Everyone’s eyes widened with shock as they couldn’t believe it. It had only been their first day in military school and they had just found a major piece of the puzzle.

“There were no transfers during the night, so that means…” Leon said what everyone was thinking out loud.

“It wasn’t just some military personnel but special class cadets that teleported to the military school in that footage,” Nathan completed Leon’s sentence.

Haruto was now more confused than ever. Natasha had told him to get ready because since they were special class cadets, they would be getting transported to the school early so that they could settle in.

Haruto voiced out his thoughts to the group trying to make them understand that they were on the wrong track, not knowing that Natasha was playing him from the very start.

“Haruto, how many people were in the teleportation room that night?” Mako asked.

“Um… since we were the last out of out of the special class cadets to get teleported, there weren’t many in the room… There were only 4 cadets and a supervisor who operated the teleporter.” Haruto replied honestly still believing his perspective to be true.

“That makes 5, but the footage only showed 4 figures…” Erin said as she recalled Commander Sable’s recording.

“No, the camera angle was only able to capture the main teleportation stage, not the control panels. If it was an operator, controlling the teleporter from the panel, then we wouldn’t have been able to see him,” Mako stated after some quick thinking.

“Recording…? What are you guys talking about?” Haruto asked, his confusion and curiosity getting the better of him.

Mako silently looked around at his friends who all gave him a small nod. Going in, Mako already had a strong inclination that Haruto was innocent and it seemed that now his friends also agreed with him as they all also believed in his innocence.

After Mako received a small nod of approval from everyone in the group, he turned back toward Haruto who was admittedly a little scared as he didn’t know what the nod was supposed to represent.

He approached Haruto but instead of doing anything to him, just used a small blade to cut his hands free. ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com

Haruto was surprised to see Mako doing that as he wasn’t sure he was off the hook so quickly. Mako then placed a hand on Haruto’s shoulder as he began to explain to Haruto the entire situation and the brand new mission that was assigned to them by Commander Sable. After a few minutes, Haruto was left completely speechless after he learned about all the things that had happened since the time they parted ways back in the military base. Even though he previously knew of Natasha’s manipulative nature, he was completely surprised to learn just how much she had manipulated him such that even though she was working with the imposter from the military base, he had absolutely no clue about it.

Now armed with the truth of what had actually been going on, Haruto didn’t hesitate any longer and gave a detailed overview of everything he could remember regarding Natasha since their time in the military base.

****************

Haruto explained to them that soon after Natasha had disrespected Commander Sable and denied his offer of joining the special task force, two privates led them to their living quarters and explained to them all the privileges they had while they stayed there like the training rooms, etc.

However, after they left, Natasha used her ability to bring Haruto to his knees out of fear because he had respected the commander before leaving which she took as a sign of disobedience.

Because of his disobedience, Natasha punished Haruto by not allowing him to use any of the privileges that the military base provided, essentially making it so that he was not to leave his room until Natasha said so.

So similar to Mako and the rest, Haruto was on room arrest too, but under orders from not the commanders but from Natasha.

During that time, Haruto didn’t really have much to do. Natasha would go on to train and get stronger daily while he remained inside his room at times, only leaving for food after getting Natasha’s permission.

Haruto already told the group, that Natasha would often head out alone in the evenings for “business” which at this point they all realized was to most probably meet with the imposter.

The group asked him whether or not he remembered the other cadets who teleported with them at night or the supervisor who activated the teleporter in the first place to which he replied that he didn’t really pay much attention during that time because prior to them being teleported, Natasha had ordered him to spar with her as practice.

It had been quite some time since he had fought anyone and was far weaker than Natasha; however, he didn’t really have a choice so with his only offensive ability being the level 3 Lightning ability, he tried his best to spar with her, but Natasha didn’t go easy on him in the slightest using every new trick that she had learned and making him suffer.

Haruto was so mentally drained at that point so when Natasha told him to pack his things because they were transported, he didn’t even ask questions and just followed through like a robot on autopilot.

Even though he couldn’t remember their faces, Haruto still told the group that there was one boy and one girl with them on that night.

Mako appreciated any new detail that Haruto was able to provide to them, but it seemed that it would still take some effort to unmask the other two special class cadets.

Other than the 4 cadets, there was still that supervisor who according to Haruto still remained in the military base.

“If all the figures in that secret recording were actually cadets and the supervisor remained behind… this means that the actual imposter wasn’t with them that night.” Mako theorized. “Commander told us that he was certain, the imposter had most definitely escaped after he had caught wind that the commander was hot on his tail. The supervisor stayed behind which means that he wasn’t a suspect on the commander’s list and believed that he would be safe which leads to only one explanation… the imposter had already escaped to the military school prior to Natasha and the other’s teleporting at night.” Mako stated his school of thought to

the group.

The rest nodded as they completely agreed with Mako’s logic; his intelligence points finally did him well.

“What did Natasha do after you guys came to the school that night?” Mako asked.

“After we teleported to the school, a person was waiting for us and welcomed us to military school, making it seem totally legit to me that the special class was getting teleported at night,” Haruto began to explain.

“We followed him out of the teleportation room and the guy said they were short-staffed at the moment and that other helpers would be there shortly to escort all of them to their room to rest up for the night. It was then that Natasha said to me that I should be the first one to go with him to my room and that she and the other two would wait for the helpers to arrive.” Haruto continued.

“I was just so exhausted that I didn’t even question anything and just followed the guy who showed me to my room and I instantly fell asleep after lying on the bed,” Haruto added as he finished recalling what happened.

“Damn it… so we have no idea what these guys were up to in the night,” Bill stated with frustration in his voice.

“Calm down… It’s not his fault. I mean, you saw my condition after fighting her, I could only imagine how bad he must’ve had it.” Mako said to calm Bill down.

****************

After hearing Haruto’s entire story, Mako and the group were definitely satisfied as they now had a solid lead and a decent amount of information to formulate a new plan on how to uncover the other 2 special class cadets.

They also had to find out how they were going to steal the Pyronite as they still had no leads

on that front.

Now all that was left was for Mako to hold up his end of the deal and help Haruto escape

Natasha for good.

“Alright, Haruto. As the leader of this group, with the agreeance of others, I accept you into our group. You are now a part of this mission and will help us take Natasha and her friends down.” Mako said as he extended his arm toward Haruto who was still on the ground. Haruto grabbed Mako’s and raised himself back on his feet. He looked around to see small nods from the group even Erin. Now that they realized that Haruto was just a victim in all of this and was forced to play the devil’s advocate, they accepted him by forgiving his past sins; a gesture that Haruto thought he would never see in his life.

“Now, here’s what we’re going to do…” Mako said as he began explaining his plan to Haruto about how he was going to keep his end of the deal to Haruto.