" So can i presume that even if i didn't join the Yotsuba family, i will be able to continue being a member of the Battalion ? .
I was asking this question to finally finish gathering my thoughts about all of this situation, her response was that she nodded and said :
If you didn't join the Yotsuba family, that would be even more beneficial to us, i might even ask for a promotion for you .
I saw that she smiled again after she said the last part, i guess she wasn't much of a stiff as i thought, she was even able to make a joke .
I nodded at her words and smiled a little, she asked if i could revert my apperance back to normal, i was surprised by the sudden request, but i still complied, as i returned to normal with the same grin still in my face, i saw that she was taken aback for a few seconds before she pointed at her eyes and told me 'Themas well ' .
I understood what she was asking and reverted my eyes back to normal as well, if she was taken aback before, she now completely stunned at the scene in front of her, but then she regained her composure again and said in a teasing voice, that remembering what kind of look she gave me when i entered the office couldn't possibly have imagined she would have, she said :
If you were a bit older, we might have you sent to seduce and infiltrate all enemies headquarters where woman were in charge .
As she said that i saw that her smile was still there but her face looked very serious, which made understanding whether was she joking or really thinking so more difficult, i wasn't illiterate, i understood what she meant by seducing, that was why i was so embarrassed, i felt my cheeks burning from embarrassment as i thought of something .
She seemed to be both happy and astonished at my current expression, seeing her rejoicing in my embarrassment like that, i decided that i shouldn't be the only one feeling embarrassed, so i said :
" Does that mean if i had joined the enemies side and they tried to use me in the same way, you might have been one of my targets as well .
Even i felt embarrassed after i blurted out this weird thought of mine, i didn't dare to look at her in the eyes, so i decided to marvel at the decorations of the office ground .
Two seconds, three seconds, 1 minute later, the room had finally a voice sounding in it, it was the voice of her coughing awkwardly, i raised my head up and so that she was completely normal as if nothing had happened, but i suddenly saw that she raised the phone and said back to her serious tone :
Delete all the data of what happened a 2 minutes ago, no delete all the Data recorded on this meeting, from your memories as well .
I wondered who was she talking to so while she was still on the phone, i let my Spatial Eyes wonder around the base and saw who was she talking to, she was talking to Officer Fujibayashi Kyouko, the woman who suggested to give me an identity before, she was currently biting her nails for some reason as she kept nodding her head towards the orders she was being given through the phone, she was currently sitting in something similar to a surveillance room, but much more advanced than the one back at the facility i was in before .
What caught my eyes was the fact that even after the call was finished, the woman hadn't do anything from what she was ordered to do, she kept replaying the scene displayed on the screen in front of her, it was the scene displaying what just happened in the span of the 1 minute i was lowering my head in .
I took looked at the scene displayed on the screen, i saw that the cold major general actually headbutt herself in the office at my words, but barely before she hit her head on the desk she decreased her speed and instead pumped her head on the desk quite lightly for me to even notice something like this happening .
I saw that when she raised her head, she returned to her cold face as before, but her cheeks were tainted red, like i was a moment before, she kept looking at the mirror on the office desk of her then she turned to look at me, then back to her reflection in the mirror for a few times, then she sighed heavily and returned back to her current normal, still looking at me after she finished the call and put the phone off her hand .
Out of the blue and just as i was about to shift my sight back to here and stop using Spatial Eyes, another phone reached Officer Fujibayashi, she picked it up and i was surprised that she was suddenly surprised to the point that she jumped from the chair and kept looking around as if she was looking for something while putting the phone more closely to her ears .
I was surprised at the fact that i heard the content of the conversation on the phone between the two, on the other side of the line came the familiar voice of Officer Ooguro, he was telling the woman that was still replying the video where the Major General Saeki was shown to be frustrated, he was telling her that she too was being watch which completely unnerved her .
That what resulted in her eyes darting around the buildings and their sections trying to find who was spying at her, but he once again helped her by telling her the exact coordinates of the Major General office, the moment she was aware of this, her face paled and she looked at the office and even though she didn't know where i exactly were, she put her hands in front of her in a pleading manner, as if asking not to sell her out .
I looked at the informer of her and nodded a faint nod at him, he replied with a nod then he told the woman that was beginning to panic that now it was all good, she bowed in the direction of the office and winked playfully, regaining her easy-going attitude with quite ease as if she was simply turning a book, i have had enough of this stopped using Spatial Eyes .
What are you spacing about ? .
That was the first words the Major General said to me after the awkward situation that we were in a minute ago, my answer was nothing, but she just squinted her eyes at me from behind the glasses, she raised her eyebrow at me and said :
She didn't delete it yet, didn't she ? .
I was once again shocked by her analytic abilities, i can't even count how many times did i felt like that in the last couple of hours, but i still stayed silent about the question she just asked, but it seemed that my silent was in itself a response .
She just sighed and seemed quite unbothered by it, seeing her reacting like that, i couldn't help but ask about a thought that i had in mind :
" Did you set all these situations up so that i join you guys .
If you are talking about we being extra friendly with you and even me personally trying to appear as a quite fun person, then that was indeed preset up, but if you are asking about the little incident that happened a minutes before that wouldn't be quite possible to achieve even if simulated a situation similar to this one over and over .
So that what was happening from the start, her seeing me seeming to have misunderstood something continued to follow up, saying :
But this being preset up doesn't mean that those guys being friendly to you was them lying, it meant that they were uncertain of how to treat you just yet, so we picked the favorable way that we believed could warm you up to us and maybe even vice versa, that's all .
I once again nodded my head and returned back to gathering my thoughts, before i was finally able to stick to one line of thought, but that line was discarded the moment that weird exchange from earlier happened, i now was contemplating on whether to join the battalion as my first choice, or join the Yotsuba as my first choice, then if i felt that something was amiss, i could still agree to accept their invitation and be recruited by them
But that second choice would be a somewhat desperate measure, so even though i felt those guys weren't bad guys fully, i still believe that if i was dropped by the Yotsuba family, they might began to make other demands or set other conditions that could restrict my freedom quite strotogly, whether they wanted to or not and whether i like it or not, the higher ups are the one that will decide what i will need to do .
Leaving me at this point of time no other option but to comply and accept the orders and conditions that were to be put on me, again, i will be bound to accept orders whether i wanted to or not again, i found that I'm in a bit ironic situation here, the Yotsuba family might be a block standing in front of me and my freedom, but it was also safekeeping it for me in some sense, quite ironic indeed .
But i could always pick the first choice and that to put joining the battalion on top of my priorities and i will have the privilege of considering the terms of how my cooperation with these guys will go, i could be making a wrong decision here, one that might lead me to be forced out of the country, i can still put on a fight, I'm quite believing myself to be a unique existence among magicians, so the chances of me ending up being the last one to laugh was quite high .
But will i be able to stand having the blood of so many people in my two hands, I'm able to tell with my short conversation with that officer Ooguro that there were quite the numbers of Magicians who don't want to fight, but they in the end might be put in a situation where it's their lives or the others, no one would be sane enough to pick himself dying, i did before, but i can say that at that time i believed that i was nothing but a shell of who i was now .
That was what made me take the easy choise and agreed to give my body to Old Brother Ryuu, even now i keep recalling what happened that day wanting to find an answer to a question i had in mind, if the same situation happened to the current me, will i still decide to give my body up or i might fight for my chance to live, to survive .
I wasn't able to find a definite answer, all i have are thought, simulations and speculations, but apart from myself and my own choice, i believe the normal human being whether he was a Magicians or not, will certainly try to live and survive, so even though they would be deployed on the battlefield to stop me fully aware that they might die any moment, they would still have no choice but to comply to orders .
Only now did i begin to fully understand the word that he told me earlier about the responsibility that came with being strong, i can't help but wonder to how he reached that conclusion, was he too in the exact same situation as me, maybe a bit better or even worse than my own .
His words did carry a deep meaning to them, we all were slaves in this system, the military, the The Ten Master Clans with all their Strength and Valor too, all of them were no different to the people on the top, slaves .
It really didn't matter much whether i choose for myself or other choose for me, in both situation if i was deemed to fail, then normally failing will be all that i can do, but that normally don't apply to either me or Officer Ooguro perhaps, with strength comes a heavy responsibility, with great strength comes even more great responsibility .
My choice on this matter had already been determined, i believe since the opportunity to lay out my own terms then why to waste such a chance, it will be better to make certain that i at least made everything clear in this relationship between the military and me from the headstart, so if they try asking me something that i don't like to do then refusing will be a right that they can't even strip away from me .
Them wanting me to do jobs for him, will still be up to me to decide whether to do so or not, i won't be the weak part in this deal, no they will be forced to accept this deal or i will just finish what i intended to do in the Yotsuba family and since i'm a ghost, then i will continue to survive on my own as a ghost, if the Ten Master Clans were invulnerable to the military due to their strength, then even though i don't know how much strength those Families have, i can see myself standing invulnerable in front of the military too .
I cleared my thoughts and organized two or three times before i finally gave her my reply and also set my terms for agreeing to join the Battalion, i had one condition that can't be crossed, i want absolute freedom in acting as i liked as long as i'm not causing distress, my freedom was the concept that this deal will guarantee, all the other terms like giving me an identity, a past, a life and salary will all be written on writing contract, signed by all the sides included in this deal, there will be two copies of that contract, one in my hand and another will be the Major General Saeki's hand .
After she heard my thoughts about this matter, she had a shocked face, this was the only time i saw her so wide-eyed, she took a few seconds to regain her composure, she then told me that she will need to contact the higher-ups before giving me a definitive answer, she still stood up from her seat and reached out her hands towards me while saying :
I'm glad that you decided to join us, if nothing went wrong, we will depend on you from now on .
I stood up and gave her hands a handshake, then i went back and sat down, she was still standing there with a shocked face again as if she realized something, she asked the reason for why i will hand her the other copy of the contract .
" It's simple actually, i don't believe that contract will hold much of value, but if it did and since you were responsible for convincing me to join, i will hold you responsible for safekeeping this contract, that if they approved of the terms to began with .
She looked at me and just nodded her head, i can tell that she seemed to be touched by this, i waited for her to say anything else, but she didn't instead she just raised the phone again and dialed someone, i didn't use Spatial Eyes this time, seconds later the door was knocked and a person entered .
It was officer Ooguro, she then said :
I believe i need to leave and allow you to introduce yourself and talk to one another .