Meteor Arts Saga

Chapter 6

There soon came a large meeting at the assembly hall. Announcements were given to the audience about the Hagetaka's new plans. According to the ninja's reports, the Hagetaka planned on departing for the regions west of Kansai by tomorrow: the Chugoku, Kyushu and Shikoku regions. Because their battles in Osaka and Kobe ended in defeat, they decided to change their approach by securing the western regions and hunt down the Meteor Artists to expand their strength in order to achieve their end goal, which was defeating the Renmei in Kyoto.

In response to their next move, the Renmei committee planned on sending out a selected number of Meteor Samurai and few ordinary members, and their task was to prevent the Hagetaka from taking control of the regions like as they did in Osaka and Kobe, as well as protecting and rallying the Meteor Artists residing within those regions.

Tachibana-sensei was at the front of the room, briefing to the audience for new objectives. He announced Shintaro Takamiya, Naotaka Asayano and Koki Otomari would be assigned to journey from Chugoku to Kyushu to Shikoku, in order to gather many Meteor Artists in all those regions as well as protecting them from the Hagetaka. Places they were instructed to go and rally up the Artists would be in Okayama, Hiroshima and Fukuoka. With Okayama, the samurai needed not to worry about rallying them, but just to inform them by heading straight to Kyoto, but for the rest it was required. They would be given further instructions before the journey.

Next he announced Saya Okamoto, Yuuta Sakuragi, and Masakatsu Saito to head off for Shikoku. The tasked was to rally up the Water Artists in the Nagise Medical Foundation Hospital in Kochi. They would also be given further instructions before then.

Lastly, while operating in said regions, he mentioned the need of strengthening their defence at the east Kansai border in case of an enemy frontal assault. He announced Taro Suzuki, Hikaru Terada and Mayumi Takeda as officers for the task, and the rest would follow them.

He announced the ninja would assist in providing intelligence to the assigned members in the western regions, whether from a bird's eye view or reporting in person. They could not assist them in battle, but they would provide them warnings of any suspicious activity. All they had to do was to heed any warnings and thus spared from trouble.

After Tachibana-sensei finished his briefing, Naoki stepped forward and took the stand. "Thank you, Tachibana-sensei, for the briefing. Tomorrow morning, your missions begin. Enjoy your evening and take a good early night rest. That is all." He bowed to the attendees and thanked them. The respondents did the same.

Kae ran over to Atsushi for a private briefing. When Atsushi affirmed, she returned to Naoki's side.

"Do they have something planned for you?" Koki asked, sitting next to him.

"Hmm, maybe, maybe not," replied Atsushi. "Anyway, I bet it'll be a long journey for you, Naotaka and Shintaro, travelling to these three regions and all."

"I guess..."

Koki scanned around the hall, watching everybody moving out and gathered in groups conversing. One instance he saw was Taro and Hikaru talking to someone wearing a blue kimono, whom he never knew before. He assumed that person was Mayumi Takeda. At first, he thought it was a man, judging the short length of the hair, but there was no way it could be. Was there ever a man with a feminine name like Mayumi? Then the more he examined the person, he could tell that Takeda was clearly a woman. She had an elegant face and quite the physique, so slim and tall - almost had the stature of a model. She was significantly taller than Hikaru, but shorter than Taro. Comparing the heights between hers and Taro's, Takeda may have the same height as Koki, standing at one-hundred and seventy-five centimetres tall.

"So, that woman is Mayumi Takeda," thought Koki. "Atsushi, do you anything about her?" he asked, curiously.

"Hmm? Takeda?" wondered Atsushi. "Actually, I've never spoken to her. You can try asking others. Go ask your teammates, maybe they'll know and have been around here more than I have."