Soul Spark

10 - Kill The Calamity

Barely hanging in the sky with his two remaining wings, Ichigo, carrying his comrades on his back, crash landed next to Sakuto.

“Holy shit, you survived?” Sakuto asked, seeing the three other soulfuls, all bruised and battered, almost crawl off of his back.

“We couldn’t do shit.” Zawadski said, catching his breath. It was unusual for him to appear so bothered, so frustrated too. “We were so fucking close, and then suddenly, boom, we’re all just helpless fucking lambs.”

“What happened? Everyone else is-”

“Fell in action.” Jian replied to Ichika, unable to accept the reality herself. “We are the sole survivors.”

“And what about...this?” Ichika asked, pointing at the sky.

“Something to do with him devouring souls. He got to old Captain Zervos...fuck!” Zawadski said, furious, holding his head. “Fucking damn it!”

“The sun, the rain...everything...” Yuuka said, sadness overtaking her usually cheerful and unpredictable voice. “It’s all him.”

“Hey, over here!”

While the rest were trying to talk over what happened, Sakuto rushed over to Ichigo, who collapsed on the ground. Turning over his body revealed profuse, almost life threatening bleeding from his eyes, nose and mouth. He checked his vitals, relieved to feel a pulse.

“He’s alive...shit, the exhaustion is bad.” Sakuto told everyone else, as they also rushed to the scene. “How long did he have his acclamation active for?”

“Since the start of the operation, all the way up to this point. The buffer was aiding him too, so it strained him more than usual.” Yuuka said. “Hey, lightbulb...please don’t die too, okay?”

“Ugh...” Ichigo grunted in pain.

“He’s responsive.” Sakuto said. He planted some of his shadows on Ichigo, trying to seal off his wounds. “Don’t focus on regeneration now.” He told Ichigo. “I got it. Just let yourself rest for a minute, you’re beyond exhausted.”

“Damn it...” That was all Ichigo said. The next few moments were spent in silence.

He slowly got up.

“Too soon, lay down for a bit more.” Sakuto said, trying to push him down.

“I’m good now, thanks.” Ichigo said. “Soul determination will deal with the rest.”

“Right...”

“Just how much of it do you have? Sheesh...”

“I’m guessing you guys need a breakdown of everything...” Ichigo said.

“Not exactly, Mukawa recorded your meetings. What we need to know more is what happened during the fight.” Ichika said.

“He...recorded them?” Jian asked, surprised.

“I knew he had doubts.” Zawadski shook his head. “All of that heroic garbage he was spewing during the last meeting...he did have doubts. That’s why he recorded them, to make sure you’re his last option, Sakuto.”

“Heroic garbage?” Sakuto asked, confused. “What are you talking about?”

Everyone was taken by surprise.

“He never said anything heroic.” Sakuto said. “As a matter of fact, he put you all to sleep during the last meeting.” He explained, and seeing the apparent shock and frustration on the others’ faces, he felt a little awkward. “He...probably made you think it was a dream or something. That’s kinda his whole thing.”

“Fucking asshole!” Zawadski yelled at the top of his lungs. He crouched down. “You’re right, there’s nothing heroic about him. He’s a fucking coward.”

“He wanted to save as many lives as possible, and I guess Kaito Kamiki exploited that to get more favorable conditions for himself during the battle...and to reel Mukawa closer to himself.” Ichigo said.

“Well, I hope he’s happy now.” Zawadski stood back up. “I hope he’s happy when he sees all of this, I really do! I pray his regrets torture him every single second!”

All the screaming and crashing attracted two others to the site. Hiroshi and Yumichi slowly approached the mass. Yumichi did look a little worried, but seeing his sister gave him enough confidence to keep himself together. Hiroshi, on the other hand...

“Good timing that you’re here.” Zawadski told him. “If this isn’t enough proof that your daddy is a piece of shit, I don’t know what is.”

“Alright, enough yelling.” Sakuto said, slowly approaching Hiroshi. “Hiroshi, do you know anything about what’s happening? Any senses, feelings, maybe premonitions?”

“Nothing...m-my heart is a little louder, but that isn’t really bothering me...” Hiroshi said. He wanted to look at the rest of the Heisei, but their expressions weren’t exactly welcoming.

“Kouhai, don’t think about it.” Yuuka said. “We’re not doing what they want to do.”

“It doesn’t even matter.” Zawadski sighed. “What happens to the soulless genuinely doesn’t matter anymore. It’s all down to what happens to us anymore.”

“I’ll try not to argue against what you said, but...I understand.” Ichigo said. “Kaito is probably out to get us as we speak.”

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“Because of the boy.” Jian said.

“The boy that we’re going to protect.” Sakuto said. “And the boy that’s going to help us kill that asshole for good.”

“And what’s your obsession with trying to protect him, if you don’t mind me asking?” Zawadski asked.

Sakuto took a bit to reply to that question.

“Because I don’t want anyone else dying on me. And because he deserves at least a chance at a life.” Sakuto said. “He’s been treated as leverage or an object his whole life, and his dad is probably gonna kill him too or do something worse to him.”

“W-wait, but-”

“Almost everyone who as little as acknowledged me is now dead, including my only best friend.” Sakuto said. “This kid’s life is already torture. I’m not gonna let it become even worse.”

“I agree.” Ichigo said. “Besides, if we came this close to killing Kaito...I’m sure if we try hard enough, we’ll manage to find another way. Especially with you now active, Sakuto.”

“If we’re all dead anyways, might as well shoot for the best case scenario.” Ichika said.

“Which is...?”

“All of us here surviving, and the soulless not being wiped out.” Ichigo said. “Impossible unless we come up with a plan, fast.”

“Let’s see...” Zawadski theorized, managing to calm himself down. “When it comes to his abilities...soul devourer, well, he’s already ridiculously strong. He doesn’t need additional abilities. Soul sight is useless too, he knows everything about us already. That leaves...”

“Limited manifestation.” Jian said. “Although, considering his transformations, I believe he surpassed even that amount of strength.”

“And his divine acclamation?”

“Nothing is known about it except the fact that it kills anything it touches. At least that’s what it seemed like.” Yuuka said.

“Sakuto, your Soul Breaker, do you think it’ll do the job?” Zawadski asked. “Or Ichika, your divine acclamation...or, what if both are used at the same time?”

“Abyssal Frostbite is lethal, but we’re up against Kaito Kamiki. I doubt it’ll be that easy.” Ichika replied.

“Same here. Even though it might be a problem for him, it’s a pretty exhausting move and I need to hit him with my blade. Just the fact that he knows about it will make it near impossible to land.” Sakuto sighed. “He has all the information on us, but we have nothing on him.”

“Well, those two are the strongest attacking abilities we have. I can’t think of anything better.” Zawadski said.

“Yuuka, your divine acclamation?” Ichika asked.

“We put him through hell, and he...survived it.” Yuuka said. “But he did have to apply quite a bit of effort into it.”

“Hey, um...” Yumichi spoke up. Everyone fell silent, looking at the boy. “If he’s impossible to beat up, why don’t we try to...I don’t know...trap him? Or take his powers away?”

“Huh...” Ichika gave it some thought.

“I don’t think a method of taking someone’s power even exists.” Jian said. “I have never heard of such an occurrence.”

“But trapping...” Ichika continued. “Doesn’t sound too impossible. There’s at least one thing that I know of that can trap someone’s soul.”

“The soul crystal...?” Sakuto asked. “That’s...holy shit, wait...”

“I’ll leave it to you since you were the one inside one of those, Sakuto.” Zawadski said. “Tell us some good news.”

“The good news is that once you’re inside the crystal, you can’t get out.” Sakuto said. “Either someone needs to manipulate it to release you, or you need to undergo its daydream sequence. Which can either take minutes...or days.”

“So that’s the strategy?” Yuuka asked. “That’s it? What do we even do with that crystal?”

“Whatever we want!” Zawadski said. “Toss it into a radioactive pit of death so he gets out with cancer, send it off to outer space so he eventually stops thinking...or better yet, someone in our squad has an ability called Soul Breaker, it at least has to do something against a crystal with a soul trapped inside, right?”

Everyone looked at Sakuto.

“Gotta be honest, I have no fucking idea.” Sakuto said. “But the soul crystal is our best bet. A slim chance is better than none.”

“Then it’s decided.” Zawadski said. “Now how do we go about it?”

“We need more information.” Ichigo said. “Specifically, on Kaito. The GSC has a dedicated archive area, we can snoop around there until you find something. If we don’t find anything that renders the soul crystal plan impossible, we can try searching for one.”

“There probably are some left at that house in Moscow, unless Kaito destroyed it...but I doubt he did.” Ichika said.

“Keep in mind guys, Kaito will be hunting us like there’s no tomorrow.” Zawadski said.

“He’ll be hunting us, but he won’t know where Hiroshi is.” Sakuto said. “That’s why I propose a plan. Me and Ichika will take Hiroshi and Yumichi with us to Tokyo. The four of you will be in Europe, trying to keep Kaito on your tail.”

“Is there any other organized resistance?” Ichigo asked. “I’d imagine at least some action was taken once all of this happened. Maybe there are some soulfuls active...” Newest update provıded by novel·fire.net

“You’ll handle getting us more manpower too, in that case. As long as they’re a soulful, they’re eligible.” Sakuto said. He took a good look at the hollow sun. “I’ll drop you off in Europe.”

He took another look at the graves, slowly approaching Oskar’s grave and crouching down close to it.

“See? I’m trying.”

“You’d probably be proud of me...”

He stood back up.

“All right, let’s move out.” Sakuto said. “Unless we have no other options, we keep our presences as low as possible. We get our hands on some firearms or something to deal with any problems on the way.”

“We’ll try.” Zawadski said. “We’ll take a few minutes to scout this place, maybe there’s some guns or armor left here.”

“Right, go ahead.” Sakuto sighed. “Everyone here...”

“We all have a reason to kill that asshole.” Sakuto said. “And if we don’t try it, we’re dead either way.”

The rest nodded in agreement.

Sakuto turned to face Hiroshi.

“Hey, have you ever flown on a dragon before?” Sakuto asked, trying to cheer him up.

“No...” Hiroshi replied, a little confused, and completely submerged under the ocean of shock.

“That’s how we’ll be moving around.” Sakuto said. He focused for a few seconds, his shadows oozed out of his body and formed a dragon large enough to host all eight of them on its back.

“By the way, you’ll need to cover yourself up, Hiroshi.” Ichika said. “We can’t let your face be recognizable by anyone or anything.”

“H-huh?”

“Good point.” Sakuto nodded. “Alright, let’s head out.”

As the groups got on top, it slowly took to the skies. In the background of the pitch black sky it was almost invisible, perfectly blending into the background. It carried the last truly capable soulfuls alive, at least, those who had some type of plan.

But their actions weren’t completely covert.

A pair of voidflames were curiously observing the area...