"Mama Hen to Nest, vision on deck in five. Ready the stabilizer. Anchor deployment on your mark," the main pilot called, waiting for confirmation.
The main submarine's 'test drive' came to an end, and finally, it was back at the main base of the Sky Guild. Despite the crazy situation, Yuki felt it was a fun ride.
[All stabilizers are live and ready. Good to go.] A feedback came with the confirmation. With that, the pilot began operating the sub on the docking system.
After a small vibration hit the sub, and the piloting team confirmed all the statuses, the pilot looked back. "All good. Welcome home."
"Thanks for your hard work." Leaving these words behind, Yuki followed Anna and Emma from the now opened hatch.
"Home sweet home." Taking his mask off, Yuki looked at the colossal floating city and, behind it, the mist walls.
He let out a deep sigh and was about to enter the closest elevator, but he was stopped as his shirt collar was caught.
"Where are you going?" Anna stopped him with an odd question, from Yuki's perspective.
"Sleep?" Yuki answered like she was asking the obvious. But she only smiled and said, "Oh no, you still have a report to write and a Council to meet."
"Like this?" He pointed at his salty and dirty body, not really wanting to meet those old individuals, just from what he knew of them.
"Don't mind," Anna dismissed, dragging him with those words. In the end, after a quick trip, Ray found himself in front of a massive door.
Opening it after a quick knock, what came to his mind was, 'Round Table?' Seeing the design, it looked like something from a classy, high-tech knight assembly, with $25$ seats, only three of which were currently empty.
Entering the meeting room, Anna took a place in one of the three empty seats. Yuki was seated directly in front of everyone.
"Now, let's start the meeting. As you all probably read in the report, the things we discovered were game and vision changers. And with what we are expecting, I am afraid we need to change our plan," Anna exclaimed and then added, "But before that, does anyone have a question or any comment on this recent accident? Please go ahead."
All the people started to whisper before an old man coughed and began. "To start, thanks for your hard work, Yuki. I want to ask if inspecting the breach position is possible?"
"Sadly, no," Yuki answered. "The general position was already confirmed, but sadly it is in a deep-sea canyon and hard to navigate in and out with all the magnetic interference."
"I see. And what about the Guardian?" the old man continued. "I heard you tamed it?"
"Yes, and I deployed him to protect the breach, in case something pops up. We will know immediately."
The questions kept flowing until the old man had their curiosity satisfied. Weirdly enough, Yuki didn't get any rude or overly critical questions, but rather questions that seemed to confirm the safety of the situation. At least, Yuki had expected some rude or over-the-top questions, based only on the complaints his mother always had about them.
"Now that we have the questions out of the way, let's start to talk about the future," Anna stated. "As I said before, we have three problems: the energy problem, the issue that anything 'old' makes it impossible to conduct research inside Flora, and by extension, we won't have any advance in the research on its origins."
As they all knew what Flora really was, they had one more reason now to dive deeper inside it, for more resources, of course. They also needed to know the real reason behind all the changes in the last century, as "it's related to aliens" truly wouldn't cut it, even for Anna, let alone the Council.
"And the last part? How the hell are we supposed to know that everything we got this time is real? I mean, no offense, but aliens?" a middle-aged man interjected lazily, as if not taking any of this seriously.
"We have humans that can tank air bombing, some who can take giant monster and animal forms, and a whole breathing continent," Yuki cut in. "And you really think that we are alone in this vast sea of stars?"
This stopped everyone instantly.
"No offense, but I don't think risking not believing is a good choice," Yuki challenged. As a matter of fact, he knew for sure that something was coming. Call it a gut feeling, instinct, or even a reincarnation feeling—he knew for sure there was a calamity coming, and he only needed to find out what it was.
"So what do you suggest?" Anna asked, trying to give him space to talk.
"For the last part, we have NASA, X Space, and other space organizations. See if nothing unusual is around their readings. As for Flora, honestly, the best way to progress is a 'survival' mode inside it."
Yuki then looked around. "As for the energy, I think I can concoct something to work with inside there for a while."
"I see. So, nothing definitive?" Anna smirked, causing him to raise his hand. "That's the general idea. I don't have the time to tell you everything."
"Oh, then you'll write a report with all your plans later. I want it on my desk by the end of the week," Anna added quickly, giving him a winning look.
Realizing that she had just dumped the entire planning part onto him, Yuki's eyes widened. "That…" He was about to protest, but she raised a hand with a smile. "Thank you for reporting, you may go rest."
Yuki could only groan and leave the meeting room.
As soon as the door closed behind him, a stifled laugh sounded. All the Council members looked at the old man holding his laughter before they started to laugh themselves.
"What's wrong, Elder Han?" Anna asked.
"Nothing, just remembering how you used the same trick back when you were just a brat to get snacks. I can't believe the kid fell for it," the old man answered, not minding the laughter.
An old lady not far away snorted. "You talk—you yourself fell for it many times in the past."
"Well, true," the Elder smiled before looking at her. "But is there really a need for all the hiding and acting?"
"How so? I don't think we hid anything from him?" Anna asked with a tilted head.
Sigh. "Come on, you know that all these things are old information, and we for a fact started this organization because of them."
"Well, he just didn't bother to go through the written records, or even use his gift to its full potential. Else he would know that the existence of aliens is an already known fact in the clan," Anna explained with a small smile.
"And why should we act as if we are hearing it for the first time?" an old lady asked, giving up on guessing.
"Nothing, really. I just wanted to see his reaction after he came here and we said, 'Well, yeah, we already know,'" Anna confessed with a mischievous smile.
All the Council members looked at her and sighed in defeat.
"Well, let's leave that for later," someone said, trying to change the subject. "Are you sure you want him to go through the Blood Ritual now? He's still what—sixteen or seventeen?"
"You think I want to?" Anna snorted. "But if you haven't noticed, he already jumped in level to the top. If he doesn't pass it now, what will happen if he is forced into that situation?"
Something they noticed in common between all the ability users was that they were affected by bloodshed. The higher the level, the higher the reaction. So they established this rule: no high-level user is allowed on a high-risk mission with 'dried hands' (no prior combat exposure).
To mitigate any dangerous situation, after the first elimination mission of every member, they were monitored, and based on the reaction and after-effects, it would be judged whether they could rise in rank or not, along with other conditions, of course.
A funny fact was that most of the A+ Rankers were stuck at this rank because of this. And that was something Yuki had to thank his alteration of the effect for. No one awakened by his method faced this problem. And that was also why she had him pass this ritual, thinking he awakened naturally.
"You will be going?" someone asked, meaning if she would be his judge.
"No, Wanda stopped me. She took the role," Anna answered with puffed cheeks, yet a relieved tone. As much as this was important and risky for Yuki (in her line of thought), she wanted to see it through, but on the other side, no parent wishes to see their child kill, no matter the reason.
"Now, to get this meeting to an end," Anna concluded to shift the subject. "Along with investigating what kind of extraterrestrial we are dealing with, I will have Yuki pass the Blood Ritual in one year."
Looking around and seeing no one objected, she dismissed the meeting.
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Hey everyone! The new arc starts here.... This time I'm going for a more "normal" vibe, no crazy superpowers use
they still use thir abilities, but only under really strict conditions (for good reasons.)