“Are we really doing this?”

“What the hell, Ayano, you want to remain under her thumb until she gets us killed?”

“No, of course not, but who’s to say they won’t attack us too?  Is this really the time?”

“Got a better idea for getting our revenge?”

“No, this is the first time something like this has come up.  We don’t know what sort of chances are going to be.  And this just doesn’t feel right.  These cultists sound like really bad news.”

“So you just want to be her pawns?”

“Damnit Kenta, that’s not what I’m saying.  And besides, I’m not the one that’s been getting really comfortable with her this past month.”

“I’m stealing what she’s got to teach us!  I have to get stronger for you guys.”

“Sure it’s not something more?”

“No...never...I can’t forgive her!  She’s gotta die!”  He shouted to the others, but even the rest could tell who the words really were for.  And seeing Kenta's reaction reminded them all how complicated their feelings had become in the month.  Silence fell over the group as they were left to stew in their internal thoughts.

What would they do remained the echoing question in silence.

Chapter 628 - Cost of Betrayal

Silence hung like a morning fog around them and squeezing at them.  Each wanted to say something, but stopped before even opening their mouth.  The intended words varied between them, but it all felt like it had already been said by Ayano and Kenta’s argument.

It was more than ten minutes before anyone spoke and it still didn’t feel like it had been enough time.  When the reality and opportunity without the emotional high presented itself things turned out different as they all realized.  Things were different and they had serious questions to answer.

“So...is this something we’re still doing?  Are we doing this for Yuki?”

“What kinda question is that?  Of course we are, damnit!  He’s family, we promised to protect and look out for each other!”

“Yeah, but he’s dead now.  Dead because of me…”

“It wasn’t you, she just tricked you!  It was her hand!”

“But are we killers like she is?”

“We already crossed that line.”

That hit everyone for a moment hard, forced to pause.  The weight came in heavier than they remembered.  “None of us have!  It was Yuki and now he’s gone too.”

“We all knew what had to happen.  We made the choice.”

“You’re just playing with words, Kenta.  Changing them around to find comfort in what you think we should do!”

He jumped up staring at Ayano with emotions getting more tense than they had ever been for the close knit family.  Breathing heavily, emotions pumped through his blood as he glared straight at her.  None of them knew what he might do, becoming tense and prepared to act if needed.  “Are you just content then being like this?”

“What about you?!  Everyone!”  She looked over at Nao and Yuichi demanding their silence end.  It no longer was just a disagreement.  “This is what we protect and live for.  Are we killers?  Do we just get more blood on our hands?  Are we happy here?  What is it that we want?”

The uneasy silence from the others triggered Kenta more as emotions controlled him.  “What the hell, guys?!  Nao you can’t seriously be thinking that after what you said.”

Attention put upon her, Nao started to shrink in her chair some.  She couldn’t get away from what she said.  “I...I just thought that’s what everyone wanted.”

“What do you want Nao?”

Glancing over at Ayano, partly around Kenta, who stood in the near center of them, Nao hesitated looking for her words again.  “I don’t know.  I just want everyone to be safe.  I don’t want to lose anyone else.”

Seeing his defense start to weaken with Nao, Kenta turned to Yuichi as his last hope.  “And you, man?”

The most quiet of the group, odd considering Nao, but he had been mostly watching.  Part of it was for personal reasons and partly because he wanted to hear everyone else’s thoughts.  Yuichi leaned back a little against the makeshift chair.  “If we want to do this, we have to have a plan.”

“Damnit, that a yes?”

“It’s a ‘we do this right or not at all.’  I’m with Ayano on this, I don’t want to see anyone else die because we want to kill Chiharu.  So if we kill her, no one dies and we make it out clean.  If we can’t do that, then just do the mission as the girl wants us.”

A grimace came over Kenta as that didn’t give him the direct answer he wanted.  But it was at least something that he could work with, better than the others.  So the boiling rage cooled some to a rolling over simmer as he sat down.  “Is that something the both of you can work with?”

Ayano sighed a little, finding it a little strange that Kenta pushed on it so hard.  ‘What’s going on with him?  More than the rest, aside from maybe Nao who’s taken quite a liking to Chiharu, he seemed to be really into everything.  Why does he want to end it all now?’  She felt pressing into such questions wouldn’t get any answers and likely stir the pot up even more than she already had.

Matters had become complicated.

Not really known as the planner, Kenta started.  “So how are we going to do this?”  Admittedly, none of the group really was about planning.  That had fallen to the boss and then Yuki, which meant technically it probably fell on Ayano’s shoulders.  Though it stopped being something one of them could decide after Yuichi’s answer.

With some reluctance, Ayano answered him first.  “It can’t be just anyone we find.  Chiharu’s pretty strong, it’s going to have to be someone we can’t handle for it to even be a risk to her.”

“Or someone with a power that counters her,” offered Yuichi.  The point he brought up shifted everyone’s thoughts a little.  Because finding someone more powerful than Chiharu worried everyone, even if they didn’t have to fight them.  The risk seemed too high.

“What are the chances of finding someone like that?”

“If there’s that many there, probably good.  Though finding them would be harder.”

“Finding anyone is probably going to be hard, it’s a stealth mission.”  Ayano kept bringing up a counter or problem to the plan.  It wasn’t even that she tried to shut it down, it was just the reality of their situation.  They needed someone else other than them to kill her, because they couldn’t do it at the moment.  And it seemed possible that they might not ever be able to, depending on their gap.

However, Kenta pushed them forward weirdly as before on the same goal.  Though it turned less into a plan of hard set and well defined objectives and more of just a bunch of ‘what if’ statements.  It didn’t really feel like a plan, but just an opportunity and not a really good one.  Confidence in the plan remained shaky and it remained unknown how they could do it without being killed themselves.

It would all have to be down to reading the situation and making a call.  They all made the agreement to just watch and look for the chance if it happened.  They just didn’t know what that might look like at the moment.

After their long debating, arguing and planning, the group settled into the night and found sleep in time.  Though not all as restful as they would have liked as their minds swirled with the weight of their choices.  The arrival of their moment would come, but not soon enough for them as the hours dragged on for what seemed like days.

Eventually, the appointed hour came to them and Chiharu showed back up just into the early evening.  It was far sooner than any of them expected.  And they all stared at her wondering if she knew what they had been doing since last they saw one another.

“There something wrong?”

“Oh, no, nothing.  Just thought you were coming much later.”

She looked around at the others seeing their equally quiet and silent expression hinting at something behind their eyes.  But she gave them a pass and pulled out a large crate from her shadow portal.  “That’s because it is time for the pre-mission work.  We leave at the same time I discussed.”

Kenta poked his head in starting to return to some semblance of normality.  “Pre-mission work?  That another word for more training?  Thought you said we were good.”

“Nothing like that, though it might be training for you since it’ll all be a new experience for you.”  She opened the crate in front of them letting them all glance inside.  Chiharu knocked on the back letting the sides to the crate fold open revealing a large array of equipment.  Everything that she found comfort in, though new territory for them.

“What?  Gonna make us wear this?”

“Correct.”  Chiharu pulled from the center a torso body guard like the one she wore.  She tossed it over to Kenta before pointing out the rest to everyone.  “There’s gear for everyone here.  You have four hours to get comfortable with this and be ready for the mission.”

“Am I going to be able to move around in this stuff?  It’s not even going to protect me from powers or someone with super strength!”  All valid points, though that didn’t change the certainty of Chiharu expression as Kenta looked down trying to figure it all out.  Not everything was gear to wear.  Some of them were weapons, tools and other support gear for the mission.

“It’ll be about blending in with the shadows and moving quietly.  While providing minimal protection, it will be better than your clothes you have and you won’t be able to be easily picked out by the enemy amongst the rest.  So get ready, we move at midnight.”