Chapter 57 - Keeping Up The Act

Murakami Hiroki, 46 years of age, is the current Sergant at Arms, or in more simple terms, the head security-cum-butler for the House of Representatives.

Being a decorated police officer in his prime, and coming from the Murakami Clan whose domain is Chiyoda City where the House Representatives is based in, earned him the appointment to the position of Sergeant at Arms.

But most importantly, being a mid-tier A-Class Superiori, who is not a clan leader, is the greatest factor of his appointment.

Had he belonged to the main family bloodline of the Murakami Clan, and had the main family already not having a powerful heir, he would have a chance of becoming a clan head, but because he was born in one of the branch families, he does not have much future in the clan aside from simply being an elder by the time he turns 50.

At age 22, he realized he did not want to simply be a muscle and elder for the clan, so he decided to simply work for the government, hoping to grab an opportunity to enter politics.

At age 41, after almost two decades of hard work and fighting superioris criminals as an officer of the Superioris Police, and adding his excellent record, it is as if the heavens rewarded him and he is suddenly appointed as the new Sergeant at Arms of the House of Representatives, and the youngest one in history at that.

Finally free from the daily life of training and preparing for any strong superiori to become antsy somewhere, he wholeheartedly embraced his new job, and did well on it.

Fast forward to today, on an important day, a serious security threat appears on his job for the first time since his appointment.

"Hiroki-san!"

"Report!" Hiroki immediately orders one of the security officers that just barged in his office.

"A powerful superioris criminal… no… appears to be a terrorist, is outside. He just attacked the protesters." The officer reports.

"Was it a deadly attack?" Hiroki's face turns icy cold.

"No, sir. According to my contacts among the press present outside, it doesn't appear to be so. But half of the protesters have fallen unconscious, and half are currently fleeing." The officer explains.

Suddenly, Hiroki realizes the unintelligible chanting outside has already stopped and *scream* and just like what the officer reported, he hears a faint sound of screaming.

"Okay. Start the evacuation protocols. I'll stop the discourse of the house members while you do that." Hiroki orders and he stands up.

"Yes sir." The officer leaves the office immediately to start.

Hiroki then presses a button on his table and leans forward to the microphone on his table.

"This is the Sergeant at Arms speaking. Members of the house, please move to the security room immediately. I repeat, please move to the security room immediately. The security officers are on their way to escort you all. I-"

He is about to continue with his announcement when he suddenly shudders, feeling a dangerous presence coming from the distance.

"… Please remain in the security room until further notice." He concludes his announcement.

He has not felt such danger since the High-tier A-Class super terrorist Rock Stampede almost razed the streets of Itabashi City ten years ago. Even though Rock Stampede was apprehended and was subsequently sent to prison, almost a hundred are still dead due to his actions. 

The events of that day replay in Hiroki's mind, and he does not want to see the same thing again.

He then presses buttons under his table, sending distress calls to both the Superiori Police and to the Army before promptly walking out of his office.

<>

A few breaths later, Hiroki almost loses his breath, stunned at what he is seeing in the distance.

Hundreds of bodies lying right outside the gates of the National Diet Building.

He then materializes a steel spear on his hand, holds it tight, and manipulates it to shoot to where he sees people are still present, using it at his vehicle.

As he arrives where remaining people present, immediately, he feels a dangerous aura emanating from a tall young man dressed in jester clothes.

"Murakami-san." A reporter he is familiar with greets him as soon as he joins the group of press people.

Hiroki ignores the greeting however as he notices that the press people seem too relaxed in front of a terrorist.

"You there! You did this?" He then asks the jester, figuring that the jester stopped on his attacks.

"YES." The jester plainly admits.

Hiroki is taken aback by two things.

One is how the jester is too honest, and two, he heard the jester's voice too close to his ears, even though the jester, ten meters above him, did not shout. 

"Are they dead?" Hiroki then asks, to assess how dangerous the man in front of him is.

"NO. SLEEPING."

Hiroki cannot help but notice that despite the danger the jester is emanating, the jester's voice sounds innocent and simpleminded. He hopes to use this as an advantage. Every second counts to him, and the longer he delays the jester's actions, the quicker back-up arrives, minimizing collateral damage.

He is about to ask what the jester's intentions are, when he is interrupted by the jester's question.

"WHO ARE YOU? YOU LOOK STRONG. WANNA FIGHT?"

Hiroki takes a deep breath as he struggles to think about how to deal with the situation until help arrives.

Suddenly, an idea pops up.

"Sure… But let's go somewhere where there are not many people." He says, hoping that the jester is not too unreasonable.

"WHY?" The jester asks.

Hiroki then sees the press people clamp up, which makes himself get more cautious.

"Because these people will get hurt." He decides to reason. 

"OH… OKAY. IT'S NO FUN HERE. IT'S BAD IF I HURT SLEEPING PEOPLE." The jester says, making Hiroki and the press people almost do a double take at how easy it is to talk to who they already classified as an unreasonable terrorist. And the same terrorist who made hundreds of people unconscious.

Hiroki however is still cautious, and he is glad he already called all possible back-ups he can.

Soon, he gets over it, and he proceeds to act on his delaying tactic.

"When are they going to wake up?" He asks.

"OH… COUNT 2,000. LIKE… ONE, TWO, THREE." The jester demonstrates his counting which makes the people present realize that it takes around 2,000 seconds for the unconscious wake up.

This relieves Hiroki and the reporters.

"Do you like racing?" Hiroki then asks, still wanting to isolate the unpredictable presence.

"YEAH I LIKE IT!" The jester approves with an exaggerated body language.

"Okay." Hiroki materializes a spear yet again, holds it, and slowly levitates himself to the jester's level.

"See that place over there with the grass and trees?" Hiroki points to the edges of the Murakami Compound three hundred and fifty meters away from the front lawn of the National Diet Building.

He is planning on luring the jester to the unpopulated grass field of his clan compound.

"THAT ONE PAST THE RIVER?" The jester asks.

"Yes. Beyond the river." Hiroki nods, not correcting the jester's assumption that the huge and wide man-made ditch surrounding the entirety of Murakami compound is a river.

"Every good fight needs a warm-up, right? We should race there to warm up." Hiroki offers.

"OKAY." The jester easily accepts it.

"Then you go ahead." Hiroki says, wanting to make sure that the jester will honor the agreement.

To his surprise, the jester, suddenly shoots off to the direction of their agreed destination at a speed that is just as fast as his flying speed with his spear.

Hiroki's heart sinks and he follows.

While following the jester, he assesses the superiori ability he is seeing for the first time. The jester using invisible footholds in the air to travel.

Hiroki and the jester are too fast however as only six seconds later, they cross the huge ditch and land on the grass field as large as the National Diet Building's lawn, not allowing Hiroki to assess the jester's abilities any further.

"I won!" The jester does a comedic and theatric shuffle in celebration.

Hiroki also notices that the jester is no longer amplifying his voice.

"Oh look! Metal bees!" The jester suddenly points to the sky, and Hiroki also sees that drones have followed them.

"Tsk." Hiroki clicks his tongue, annoyed at the persistence of the reporters.

"How do we fight?" He can only ask the jester.

"We just fight!" The jester says.

"How do we know who wins?" Hiroki asks.

"The one who sleeps loses!" The jester raises his right hand to his side, and, "… or if one loses his spark, he loses!" raises his left, to present the rules.

'So knock out, or go for the kill.'

Hiroki shudders at this, realizing that he just got himself to a potential death battle.

"But can I turn off your spark when you are sleeping?" He asks just to be sure.

"NO! That's not fair!" The jester says.

Hiroki nods, clear of the rules, but he does not want a death battle.

He does not know who he will offend by killing the jester, and he does not know if he will survive if they fight either.

"Why don't we just make each other sleep?" He asks instead.

"Why?" The jester asks.

"Because if you lose your spark, you'll never get it back." Hiroki says.

"Oh. Okay then!" The jester easily accepts, to Hiroki's relief.

Hiroki realizes that the jester, while dangerous, seem to be very honest. Something that he can exploit. 

"Can you let me warm up some more? I did not fight in years. You want a fair fight, right?" He asks as he feigns stretching his body.

"Okay! I'll wait!" The jester puts his arms across his chest with a harrumph.

Hiroki at this point, realizes a few factors that are not making sense.

"Why did you make them sleep by the way?" He asks.

"Because the bad guys tricked me! They look like they want to fight the good guys, but they didn't." The jester answers.

"Why did you think they would fight?" Hiroki asks in confusion.

"Because the bad guys were mean." The jester answers.

Hiroki nods, assuming that the CSG members he saw on the ground were bothering the protesters.

"If you know that they are the bad guys, why did you also make the good guys sleep?" Hiroki asks.

"Because the good guys were no fun and weak." The jester's answer makes Hiroki dizzy at how confusing the jester's logic is.

"Weren't you afraid of hurting them?" Hiroki asks.

"I didn't hurt them! I made them sleep! Sleep is good! Good does not hurt!" The jester proclaims. Hiroki is now clear that the jester did not hurt anyone intentionally.

One thing still concerns him. The jester is simply giving him the creeps, and not because of the costume. It is because, it is as if the smell of fresh blood is emanating from the young man. So, he decides to find out.

"How many people have you fought so far?" He asks.

"Lost count after I counted 500!" The jester shrugs, but his answer makes Hiroki's eyebrows jump.

Not even him, who spent almost two decades on the force fought that many people.

"How many of them lost their spark to you?" He asks with a nervous chuckle.

"Uhhh… Around half?" The jester makes an uncertain gesture. "Yeah. Half of them are bad people and want to turn off my spark."

Hiroki shudders at this. It does not matter to him if the jester is acting or not, but someone killing that large number of people explains to him why he feels what he is feeling towards the man.

He is about to ask more, when suddenly, "OH! They look like they can fight!", the jester points at the sky.

Hiroki looks and he sees that there are indeed five people flying over the moat, heading their way. As those five figures land, Hiroki immediately recognizes them, and he almost curses.

'Young members neighboring clans. Eager for name recognition.'

Hiroki was once a young man too, and he too, wanted the recognition of the Murakami family. There were many options he could have taken to prove his worth and that included being a superhero. 

But to him, being a superhero is too flamboyant, too flashy, but actually achieves nothing significant. He'd rather earn power and influence at a more subtle and more legal way. 

"Hiroki-san.." The five young superheroes greet Hiroki.