Still, after all that, Tokugawa Izuku simply had to laugh. The twists, turns, and double-crosses were piling up like a house of cards. How long until they fell? And when they did, he wasn’t terribly certain it would be him who would be left standing.
It was very exciting. Maybe that was why he laughed. It had been eons since anything had rattled him like this and the exhilaration of the uncertainty was invigorating. Rare was the feeling of truly being alive anymore. It was something to be savored, as it was likely to be fleeting.
The fire in front of him crackled and spat as another figure joined him out of the cover of the woods he sat in. The clearing was small and far from anything that could interrupt this fantastic moment. A moment he’d been waiting for in the last few weeks, ever since the unexpected loss of HOME and his run north to the front lines of his war with E-Force.
The night remained quiet as the ghost approached across from the fire and sat in the waiting seat, the light adding to their wraith-like presence. It was true that although she was possibly the most beautiful person he’d ever seen, Crystal Kokuou was, and always would be a gigantic pain in his ass.
“I trust you traveled well?” he asked with a smirk.
The grin was not returned. “It would have been a damn sight faster if I had the fucking Power!” she hissed at him in anger. “You could have told me about that! You haven’t got a clue the amount of concentration it takes to keep myself from going mad right now. You had better tell me there’s a cure.”
He, much like her, had played as many cards close to the chest as he had on the table. The neural inhibitor drug that had stolen her powers was only one of them. Team Yosuru was another, one she likely knew about by now, but he wouldn’t bring it up if she didn’t.
The memory of her in all that mental anguish back in their meeting at HOME made him smile that much bigger. Only if it had been her son Sho would it have been any more pleasing.
“There is a cure, but how much is left after your little stunt with the plane is a mystery to even me. Did you really have to crash a plane into it?”
“It wasn’t my idea, it was Aryu’s.”
“Ah yes, Aryu. Who would have guessed he would somehow magically obtain the Shi Kaze?” The bitterness in his voice oozed out of the smile on his face. This game of brinkmanship was entertaining, but when the Shi Kaze was involved, you could never take the situation too lightly.
Crystal smiled, her white face positively glowing in the firelight. They could keep this up all night, the back and forth about who did what to whom. They both agreed to the plan, but the path each chose to get to the end was in their own hands. They wouldn’t have had it any other way. They were each untrusting of the other. “It’s all a part of what needs to be done, Izuku. Although, even I admit it was assisted by a bit of dumb luck along the way.”
Bah! Dumb luck. That wasn’t very likely. Izuku, much like anyone who lived even half as long as he had, never believed in such crap. Still, he’d set his own series of similar events into motion. Was that luck as well? Strange they should think so alike yet be so different.
He shifted, smile radiating towards her. He hated her but admitted no one else on the planet could be so fearless in his company. Even without her powers, she had come here. One flick of the wrist and Crystal Kokuou was gone from this or any other world, lost to the void of the Est Vacuus like she was never even here. His hand twitched slightly on the handle at his side, but nothing more. Where was the fun in that? Besides, she was too instrumental in what was yet to come.
“You just keep that thing where it is unless you want a screaming lunatic on your hands,” she admonished, impressively catching the motion that was more in his mind than it was in his hand. “I don’t see anyone around powerful enough to pull me out of it. Thank you, by the way, for making a small part of my life a complete hell.”
He nodded in a mock thank-you and reached back behind himself, pulling forward a small vial filled with a clear liquid from a bag he’d carried in with him. “A touch of the last of the cure that I’m aware of. One vile will treat one person, but if there were more of these left I’d be shocked, as most of it was kept at HOME. Not so intelligent to go flying a plane into someone’s place of business now, was it?”
“I don’t believe you,” she replied.
“Your choice, I suppose. Still, I have no need for it…”
“Nor do the ones you travel with I assume.” Did she know of Team Yosuru, or was she referring to the machines he was generally surrounded by?
“True, neither do they, so I never had much need to carry any. I kept it all at HOME and now it all seems to be at the bottom of the ocean, as well as my glorious collection of destructive toys. It was a task just to find this one. I seriously doubt there’s much more out there left to be found.”
“And are you offering it to me, or
