Chapter 13 - Talk

*ding* *dong*

Yuji's doorbell rings suddenly.

"Ah… Yuji-san. You should keep your professional life and personal life separate. But thanks to that, it looks like my lucky day is here." Red says, detecting three people in front of Yuji's door.

Unlike his words about a lucky day, he is somewhat unprepared and is annoyed that he tired his spiritual sense out too early.

"I'll open the door for you." Red says.

"Don't!" Yuji is about to tackle Red, but as if a fastball pitch from an ace superioris pitcher, something flies to his face and he blacks out once again.

Red, using his spiritual energy, levitates the unconscious Yuji to the bed.

A few moments later, "Ah… The three rookies, I presume?" Red lets Isao Miyashiro, Koga Dai, Hayashi Ayako, the three people he has been looking for, inside Yuji's apartment.

"huh..." The three immediately feel something odd going on as soon as they step in the apartment, and they exchange glances. In a blink of an eye, as if controlled by a master puppeteer, the three in unity suddenly spring into action to subdue Red.

"…" Red smirks at their actions.

With his eons of experience in battles, the three superioris' attack appear very predictable to him. With the smallest movements necessary, he avoids the three's hands by a hair's breadth, giving the three an illusion that they tried to grab air.

The three cannot even process what really happened, and unable to recover quickly from the momentum of their movement, they are momentarily vulnerable.

Red takes this chance to quickly, with his index finger, poke specific spots in the three's necks with pinpoint precision, in blurry succession.

The three suddenly freeze in their place, unmoving for a two or three seconds before dropping limply to the floor.

"Impressive…" Red nods at the teamwork and instincts of the three.

.

.

.

A few minutes later, the four colleagues are awakened and find themselves sitting next to each other in Yuji's living room sofa. In front of them, on the coffee table, is a stick incense lit up, and four cups of tea for each of them, arranged nicely.

"Had a nice nap?" Red, still disguised as an old man, greets them as he comes out from the kitchen.

"I was rather intrusive and presumptuous. I apologize." He continues as he stands in front of them.

The group can only stare at him blankly because of his non-confrontational words.

"What do you want?" Dai asks in apprehension as he transforms his hand into a blade.

"Well. Let's calm down for a moment? I admit, I deserve your ire. I should not have resorted to violence first, no matter how small it was." Red says with a fake embarrassed smile.

"…" The four are uneasy at how casual Red is considering he beat them to unconsciousness before they even had the chance to fight back.

"Anyways." Red pulls out his tablet PC from his inside pocket of his jacket, does a few taps to open the picture of the original Red, and shows the screen to the four.

"Familiar?" He asks the group.

"…" The three male superiori are clueless, meanwhile, Ayako's eyes widen for a moment before looking away from the picture.

"…" Yuji catches Ayako's reaction and his face freezes, realizing the connection between what Red told him earlier and Ayako's guilty reaction.

"Ayako-san…" Yuji calls out.

"…" Ayako cannot look at Yuji either.

"What's happening?" Miyashiro asks.

"…" Dai too, finds Ayako's reaction and Yuji's question odd.

"It looks like Miss Hayashi has suffered enough. I'm not gonna ask anymore." Red says and he puts back his tablet to his pocket.

He is conflicted whether to take revenge or not, seeing how much mental trauma Ayako is suffering.

"Hey, old man. You come barging in Yuji-san's house, you laid us out too. What's really going on here?" Miyashiro asks.

"Yuji-san. Ayako-san. What happened?" Dai asks too.

"Mister. Are you from the superioris police?" Ayako asks.

"No. And I'm not from the Sunada either." The four associates sigh in relief.

"However, the young man I showed you is someone I am heavily indebted to… Now… I wonder what I'll do to you, Miss Hayashi." Red says.

"…" audible gulps resound in the living room.

This fear in the four, makes the compulsion incense that Red lit up on the table, become more effective, especially to Ayako.

"I can't keep it to myself anymore…" Ayako prefaces, her face crumpling.

"Ayako-san. Don't." Yuji tries to stop her, but Ayako is already compelled by Red's spiritual sense.

"I killed a non-superioris." She says.

"W-what?!"

"H-how could you…"

Miyashiro and Dai recoil from Ayako.

"Please. Explain. This man here said it was an accident." Yuji says in agitation.

"…" Ayako's team mates are willing to give Ayako a chance, hearing this.

"It was during the Sunada operation. There was a non-superioris there." Ayako says.

"…" Miyashiro and Dai's repulsion is replaced by confusion.

"That can't be…" "How? Only superiori was allowed in that place." Miyashiro and Dai say.

"When you two were fighting the last of Sunada's men, Junichi starts to run away with the package so I shot a supercharged arrow at him. Suddenly, there was this non-superioris who took the shot for him out of nowhere. I saw the man broke after smashing to that building. I saw that he stopped breathing before Junichi can even retrieve him." Ayako says eloquently after replaying the scene countless of times in her mind.

"Was he dead? Are you sure he's not at least a class F superioris?" Miyashiro asks, in denial.

"Yes. You two know how sharp my eyes are. I didn't see a spark fade from his body. No. There was no spark in him in the first place." Ayako says.

"…" Her three companions, despite being conflicted, are starting to sympathize with Ayako.

"Accident or not. I killed a powerless man. I'm sorry, I kept it from you gentlemen." She says.

"…" her three associates has no words.

"So… what are you going to do to me now, sir?" She asks Red.

Her question makes her associates apprehensive and they prepare for a fight.

"The young man lives." Red says, making the others drop their apprehension.

"W-what?" Ayako asks.

Red shakes his head, deciding to let Ayako go, having seen enough guilt and suffering in Ayako's eyes.

"He lives. It was a miracle." Red clarifies.

"*sniff**sniff*" Tears of relief pool in Ayako's eyes, but the tears do not fall, her tears have run out after crying about her crime for days.

"Look, old man. We don't want a fight. So let us go. Let her go. Didn't that guy live?" Dai says.

Red smirks inside, thinking of an idea.

'… mmm. Practice.'

"You do NOT tell me what to do." He says in false offense, and he flares an invisible spiritual energy sphere with him in the center, lacing it with a small amount of his eons old killing aura.

"…kkkkk…" The four associates feel their throats tighten in fear, giving them an unexplainable choking feeling.

Their visions are starting to darken, but before they fall unconscious, "Are we clear?" Red says and he retrieves his spiritual energy sphere and killing aura.

"…" The four can only nod while getting their bearings back.

Red too, nods back, not because the four comply, but because he is satisfied with his control of his spiritual energy.

He is however a bit bitter that his killing aura, while less potent compared to when he was a sovereign, is still potent enough to scare the mortals in front of him with but a tinge of it.

'Oh boy. The more powerful people in this world will feel my bloody aura.' Red shakes his head.

"Phew. I'm sorry about that. I do not have pleasant days recently. Please. Have a sip of your tea before it gets cold." Red says.

The four picks up their teacups and drink the tea out of fear.

"Now. The young man, however has lost his memories. How do you compensate him for that, Miss Hayashi?" Red asks.

"…I do not know." Ayako shakes her head.

"Then never mind." Red says, confusing the four.

"The root cause of the young man's harm was because of that package. Just out of curiosity. What was in that package?" He asks instead.

"… Uhhh." Yuji suspects that Red is after the package, not revenge for the original Red. He chooses however not to call it out and decides to scope Red out.

"It was bribes." Yuji says, revealing a bit of what he knows.

"WHAT?" Yuji's three associates are shocked.

"Bribes?" Red asks.

Yuji seeing Red seems to be only mildly interested, decides to be more honest.

"Yes. Bribes and a list of names of its sources. Our group suspect that it was from a lobbying group, which includes the Sunada." He says.

"List... The names in there are probably fake. But those fake names still mean something to some people." Red nods.

"Yes! But too bad the Sunada boy was able to complete the delivery so we didn't see the names." Yuji says, trying to brush off Red's attention from their organization.

"Hmmm. What do you think they're bribing for?" Red asks.

"I… don't know." Yuji says, but Red detects his lie.

"Really? Not even a guess? Come on. I'm just curious." Red insists.

Yuji is intimidated once again by Red's stare.

"… This is just a guess, but there has been buzzing in the congress about a universal basic income for the non - superiori." He says.

"I've read about that. But the congress like to increase the taxes of the top 1% to help afford it. And you think that those 1% want to prevent that by lobbying." Red says, connecting the dots.

"That's right." Yuji nods.

"I see… Can your Green Hand, or whatever, stop them from doing that? From what I I've seen so far, your organization is too small and weak." Red asks, finally telling the group that he knows something about them.

Yuji, feeling that Red's interest in their organization dropped, and is not hostile against it, is relieved.

"… No, but if we can somehow put it out to the world-" Yuji is about to explain but Red finishes his sentence.

"… they'll even be sneakier and hire more powerful superiori." Red says.

"…" The four associates are stunned, just imagining Red's words coming to reality.

"Well, we have to do something!" Dai rejoins the conversation.

"Dai-san. Why do you care so much about the non-superiori?" Red changes the subject.

"Because… I'm from a non-superiori family. And so are Ayako, and Miyashiro." Dai says.

"That so? Huh… It seems that you people are noble, but are willing to get your hands dirty. I like it." Red smirks.

"Look. Mister. You seem to be a very powerful superioris. If I may be presumptuous?" Yuji says, daring to ask something.

"What is it, Yuji-san?" Red allows it.

"Our organization need someone like you." Yuji says.

"Yuji-san!" His associates are shocked at Yuji's words.

"What? If he's one of our enemies, he will not be wasting his time talking to us." Yuji says.

"But he might still be using us to get more information!" Miyashiro says.

"Ah… Miyashiro-san. That's where you're wrong. While I find your organization amusing, you folks are not powerful enough for me to be interested." Red says, offending Miyashiro, Dai, and Ayako.

"And Yuji-san. My concern here really is the young man Ayako-san almost killed." He continues, making Yuji embarrassed.

"But what can I do? While I want to seek retribution for my young friend, I cannot bare to punish someone who harmed him by accident. And that someone is already living in hiding and suffering." Red says.

"…" Ayako can only look away.

"So… what now?" Dai asks.

"Nothing. While it was fun talking to you four, it was a waste of yours and mine's time." Red says as he fixes his suit.

"…" The four sigh in relief seeing that Red is about to leave.

"Ah. Before I go." Red says, making the four clamp up their bottoms.

Red slowly walks closer to the group and, "Miyashiro-san, Dai-san.", holds the two's shoulders and he simultaneously executes differing healing techniques that are perfect for the two's specific needs.

"…" Dai feel coolness descend on his cracked left ribs while Miyashiro feels warmth on his bruised abdomen. They are about to resist Red's hold, but they suddenly feel the pain from their months-long untreated injuries slowly fade away.

"Treat it as a compensation for my intrusion. I wish you luck in your… uh… adventures." Red says, and with that, he leaves the apartment.

"W-what the hell just happened?" Yuji slumps on his sofa, his strength draining away from his body out of relief.

"Yuji-san… This is your home. You tell us what happened." Ayako says.

"Well... In short. He knocked me out. Tied me up. Removed my restraints. And did some questioning. Knocked me out again. Then that's when you three come in." Yuji explains.

"I-I see." Ayako can only accept the explanation.

"Dai-san. Miyashiro-san. What's wrong with you two?" Yuji asks, noticing the dazed state of the two.

"M-my injury… It seemed to have healed." Dai says as he feels his ribs.

"M-mine too…" Miyashiro says as he stretches his neck.

"Huh… Who was that man?" Yuji and the others can only wonder.