Sunday, Morning

A sigh escaped Yuna’s mouth as she laid on her bed. She was back in her regular dorm room and had already eaten breakfast. When she woke up in the morning, Boss had already prepared everyone in the cabin a meal. While everyone was eating, Boss announced that everyone will be splitting up there.

“There’s a chance, albeit a small one, that the Shikaku may be watching this cabin,” she had said. “So we’ll leave in different directions. Then we’ll reconvene at our drop point. Any questions?”

No one said anything and Boss continued.

“Yuna, once we’ve boarded, I’ll be dropping you back off in Junction. I don’t want questions to be raised as to where you were for so long.”

“Wait, are you going to contact me later? I went almost a whole week with nothing from the guild,” Yuna had asked.

“I will. Also. You’ll be able to meet us any time.”

“What do you mean?”

“Remember that this was a test for you?” Boss said. “You’ve passed and I’ve decided that you’re getting a promotion. And that comes with knowledge of where our base is.”

Yuna didn’t know what to say. Her mouth opened as her mind processed what was just told to her.

“Don’t want it?”

“No, I do. Thank you.”

After that, the group of seven left the wooden cabin and split apart in the forest. Yuna followed a general route that she had created in her mind and the group soon met at the sight where the hovercraft was hidden. They boarded and true to her words, Yuna was dropped off in Junction.

“The address to where our base is located is in your watch,” Boss told her. “Come drop by at any time. We’ll make room for you.”

Yuna thank her again and returned to the Academy where she was now lying down on her soft bed.

‘Maybe I should have rejected the address.’

Now that she had thought over it, her knowing the location of the headquarters for the Valkyries made her uncomfortable and only caused more chaos in her already clustered mind. One of the problems that this new found knowledge had created was what to do when she had to report to the captain.

‘I can’t lie about it. And if I withhold information that can prove to be helpful or important like the location of their base…’

This was different from when she had to do reports on Yuki. The things she hadn’t said weren’t important to the details of the mission. They wouldn’t prove that Yuki was a threat of any kind. However, this information about the Valkyries’s guild was of a completely different matter.

‘Captain already determined them as a threat. Withholding this would be directly interfering with a case and hinder their ability to act.’

It also went directly against every single piece of training she had ever received and ever mantra ever drilled into her head. Lying to protect Yuki was already difficult enough for Yuna to do. This was on a completely different level. 

‘Maybe I can convince the Captain not to do anything? They’re not bad people at all.’

Her mind went back to the night before, the moonlit mirror that reflected back the stars to the night sky. The people that were with her, protecting her from the chilly autumn wind. Never had she ever been part of a group like that. One that didn’t seem to always be judging her or testing her. The only other person she felt like that around was Yuki.

‘Can Yuki help me?’ she wondered. She shook her head. ‘No, he’s not involved with this. I don’t want to drag him into this.’

Unbidden, her mind began to rerun the conversations she had with everyone in the guild. She remembered many smiles and comforting words. Patient expressions and thoughtful answers. Different perspectives that weren’t being pushed onto her. Then she recalled a request Boss had asked of her.

Yuna tapped on her watch and brought of a search screen. With a few taps and key words, she found herself inside the official website of the Libra government. She scanned the menus until she located the page she wanted. Clicking on it, she opened a gigantic document that detailed every law that was written and enforced in Libra. There was a handy menu for visitors so that they could navigate the hundreds of pages of writing.

‘Property. Where is it?’

She found the section and began to read through it. Most of it she already knew the general gist of. Any citizen of Libra had the right to purchase land. The purchase of land and the transfer of ownership must be reported to the government through the Federal Land Department. The rest of the section was mainly legal things that had to be written even though it was mainly common sense. 

‘So what does this have to do with demons?’

She went to the next section that Boss had told her to read. Clicking on the tab for citizenship, she went through it in much the same fashion she had the property section. If you were born in Libra, you were automatically a citizen. If you are from another country, you are able to apply for citizenship through the government. Living in Libra for at least five years will put you in a position of priority for obtaining citizenship.

‘I knew all this already. It was covered in my training.’

Scrolling through the rest of the section, she skimmed the words and found nothing that jumped out to her. As she scrolled back up, however, a blue link in the middle of the section jumped out to her. It was one word and was placed in such a place that one would just glaze over. Demons.

Yuna clicked on it immediately. It opened up an entirely different page than the one she was just on. The page read “The Legal Rights of Demons In Libra”. The fact that this required another page already struck Yuna as odd.

‘Couldn’t they just merge it with the regular legal code?’

She started reading and quickly learned one thing from the document. Demons had almost no rights. They couldn’t apply for citizenship. They were unable to purchase land because of this. They couldn’t attend schools because of this. They couldn’t shop because of this.

‘Legal rights? This is the exact opposite of what this thing is titled.’

The further she read, the more confused she became. Demons had no right to sue. They had no right to a trial. They were forbidden to be hired. There was only one thing that the law gave them and if Yuna was reading it correctly, it was that it said that demons were to be considered sentient creatures on the same level as that of elves, dwarves, and beastkin.

‘Great. So they’re people, this is saying.’

The way that it was stated made it seem that whoever wrote the law was giving a major concession to the demons. It was saying “Look how nice we are to do this for you.” As she reread the page, Yuna’s confusion began to morph to anger. 

‘How can this happen? Have none of them ever spoke to a demon for once their lives.’

She imagined Erica and Akira trapped within a cramped glass cells with no one to speak to and barely any room to even move. Her anger intensified. She remembered how those people trapped within those cages cheered when they were offered something everyone should already have. She saw the tears that streamed down their faces as she left those glass cells behind. Then she remembered the three that had already given up hope. One with a broken mind and the other desperately trying to kill themselves.

‘Why? Why was this done? What purpose does it serve to treat them as monsters?’

Tionne was right. She had done nothing wrong except exist. There was nothing that said that she couldn’t live on Libra’s land but she was arrested by Yuna’s own people because she was a demon. 

‘And Boss. She was also right.’

Yuna had rejected the idea of killing those three, thinking that they could still be saved. But now that she had perspective, their lives were already over. Even if they were released, what could they do? Two were on the edge of death, their bodies weakened past the point of recovery. The man was already broken, his mind shattered. If they had tried to heal them, at best they would be only shells of who they were. At worst, they would be living a life full of suffering.

‘I’m so ignorant. So stupid,’ Yuna growled. ‘Why did no one tell me of this?’

Demons weren’t even considered the same as any of the other races. Only their mental capacities were seen at most, on par of those other races. Other than that, under the laws of Libra they were seen basically as monsters.

‘I know we had a war with them, but that doesn’t explain any of this. This wasn’t done to punish demons. This was done to remove them.’

Even a moron would be able to see that demons weren’t people of destruction. With Yuna’s short and limited experiences with them, they seemed quite normal and in fact more empathetic than anyone she had ever met. They were smart and powerful. Excluding them gave no one anything.

‘We could really use them,’ Yuna thought. ‘Even if someone hated them that much, they should be able to see that demons could be helpful in the military and for the police.’

She thought back to whatever education she was given of demons. The one word she remembered was dangerous. That was how demons were always described. Dangerous beings that are capable of mass destruction. That they were the perpetrator to almost every war in history.

‘But if they are so strong, then why create laws to antagonize them. Now that I think about it, just because they were defeated before doesn’t mean they wouldn’t attack again.’

Before, it seemed logical to her that ones defeated in war wouldn’t want to risk losing again in another battle. However, because of how much it’s emphasized that demons are powerful, it would be plausible that they had the strength to attack again and potentially win. 

‘Why then? Why would this happen if it serves no benefit? Gah, more things to think about now. I haven’t even straightened out the other things yet.’

Her watch began to vibrate and she looked at the caller id to see who it was. She stared blankly at it and then her eyes widened rapidly. She tapped on it to receive it and a screen was projected in front of her. The shadowy form of her Captain floated in front of her.