"Emily, I… er… need to ask you for a favor."
Emily turned her head at Misaka, staring with her big, innocent eyes, her mouth was full of food.
"This is sort of the real reason I asked you out."
After minutes of painful explanation, Emily nodded at her understandingly. She held Misaka's hand comfortingly.
"Don't worry. It's no biggie."
"Are you sure? Emily, I would never force you to do something like this."
"Yeah… of course you wouldn't. Coz' all we have to do is to infiltrate some place so secret that it does not even exist on the fucking map. Like, seriously?"
"Now you are over exaggerating it. That place might not even be functioning anymore. I told you that we are just looking."
"You know what, fine…" Misaka already gave Emily a big hug before she could finish. "And uhh… I forgot my wallet."
"Yeah yeah yeah, no worries. It's all on me."
They walked back to the bus station and got on a bus. It drove towards the less urbanized districts. John's former school was there. Several men in leather jackets leaned against abandoned buildings smoking cigarettes, most of them had knife marks and bandaids on their faces. One had his sleeve rolled up. He had a spider tattoo on his forearm. They stared at the passing vehicles coldly, making Misaka worried that they would recognize her. They were in that part of town again. Remember the posing leader who had his ass kicked by Kurozuma Wataru? He and his men had resumed power because there was no one to take the place of Kurozuma, who had been in prison on charges of assault. He was only supposed to be locked up for three months. Several politicians kept him in there longer which effectively prevented him from taking control of the organization again. They needed Big Spider to carry out what they cannot be seen doing.
The lab was in an underground bunker. Shinasame University sat above it. Misaka was well aware that this lab provided funding and the latest DNA technologies to scientists who attempted to clone her. This was the only lab that she did not attack in person, but attempted to hack using her electromaster powers in an act which local authorities call cyber terrorism. She had known enough about the Level Six Shift. That wasn't the reason she came. Misaka scanned the place for any cameras. She used her device to hack into the cameras to turn them off, which did not seem necessary. They climbed over the walls of the campus. They walked on the lawns covered with untrimmed grass and bushes. She zapped the doors of the main building, which opened with ease. The corridors and rooms were dark. Some light managed to seep through windows. Instantly they were hit by the smell of paper burning, cigarettes, and a little gasoline. There were soot on some sections of the of the white walls-people were burning documents. Some glass windows had cracks on them due to the heat.
"Why would they burn stuff here?" Emily asked.
"They were probably in a hurry." Misaka replied as she brushed a finger across a patch of soot. It was left there recently. Possibly just days ago.
They closed the door behind them, instantly lowering the brightness. The two walked on the marble floor, with every step making an echo. Emily jumped when she turned her head towards a glass classroom. Misaka looked in her direction to see a life-sized human anatomy model with its rubber intestines hanging from its disemboweled abdominal cavity. Misaka held her hand. Besides the occasionally creepy models and paper burning, the place still looked like a functional school. They kept walking until they reached a section where there were windows right on the side of the corridor. It was brighter, and they could see the lawn and the sports field outside.
"We're too late. They knew this place was compromised, they've relocated and burnt all the documents you need."
"It's alright, we'll be out of here soon." They came to the locker rooms, Emily being quiet all the time. Next to it was a janitor's closet. Misaka held up her hands to feel the hidden mechanism behind the doors. She zapped it carefully. It opened up to a small room, inside it was a spiraling iron staircase leading down.
"It has to be a specific voltage that passes through the machines in order to open the door."
They began descending. With every spiral they passed Emily came closer to Misaka, squeezing her hand. The stairwell was only lit by a dim red light, and there were alternating sections of dim light and darkness. The would also come across sections that were completely dark. Occasionally they would hear white noise coming from the speakers embedded in the walls. They finally reached a sign saying "Restricted Area. Laboratory Personnel Only." The metal door leading to the lab was wide open.
Misaka had good memory. She knew that the lab was a duplicate of the second one she and John had attacked that night, the one where they met Shinobu, except that this one was underground. The devices that were used to grow the sisters were long empty. The containers were intact and marked with numbers. Five digit numbers less than 20000. Emily clenched her fists when she saw them. They went up in another set of stairs to the control room where there sat the main screen, the sets of panels, and microphones. Up another flight of stairs was finally the room where they needed to be-where the printed documents were stored. This door was unlocked too.
The place did not seem abandoned. In fact, it was exactly the opposite of being abandoned. The room was lit by light from fluorescent tubes. Documents littered the wooden tables-somebody must've printed them out again despite the fact that the former residents burnt them. Someone who has access to them. Judging from the way the those documents were scattered, they must have served little to no purpose. Misaka and Emily walked towards the inner sections of the room, where it was arranged in an office manner-personal workspaces with desktop computers. Misaka touched the screen of one. It was warm. She did not bother hacking into it yet. For some reason, she has a feeling that they would be treated like guests, so they kept walking.
They reached the recreation area with mini-sofas and small round tables. The place was recently cleaned, the tables wiped. A mini office kitchen was in front of them, but it was dark. Then they heard what was like an espresso machine forcing boiling water at 900 kilopascals through fine coffee ground. A figure emerged out of the shadows holding a small cup on a plate. It was a tall and skinny man in his early twenties, wearing glasses and a lab coat over his uniform. Misaka recognized him from that lecture. He set the coffee on a table.
"Misaka-san. I was expecting you to come. I am eager to talk to you. Please, sit." They sat.
"I see that you brought another guest here. Welcome. Can I get something for you? Anything."
"Tea please, thank you." They said at the same time. Moments later, he came out of the dark kitchen carrying two ceramic mugs.
"Before we get started, please allow me to introduce myself and set a couple of things straight to avoid any misunderstandings," he said, sitting down and shaking their hands, "My name is Aritomi Haruki and I condemn the Level 6 Shift project."
