Pragma: Enduring Love

Chapter 24

(Yokohama)

Kunikida stood frozen in his spot, his eyes wandering all over the place where Dazai assigned them to be.

'You would be surprise where they keep their operation going, where they kept all the captives, including Atsushi-kun.'

And Dazai wasn't lying, because right now Kunikida stood right at the very entrance of the chained metal gate, and just a little bit to his right, is the hole in the said metal fence. A very familiar one considering they were here not so long ago.

Yosano saw the look of conflicted familiarity on Kunikida's face "This... this is where you faced the Germans right? When you received the letter from them."

Kunikida could only tightly nod, his face twisting in disdain "They were right under our noses..." he muttered "Those damn Germans-!"

Yosano could share his sentiments, after all it wasn't easy to hear what Dazai just said to them this morning regarding the captives that the Germans got "As Dazai said, there was no way we could have known that early considering when that happened, the Germans only started showing themselves up." Yosano said as she let her eyes roam the abandoned mall "This is a very big place..." she muttered "This would be impossible to search but..."

'Just enter the mall, walk around for a bit, then when Kunikida-kun trips you'd know."

Yosano sighed "But that was a very vague instruction from Dazai, I don't even know what he means by that..." she said murmuring mostly to herself.

Kunikida just sighed as he ready himself, he glanced at Yosano "Knowing Dazai, he means that literally but jokes on him I'll be watching where I am stepping." He said making Yosano laugh

They both just decided to enter through the already made entrance by Akutagawa not long ago. Kunikida felt eerily at the place, even though he has been here. There was something strange about this place at this time of the night. A look from Yosano can confirm that he wasn't the only one feeling the vibe from this place. And true to Kunikida's word his eyes are trained on the ground as if looking for anything that might trip him causing Yosano to roll her eyes at him. And since it's her first time here, she let her eyes wander around, noting just how fragile the structure has become over the years of abandonment. And truthfully, if Yosano was part of the police force, this is the very last place they would look at considering how dangerous everything is in here, you wouldn't think about anything happening here.

Yosano could remember the reports that were given to her and Kunikida, apparently even though the Avalon code project also has bases in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Okinawa, all their victims were transported here in Yokohama. It was a move made by the Germans so if 'ever' their plan failed, they could destroy (more like kill) every captive they have, or use them as ransom for escape. And storing them all in one place was their go to way. During the months they started, they got 20 victims in Yokohama (including Atsushi and Chuuya), 30 in Tokyo, 30 in Kyoto, and 20 in Okinawa totaling in 100 kidnappings all over Japan, in a short amount of time, with no leads that the police could use to trace them. Which surprised them greatly that even though it looked like they only just concentrated in Yokohama, they were able to get that much. The surprising part of it all was that, the kidnapping that happened in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Okinawa were all made by non-ability users, because all their ability users were all assigned in Yokohama.

'... An overkill on us on their part, right? Imagine putting all your best personnel in one region just because they knew just how fragile their operations could become if not calculated properly by the Archive. Honestly? Very stupid of them to try to invade Yokohama considering all the warnings that the Archive gave them.'