A chaotic reunion - Dead Logic

In one corner of the school hallway was the art club room. It was noticeable that for some reason, every kind of bad and unlawful activity took place in this room. People with malicious intentions always gather here. At first this room worked as the question leaker's meeting room. Then it was used by Shinichi to store drugs. Now Rina, Haruto and Akari were using it.

"Damn it, damn it, damn it!" Akari shouted and kicked a chair in anger. The chair flew towards Rina but she dodged it.

"Akari chan, stop!' Rina said out loud.

"Shut up! Not a word! Useless. Both of you!" Akari said it to Rina and Haruto.

Haruto was afraid to talk back due to his past experience of opposing Akari but he found himself in a no choice situation.

"Listen, at least we tried our best…" Hatuto tried to bring a topic to cool down Akari.

"Did your best? The entire scheme was mine! I told you the only thing to keep an eye on Delta and you couldn't even do that! And you, Rina. What did you do other than covering my acts?" Akari said.

"I accept that. But don't forget that you have your fair share of loss. If you managed to beat the president, Delta would have never succeeded in the first place." Rina reminded him.

"That…don't mention that! Don't you dare!" Akari fell to his knees on the ground and covered his face with his hands."

"He is crying. Crying due to failure. His ever wanting dream of being the best just shattered. But he doesn't wanna make himself look weak to us." Rina thought.

Rina understood Akari's situation and she knew what to do. The reason the organization sent her in the first place was for a situation like this. Rina lowered down to almost Akari's level. Then she placed her two arms around Akari and hugged her tight. This caused Akari's hands to get down from his face and revealing his tear filled eyes,

"Poor Akari chan, still trying his best to hold back tears," Rina thought.

"That's alright. Now stop crying would you? What had to have happened…has happened. Look at the plus side. You are still the best among us! Formulated this entire plan." Rina said.

"You don't understand…" Akari said, his voice lost all the dominating power.

"Maybe I don't but we are all part of it…"

While this was happening, a click sound was heard from behind. A click sound of taking a photo. Immediately all of them turned their head to where the sound came. To the room's entrance. It was Shuhi. This time, she wasn't wearing any bandages. She was holding her phone. Closely to her face.

"Sorry to ruin your beautiful moment but…you just got caught." Shuhi said with a smirk.

Seeing Shuhi without bandages surprised them because the harassment incident with her was well known in the entire school. Rina was the first one to speak.

"What the…how did she find us?!" Rina said, surprised.

"How else?" Haruto came in front of Rina and Akari to cover them. By this act, he meant to deal with him first if Shuhi had any malicious intent.

"Just as Akari predicted. If we fail in our mission, which we did, you will be able to find us." Haruto explained.

Akari got up from the ground, "Everything is going in the worst way I thought of!", he said.

"Zeta and Pi, right? And I don't know you," Shuhi said, looking at all of them.

Nobody asked how she got to identify Zeta and Pi. They knew it was her deduction based on her old memory. After Delta escaped from the organization, Zeta remained as the best student among the remaining students. So to bring back Delta, the people of the organization's head must send the best from their arsenal. She also remembered that Pi was close to Zeta on many occasions so Pi was perfect to support Zeta.

"Come with us! Return to the organization," Rina stated immediately she got the chance. It was their mission from the very start to bring Shuhi back.

Ignoring Rina's request, Shuhi started moving towards them. She got past Rina, ignored Haruto and approached Akari. The two tarantula pets of Akari got out of his pockets and moved to his two shoulders as if they were prepared to defend whatever harm the person in front of them would bring.

Inside Shuhi's head, she imagined her mind as a world of libraries with floating books just as before. Among the libraries was a Shuhi. The current version of Shuhi which she was. She floated through the libraries to end up at the corner of the mind. A prison. She entered.

Inside, it was the same as before. Different versions of Shuhi were locked inside prison cells. Each one represented different personalities of Shuhi. She passed through the prisons and reached the end point of it. The last prison. Delta was trapped here.

Delta was the version of Shuhi which was manufactured in the organization. It possessed all the abilities of Shuhi. About all that she learned from the organization. It didn't hold back at all. Even then.

Shuhi got out of the organization. Until then, she never opened this cell.

"Hey Delta," the current Shuhi outside said.

Delta didn't respond with words. She raised her head above to see it was the current Shuhi outside.

"Wanna meet with your old siblings?" Shuhi asked.

Delta got up, "If I get a chance to talk to them, I will take that," she said.

Shuhi opened the prison cell's door and Delta got out. Shuhi then got inside that prison and Delta locked it. Now Delta was outside. So Shuhi in real life would act how Delta did.

In real life, Shuhi stood right in front of Akari. Her first move was to place her hand on Akari's chest. Akari was caught off guard by this. No attack, no secret weapon…just a gentle hand on his chest.

Before he could think of grabbing her hand and putting it off from his chest, a sudden strong push landed on the spot Shuhi placed her hand. It caused Akari to fall on the ground. Now Shuhi was standing up and Akari on the ground. It emanated a dominating presence from her. The tarantulas fell on the ground due to her sudden hit.

"Hey…" Haruto shouted from behind. Shuhi ignored the scream and bent down a little to match Akari's height as he was on ground. She held Akari's cheeks and pulled Aakri's face closer to her, to have a close look into his eyes. Akari didn't resist. He wasn't able to. He was so defeated already.

"I used micro expressions to profile Pi's identity. In fact, letting her talk with me was your biggest mistake." Shuhi said, still holding Akari.

"Her body language gave it away. But look at you, despite being hurt by defeat, still acting strong. Not even a single pupil dilation!" Shuhi said. She raised her voice in that last sentence.

"This is not the real you, right? You are acting strong, hiding behind a fake persona. The real you is broken. Inside your mind, tall pillars, stretching up to the sky. You and your fakes are jumping from one to another as one after another crumbles. Then finally…your own tower got destroyed and you fell. While falling, you took a last glance up above. The tallest tower that you couldn't reach…" Shuhi said.

Shuhi's description of Akari's inner mind was terrifyingly similar. At that point, Shuhi's words were hitting Akari like a knife on the heart. It was too much for him to handle. He screamed in agony and suffering. Shuhi didn't let him go.

"STOP IT!" Haruto pushed Shuhi away from Akari. Shuhi fell to the ground a little further from Aakri,

"AHH…damn you! I am on pain killers! Being handcuffed was annoying so I did this but you had to…" Shuhi screamed in pain.

Akari on the other hand got relief. But he still couldn't manage his composure. He was breathing heavily. Sweats running down his face. His two tarantulas came to his side. He moved his head to look at them for one and then turned back.

"What was that?" Akari's first concern was, "What the hell was that!"

"Stop it, all of you!" Rina said, "Settle down, can we not talk it out?"

But they didn't listen to her. Instead, Haruto got offensive, "Come with us right now! Or else, we will expose your past! We have video evidence."

Shuhi turned towards Haruto and gave him the daring glare.

"If you expose me…then I will report you! To the organization. I will say that you failed in your mission."

"Impossible, you can't contact the organization from the outside world!" Akari snapped.

"She is telling the truth," Haruto said.

Everyone now turned at Haruto.

"Oh so you can actually say that, just as I thought," Shuhi said, looking at Haruto.

"You have memorized the digital entry door to the organization's computers, right?" Haruto said.

"Imagine the instructors' faces! Seeing the news that you failed from nobody but your target, how ridiculous that would be!" Shuhi laughed a little while saying that.

Akari, Rina and Haruto knew the consequences if Shuhi reported it to the organization. Success or failure meant very much there. Their food, treatment, belongings, favourites everything could be hampered. It was even worse for Akari and Rina. They came last in their tower trial. Now failing that too would make their life hell.

"So…we are in a deadlock, right?" Akari stood up as he managed to calm himself.

____

The entire room became quiet for a moment. The ceiling fan was still spinning. Before that, fans were turned off quite a lot of time due to being unnecessary in winter. But as the days went warmer, fans were seen to have been in action.

The fan made all of their bodies cold as time ran. Half a minute passed. Rina was was the first person to do some movement. She went close to Shuhi and hugged her. Shuhi wasn't expecting that,

"We really missed you, Delta," Rina said, trying to hold her tears. Tears of emotions flooding. Emotions they built during their eight years in the organization. Growing, learning, winning, losing, laughing together. It didn't matter whatever the organization ordered them this time, they were still like brothers and sisters.

"My real name is Shuhi," Shuhi didn't let Rina go as she hugged her too. After that, they looked at Akari and Haruto. Their glare said "come join us". Akari and Haruto understood the situation. None of the sides could move forward being enemies. So since they were at a dead end anyways, why not forget malice and embrace this moment of reunion.

"I am Haruto and he is Akari," Haruto introduced himself and Akari with their real names, "You have a lot to catch up with," Haruto said with a smile. He meant what was going on in the organization.

"You guys too," Shuhi meant what was going on in the outside world.

"You people still eat together?" Shuhi's first question.

"Most of us now have a personal room of ours so only me and a few others such as me, Beta and Rho eat at the same table," Haruto replied.

Reuniting after 5 years, they started gossiping to their hearts content.

____

"Wait, so you can seriously read minds?!" Shuhi said in disbelief.

"Yes, it sounds fictional but I actually can. Right now, you are thinking of neuroscience and how could this happen according to that, right?"

"I can't believe it! I thought the organization was super advanced already so they got some kind of monitoring gadget but not expecting a superpower user!"

"You theorized it being mind reading too, right? That's why you had a sudden change in your routine. So I remain in less contact with you to read your mind and know about your plans. You even used your amnesia to your advantage. You used your memory blackout time and then recalled it through notes you kept beforehand." Haruto said.

"Okay, you got the picture. Just read my mind, right?" Shuhi said.

"I go one question. You went through all of that for two reasons actually?" Akari asked.

"Ya, the first reason was just as you thought. To get surveillance access from a strong authority which is the council. To search you guys. The second one is to force this deadlock scenario. To use the school's laptop since contacting the organization requires entering the dark web first. Surely not gonna do that kind of shit at home," Shuhi said.

Akari laid on the floor slowly. He let out a big sigh, "Still I couldn't surpass you. I couldn't become number one in the organization."

"You were chasing the wrong person all along," Shuhi dropped a sudden comment.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Akari asked, turning towards Shuhi.

"Even though I have very high fame of being the top student, I am not the best student from the organization. It's Omega senpai! He is currently known as Utaro." Shuhi said it to everyone there. Her face showed disgust as if she hated talking about him.

Chapter 51 - A chaotic reunion