Chapter 27: Strategy Meeting

I awoke to Akino shaking me. Once she saw that I was awake, she smiled.

"The doctor said we should go home. Uo won't be out of the hospital for a while so he said it was best for us to wait at home," Yuri explained

"Oh… Ok," I replied, still groggy.

We swam over to Nami's house after convincing her to leave the waiting room. It was hard convincing her, but we somehow managed to. As we were swimming, I noticed that it was pretty late in the day. I guess we were all exhausted from everything that had happened.

Once we got to Nami's house, we all sat down in the living room, except for Yuri, who floated in the center.

"So… as we all just learned, Same has killed the king and has secretly been pulling the strings. The question is why. Uo said he always thought Same was nice so why the change in personality? Why would he suddenly go to such lengths to gain power and take over Kazan? It doesn't make any sense!" she exclaimed, visibly frustrated.

Kosai mumbled something so quietly that we couldn't hear her.

"What's wrong, Kosai?" I asked, curious.

"Um… I-I was thinking about what King Kusumura said. W-what if… W-what if some unknown force is pulling the strings? I-It's just a theory! I-I was just thinking out loud!" she gasped, becoming flustered.

We all stared at her for a moment in amazement. Her theory did make a lot of sense. If we could somehow track down this mysterious force, we could put an end to all of this.

"I have a plan. Well, an idea, at least," I began, "Why don't we sneak into the palace again tonight? If we all stick together, Same won't be able to take us down. Once we restrain him, we could try and interrogate him and see if he has met with anyone or anything strange. Though, if he doesn't tell us anything, we'll have to go to Kaiyo anyways so I guess we'll eventually find something out. First, we'll have to clear up this mess before going to Kaiyo. Sound like a plan? I know it's not much, but it's better than nothing, right?"

Everyone nodded solemnly.

"Also, I think Nami should be the one to distract the guards this time."

"What?! Why?! I need to go! I need to find out why Same… stabbed Uo!" Nami shouted, choking back a sob.

"I know, but you're the only one that can't fight. Besides, I don't know how you'll react if you see Same," I replied, gently.

"Don't worry! I'll kick his *** (butt) for ya!" Mari exclaimed, punching Nami's shoulder.

"Now we wait…" Yuri whispered.