Chapter 55 - Minor Unrest

(Continued)

"You're not having money problems, are you?" Junichi asks in worry.

"No, no. It's just… my new friends need the littlest bit they can get. You know how hard it is for non-superiori to get a stable job. If it wasn't for the recommendation letter I asked from you, I would not have been employed by a famous manga artist." Red explains. 

"I see. Unfortunately, father doesn't support it. He said if it passes, then the F-Class who will not benefit from it despite being practically on the same boat as the non-superiori, will also demand to be included. Father said that would result to the superiori clans to raise the price of goods so they can shoulder that responsibility." Junichi smiles bitterly.

Red is trying his best not to laugh. After all, Junichi's debut mission as a hero is protecting bribes of lobbying groups to stop the UBI Bill from being passed.

"But I call bullshit. The superiori clans have overflowing wealth that will last generations. They can afford to pay for what the bill asks of them." Junichi sighs in disappointment.

"Well, that's too bad." Red shrugs.

"Oh… look at the time." He then checks his watch. An hour has already passed since they started their lunch.

"You have somewhere to be?" Junichi asks.

"Yeah. I have to find a studio that would want to adapt my boss' manga to an anime." Red uses Fumio's job as an excuse.

"I see." Junichi tries to hide his disappointment.

"So… You'll disappear again after today?" He can only ask.

He already has the feeling.

"Disappear is a bit much. But yes. It'll be a long time before we meet each other again, unless you REALLY need me. There's a lot I've missed out on in the world." Red nods.

"I don't have to worry, right?" Junichi asks, concerned.

"Nah. Tell me, how many times have I crossed your mind since we last saw each other?" Red asks.

Junichi takes a deep breath.

"Honestly? At first, I tried to look for you, but you were simply too hard to find. After months of exchanging texts and assuring me you're fine, you cross my mind less and less." He admits.

"And that's a good thing. We are now starting to focus on our own lives. That means we're moving on." Red nods.

"We are." Junichi smiles in bitter realization.

"Anyways. You still don't remember anything?" He asks instead.

"Unfortunately." Red shakes his head, reading Junichi easily.

"But does that matter? Even though I don't have memories of you prior to a year ago, I feel that we're friends. That means that even though I have no memories, my heart remembers our friendship. So know this. We might not see each other for another year, or two, or five, or even a decade. But I know that the next time we meet each other, and if you need my help then, I'll have your back." He assures.

"Aherm… Thank you." Junichi can only pour wine in his and Red's glasses as he tries to stop himself from breaking down from Red's words.

"What should we drink to?" He then asks after finishing filling their glasses.

Red picks up his glass, "To growing up?" and raises it.

"To growing up." Junichi nods.

*CLINK* 

<>

"So. How was lunch." Red asks his two students as they walk out of Sunada Clan's fancy neighborhood.

"Delicious." Kotone smiles in gratitude.

"It was. You should have seen the waiter's face when he saw how much we ate." Fumio brags.

"Must have been a sight." Red is satisfied of the two's mood.

"I just wished we never met those two." Kotone grumbles.

"Agree." Fumio readily agrees.

"Who?" Red gets curious.

"Just two fancy pants. Probably members of the Sunada, or some other clan. Talking about the universal basic income as if it's a game." Fumio reports with a sneer.

"Ah." Red simply nods, dropping his interest at the two's encounter.

"How about you, Kichirou-san? What do you think about all of this?" Kotone asks, interested of Red's opinion.

"It's just that, you seem like someone who belongs to something secular. As if none of this concerns you." She adds.

"Hmmm… It's the fundamental law of the living." Red starts.

His mysterious preface getting a curious look from the two.

"There is no equality. The strong and merciless will always stand on the heads of the weak and kind-hearted."

"W-what?"

"B-boss…"

Kotone and Fumio express their disbelief.

They never imagined that Red will say something so cold hearted.

"You two always knew. In your hearts, you always knew. What's there to be surprised about?" Red looks back at the two with a smirk, making them shudder.

"Are you really the same person…" Kotone cannot believe that Red is the same person who treated Haruto and the patients for free. The same person who gave the elderly of Hinohara Village free massage service. The same person who took her in.

"Boss. You're not saying that it is natural for the non-superiori to suffer, right?" Fumio asks.

"Yes." Red says, making the two downcast.

"But one of the things that make humans unique is that they always wish to defy the natural, and do their best to achieve just that." He then continues.

"I wish that weak humans should be allowed to live comfortably and happily. They should not live simply as sustenance to the powerful. In fact, the powerful should thank the weak, as they are nothing without the weak."

This gives Fumio and Kotone their good impressions of Red.

"You want to know what I think of the UBI?" Red goes back to Fumio's question, making the two wait in anticipation.

"Let's drop by Chiyoda." He simply states their next destination, disappointing the two that they their anticipation is prolonged.

<>

Chiyoda City.

The National Diet Building. It contains the chambers of Japan's House or Representatives.

In a usual day, it would look peaceful with its massive green lawn surrounding it, and the cars passing by the roads around it are forbidden from blowing their horns.

Currently however, that massive green lawn can hardly be seen as a crowd of thousands of protesters are currently assembled on top of it. The members of the crowd are holding all sorts of signs, pumping and making them dance in the air.

With the lead of a few people with megaphones, they are also chanting phrases in unison, hoping that the congressmen or other people of authority inside the building can hear them.

"Rich people, powerful superiori, hear us!"

"HEAR US!"

"Your brothers and sisters are non-superiori too!"

"RAAAAHHHH"

"You've exploited us long enough!"

"RAAAHHHH"

"Having no powers makes us work harder!"

"RRAHHHH"

"We are your fellow Japanese!"

"WE ARE JAPANESE TOO!"

"We are your fellow human!"

"WE ARE HUMAN TOO!"

"What do we deserve?"

"WE DESERVE BETTER!"

"Rich people, powerful superiori, hear us!"

Red, Fumio, and Kotone, who have arrived a few minutes ago, are quietly watching the crowd from the distance, hearing them repeat their chants in a loop in consistent loudness and intensity.

"Uhhh… Kichirou-san? Why are we still invisible? And why are we not joining?" Kotone asks, confused as to why they are just standing, watching, from a distance.

Fumio meanwhile, notices that Red seems to be looking beyond the protesters.

"Boss. You waiting for something?" He asks Red.

"Yeah… There's an… Aura of mass malice in the air." Red says, making his two students nervous.

"They are not just planning on protesting?" Fumio asks.

"It's not the protesters. It's another group." Red tilts his head.

Fumio then spreads a thin sphere of spiritual energy around him but soon, "I don't feel it.", he fails to pick up anything.

"You can't feel it with just that." Red says.

While Red can use some special spiritual energy technique or even his spiritual sense to sense ill will, he does not have to as he has lived eons to feel it simply with his gut. Especially if the ill will he is sensing is coming from hundreds of individuals.

"Are you saying that some superiori are planning on attacking the protesters?" Kotone meanwhile, is concerned more about the well-being of the people.

"Not to that extent. Maybe these people just want to cause some disruption." Red says.

Soon enough. A group of people, wearing green windbreakers as uniforms, arrive and they penetrate the weak crowd of the mostly non-superiori protesters, easily reaching the front of the crowd.

"Shit… Are they… from Citizens for Self-Governance?" Fumio's eyes widen, recognizing the people he learned to scorn over recently. He never imagined that the group that only spout things online actually showed up in person.

Citizens for Self-Governance is the loudest special interest group on TV and on the internet that is against the passing the UBI Bill.

Fumio knows however that it is simply one of the many groups that are being unknowingly manipulated by some clans.

"What?" Kotone, who doesn't have as good an eyesight, looks closer. "They've come personally?" She winces, knowing the bigotry the group express under the their deceptively flowery statements.

"GO HOME! YOU'RE ALL CAUSING US TROUBLE." The leader of the CSG announces sternly with the aid of his wind ability.

"YOU'VE COST US LOSS IN INCOME IN THE PAST TWO WEEKS! HAVE YOU NO CONSIDERATION?" He continues to admonish the crowd.

"DON'T TALK ABOUT CONSIDERATION. WE PROTEST FOR THE FIRST TIME IN DECADES AND THIS IS HOW YOU TREAT US?" One of the leaders of the protest bites back, elevating the subject, as he knows that the CSG leader is simply using the disruption caused by the 

"WE'VE BEEN LICKING THE GROUND OUR ENTIRE LIVES! YOU ONLY LOST TWO WEEKS." Another protest leader declares.

"RAHHHHH!" The crowd of protesters roar in support.

The reporters and their camera people immediately convene between the two sides like hyenas, hungry to capture what looks to be an interesting discourse.

"HOW CAN YOU NOT UNDERSTAND THAT THAT IS THE PRICE YOU PAY FOR BEING CITIZENS IN A COUNTRY BUILT BY SUPERIORI? THE PRICE FOR THE PROTECTION WE PROVIDE? WHEN ENEMIES ATTACK WILL YOU BE THE ONE WHO WILL DEFEND THE COUNTRY?" The leader of the CSG argues.

"KNOW YOUR HISTORY, CHILD. IN THE CONFLICTS AFTER THE GREAT WAR, WE HAVE USED GUNS. IT IS US NON-SUPERIORI WHO FOUGHT IN THE FRONT LINES, ACTING AS CANNON FODDER FOR SUPERIORI COMMANDERS WHO NEVER SAW BATTLE." An old man from the protesters' side speaks up for the first time.

"OOOHHHH…" The protesters jeer at the CSG members in support of the old man.

"AND WHO HAVE YOU FOUGHT? YOUR OWN KIND. WE SUPERIORI HAVE ALWAYS BEEN IN RESERVE FOR THE HARDER BATTLES." The CSG leader coldly returns.

"BOOOOO." This rouses the protesters.

"THIS IS NOT ABOUT WHAT YOU CAN DO, BUT WHAT YOU HAVE DONE. YOU ARE USING THE SAME EXCUSE USED ON US FOR DECADES. ALWAYS APPEARING TO PREPARE FOR "HARDER" BATTLES. YET THOSE BATTLES NEVER CAME." The old man says.

"rAAHHH." The protesters yell out their own support.

"I THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE, SIR. BUT PLEASE UNDERSTAND. PEOPLE ARE NOT VALUED BASED ON HOW HARD THEY WORKED OR HOW MUCH THEY SACRIFICED. THEY ARE VALUED BASED ON HOW HARD THEY ARE TO REPLACE. AND YOU, NON-SUPERIORI, ARE REPLACEABLE." The CSG leader harrumphs.

"…" the crowd is silenced.

The protesters cannot believe that someone would say those words to their faces. Even the more sensible members of the CSG are wearing awkward expressions, shocked at what their leader just said.

The leaders of the protest, despite being offended, are more worried of a fight breaking out as they feel tension rise at an almost palpable level.

"CALM YOURSELV-" Before they can advise their side, "What did you just say?!" "You dare?!" "Are you looking for a fight?!" many of the protesters are already on the CSG leader's face.

The people of the press, who were hungry for footages, did not wish to see violence so they attempt to get away. But when they are squeezed back in the middle, they can only try to get in between the two sides.

The police who are on standby, also dive to intervene. Their commanders however did not even consider that this situation will happen, so they are undermanned and unequipped to deal with the situation.

"Boss… We have to do something!" Fumio, seeing the chaos starting to explode, asks Red for help.

Kotone too, looks at the crowd in worry.

"Heh…" Red simply chuckles.

Kotone and Fumio are annoyed at Red's unusual expression, but as they look at Red's face, they see Red wear an expression they have never seen before. A face of pure excitement.

"This is perfect for stirring trouble.." Red says with a shit-eating grin.