Yuji waved goodbye to Mrs. Silvia and Evelyn before reaching for the door handle, but even though he grasped it, multiple seconds went by without the door opening.

  "What's wrong? Lost your key?" Sarah asked.

  "No." He let go of the handle and turned to look at the under-city, "I think I'm gonna go see my friend, Akira. He has to be beyond stressed out right now, and this is as good a time as any to tell him what's going on."

  "Do you mind if I stay here and sleep in your bed? I hit my limit a while ago..."

  Yuji thought back to where he found her and everything that happened since then. It was honestly impressive that she had even managed to walk by herself back to his place, let alone everything else that happened. And he noticed that when they left the warehouse earlier, she had been stepping in all of his bootprints while following him. It didn't even occur to him to do something like that. But he was about to ascend through a path that required him to know the ins and outs of stealth while covering your tracks, so he was more than happy to learn as much as he could while he still had the chance.

  "Yeah, of course. Take whatever you want out of the cooler, too. Grab some more Udines and just heat up any food you want. When Uncle Gavin and Lisa return, they won't go into my room, so they shouldn't wake you up unless the sounds of the TV bother you."

  Sarah sighed, "I'm too tired for that to bother me, but why does this big freaking window of yours not have any coverings for it?!"

  "Wait, is that why you kept looking at the window earlier when we were trying to enter my Soul Realm? I guess it is a little weird, but you'd have to ask my uncle. He took my sheet for some reason, and with everything going on, I had completely forgotten about it."

  She looked over at the window. It was hard to see inside his room with how dark it was, but they were just barely able to see the outlines of everything inside. She then pointed at his miniatures, "You should take those into that Soul Realm. You don't know what's going to happen going forward, and trust me, you'll want to keep as much as you can from your original life."

  "You can do that?! Wait, yeah, it kind of makes sense... You did say it was a place that actually exists, but aren't we projecting our souls there? Those miniatures are real objects, not soul-based."

  "Ehhh, I'll explain all of that later." She pulled her jacket off and opened the front door, "Be careful out there. I can't sense anything from your soul, so you appear to others like an ordinary person still, but that doesn't mean other Awakened will see it that way. We don't know much about that system after all."

  "Right, yeah... Goodnight, and thanks, Sarah."

  She smiled at him and then closed the door behind her. Immediately, he turned around and ran to the edge of the cliff. All of the lights were on, so his plan to float toward the mine entrance below was ruled out. With no other choice he ran over to the elevator just as the gate on it rose and locked into place. He leaped over the gate and moved to the other side of the elevator to see who was calling it from below.

  There's only two people, but there are dozens more moving toward the elevator? I thought people would hide when they heard the alarms, which is what they're supposed to do, but I guess their curiosity is getting the better of them if they're planning to climb the slope to the upper-city.

  The alarm had quieted a little a few minutes prior, and around a third of the way in the elevator's descent, the nine P.M. alarm began playing as well, creating a mix of sounds that came across as more haunting than anything. And through the nightmarish chorus he spotted a rotund Kitsune outside of the liquor store with two tall cloaked individuals flanking him.

  Is that Dai? I don't know all that many Kitsune with bellies that big, and he has an escort, so it must be him.

  By the time the elevator reached the bottom, Yuji had decided that this was a lucky opportunity for him. A little pit stop on the way to Akira's so he could begin stirring the pot.

  He gave the three of them a wide berth, making sure he was walking in front of the trio, and just as he was passing by them he stole a glance at the Kitsune to make sure it was Dai. As soon as he saw Dai's face, the man had looked down and saw Yuji's face as well.

  "Oh, hello there, sir! Do you happen to know why the alarm is blaring like that?"

  Dai scoffed, "I wish I knew! I came here because I had some business to take care of, and that damned alarm hasn't shut up since then. The emergency broadcast was taken down just as I began reading the blasted thing, so I had to send my men up there to check it out for me." He looked back at the two men flanking him, "Anything yet?" Both of the men shook their heads and pointed toward the platform in the distance, which was still ascending toward the upper-city.

  Yuji walked up to Dai timidly while looking around, causing the man to quirk an eyebrow. "What's wrong?"

  "Well, it's not really my business, but I have worked for you my whole life, so I just want to make sure everything is okay. I saw the Protectorate looking through the warehouses earlier, but there hasn't been any formal statement---"

  Dai grabbed Yuji's shoulders, "WHAT?! When, which ones?!" The man was squeezing so hard that it was actually hurting Yuji quite a bit. But before he could even reply, Dai whipped around at the two men behind him, "This is why I told you to fix those fucking cameras ages ago!"

  "But you were the one who told us not to bother---" One of the men was trying to respond, but he stopped when his partner grabbed his shoulder and shook his head. The meaning was clear to Yuji. Dai was the one who told them not to bother, but now he was pretending as if he had ordered them to be fixed, and one of the men knew it was pointless to try to argue with him.

  Dai whipped back around, fervently staring into Yuji's eyes, "Please, son. Tell me which warehouses they were inside of, and when, if you can remember."

  "Warehouse-C, and it was about an hour after we got off work."

  In response the large Kitsune heaved a heavy sigh of relief, "So it was around five then, and they were only in that abandoned shithole---" Just then, he remembered something that brought the fervor back into his eyes, "C... C... That's where I had you put those large boxes, didn't I?"

  "Yep, that's where we sent them."

  Dai stumbled backwards and almost had to be caught by his two escorts. He then began mumbling something that Yuji couldn't hear over the alarms.

  "Oh, and I did recognized one of the Protectorate leaving the warehouse. It was that Elf, Zen."

  "Eighty percent of the Protectorate is fucking Elves. They're nothing but a bunch of pointy-eared control freaks who can't exist without exerting their power over the rest of us." Dai said in response before looking back at the duo again, "Do you know which one 'Zen' is?"

  One of the men nodded, "He's the one leading the Zephyr Squad."

  "Ahh, them. Now it all makes sense..." Dai reached out and patted Yuji on the shoulder, "Good work, son! I'll be sure to reward you for this later. And I still need to make it up to you for having to deal with those heavy boxes anyway, so look forward to a big reward in the future!"

  Dai turned and power walked toward the factory down the street. Yuji wasn't entirely sure of what he was going to do next since he still didn't have a good grasp on how much power the man actually had, but this was good enough for now.

  With that side mission finished, he began walking toward Akira's place again, and while he did, there was a sound mixed in with the alarms that stood out to him. He looked up just in time to see a dropship taking off.

  They're leaving? Now? Shouldn't this be one of those situations where they called for more of the Protectorate? But instead they're leaving, huh... Interesting.

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  He continued through the main street for a while until he was just about to reach the warehouse district. That's when he turned left and knocked on a hard orichalcum door. Around half a minute later the door slowly opened just enough for Akira to peek out through the crack. When he saw it was Yuji outside he breathed a sigh of relief and opened the door all the way.

  "Hooooly shit man! You have no idea of how fucking freaked out I am right now. The Protectorate visited me earlier, and I thought my balls were going to fall off when I opened the door and saw a group of them there holding that rope I forgot in the warehouse."

  "So not only was that rope pointless, but it also led the Protectorate right to your doorstep. You're lucky it was Zen's people. I'm assuming they let you off with a warning?"

  "Nah man, they didn't even do that. They just reprimanded me for leaving evidence behind. It would've been a real pain for them if someone else found out what we did, or that's what they said? I think so anyway, my brain was kind of frozen while they were here."

  "Yuji!" A female voice said from behind Akira. She walked up to Akira and pushed him out of the way before motioning for Yuji to walk inside.

  "Heh, hey there, Irene. You look like you're going to pop any second now." He walked into the large kitchenette and sat down on one of the orichalcum chairs built straight into the home.

  "I won't be looking this gigantic for much longer according to the doctor. I'm finally going to be free from this extra weight in a few more weeks." She said in reply, sitting down in a chair across from Yuji, with Akira sitting between the two at the table.

  "You two will be gone by then, yeah?"

  "That's the plan." Akira laughed, "Man, we're really getting out of this place just in time. What the hell is going on here? Even putting aside what we found earlier, now even the alarm is going off, and I can't connect to the Archives to find out why."

  "Wait, you can't connect at all?"

  "We could at first, but the emergency broadcast was blank, and now we straight up can't connect to anything. Is that what the alarm is about? Did we lose the... Network... Thing? I don't even know what the fuck it is. What are we connecting to again?"

  "I honestly have no idea... But on that topic, I can tell you why the alarm is going off. It's because of what Sarah and I did. She's one of the girls from the boxes."

  Akira stared blankly at Yuji for a brief moment before collecting himself. "From the boxes? As in one of them woke up, and you did something that caused the alarms to ring out? Am I following that correctly?"

  "Yep. Pretty crazy, huh?"

  "... Please tell me you're on something. Did you take up drugs? I know getting no women is hard, I was there with you at one point, but there are other ways to pass the time."

  "I'm being serious. And that might even be less crazy than what happened before that. I'm honestly not sure what's crazier anymore with everything going on the past couple of days." He took a deep breath and continued, "I, uh, Awakened the night of the party. Ryu's dead body was in front of me, and I had to dispose of it before the Protectorate came, so I incinerated it in the water depository closest to my home. The one we almost never use."

  "... You..." Akira leaned back into his chair and pinched the bridge of his nose. Yuji looked over at Irene, and she looked the same as always, but she'd always been really good at hiding her emotions, so he had absolutely no clue what she was feeling at the moment.

  Eventually, Akira looked between Irene and Yuji, looking even more tired than he had when he opened the door. "I'm not going to ask whether you're being serious again, but god damn man, that's a lot to take in... But for starters, why'd you kill Ryu? Did he try raping Lisa or something?"

  "I don't know. I really don't. I just came to on that night with his body in front of me, and soon after that Lisa knocked on the door, which reminded me of the party going on. I was in a full-blown panic and could only think about how to make it all go away, so I burned his body."

  "What do you mean, 'just came to'? As in you woke up lying down next to his body?"

  Irene tapped the table to draw her husband's attention, "Awakened don't have any memories prior to when they Awakened. They only come back to them after completing their trial."

  Yuji's eyes widened, "Are you serious? That's a huge relief then. I've been wondering why I crushed his head like that... It was pretty brutal looking." Irene narrowed her eyes at Yuji, "You little brat. You didn't tell Lisa about any of this, did you?"

  "How did---Ahh, she would've also told me about the trial returning my memories, right? Why is it that women seem to know so much more about the Awakened around here?"

  Akira shrugged, "As cool as some of the Awakened stories are, they're mostly horror stories... Remember when you had to learn to use mana in your training, and I joined you for the hell of it? Having your fucking soul hurt was a different type of pain that I never want to experience ever again."

  That was only at the start, but he's right, I hope I won't have to go through that type of pain again. I love working with crystals so I was able to push through it, but if that becomes a staple of my life going forward, I don't know how long I'll last.

  Irene tapped the table again, "Now tell us about the girl, please. Akira said they were dead, so..."

  "Not fully dead! But still, they shouldn't have been able to move around. So what happened?"

  "I called the Protector who had questioned me during Ryu's disappearance, and soon after he arrived, Sarah, the long-haired blonde girl stood up as if she had merely awoken from a nap. According to her, a hidden ability of hers kept her alive, and the Protectorate was the one who had put her in that box. Also, sometime after that when she was releasing her aura I realized she might make a good teacher for me, so I offered to take her home."

  "She was that hot, huh?"

  Ignoring her husband, Irene pointed at Yuji's mouth, "I know I just asked about the girl, but this is bothering me. Is the Awakening why your pointers look bigger now?"

  "They do?" Yuji felt around inside his mouth with his tongue, "You're right, they are bigger, and it has to be related to my Awakening, since I had apparently sucked the blood out of Ryu... Ugh, it's so much weirder even saying that out loud."

  "Hah!! So you turned into a monster of all things?!" Akira began laughing while slapping the table.

  "... That's only one half. My elements are 'Blood' and 'Shadow'. And after my trial I'll need to pick a path, but, well, there's just so much more to it that it'd be a pain to explain it all. Also, I bet Irene knows more than me about it anyway."

  She smiled, "I probably do. Just like I know that 'Shadow' isn't an element."

  "Yeah, dude. Even I know that. Did you misunderstand something?"

  "Look, I don't get it either. I just know that those are my elements, and the path I'm looking at is mostly shadow-focused."

  Over the previous hour Yuji had explained the path previews he'd seen, and everything else that had happened up until that very moment. His two friends had a lot of things to say about the paths, but both seemed to agree that his choice felt like the best one. But they also admitted that there was no way of really knowing without using all of the possible paths beforehand to see how they played out, except that wasn't an option, so he'd just have to pick one and live with it.

  Akira returned from the bedroom after having laid down his wife, sitting in the same chair as before, "What are you going to do now?"

  "Right now I'm going to the bank to change that slip you gave me into coins, while also taking out the rest I'll need to pay that Awakened healer."

  "You still haven't done that?"

  "Even if I didn't have all this other shit going on, I still wouldn't have gone before now. I hate that bank now with a passion."

  "Right, yeah... There's something weird going on there too." Akira continued, "That whole 'Box-carrier' and 'House-cat' thing was funny for a while, but it's starting to feel a whole lot more serious lately. Where is that even coming from?"

  "Good question. It's fun when we joke around with it, but that bank is a prime example of how it's beginning to freak me out. Did you know that because I'm a human, I suddenly have a ten percent tax on everything I do? I have to pay on a 'Kitsune relief fund' for a supposed slaughter that I've never even heard of before now."

  "Are you kidding me? This is my first time even hearing about that tax. Why didn't you mention it before?" Akira said.

  "It only started a few weeks ago, and when I asked the teller what it was in relation to, all he said was 'Typical box-carrier'."

  Akira's mouth went agape, "I would've strangled the fucker right then and there! How is that even real---Wait. Oh shit, is that transfer slip of mine going to take a ten percent hit as well then?!"

  "It probably will..."

  "T-That, oh my god, THE PAIN... I have to get out of this place. I'm so over all of this, man. I would've just taken the coins out myself and handed them to you if I knew that stupid tax existed." He suddenly realized something and jumped out of his chair, "Let's go. Together. Give me that transfer slip, I'm going to undo it and take the coins out directly. I refuse to let them take that ten percent damnit."

  Yuji stood up and followed Akira out the door. The bank was open at all times, and with the emergency going on, they knew they wouldn't have anyone else in their way, so it was the perfect time to go.

  "You have no idea as to why the Archives are cut off? Aren't you one of the trustees?" Zen asked the lady behind the desk, who looked like she was about to faint any second now.

  "N-No! I just work here part-time!"

  "Part-time...? At the Archives? Miss, this is not a seasonal gig or something you do on the side. Who hired you?"

  "Dai Murakami, did, Sir..."

  "Murakami?!"

  The girl let out a brief 'Hii!' in surprise and fell back into her chair.

  Zen ignored her and looked over at one of his subordinates, "Since when is Murakami a part of the Protectorate?"

  "He is not and never has been, sir."

  "Exactly. So how is he managing the Archives? It requires an authentication process that, even if he did manage to fool it for a little while, would eventually be noticed by the Androids. And they would crush him into paste for tampering with their systems. No trial. No jury. Just paste."

  The subordinate went silent for a little bit before looking over at Zen again, "Do you want some more bad news?"

  He really didn't, but it was a part of the job. "Lay it on me."

  "Squads Delerose and Siegfried have just left with no prior reasoning given. Their ships took off at eight-thirty-two, and nine-twelve."

  "......"

  The past couple of days had been one problem after another in quick succession, and the normally cool-headed Zen was beginning to lose his patience.

  And I have a feeling this is just the beginning...

  ? Phoenix Flight [Lite LitRPG - Dungeon Diving - Slow Romance] ?

  by RainyLiquid

  Weak to Strong, gathering of powers, skills, and spells.