The briefing was rather simple. Eishi walked openly at the Prime Minister's Office. It is an entire complex filled with busy-bodies working left and right. It is the center of Tokyo's disaster management and public administration all in one.
'Espers… nothing too surprising.'
The number of espers inside the complex is only a few levels beneath the changed Yokohama City Hall. Eishi could instinctively sense the 'magnetic fields' they emitted.
Overall, there is no one at the second-order.
'If there are no second-order espers on the other side…'
They are absolutely doomed.
Following Eishi was Saeko and Shino. Kuroneko, her two sisters, and Mashiro moved towards the complex's residential area, as per their agreement. With an SSS rated esper guarding this base, they can deal with most of the sudden changes.
Hachiman seemingly noticed Kuroneko's strength and approved more about it.
Seeing this, Eishi asked:
"Do you have a family living here?"
"Ah? Me? Yeah…"
Their idle chatter broke the ice between them.
Turns out, Hachiman's incidental awakening led to his entire family's survival. He joined the government in exchange for his family's protection, though there are also prospects of becoming stronger.
He had swiftly grasped the nature of the apocalypse and made his move accordingly.
'He sure did mature early…'
Eishi thought that for someone who distrusted many, Hachiman's development was the exact opposite of his expectations. Then again, it is the apocalypse.
It did not take long for them to arrive at the Cabinet Meeting Room.
Middle-aged men greeted the newcomers.
"You must be Hiraoka-san."
The incumbent Prime Minister, Shinzou Motoi, reached out for a handshake. Eishi readily accepted it.
'It is not an exaggeration…'
Eishi's strong presence inside this room was enough to silence everyone. Motoi's back was filled with cold sweat as the 'intimidating' aura emanating from Eishi, coupled with his 10,000% increase in temperament, commanded the very presence of an Emperor.
Fortunately, he wasn't the Prime Minister for nothing. He swiftly regained his composure and sat down.
Well aware of their deference to Eishi, he did not put on the airs of a superior.
"We currently have ten free teams capable of combat. Most of them are members of the JSDF, with the remaining recruited from the civilians…"
For a while, Motoi spoke of the New Tokyo Shelter's situation.
The ten days of peace brought them a lot of harvest. The increased appearance rate of evolution fruits—in batches, atop that—allowed them to snowball the number of their espers to 500.
However, the Zaibatsu Faction possessed more than that.
Their extensive networks and gaps within the governments' officials allowed them to accumulate several times of what the government did.
Through the Omniscient Brain, they discovered that the Zaibatsus held more than 3,000 espers, far outnumbering them. That was how they maintained dominance over the government side, though it is also the reason why they did not take action in one fell swoop.
The government's 500 espers would inevitably damage the Zaibatsu's forces, not to mention they are not truly of one mind.
"What about the Shinomiya Family I have heard of many times?"
This time, it was the Chief of Staff who spoke up.
"They amount to a quarter of their main forces. Nominally, they are the leaders, but in actuality, we caught wind of several families' secretive actions."
He spoke in detail about the Zaibatsus' situation.
They did not differ much from Eishi's expectations. While the Shinomiyas held dominant power, it was not as crushing as Eishi's presence. Saya's mother becoming a second-order esper was enough to stabilize the city hall's power dynamics. That tells a lot about it.
"Our drafted plan this time is to engage in guerilla warfare, swiftly taking down their forces before they could react."
Thanks to Eishi's contribution, the original 500 espers ballooned to 2,000 in a single day.
Tokyo's survival rate far exceeded Yokohama's by a mile. Basic consensus pointed out to a million citizens alive out of the city's fifty million population—a survival rate of 2%. It was a matter of qualified espers outnumbering the available evolution fruits.
Choosing the 1,500 is but a trivial matter for them.
"How did you ensure there aren't traitors?" Eishi asked.
"We have an esper."
Motoi spoke up.
"He can gather intelligence effectively."
"Oh?"
Eishi became curious.
'Another SSS rated one?'
He decided to trust on this guarantee.
"Give me the most heavily guarded locations."
"...Pardon?"
"I'll take care of them. I will leave the rest to everyone else."
The entire room fell silent.
"Judging from your looks, you are aware of esper classifications, no?" He rhetorically asked as he pointed to Saeko. "I am a third-order esper. She's one, too."
They were caught off guard as they redirected their gaze to the unassuming highschool girl beside Eishi.
They haven't 'scouted' Saeko due to the consumption it took to find out about Eishi. Knowing they have not one, but two humanoid weapons at their side, they couldn't help but feel bolder.
"I understand."
The middle-aged Chief of Staff with a crew-cut stood up.
"The Zaibatsu places great importance on three locations: their food storage, armory, and depot…"
*****
Miyuki swallowed his saliva as he stared at the flip phone placed at his desk. His cold hands and cold sweat at his back described tension in his heart.
He waited for the ring tone to come.
'Will we succeed..?'
His current situation was unimaginable to himself a day ago.
Last night, a student handed him over the flip phone without explaining anything. It was later on that Miyuki became aware of the specifics.
The government is planning to take back the Zaibatsu's influence.
They explained through messages that they are extremely aware of the decadence and misconduct of the rich families. Miyuki was one of the people they chose to reach out to.
As the President of Shuiichin, he possessed a certain amount of authority. The school wasn't just the rich kids' playground, but a training ground of civilian espers.
Taking over it would not only grant the government side a 'leverage', but also a chance to absorb the oppressed civilian espers who are forced to undergo militaristic training.
Unbeknownst to Miyuki, he was but one of the dozens of people found by the government to undertake this 'surprise attack'.
Amane's [Omniscient Brain] is very overwhelming, just as how he spent most of his time in a coma. The government had long prepared the list of names prior to Eishi's arrival. Only, they did not expect to use it to initiate an attack rather than a last-ditch effort once they were brought down.
Just then, a slight rumble penetrated the Student Council's Office. Miyuki stood up hastily and parted the curtains.
The "Board" of this school entrusted him with the management of the school, but it did not mean they left him all the power. In fact, only after their approval could Miyuki push through an agenda.
They left their own espers to take charge around the academy complex, both to guard against invaders and to deter the civilian espers who wanted to escape.
"They… they really did it..!"
The brightly burning pillar of flame outside was reflected in his pupils. Miyuki saw four groups of soldiers fighting against the academy complex's esper guards.
Amidst them all was a purple-haired girl.
One blink… and dozens of espers died. The sea of dark crimson blood flooding their radius shocked Miyuki to his core.
Compared to his 'meager' superpower, it was leagues beyond what he could imagine.
Five minutes later, a group of soldiers entered the office.
"Five minutes…"
Still in disbelief, Miyuki belatedly greeted the military officer.
"We owe you for the intelligence you gave us. Thank you, Shirogane-san."
"N-no, no. I… just wanted to do the right thing."
"We will assure you it is the right thing."
The officer did not speak further, but Miyuki understood what he wanted to say.
They would prove it with actions.
Outside, another group of soldiers remained on-guard of the corridor.
"About the enemy she spoke of…"
"What do you mean 'she'?! It's Busujima-san, you idiot!"
The soldier became speechless at his superior's words. Still, he could not find any reason to retort.
Saeko is worthy of respect.
'The blood tide from before…'
Chills were sent down to their spine as they recalled it.
The hail of bullets, incendiary rounds, grenades…
There was nothing her blood tide failed to block. It was, after all, synthesized third-order blood. Eishi's rebate chances were used to empower Saeko with them. Her maximum limit is the space she holds.
It wouldn't be a problem to hold enough blood to overwhelm hundreds of enemies.
"Do you think Busujima-san can…"
"She will." The commanding officer shot a reply. "They were enemies withheld from the Student Council President's knowledge, but do you think they can face someone like her?"
"..."
As if proving his statement, Saeko entered the corridor. The blood on her footsteps coalesced into an orb before disappearing to her space.
"They are taken care of."
Her words made them relax.
'Ten espers near the second-order…'
Saeko felt that they somewhat underestimated the Zaibatsu's capabilities. They managed to collect enough evolution fruits to push ten espers to first-order, nine-stars. She did not have much trouble killing them due to their lower-rated innate talents, but their close-combat experience made up for it.
It wasn't a coincidence, either.
Most of the guards placed here have low-rated talents, reaching A rating at best. The ten first-order nine-stars esper group all had C rated talents. It was clear that the Zaibatsu exploited the nature of the esper power system. They mass-produced experienced ex-soldiers and mercenaries with low-rated talents to serve as their guards.
It was contrary to the government's approach to tilt most of the resources to Amane and Hachiman, both of which are SSS rated espers.
'Still, if this is all they have…'
Their only ending tonight lay between the doomed or the lesser doomed endings.
*****
Food storage, armory, depot.
These are the core locations of the Zaibatsu Faction.
For the first one, they are not jointly held. They are separated between each family, wary of the others taking advantage of them.
The second one was the same, too. However, they made up a system of sorts to put up a joint armory for "joint action". The manhunt of the SAO survivor group and Eishi were classified as one.
Finally, the depot. It was strictly held in a joint format. Every Zaibatsu's "joining" of the faction depended on whether they agreed to this condition or not. After all, the depot holds the most important resource up to date—evolution fruits.
The way of handling the fruits is strict too. Every family has a quota to fulfill based on their strength. The Shinomiya Clan, as the nominal leader, conceded a good chunk of their evolution fruit haul to the depot. It was then redistributed to families according to their contribution.
It was this system that gave the Zaibatsus their tightly-knit alliance.
Naturally, they could choose to withhold the fruits exceeding their quota. There are also families who did not perform very well, leading to them having a lesser quota to reach.
The Shinomiya Clan, however, has to maintain their performance. This was their biggest concession to become the alliance's leader. They got to enjoy the benefits, but also the risks. Falter even one step and everyone would come knocking at their door.
Nonetheless, the benefits are more than visible to some extent. The number of rare fruits that fell to their hands were huge, not to mention the influence they could exert and the developed private force hidden in others' eyes.
All of it was due to the heavily-fortified depot in front of Eishi.
He stared at the ten-storey-tall condominium. The dozens of rooms, hundreds of guarding espers, and the surveillance would make it difficult to steal from this place.
However…
'It's so vibrant..!'
…it posed zero threats to Eishi.
All sorts of green lights appeared throughout the condominiums. Some are empty, while some are filled with treasures.
With a thought, the entire world turned gray.
'My talent are built for these moments…'
*****
A/N: I wrote this fic mostly to experiment with a lot of things (new troupes, writing styles). It was also something I founded to get through my writer's block in the past few months or so. Keyword "was", because I already got over it thanks to this and the help of others' feedbacks.
Anyways, this won't be as long as my other fics. It is actually written in preparation for another fic I have in mind. I wanted to know how others would think of an MC who suffers from a negative character development picking himself back up. I also wanted to experience how it was to write such a character.
If anyone noticed, I created Eishi to be the exact opposite of Shi Tian (My other fic's protagonist). The latter is made out to be a protagonist with good morals (an exemplar) and unchanging determination.
Eishi is someone who gradually went downhill after experiencing power. The changes are so subtle readers might not catch onto it until it became very drastic (obvious per se). His treatment of Kasumigaoka was one of the more obvious cues. It wasn't until he went to a different environment did he realize how close he was to becoming an irredeemable scum. Of course, the way I have written Eishi might have been quite unnatural, or even extreme. I learned something from this, too.
The things I learned so far while writing this fic is worthwhile, and I would like to thank everyone who supported this fic.
PS: This was just something I wanted to get off my chest. This fic will still continue updating for a longer while according to the schedule haha.