“This really is her’s,” Kilik remarked as he looked at the handwriting of the notebook Yuki handed him.
They were inside Sophie’s office in the Dragons of Gaea’s base. Yuki brought Kilik in and asked the others to wait outside. The contents of the notebook weren’t sothing she could share with anyone that wasn’t a dragon.
“Do you want
to read it all or is there a particular section that you need
to look at?” Kilik asked.
“Let
show you,” Yuki said. She took the notebook back and flipped the pages until it was on the section where Sophie began talking about the attacks. “Here. Read this and the next few pages.”
“Is that all or is there more you need to show
after this?”
“There’s more, but this is the most important, I think. It’ll give you an idea as to my motivations and why I’m asking for your help.”
“I see. Give
a mont.”
“Of course.”
Yuki waited quietly as Kilik began reading the pages that Sophie had written on, making small noises as he went over certain parts that interested him. She found out quite quickly that Kilik was a slow reader. He went at a pace of about five minutes per page. Sophie’s handwriting was very neat and Yuki knew that she didn’t crunch words together.
‘I might be here for a while,’ she thought.
Halfway through, though, Kilik shut the notebook and placed it back on the table with a troubled expression. He stroked his chin and stared at the notebook for a mont.
“Done already?” Yuki asked.
“No. I don’t need to read further. You said you have other things to show ?” Kilik said.
“I do.”
“Then show .”
“Before I let you in, can you take an oath?” Yuki asked Kilik.
They were standing in a field outside the city of Fenrir. Akira and the others were with them.
“For secrecy?” Kilik said.
“Yes. I do not want the location of this place being revealed.”
“I understand,” he nodded. “I will never reveal the location of this place and whatever you are about to show
in any way. Is that satisfactory?”
“It should work,” Yuki said. She turned toward the field and clapped her hands together. “Open.”
The ground rumbled and a section lifted up to reveal a staircase that led straight down. The staircase was illuminated by lanterns that casted a dim glow and threw shadows everywhere. Yuki gestured toward Kilik to enter.
“What’s this?” he asked.
“Our base of operations,” Yuki replied. “At least, one of them. It was put out of commission for a bit after a little incident with the LIA, but with so persuasion and ssing around, we cleared them out and reclaid it.”
“I see. Is there anyone in there right now?” Kilik asked.
“I’m not certain. I was away for quite a while. Akira?” Yuki said.
“There will be a few,” she said. “They handle everyday operations. They won’t bother us.”
“Are any of them demons?”
“There will likely be at least one that is.”
“Alright. Make sure that any demons don’t see ,” Kilik said. “I don’t want them spreading any rumors or making a fuss if they recognize .”
“I understand,” Yuki nodded. “I’ll go down first then. Follow .”
She began to descend, stepping down as quickly as she could. At the bottom, she saw Gatekeeper in his office, but no one else was around. Gatekeeper looked up at her and gave her a small nod and a smile before going back to work reading docunts.
“There’s only one person here,” she said to Kilik who was following behind her. “He won’t recognize you.”
“Good. Are we going to your office?” he asked.
“No. The war room.”
She led him and the other down the hall to the room where mbers received briefings and mission details. When she stepped in, she clapped her hands and the lights turned on.
“Uriel,” Yuki said. “You there?”
A ball of holographic particles appeared in front of her and pulsed.
“Welco back, Boss,” Uriel replied. “You were gone for a while.”
“Got caught up in so things I didn’t an to,”she said. “I brought a guest. You have a case file open on the Shikaku, right?”
“I do. You were the one that opened it,” Uriel said. “It’s been updated with so new info during the ti you were away, so do you want
to start from there or summarize everything for the guest?”
“Summarize everything then the new parts.”
“You got it. Well, new person, what do you know about the Shikaku?” Uriel asked.
“The basics,” Kilik replied with an amused smile. “A dark guild with aims of gaining power. Tell . What else should I know?”
“Boss,” Uriel said, “Is there a particular part of the case file you want
to talk about or all of it? Because if I have to do all of it, that’s going to take a long ti.”
“Good point,” Yuki nodded. “Talk about their goals and actions in relation to demons. That’s the main reason I brought him here.”
“Alrighty. So the Shikaku and the Demons. It’s not a very good relationship,” Uriel said. “To put it short, the Shikaku despise demons and wish for them to be eradicated from the world for a few reasons.”
“That’s quite extre,” Kilik frowned.
“Well that’s how they work. The main reason is because demons pose a risk to their plans of gathering power. If they can remove demons from the equation, then it makes their job a hundred tis easier. This goes hand in hand with the embedded hatred they have for demons that began at their inception.”
“How so?” Kilik said.
“The founders of the Shikaku, we have found, are people who have fought in the Trinity War. They witnessed the trickery that demons can do. A look into their family trees suggests that their relatives fought in the Kienva War which, as you know, was against a demon. So that started the dislike for demons.
“Now. What have they done because of this?” Uriel said. “I do not have records of anything up until a couple decades ago, so that is all I can give you at this ti.”
“I have so more information that I’ll need to give you later,” Yuki interrupted. “Go on with the recent incidents though.”
“Got it. Well, recently Shikaku have been accelerating their movents and trying to expand their influence. So of these movents involve eliminating threats to them and their power as well as recruiting people into their cause. This just so happens to be a great excuse to do what they really want with demons.”
Kilik stared at Uriel with a look of deep thought as she continued.
“Though demons are banned from entering and living in Libra, many do still live here in secret. The Shikaku have been going around cities and towns gathering them up as they find them, arresting them and throwing them into private prisons with the approval of the local law enforcent.”
“Do you have proof of this?” Kilik asked, his voice low.
“Yes I do,” Uriel said cheerfully. She began projecting holographic screens with images of the prisons made of glass cubes that demons were being kept in, so of the cubes with demons still in them. “Here are so images of these prisons.”
More screens appeared that displayed docunts that Uriel had obtained from hacking into communications between these prisons and Libra law enforcent.
“Here is proof of the connections between these prisons and the Shikaku. The senders and recipients of these emails and the creators of these docunts are all verified mbers. I can show that too if you want.”
“Later. What have so of the effects of these prisons been?” Kilik said. “Casualties?”
“Fatalities,” Uriel replied. “Many are kept there with minimum food and care if any at all. Demons don’t starve easily, so it takes a while for them to feel the full effects of starvation and thirst.”
“So they die of hunger and thirst later.”
“So are outright killed from various accounts of those we’ve rescued,” Uriel added.
“I see.” He pressed his lips together and frowned. “Yuki. Can you give
so ti alone? I want to read so of these docunts if you don’t mind.”
“I don’t. We’ll be waiting outside,” Yuki said as she gestured at the others to go out. “Take as much ti as you need.”
“Thank you.”
An hour later, the doors of the war room reopened and Kilik stepped out, the expression on his face grim as he looked at the ground. Yuki was sitting outside on a chair she had summoned from the earth. Akira, Erica, and Yuna were sitting on other seats she had made. They were chatting with each other until becoming silent as they waited for Kilik to speak.
“Have you decided, Kilik?” Yuki asked gently.
He looked up and locked eyes with Yuki, an anger in his eyes that Yuki hadn’t seen before. It felt palpable like cold steel.
“I need to talk to the council,” he said.
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