"H-how did you get here?! Did one of my brothers act against your family?!"
"Calm down… It will be bad for your health!"
Kaguya could no longer sit still. The stifling feeling on her chest and her guilt towards Miko was barely manageable.
Now, even her good friend, Fujiwara Chika, was involved in her family struggles.
She completely lost her composure, her face flushed in deep red.
Chika flashed Kaguya a complex look. Her partially-curled pink-hair swayed. The black ribbon atop her head remained intact amidst their kidnapping. Her deep blue eyes stared at Kaguya intently.
Everything that happened in the past twenty-two days felt like a dream. The world she knew of collapsed like a sandcastle. Zombies emerged on the streets, gnawing others' flesh and blood. That sight made Chika's legs grow weak.
It wasn't until her dedicated bodyguards swooped in to save her that she was brought back to safety. Since then, her entire family lived under the safety of their manor. Dozens of guards patrolled their surroundings.
It wasn't until the insect swarm attacked did they gain a moment of respite. Their daily lives held a trace of semblance to the pre-apocalypse society.
However, things are not as simple as they thought.
The New Tokyo Shelter's order is akin to a piece of paper pierced through over and over again. Chika heard from her father over and over again to never leave the manor alone. That was how bad the order of this shelter was.
Now that they were knocked unconscious and woke inside the familiar Shinomiya Manor, it wouldn't be wrong to say that Chika felt very resentful. Only when she saw Kaguya's angry look did she calm down.
"I-I believe we wouldn't be subjected to harm… at least for the time being. My father would definitely talk to your brothers… or even your father."
Kaguya's anger subsided at that chilling thought. She thought of everything she had experienced so far and shook her head.
"Bringing you here has something to do with their benefits being threatened. They won't let you leave until they have what they want."
"It's our uncle."
The youngest out of the three Fujiwara sisters, Moeha, spoke out. Her pink hair was styled in short twintails, highlighting her youthful look.
"Mhm. It's definitely our uncle."
The eldest, Toyomi, agreed with her words. Her long pink hair is styled into a ponytail laying on her left shoulder. The so-called "hairstyle of death" in Eishi's world, or so he would phrase it.
Meeting Chika's confused looks, Toyomi explained further:
"Our uncle established the government independently in this shelter. It is bound to make others view him as an enemy."
"Then, father…"
"He is one of their most precious contacts to him."
The room fell silent. Even Miko, who buried her face on her knees, peeked at them with interest. The matter of THE Prime Minister being treated as a war enemy by the wealthy class was something she never thought was possible. Laws are stuck for that exact reason. It restrained the influential Zaibatsu from thoroughly uprooting Japan's public political system. That was how things went as far as she could remember.
In this chaotic apocalypse, however…
'I don't know.'
Miko lost faith in the government. On others. On her former friends. On the world itself. The sole meaning that left her up and running was the possibility of meeting her parents again.
'When will this end..?'
Her dreary mood represented everyone else inside this stifling room.
*****
"And it's done."
Eishi muttered under his breath. He looked around the large manor. The ground beneath his feet was scorched black. The corpses inside this manor was burnt to the crisp, letting out a weird smell of cooked flesh.
Everywhere his eyes landed was filled with corpses. Some died of beheading while there are others whose body was severed.
Over the past twenty minutes, Eishi navigated through the bases of every Zaibatsu. He is an indestructible force of nature, reaping the lives of anyone who goes against his way.
During those twenty minutes in real world time, he killed 60% of the Zaibatsu Families. They never got to prepare any counterattacks. Eishi's [Time Dominator] is as unreasonable as it could get.
The journey to bulldoze through Zaibatsus wasn't as smooth as expected, however.
"How crazy…"
Out of all the places he visited, Eishi encountered three places with unprecedented orange light. He got too lucky and never gave the first two a chance to showcase what it was, but not the third one.
The collapsed manor around him explains everything.
The Family here adopted a scorched earth tactic, planting bombs at the vicinity of their manor to bring their enemies together to the netherworld. If it wasn't for Eishi's reaction time, he would have been left recovering with a fully-burnt body. It was still unknown whether his current constitution could handle an injury of such a magnitude.
"I can't look down on them again."
Eishi shook his head. His frenzy over the past twenty minutes inflated his ego once more.
It frustrated him that something like this kept on happening.
Unlike novels and other mediums of fiction he had read, character development is not set in stone. One could revert to their bad habits, or worse, regress everything they had learned after a moment of carelessness.
Eishi was not a protagonist as others would claim. He is self-aware that he is nothing but an average guy who got lucky with a system. He did not have that infallible and unchanging mind that others had. All he can do is to continue struggling. Only in that way could he retain his sense of self in this unforgiving apocalypse.
'If I am like this…'
How would the others be?
The pang of regrets over this realization served as a bucket of cold water.
"Don't be stupid. Don't be stupid…"
It took a while for him to calm down.
To take his mind off of this matter, he shifted his focus to his gains.
As he had expected, the fruits submitted at the depot did not amount for all of the evolution fruits. There are fruits that went completely unnoticed, whether it was unintentional or not.
'Three S ranks…'
Like the mutated evolution fruit that he got earlier, Eishi obtained three new evolution fruits that gave out S rated talents. They are flame-type, recovery-type, and mechanical-type according to the system's appraisal.
'I have to distribute this recovery-type to everyone. The rest depends on our situation…'
Aside from these S rated fruits, there are also thirty or so A rated fruits. Their sheer volume did not come off as a surprise to Eishi.
Overall, his harvests in Tokyo far outweighed that of Yokohama's.
'As expected, I should have rounded up all those esper groups.'
The City Hall is a major organization, but its manpower is limited against dozens of other esper groups with tricky superpowers. That was why their harvest of A rated fruits had been in single-digits—all of which went to Eishi. Individual greed also has to be factored in, unlike these Zaibatsu Clans who are strategically of one mind.
Most importantly, they came prepared for the apocalypse. This puts them far ahead of any other esper groups throughout all of Japan.
'There should be more of these fruits.'
Eishi looked towards the direction of the Shinomiya Clan.
It has been agreed upon between him and the government to target the other Zaibatsu first. Eishi's force, Saeko's assistance, and Shino's godly support stacked atop the hastily manufactured espers due to Eishi's numerous supplies. It resulted in a one-sided battle—the conclusion farthest from everyone's mind two days ago.
In less than an hour, they have a huge chance of bringing down the behemoth that was the Shinomiya Zaibatsu, ultimately spelling an end to Tokyo's internal conflict.
Eishi traveled on foot. His figure left afterimages as his speed reached a new height.
Just then, a loud explosion rang.
His eyes caught sight of several civilian helicopters modded with a bunch of weapons. A pillar of pitch black smoke rose from several kilometers away from Eishi.
He tapped the intercom on his right ear twice, connecting to the radio channel used by Saeko and Shino.
"It's bad. They managed to land a clean hit even after my shot."
Shino's trembling voice resounded.
"Saeko?"
"...I am fine. My barrier absorbed most of the impact."
"..."
Burning rage slowly emerged from Eishi's chest. He hasn't put his mind to these enemies, merely painting them as must-kills after repeated attempts of killing him.
Now that they threatened Saeko's safety, he could no longer remain as calm as before.
"The others…"
Saeko did not speak. The two knew what she meant. Most of the soldiers who came with her…
They are all dead.
"The blast happened at the Shuiichin Academy. It wasn't just us who got affected."
Shuiichin Academy was turned into a semi-shelter, with some of its older buildings turned into residential areas for the civilian espers and their families.
Rustling sounds came from Saeko's end, evident she was moving to help the collaterals of the RPG barrage. Fortunately, Shino's calculations weren't far off. She sniped the gunmen and pilots of the civilian helicopters, with only one escaping her bullets. They all crashed outside the academy—on the abandoned areas nearby.
"Hiraoka-san, this is my fault. I never saw them coming…"
They struck during Shino's downtime (i.e., reload). It was still unclear whether or not someone grasped this crucial timing.
"How many confirmed casualties?" He asked.
"It might reach a hundred."
"...Alright. Stay safe, you two."
Eishi placed the call down as he continued sprinting towards his final target.
******
Bam-!
The wooden table cracked from the fist's impact.
"What did you say?"
"S-sir! More than 80% of our forces have gone radio silent."
The meeting room bore semblance to a company's business room. A lengthy agarwood table is present at its center, with more than a dozen seats surrounding it. The cold temperature from the outside had no effect against the room's insulators and warm heaters.
Everyone went silent upon hearing the man's report.
"What about any of our countermeasures? Had they not been deployed at all?"
"T-they were deployed. B-but…"
The man's heart was about to leap out of his mouth. He did not dare meet Shinomiya Oko's eyes. The fierceness on his face, coupled with his bald head and sharp eyebrows, intimidated everyone greatly. The faint magnetic field emanating from his body amplified it further.
"...they are all dealt with. The helicopters, bomb sites, artillery strikes… the enemy forces are said to have increased by f-four times!"
Four times.
From the original 500 espers or so, another 1,500 espers appeared out of nowhere. There was not a hint of it from any of their informants within the government!
…
No.
'Four times! Holy shit!'
Several men sitting on the chairs exchanged glances.
They received intelligence from the government obtaining dozens of new espers at once. Instead of reporting it, they kept it to themselves.
Many clans eyed the behemoth that was the Shinomiya Clan. They eyed their influence, power, and most importantly, supplies.
Some families are more than willing to let the government side become slightly stronger. That way, they would pose slightly more trouble for the Shinomiya Clan. They would become the third-party who benefits when the two fight.
As such, they bought off several executives of the Shinomiya Clan to act as their informants.
Their already troubled hearts sank further. Any form of communication was banned inside this meeting room. The mention of 80% of the Zaibatsus' forces being radio silent was enough to shake them, not to mention the government side's surprise prepared for them.
In the corner of their eyes, they saw the extremely silent Oko. They swore not to reveal a tad bit of information related to this.
After all…
That man is an out and out monster.
Rumble-!
Everyone felt a strong shaking occur inside the meeting room. Oko's eyes widened as they flickered with a glint of light.
"The enemies we are waiting for have arrived. Everyone!"
Oko's intimidation swept through their very bones as they stood up straight. Gone are their second-thoughts. All that remained was the general and backbone of the Shinomiya Clan, the man who took charge after their Clan Head's descent into "madness".
"Take arms."
""Yes!""
The final struggle tonight was bound to leave a sea of blood.