On Astral Tides: From Humble Freelancer To Astral Emperor

Four Hundred And Forty-Eight

“The flight time isn’t long, just two hours, but when we land we have a ride out into the mountains in the middle of nowhere, so we can continue our planning then. Not that there’s much more we can do.” I mused, a touch annoyed. Asking Yasaka-san to use his Book didn’t bring up useful information at all. At first, I thought we were asking the wrong questions, but even simple, easily answered ones that touched upon the school and its inhabitants came out as garbled garbage. But the Book isn’t broken, when I asked it whether our final safety net would work, it answered clearly, so…

“I get it, you want us to be cautious, but everything will work out, right Haru-chan?” My sis addressed the woman sitting beside her, who nodded.

“I hope so. Don’t worry Akio-kun, I’ll make sure to keep your sister safe. There won’t be a repeat of Kyoto.”

“We have these, right?” My sis was holding a small token in her hand. “I won’t try and be a hero, if things turn dangerous I’ll use it right away.”

“Please do, but it shouldn’t come to that.” I certainly hoped so, as the Book stated that using this method would have damaging consequences for the integrity of the Boundary. Perhaps not major, but any damage would accumulate and potentially hasten its collapse. “Our safety is a top priority, so we’ve prepared as best we can. I have the talismans, and we also have…” I looked at the numerous large cases we had with us in our private jet, a woman appearing to be Karen-chan sitting with them, Shiro alongside her. “…additional trump cards.” I finished.

“Don’t worry, I have taken care of everything, nya.” Karen-chan said, revealing her to be Ginneka in disguise.

“I’ve told you to cut out the miaowing. You’re not Ginneka right now, but a humble secretary.” I warned, and she sighed in protest.

“All right, nya… no problem.” She managed a catlike stutter. Beside her Shiro laughed.

“Damn, if Eri can do that too, change into other people, she’ll have a real advantage in the bedroom. Anyway…” She stared out of the window, looking at the clouds below. “…we need to get this wrapped up quickly, If I’m away too long, the buffs will wear off the Tree…” She paused, eyes suddenly wide. “Shit, now even I’m talking like I’m a buffbot! You’ve ruined me Aki, you have to make it up to me!”

“This is awesome.” my sis declared, pumping herself up. “Not that bedroom talk, I don’t need to hear about that, I’ve seen far more than any sister should, my poor eyes and ears… but… is this what it feels like to truly be a part of bro’s world?”

“You’re just like your brother.” Haru said, a warm smile on her face. “I don’t have any siblings, but… I would have liked one. Daddy would have been less lonely.” Her expression changed to one of resolve. “Don’t worry, I’ll keep her and everyone else safe and I’ll do the best I can for the wounded minds of the victims here. Nobody will harm us. And with you taking the lead… I have hope we can save some. You just have to resolve yourself to not everyone making it from that school.” I know that. There’ll undoubtedly be victims during the school siege, but… I have to accept saving who I can is good enough. The main thing is to deal with the mind controllers, then we can hopefully free their victims, those that have survived. And Park Yu-jun should be among them…

“I’m here too, nyaooo.” She failed to hold in her verbal tic again, but Ginneka was trying to appeal to me. “I’ll rob anyone who tries to harm us, nyooo problem!”

“It really should be a quick in-and-out strike.” I mused. “it’s being overcomplicated by the Korean Chosen being involved, but we can take it as advantageous to certain extents. We can see them in action, get a better idea how we measure up. Also…”

“You’re worried about the answers you got from that guy.” Shiro pointed out, and I nodded.

“Yeah. I mean, nothing’s infallible. Even my Eye was fooled by Ginneka and Kinneka the first time we met.” Ginneka puffed out her chest at that praise, looking strange wearing Karen-chan’s figure. “And the thing masquerading as Max Power seemed to throw it off a bit. So one of the Chosen in there could well have an ability to prevent information gathering. Hey sis…” I said suddenly. “…you remember that old roleplaying game mom gave us, Dungeons and Dragons?”

“Yeah, sure do. We used to have fun with that, us and Eri. Though we grew out of it… or got lazier and just started watching anime and reading manga.” She answered. “Oh, I get it. Scry and Die, right?”

“Scry and Die?” Haru titled her head, puzzled.

“Basically, wizards were by far the most overpowered class. That game had no balance, but then that was half the fun.” I shrugged, remembering. “There was a spell called teleport, which could take you anywhere you wanted. So coupled with a low-level spell called scry, which could use a mirror or a pool to see anything you wanted, any big bad villain who didn’t prevent information gathering… well, you scry him, you teleport there, and you drop your hardest hitting spells on him. And he’s dead. Boom. Hence scry and die.”

“Now my bro’s the bugged and overpowered wizard.” My sis chuckled. “But I get it. That Book is even more busted than scry. Huh. Okay… that means we’ll need some sort of protection too. If others know our every move, then… this could be a trap.”

“I’m not so sure, but you’re right. Currently, with Shaeula’s and my Eyes, Yasaka-san’s book, Tsukiko’s visions and the knowledge from the Fae and Yōkai we seem to be ahead on the information-gathering game. But there’s a lot of Chosen out there still, even if the numbers must be shrinking daily.” Eventually the weak and the unlucky will be shaken out, and the numbers will stabilise. But I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s well under half, maybe even a quarter, of the initial Chosen. “Others will inevitably be similarly gifted, and while we may have escaped their notice, I’ve become a bit more visible recently…”

“I think Tsukiko is the one to deal with this.” Shiro said, a soft gleam in her eyes. “She’s used to seeing knowledge others don’t have, maybe she can find a way to shield us from it. And… she’s a little lost. Happy, I think, to have a second chance, but… change is scary. Don’t I know it?”

“When we return, we’ll add it to the huge list of projects we have.” I laughed. “Damn, I’m fabulously wealthy, I have every guy’s dream of a harem of gorgeous women, and yet there’s not enough time to sit back and enjoy it. What a pain.”

“Oh, my heart bleeds for you bro!” my sis snorted. “But yeah, I get it. “But yeah, I get it. I'm having a rare trip abroad, and I’m excited, but… it’s for work. That’s a bit lame.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll take time for leisure too. Before too long we’ll be flying to Britain again.”

“Yeah, looks like you’re going to become Sir Aki.” Shiro snorted, only for me to tease her back.

“Yeah, well, Dame Shiro, you helped save Eleanor too, so you’ll be right there on stage with us…” As we bickered happily, the pilot announced we were beginning our descent. All right then. Soon we’ll see just what is going on here. I just feel it’s more complicated than it should be. I looked at Shiro, Ginneka, Haru and my sis once more. Shiro can take care of herself… no, that’s not exactly true, but Tan can definitely take care of any situation barring that bastard toad popping up out of nowhere. As for the others… they won’t be involved in the actual fighting, so there’s little that can go wrong…

********

“Yeah, this school really is in the middle of nowhere.” My sis yawned, getting out of the rugged army vehicle, a K21 Infantry Fighting Vehicle, according to the driver, who spoke adequate English. The drive had been a bit long, but we had passed the time going over our roles one final time, and distributing some of the equipment, my sis now carrying a large case, which wasn’t out of a lack of chivalry on my part. Besides, with her stats, the case weighs next to nothing…

“Boarding schools were a tradition for the wealthy back in Britain too.” I mused. “Japan has them as well, they aren’t uncommon. But isolating kids away from the world so all they do is study… Korea sure is cutthroat.”

The driver laughed at that as we disembarked. “No kidding. Everything is grades here. Parents would do anything to help their children get ahead. Those of the rich and powerful even more so. They must hate the fact that people like you exist.” There was no condemnation in his tone or words, but at my raised eyebrow, he elaborated. “It’s not money, education, status… and no matter how much of that they have, they can’t buy it. Not directly…” He lowered his voice, as a number of people were coming towards our vehicle from a large, makeshift portacabin-style building, which was surrounded by watchtowers, and several more IFV’s and even some tanks were parked up. “…but you’re here. Which means they might be trying to buy you. Don’t be fooled and sell out. That being said… the kids here, they don’t deserve this. So thanks for coming.”

Before we could reply, a powerful-looking man in his late fifties, wearing a smart military uniform, accompanied by several soldiers and a younger woman dressed in similar clothing, just with a skirt instead of trousers, had arrived at our position. The man spoke, his voice quieter and more cultured than his strong presence would have led us to expect. “Thank you for coming, Defence Minister Jeong said you would be here before the strike. I am Daeryeong Song, officer in charge of this operation.” He held out a hand, and I took it.

“Daeryeong?” My sis whispered, and Haru answered her. “That’s like a Colonel, I think. My Korean is very rusty, I’m afraid.”

On seeing our party and our luggage, he frowned for a moment. “Yes, I am a senior officer. This place might be an armed camp, but it is far from safe. It is no place to bring women. There are enough here already.” He remained impassive, and I remembered South Korea was similar to Japan in that it was very male-dominated. The female staff officer seemed sympathetic, but she remained silent.

“I know. Other than my secretary here, who is here to manage our equipment for the mission…” I gestured to the disguised Ginneka. “…they are all Chosen will good skills, though these two...” I pointed at my sis and Haru. “…will be waiting here at camp. Haru here is adept at soothing and healing wounded minds. Any victims we rescue are likely in bad shape, so we thought it might be of use.”

“I see. and her… wait, have I seen her somewhere before?” he looked at Shiro closely.

“I’d imagine so. I’ve been on TV. In Britain.” Shiro said proudly, and the man nodded.

“One of the heroes of Britain? No, two of you, I should say.” The man’s harsh demeanour softened a little. “It’s a great disgrace that we have to ask civilians for help, especially those from another country. But I follow orders. And we can’t afford any more failures.”

“I’m not sure they should be considered civilians.” The female junior officer said. “The Government has accepted the Hunter Guilds as a pseudo-military organisation…”

“Pseudo-military.” He said bitterly. “The men have served, they should know better. But the women have some excuse… no, those idiots are no better than the Private Military Contractors the West likes so much. Worse… power should be directed properly. All they care about is money and status, they see this as an opportunity to build that up. The hostages are just an afterthought.”

Aren’t we the same? Though to me the hostages are the priority, at least… The atmosphere turned sombre, before a raucous voice called out something in Korean. Sadly, none of us spoke any, other than Haru. A man around my age, wearing an open white silk shirt and jeans, his dark hair slicked back and spiky, rings glittering on his fingers, had come out of the building, and seeing we didn’t understand, he tried English. “If it isn’t the hero of Britain and his flunkies. You’re as bad as the head of the Unsheathed Blade guild. He likes the women a bit too much, if you ask me. He’ll never be truly strong that way. Although…” he strode up to Shiro, eyeing her appreciatively. “…you’re a stunner. How about you joining my Guild? I don’t normally respect the Japanese, but for you I’ll make an exception. If your talent is as great as your looks…”

“Sorry.” Shiro raised a hand, stepping backwards, grabbing my arm intimately. “But I already have Aki. I don’t see myself changing for a lesser model.”

“Lesser, huh?” The man laughed. “That’s rich. I’ll concede he doesn’t seem to be crap…” he weighed me up with a practised eye. “He managed to do all right in London, it seems. But you don’t know me. Just wait and watch and you’ll see how we, the Inevitable Victory Guild, handle matters. I’m not proud, if you apologise I’ll accept it.” He sniffed. “So… five of you then?”

“Four.” I said, and he laughed. “Four, huh? I have six in my Guild, though I only brought four others.”

“Uh… sure, six is good, I guess?” my sis muttered, counting on her fingers, before snorting.

“Have we finished with the display of bravado?” Colonel Song said, and with that we followed him to the large structure. Inside, soldiers were bustling about, and I caught sight of the man in the video I had been shown, though he was currently involved in some sort of busywork, though on seeing me a smile crossed his face, his eyes widened, and he nodded. I’ll talk to him later. Leaving him to his work, I put my hand over my Eye and let it shine, immediately finding the other Chosen. The nameless man who had come to mock us, or hit on Shiro, I wasn’t sure which… probably both… went over to a group of four, though two of the group seemed non-human, judging by their lack of Favours. There was another group of four led by a man in his thirties, who was tall for an Asian, in fact even an inch or two taller than me. His face was a bit ordinary, but he was well muscled, and at his waist was an ornate Korean sword. A geom, right? I think that was what the double-edged ones were called… Lastly there was a larger group, of three Chosen, accompanied by five non-humans.

“So, the stragglers have arrived.” One of that last group said. It was a woman, maybe twenty years old, with her hair cut to the shoulders, and dyed a vivid purple. She also had bare arms, and was wearing a black t-shirt, the faded letters spelling out the name of a famous Western metal band. She was wearing messy, faded jeans, and her right arm was heavily tattooed in an ornate sleeve. Is that a scorpion tattoo? You don’t see many girls sporting such nowadays. Not in Asia, anyway. Beside her, a slightly younger man, perhaps my sister’s age, spoke up. He had similar facial features as the woman, and was quite handsome, but he was wearing a neat suit, and his hair was cut short and fashionable.

“Come on Bora-noona, calm down.” The man said, before bowing to me. Beside him was another man, perhaps the oldest one there, in his late fifties, with steel grey hair and a neatly trimmed beard, as well as intense brown eyes. He met my gaze and nodded, pursing his lips as he weighed me up. “Sorry about my sister. She’s eager to get started, and we were ready to go this morning. She’s… always been impatient.” He paused, looking around. “Oh sorry. Should we do the introductions?”

“Little bro, you’re the limit.” The woman, who seemed to be in charge, especially as the way the five non-human creatures (though they all had fairly androgynous human forms, looking a cross between feminine charm and a frail handsomeness) were looking at her was filled with reverence and respect, snorted, scratching at her neck casually. “Yeah, let’s get the hell on with it. I’m Kang Bora. Yeah, I get my name means purple.” she said in English. “Don’t sweat it. I prefer to be called Violet anyway. Like our Guild, the Violet Scorpions. This here’s my dumb little bro, Kang Da. Yeah, our parents have shit naming sense.”

My sis snorted, perhaps thinking of our middle names. Hey, at least Sapphire is cute. “This here is old uncle Si-woo. His name’s rather prophetic. As for these five…” she gestured to her non-humans. “No need to remember their names. They go by one, two, three, four and five.” As they bowed to us, Ginneka held in a grimace, clearly not liking them, but as she began to hiss, my sis grabbed her arm, stopping her.

“Anyway, with all of us here, this should be a cakewalk. But then… I’m a S Ranker, so I can probably handle a couple of little idiots myself. Nobody’s getting in my mind!” she said proudly, and I exchanged a look with Shiro. Yeah, overconfidence is dangerous. I think the same, but I’ve still made sure to hone my mental defences as much as possible and prepare a number of precautions. In fact, if people had any sort of mystic vision, they would see us all shimmering with Shaeula’s Fortunate Winds, and we were all buffed up by Shiro as well.

“Uh, question?” My sis asked. “How do you determine the Rank? Is there a test? How would you compare superhuman strength against… say, a summoning power?” She was deeply curious, as were we all.

“There’s no test.” The man who had greeted us said dryly. “Not yet. But there will be. For now, those of us who have the strength to lead a Hunter’s Guild are S Rankers. And I have no doubt that we will remain so, even after a test is developed. Of course we’re working on it. Why wouldn’t we be? We know our worth.” He then introduced himself, though he was looking at Shiro again. “I’m the Master of Inevitable Victory, Choi Ji-ho, S Rank. While I don’t care for talking about my power, I am the invincible shield, so I too would be more than enough to handle this mess alone. But saving who can be saved matters.” He paused, before introducing his companions, one girl, the youngest one here, she looked no older than Hinata, though for Asians such could be deceptive at times, and three males, though again, two of them weren’t human, one a huge, nearly two metre tall brute with pale skin and bright green eyes, the other a short black-skinned man, wiry and lean, with a cold expression on his face, which reminded me of a snake. “These two are Rampage and Subtle.”

“Charmed.” Subtle hissed, while Rampage merely grunted.

“You’ll have to forgive Suk-ja…” the girl bowed to us. “…and Dong here…” The last man of the group, a clean-shaven, ascetic sort of man wearing a Buddhist-style burnt orange robe greeted is with an “Amitabha” which made me remember the monk I had battled in Kyoto, not a pleasant memory. “…they don’t speak anything but Korean. Well, Dong speaks Chinese, so…”

“Is that so? Greetings, Dong… uh, is that rude? Sorry, he never said your surname.” Shiro said fluently, surprising him. As Dong responded, clarifying he was content to go by Dong, as he was suitably humble, and thus needed no honorifics either, the last group, which also only spoke Korean, were introduced.

“That’s the head of the Unsheathed Blade guild. S Ranker. And his girlfriends.” Choi Ji-ho said. “Lee Jong-su. You should get on with him quite well, he seems the same sort as you. I’m not so crass.” He criticised me. “I’d give a beauty her due.” He was looking at Shiro as he said that, only for Shiro to snicker, ignoring him. “Anyway, there’s nothing his blade won’t cut. He’s not exactly suitable for this mission but he’s got his harem so…” He introduced them one by one. “The first is Jin-Ae…” A spunky-looking girl of high school age, wearing a school uniform, in fact, nodded. She had light brown hair and matching eyes, and carried a halberd twice her height.

“Then there’s Hee-Young…” An elegant, middle-aged woman who still retained her beauty, and had a very ample chest, bowed. She was wearing a white hanbok, and had a matronly aura to her. “…and lastly, Eunbi.” The final girl, who was carrying a bow, attracted my sister’s attention. She was extraordinarily pale-skinned and fragile, her arms looking shockingly slender, and her figure was thin too, yet she had long, dark hair that cascaded to her waist, and she was probably older than she looked, judging by her eyes. Maybe my age? Hard to tell, could be the same age as my sis, maybe.

“All right. Thanks.” I took note of the names. “I’m Oshiro Moonstone Akio. You might know me as the hero of Britain. My skills are great physical strength, speed and self-healing, so I’m confident I can be of use.” I paused for a moment. Obviously I’m going to keep most of my abilities hidden. Because… “This here’s my sister, Oshiro Sapphire Aiko. She’s a summoner, but a good shot with a bow too. But she will just be using her summons for this.” I looked at Bora, or Violet, as she preferred. “It’s not just your parents with a weird taste in names, Violet-ssi.”

“Just call me unni. I’m not one to stand on ceremony.” She snorted a laugh. “Anyway, are you sure you should be telling us your powers?”

“Fine, Violet-unni.” As I used the Korean honourific for a younger sister, my own sis puffed out her cheeks, and it was Ginneka’s turn to calm her down, which she did by stamping on her foot. My sis held in a yelp and glared at her, while Haru and Shiro covered their mouths to hide smiles. “I’m not a fool, I’ve kept some details back. But we need a general idea of what we can all do, otherwise how can we plan together?”

“What’s to plan? We have overwhelming force.” she said with a shrug. “But sure, I’m curious. Keep going, by all means!”

“I will.” I agreed. Presenting the information in a careful manner will head off trouble, and might even lead to unexpected gains. “Shiro here is skilled with fire, of various sorts. She’s also got a trump card, so no messing with her.”

“Fire, huh?” Violet-unni said. “That’s like Hee-Young, right? Uh…” she paused. “Glad she doesn’t speak English or I’d be in trouble. She doesn’t use fire, but it’s similar. But she probably won’t make A Rank with that. Maybe not even B…”

“What do you mean by that?” Shiro said, puzzled.

“Everybody knows. Physical strength, regeneration, or sadly mind control…things that work internally retain most of their strength here in the real world. Things like throwing fireballs, it’s great in the spirit world, I’m not knocking you, girl. But here you just lose so much strength…”

“I see. While that’s largely true, don’t count me out. I’m not like you.” Shiro insisted. “I can bring the flame when it matters! I’ll show you I can be an S Rank too. But in that case, you need a SSS Rank for Aki!”

Violet-unni burst out laughing, a rich, almost gleeful guffaw that was very unladylike. “Sure, sure. You’re as fiery as your powers it seems. By all means, try and impress me. If you can, I’ll offer you a spot in Violet Scorpions. I could use another girl to talk to.”

“No thanks. I’m with Aki.” She cuddled my arm, annoying Cho Ji-ho, but Lee Jong-su nodded approvingly after seeing that, though his eyes did take in every detail of the girls, which irritated me a little. Stop looking at my sis like that.

“If Aki had a Guild, it’d be way better anyway. And full of girls.” Shiro continued. “I don’t get it. Why Guilds? It’s not like you’re going to be able to grow large, like in a manhwa.”

“You think so? I disagree.” Cho Ji-ho said politely, unwilling to give a bad impression of himself to Shiro, I wagered. Well, she and Tsukiko are the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen. Although… My memories were hardly clear, it was like a faded dream, but I had vague feelings of being awestruck by Ortlinde. Just wish I could remember it…

“Oh, interesting.” Unless they started recruiting from some sort of training school like we had, the numbers would be finite, and barely enough to fill a handful of Guilds. They could go international with recruitment, I guess. In fact, I daresay some Japanese Chosen, if they can get over their distaste of the Koreans and vice versa, might be swayed by a less restrictive system and the chance to earn money effectively as mercenaries…

“Yes. There’s the spirit world.” he continued, surprising me. “And you must know that eventually the two worlds will be as one. The Collapse is coming. Just like Rampage and Subtle, and the numbers of the Violet Scorpions… and even your little Fae princess who isn’t here today, right?” he sniffed, a little affronted I hadn’t brought what he believed to be my best. “Not every Hunter has to be a human. And who’s to say that people can’t learn? I hear rumours…”

“A fair point. But I’m surprised the Government allows you to mobilise privately.” I replied, impressed at their foresight in accepting natives of the Boundary and presumably lower Astral as allies. Not everybody can do that, a lot of people would hold prejudice.

“What choice to they have, Akio-oppa?” Violet-unni was quite informal, making my sister pout again. “Fortunately I was able to say no, but a number of us were told to be patriotic and serve Korea, going into this damn school. And they either died or ended up trapped there. This isn’t compulsory military service. Though there’s no way they can force my brother into that now either. If they want our help, they have to pay us. In exchange, we’ll support Korea, and promise not to defect to other countries. I mean, Japan wouldn’t be so bad, right? Or America.”

“Wars were fought with soldiers.” Cho Ji-ho sighed. ”I’ve done my twenty-one months. I never want to do it again. But Hunters now get an exemption. Too late for me, but then… we have threats to face. North of the border. China. Our government has seen what happens when beings like us are militarised. Kyoto, right?”

I nodded, and he continued. “There’s too few of us, and they squandered us. Compared to numberless China… we’d be wiped out. So the only way to prevent that is to let us group up, free from interference, and grow stronger. And money, women…” he looked at Lee Jong-su and his harem, sighing. “…power, respect. Those are great motivators. So being a prestigious Guild Leader, famous and adored… well, tarnishing our reputation and throwing all that away would be hard. Human nature, right? It’s not like you’re that much different. You acted in Britain.”

“It does make sense. And you’re right. I do know of the Collapse. Interesting name for it, but it fits. Yeah, when spiritual beings can come and go freely, then the world will need us to be strong.” I then finished my introductions, that fact on my mind. If so, it’s ever-more imperative we cover Japan, Britain, and the rest of the world in Territories. Rank 3 just won’t cut it, they’re just too weak and small. Rank 4’s everywhere, and ideally Rank 5’s… “This is Suzuki Haru. She’s not going to fight, but she has great skills in healing fragile minds. So we might be able to help some of those trapped Chosen, if we can get them out here without them or us getting killed.”

“And her?” Violet-unni said, pointing at Ginneka in her Karen-chan disguise. “She doesn’t look strong at all, but I know looks can be deceptive with our sort.”

“She’s not a Chosen. She’s my secretary, and she’s managing our gear.” I slapped one of the cases, opening it up, to reveal a suit of Brigandine that had been thrown together so I could be protected in both realms at once.

“Whoa, that’s neat.” Violet-unni said, distracted from inspecting Ginneka as I intended. “We have body armour too, military issue, but that doesn’t feel normal.”

“Good eye. But anyway, introductions are done, so…”

“Yes.” Colonel Song said. “We have to go over the information before the Operation and assign roles. You were right, Kang-nim. We were unprepared and lost precious Korean lives. As a Military man, that is unacceptable to me. So there must be no mistakes again. I wish everyone to return safely, mission accomplished.”

“Ugh, now I can’t complain about you going over stuff we’ve already talked about.” Violet-unni laughed. “Yeah, best catch our newbies up to speed.”

“Before that though…” I beckoned the Colonel over, and whispered some words in his ear, using a brief flicker of wind to render the others unable to hear. “We need to root out the infiltrators. I’m not sure how they got in, but there’s some dark aether clinging to a few soldiers.” As his eyes widened in shock and disbelief, I outlined my plan…