-Yaten-
Haruka was on the phone when he entered her office and she signalled for him to have a seat.
"…no no…I know… I had a feeling he would not sit still up there for all too long… don't worry about it Yuzuki-ba-chan…yes, I am fine and so is he…yes…yes, will do…send my regards to Hanzo-ji-san and the dogs…yes…ok…understood. You take care, too." Haruka was obviously trying to make an effort to address the older woman's concerns, which Yaten doubted that they were eased by her easy tone, but then again, Yuzuki was always worried about the blonde.
"Alright, is everything ready?" Haruka asked him after she had hung up and slid her phone into her chest pocket of her new suit.
"Yes, all that is needed is for you to choose a key. Everyone is already downstairs waiting for you." Yaten confirmed and held out a cloth sack with little digital keys inside into which Haruka reached and pulled out one of the many that were in there.
"Oh look, lucky 13." Haruka chuckled as she showed him the key that she held as they walked to the elevators.
"That is one of the harder sets, if I am not remembering wrong… are you sure your suit will survive that?" Yaten asked doubtfully as she adjusted her tie in the elevator mirror on their way down to the training floors.
"Only one way to find out." Haruka grinned at him through her reflection.
As they arrived, Haruka handed Yuuko the key that she had picked and made her way to the training floor while everyone made their way to the workstations ready to take actions if needed.
"Ready kid?" Yuuko asked through the microphone and got a thumbs up from Haruka from the training floor.
Haruka was standing fully dressed up in her new suit, cane firmly gripped in her right hand and glasses snug on her nose, ready for Yuuko to insert the key and to initiate the training program.
Instantly robots appeared on all sides of the blonde as Yuuko pressed the start button and vicious fights ensued.
Haruka was on top of her game, focused, precise, agile and Yaten relaxed in his seat a bit but Kakyuu seemed still tense next to him. Just when he was about to ask her what was worrying her, Yuuko's phone rang.
"Yo…Uh huh…uh huh…no, that's not good, there has to be a better way…see, I like that idea a lot better…it honours… your heritage…" Yuuko spoke casually as she got up and took the bag from Yaten's side and rummaged for another key and just added it to the program.
The room fell silent as a war seemed to break out on the training floor once two programs ran in parallel and one explosion followed the next.
"What? Sorry…sure I am still listening." Yuuko continued undeterred her conversation while rummaging for another key. "Yea, I think that there is something that can be arranged. I'll finish some tests here and I'll call you later." With that Yuuko just emptied the bag in front of her and added one program to the next until all 15 were uploaded.
Yaten and Taiki exchanged silent looks of horror while Kakyuu got up and got her med-kit ready, but Yuuko looked undeterred on the monitor that displayed Haruka's vitals.
Through the dust and debris flying around, no direct view of the happenings onto the training floor were possible and Yaten could only guess where Haruka was on there, based on the signal of the training bracelet that she was wearing. Judging from the video feed from her glasses, Haruka had just decapitated a humanoid, and Yaten was half glad that she was doing well, while half dreading the amount of fixing, he'd have to do after all this.
"Ruka-chan, how are you holding up?" Yuuko asked through the microphone.
"I don't remember this training set, I think…." Haruka replied unphased. "Maybe my memory is still lagging despite all the memory jogging we did…"
"Must be a coma thing...we'll check your brain later again. By the way there was a bomb under the stage where Osamu's little girl was going to hold her concert…what was ger name again..." Yuuko informed Haruka and you could see the millisecond of hesitance in Haruka's movements before she grabbed a machine gun from the ground and started to shoot everything that moved.
"Are you still listening Haruka?" Yuuko asked while leaning back on her chair and watching Haruka's heartrate dance.
"Yes." Haruka's voice rung clear through the room.
"Do you have any idea who it was?" Yuuko continued.
"Yes." Haruka's reply was surprisingly fast.
"What do you want to do about it?" Yuuko asked with a tone that was hard to read for Yaten.
"What is needed." Haruka replied while shooting down a pack of robot dogs.
Yuuko seemed pleased with what she saw that no one else seemed to be able to see while Yaten and Taiki only exchanged puzzled looks and glanced at Kakyuu for information, but she was also only staring at the monitor on which Yuuko was focused on and frowned deeply in contrast to her teacher.
Only moments later, Haruka walked through the door to the monitoring room, her clothes worse for wear, but her cane and her spirit were ready for more.
"You might want to tell Tamaki-ji to send one of your suits a bit faster than usual and to reinforce the pants." Kakyuu noted as she pointed out the rips on the blonde's trousers.
"Oh, yeah, I will also tell him to reinforce the chest…" Haruka noted as she took off the jacket, revealing several punctures that were only stopped by the vest underneath, her phone having taken a blast or two as well. "But compared to the previous models, way more freedom of movement." Haruka smirked satisfied while removing the safety case of her phone and rummaging in one of the drawers for a replacement.
She took off the whole suit and handed it to Taiki with instruction to get it delivered to Tamaki as soon as possible so that he could make his own assessments on the suit and adjust the others accordingly, after having handed Yaten the bracelet so that he could compile the entire damage to be assessment and for final battle analysis.
"Let's go downstairs and assess your damage before you make any more moves." Yuuko got up and walked ahead of Haruka and Kakyuu out of the room.
"Yaten, Yori-ji will be sending new equipment tonight, make sure that all upgrades are installed and all new humanoids and dogs are efficiently placed." Haruka informed him before she started to walk out.
"How many are we talking about?" Yaten asked her hastily before she reached the door.
"Few humanoids and few dogs. Enough to replace what I just broke and a few spare. He has All latest generation, so don't waste time fixing the damage down there unless you have too much time on your hands." Haruka said casually before leaving the room with Kakyuu.
Once the women were out, Taiki turned to Yaten.
"Did you see what happened down there?" Taiki asked him but both knew that the answer terrified them deep down as Yaten took the entire print out of the heart monitor for this session and noticed that it never really elevated to any discernible level which would indicate what the blonde got up to in the pit but as the dust settled, Yaten silently agreed with Haruka to just build new rather than to salvage what was left on and of the training floor. What unsettled him more though was that this wasn't even Haruka's new full potential and yet she seemed dead set on fortifying the tower and to have it armed to its full capacity.
"Don't you think that few more combat units are enough to have in the tower before Christmas?" Yaten asked Taiki as he uploaded the watch's data, but now it was Taiki who turned pensive.
"Hmm. Well, you know what few means when Haruka uses it..." Taiki only replied after he finished folding Haruka's clothes. "Stay in the tower, I'll be back soon and will help you to set the new security system addition up."
With that Yaten was left alone in the monitoring room and an uneasy feeling settled in the pit of his stomach.
-Minako-
She exited the elevator on her floor and dragged her body to her door when she noticed that the small piece of paper that she always stuck into it before she left had moved.
Cautiously she opened the door only to be greeted by Haruka sitting silent on the ground with her phone stretched out and the word 'bugged' written on the screen.
Minako signalled to the other blonde that she knew and closed the door firmly behind her before dropping the keys noisily into the bowl on the dresser.
Then she proceeded to turn on the TV and signalled for Haruka to follow her into her closet.
The back panel slid away silently to reveal small but cosy panic room.
Once the panel was closed behind them, both sat down facing each other and Minako reached for the drink fridge and handed Haruka a bottle of water.
"Depressed Mina?" Haruka asked her as she pointed at the freshly bought cups of ice cream that Minako still had on her.
"No." Minako replied with a sigh.
"Anything I can do to help? Tell me his name and I'll give you the number of his hospital room or, if you prefer, alternatively his mere existence will elude mankind." Haruka joked as she opened the bottle of water and had a sip.
Minako had to chuckle and unpacked the ice cream cups so that they could eat it before it melted.
"You make me feel bad for coming over now with all that silence I am getting…don't tell me it is me who is the source of your upset." Haruka said unapologetically while spooning the green tea ice cream Minako had handed her.
"You're not the reason I got vacation" Minako sighed.
"Ah, I see…" Haruka nodded. "Is that why you are bugged?"
"The bug has been here for a while now." Minako admitted.
"You know, it shows poor skills not to remove it straight away…." Haruka half chided her.
"But I hoped it would prove my point that I have nothing to hide." Minako explained.
"Is that why we are literally hiding in your closet?" Haruka snickered and Minako appreciated the irony of the situation with a chuckle of her own.
"You are not here to make a social call either…So how about you tell me what your plan is." Minako replied.
"Not so much of an airhead after all." Haruka chuckled.
"We blonde's have to stick together after all." Minako smirked.
"Remember Copenhagen?" Haruka asked her and Minako couldn't help but to grin wide.
"How could I forget? Best mission ever." Minako nodded reminiscent.
"Now imagine that in XXL here in Tokyo... are you in?" Haruka grinned.
"Always." Minako grinned back.
-Michiru-
They walked into Opera Palace and Michru was humbled by its size, but even more so, its acoustics.
"Now we have 1814 seats in total that should cover the additional demand for your concert." Riko explained as the two of them walked onto stage. "The evacuation strategies are time tested and the facilities allow a covert check of all visitors without seeming intrusive to the uninitiated. Added to that we will have snipers on all roofs and vantage points on behest of Setsuna to ensure the safety of the IIA leadership."
"I don't think I can fill this place up Riko-ba-chan…" Michiru tried to curb her aunt's enthusiasm.
"Nonsense. It is already sold out." Riko waved easily.
"How? It is only two weeks to go and more than a thousand more tickets than the original venue could accommodate." Michiru asked puzzled.
"Well, your new private sponsor owns them all and has guaranteed that every seat will be filled. It will be a semi-private event after all, and considering that the agency will have official attendees as well, more agents will have space to attend which should ease security fears for the upper echelons." Riko smiled though the smile did not reach her eyes that looked over the four floors over which the seats were spread out.
"Who is my private sponsor?" Michiru asked.
"The CEO and owner of Tenoh Tech, Tenoh Haruto." Rio replied.
-Seiya-
The flames were ferocious and all-consuming while the fire was bright, but cold. The burning house was lighting up the entire street but nothing around him moved. Seiya was used to the scene in front of him. It had been his companion for the longest time. He knew that he could do nothing but to ride it out until someone would get him. Someone would wake him up. He used to run from it but he learned over time, that some things one could not run away from. Some things needed to be faced head on or, in this case, simply endured. He craved a cigarette and reached into his chest pocket to grab one. It was always the same one, yet it always tasted different and he wondered for a moment what he would taste this time when he would light it on his burning family home, but before he could find out a hand touched his shoulder.
"It's time." Kyoko said silently into the darkness of the night as she woke Seiya and he got up swiftly.
They walked along the unlit paths to the main meeting hall and entered a small side door to the smaller safe room in the back.
"Sit." Kenichi commanded him after they entered and Seiya sat down in the usual spot that he had been occupying the past late-night meetings.
"They moved the concert to the Opera Palace, which is a size too big for us to attack." Keninichi stated irritated.
"But it is also so big that it will draw all their resources to cover." Babette said calm but with a sly undertone that made Seiya's neck hair stand up.
"Indeed." Kenichi seemed appeased. "What we want is not in the concert anyway…."
"How are your preparations for the extraction going?" Masaru addressed Shinji.
"On schedule. All the elite breaching groups headed by Hisui-san and Kitae-san have been well informed by Seiya-kun about the outlay of the tunnel system of the tower, and will be clearing the way for my team to infiltrate and to take over the tower. Higashi-san will cause distraction on top to draw resources. All teams have completed their training. You just have to say the word and we are ready to go." Shinji stated confident.
"And you? Do you understand your role?" Masaru looked at him menacingly, but Seiya was used to it by now.
"I will be excusing myself in the first part of concert to join Hisui-san on his side of the breach and if I lied about anything, he will kill me, if anything goes wrong or comes unexpectedly, he will kill me, if we don't reach the centre of the tower before the concert is over, he will kill me. I am a dead man walking without the Chiba-clan, so I am fully aware that there is no space for error." Seiya said calmly.
"Good that you understand your place here." Babette commented cold and again Seiya had to grit his teeth to avoid to shudder.
"You may all leave now. We have further things to discuss." Shirou barked and dismissed everyone without the name Chiba to them.
Seiya walked out and looked up to the dark cloudy sky that had no star left for him to look at.
"Rumour has it that the blonde devil's brother is coming back to town and that she will have to be in the tower that night." Hisui smirked at Seiya.
"A Tenoh is always present in the tower, that's the rule." Seiya stated indifferent.
"Can't wait to see you breaking her face for breaking your hand." Higashi mocked Hisui who only scoffed in return.
"Not scared she will skin you alive for the betrayal?" Nishii egged Seiya.
"Dead men know no fear." Seiya merely replied before Kyoko joined them.
"What are you all still doing here uselessly?" Kyoko's voice was hard and no trace of her warmth nor cheekiness was to be found.
Everyone bowed and went their way, leaving Kyoko and Seiya to walk back to their quarters alone.
Seiya managed to shoot her a quizzical look to enquire about the situation that was in the meeting room after he had left it, but he got the worst possible answer in return, a deep frown with a cold gaze that was unwilling to meet his eyes.
