23 Chapter Twenty-Three: Returning Fire (1/2)
The next day, The Six Guns crew were sitting in the room at the hospital once again by Mikoto's bedside. Mikoto still hasn't woke up from her coma, and the crew still waited every day by her side for her. The television was on and the local news station was playing through the TV. Satomi seemed fixated on the TV, but everyone else had a hard time keeping up with what was going on, due to the news being spoken in Japanese and none of them being able to understand it. One thing was clear to them though, riots and protests were slowly breaking out more and more over the past week that they've spent at the hospital. As of now, it seemed that most of Tokyo was in protest.
”What are they talking about?” Siran asks Satomi.
Still fixated on the TV, Satomi replies ”Apparently, there's a lot of protesting and rioting going on. Most of it is in Shibuya, close to The Ly'Lum base”.
Seeming to cheer up a very little bit, Rose asks ”So did our plan work out after all?”.
”They definitely seem to be protesting The Ly'Lum” Satomi replies, ”especially since they've already initiated martial law during that attack. They don't even have jurisdiction in this country yet and they're already trying to control the citizens aggressively”.
Fixing her glasses and pulling her laptop back out, Holly says ”And what is Japan's government doing about this?”.
Crossing his arms, only getting more irritated with the news, Alex says ”Probably doing nothing but giving excuses”.
Holly suddenly stops tapping away at her laptop and says ”Hold on and shut up, this is important”.
”What is it?” Siran asks.
While reading from her laptop screen, Holly says ”Japan's government is calling for complete compliance. It's almost like they're being blackmailed, or threatened. What is going on between Japan and Omnia right now?”.
Satomi, still focused on the news on the TV, says ”Well one thing is for sure. The people don't want any of this, so what ever is going on between our two countries can't be good for any of us”.
”It sure seems that way” Siran says softly.
After a short silence, Rose says calmly ”I hope Mikoto wakes up soon”.
”I do too” Satomi says, still fixated on the TV, ”but I don't want her to wake up in this cruel world being all mixed up like this. Knowing her, she'll feel obligated to do something about it immediately, and I can't let her do that right after coming back from a coma”.
Siran, with guilt showing through his facial expression, asks ”Got any plans?”.
”I have one” Satomi says, crossing her arms as she watches the news. ”Whether or not what we did stirred up this much action from the citizens here, I feel like since we tried to start this, then it's only fair to finish what we started”.
Turning to Satomi, Alex asks ”How should we start?”.
”Well” Satomi replies, ”we can direct the protests and riots straight to their front door. Right up to the gates of The Ly'Lum base. It's about time we brought the fight back to them”.
As the afternoon of that day was coming to a close and evening was starting to stretch its embrace across the sky, the crew left the hospital and left Rose by Mikoto's side. As they start leaving towards Shibuya, Satomi stops by a mask shop and gets fox masks for the entire group. As Satomi handed over some of the masks to Siran, she says ”We'll need some sort of disguise to make it hard for The Ly'Lum to recognize us. Otherwise, we'll likely be shot down on sight”.
”Good thinking” Finn says as he starts putting on his mask. ”But how do you suppose we orchestrate this riot? Won't it be a little hard to try and direct these people?”.
”Leave that part to me” Satomi says, through her mask. She then puts on a hooded jacket and flips the hood over her head and says ”I'm a performer after all”.
As the team eventually arrives at Shibuya, they could see The Ly'Lum were all over the town. Citizens were outside, arguing and rioting about the newly placed curfew times. The team had quietly snuck through most of the town as Satomi picks her preferred spot. She stands up on a stage where a volumetric display used to be, grabs a microphone and turns it on. This time, instead of singing in Japanese, she spoke in English, as if to taunt The Ly'Lum.
”People of Shibuya!” Satomi shouted into the microphone, ”I know you're all tired of The Ly'Lum in our country! Of these home invasions, these curfews, and this violence!”. By this time, Satomi had the attention of everyone around. All eyes were on her as she continues. ”It's frustrating and unfair, isn't it!? But you know what they say... That's life! Get over it, this is how the real world works! That's it! All there is too it! Don't like it!? Tough!”. A majority of people's head began to hang low in guilt. However, Satomi didn't stop her speech. ”The world is fair, because it's unfair to everyone... but somehow, it still just doesn't seem right, does it?”. The crowd of people look back up, with a mixture of guilt, sadness and confusion in the air. ”It's not right, is it? That we have to compensate in suffering for someone else's gain? What kind of life is that? If you don't like it, then you don't have to let people walk all over you! The least productive way of changing life is just accepting that life is just like that and that we should simply deal with it! If you want to lead a better life, you must first become the better person! Lead your new lives for your friends, your family, your children... your siblings. We don't have to let them walk all over us! WHO'S WITH ME!?”.
The crowd starts loudly cheering, as The Ly'Lum start getting their distance from people slowly. A few soldiers ready their guns, only for other soldiers to push their guns back down. ”We can't harm the civilians” the soldiers would say. As the crowd's cheering grew louder, their fists raising in the air, Satomi raises her own fist into the air and shouts ”LET'S GO CHANGE THE WORLD!!”.
The crowd cheered louder and louder as everyone began to follow behind Satomi. The crew followed the crowd to blend in as they marched all the way up to The Ly'Lum base, south of Shibuya. As they march, Rose still sat by Mikoto's side in her wheelchair. The entire speech was caught live on the news. As Rose sat in the room, listening, she began to clench her fists as a single tear starts to fall from behind her bandages. ”Don't worry” Rose says as if speaking to Mikoto, ”we'll make things right. They won't get away with hurting anymore of my friends”.
As the crowd of people approach the base, The Ly'Lum had setup soldiers around the outside of the fence of the base. The gate that Siran shot open was still broken, but they sealed the gate closed with wood, nails and barbed wire. As the crowd of people get close to the soldiers, the yells of several people ring throughout the night's sky. Siran and the rest make their way up to the front with Satomi. Before the soldiers had any time to inquire who these people were and why they're wearing masks, Siran starts demanding ”We want answers from your official in charge! We demand answers from Amelia Reese!”.
The soldiers were shocked by the name. Surprised to hear that these people already knew who were running this operation, they had troubles finding the correct words to respond. Before anyone could respond, the crowd gradually fell silent as the figure of a woman slowly approaches the scene. Amelia Reese. As she got close, Siran says ”The whole world knows your face by now, being one of The Mages. You'll have no choice but to answer!”.
Amelia finally stopped walking after she got within only a couple meters away from Siran. ”I figured the world would know your face by now too, even from behind that silly mask, Siran of The Six Guns”.
The crowd and soldiers all fell completely silent, as did Siran. That same red glow of the eyes that the crew had seen when Siran saved Mikoto at the hospital could once again be seen from behind Siran's mask. It pierced through the dark holes of the mask's eyes, as if it were a weak light. Amelia raises one fist as if getting ready to throw a punch as she says ”Take off that silly thing”. When she punches the air, a subsonic burst slammed against Siran's mask. The mask cracked and fell off of his face, but Siran did not budge. Instead, his glowing red eyes only became more visible to Amelia as he takes his sunglasses out of his pocket, and slowly puts them back over his eyes. Most of the crowd backed up, farther away from the fence and gate, leaving The Six Guns crew standing ahead of the rest.
”There are still six of you, I see” Amelia says in disappointment. ”It seems I failed to finish one of you off, unless there is a new one”.
”That's where you're wrong” Siran says. ”Today, there are hundreds of us!”. As Siran says this, the crowd cheers for a few seconds.
Amelia's face grew into a sour expression. ”Open the gate” she says to the soldiers next to her.
”But sir, the gates don't-” a soldier begins to say before being interrupted by being shot in the knee by Amelia. Amelia then points the gun at another soldier and repeats ”Open the gate”.
The soldier salutes as he says ”R-right away!”. The soldier then raises his gun and starts shooting the boards holding the broken down gate closed. Holly shielding whatever magic that passed through the wood, preventing it from hitting them or the civilians behind them. After the gate finally starts to slowly open, Amelia walks right up to Siran, who was in a fighting stance. Amelia gestures with her finger, to tell Siran that she wants to whisper something into his ear. Siran lets her get close as she leans in to Siran's ear and whispers ”Clench your teeth”.