Chapter 20 - The replacements

Emi and the others arrived back in Japan, they saw the news while they were on the plane and rushed back to their base, not knowing that someone else was leading it now. They hopped into a taxi and rode to the flower store where they could get to WJO.

When they arrived they immediately rushed to the staff room and then entered the train.

"Why is this happening?" Emi said, a bit shaken.

"Calm down Emi" Nobuo said. "We'll figure out a way to break him out"

"Might be quite difficult since he's in The Void" Izanami said while she looked at her phone.

"It doesn't matter, we'll save him no matter what" Kenshin said confidently.

The train stopped and they hopped off to the meeting room. While walking they noticed that there were more workers than before, the hallways are usually empty but now there's a lot of people.

They arrived at the meeting room and to their surprise, all their seats were taken by unknown people!

"Oh, it's Phantom Phoenix's subordinates" The man sitting on Yuudai's chair said.

Emi recognized him, it was the leader of the WJO!

"What should we do with them?" A girl that was sitting on Emi's chair asked.

"Phantom Huntress, I'd like a word with you" The leader said.

Emi approached him nervously.

"I thank you and your team for supporting the WJO" The leader said. "But sadly, we will have to let you all go"

That shocked Emi and the others, they couldn't believe it and tears fell from Izumi's eyes.

"W-What do you mean?" Emi asked while she processed the situation.

"From now on we will be taking care of the Japanese WJO" The leader said. "Consider this as your retirement"

"Of course, we will also fire Takashi Hokama" The girl said.

"What about Commander Yuudai?" Emi asked, worried.

"We started to plan an escape plan for him" The leader reassured.

Everyone was relieved knowing that Yuudai would be able to escape, except Emi who knew about the contract.

"I see" Emi said with a fake smile. "Inform us when he's out"

"My secretary will do" The leader said, referring to the girl on Emi's seat.

Emi and the others left the room and walked through the hallway.

"We're saving the Commander" Emi suddenly said.

"Huh? Why?" Mika asked. "The leader is gonna save them right?"

Emi shook her head. "I read his contract" she said. "He'll be assassinated"

"What?" Mizuki said, shocked. "That isn't part of our contract"

"Of course, it's only for Commanders" Emi said.

"So in other words, he sold his life to the WJO" Kenshin said, surprised.

They hopped back on the train.

"So how will we save him? We lost our jobs in the WJO" Nobuo said.

"And they kept my inventions!" Izanami said, a bit mad about it.

"Hm? Have you forgotten?" Emi said. "I'm a Nakashima" she said with a smile.

Meanwhile, Yuudai was calmly laying face up on the bed and was surprisingly relaxed. The door opened and someone came in.

"Who is it?" Yuudai asked in a relaxed tone.

"It's me" Melinda said.

Yuudai stood up and sure enough, it was her, wearing casual clothes.

"Yuudai, I want to help you" Melinda said while she sat beside him.

"No can do" Yuudai said. "I'm already a dead man" he said with a smile.

Melinda slapped him, surprising Yuudai a bit.

"What happened to the Yuudai I knew!" Melinda said while she started crying. "Where's the loving brother that you were? Where is he!" she shouted.

Yuudai sighed. "That was years ago, people can drastically change between them" he calmly said.

"So?! Why would that matter when joining the WJO?" Melinda shouted while crying.

"Who do you think raised me?" Yuudai asked.

"Huh?" Melinda asked, confused.

"I haven't told this to my subordinates yet" Yuudai said. "But I'll do an exception for you"

After the death of his family, he was found by a man who adopted him, the man was very kind and gentle, he raised Yuudai as his own son. The man wasn't married but he lived with her sister, who treated Yuudai as his little brother. One day the man and his sister showed Yuudai a place, a massive place where people worked.

"That was the Japanese WJO Base" Yuudai said.

"He was from WJO?" Melinda asked suprised.

At age 10, Yuudai joined his adoptive father at WJO, sitting beside him as a second secretary.

"He was the previous Commander" Yuudai said. "Of course, after he passed away I took his place"

"What happened to his sister?" Melinda asked, curious.

"She hated me, all of his subordinates did" Yuudai said. "So they all left, with a few workers"

"He seemed like a nice man" Melinda said while she cleared her tears.

"But I still ask myself, why me?" Yuudai said. "Did he see something in me?"

"That's your purpose to escape this place" Melinda said.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Yuudai asked, confused.

"Don't you get it? I want you to escape" Melinda said while she shook him. "The side I'm in is wrong, I started realizing just like you, that's why I want to help you"

"Mika are you sure you want to do this?" Yuudai asked.

"You're not from the WJO now right?" Melinda asked. "So I'll help you"

"Only to escape?" Yuudai asked.

"Not only that, to stop both sides!" Melinda said with a smile. "We'll be a third side"

Yuudai saw the determination in her eyes and sighed. "How will you do that? You got a chip somewhere in your body"

"You're right, that's why I came here" Melinda said. "We can help each other! I help you escape and you help me set myself free"

Yuudai was still cautelous. "How do I know that you're not lying?" he asked.

"You can't trust a childhood friend?" Melinda asked.

Yuudai looked at her eyes, she didn't show any signs of lying, so he decided to trust her a bit.

"I'm an idiot" Yuudai said, laying back on the bed. "Find Emi and tell her that I sent you"

"Huh?" Melinda asked surprised. "She's from the WJO-"

"Go, you already know where she lives" Yuudai said and closed his eyes.

Melinda stood back up and left his room, making Yuudai worry if he had made the right decision on telling her about Emi.

Emi and the others were at her house, planning an escape for Yuudai, Rika came in with Emi's sister.

"How's the planning going?" Aki asked.

"Not going well" Emi responded. "The Void is a very highly secured place, we only know the layouts of the 5 first floors"

"But judging by Commander Yuudai's reputation, he'll be in the lowest of the lowest" Nobuo said.

"The gadgets won't be a problem cause of our resources" Emi said.

"You mean mine" Aki said.

"Precisely" Emi said.

"We also don't know how many guards are there" Mika said. "They'd probably discover me as an android"

"We can't also go guns and blazing" Izumi said. "When there's a security breach a water system activates, filling all the floors with water"

"They release sharks?" Aki asked, curious.

"What? Of course not" Izumi said. "That would be a waste of time and money"

"I watch too many action movies" Aki said.

"It'll be difficult" Mizuki said "And we're running out of time"

"Mizuki is right, I estimate that WJO will assassinate Yuudai in three or four days" Emi said. "But right now we're stuck"

The room went silent, everyone was thinking of a way to discover all the layout of the prison, that's when Rika suggested an idea.

"Don't you have someone working in the police?" Rika asked.

Emi nodded. "We have Takashi" she said.

"He's easily forgotten I must say" Nobuo said.

"He might know the layout" Emi said. "Let me call him"

A butler came in. "Miss Nakashima, there are two people outside" he said.

"Hm? I'm not expecting guests" Aki said.

The butler gave her a tablet that showed the camera outside the gate.

"Emi, you recognize these two?" Aki asked and showed it to Emi.

She recognized Takashi, but also Melinda who was also outside.

"Melinda?" Emi said, confused.

"Do we let them in?" Aki asked.

Emi sighed and nodded.

The gates opened and Takashi and Melinda calmly walked in.