Chapter 10 "Ryu Mitsukai"

Chapter 10
Ryu Mitsukai

YEAR 2043

“Logy got the name,” Knapp says as Jade, Johnny, Clear, and Sybil are listening to him carefully in the bridge room. “Actually, not the name but it sounds more like a codename. It’s Silent Fighter. According to Logy, the subordinates are very nervous around him. Sounds like he has the power of destruction. Basically, his body self-explodes.”

“I wouldn’t want to do that,” Johnny says sleepily.

“And, this is going to be your mission, Jade and Johnny,” Knapp says as he hands two tablets to two warriors of the Dark Team. “Find the Silent Fighter. See if we can capture him alive… Then Logy can get even more information from him.”

“Gotcha,” Jade says as he starts reading the mission details on his tablet.

“You leave tonight. The mission starts tomorrow. I will be on the radio with you in case you need directions from me. Remember, my codename is Midnight,” Knapp says. “Got it, Gravity and Atom?”

“Yes, Midnight!”

~*~

Logy is leaning against one of the apartment buildings as he is looking at the blue sky. He spots an old silver car stopping at the parallel parking.

A mother and a teenager get out of the car. Logy remembers that their names are Sapphire and Ryu Mitsukai. He came here because Knapp asked him to. To make sure they are ok.

“I will carry them for you,” Ryu smoothly takes the grocery bags from his mother’s hands. “I don’t want your back to get worse.”

“You’re such a sweetie,” Sapphire chuckles lightly. “Let’s get to cooking, should we?”

“Yes, mom!”

Logy cannot help but smile at them. They remind him of his own relationship with his mother. He terribly misses her.

When they get into the apartment building, Logy turns to walk away and then writes a new summary report on his small smart tablet before sending it to Knapp in an email message.

As he presses the ‘send’ button, he suddenly bumps into a tall man with short orange hair and orange eyes. He mumbles, “Sorry. I didn’t see you --”

He freezes, dropping his tablet the moment he receives certain words coming from this man. So much information he gets. This man’s name is Kasai with the codename Dragon Warrior. He works for Sunny Wild Squad in Japan but he has come to New York City because he knows that Tokuso Mitsukai’s family lives here.

He is going to kill Ryu and Sapphire. He is completely set on this mission.

“Are you ok?” Kasai asks. “I’m in a hurry, so I didn’t see you either.”

Fire energy. Logy continues reading his mind. And earth energy too? Even as an Earthling, it’s really unusual that he has two powers.

Kasai shrugs one of his shoulders lazily when Logy does not say another word. He walks past him only to be stopped by Logy forcefully grabbing his wrist.

“Are you going to kill them?” Logy asks with a frown on his face. “They are just a mother and a teenager, for Cosmos’s sake!”

“How did you know --” Kasai quickly ducks down when Logy does a round kick, completely missing him. He is powering for a fireball above his hand. “You punk…!”

Logy does not have time to dodge when he gets blasted in the stomach by Kasai’s fireball. He is being sent flying across the street until he crashes into one of the apartment buildings.

“Who the hell are you?” Kasai stomps toward him. He takes hold of Logy’s shirt and pulls him closer. He demands loudly, “Answer me…! How did you know about my mission?”

Logy flashes a big grin. “I’m deaf.”

Kasai loses his temper as he kicks him hard in the waist, sending him further into the new hole of the building. He growls angrily. “Don’t fucking joke with me! I am not going to waste time with you, so you’re going to die right now.”

Logy easily gets up even after Kasai gave him the hardest kick he had ever received. He wipes his outfit with his bare hands, making sure there is no dust left on himself.

Kasai narrows his orange eyes in anger. “So, you’re no ordinary fighter. I’d say… you’re not even an Earthling. What are you?”

Logy glances at him. “You can just call me Silent.”

“Silent, eh? Mind if you tell me what kind of power you have?”

“Sorry, I didn’t hear your question. I told you I am deaf,” Logy says jokingly as he shrugs his shoulders in amusement.

“Why…!” Kasai throws another large fireball at him, but Logy easily kicks it back to him. “What?!” He cries as he gets crushed by his own fireball.

Logy makes a forward step but a wall of earth suddenly comes rushing out of the floor. He asks in surprise, “What?”

Kasai pants heavily, holding his burned chest as he runs out of the building.

The deaf warrior of the Dark Team quickly follows him outside after hastily climbing over the earth wall but Kasai is completely gone. He frowns. “Damn it.”

It looks like he is staying here for a while to make sure no one is coming back for Ryu and Sapphire.

~*~

ORBIT OF EARTH

“I have to get back to Earth,” Knapp says anxiously. “What if they come back for Ryu and my mom?!”

“Calm down,” Clear says. “Jade and Johnny took the space pods, so we don’t have any left to use to fly to Earth. Besides, Kasai ran away. Logy will stay nearby so he can protect your family.”

“She is right,” Sybil says softly as she places her hand on Knapp’s back. “There is no need to make any rushed decisions.”

Knapp sighs lightly. “Yeah, you are right. As long as Logy is there, I have nothing to worry about. I should focus on the mission in Germany instead.”

~*~

ILLESHEIM, GERMANY

Jade puts down his binocular with a light sigh. “Midnight, the entire area is really heavily secured. How are we supposed to get in?”

“Look for any repetitive behaviors the soldiers display,” Knapp says through the radio. “You should be able to learn how to spot an opening.”

“Easier said than done!” Jade complains.

“Why don’t we just blow it up?” Johnny yawns. “That will solve all of our problems.”

“No, we can’t!” Jade snaps at him. “There are some innocent people on the base! We can’t just make them our sacrifices!”

“Well, I was trying to suggest something helpful,” Johnny shrugs lazily.

After half an hour, they make their moves. Jade nods at Johnny, who then tosses a tiny yellow orb in the size of a marble over the fence. It pops just like a gunshot.

“There’s a gunshot!” One of the soldiers yells as they run the other way, away from Jade and Johnny.

Jade grins widely as he gives him a thumb-up. They sneak into the base, but it is not even one minute yet when they have been spotted by one soldier who still stands by.

“Who is there --” The soldier gets crushed into the ground by the heavy gravity, completely knocked out.

“Man! That was so close!” Jade gives a huge sigh of relief. “We suck at this, don’t we?”

“At least we made it inside.” Johnny shrugs again. “Hey, look. Let’s take his computer access card. It should give us some access to the buildings.”

“Good idea!” Jade exclaims as he carefully takes the computer access card out of the unconscious soldier’s front pocket.

They choose the closest building to get inside and casually walk through the hallways until they find a computer room. Jade quickly turns on one of the computers and then places a flash drive into it. “Ok, the flash drive is in! What should I do?”

“This is Nova! I will take care of everything!” Clear exclaims. “It should take no more than five minutes. Then you can get the hell out of the base!”

“Ok, hurry up!” Jade says, as Johnny yawns sleepily.

After five minutes, Clear says cheerfully, “Ok, I’m done!”

“Awesome!” Jade quickly unplugs the flash drive. He turns to Johnny and says, “Come on, Atom! Let’s get out of here!”

~*~

Knapp is biting his fingernail out of a nervous habit. What am I doing here? Why am I sending my friends to Earth even though there’s a risk of the planet getting closed off from the universe? I should be joining them right now.

“It’s ok,” Sybil smiles as she places her hand on Knapp’s face. He leans into it without any second thoughts. “You fought hard for everyone last year. I think… they just want to repay you… for what you did for them.”

“No… That’s not what I want,” Knapp shakes his head. “They… They are my friends.”

“That’s why I love you. You truly care for others,” Sybil leans her head onto Knapp’s shoulder. “They follow you because they want to.”

“You’re right…” Knapp places a light kiss on his girlfriend’s lips. He gives her a big smile. “You’ve always been right.”

“Oh, stop it, you!” Sybil giggles.

“Sorry to interrupt you… but Danielle is trying to contact us!” Clear yells from the bridge room. Sybil and Knapp rush into the room.

“What is it, Forgotten?” Knapp asks.

“I have bad news,” Danielle mumbles. “It’s… It’s your father.”

“My father?” Knapp asks nervously. He remembers that his father is in South Korea, where the war zone is. No… Please don’t… Please don’t say that he died…

“He died. I’m so sorry. This is not how I wanted to tell you this. I just wanted to tell you in person but since you’re in space…” She says sadly. “I’m very sorry.”

Knapp pauses for a brief, trying to calm himself down. He asks darkly, “How did he die?”

“Actually that is the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard in my entire career, Midnight,” Danielle says. “From what I was told… There was a crazy suicidal guy who initiated an atomic bomb, which not only ended up killing your father but also took down the entire city. But that was it. There was no other information on the killer. Nothing. How he got the bomb wasn’t in the report either. It was as if they were trying to cover something up in a hurry.”

“It… It was planned. They were trying to kill Ryu and my mother not too long ago,” Knapp says bitterly. “But they will come back for them. I need someone there to protect them, but it needs to be someone other than Silent. Please send Gravity to replace him.”

“Will do, sir!” Danielle says before the radio gets cut off.

“I’m so sorry…” Sybil says softly.

“I’m going to training,” Knapp turns away, already on his way to the training room.

~*~

YEAR 2044

“Midnight, finally, you picked up!” Zack exclaims loudly in excitement. “I’ve been trying to call you all day today!”

“Sorry, I was in training. What is it?” Knapp asks through the radio.

“We got Ryu! He is in the Sunny Wild Squad along with Tezuka! He got the perfect score for sniping! He was in the top class for that three-month program at one of the academies!”

“Quiet down a little bit,” The Universe Warrior gives a light chuckle. “Well, that’s great news! It’s thanks to you and Forgotten for keeping an eye on him. Especially Gravity!”

“Oh yeah! Starry also joined us as expected. He is going to be a medical specialist who will be supporting Tezuka and Ryu. Their training begins tomorrow. They will be training for a year before a real mission gets assigned to them. Well, they don’t get along very well, but they are working on it!”

“Make sure that Starry is with them the entire time. I don’t want either Tezuka or Ryu to die.”

“Speaking of which, Starry was complaining about his codename as Nightingale for Sunny Wild Squad, heheh! He also complained that Tezuka was really mean.”

“Mean, eh? I’d say Tezuka is… very blunt,” Knapp says in amusement. “Thank you for the report, Void. You’re dismissed.”

“No problem!” The radio gets cut off.

“Well, that's good news, isn’t it?” Sybil asks.

“Yeah…” Knapp mumbles. He hasn’t been back to Earth for months. He has been itching to go back. And he needs to check on Kawaii - they haven’t seen each other since Knapp went to the Heart.

~*~

Knapp is back in the Heart of the Fifth Universe. Nobody even knows that he is on Earth. He sneakily took the space pod in the middle of night while everyone was asleep.

“Huh? Double God is not here?” He blinks in surprise when he finds no one around outside the temple. “Ah, well, then… that makes it easier for me to see Kawaii.”

After he gets into the temple, he can barely sense Kawaii’s presence. He is concerned with how tiny Kawaii’s energy is. He calls, “Kawaii?”

“K-Knapp?”

“I’m giving you more universe energy,” Knapp places his hands on the floor, sending the black and white energies into the floor. Kawaii has not shown himself at all.

“Stop it, please. Go back.”

“You don’t sound very good,” the Universe Warrior says worriedly as he gets up from the floor. “How long do you have?”

“I don’t know. Please… leave now…” Kawaii mumbles.

“Where is Double God? Why isn’t he here to take care of you?”

“He said he will be back. But he won’t be happy to see you here.”

“That’s ok. I just needed to make sure that you’re ok. I’m just glad that you’re still with us,” Knapp gives him a smile, even though Kawaii is not there in his child form. He sits down on the floor.

“Are you giving me your energy back?”

“Of course yes. You need it more than I do. Should I be concerned?” Knapp asks worriedly.

“At this rate you will run out of universe energy if you keep giving it back. If Earth were locked right now… you’ll be in trouble.”

“Even if it’s locked up… My friends are here to protect you,” Knapp says with a grin on his face as he kneels up on one of his knees. “You are most important to us.”

He can feel Kawaii’s smile. He realizes that he has never really seen a smile on his child form’s face before. It feels so warm and comfortable.

“Just leave.” Kawaii says in embarrassment when he realizes he is leaking his presence and accidentally lets the other know that he is smiling.

Knapp chuckles softly. “Fine. I’ll come back, okay?”