On the Rooftop where they always meet.
Evening.
Toshi looked beyond the the distance of Dragon Hive.
"Where have you been," he said.
"Investigating," Roxlaw said. He set his Philo Book on the table and sat down.
"Investigating what? For who?"
"For me," Yusuke said from across the room without looking up from his screens.
Toshi turned to look at him.
"You've been sending Roxlaw on missions," he said. "Investigation missions. Without telling me."
"Yes."
"Why."
Yusuke turned. "You're Shogun's hero. You're already doing the most visible and physically demanding work on the island. I didn't want to overwhelm you."
"I want to be overwhelmed," Toshi said. "I enjoy being overwhelmed. That's my whole thing."
"You also have a girlfriend who body slams you when you try to do too much," Yusuke said.
Toshi opened his mouth.
Closed it.
"Besides," Roxlaw said, "I have invisibility. It made more sense."
"Invisibility," Toshi said. "Since when."
"Martian Penalty Book. Page forty-one." Roxlaw opened the book briefly and closed it. "Philosophical invisibility. I become undetectable to any sensory system, not just sight. Sound. Heat signature. Abi detection. Everything." He paused. "I used it at Mansion Wigg."
Toshi stared at him. "You spied on the rich guy."
"I listened to a private meeting in his dining room, yes."
"That's incredible." Toshi leaned forward. "What did you find?/
Roxlaw told them what he'd found.
He told it the way he told everything, in order, without editorializing, the information placed plainly so the people receiving it could assess it without his assessment already attached.
The island was on the verge of something larger than the current parasite incursions. The incursions were not random. They were coordinated, directed, part of an arrangement between parties who had specific interests in Dragon Hive's destabilization. Yellow Rock, the deposit beneath the island, contained enough raw material to produce artificial Abi at a scale that would rewrite the existing power structure entirely. Lux Wig knew about it. Had known for years. Had built his entire position in the current arrangement around eventually accessing it.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
And Lux Wig was working alongside the Parasite King.
Toshi was quiet for a moment.
"You spied on Lux Wig," he said again.
"Yes."
"And he's working with the Parasite King."
"Yes."
"And he was just sitting there eating breakfast while all of this—"
"One soft-boiled egg," Roxlaw said. "At a table built for thirty."
Toshi sat back.
"Damn, that sucks " he said.
Then something else moved across his face. "Those Hammerians," he said. "While we're talking about threats, Jeriko has an Amazon woman chained up in that mansion. I saw her. Chain around her neck, handing him wine, face completely gone." He shook his head. "Like a dog."
Roxlaw nodded. He had seen her too.
The room held the weight of that for a moment.
"I have a plan," Yusuke said.
He turned to face them properly.
"Toshi. You and Roxlaw protect the civilians. Shogun and Shibuya both. The Hammerians aren't our immediate problem, they're occupied with their own politics and they still see the black-Opps as an obstacle. And Lux Wig.." He paused. "Now that we know what he wants, we have leverage. He won't move against us while we're holding something he needs."
Toshi frowned. "I'm confused."
"What he's saying," Roxlaw started.
"I'm going to take the Empress hostage," Yusuke said.
Silence.
"What," Toshi said.
"There is no other way."
"Are you out of your mind," Toshi said.
"Yes," Yusuke said. "Here is my reasons, The Empress passively controls Dragon Hive without knowing it or she knows but is unaware of the extent to her power. The Parasite King wants that control but I'm not sure why. Lux Wig wants Yellow Rock and will deliver the Empress's Philo to get it. The Empress trusts Lux and doesn't know her power truly works and The Hammerians are waiting for the honor students to die beyond the wall so they can move openly. The Empress is the center of everything. If something happens to her it may be too late."
The air went quiet differently than it had been quiet before.
Roxlaw "What about the military fighting the parasites?"
Yusuke "There is no military."
"Wait," Toshi said slowly. "Isn't Bura's..." He stopped. "Isn't his girlfriend one of the black opps students?"
"Yes," Yusuke said.
Toshi looked at him.
"Then we have to tell Burajiru."
"We can't."
"Why not?"
"Because he doesn't remember." Yusuke's voice was steady. Not cold, careful. The voice of someone saying something that costs them something and saying it anyway because they believe it. "If we bring him into this he'll do something and get himself killed trying to follow her. It's better that Plum dies than for Burajiru to die going after her."
Toshi's jaw tightened.
"Won't he follow her anyway," he said.
"No." Yusuke looked at the screens. "He's too far down. His mind won't let him go past his current limits. Right now his limits are base parasites. He can't access what he actually is without the memory and the memory isn't coming back on its own."
The silence that followed had a specific quality.
Toshi's fist closed.
"This doesn't seem right," he said quietly.
"I agree," Roxlaw said. He said it simply, without drama. "But Burajiru's life is worth more to me than this woman he's fond of. That's the truth of it."
Toshi looked at him.
Then at Yusuke.
"We need to liberate this island," Yusuke said. "That's the mission. That's always been the mission. Everything else is secondary." He looked at both of them. "Roxlaw, use the UFO to secure the civilians. Things are going to get chaotic in the next few days and I need people in the air. Toshi, you do what you do."
"Yeah," Toshi said. "I know."
He didn't move for a moment.
"What about Bura? He might tsill be useful" he said.
"Without his memory his power will never fully awaken," Yusuke said. "We can't rely on him."
Toshi looked at the floor.
Something in his face settled into a specific kind of quiet, not acceptance exactly, more the expression of someone who has decided to carry something they don't agree with carrying because the alternative is worse.
"Guess it's like that, huh," he said.
He stood up.
"Hey," Yusuke said. "I was going to treat us all to ramen."
Toshi stopped at the door.
"I'll pass," he said.
He didn't look back.
"Just isn't the same without Bura."
He left.
The door closed.
Yusuke looked at it.
Roxlaw looked at Yusuke.
"Let him," Roxlaw said.
Yusuke turned back to his screens.
The apartment held the quiet of a plan that had been made and couldn't be unmade and the specific weight of what the making of it had cost.
To be continued.