Chapter Text
“Argh, why does this revision report neverending?!”
“Patience, Asaba. We need to sort out the report properly to make sure the intel isn’t filled with misinformation.”
“Still! Does this guy need to lie out so much! If Soukaku didn’t point go to the Sixth Street by chance to eat ramen and saw that Video Store manager who knew this herscherr guy, who knows if we had found out or not. What a troublesome person…”
“All this, and I still have meetings…”
“Everyone, I got us some snacks!”
“Sigh…”
Long story short, some of the backstory of the “Herscherr” didn’t quite make sense, as if he is making it up on the go (he does). But despite how much they unravel, HSO S6 realizes that only the personal details were falsified.
Details of a Herscherr’s capability itself is still obscure and new to the elite section 6 except for their chief, Void Hunter Hoshimi Miyabi. She has been able to confirm many crucial details of their report, for which revision is due in 48 minutes exactly.
They eventually did finish revising. Except for Yanagi, the rest of Section 6 immediately melted to their chair. Just seconds after they did and right before Yanagi managed to submit it to the HSO private network as a revision proposal, the office’s phone rang. Yanagi wasted no time to pick it up, “Hello, this is section 6 office speaking.”
“Hello there, dear agents! We meet again.”
Yanagi put her hand on the mic, muffling it as she turned on the speaker for everyone.
“Yes, sir, what business do you have?”
“Not even a hello, mister Herscher?”
Hearing the voice on speaker, everyone suddenly gained focus. Yanagi motioned for everyone to stay silent, answered by multiple soundless nods and Harumasa’s silent tapping on his phone to activate the voice recording.
“If you do not have official business with Section 6, I am afraid that I might have to close this call prematurely.”
“Aw, aren’t we close already? Don’t be so stiff, Nagi~”
“I think you are under the wrong impression, sir. I'm afraid prank calls aren’t appreciated in emergency units phone line.”
“Prank calls?! I wouldn’t dare do that when the one answering is Deputy Chief of Section 6 herself!”
The exaggerated voice is very familiar to Yanagi’s ear, her eyes veer to Harumasa, and flashes of his dramatic sick calls appeared in her memory for just a second. The accused agent can only pull on a wronged expression silently while being fully aware of his own flair of dramatics.
“This brings back memories. Anyway, you figured it out, didn’t you?”
“…”
“I set up a web of lies for your leverage, but you still figured it out in no time at all. I feel like my effort is so unappreciated. I even asked you not to report me if you saw me outside. It seemed like it went over your head, huh?”
“Our leverage? Also, when did you ever say that?”
“I just did in the last chapters’—Look, I know this might sound obvious, but the truth to the Hollow disasters... has been covered by the player higher up the ladder in New Eridu city admin.”
Every member of Section 6 turned to the office sofa, now occupied by the Herscherr of Recollection. He crosses his legs and sits like he is the owner of the place. Yanagi had half a mind to question how he was here, but
Hoshimi Miyabi’s uncertain voice cut her off before she could even begin to do just that.
“Are you insinuating that…?”
“Aw, don’t be so jumpy! While the Mayflower family might have hidden the truth, the true player of the incident is indeed something else.”
The herscherr gazed down, pondering over something important. The buzzing of the glitching on their security cameras and Harumasa’s phone screen goes almost unnoticed by Yanagi in the following 5 seconds of silence before Yuuma continued.
“Something the current New Eridu couldn’t face head-on.”
“Not even you, mister Herscher?”
“I can definitely match this ‘something, ’ but I probably wouldn’t be able to do anything to the ‘someone’ behind that ‘something’.”
“New Eridu will prevail this disaster, as it has always done, herscher.”
“I am glad you can be very confident, miss Hoshimi. But as you guys are now, you stood no chance.”
“There is a mole in the city admin, as there is a mole in TOPS, that support this ‘someone’. Among them was someone who would betray both us and the ‘someone’ in order to achieve their goal.”
Now that last statement is super strange. After all, Yanagi is not aware that the herscherr has been part of New Eridu or its related factions, and not for a lack of trying. She had checked all the citizenship database after realizing the ruse, even unofficial mysterious person reports, but none has the name ‘Yumasa Yuuma’. At least, none that is in her confidential file clearance level.
“Us?”
“Yes, us,” noticing his slip up, Yuuma took a deep breath, ”Since I will be allying with you in this conflict.”
This is indeed the truth. For his plan, he needs to extract this ‘mole’ and retrieve crucial information about the location of the true source of the ‘etheric calamity’. The reason he cannot do this sooner is actually because of the limitation on his authority in the city area for some reason. Not enough to completely neuter his skill set as a herscher, but definitely capable of hindering him exercising his authority in a very obvious way.
He had reason to believe that some other herscherr in the past set up this limitations to ‘save’ the city from danger, but he couldn’t feel out much except that this authority is able to ‘overrule’ that of his own, but unable to fully suppress the ether enacted by its existing in the skyline. He wonders, what kind of authority is it that the impact of attack unleashed with its full strength could be felt even this much time in the future? Could it be amalgamation of several authorities?
That being that called itself ‘god’… had told him of the existence of some powerful herscherr capable of utilizing multiple core in his training, but not much else except that someone like that has existed at least once in this timeline before he did, and that their status during the ‘world’s end event’ is unknown. If he had his way, he wouldn’t even want to involve his former teammate in this until he really needs too.
“Based on your previous history, I wouldn’t dare believe you truly,” Yanagi started.
“That is indeed reasonable,” the most suspicious person in the room nods along with her. “I can provide you one guarantee.”
The void hunter asked. “And that is?”
“I will never, ever, from this point on, hurt any of section 6 members.”
“Isn’t that just a given? If you propose cooperation but cannot guarantee that, what kind of partnership would this be?” Asaba Harumasa finally found a chance to slip into the conversation.
“Give us another actual, real, and tangible guarantee.”
Closing his eyes, pensive, Yumasa Yuuma sighed and directed his gaze at Asaba Harumasa, “Fine, you name the guarantee.”
“Great! From now on, you shouldn’t in any capacity use your ‘authority’ to any of us, including lying by augmentation.”
Based on the frustrated frown on the herscherr face, Asaba Harumasa has hit the bullseye once again. In their previous encounter, it is clear that the herscherr has the capability to implant or remove memories in people’s minds.
In fact, seeing him is almost like being in a fog. When close by, his face is unusually clear, otherwise, it is blurred, even in memory.
“Fine.”
As if a filter had been lifted, the previously cloudy feeling of being in control but not really subsided. The herscherr face had been seen clearly before, but due to the authority effect, they are unable to remember his face, not even five minutes after ending their encounter.
They had been in a hurry, so they didn’t notice it. Meanwhile, Soukaku is affected very little by this, but since she is still a child, she is not as vigilant about matters like these. Perhaps she wasn’t really influenced because she was an oni? (No, it was because Yuuma cannot bring himself to ‘infiltrate’ to little Soukaku’s memory).
“Oh, and another thing—”
“I gave you a liver, and now you want the heart?!”
“It would be best if you stopped lying to us in any way. As partners, trust is a very expensive currency, after all.”
“…”
“I would hold half of that.”
“You mean?”
The herscherr stood up, and suddenly the entire section 6 realized he had been barefoot. He was before, they found out as they are finally able to jog their memory of their previous encounter. He stepped on the cold tiled flooring, crossed his arms before turning around to face his new partner in crime.
“I cannot guarantee my ‘truthfulness’ due to some circumstances. It would just make things more complicated. If you touched on that topic, I would just keep my silence. How is that?”
“That is fine by us,” Yanagi complied.
“Great, now, why don’t you meet my contact again? I am sure he is the one that blew away my cover.”
“You mean… the Video Store manager?”
Yuuma put on a knowing smirk.
“Yes. The video store managers.”
.
.
.
***
That very evening, a pair of proxy siblings was jump scared when they opened their backdoor to see a group of the always so famous HSO Section 6 at their doorsteps, waiting to be let in.