan's magical society.
The outcome was even better than the one she had desired, for the Yotsuba's strength remained hidden, and now she could simply rely on her future daughter in law to push through the opposition while she remained in the shadows.
However, while others may be blind to her game, the person sitting opposite to her was not. As it was made evident by his question.
"So, how much of this was in your plan?" Inei-kun asked her as he looked at her with a raised brow. They sat in the Yotsuba mansion in Nagano, and she raised a brow.
"I don't know what you are talking about," she tried to deny it, but he shook his head.
"There is no need to lie. You planned it all, and I know that. I just wish to know how much of this all was you," he asked again, and she closed her eyes as she sipped her tea, her mind racing to think of just how much she should tell him, and in the end, she decided to come clean.
"All of it," she answered, and he did not seem surprised by her admission as she put down her tea cup.
"I knew that the USNA did not know that I knew of their little loophole in teh Echelon III system, and so I used it to leak them information about the location of the parlay, knowing that they would not let such an opportunity go," and they had not. Now, Japan's magical society prepared for an all-out war, while USNA had just lost their premiere magician in the form of Major Sirius.
"You do know it could have ended badly," Inei-kun asked, and she chuckled and answered.
"I doubt so, especially given that both you and Tatsuya-kun were present there. I knew that you would not let anything happen, and I was right. " Both of them were magicians in a class of their own, and with their presence, she was assured that the plan would go off without a hitch.
"Why do all this? Why push us to this war?" he asked, and it was a somber question one she had asked herself as well.
"Because I wish to see Dahan and GAA burn," she answered, and despite the nature of the words, there was no anger or detestation in her tone. It was as if she was speaking of the weather and not of the people that had ruined her life.
Koichi and the Saegusa had suffered from a similar crime, and she had punished them for not protecting her, for not doing enough.
"After teh tragedy more than two decades ago, when they recovered me from their little facility the clan was forced to bind me to a table for I only wished to kill myself," and as she spoke of those times, she felt nothing. Not hate. No anger. That was her curse.
Even as she looked at the boy infront of her, the one who shared her blood shared her own tragedy she could not sympathise. She could not love, not even as a mother.
"It was then that my sister Miya decided to use her powers on me, and in that moment I knew the fate that was waiting for me. Even now as I sit here, I feel no pain, no anger, not even a bit of motherly affection for you," she spoke with a chuckle and saw his eyes dim as she found her eyes falling to ground.
"And yet in that small amount of time, I did nothing except carve out a little thing into my arm. Something that I bear to this day," and with that she rolled up her sleeve and showed him the only memento that remained of the girl named Maya Yotsuba, the girl who had died that day.
A girl who may have raged, who may even have loved.
'Revenge' the words were carved into her forearm and had scarred. Given the advancements made, it would have been easy to get rid of this scar, but she had not. She had held onto it, for it was the last thing that remained of the girl Maya Yotsuba, the last thing that remained of a girl who had suffered that tragedy.
"That day I lost everything, every emotion. I know not what I would have felt about you, my son, what I would have felt for my niece and nephew. That all has been lost to me, and yet I know one thing and one thing alone," she added sharply.
"That Maya Yotsuba wished to see the people who had wronged her destroyed, she wished to see them decimated. And for years I have tempered that little desire with pragmatism, and yet now I had that chance, a chance to fulfill the last vestigial desire of the girl that could have been," she explained.
"And so, I took it, and now GAA will burn," she finished. Inei-kun was quiet at her words, and she could see his mind racing. As she sat there thinking after her words.
"I will burn down the GAA for you," he said after a few seconds as she found herself smiling.
"But I believe that would be your last act as clan head," he spoke softly, and she raised a brow.
"I agree," she said, having prepared herself for this eventuality.
"Good then, and until I am away, you shall also take Mayumi under your wing. Teach her what you can, and upon my return from this war, I shall replace you as clan head," he finished, and she smiled.
And with that, he stood up and began to walk out the door as she called out from behind.
"I am sorry for this, for putting such a heavy burden on you," and the words had slipped out of her mouth before she could even do anything, and she saw him turn back as he gave her a small nod.
"There is no need to worry...."
And the rest of his words made her eyes widen as she realised that she may not have been the only one playing this game.
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