Yuki let out a soft sigh as he waited in the meeting room of his guild’s headquarters. He had told Yuna to meet him there to discuss a few things. He also called there rest of the elites to brief them all in person about the things he had discovered the past few days. 

‘School was interesting today,’ he thought.

He had told Selene to not announce to the entire school that he was going to come to class without his human disguise on anymore precisely to avoid as much attention as possible. But now that he looked back, it probably didn’t make a difference. If anything, it would have cleared a lot of confusion if he let Selene announce it.

‘New faces attract more attention than I thought they would. Probably because it’s the middle of the year.’

It seemed that anywhere he walked on the campus, most people would glance at his direction within a few seconds. Others would just blatantly stare while some would try to conceal their gazes which only made them more obvious. But what Yuki found odd was that many seemed to stare longer than one would normally if they were just noticing something new.

‘I wonder why. Hopefully it’ll die down soon enough. Preferably by tomorrow, but that’s unrealistic.’

Knock Knock

Someone rapped the doorsill to the meeting room. His eyes flickered up and saw Yuna standing there. Yuki checked the clock that was hung directly in front of him on the back wall of the room. There was still a few minutes before the scheduled start of the meeting.

“You’re early,” Yuki said.

“I know. I like to be early to things,” she replied. “It makes things much more manageable if schedules suddenly change. Where do I sit?”

“Anywhere,” Yuki replied, waving his hands at the table surrounded by floating chairs. “If you don’t like your position, you can move around. We’re not picky.”

“I thought we had assigned seating?”

“No. This is your first meeting here as a member of the elites, so I can see why you thought there might be a seating arrangement. There isn’t one though. However, most would agree that this seat here where I’m sitting is my seat. So besides that, there is no seating arrangement.”

“Got it. I’ll just, um, take this one then.” She sat down on one of the floating seats, bobbing up and down a little. “Oh. Comfortable,” she said with a soft voice.

“Glad you think so,” Yuki said. Yuna sat straight up, her hand shooting to her mouth. “Damian worked hard on them, so he’ll be happy to hear that.”

“I didn’t expect them to be so soft,” she explained in a slightly apologetic tone. “They looked quite solid.”

“They were made to look that way. They’ve tricked quite a few people,” he said. “Anyway, since we have a few minutes before the meeting begins, do you have anything you want to tell me? I don’t mind answering anything that I’m not going to be answering during the meeting right now.”

“Oh. Um, I don’t have anything right now, but maybe I’ll think of something later,” she said. 

Yuki nodded and sat back into his chair. It reclined back slightly. He watched the seconds on the clock tick by, his eyes regularly flicking towards Yuna who had a slight frown on her face.

“Oh, I thought of something,” she said suddenly.

“Hmm?”

“You gathered a lot of attention today,” Yuna said. She paused. “Well, this isn’t really a question. It’s more of a remark.”

“That’s fine.”

“I’m just surprised by the amount of people that were watching you today.”

“So was I,” Yuki sighed. “I knew that I was going to attract some attention, but mainly from people that I have classes with. I didn’t expect that amount of attention.”

“Do you know why?”

“No, not really. I said before that it might be because I look new, but that doesn’t actually explain the amount.” He caught a small wave from the corner of his eye and saw Erica standing there, Akira beside her. He nodded towards them. “It’ll die down eventually. I hope.”

“I hope we’re not interrupting anything,” Akira said.

“Come in. Zoe will be here soon,” Yuki replied, looking at the clock. “Tiar with her. Damian will be late. Sarah as well.”

“What are you two chatting about?” Erica asked. She plopped herself down onto a seat. 

“My public debut as an elf,” Yuki said. “It was quite an eye catching one as well based on the amount of attention it drew.”

“We were talking about why Yuki grabbed so much attention,” Yuna explained. “We’re not really sure why.”

“Really? Then you’re either not thinking hard enough or you’re thinking way too hard,” Erica laughed. “The answer’s pretty obvious.”

“I don’t really care all that much,” Yuki said. “It’ll die down soon enough. Anyway, here’s Zoe and Tiar.”

He gave the two a small wave as they walked into the meeting room. Tiar’s hair was messy and stuck out in various places. It seemed that he had just woken up a few minutes ago. Zoe was on the complete opposite spectrum. It seemed like she had hours to get herself ready.

“Let’s get started on this meeting,” Yuki said. “The other two will amble their way here eventually. Uriel, bring up the files.”

“On it, boss,” Uriel replied, appearing over the table. She pulsed a bit before screens appeared in the air. “Here you go.”

“Thank you. So, I have not told anyone what today’s meeting is about,” Yuki started. “If you are confused, well, that’s normal. Except maybe Tiar and Zoe. Tiar, you know what this is about right?”

“Yeah, yeah. Of course,” he nodded. “It’s about the thing you asked me about yesterday, right?”

“Mhm,” Yuki said. “Remember a few months ago when I told you all about the device that Mason Incorporated was probably developing?”

“The beam weapon?” Yuna asked.

“Yup. This meeting is about that. I did some digging based on information I obtained a couple days ago,” he said. “I also asked Tiar if he had any information on this and instructed him to investigate some things today.”

“I have the things you wanted,” Tiar said. “I can share right now if you want me to.”

“Hold it for a bit. I need to get everyone up to date on the situation. Oh, and the rest are here.”

Sarah and Damian rushed into the meeting room as Yuki was finishing his sentence. Damian was panting and Sarah plopped herself down onto a seat.

“Glad you two can make it,” Yuki said. “What happened?”

“I was helping someone on the way here,” Sarah replied with a small smile. “I got sidetracked.”

“Was in the workshop,” Damian panted. “Working. Busy. I forgot.”

“Well, you’re here now. So let me get everyone up to date now,” Yuki said. He tapped the table and brought up a screen. “In our previous meeting, I talked about how the beam that Mason Inc. was possibly developing had a few shortcomings that had to be addressed if it was to be used as a weapon.”

“Oh, this is about the laser weapon thing?” Damian asked.

“Yes. That’s why you needed to be here.”

“I see. Alright, fill me in.”

“A few of the shortcomings was the power of the weapon and the lack of an obvious focus for the energy in order for the laser to actually work,” Yuki continued. “I think they fixed them.”

“What?” Damian said. Sarah and Yuna had similar reactions.

“I have reason to believe that Mason Inc. is actively gathering elemental jewels which would be used in their weapon. These jewels can provide the beam with the necessary power needed as well as act as the focus.”

“Jewels?” Akira asked. “Meaning not just one type?”

“Correct. Tiar can tell you all in about that,” Yuki replied.

“Hmm? Oh, yeah,” Tiar nodded. “So, I have a pretty big position in Mason and because of that I know some stuff that other people wouldn’t know. One of those things is that at the facility I’m at, we have a very large elemental jewel in our vault. I think it’s lightning attribute.”

“We also know that they possibly have a water jewel,” Yuki added. “That is, if the Shikaku are a part of this as well. Continue.”

“Along with that, I also am privy to some of the plans that Mason have,” Tiar said. “So with the boss’s instructions, I asked around about jewels and the like. Someone told me that the jewel at our facility was going to be sent to R&D. Looking at the system, I saw a few other plans about retrieval and the like. It seems like a small group is going to be going someplace to retrieve something. I’m not sure what that something is yet.”

“You think that’s an elemental jewel?” Erica asked.

“Possibly, but that’s not what I’m really worried about right now,” Yuki replied. “What is important is that these jewels are being used and not just one type. So I can almost guarantee that if they’re still out there searching for more elemental jewels.”

“With different jewels, they can make beams of any attribute,” Damian mused. “That would be a giant pain in the ass.”

“Yeah. And so, here’s the plan. Or the general outline of one before I get enough information to actually make a detailed plan.” Yuki tapped on the screen before him. A list appeared, hovering in the air. “First, we need to locate where the highest grade elemental jewels are. Or the second highest, depending on the type. Second, we need to see which types Mason Inc. already has. Tiar will be doing that for the most part.”

“Got it,” Tiar nodded.

“We also need to make sure that they are in fact looking for other jewels,” Yuki continued. “So look into that as well.” Tiar nodded again. “Now the last thing. Once we’ve done all that, we need to ensure that these jewels are safe and secure.”

“How are we going to do that?” Akira asked. “We can’t rely on others to do that.”

“Exactly. That’s why we’re going to take them before others can.”