Once Akira exited finished up and left the bathroom, Soyuz quickly grabbed his hand and dragged him further into the Café. A place he had seen from the outside, but never quite knew what went on up there. The Cafe's second floor.
"Before I explain anything, I'll introduce you to everyone!"
"Everyone?"
Shinomiya shouted at her to bring him back down, but Soyuz quickly dragged Akira upstairs. As they went up, it grew dark before a door at the top of the stairs was pushed open.
This room was smaller than the Café on the first floor, but there were only around 4 other people in here.
On one side of the room, there was a boy with light blue hair and headphones. He wore a dark blue jacket and he immediately noticed Kai. Although he didn't care as he continued to listen to his music.
There was a short young looking girl with long blonde hair wearing a cute dress on the other side, but she was too busy combing he hair to notice him.
Behind the bar, there was a tall but visibly old man wearing a waiter uniform, and sitting in front of the Bar, smoking while drinking a glass of whisky was an adult man. He had dark hair, and wore a simple black buttoned shirt with brown pants.
"I recall telling you not to smoke inside the building. The roof is starting to stain."
"Sorry, bad habit."
He slowly got up and was about to leave, but then he saw Akira and Soyuz. He was a little shocked at first but then his face turned into a warm smile. He slowly extended his hand out, offering a handshake.
"Yo! Your the kid who ran away last time right? My name is Xander. The old man behind me is Kuzan. He owns this place, so make sure you thank him properly."
Kid?? He was 19! Akira shook his hand and was a little shaken to feel that it was warm yet cold.
"The blue haired kid over there is Kim Min-Su. And the young princess on the other side is Eva. They were also brought into this group just like you."
"Blackmailed?"
He just smiled lightly so he assumed it to be the truth. He brought over Akira to the Bar and sat him down for a drink. Although he only got served regular coffee while Xander got a glass of golden whiskey with ice. Soyuz then spoke,
"Since your back, let me continue off from last time. I told you about Gehenna city, right?"
While he was away, he had searched online for it. There were rumours and conspiracy theories about a city hidden in plain sight, but other then that there was virtually nothing.
"The ones that are hiding away the city is the Unison council. The government in charge of Babel city."
She then redrew the same crude map she had shown Akira before. But this time, at the south part of Babel, there was a city drawn in red surrounded by a dome.
"Gehenna is a city surrounded by a bubble of Aether. That bubble is warping space around it, making it virtually invisible and undetectable to even a Returner. The only reason we found it was because Eva has really good eyes."
Hearing her name, she turned around to see who called her. She had a pair of ocean blue eyes, and a cute face paired up them, however her right iris wasn't normal at all as it had a white x pattern with a red outline.
Akira was entranced by it, and for a brief second he thought he saw a humanoid figure inside of it. It quickly disappeared as Eva shifted around, leaving Akira awkwardly staring at her. Syn then said in a murderous tone,
"Akira, that girl is dangerous. We need to kill her."
He suddenly flinched as he quickly muttered under his breath,
"Are you stupid?? We just agreed to only kill criminals, and now you want me to kill some random girl??"
"That girl will become a headache for the both of us in the future. There is something inside her with a relationship much like you and I. It bothers me."
If that was true, then she may also be eating humans just like he needed too. Whether she was only eating criminals or not was up in the air. He needed to investigate this later.
"Wait? But if you noticed that she has one too? Then does that mean?"
She was likely aware about Syn too. Would that make them enemies? As Akira drowned in the endless possibilities, Soyuz kept shouting his name before inevitably hitting him on the head with a book.
"Ow! What was that for??"
"You were ignoring me! As the team leader, I can carry out any punishment I deem suitable!"
"Team leader this- group leader that- what's this team even called??"
She suddenly grew excited as she proudly declared it's name.
"The group of exceptional people who will shed the light on the truth of this city! A team that seeks justice even in it's shadows, Team Blacklight!"
A silence fell in the room, as Akira took some time to process that name. but after a couple moments, he and Xander struggled to contain their laughter before suddenly exploding. Soyuz face turned pink from embarrassment as she demanded them to stop.
"Blacklight?? What kind of edgy name is that??"
Her face then turned red with anger as she smashed that book into both of their skulls. Their heads began to swell as they cried from the pain.
"Anyhow, we haven't done much digging into that place, but we've already figured out that the Black bone gang have free entry and exit from that place, and it's all being managed by the Unison council. The plan is, to break into that place and wipe out the Black Bone gang. Next, we'll then get to work on revealing it to the public. This will be the start of our first mission! Operation Helldiver!"
After that prep talk, he largely understood everything that was going on. Despite how much he didn't want to believe it, he was greatly mislead by the Unison propaganda too. If they were lying about the homelessness, how much were they lying about too?? How bad was crime truly in Babel city??
As these questions stirred in his mind, Xander patted him on the shoulder.
"If your going to be part of this operation, I'm going to need to test your strength. There are some nasty guys in the Black bone clan, so if you encounter any of them, I need to know you can handle yourself. K?"
"Didn't Soyuz show you the photos?? I can handle myself quite well I think—"
Xander gripped Akira's should with a great pressure that was starting to hurt even his evolved body.
"Let's step outside for a bit~"