Under the Veil of Night

The next day, Kanae woke up early as usual, and taking her bag and all, she quickly prepared herself to go to school. After skipping school for a long time, she knew that she might have missed a lot of lessons.

She was still a bit sleepy, but she was already used to waking up early in the morning, so it was not a problem.

"Hmm…? Why does the atmosphere seem tense?" Kanae's senses were more acute than ordinary people. Upon getting out from the residence, she could clearly sense the difference in atmosphere. It was as if there were people ready to fight until the death near her, and their number was not low.

Kanae looked around and muttered to herself, "Could it be that there is a battle near here? Why hadn't I heard the news about it?"

It was dangerous to stop in place, so Kanae walked in a quick stride towards the school. There were no bloody scenes yet, but she was sure that it wouldn't be long before a fight broke out.

This was a disaster, Kanae frowned to herself. Can she still go to school in this kind of a situation? She herself has the confidence to get to school with her own skills, but if the situation was like this, would the other students be able to go to school?

"What the….?" Looking at the school in front of her, Kanae was startled. Right now, she realized what news she had missed, which landed her in this unfortunate situation. What should she do now?

…

Misae's House

Misae woke up and looked towards the clock. The moment she saw the clock showing that it was already half past six, she quickly jumped up from the bed and ran towards the bathroom.

OUCH!

Knocking over the chair, Misae's steps halted for a moment, before she continued hobbling to the bathroom while holding her shin. It was really painful, but she needed to hurry or else she would be late to school.

Finishing her preparation, Misae bolted out from the room partially limping because of her feet. Then, she saw her father already ready to go while her mother was still sitting on the sofa calmly, looking at her weirdly.

"Mother, why did you not wake me up?" Misae asked. If they already woke up, they should wake her up. At least, she didn't need to hurry like this and experience the pain from knocking over the chair.

Clara shook her head, "There is no school today, Misae."

"Sorry?" Misae's eyes widened in surprise. There was no school today? From what she knew, today was not a holiday day nor a special event.

"There is an internal dispute in the Souhon Clan. Their clan head died unexpectedly, and the successor he appoints is someone from the outer lineage. One of the direct descendants is angry and he declares war against the clan.

Their war was supposed to be something internal, but then a big fight occurred. Because the school is not far from the Souhon Clan's territory, they close it down. You were too tired yesterday, so I didn't tell you about this," Clara explained.

"The Souhon Clan is fighting?" Misae recalled about Jay and his brother. These two were the direct descendants. Could it be they were fighting intensely right now?

"Don't worry so much, there's no need for you to think about this. Even if your friend is part of the Souhon Clan, it's not likely that he's the one that's going to be in trouble. The one who wages the war is not a young kid," Kano explained as he walked over and ruffled Misae's hair.

"Father, don't do that," Misae complained, "And you have to work, Father?"

"Yes, because of the possible chaos involving the citizens, the police are stationed near the fight. We have to prevent damage to the buildings as much as possible," Kano answered.

"But Father is strong, so Father is going to be alright."

Kano smiled in response. He truly wanted to say that he was strong, and he could handle it, but in truth, he was afraid because the power the big clans wielded was really strong. As the government didn't delve deeper into the matter of the street, they had been the one who played the role of maintaining the stability in their territory, so they were more familiar with the area than the government.

Aside from that, the fighting power of the people in the clans was mostly better than that of police officers. They could fight efficiently and utilized many methods the police could never think of. Besides, they could act outside the law as long as they managed to cover it up.

At the location of the fight, the police were there to maintain the image of the law while in truth, they did nothing. The power they wielded was not enough to stop the clan from fighting and the higher-ups told them to not interfere. If the clan wanted to fight, then let them be and just clean up the mess after them.

The only thing the government would do was let the media catch the wind of the battle. The clan has always had a bad image because of their so-called 'dirty work' even though many of the clan members were not that bad. Ordinary citizens wouldn't even bother befriending them as they knew that associating with a clan member was a stain in their name that would be hard to clean.

Kano was frustrated at the obviously biased laws, but he was not in the position to change them. He could only follow them and hope for the best because the fight might escalate to the point of destroying many buildings.

"You stay at home with your mother, Father will return soon," Kano said as he took his equipment.

Watching her father go, Misae wanted to stop him. However, she knew that it was her father's duty to protect the citizens, so she could only hope that he was going to be alright.

"Mother, why is it that no one told us that there will be a clan fight today?" Misae turned to her mother.

"They told you through television yesterday evening. Did you not see it?"

Misae shook her head. Looking at the television, she thought that she was forgetting about something, but what was it? Every student has a television, right?

While she was still thinking, Clara stood up, "How about we cook together?"

"Sure," Misae soon forgot about her concern. She put her bag down and went towards the kitchen to start cooking.

Everyone should know that the school is closed down because they have a television or they heard the news from the street, since many of the students love to stroll down the street at night. The news of the fight would make them stay at home and not dare to get out.

That was except one person whom she forgot, someone who didn't have a television.