EPISODE SIX
UNDERTOW

Liza exhaled in exhaustion and placed her hand on Kagaro's shoulder, hoping to make him steady, if only for one moment. He jerked away the instant she touched him, spinning around on reflex and swatting her hand away. There was a flash of sharpness in his eyes. She exhaled again, getting used to his steadfast mental wall, but still getting stung a little bit each and every time.
"Well," she said in frustration, "you tell us then, how do they plan on finding our hideout, Kagaro?" 

He looked at her for a moment, dipped his chin, and then walked past her. Moving behind the reception desk, he sat in the chair as if it was his. The receptionist shifted around with wide steps until she was standing next to Liza, but she was careful not to get too close to her. Kagaro ignored them both, and when he finally settled in the creaky chair, he stretched his legs across the desk with his ankles crossed and his hands behind his head in a relaxed fashion. Kagaro's eyes flicked up to the ceiling as he began to speak, calm in tone but carrying a fatalistic weight.

"Commanders orders are to send us out in teams," he said. We are to sweep every area that might be suspected to house Jenemes. I don't know what clued them in but some of the areas they targeted are our hideouts. They'll find us if that keeps up." The pause was just long enough to let the tension build. "The orders are to kill any Jenemes on sight." 

The silence that followed this did not last even a second.

"Why the change?" a voice called down the stairwell.

Yuzu appeared, sliding down the handrail and landing on his feet with ease. His movements were smooth, leisurely, and meant to attract attention. He walked forward with raised brows and a look of curiosity that was impossible to decipher.

Kagaro gave him a fleeting look before turning his eyes back to the ceiling. "That, I do not know."

Before anything else could be said, a third voice interrupted from behind Liza, cold and cutting. "Or maybe you do know, maybe you're a double agent."

Liza and the receptionist turned around. 

Hito. 

His eyes were fixed on Kagaro with unwavering suspicion. The Jeneme soldiers around them immediately became tense but silent and obedient as they moved aside and made a crisp path for Hito. Discipline hung in the air. There seemed to be an invisible boundary of discipline he didn't have to assert, but could control just by walking on it.

He reached the counter and slammed down both fists hard enough to make the wood jump. The bang echoed through the lobby and his hood fell back, revealing a face twisted with anger and restraint. His eyes burned but Kagaro did not even blink. He didn't stand up to him, didn't flinch. Instead, he let out a short, low scoff - a dismissive, bored sound.

Liza pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed. Her patience was running thin with the two of them. Reason was not a factor in a room filled with short tempers and soldier instincts. "Hito," she said softly. "Relax. Kagaro-san is not a double agent—"

"Kagaro-san?" Hito barked, voice dripping with scorn. Kagaro was the focus of his disdainful gaze. "And here I thought he hadn't managed to brainwash all of you." His sneer twisted. "Oh well, makes sense now. What other reason is there for people to be so buddy-buddy with him?"

Finally, Kagaro met his gaze. Cold. 

No.

Cold and calculating. 

"And why exactly would I do that?" he asked, his tone even, though an edge of threat slithered beneath it.

Hito fired back, his voice louder now and his raw frustration cutting through. "They'll do your dirty work. Tear each other apart for you—"

His words were cut off as Kagaro's arm flew. A needled whip drawn from behind his head, whizzing right past Hito's wide open eye.

The room froze. Then chaos broke out.

The soldiers guarding the desk snarled lowly and shifted forward, their hostility now directed solely at Kagaro.

His movement were slow and leisurely. His face hard like a granite stone. His voice calm but carrying in it the kind of certainty that chilled the air. "If I wanted to kill you," he said, "I wouldn't need anyone's help."

Hito's pulse shot up. The air in his lungs became fire. The throw had been too fast for his eye to catch, too purposeful to overlook. He stepped back, his knuckles unclenching, a cold sweat appearing on his forehead.

Kagaro trudged forward, his head held high and took a few slow steps forward at an even pace. His stare pinned Hito where he stood—a weight that could not be avoided. The soldiers behind him growled and shifted again, ready to attack. 

They leapt.

Without hesitation Kagaro's right arm bulged and warped in mid swing, growing into something monstrous, a manifestation of raw power. He brought the arm down in a single devastating blow, crushing the soldiers under its overwhelming might.

Liza and Yuzu both stumbled back and air whooshed past them in the wake of the impact. Hito, frozen before Kagaro moments ago, was spared by a thin margin.

Unfazed, Kagaro raised his gigantic hand. The soldiers under it squirmed and shouted, but he gathered them up and crushed them as if they weighed nothing at all. Then with a flick of his hand he threw them across the room. Bodies hit the walls, furniture fell over, and people lay on the ground groaning with sounds of breaking wood all around.

Silence throbbed through the room.

In that stillness, Kagaro's arm was back to normal, skin mended neatly as if nothing had changed. He clasped his hands at his back, calm regained, and strode past Hito without a glance.

"Captain."

Yuzu's voice came from behind, "Like I said earlier, well, if you still remember those days, the prize is the same for us as for the human world. It's not like we doubt you."

Kagaro stopped and sighed. He turned his head slowly, but before he could say anything, Yuzu disappeared.

The air rippled. Kagaro spun, only to find Yuzu standing directly in front of him now, having moved with teleporting accuracy. He didn't have both feet on the ground, his gaze was steady, and his smile was sly but subtle.

Kagaro scoffed quietly and shook his head. Respect was to be seen in his eyes for the shortest of moments. "That's true," he said with a low chuckle.

"But it eats at us, you know," Yuzu went on, his voice turning grim. "Not knowing anything eats at us, you know."

Kagaro's eyes narrowed. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Yuzu stayed still, not moving at all. "The Shinjuku School of Science and Technology. You ordered the attack."

Kagaro's gaze shifted away from him to Liza's silent stare and then to Hito, who was still standing stiffly after everything. There was a single motion of his jaw, and then- firm.

Finally, he turned around and spoke in a voice as flat and lifeless as stone. "That is information that is not necessary for you to know."

Without saying anything else, he walked towards the door. Each step rang out like a beat in the silence that was left behind. Liza, Yuzu, and Hito remained still in their place, the silence unbearable once more, and each member of the squad could not help but wonder what kind of truth their captain had for them and the prices that truth would take.