The Legendary F Rank

"Haru!? What's wrong?" Captain Liegan asked as she rushed over to him as she watched him drop down to his knees. Kazuo was too busy tending to Kaira to care about Haru, and Mishi was equally as confused and didn't know what was going on.

"You just used a gate and vanished. Where did you go? What happened to you?" She questioned him again before seeing a tear hit the floor beneath him. The clouds became dark once again overhead as a storm rolled in and began to pour rain down onto them. As the rain came down, it snapped Haru out of what he was feeling, and he looked up at Captain Liegan. 

"Their main forces are moving towards Beijing. They are trying to take over the whole country and elect themselves as the new government. We need to stop them." Haru explained as everyone quickly looked towards him. 

"What!? They weren't supposed to be doing that until next week. Why did they go ahead with it this early?" Kazuo asked as he seemed to know about their plan yet didn't expect them to already be acting out on it. 

"This is bad. If they kill the government and elect a new one, then there will be no one here to request our help. It will be down to the Nations Alliance to determine what happens after that and the alliance was founded by them.

We will become the invaders, and it will bring the war to our doorstep once again." Captain Liegan spoke quietly as she tried to reason with herself about what she should do. 

She knew the consequences of letting them overthrow the government, yet they already had orders to stay in shanghai. If they went back to the ships and explained what was happening and waited for new orders, it might be too late. 

She looked back at Second Lieutenant Mishi for a moment to ask for his opinion.

"What do we do? If they have already decided to head there, then what are we even fighting for here? There aren't any civilians here. And the Chinese army is already holding off the forces here. It seems like we were just sent here to waste time-fighting. There is actually no reason for us to be here other than to fight the enemy forces." Captain Liegan asked for his advice as Haru began to stand up once again.

'So they've already invaded the Japanese government too? They split the army all across china to fight in useless battles that won't actually achieve anything. 

There is no way that their intelligence officers haven't concluded that they will head to the capital and try to take over. Yet we were still split up from the other forces that had come here.' Haru thought as he looked around for a few moments.

'How long have they been controlling the government then? Ten years? Twenty years? What if it is even as far as Forty years? That would mean that the great war was for nothing. It was all planned by the demon clan that had been living here in secret.' Haru wondered as he thought back to how The sect master said that he found earth while he was escaping from some of the greater clans in the upper realm.

With the universe being so vast, it would be hard for them to find the milky way galaxy even if they were looking for it. But to find it accidentally just seemed a little too much of a stretch.

'Maybe there is a road that leads back to earth? The ancient dragon clan that lived on earth probably found that road before settling down. Then the black star sect found that road while being chased. It wouldn't surprise me if the demon clan also found the road.' Haru thought as his information on the upper realms was a little bit lacking, but it made sense to him that it wasn't just a coincidence that all of these things were centring around the earth.

"What do you think we should do, Haru?" Captain Liegan then turned her questions towards Haru as she couldn't come up with anything, in particular, that wouldn't go against the orders that had been given to them.

"You guys don't have to do anything. This is all my mess in the first place. I will clean things up on my own." Haru said as, at that moment, he decided that he would stop running from his past mistakes. Innocent people would keep dying if he didn't try to stop it.

He knew that with his current strength, there wasn't much that he could do, but he figured that it was worth a try. The last thing he wanted was for more families to lose their loved ones. He felt as though he had already done enough damage by leaving Suyin's family devastated with the loss of their daughter.

So in an attempt to make right all of his wrongs, he decided that he would try his best to put an end to everything even if it cost him his life.

"What? How is any of your fault? And what do you mean? We have very strict orders that we need to follow. How are you going to do anything without going against those orders?" Captain Liegan asked as she didn't understand just what he meant. 

"I guess I better make myself clear then. I, Haru Kitagawa, resign from my post as a soldier. Treat me as a deserter of war. I am not going to follow any more orders for as long as I live." Haru explained as he looked towards both Captain Liegan and Second Luitenant Mishi before taking off his jacket and throwing it on the floor before stamping it down into the mud. 

"Do what you want. But I now have no obligation to follow your rules. I'm going to Beijing to clean up the mess I made. And if you stand in my way and try to stop me… Well, that makes you my enemy." Haru began to walk away as he talked before looking back to emphasise the fact that he would make them his enemy if they tried to stop him. 

"What!? Are you serious? Don't you know the consequences of deserting the army? They will capture you and sentence you to ten years in a military prison. Think about things clearly. We can try to get a message to headquarters and let them know what's happening.

Maybe they will order us to assist the people of Beijing instead? There's no need to go this far. And why do you keep saying your mess? You have nothing to do with what's going on here." Captain Liegan exclaimed as she felt obligated to stop him from making a mistake.

She thought they had become friends after all, and she certainly didn't want to see him rot away in prison for leaving in the middle of a war.

Yet, she had no idea how he was feeling. Haru was holding all of the blame on his shoulders since he knew that he was the actual reason the war had started. He was the reason that Shanghai was blown to pieces by the demon clan, and he was the reason that both civilians and soldiers were dying all across china.

However, he ran away and hid his power. 

'She might be right. But if the demon clan is controlling even the Japanese government like I suspect they are, then there isn't much point playing along. And fighting beside these people will only put them in danger. I can't let them die on my behalf.

Maybe if I'm lucky, then they will end the fighting once they kill me? Who am I kidding? There's no way in hell that they would do something like that. I don't even think that I am the main factor as to why they invaded china at all this time. 

But what happened in Shanghai probably threatened them since they now know that there are people here on earth that can kill them. They are no longer at the top of the food chain, and that scares them. They probably think that if they can kill anyone who stands against them, then they can continue with whatever nasty plan they have in store.

Was the reason that the great war started just to test the strength of Japan's mages? If so, then that would explain why I died. There is no way that any of my friends would betray me without reason. If the demon clan was already here back then….' Haru began to think to himself as a flash of light shot towards him before striking him in the chest and knocking him off his feet before landing face down in the dirt, motionless.

Time seemed to slow around everyone as they watched on in shock as Haru continued to lay on the floor. It looked as though he had stopped breathing, and they began to panic as the mood quickly changed.

"Haru!" Captain Liegan yelled as she ran over to him and put her hand against his neck to see if he still had a pulse.

Lieutenant Mishi was quick to build a dirt wall around them as he recognised the flash of light as a sniper round fired from a magic rifle, and Kazuo jumped to his feet to pull Kaira behind the wall before running over to Haru to see if he was okay. 

But just as they were about to roll Haru over onto his front to check the severity of his injuries, a voice called out as the wall of dirt disintegrated before them.

"Yes, sir, We have the traitor. We will bring him in right now." Called out a voice that Captain Liegan was familiar with.