OM (hotd arc) ch29: Change and Pace (Patreon)

"Sup, Takashi!" Arthur raised his chin as he stood beside Takashi and leaned on the fountain's wall.

"Just looking around, this is the first time I've come here," Takashi replied, without turning to him.  

Dark clouds were spreading in the sky as if they were going to weep soon.

"Huh... I thought you came here often, I was sure some of your good memories are associated with this place. You are childhood friends with Saya, aren't you?" Arthur swiped his hand on the surface of the blue water and then dipped his hand in it, enjoying its coldness.

"Well," Takashi smiled, pain leaking from his face, but he bore it. 

It was the mention of being childhood friends that scratched his wound, a memory of Rei holding his hand while chirping around, saying that she would marry him when they grew up, pops up in his mind whenever someone mentions his childhood...

"Never really got the chance to come here that's all," Takashi replied, knitting his brows as he saw a small whirlpool around Arthur's hand.

'Hm,' Arthur glanced at Takashi, noticing his 'smile...'

If it was any other day, Takashi would be most likely whining or at least wouldn't have made any effort to hide his misery. 

Heck, just before the outbreak, everyone was easily able to guess that something was up with him, like some girl dumped him or something, most even guessed correctly. Honestly, then he was unknowingly asking for sympathy...

'But his reasons for depression now... whatever they are... maybe they disgust him... is that why he's trying to hide it behind his smile?'

Arthur sighed, "Takashi, I know that you don't like me much... probably for what I did on the bu—"

"No," Takashi interrupted, "It had bugged me when you did it, yes, but after thinking about it, it doesn't anymore... Well... it troubled me mostly because....." Takashi took a long pause before continuing, "Hey, Arthur, can I ask you something."

Arthur turned to him with concern in his eyes, "Yes, what is it?"

The sky rumbled. 

"What is... my worth in this world..." Realizing how pathetic his words sounded, his eyes widened, "No, what I mean to ask is that... what is my significance in our group. Everyone has a special trait in them. Marikawa Sensei is our doctor, Saya is a genius, Kohta is an excellent shooter, Kazu is a calm and quick decision maker, he's also the one who keeps the whole group together.... and so on."

Arthur paused, he was forming a suitable response. He sighed, many steps have been skipped... this conversation was supposed to happen, yes, but not now and not even with him.

'Something definitely happened... but what...?'

'At this rate...'

Change of plans... that's the answer.

After contemplating a bit more, all of which only took a few moments, with a scoff, Arthur spoke, "You observed well, they all are special people, they are... the main cast, after all."

Takashi felt a tinge in his heart — 'What did he mean by 'they' are the main cast...  Am 'I' not one of them...'

Arthur continued, "It doesn't mean you're not special, just like you observed the 'special' in everyone else, observe and discover the 'special' in you, that's all I can say."

Takashi nodded, his strained smile twitched to become a frown, "Yes, I-I'll try." He nodded again before leaving.

Arthur's gaze followed Takashi's back as he left off to somewhere.

Arthur pursed his lips and scrunched his nose... He turned back to stare at the grand water fountain.

The trickling sound of water from the stone woman's palm filled the surroundings and the crackling sky joined in to make a terrifying melody.

Arthur's heart started beating fast in his chest, he slammed his palm on his face, the frustration he felt...

 He looked up at the sky, the cloudy weather... this thunder... If bad omen had a weather then this is how it'd look.

He gritted his teeth.

'The World's Will will come at her...'

'I'm gonna need to prepare... and 'She' needs to be away from Takashi... at least till my prep's done.'

Arthur took a sharp breath to calm his mind. 

'Don't panic, I did consider this possibility. All I have to do is to pick up the pace...'

Arthur agrees, he is afraid of experiencing the world's wrath again. It's too unpredictable. And he's just a mortal after all.

But...

It was not entirely unpredictable.

And... it's not like he's entirely powerless.

.

.

.

In the evening, after the dinner was done, Arthur went to talk with Saya, Kohta, and Kazu, they were still going to follow along with the original plan. 

Just that the order has been switched, the safe place was already found and now all they gotta do was to find everyone's families and bring them here.

Arthur asked Saya if she was going to help them or not, to which she replied that since everyone had helped her get to her home, she had to help them in return. 

She had pride of her own, and she had to uphold it. So, there was no option for her other than to help everyone.

In the case of Kazu, it was given that he'd help.

Kohta also agreed to help, mostly because of Saya.

"Still, why does it sound like you will not be coming with us? Are you leaving for someplace else again?" Saya adjusted her glasses and then folded her arms under her breasts as she crossed her legs sitting on her bed.

"Yes," Arthur replied as the most normal thing, folding his arms as well.

"Where to this time?" She tilted her head.

Arthur closed his eyes and gave her a faint smirk, "On a holiday..."

Kazu, standing near the door, sighed, "It's fine that you don't wanna tell us, but when will you return?"

Arthur looked at him, "I'm not too sure, but expect it to be less than a month. Oh, Saeko and Shizuka will also be going with me, I've already talked with them."

"And won't Rika-san be sad that her friend won't be with her?" Kohta asked, he was sitting on the couch near the bed beside Arthur.

"I've talked with her too, you don't have to worry about her. She and Tajima will help be staying to help you as you won't be able to rely much on Saya's parents' assets, they have too much on their plates already." 

Since Kazu wasn't the main character nor one among the main cast, he didn't have any plot armor whatsoever.

Simple things like falling on the ground hurt him as much as a normal person. That bandage on his arm proves it.

And since Arthur won't be with them in this dangerous endeavor, Rika and Tajima shall help them. The whole point of bringing them here is for them to become Kazu's plot armor until the world cannot deny his existence anymore. 

"Tajima?" The pink-haired girl tilted her head in slight confusion.

"Oh, he is Rika-san's friend and sniper partner, Arthur took him out of his inventory in the evening today," Kazu replied to Saya's query.

Saya nodded and shrugged.

"Have you all worked out a plan for what you're gonna be doing?" Arthur asked.

"Yes," Kazu replied, he walked to the shelf and pulled out a city map from it, and spread it on the table in front of the couch on which Arthur and Kohta were sitting.

He explained their plan. Kazu and Saya had marked the houses of all people in their group.

Earlier they were going to form a group of six people, three of whom will be permanent and will consist of Saya, Kazu, and Kohta, while the other three will be the students whose houses they'll be going to on a particular day. 

But now, since Rika and Tajima have also joined.

Saya worked out a new plan on the spot, now, there will be two groups.

One will have Saya, Rika, and Kazu as the three permanent members, and three students whose houses are at short distances from each other. 

While the other team will have Kohta, Tajima, and Rei as permanent members and the other three will consist of students. 

Takashi will be with Rei's team as Rei's and his house are close by...

"Nice strategy," Arthur nodded. The team was well balanced, well, at least the three permanent members were, in terms of combat prowess.

A long-range attacker, a strategist, and a short-range attacker.

A passable team.

Arthur then handed Kohta some Tesseract-powered ammo for his upgraded sniper rifle. And a couple of more guns to him in case of emergency. Even though these guns were powered by Tesseract, they had a flaw, a flaw that Arthur had purposely planted. He also dropped a few vehicles for them.

Since the things to be told have been told, and the things to be done have been done, Arthur turned to the door.

 "... When are you leaving, anyway?" Saya asked.

 "In a couple of hours," Saying so, Arthur left the room.

"I wished he could've just stayed here and at least helped out Don Takagi in maintaining this place, there are too many people here..." Kohta sighed.

Saya snorted, "Just say you don't him to leave, but it doesn't matter you know, Mama's enough to handle this whole place, you see she's a genius just like me. Besides, papa told me that he'll be shifting our stronghold to our estate at Hokkaido in a week."

"Whaat?! Does Arthur knows about this?" Kohta jumped from the couch he was laying on.

Saya snickered seeing his panicking face, "Of course, he knows, he was the one who asked father to extend that date to one week, after all." 

Kazu raised his chin, "He's doing so much for us, Takagi-San, there is no time to waste, we will also start at dawn."

Everyone nodded.

But suddenly Saya surged from her bed and rushed to the door with hurried steps, "Ah, shit! I had something to talk about with him!"

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