Chapter 20

 

After leaving the meeting we also pretended to feign ignorance and hide how angry we were when we’d walked past the ranger guards. It was obvious they were looking at people and taking note who looked like potential trouble. Even after leaving the meeting spot area, we’d noticed people were suddenly asking for people’s whereabouts and where they were going and that hadn’t happened before now. It was clear the three king candidates wanted to keep an eye on people.

We’d traveled out of earshot of the others and found a place much deeper in the woods, which was secluded to discuss our options.

But that doesn’t mean we thought we were safe. We had to be careful and make sure no one stumbled on our conversation, and we nervously kept watching the area around us to make sure nothing could sneak up on us. In short, we hadn’t gotten to this spot until a good twenty minutes of wandering to the deepest part of the woods had been spent. Here the foliage had been so thick that if we were to get separated from each other it would be hard to find each other. The dirt here was darker and a bit moist compared to the other parts of the forest too, because of having less sunlight getting through the really tall tree tops. It also looked like an area few people had ever been to.

“Eh? So what are we going to do?” I wondered aloud. I was pacing a bit as we tried to figure it out, once we thought it was safe to talk.

“I don’t like this at all,” Yumi muttered. But then again, Yumi didn’t like anything. She was dour pretty much all the time. But her redeeming traits were that she was loyal and would follow people she cared about into hell.

She was our sentry so far, keeping an eye on the entrance to the hidden woody enclosure we’d found to meet up in, after several minutes of hiking.

“Yeah, I was thinking the same thing,” Sensei said, holding my arm with subtlety, which I suddenly realized. She seemed to be really stuck to me ever since we found out I could do magic. This plus the revelation that she was a closet gamer had given me the impression she must like either healer characters or magic, or both, plus what she’d said about her family members.

“Eh? Sensei is so close to Shun,” Rina muttered jealously. She was giving a pouty face too, which didn’t help. She sort of got close and face to face with Sensei, but her behavior bothered me more than Sensei’s.

“Eh? Really? Ahh, ah s-sorry! I’m just scared I guess and Shun seems safe and reliable. I’m sorry!” Sensei apologized and stopped holding my arm, but she stayed close by. She looked kind of embarrassed. But she kept staying so close I could feel her warmth.

“Rina, it’s OK. You are going to have to accept that Shun is going to be involved with others,” Yumi teased.

“Eh…but…but I need him more. I need some treatment soon too don’t forget me,” she scowled. In response to this Asakura was trying to hide a smirk on her face.

“I won’t forget,” I said.

“But I need you too,” Yumi reasoned.

“Are you talking to me or Shun?” Rina asked.

“Uh, both…” Yumi somehow had a dejected look.

“So we’re calling heals for Rina her ‘treatment’ then?” Asakura confirmed aloud. She had her tongue in cheek and appeared to be thinking about something, but I couldn’t guess at what.

“That makes sense! Shun! We hope you will get strong enough for treating all of us,” Rina said, flashing her teeth and smile with her tongue out.

“We all need each other. We really have to help each other or we’re going to perish,” I said.

“Yeah, I hope we can find a skill too,” Rina said looking down. I could tell she was worried about if she would fit in and find a place in this world. So I placed my hand on her shoulder to show support. I lingered with my hand on her shoulder and was about to pull it away but she reached out with her other hand and held my hand there.

“You think you’ll have a skill?” Sensei wondered, looking at Rina.

“I don’t know? Maybe? Will someone as weak as me still get one? I also hope to not slow everyone down,” Rina responded. She scratched something in the dirt, she’d exposed from moving a rock. Or perhaps the scratching in the dirt was trying to mask us not seeing she was feeling self-conscious of needing more help than a normal person.

“Why wouldn’t she get a skill? But if it turns into a combat skill with her weak health…that would be really bad,” Yumi said, biting her lip.

“The fact that they said they found some green mages, sounds good. There could be something for everyone here if we can figure out how it works and unlocks. So don’t worry too much. Just keep trying and believe it will work out,” Sensei smiled.

“We should find a quiet place to hide the next time something bit like this happens and also a good consistent meeting spot to go to where we can’t be overheard,” I said.

“So we have this be our official hideaway spot?” Sensei asked looking around over the place.

“It is sort of out of the way and deep in the forest. There is also a lot of cover here to hide in so I like it,” Yumi admitted. “But will the ranger’s special skills help them find it or us easy? I think they said tracking was one of their skills. That might make us at a disadvantage. Plus we need to get stronger and tougher.”

“Tracking isn’t good. They could find people easy with it,” I complained, scratching my head.

“Yeah but they won’t find people automatically and they won’t know who they are following, unless they somehow can add magic to it right?” Sensei wondered.

I shrugged. “I’m not too sure, but this idea of a king; that bothers me a lot. Societies with kings were always moving backward and oppressing people. That’s a parasite system. People had terrible lives,” I muttered.

“I don’t think they would do that would they?” Yumi wondered. “What do we do? Should we fight them? What if that weakens us before the orcs come back?”

“That’s a good question,” Rina sighed looking up. “I wish I could help you guys more.”

“I don’t know. They seemed pretty aggressive. It might be better for everyone if we decide if we should just leave them and split off on our own,” I shrugged.

“You think they will make us slaves huh?” Rina asked, trying to confirm with me.

I shrugged, “could be, but we’ll see. Yuta is hard to predict though, but it seems like he’s in dark villain mode right now. Akimoto I think is just delusional but not necessarily as malicious as he is. But his being blinded will cause a lot of harm and damage from bad choices even if they aren’t overtly offensive decisions against others. Akira is…I don’t know. His going for being king totally threw me off so now I wonder if we really know him.”

“At first it’ll probably be more like they will start by wanting to find out what people think after the meeting and find out who was dangerous if you were trying to be the king? I think they will want to spy and listen in on people to feel how people responded to the idea of a king. Then they’ll decide what to do with who they think is dangerous from that information that’s gathered in,” Sensei said.

“That’s pretty awful,” I admitted.

“It’s also very possible what you said about Akimoto could be true about him being able to cause as much harm as Yuta because of his delusions and other reasons. We need to not have a king period, but that will take a lot of convincing people,” Sensei said.

“Eh? Hmm, that’s a possibility. You know I can’t help but worry about going hungry more than this king business, though I see them both as having a critical danger level. This place, it’s so different than what we’re used to,” Yumi wondered.

“That means they are probably trying to find everyone right now, if you are right?” Rina said as a question.

“We really need to figure out a way to live in this place, but I don’t necessarily think that these people all know how to survive long term or that we should stay with them very long. A lot of them won’t do well, and some will want to live off other people without doing anything to participate or help,” I said. I kicked a rock in frustration.

The worry and stress of not knowing how to live and where your next meal was coming from was terrible after all. It was boiling up inside me and making me terribly frustrated. In fact, I’d been ignoring my hunger pains because of the others. We’d only had a fish to eat that wasn’t that big and had to share it, with it being the only meal we’d had all day.

“But don’t they have the rangers? Won’t that prevent people from you know…not doing so well and being tempted? I don’t understand why they would want to live off others,” Rina suggested, digging and scratching something in the dirt with a stick.

As expected, Rina is so innocent she doesn’t see the dark side of all of this very well. Both Yumi and I could see it.

“You have been sheltered for a long time huh?” Yumi sighed.

“Isn’t that good?” Rina asked, giving her a blank look.

“Well…it’s good that you aren’t desensitized to how evil society really is, but it’s means you need more exposure to real life and how to live,” Yumi said giving her a smile.

“But do you think society is evil?” Rina questioned her, with thick eyebrows of doubt.

“Yeah, it is but I can’t explain why,” Yumi said.

“Sure it is. I think I can explain it. Think about it. One guy is living in a house on a certain street and is getting rich, while just across the street right next to him another person can starve within plain sight of him. Society will say the starving man deserved to die and did something to deserve it so they don’t have to give him a job. He will also even see signs of trouble like lack of electricity, poor clothes, and other visible signs of suffering, but will ignore them and even try to avoid them and withdraw support and even friendship. People see people in need all the time and just walk away ignoring the suffering of others. How can that not be evil?” Sensei interjected.

“Hmm, I hadn’t thought of it like that. Sensei and Yumi have a lot of heart courage in facing what’s right,” I said. Without realizing it, I’d made them blush. But I’d not been trying to draw attention to them, but just stating a fact in the open.

“So is ignoring people in need is evil?” Rina wondered. She thought about it while studying the trees around us. They looked a lot like a type of aspen trees in this part of the woods, but not all of the woods were entirely aspen. There were many trees similar to trees on Earth, and even some pine trees near the edges of the woods farther away from us, and a few types of trees that didn’t look anything like the ones on Earth.

“Well at the Nuremburg trials they portrayed the idea that when we’re so callous that we will think of self continually at a certain point we become blinded to the suffering of others and then progress to a point where we’re so blind and numb in self centered blindness that we would be so dead that we wouldn’t think badly about hurting another and our conscious erodes over time of these small bits of being obsessed with self gain at the expense of others. So in effect, it’s like if get so obsessed with self preservation and become dead to feeling that you can end up not able to see that you, yourself are without realizing it causing harm all the time to others. Many people that do badly to others aren’t consciously even thinking that their actions cause harm to others. But their actions still caused great harm even though they are not aware of it and thinking I was only trying to get X for myself. Then it can progress from that point too, to eventually enjoying profiting off others in trouble,” Sensei explained.

It was a deep thought so we had to stop to think about it. “That’s deep,” Yumi admitted.

“I think I’m starting to get it. But I’ll have to think about that some more to understand it clearly. I had just been trying to do well when I saw things I could do, but to know what evil is. It gets tricky seeing it has many levels of progression,” I said.

“So you see Shun, real leadership isn’t being the king but just helping the others out on a very basic level. It’s actually best for you and your skills in the long run that you didn’t become a king candidate with the others, even though you have the good heart and intelligence for being able to be good as a king. The one who does become king in the long run will have the least amount of skills because they will be living parasitically off others, instead of working for their own welfare and that of others,” Sensei added.

“How come you are so smart?” Rina said. “What does Sensei take for smart pills?” It’s clear Rina admires Asakura a lot.

We chuckled at the comment.

“You are sure the king will be the weakest at the end?” Yumi wondered.

“Well think about it. He has others do everything for him. He has other people work for him, while he just enjoys benefits. How is that going to let him progress?” Asakura Sensei explained.

“So back to our current problem of food and the king problem. We need to figure out how to deal with both of them,” I sighed. We didn’t want to face it, but it was a huge problem.

“Well the normal students haven’t learned how to take care of their own lives. Plus advanced societies want to live off the labor of others naturally from not wanting to have to do sweaty and blue collar type jobs. They would rather bask in wealth and riches with others underneath them doing the work for them. So this is a perfect recipe for disaster. I seriously wonder if we’d be better striking out on our own,” Sensei wondered aloud.

“You really think so?” Yumi wondered.

“Yeah! Don’t feel bad OK? I like you and Rina and Shun but…I can’t take care of a hundred kids on my own. It’s impossible! I don’t have wilderness survival skills either! I had gone through school so quickly and got my teaching license only a short time ago. So I still have book knowledge but lack a lot of applied life skills because I’m young too. I’m actually close to your ages you know? I don’t know what to do about all of this. My parents were too busy to ever take me out camping either so I’m lost,” Sensei voiced a sincere genuine concern. Her eyes said she worried for all students, but the needs were too big here and now.

Yumi sighed, “I agree with Sensei that the danger here is too big. Too many students and no mentor program to help them learn how to survive here. We don’t know anything and I doubt we can stay here fishing everyday non-stop forever.”

“Hmm, so you think the fish will dry up?” Rina asked. “I thought rivers and streams with fish kept them all the time?”

“Well they do keep fish all the time, but the fish migrate up and down the rivers during certain parts of the year to mate, raise young, etc. They might not be here year round at this particular spot, and will likely change which parts of the river they are in. They might for parts of the year go down to the coast or go up into the mountain lakes during another part of the year, and it’s dangerous to be too dependent on one food source,” Asakura explained.

“Ah, if that’s the case, we’re lost,” Yumi exclaimed and venting a lot of stress.

“Hmm, that’s a big concern too. I hadn’t realized that some types of fish were migratory, at least on Earth,” I said scratching my chin. “I hadn’t thought about it that way. I was thinking it would be hard to provide for that many people though.”

“Are you sure they are migratory?” Rina asked.

“Well most animals have some migratory patterns, come to think of it,” Yumi admitted. “I should have thought of that myself. Like the old saying that birds fly south for the winter. Why didn’t I realize other animals do it too?”

“It’s well known salmon are, and a few others too. Maybe not everything though? I am not an expert on fish to be honest, but I just know about salmon and a couple of others. I don’t know how closely this world will be to that though. What if things are different? Maybe?” Sensei replied.

“So if there was enough fish, what then?” Yumi wondered, toying with the options.

“Yeah, but there are only like eight rangers right? So, even if the fish remained constant, we also have like a hundred and ten people more or less. So that’s a lot of people for eight rangers to find food for, and eventually they will want to do stuff more proactive besides gathering food. They will think they are like nobles or knights and want it the other way around right? They didn’t get a desire to do ranger for nothing right? They wanted to explore, and fight monsters, and gain wealth maybe? So they will more than likely want the other hundred people serving them. I think it’s dangerous to trust them too much,” Asakura Sensei explained.

“Ah, Sensei! You are so smart,” Rina smiled, while Yumi pouted jealously. She wanted Rina’s attention too after all. Yumi shrugged at me, hoping for support. It surprised me.

“Yeah that makes sense. Gathering food isn’t that glamorous huh?” I nodded at Sensei.

“Hmm, I hadn’t thought of it that way,” Yumi said.

“Great, so we might only have a few days of food here before having to move onto something else huh?” I said.

“We need to brainstorm and talk to people. I saw deer tracks and deer pellets coming up the trails all over in these woods. But deer are pretty fast too and nimble. You can’t catch them on foot with hand to hand weapons. We’d need a good system if we are to manage being able to kill one. The slings and stones won’t work. They need bows for that and none of us have bow and arrows yet,” Sensei exclaimed.

“OK, but what about like small animals like rabbits and stuff?” I asked.

“Someone will have to come up with traps and a way of masking the scent of humans from the traps. I don’t know yet if the rangers have thought of this or not yet,” Sensei said.

“Ah, so if they smell human scents on the trap, even if it’s built right it won’t work huh?” Yumi scratched her head. “I’ve never done traps either, so I don’t have any experience.”

“Wow, so complicated. At least we’re talking about it and keeping it real. Some of the others won’t notice this until they are starving. I like this proactive stuff,” I said.

“But how do we know when and how we’ll leave and split off from the group? I know you guys want to talk about food, but…some of the king issues weigh on me more than food. We’d have to be careful if we don’t want to get trapped. I doubt they’ll let us leave on their own,” Sensei said.

“We don’t have to leave right away but maybe soon? We might study first how they caught fish first, foraging skills, and whatever else we need to about food. Also we can try to see if we can learn a few combat tricks too and practice fighting,” I suggested.

“But do you think we can stay with this group that long Sensei?” I suddenly added. This was the true worry and the limiter of how long we’d be able to stay with the others.

“So if we were to get a few more skills that might help, but the problem is that once it’s really time to go it will be too late to go if we wait last minute won’t it?” Sensei said, voicing her thought of my concern. “It seems that there will be like a black zone period that if we wait too long. We’ll be trapped no matter what because there will just be a compound of several factors combining against us. That’s my worry, Shun.”

“Hmm, so it’s not possible to totally be able to tell when the window of opportunity to leave is going to close is it?” I asked.

“I don’t think we can Shun. We can only try, but we have to give some space for error?” Sensei asked, her finger tips grazing my arm.

“That’s terrible!” Rina exclaimed.

“Well, once they catch onto the idea that people won’t accept a king they will try to force it and then be rounding people up. That will put people at a big disadvantage then and they will likely take measures and implement a system to make sure people can’t escape then and taking away people’s freedoms,” Asakura said.

“Can they do that?” Yumi wondered, scratching her head.

“Hmm, are you sure?” Rina asked.

“Well, it’s natural to single people out individually, but the rangers are already acting like a team right? So they can easily single people out individually and take their weapons and stuff before most the group knows what’s going on. Then by the time it’s known they will just be too powerful to take out of power. It’s basically how people are laid off in companies. The guys at the top single out the guys at the bottom so they can’t fight back,” Sensei said.

“You are a really logical person aren’t you Sensei?” I asked, chuckling. After all, her brains were helping us a lot by helping us to figure out what to do.”

“But are you sure we aren’t speculating too much on this? How do we know you are really on the right track?” Yumi asked suddenly.

“Well, I thought so too, until I heard them each wanting to be king. That’s pretty scary, when the timing and problems are up to our necks already. That’s proof we’re not speculating,” I said.

“Ah, this world is so complicated,” Yumi exclaimed.

“And dangerous,” I added, responding to Yumi.

“But why do they want to be the king? Isn’t it more work to do?” Rina asked innocently.

“Yeah it’s more watching and staying in control of people, but they want to be the ones that have stuff. People want power to use other people below them as sacrificial pawns to cushion them from hardship, disaster, and the consequences of selfishness and bad decisions. They also want to have the best shelter, the best chance for spouses, food, power, tools…and there’s no guarantee of having those things even if they are the ones in power,” Sensei explained carefully.

“Ah, I get it now,” Rina said.

“Wow you hit it right on the nail,” I said in surprise. Not a lot of adults like to use bold honesty like that. They fear retaliation so much because by nature adults have to cooperate to live and can take things away from each other when they don’t like what each other does.

Yumi also nodded. “It’s strange though that Yuta would suddenly be all weird and Akimoto too.”

“Well they saw they had a really lofty advantage. They decided to cash in on it. They’ve probably never had a time period before where they had responsibility over others with real accountability either,” Sensei said, raising an eyebrow. “For example, who can oppose Yuta if he’s the only one who can teach people what their skill screens say? I don’t think Raya getting ‘deathly ill’ is an accident either. They most likely did something to her.”

“But isn’t Raya pretty? Why would they hurt her when they obviously like her?” Rina asked. She was exploring and looking for bugs in the grass around us and some of the tree branches. Just then I remembered as a kid she’d been fascinated with bugs and identifying them. It was strange that a girl might have a trait like that and she’d not shown it for so long I thought she’d grown out of it. Now I could see I was wrong.

“Well maybe they just imprisoned her, or tied her up, or maybe they saw she won’t let them be a king and so she was taken out of the picture. Or she might even be in on it too. Right now they will be pretty upset with those people first who were really angry at the idea of having a king,” Sensei said.

“Do you think they will hurt them? I also hadn’t considered that she might be on it with them,” I voiced aloud my concern.

Even I wasn’t sure how far Akimoto and Yuta would go. Akira might even be different than what I thought too, I suddenly realized. What if Akira was just like them? Or what if they originally thought they were helping people but just helping themselves too and it got out of hand?

“But are you worried we’re like…shooting in the dark about possibilities too much?” Yumi wondered looking at the ground.

“Well we are just trying to be prepared. That’s what being prepared is. You think of possibilities and how to prepare and how to get what you want. That’s how you get through hard stuff,” Asakura gave her an encouraging smile and patted me on the arm again.

Was it just me or was Sensei acting pretty friendly with me?

Suddenly we heard running through the underbrush, and another runner had come up to us from around the edge of the huge boulder that was like a gate to the area where we were hidden. It was one of the ranger kids, “Shun! Shun! We need your help!” he was breathless and gasping for air, and covered in sweat. It looked like he’d ran for a long time and he was covered with bits of pine needles from running through trees, mud bits from tripping and stumbling around.

“Oh man, it took forever to find you guys! I’ve looked all over,” he huffed.

I glanced at Sensei. Both of our eyes seemed to be saying, “So much for this as a meeting spot…”

“Hm, this is a trick to separate us isn’t it? It’s not going to work! We stay in one group,” Yumi accused him suspiciously and looking adamantly firm in righteous anger. She jabbed a finger in his direction angrily.

“Wha-what? No I mean, uh…” the ranger kid looked flustered and confused.

“That makes sense, Yuta did propose to Rina in front of everyone practically. He might try a trick like this to snatch up the women he likes, by separating them from their protectors. And also sending people to find and watch over us,” Sensei guessed.

“Haah, hhaah, haaah, No it’s no trick I swear!” he exclaimed breathing loudly and trying to get fresh air. He held up his hands innocently. He was still bent over trying to catch his breath though. He took in big gulps of air.

I sighed, “I don’t know…”

“Wait! It’s not what you think,” he pleaded. “Just …a …sec.”

“Well what is it you think we think?” Yumi’s eyes looked at him even more suspiciously.

“Shun! Please come! Akira…needs your help!” he said. He fell to his knees pleading for mercy. It was a humiliating position.

“Eh? Akira? But why me? I don’t want to be part of this king business,” I asked. “He was all buddy buddy with you ranger kids for awhile. But he didn’t even hang out with us after we killed that orc boss together. Now he suddenly is asking for me? I can’t help but be suspicious of the motives.”

“Well what’s going on? First tell us that? Is this going to be something dangerous? Right now we don’t want Shun trying to be hero anymore. We just want a normal life and to get away from the dangerous stuff,” Rina said.

“OK, Ok, basically they were trying to force activate powers on people through various methods and something happened…I’m not entirely sure what’s going on, but you were the one who got rid of the pig orc boss so it was worth a try. He asked for you several times, but wouldn’t let anyone else even know what the deal was. That herbalist guy has already tried giving him pain medicine he concocted that looks toxic and some of the others some of his homemade doobies to help and it’s not working or made it worse, was the story I’d heard. We’re willing to try anything,” the ranger pleaded in anguish.

“That, and I think they remembered your new special skill!” the ranger added with sincerity.

“Eh? Like a drug overdose?” Rina wondered.

“No, not like that, really,” the ranger kid replied. “I think he’s not into that, but that herbalist does seem a bit shifty…”

“How do we know this isn’t some Yuta or Akimoto plot? Don’t trust him Shun!” Yumi accused.

“Look, I don’t know what made them think of being a king? It’s kind of silly actually, but both of them are afraid they won’t get pretty girls to like them I guess. Who knows? But Akira I think just wanted to be king so Akimoto and Yuta wouldn’t be,” the ranger kid said in a panic.

“How do you know that?” I asked.

He looked down guiltily. “Well actually I was eavesdropping on them for Akimoto. I think the whole powers and having untapped potential went to their heads. Seriously they are both falling off the wagon hard. Yuta fell pretty hard into being seduced by it, but Akimoto just made a lot of mistakes trying to help people and let it get to him too in the end. But he’s getting so mixed up I wonder if it’ll work out. The ranger camp is actually not fully under Akimoto anymore, even though he is the supposed ranger boss. Somehow Yuta made about half of them afraid that they wouldn’t get skills anymore if they didn’t listen to him. They’re afraid there’s no future without skills now too. I guess it worked because a lot of them are pretty intimidated and doing what he says,” he shrugged. “Can you come please, please, please?”

“So how many are following Yuta, and how many Akimoto? I wonder if it’s even safe to go see him,” Sensei asked, scratching her chin.

“Uh, I think there’s like three rangers under Yuta, but he’s got the six defenders on his side now too and they are better at combat than the rangers. Plus a bunch of others who don’t have jobs yet are supporting him and he seems pretty determined to get them some kind of power too. I think he’s got a few more we don’t know about though,” he said like he was really scared.

“Wait, how do you know they are better at combat? You shouldn’t know something like that so easily, unless something else has happened,” Sensei asked again shrewdly.

“Well, uh, don’t tell anyone I told you this, but some of them wanted to know if we could really handle it if people didn’t want a king so we’ve been practicing sparring, but a lot of us wanted to spar just because we think the orcs will come back and overheard their real reason. We think the orcs will definitely come back though, probably some time at night. He used that fear of the orcs against us in getting people to sign up under his command. The defenders don’t have much offense power, but they have this magic shield skill thing that is actually pretty bad ass and can take and absorb a lot of damage,” he said.

“Oh a damage absorption magic shield skill? That sounds pretty interesting,” Yumi said with big eyes.

“Yeah it can soak up a lot of shock and force apparently. It took several rangers like a half hour to knock one out,” the kid said.

“That sounds pretty powerful,” I said, thinking about what he just said. “But was it powerful from the skill or because the person they were fighting against had a lot of life experiences already before coming here?” I added.

“That’s a good question. I don’t know,” he said.

“Does it like…how should I put it…does it summon a shield made of magic or reinforce a shield that you had beforehand?” Sensei asked.

“Eh, if its defender job I think they were summoning an entire shield made from magic, but it has some kind of cool down between how long it can be used before they have to rest. But I don’t know the full details,” Ranger kid said.

“That sounds…dangerous. You can’t confiscate a weapon like that,” Sensei responded.

“Magic shield? How would we deal with that?” I admitted. Sensei and I looked each other in the eye. It sounded pretty powerful too. For a survival skill it would be very useful.

“I don’t like this Shun. They are already deciding on adversarial countermeasures. That’s a red flag if there ever was one,” Asakura said in a lilting voice. She was pacing in agitation now, staying close by me and Rina.

“Ah, I want one of those! I’ve always liked the idea of protecting people I care about,” Yumi said, with a twinkly eyed look like she’d just seen something precious…dang she was hooked, I thought. It was a bit scary how easily that had pulled her in though.

“This better not be a scam like that meeting,” I muttered.

“Oh I know right? That’s my worry too,” Yumi admitted openly.

“I guess people really do want to reinvent themselves,” Sensei said out of the blue.

“What’s that? Where did that come from” I asked, wondering how she’d say that suddenly.

“Uh, nothing. I’ll tell you later,” she said, shaking her head.

Rina must have seen what was happening, so she slapped Yumi in the back of the head.

“Ouch! Hey what was that for?” Yumi wondered.

“Keep your head on straight! Shun needs us!” she ordered, getting mad.

“But I would’ve used it to protect you!” she admitted.

“And Shun too?” Rina asked distrustfully.

“Uh, sure,” Yumi grumbled, looking guilty.

“You don’t sound committed,” Rina accused.

“Ah, right! Sorry,” she apologized. “Don’t worry, I’m with the Rina and Shun team for sure!” she said sincerely.

“But did they discover any other skills and jobs? Seems like to move ahead they’d want to be pretty confident they couldn’t be overturned too,” I asked.

“Well it’s been kind of secretive lately. That’s why I think they have, because until it got all hush, hush they were trying really hard to get something going to force out the skills,” the ranger kid said.

“Hmm that means they discovered another job besides the defenders and rangers!” Sensei realized excitedly.

“You think so?” the ranger kid looked puzzled. “…they have been pretty secretive lately even from us.” He frowned.

“Are you sure? What makes you think that?” I asked.

“I’m sure of it! Well it’s kind of like how you just said it. The key is thinking, what would make them brave enough to risk getting hurt or being alienated unless they thought they couldn’t lose? Remember these aren’t people that were always brave. They are people that used to have to live under others and weren’t brave originally. That’s the key to seeing it. Don’t you think it’s suddenly odd they get real quiet right when all the jobs are needed to be known about? Most likely Yuta or Akimoto found something they think is a trump card and something really good powerful or with a lot of utility,” Sensei said.

“Ah, I didn’t think of that. Sensei is so smart after all, being a math teacher,” the ranger kid said, but we were thinking it too.

“So math is a good skill that buffs other skills?” Rina wondered aloud.

“Ahh, I- I don’t know about that,” Yumi said quickly. Yumi had trouble with math after all. Of course she’d be hesitant to talk about it.

“So what do we do? If we go help Akira there’s a chance we could get caught up in all this,” I said.

They all were silent for a sec, until Sensei turned to the ranger kid. “If we help Akira, do you promise you’ll leave us out of this conflict and alert us ahead of time if they try to trap us?”

“Sure. I’ll do whatever I can,” he nodded and bowed. “I’m just sorry to ask others for help. Please come though.”

“You are sure? This isn’t something you can promise empty? It’s very likely we might need a heads up if things get ugly ahead so we don’t get killed. Kings also don’t like it when someone goes against them. In history they’d cut people’s heads off for it,” I said probing him for weak spots.

The ranger kid gave a big sigh. “The truth is, I’m ashamed I was manipulated. I don’t really want to turn on the people from my own town. I just want to survive too and I think there might be others, but everyone’s letting this go to their head so fast. People are also acting without thinking things through too,” he responded desperately.

“Not so fast! Why would you agree so quickly?” Yumi wondered.

“Well Akira is a good kid. I remembered when back home he actually tutored me a couple of times to save me from having to repeat a grade, right before the big testing season. Some of the things Yuta and Akimoto want to do I’m not so sure I like their … I don’t know. It’s like they don’t see when things are going too far either. I don’t want to hurt people. Also I can’t let him suffer like this. That’s why when Yuriko asked me to without fail grab you and ask you to go to him, I agreed to it,” he said.

“Ah, I see,” Yumi admitted. “We want your solemn oath that you won’t betray us and not deceiving us in any way. Oh and you have to show us how to forage for food OK,” she added.

Ranger kid bowed his head, and said, “I swear. If I’m lying in any way I’ll eat dog pooh to repent.”

“To go so far as putting your life on the line like that…so brave!” Rina said with big eyes.

“It-it’s a bit extreme I guess. I wouldn’t go that far,” I said.

Sensei looked really sick suddenly on her face, “ugh…that sounds pretty awful. I believe him now.”

“But we have to hurry. Yuriko wouldn’t let me see him but she said it was bad and if the others saw it they’d probably hurt him even more or it’d cause a panic. We have to go now,” the kid said.

“Hmm are you sure you want to do this Shun?” Yumi wondered.

“No, but we stand a better chance of surviving if we help everyone. We can learn things along the way too. Who wants to let people suffer anyway?” I admit.

“But don’t we need like a safe word as a signal to each other it’s time to bail and leave on our own as a team?” Sensei whispered, while the ranger kid was way ahead of us, beckoning us to follow.

“That’s not a bad idea,” Yumi said.

My to do list keeps getting bigger with not enough time in the day…and I still haven’t had a chance to look at the demon box again. But the last thing I need is for Asakura, Yumi, and Rina seeing me pull out imprisoned naked girls in stasis crystals out to study…I need to be alone to do so, but if I’m alone Rina and the others are unprotected too…