"What do you mean you can't?" Yuma questioned, just barely keeping his anger together.
Akira didn't respond.
All he could do was stare at Yuma's continuously shifting face. One was trying so hard to understand, and the other prayed his silence spoke for him. A few moments of silence followed as soon as they made eye contact, but something shifted. Yuma went from trying to understand to finally catching on. His eyes squinted at him before widening in realization.
"You don't know how to use every part... do you..." Yuma whispered out just enough for Akira to hear.
Scrunching his face, Akira shot him a glare to shut his mouth.
holding back a grin, Yuma was trying to hold in his laugh from discovering this. The moment, however, was quick to diminish. It dawned on him...
'AKIRA HAS NO CLUE HOW TO USE HIS POWERS PROPERLY!'
He had to be joking, right?
Right?
Yuma stared at him. The situation wasn't funny anymore. Was he really trained by a fraud? Was his whole reputation protected by his potential? Is any of his... Yuma, out of nowhere, slapped himself, just hard enough to stop his spiralling. Shaking his head a bit, he grabbed Akira by the arm and dragged him outside the classroom. This confused Kae and Keisuke, but the two simply watched until they were out of view.
Outside the classroom, Yuma scanned the area before facing Akira.
"What do you mean you don't know how to use your abilities?"
Akira looked at him, confused by the massive overstatement of his real situation.
"I know how... I just haven't ever used anything more than enhancement and summoning my sword. so everything else is a mystery to me..."
Yuma looked at him with a slightly less shocked face than he initially had.
"Huh?" Yuma stared, jaw gaping.
Akira returned his gaze, eyes sharp as ever.
"It's exactly as I said. never used more than what I've shown you, and Chieno never had any reason to teach me more about it."
For a while, the two stood there, expressions unchanged for a moment. Slowly, Yuma closed his mouth, soon holding the bridge of his nose between his eyes. Despite this god awful news, he realized there was no point in lamenting, letting out a big sigh, Yuma looked at Akira again.
"First, you knocked yourself down a few pegs in my book of respect."
"I couldn't care less..." Akira shot back immediately in a quiet tone.
Suppressing his need to have a comeback, Yuma pressed his lips tight.
"Secondly..." Yuma dragged out slightly, trying to shift the conversation to the real problem.
"How are we going to help Kae? We both know we won't abandon her."
Yuma knew for a fact that Akira wouldn't pass up the chance to save someone, and he was right. Akira immediately gave a plan instantly.
"First, we need to find those other conduits she mentioned. Having them on our side could save them and boost our strength. As for the other hunting us, we shouldn't treat them like animals to hunt... we could offer help, just like for that girl." Akira explained, flatly, of course.
Yuma could never understand his level of self-regulation. Even facing someone who could actually kill him, not to mention the other conduits hunting him, he seemed pretty level-headed. Focusing back on task, Yuma wondered what his plan to "help" the others was.
"You have some sort of plans on how to help the others?" Yuma wondered.
Akira gave him a sidelong look as he walked to the door of the classroom.
"I have connections that could move them out of Japan until we deal with that mystery person." Akira added before entering the class.
Not wanting to stand outside the classroom alone, Yuma followed Akira inside and rejoined the table with Keisuke, Kae, and now Akira.
"What's with that mysterious talk outside?" Keisuke asked as soon as Yuma sat down.
Looking at Keisuke, Yuma smiled a little.
"Nothing... except we have a plan..." Yuma answered a little hopeful.
That immediately stirred up Kae, who was quietly sitting down at the side of the joined tables.
"You do!" Kae spoke up, louder than her usual mumbling tone.
Akira nodded on Yuma's behalf.
"I have connections to people who could act as a witness protection group for your families. We'll have them stage a threat and have them sent to different locations for their protection until we have someone who could handle this hooded man. Worst case scenario, we have to handle it ourselves." Akira elaborated.
Yuma smiled, adding some hope to the plan to reassure everyone, but he knew he had to ask one more thing.
"... speaking of the worst case... Kae, do you know what those..." Yuma paused, failing to remember the other conduit's names. "...other people you mentioned look like?"
Kae sat there staring for a moment, confused, but quickly remembered.
"Oh, you mean Daya, Aymar, and Naoto?" she chirped. "Yeah, I can tell you, I've met Naoto briefly before, but he really creeped me out... He's not tall, and he has some really long hair, not exactly clean either... he's not hard to spot, you could ask any girl, they'll point you to him. As for the other two..."
Yuma leaned in, far more intrigued by them. To be fair, they had more foreign sounding names, so that added more interest.
"... I don't know much... They're rarely around the area, but if you spot one, the other isn't too far. They are foreign, so they'll stick out." Kae continued.
A bit let down, for whatever reason, Yuma at least had a lead. Akira and Keisuke glanced at Yuma, then at each other, silently agreeing they understood the assignment. Kae looked at the three of them, a bit curious. Yuma couldn't help but feel like something was off, not with Kae's surprise appearance or sudden confession, but rather, it was she who helped them get this far. Without consulting Keisuke or Akira, he reached out to Kae for a handshake.
"Thank you for telling us all this... knowing the kind of danger you're putting yourself through... You're one of us now, and we'll protect you." Yuma warmly told her.
That shocked Akira more than it did Keisuke, his face far more expressive than it usually is. Keisuke seemed to be satisfied with Yuma's decision and didn't react as harshly. He even smiled at Kae as he would with anyone else involved.
"Welcome," He added softly.
Akira stared at the two of them before leaning in to whisper his thoughts to just them.
"We hardly know anything about her. This isn't a good idea. She could be working with him for all we know." He coldly warned the two of them.
Before either Keisuke or Yuma could reply, Kae answered his worries.
"Just me telling you this could get my family and me killed. Please believe me, I don't want to be or ever will be involved with that man more than I already am." She quietly murmured, thought just loud enough to be clear.
Akira shot her a glare at her eavesdropping, making her more nervous than she already was.
"Sorry... You weren't really all that quiet and well... conduit hearing..." she defensively answered to his glare.
Akira eased his glare and sighed softly.
"Fine, whatever... Just don't be a weak link and pull your weight." Akira told her for her own sake, in his own passive aggressive way.
Nodding softly, Kae was on board. If Yuma wasn't paying attention to Kae, he would've missed a small glint of determination in her eyes. Although brief, he saw something that told him she wasn't as timid as she looked.
"Um... if you guys don't mind me asking... could I know what your Ikons are?" Kae asked, trying to make herself as small as she could, a complete 180 from that quick flash of determination.
Akira stared at her as if she were asking the most personal question one reserves only for their lovers, Yuma and Keisuke; however, he understood that a level of trust had to be built. Without delay, Yuma answered.
"I'm Furuhashi Keisuke, and I'm the Crystal conduit. My Ikon is Carina" Keisuke answered faster than Yuma could.
How fast Keisuke was, he threw Yuma off for a moment before he let out a small chuckle as he collected himself.
"That's Keisuke... and as he said, the crystal conduit, I'm sure you know my name, but I'll tell it to you again anyway. My name is Kanzukuri Yuma, I am the Frost-fire conduit, My Ikon is Serapheria." Yuma calmly and as sweetly as possible answered. Even though it was unconscious, it seemed like his attempt at flirting.
Despite it, Kae looked like she had given more attention to Yuma, specifically at the point of his status as the frost-fire conduit.
Pointing at Akira, Yuma was just about to introduce him, but was immediately stopped by him. Akira raised his hand, gesturing.
"I don't trust her like that yet." Akira flatly told Yuma before looking at Kae. "Yukigami Akira, that's all you need to know." he pointedly answered.
A little put off by Akira's cold demeanor, Kae nodded and accepted his answer. Kae looked at the group one more time before she decided it was only fair to share stuff about her.
"Well... It's nice to meet you all... my name is Tatsuya Kae... I'm the current Ash conduit, and my Ikon is Jeanne D'arc" Kae quietly introduced herself.
"Jeanne D'arc? Like the French general?" Yuma pointed out curiously.
"Well... she named herself... so maybe?" Kae responded, just as equally confused about the origins of her name.
Akira rolled his eyes at the banter and got up loudly as if signalling them to stop. The group turned their heads toward Akira. Gaining their attention, he cleared his throat.
"Listen, we don't know how much time we actually have before that hooded man acts. Tonight I'm making calls to have all your families relocated. Tomorrow, we find the others that are being hunted and try to have them on our side." Akira explained
Yuma figured he must've planned this out from the moment they told Keisuke and Kae the general plan. He nodded softly at Akira's plan, but was given additional information.
"We'll split up into teams. One finds that the supposed duo Aymar and Daya, and the other, Naoto. Be prepared for resistance or worse, a fight. We don't know any real information on their element or Ikon or even how strong they actually are." Akira added.
Despite his initial coldness towards Kae, it was clear he cared enough to ensure she was safe, hence the warning. Whether he liked it or not, Yuma knew he and Keisuke rubbed off on him; it was nice to see.
Following Akira's lead, Yuma nodded and got up. Soon after, Keisuke followed suit with a smile, hopeful and inspired. Kae got up less scared than she was when she first arrived.
"Let's do this!" Yuma said confidently.
Akira looked at him flatly before deciding to shatter that confidence with reality.
"Don't get cocky, I didn't train you to be arrogant."
With that, he left the classroom, leaving the remaining three alone. Yuma sighed and shook his head, more so out of meeting the expected reaction from Akira than anything else. Yuma figured there was no point in just standing around and left as well, Keisuke and Kae going on about their day as well as they left.
Despite his warning, Yuma still felt confident.
There's a real chance now.