Episode 8: "An Unknown Ceiling"

???
"How's he holding up?"

???
"He hasn't even managed to wake up yet."

Somewhere within the darkness, a voice echoed out.
A voice he didn't recognize.

???
"Perhaps it would be best to take him to a hospital."

???
"Maybe. But walking through the city is too risky."

As he listened to the voices drone on, Yo realized that his eyes were still closed. Perfectly explaining why everything was still so dark.
When he finally managed to open his eyes, he found himself staring up at an unknown ceiling.

Yo Kuronaka
"Huh...? Where...am I...?"

He sat up on the sofa he was sleeping on and looked at his surroundings.
The room with a cluttered mess.
The floor was littered with magazines and empty plastic bottles. Idol posters and photographs had been haphazardly placed on the walls.
Near the wall was a computer desk with a half eaten instant noodle cup and a bunch of snack wrappers.
It felt like the living space of a single guy who never expected to have guests over.

???
"Ah, finally! He's awake! What a relief."

Yo Kuronaka
"W-Woah, what the heck?! All four of you look so... similar..."

What had jumped into Yo's vision were four people he didn't recognize.
There were definitely four of them, and they were definitely real. But all of them had the exact same face.

???
"Oh, sorry. I forget it tends to be a bit of a shock when meeting us for the first time."

Saburo
"Our names are Ichiro, Jiro, Saburo, and Shiro."

The four of them had the same face and body shape, but there were thankfully differences in the clothes they were wearing.
Ichiro wore a yellow parka with the number one on it.
Jiro wore a blue parka with the number two on it.
Saburo wore a green parka with the number three on it.
And Shiro wore a red parka with the number four on it.
Thanks to that, Yo was barely able to tell them apart.

Shiro
"You'd do well to remember the Four Children of the Minato Tribe."

Yo Kuronaka
"The Minato Tribe..."

From the story that Tsuruko told him, that was the legendary tribe that saved Neo Tokyo.
Does that mean they were also members of the Minato Tribe?
Why was he with them? Where even was he?
And why had he been sleeping under an unknown ceiling?

Yo Kuronaka
"Wait, back it up! Sui punched me. Where are the others?!"

The moment Yo recalled what happened before he lost consciousness, he quickly tried to confirm the safety of his teammates.

Ichiro
"You don't have to worry. They're all safe."

As soon as Yo heard that, all the tension left his body.

Jiro
"They're all having a discussion over there."

Saburo
"Well, when it's Micchan and Kazuki, the atmosphere doesn't really feel like a discussion."

Saburo was looking over at Kazuki.
He was speaking with someone Yo didn't know.

???
"...Sheesh. What's with you always bringing trouble in your wake?"

Kazuki Aoyama
"Heh. Well, I'm sure you've gotten used to it by now. But I do actually feel bad about it."

???
"Yeah, yeah. Sure you do. Why do you even know about this place anyway?"

Kazuki Aoyama
"Hm? Oh, well, this is ancient history by now but I once followed you when you snuck out.
To think that something I did back then would end up being so useful to me now."

???
"Gaah! You punk! To think you'd discover my secret base so easily..."

The person Kazuki was talking to was a man with a small build wearing a blue jersey. He had a leaf in his mouth, and his long hair was styled in a topknot.
(Guess this place belongs to him...)

Nekomaru
"Meow."

Yo heard something and when he looked down by his feet, he noticed Nekomaru was there, stretching.
Seeing the cat just leisurely hanging around brought a little bit of peace to Yo.

Tsuki Iroha
"Yo! You're awake!"

Tsuki noticed that Yo had woken up, and quickly came running over to him.
Her cheek was still swollen, but she seemed to be back to her energetic self.

Yo Kuronaka
"...Hey, Tsuki. Where are we? And who's the person that Kazuki's speaking to?"

Tsuki Iroha
"That's Santaro Mita. If you can believe it, he's a member of the Minato Tribe! Same as Kazuki and the Four Children. Apparently, this is his super duper secret base!"

Tsuruko Semba
"Ah, Yo. I see you're finally awake. How are you feeling?"

Tsuruko, Yutaka, and Koishi also came running over to Yo. They all seemed well, with no sign of any injuries.

Yo Kuronaka
"I feel... okay. But my memory of what happened is a bit hazy. I remember Sui punching me, but what happened after that?"

Yutaka Gotanda
"After you were knocked unconscious by Yakumo, we somehow managed to make our escape."

Koishi Kohinata
"Then we began talking about how we needed to find a place for you and Tsuki to recover."

Tsuruko Semba
"And that's when Kazuki mentioned he knew a place, and then guided us here!"

Yo managed to get the general gist of what had happened.
But that doesn't mean all of his questions had been answered.
Just how had they been able to get away from Sui?

Kazuki Aoyama
"Mornin', sleepyhead. Glad to see you didn't suffer any major injuries."

Having noticed that Yo had woken up, Kazuki paused his conversation with Santaro, and walked over to him.

Koishi Kohinata
"The both of you were unconscious, but thankfully neither of you had many exterior injuries."

Kazuki Aoyama
"Perhaps Sui was just going easy on us? I mean, he did let us run away..."

The more Yo thought about it, the more it made sense.
Considering how nimbly Sui was able to move, he would've been able to stop Kazuki and the others while they were fleeing without breaking a sweat.
But, if that was true. Why did he spare them?

Kazuki Aoyama
"...Well, no real use thinking too hard on it, yeah? Let's count our good fortune and be done with it."

Santaro Mita
"Seein' how those two are finally up and about, why don't we get to talkin'?"

The owner of this room, Santaro Mita of the Minato Tribe, changed the topic.

Santaro Mita
"I've been given the skinny on what happened. In short, you lot are takin' on the Numbers, yeah? If that's the case, you can count on the assistance of the Minato Tribe!
Ya see, we also want to do away with the Numbers."

Yo Kuronaka
"Thanks... we'd really appreciate the help."

Having the legendary Minato Tribe backing them up... there was nothing more reassuring than that.

Kazuki Aoyama
"Right. Why don't you tell us about the city's current condition, and where the other Tribe members went."

Santaro Mita
"Cuttin' right to the chase, huh. Well, I'll have to start right before the governing rules began.
Things here have taken a turn for the worst ever since the start of the Minato Rankingdom..."

Santaro let out a long worn out sigh, and began explaining what occurred in Minato City.

Santaro Mita
"Look, everyone livin' here is super prideful, so it became one battle of dominance after another. Especially those who don't want to become Beggars and die. Seein' it become like that, Saori, that is the leader of the Minato Tribe, declared that she would become King.
She managed to seize the throne from the King at the time, who was a weird celebrity wannabe."

Kazuki Aoyama
"Saori became King? Huh. I always envisioned her as more of a knight of justice than a king."

Yo had no idea who Saori even was, but she sounded like someone who couldn't ignore the cries of those in trouble, someone with a strong sense of justice.

Santaro Mita
"Bingo. The moment she became King, she took charge to promote helping others and volunteering. She ended up creating a system in Minato City where everyone could increase their dominance power."

Tsuruko Semba
"Oh! And I'd imagine with that, everyone became stronger and it lowered the number of meaingless deaths."

(Those who do good deeds are rewarded. By interpreting the idea of dominance power that way, she substantially changed the way the governing rules worked?)
(Makes perfect sense. After all, she's the leader of the legendary Minato Tribe. Her inventiveness distinguishes her from the regular person.)

Santaro Mita
"Yep. Thanks to that, the city experienced an era of peace that didn't seem possible under the governing rules. But... eventually, Saori said she had to leave Minato City. That there was somethin' she had to look into.
In her absence, she entrusted Minato City to me and the Four Children."

Tsuki Iroha
"Huh? Something she had to look into?"

Santaro Mita
"I didn't get any specifics myself, but she seemed to be in a tight pinch when she told me. It clearly wasn't somethin' simple, so we let her leave."

Koishi Kohinata
"But, wait, are things going to be okay without the King?"

Koishi threw out a question everyone was thinking.

Santaro Mita
"Well, ya see, the King has the power to transfer their rank to someone they trust. So I temporarily took the throne.
Though I still don't get why Saori was desperately tryin' to convince herself that she trusts me."

Kazuki Aoyama
"Sheesh. Saori really must have been in a pinch. If it was me? I wouldn't trust you with that type of power in a million years."

Santaro Mita
"Yeah, I mean, me of all people? Entrusted wi—dude, what?!"

Santaro got caught up in the joke and ended up flaring up at Kazuki.

Kazuki Aoyama
"I mean it. Just take a look around at how ruined Minato City's become. Saori entrusted you with it and it led to this. You're not fit to be King."

Santaro Mita
"Urgh..."

Kazuki hit him right in a sore spot, and all Santaro could do was let out a groaning sound.

Yutaka Gotanda
"Mr. Mita, please continue. What happened to you and Minato City?"

Santaro Mita
"Look, up until very recently, I had been doin' great reigning over Minato City. Not as good as Saori, but I was maintainin' the status quo she left behind. But, then..."

Santaro stopped speaking for a moment, balling up his fists tight in frustration.

Santaro Mita
"...It was 'bout ten days back. A guy in tatters limped his way over to the Lovely Ocean and collapsed at the front, so I stopped and helped him out."

Tsuki Iroha
"There's no way... was it...?!"

Santaro Mita
"It was Sui Yakumo. He said he knew Kazuki, and that he was also fightin' the good fight against Zero. So I trusted him, but I should've been more careful damn it!"

(And there it is. Just what could've happened to Sui?)

Yo Kuronaka
"...What did he do?"

Santaro Mita
"That day, we ended up talkin' to him about the Minato Tribe all night. And at some point, we passed out. Then, past midnight, we heard a loud explosion that woke us up. And standing there was Sui.
Moment he noticed we were awake, he began hittin' us. All while laughing."

Saburo
"First thing he did was knock us out, which changed his rank to Noble, then he immediately went for Micchan."

Kazuki Aoyama
"...I see. So that's when he defeated Santaro and seized the throne."

Only those possessing the rank of Noble can challenge the King.
Sui understood the rules, and carefully calculated his attack on the Four Children and Santaro.
His execution was devilish. He disregarded the fact that they had saved him.

Jiro
"After that, we made our way here."

Santaro Mita
"After becoming King, Sui went berserk. All of those who came to challenge him ended up fleeing the city one after another. As a result, Minato City suddenly fell to ruin..."

Tsuki Iroha
"I just... I can't believe it..."

Yo and Tsuki felt the same way.
Sui's actions which Santaro had described were completely unforgivable.
Which is exactly why they were having a difficult time wrapping their head around everything. To think their childhood friend had become capable of such evil things...

Kazuki Aoyama
"Since Sui has become one of the Numbers, I'd say it's safe to say Zero was involved in him seizing the throne. Which may also mean he had something to do with Sui's sudden change in personality."

Tsuki Iroha
"Yeah! He's clearly been brainwashed! I mean, Zero did the same thing with Yo, so we have to snap him out of it!"

Kazuki Aoyama
"Look, I get how you feel, but we have no proof he's been brainwashed."

Tsuki Iroha
"B-B-But...!"

Tsuki was terribly irritated.
She wanted so terribly to snap Sui out of whatever has happened. But she didn't even know where to begin. Worse yet, she didn't even know how to sort out and channel her feelings, putting her in distress.

Yutaka Gotanda
"Everyone, it's clear this situation has many moving parts to it, making it difficult to stay calm. How about we take a short break?"

Yo Kuronaka
"...Yeah, I need some time to think and sort out my thoughts."

Yo was in favor of Yutaka's suggestion.
He didn't believe they could reach a constructive conclusion if they had continued talking like this.

Tsuki Iroha
"Got it. I... will also go take some time for myself."

Tsuki let out those words along with a sigh, leaving the area with a gloomy look on her face.