Disclaimer: I don't own Neon Genesis Evangelion or anything associated with it. Gainax created this world, I just play in it.
Transposed
Chapter 26
Five Days Later, Somewhere in the South China Sea
To the eyes of most, the large freighter looked pretty much like any other cargo ship plying the sea lanes of the area. Like many it was an older vessel but it had been well maintained. It needed a little fresh paint here and there with weathered and rusty patches dotting its hull and superstructure. A discerning eye would find the number of various aerials and dishes on the ship's superstructure to be suspicious, indicating that perhaps it was not just a simple cargo vessel and the same could be said of the reconfigurable helicopter pad at the stern. The real proof that it was something more than it looked would be the five inch naval gun concealed beneath said helicopter pad, and the second one at the bow hidden within an old, weather beaten shipping container.
In truth the ship had three functions. One was to deliver sensitive cargo for SEELE and Lorenz Kiel in particular. The second was to act as a listening post and electronic surveillance vessel, and a very powerful one at that. Quite a bit of useful information had been gathered by it. The third function was to act as a mobile base and safe house for Kiel himself, a function it was currently filling.
Below decks in what was once a part of the larger cargo hold, there was a conference room that doubled as Kiel's office. While not as luxurious as his offices at home it was well outfitted with a sturdy table with a desk built into one end. There was dark wood panelling on the walls and to one side there was a wet bar and a table set up with both a coffee and tea service. Kiel was at the desk at the end of the table while two of the dozen high backed leather rolling chairs, one on either side of the table, was filled by the remaining members of the Instrumentality Committee.
To his left was a thin, bald man. He was the Chinese representative, Yu Zhe, a former General in the People's Army who used his influence and connections to manipulate key figures in the government and build his own personal empire. He was well entrenched by the time of his retirement from the military several years before Second Impact. To his right was the tall, stocky, and greying Russian representative, Dmitry Petrov. A highly successful businessman and practically the godfather of the Russian mafiya, his illegal activities probably netted him as much or more than his legitimate ones. He dealt in salvage and plunder, bringing out usable currency, precious metals, and gems from banks, depositories, and diamond exchanges in coastal cities that had been lost and flooded during Second Impact. A real parasite of misery.
"Be calm?" Petrov growled. "We are all that is left, the wolves are snapping at our heels, the project is in ruins, and you tell me to be calm?"
Zhe turned to the Russian. "If the Chairman has told you to be calm Dmitry, it is because the project must still be viable. Am I correct Chairman?"
"You are," Kiel answered. "There have always been variables to the core plan that could be pursued to accomplish the same end. Their percentage chances of success are lower but they are still viable alternatives."
"Then why are we just hearing of this now?" Petrov asked.
"For one of the very reasons we find ourselves in the situation we are currently in," Kiel answered. "It is a fact that at least one of our captured members and probably more has been telling the SIS everything they know. You know the personalities of the others as well as I do. You know that the potential was always there should certain members find themselves in such a position. The risk of this information being known before it was needed was not an acceptable one."
"We have already lost one and possibly two of the mass production units," Zhe said. "One has been confirmed as captured and the facility shut down, the second is probable since we have lost contact with the facility. How many can we lose and still reach our goal?"
"The more units we have, the higher the chance of success," Kiel began. "But we could lose eight of the nine so long as the unit I control is still at large. It has been modified to handle the task alone if it must."
"That's very convenient Chairman," Petrov said, his voice laced with suspicion. "Having the one unit that can perform the task on its own being under your control."
"Would you prefer the alternative of having no options left?" Kiel asked coldly.
"I would prefer the plan to be operating as it should be, as we have been assured that it would," he shot back.
"As would I but it is obvious that this is not possible now," Zhe countered. "We had been fortunate that the scenario had gone as well as it had with little need for adjustments even with whatever machinations Ikari was up to."
"It was Ikari who broke open this hornet's nest!" Petrov exclaimed, slamming his fist on the table. "Who else could have given that useless triple agent the information to take to the SIS? He should have been replaced when we first became suspicious of him!"
"And who would we have replaced him with?" Zhe asked tightly. Petrov's paranoia and lack of reason was irritating him as it always did.
"Ikari was an acceptable and manageable risk," Kiel said, letting some iron into his voice. He was reaching the end of his patience. "No matter what game he was playing there was no advantage for him until the Angels were defeated and there were measures in place to deal with him and keep the scenario on track."
"That train left the track long ago!" Petrov snarled. "When Yui Ikari returned from the Evangelion's core we should have stepped in then!"
"You are speaking from the view of hindsight Dmitry," Zhe scolded. "Dr. Ikari's return was something that could not be accounted for since it should have been impossible and Gendo's reaction could hardly be predicted. Even so SEELE had more than enough influence and people in place to suppress the issue or limit the damage at least."
"If Matsuzaka had been paying attention to business instead of fucking his mistress then that spy never would have made it out of Tokyo 3 let alone get to Tokyo 2 and hand off what he had!" Petrov ranted.
"Just as the actions of most of the Committee have led to our downfall and need to hide out like rats," Kiel snarled at the Russian. "By panicking like scared children they have exposed us when they should have held firm and trusted in everything we have built and planned for. You are no better Petrov, your plundering of the sunken cities has garnered too much attention from the SIS and other agencies all over the world. How many times has the organization had to cover your tracks just to keep the wolves outside the door?"
Petrov was caught in a state between outrage and fear. He could not refute what Kiel said. His illicit activities had brought too much attention, though he blamed it on underlings being careless and had taken care of them accordingly. It wasn't like he was the only one the organization had needed to shield. That smug bastard Zhe trafficked in human flesh and had a thing for teenage girls. Young teenage girls, which disgusted him to no end. But at least SEELE had only had to clean up behind him once. Word through the grapevine had it that not only had Zhe purged the people responsible for the issue in a very gruesome and drawn out fashion, he had also purged their families and made sure that everyone knew that any further screw ups would result in the same happening to them.
"Perhaps we should take a break," Zhe suggested, as always trying to sound like the voice of calm reason. While he hated the Russian with a passion, he feared the consequences of crossing Kiel even more, especially now since they were reliant upon him for their continued survival until the plan came to its fruition. "Some fresh sea air would do us good, help clear our minds and get us back on track. You can smoke one of your hideous cigars Dmitry without offending anyone." He looked to Kiel.
"A sound idea," the old cyborg acquiesced with a nod. "By all means."
Zhe politely inclined his head and rose from his seat. Petrov simply grunted but joined the Chinese representative in leaving the conference room and heading topside.
Kiel picked up the phone on his desk and punched in a two digit number, calling his chief bodyguard Josef.
"Yes sir?" came the gravelly voiced answer when the line was picked up after one ring.
"They are headed topside," Kiel informed him. "Take care of them please."
"As you wish sir."
Kiel hung up, leaned back in his chair and sipped from the coffee mug that had been sitting in front of him. Something stronger might be in order but it was still a bit early for that. Within a few minutes Zhe and Petrov would have their bellies slit open and be dumped overboard to further feed the sharks that were already dining on the bodyguards they had brought with them. Their helicopter would then be shoved overboard and allowed to sink into the sea, making room on the pad for his own which would be returning later.
He was glad to finally be rid of them, of all of the Committee members. They had been a tolerated but necessary evil. In order for his plans to work he needed an organization that could exercise influence over a great many of the world's countries and their leaders as well as the UN. While each member of the Committee was ridiculously rich, even collectively they did not have the necessary financial wherewithal to fund everything that was needed to make his plan succeed. The Evangelions, the MAGI computers, bases all over the world and the might of Tokyo 3 in particular cost trillions, never mind the cost of repairing battle damage.
Keeping all of the members of the Instrumentality Committee corralled and in line was a headache, but it was a headache he had counted on and knew he had to endure. Managing a collection personalities was always difficult and that task was made even more onerous since they were all very rich and powerful men with the enormous egos to match. Add in the fact that some had been or still were rivals in business and the distrust and hatreds of a few over nationalities and it looked like an impossible task. However, he had the skills and the strength of personality to make them see and understand in no uncertain terms just exactly who was in charge and that he would not tolerate disruptions to the scenario.
The biggest wild card had always been Gendo Ikari but he was also one of the most important parts of the puzzle, being tasked with making sure the spawn of Adam met their demise. He had always suspected Ikari of having machinations of his own but never knew precisely what the man was up to despite the number of eyes inside the the Tokyo 3 base. The most logical assumptions were that he was either working towards preventing Instrumentality, or trying to take it over for his own reasons. What those reasons may be were something he hadn't been able to figure out, at least not until Yui Ikari returned from the core of Unit-01 and Kaji Ryouji made his trek to Tokyo 2 and put the information in the hands of the UNIO SIS team.
He agreed with Petrov that Gendo was the only one who could have given that information to Kaji. Fuyutsuki was a follower, playing out the string that was the rest of his life. The strength of his convictions had not been enough to override his fear of death and he had joined Ikari as his right hand rather than go public with the truth of Second Impact. Akagi was just as unlikely. She was a desperate woman clinging to any sign of affection and attention, or the illusion thereof that Gendo would show her and was too afraid of losing it before the end to ever go against him or SEELE.
The timing of it made him believe that if Gendo was indeed trying to subvert Instrumentality to his own desires, it had something to do with his wife. Perhaps he thought he could somehow be reunited with her if he had control of Instrumentality. The man had done a masterful job of not showing any public indication of the grief he had over losing his wife to the contact experiment but he knew to at least some degree that it was there. Even Gendo could not escape every eye that was upon him and he had seen enough in the man's behaviour shortly after the event to know better. In hindsight, some of the man's actions and ploys made more sense now.
It hadn't mattered however and still wouldn't at this stage even if Gendo was dead. He did not have absolute proof and information had been very hard to come by ever since the damned SIS had arrived at NERV HQ, but all indications he had received told him that Ikari was dead. He didn't know how he had planned to take control of Instrumentality but it didn't matter now at this stage. It didn't matter that now the remainder of the command staff at NERV HQ would be trying to stop it. It didn't even matter that he seemed to have lost the ability to have the Japanese government turn on them and send in troops. He had more than enough highly paid and thus highly motivated mercenaries to throw against them to do what he required.
Should the mercenaries fail and not at least neutralize the pilots, there was little hope of them fighting off the mass production models even if he did not have all of them at his disposal when it came time to launch them. Even Unit 01 should be no match for multiple MPE's. The Third Child had racked up an impressive record but his combat skills were not up to par to be able to match the mass produced units. Even if it went berserk it should still be brought to heel soon enough. Unit 00 he saw as even less of a threat. While the First Child was better trained and more capable that the Third, her ability to sync with her Eva was considerably lower. Unit 02...it might as well be a paperweight with its pilot having lost her marbles and still residing on a hospital room. It was no threat.
He set down his coffee cup and rubbed the new lump on the left side of his chest through his heavy suit coat. The last remnant of Adam, it would be his conduit for regaining all that had been taken from him when he had been subjected to this punishment. Finally the end to his personal hell was in sight. Soon he would be able to cast off this decrepit shell and return to what he once was, free to resume his life and his quest to create a being that shared the properties of both the Fruit of Life and the Fruit of Knowledge. The rest of his kind would not be pleased with what he had done here or with his escape but he did not care. They would never find him unless he wished to be found and he would have all the time he desired to perfect his vision of creating the perfect being to seed worlds with. A being that would survive any threat to it through both intelligence and might, and he would guide those beings in the ways his brethren stubbornly refused to.
"Almost there," he said aloud. "After so long I am almost free."
For the first time in ages a genuine smile came to his withered old lips.
Dr. Akagi's Office
Maya Ibuki raised her arms above her head and stretched, trying to alleviate the ache she was getting between her shoulder blades from spending too much time hunched over the keyboard of her computer. All the while though she was keeping an eye on the activity on her screen.
"This one is taking their time instead of trying to bull their way in," she said.
"Maybe someone is finally getting serious," Ritsuko said from the other side the desk where she had a pair of screens set up. She turned and took a quick look to the one on her right which was showing the same thing as Maya's. "The last several attempts to hack in looked like someone let their kids loose on the system. Probably a ruse to make us lazy since they would know we wouldn't take it as serious or even a remotely worrisome attempt."
"This one looks more focused and patient," Maya observed.
Over the last couple of days they had seen an increase of hacking attempts of various strengths. Ever since the MAGI had first went online there had always been attempts to hack it for any number of reasons ranging from serious attempts to infiltrate and steal info or do damage, to hackers trying to break in just for the hell of it and to see if they could. Many of the recent attempts looked like little more than amateur attempts and hadn't even been much of a nuisance.
At first glance it seemed like nothing but the periodic rise in activity they were used to seeing on occasion. But since they were expecting something like this they carefully charted and monitored every attempt and what areas of the system were being targeted and it didn't take long for a pattern to show itself. So, they began revealing the bait they had already placed in the system, but they didn't make it simple or obvious. The hackers had to work for any ground they seemed to gain and were fooled into believing they had achieved something on their own rather than having been allowed in.
While they were snooping and Maya led them around and played with them, Ritsuko back hacked them and found their locations, leaving a nasty little surprise behind for them if they tried hacking them from that machine again. Thus far it looked like the machines used were spread all over the world and some may have been hacked themselves to perform the intrusion into their systems. Sooner or later they would get to the root of it. They had been giving their adversary enough of a taste of success that at some point they would make a serious attempt.
Maya suddenly sat up straight in her chair and started clacking away at her keyboard. "Here we go, they're starting to get serious now. They've picked up the pace and are starting to move into the pathways we set up for them."
"Well that proves that they are the same ones who were probing us in those other attempts," Ritsuko smirked. "Give them your best Maya and lead them on a merry chase. Make them earn it hard." She cracked her knuckles. "I'm going to start back down their trail and find out who this is."
"You got it Sempai!" the younger girl chirped enthusiastically. She loved this, it was exciting and she was doing what she loved best, working in concert with her mentor. The amount of work they had done since starting on this project was staggering considering the time frame it had been accomplished in. They had both been able to get creative and add in a little malicious intent. It was just like when she used to counter hack people in college only with far greater stakes and she couldn't deny the guilty pleasure of the thrill it was giving her to lead their enemies around by the nose and make them dance to her tune. It was a level of power and confidence she could never show outside of the electronic world.
Ritsuko smirked as she raced along the hacker's back trail. The gleam in her proteges eyes as she ran the hacker ragged was amusing. She had been totally surprised when Maya had sheepishly admitted to her that she was a hacker, less surprised that she tended to go after the ones that tried to cause damage and chaos.
Maya the cyber hero...who would have thought. She was impressed though because she was very good at it and for someone who was as meek and gentle as she was, she certainly could come up with some nasty surprises for someone on the other end of her hack. Which was exactly the kind of thinking they needed right now. They would have to be aggressive and hit back hard and fast if they were to keep the MAGI from being overtaken.
The MAGI may have been her mother's creation, but she had done more than her fair share to upgrade it and enhance it and it was a point of pride for her to keep SEELE's hackers out of it. The pilots had borne the brunt of this war thus far, a war they were supposed to lose in the end and she had been stupid enough to help bring them toward that end. Now it was her turn to try and work towards her redemption, if there was such a thing for her, and take on this battle. If the plans she and Maya had devised worked they would be luring the enemy onto terrain of their choosing and then attacking them from favourable ground. As a matter of fact it had already started.
They had planted viral seeds in a number of subsystems that were connected to the other MAGI computers across the world and using back doors that she was able to discover after looking through her mother's notes she had left a few surprises on the periphery of the MAGI systems themselves. But this current back hack she was attempting could yield much more if it turned out to be coming from or through one of the other MAGI and not somewhere else. She hoped to sneak into the enemy camp while they were snooping into her systems and leave behind some very nasty and malicious code that they could activate when the real attack came against Tokyo 3.
"Sempai..." Maya began, sounding a little strained as she typed away furiously. "I think we might have two hackers in here. It's all I can do to stay ahead of this."
Ritsuko turned to the machine on her right and saw what was going on and jumped into the action. "One's leading and the other is following, looking for other routes in their wake. Not entirely unexpected. I'm going to steer them into the maze. If they take the bait that's in there they'll be doing us a favour."
With a series of keystrokes she routed the second intruder into something they had decided to call the maze. It was a cache of old data files that went all the way back to NERV's days when it was known as GEHIRN. There was a link to an old server in there that had relatively weak protection on it and could easily be mistaken as something that had been missed and forgotten long ago as systems were changed over and upgraded.
"Once you get the alert that the second hacker hit that old server, start hitting your playmate with some more robust defensive measures," Ritsuko instructed. "By then they should have taken enough bait and be more than ready to scurry back to their hole."
"Got it Sempai," Maya responded.
Ritsuko went back to her own hack. She was getting closer, she was in the country of origin now and that gave her a pretty good idea of who at least one of their hackers was so she took a gamble and diverted her search on a hunch. It paid dividends almost immediately, right about at the same moment she heard a chime sound on Maya's terminal signalling that the old server had just been hit. She recognized the security measures she was running into. Jackpot.
"Starting to hit this one now Sempai, they should be backing out any second," she reported.
"I got the bastards!" Ritsuko exclaimed in uncharacteristic excitement. "They're in America...Massachusetts. First one is at MIT and the second one is coming from the MAGI at NERV's First Branch!"
She attacked her keyboard like she was possessed, fingers flying just as fast as they had been when she raced against time to stop the 11th Angel from taking over the MAGI and initiating the self destruct. With her hunch proven she raced through the back doors into the system and planted her packets of malicious code. When they activated they would spread to any of the other enemy MAGI systems connected with the First Branch for the attack. If it worked as they designed it to it would initiate a flood of useless data to clog things up and unleash a truly insidious virus that would require all of their attention to attempt to stop it. It should stop their attack on the Tokyo 3 MAGI and with the improved firewalls and early warning measures they had put in place, they should be able to activate it before any serious damage could be done.
"They're out of our system," Maya announced.
"I'm out of their systems and..." Ritsuko began. The pause seemed to go on for an excruciatingly long time. "I'm clear. No signs that I was detected."
They both slumped in their chairs in relief, feeling the adrenaline drain hit them. Though they didn't breathe completely easy just yet as they kept a close eye on the monitors for a few more minutes just to make sure they were truly in the clear.
"We did it Maya," Ritsuko finally said with a tired smile. Neither of them had gotten much sleep over the last couple of days. "We got them good. There are a few other things we can still do but this should keep them from being able to take over our MAGI."
Maya let out a long, sighing breath. "That's a relief. I feel like I've been holding my breath for the last few days dealing with all the hacking attempts and knowing that this was coming."
"You've done an outstanding job Maya," Ritsuko said. "You're help has been invaluable, none of this would be in place without all of your hard work and input."
"T-thank you Sempai."
Ritsuko did her best not to chuckle and further embarrass the girl as her face reddened at the praise. Red cheeked and bashful Maya was just too cute and she allowed herself a wistful smile. Even with all that she had learned lately and with the pressure they were under, Maya still maintained that air of innocence and youthful idealism about her. What she wouldn't give to be something close to that again herself but she had already sold her soul to a devil and there was no bargain to be made for its tattered remains even now that said devil was dead.
She couldn't deny however that working so much and so closely with Maya lately had been good for her. So had working to save the world rather than trying to destroy it. That in itself was a significant notion for her since when she had been blindly following Gendo's plans she hadn't actually cared one way or the other about the fate of the world. Like Gendo she had seen the world as being a miserable place but she hadn't been actively seeking out its destruction. Her apathy about the continuance of human life was the feeling that the world held nothing for her beyond her flawed infatuation with a man that didn't love her.
However that feeling seemed to have left her and there were two specific reasons, or more precisely two specific people that she could attribute it to. Yui Ikari and Maya Ibuki. She had never known Yui but had spent years despising her. Even though she was gone she was still the most important thing to Gendo and she meant nothing to him. When Yui emerged from the Eva's core she grew afraid of the woman. Afraid of what she would think of the obviously sick woman who had been so desperately chasing her husband's coat tails.
Imagine her surprise when Yui turned out to be one of the most genuinely nice people she had ever met. Now she saw where Shinji got it from. It seemed he had gotten all of his best traits from his mother. Yui didn't look down on her but saw her as a victim of Gendo's machinations and gave her both a chance and a reason to turn against the plans she had been so much a part of. She had also easily befriended her and she had most certainly needed a friend. She had been doing a fine job of screwing up her friendship with Misato and then the crazy purple head goes and gets herself sucked into the Eva. But the woman she had never known but despised and feared anyway had saved her from falling into a bottomless pit of loneliness, despair, and from just giving up completely.
She wondered if involving Maya was part of her plan or if fate had just conspired to make sure she was outside the door at just the right time to hear some ugly truth. Maya had quickly become the very thing that kept her from sliding down the slope and into the abyss when her thoughts became too dark. The girl had forgiven her, kept her upright when she felt like she was going to fall and was a warm, bright light in the darkness she had lived in for so long. Never mind work, Maya had become very important to her on a personal level.
And that was scaring the hell out of her.
She didn't know if the growing feelings she was having for the younger woman were genuine or the continuing byproduct of her desperation to be loved which had gotten her into this entire mess to begin with. She didn't want it to be that because Maya deserved better. She was pretty sure there was some truth to the gossip and teasing that made the rounds about Maya's devotion to her Sempai and if there was ever anything between them that way she wanted it to be genuine, for Maya's genuine feelings to be returned in kind. Why she was feeling what she did was only part of the equation though, the other part was the fact that she may be having feelings for another woman. It wasn't something she had ever really given much thought to before.
Sure, she and Misato had fooled around a little once in college, drunk off their asses at the time no doubt, but even then she hadn't thought much about it after that. Would it really be so bad if Maya felt that way about her, or if she found that she really did feel the same way about Maya? Above all else wasn't being truly loved by someone what she had been seeking so desperately?
She really was pathetic, it was too soon to be worrying about this. She needed time to figure it out and there would be plenty of time for that if they survived what was to come. If they did survive maybe she would feel that she had earned some small measure of redemption and would be worthy of Maya's feelings and be able to figure out her own.
She stood and stretched, her back and shoulders making several pops and snaps. She walked over to the couch that had been her bed on far too many occasions and flopped down at one end.
"I think we're long overdue for a lengthy break," she said with a sigh. "I could use a shower, some decent food, and a few hours of sleep."
"Well we are ahead of where we thought we would be at this point," Maya said as she got up and went to the small fridge across the room and retrieved two bottles of water for them. "Now that they've decided to evacuate the city I guess we can't really go home though." She handed Ritsuko a bottle and sat down next to her.
"They said at the meeting this morning that they are going to allow the personnel that will be staying to go to their homes and pick up a few things they might need," Ritsuko told her. "All under escort just to be safe. After that they are going to lower the buildings and we'll be on an 'imminent attack' alert."
"So they're expecting something to happen soon?" Maya asked, a tinge of fear evident in her voice.
"We really don't know and that's the problem," she sighed. "The Commander was a total bastard but he wasn't stupid. He had intelligence sources of his own and knew how people thought. He had good reason to believe that SEELE itself would send the 17th Angel against us, very possibly in a human form much like Rei. That could still happen but considering everything that has happened since Yui returned it is also possible that the 17th could be part of the attack Kiel will launch to cause Third Impact. At this point we have no way to know which it might be or if something else entirely could happen. We have to consider any possibility that makes sense and try to be ready when it happens."
"I'm not sure what's scarier," Maya said quietly. "Knowing what's going on around us or being ignorant of it like I was before."
"I'm more scared now than I ever was then," Ritsuko admitted. "When I was helping it along I really didn't care. Whether I helped Gendo or not he was going to make it happen and I felt that I had little reason to want to keep living beyond that point. More accurately I suppose I never spent much time dwelling on the fact that I was helping to bring about humanity's end. But now that I feel I actually have a reason to keep going I'm afraid of that outcome." She rolled her head to the side and looked at Maya. "I have you to thank for that."
"Me?" Maya all but squeaked.
"You care about me as a person, as your friend and not a tool to be used and you care about how I feel." She smiled sadly. "The only other person who was ever close to that was Misato and I was driving her away with all of the secrets. By the time she was taken into the Eva she wasn't trusting me very much and I don't blame her, I wasn't giving her much reason to." She took the girl's hand in hers, making Maya's face light up like a neon sign. She could even feel a bit of heat spread across her own. "You've made me start to feel something other than pain and despair for the first time in a long time and I want to hang on to that."
"S-Sempai...I..."
She squeezed Maya's hand and shook her head. "Later. After all of this is over we can talk about what's beyond this." She smiled, a rare, honest smile. "Besides, I don't think either of us could stay awake long enough right now to have a proper, serious discussion about anything."
As much as she wanted to pursue it Maya knew Ritsuko was right. It was all she could do to keep her eyes open and her ability to think coherently was getting kind of foggy. Although that may have had something to do with the fact that Ritsuko was still holding her hand.
"Right Sempai," she agreed softly with a smile as she followed Ritsuko's lead and settled back into the softness of the couch and closed her eyes. She really hoped that Ritsuko taking her hand meant what she hoped it did, but there were more pressing matters ahead of that, like making sure they actually survived to find out and she would do whatever she possibly could to help get them to that end.
Two hours later when Yui stopped by for a visit she found them still asleep, hands still clasped together between them, a slight, content smile on both of their faces.
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