“She’s here,” Erica said.

Yuki was waiting in a side room of the bar and was monitoring the various cameras that were hidden throughout the building. His human disguise wasn’t on. He looked up when Erica spoke and saw her standing at the doorway of the room.

“I know,” Yuki replied. He waved his hand and the screens disappeared. “What did you say to her? She looks very embarrassed right now.”

“Oh, not much. I just complimented her and joked about going on a date with her,” Erica said offhandedly. “That girl looks so much fun to tease. And she’s really cute.”

“It’s because she doesn’t understand jokes,” Yuki shrugged. “But don’t over do it. Based on her reaction here, you might kill her with your flirting.”

“Ha, she should be more worried about you if we’re talking about charming girls,” she smirked. 

“Why? Someone like you who’s beautiful and has a fun personality would obviously elicit more reaction than me.”

“Case in point, right now,” Erica muttered. The room was dim and hid her face. “Well, let’s move on. What do you want me to do now?”

“Just tell her to come to the back and we’ll knock her out real quick. We’ll be moving to the actual meeting room.”

“Alright,” she nodded. “I’ll be right back.”

“Wait,” Yuki said. Erica turned around. “I’m curious. Why are you wearing a cap inside?”

“Um,” she replied. “I like it.”

“I understand wearing caps but indoors is weird isn’t it?” Yuki said. “I mean, you can wear caps outside. Inside is just a bit odd, don’t you think?”

“Well, I just wanted to try it out,” Erica said, turning her head away a little. 

“No other reason, hmm?”

“Nope. Definitely not.”

“Okay then. It’s not a big deal anyway,” Yuki said. “You can go.”

Erica nodded sharply and quickly walked out of the room. Yuki reopened some of the screens and watched her as she made her way to Yuna with a glass of water.

[You do know why she’s wearing a hat inside, right?] Akira asked. She was resting inside Yuki. 

‘I have a pretty good idea why,’ he replied. ‘She says that Yuna is easy to tease but I could almost say the same for her.’

[Okay then. So what exactly are we going to do with Yuna?]

‘You saw the plan already.’

[True.]

‘Trust me and just follow the plan. It’s about time that we did something bigger, don’t you think?’

[Well, yes but this is like clearing the tutorial and then skipping straight to the boss.]

‘Not really. I would say it’s more like grinding really hard on the first few levels and then going to the boss. Just trust me.’

[Do you have any back up plans if this one fails?]

‘No. If it fails then we just abort. And if we’re in the middle of something, we’ll just improvise.’

[Wonderful. I’ll be waiting for when we start the meeting.]

‘Okay. I’ll let you know when it’s time.’

Akira disconnected and Yuki refocused his attention on the screens before him. Yuna had disappeared from her seat and Erica was nowhere to be seen. Switching cameras, he found them walking outside. Erica was leading Yuna to the location where the guild’s hovercraft was hidden.

‘They should be at the meeting place within a few minutes. I should get going too.’

He stooped down and picked up a triangular device from the ground. Clicking a button, the screens disappeared and he stored the device with a snap of his fingers. 

‘I need to rotate the ship as well. It’s been in one spot for too long.’

He walked out of the room and the door closed quietly behind him, blending in seamlessly with the wall. Then he went right next to where the room was and pressed his hand onto the wall. A beep rang out and the wall slip open. Inside it was a command station with a metal plate flat on the ground.

“Uriel, can you operate the transporter for me?” Yuki called out. He stepped onto the plate as he spoke. 

“Sure. But I am flying a hovercraft right now so if you go to the wrong place it’s not my fault,” she said as she appeared beside Yuki. 

“I know that you’re smart enough to run at least a dozen operations at the same time and still have room to spare,” Yuki replied. “Now take me to the base, please.”

“Alrighty.”

A faint hum rose up from the plate Yuki was standing on. With a flash of white, his body dissolved into mana. The light cleared and he found himself standing on a similar metal plate but inside a completely different room. The walls around him were a gleaming white and it was considerably bigger than the room he was in.

“Is Erica here yet?” Yuki asked as he stepped off the plate.

“Her ETA is in about a minute,” Uriel replied. “Everyone else is here right now though.”

“Sarah as well? I thought she said that she had something to do?”

“She did. She just finished it quicker than she thought.”

“Of course she did,” Yuki said. A door slid open and he stepped out into a well lit hallway. “It was a subjugation mission, wasn’t it.”

“Yup.”

“She always overestimates them,” he sighed. “Oh well. Where are they right now?”

“They’re in the war room. Everyone but Akira and the other two that are coming soon.”

“Wonderful.”

He walked down the hall until it opened up into a conference room. Inside the room were four people who were sitting in ergonomic chairs and talking with each other. They were seated around a large polished wooden table that was shaped like an elongated oval. The entire place was lit up evenly with glowing balls of light floating in the ceiling. 

“Hello everyone,” Yuki said as he walked into the room. “Glad to see that everyone could make it.”

“Hello,” Zoe greeted back softly. 

“Hey boss,” Damian said. “I drew up some diagrams for some ideas I came up with earlier. You want to see them?”

“I’ll look at them later,” Yuki replied. “Right now, we have something a bit more pressing. I take it that everyone has read the thing I sent you?” Yuki heard various terms of affirmation. “Okay. Uriel, did Erica arrive yet?”

“Yup. She’ll be walking in with in the minute with Yuna. Do you want to do some dramatic posing for a big impact when they arrive?”

“Let’s not,” Yuki said. He walked over to his seat and sat. “Sarah, how was the mission?”

“Mission, sir?” Sarah asked, tilting her head.

“You said that you were busy with something. No?” Yuki said. She nodded her head. “And you finished it quick enough that you were able to come to this meeting. I’ve known you long enough that when you do a task quicker than you expected, it’s normally a subjugation mission.”

“Oh. Well, technically you can call it a subjugation mission,” she replied. “But it was more of a field test.”

“Field test? For what?”

“I gave her a new gun,” Damian answered. He took a sip of his water before continuing. “You know that Sarah’s been practicing with other projectiles right?”

“Of course. I practiced with her at times.”

“Well, I made a new sniper rifle and asked her to test it out to see what she liked and what changes she wanted.”

“I see,” Yuki nodded. He heard the noise of footsteps next to him and glanced over at the hallway. “Our other guests have arrived. Akira, if you may.”

With a quick flash, Akira appeared beside him and sat in the seat next to him. Zoe looked at Yuki with contemplative eyes, her eyes glowing slightly.

“Yuki, is your mark growing larger?” she asked quietly. 

“Yes, but it’s not that big of a deal,” Yuki replied as he rubbed his shoulder.

“Hey everyone! I brought Yuna,” Erica announced cheerfully as she walked into the war room. “Yuna, say hi to everyone else.”

“Hi,” Yuna said with a small wave.

“You can sit right there,” Erica continued, pointing at a seat right in front of her. “And then we can get started.”

Yuna sat in the seat Erica was pointing towards and her eyes scanned over everyone that was sitting at the table. Erica walked further down the wooden table and sat on the other side of Yuki.

“Hello, Yuna,” Yuki said. “I’m sure you’re wondering why you’re here today. And I would like to give you that reason. So let’s begin, shall we?”