"Unlock me," Yuri ordered calmly.

With a glazed look in his eyes, the doctor took the keys and unlocked the handcuffs. Yuri got to her feet.

In the low red emergency lights, she could see that both guards were dead. Killed by the doctor on her orders.

One of them had a syringe sticking out of his throat and the other had hit his head hard on the desk. Blood covered said desk.

Yuri shivered.

He may not look like it, but this doctor was freakishly strong. She had made the right choice controlling him and not one of the guards. Well, not really a choice of course. He was the only one in sight. And she had to see the person to use her powers.

Stay calm. Deep breath.

"How- How do we get out of here?" she asked. He was the boss here, he had to know.

"Does 'we' include all the test subjects?" the doctor asked.

"Of course."

"Then there is no way out."

"The electric locks should be disabled," Yuri said slowly.

"They are," he confirmed. "But so is the elevator."

"Then we take the stairs."

"There is no staircase."

She froze. "What?"

"There is a staircase going up from this floor. But the only way down to the compound where the test subjects are being held is the elevator."

"What if there's a fire?"

"They die," the doctor said simply.

Damn.

"Do you have a spare lab coat lying around?"

"In the closet."

She opened it.

Apparently, this guy just had a bunch of identical shirts and lab coats.

She put on the white lab coat. They might still figure out it was her, but at least they wouldn't recognise her right away.

"Come with me."

She and the doctor ran through the hallway. They encountered one guard, but the doctor easily took care of him. In her lab coat, the guard only realised what was going on once it was too late.

"Hide the body."

He obeyed immediately.

When he was done, they continued. They reached the elevator without further incident.

She opened the door to the staircase. He was right. The staircase went up, but not down.

Maybe…

Maybe she should just go? Just leave them behind and run.

No, she couldn't do that. They would do the same for her. She had to-

A buzzing sound came in from above. Then, she heard a single word.

"Yuri?"

What the…

Yuri looked up. A small… insect? was buzzing above her. A mechanical insect-like thing. It spoke with a voice like it was on the phone. But the sound was familiar.

"It's Kirito."

"Kirito? How…"

"Listen closely. We've hacked into the system. They think it's just a blackout. We're gonna sneak in and get you girls out."

"You can't," she said.

"We've got our hands on some guard uniforms. In the chaos, we should be able to get out before they realise what's going on."

"The elevator is locked off," she explained.

"Not to me. I told you, we hacked in. Now, we don't have much time. Take the stairs up, I'll take-"

"No," she protested. "I can help. I have-"

"I know what you have. That's why I need you to get out of there."

"What?"

"If you lose control, then-"

"I won't," she assured him. "Please."

"Fine. Wait there. I'll be down in two minutes."

"I'm confused," Asuna said as they stepped into the elevator. "What kind of power is this Third Eye?"

"Well," Kazuto said. "Imagine that everyone has a… a character file."

"Huh?"

"Just a file floating above your head with everything about you. Personality, physical appearance, memories, everything."

"Right," she said slowly.

"The Third Eye allows you to see that file and adapt it."

Asuna narrowed her eyes. "So…"

"So say I wanted you to have a bigger chest size."

"Kirito!" She slapped his arm.

"Hypothetically."

"Yeah right. I-"

"If I had the Third Eye," Kirito said quickly. "I could go into your file and find the right line. And then I just change it and poof," he snapped his fingers. "Larger chest."

"That's what you would use it for of course," she complained.

He couldn't tell if she was being serious or not. Still… "It doesn't matter. They probably have other… applications in mind. Imagine you could mind control anyone."

"And Yuri unlocked this power?"

"Yeah, but she managed to keep it secret from them."

"And she used it to control that doctor. Okay, now I get it."

"But it's also very dangerous. The files seem to suggest that people were unable to suppress their powers. And when they lose control, they start to delete characters files around them."

"Delete?"

Kirito did not reply.

"Delete!?" Asuna insisted.

"We're here."

The elevator dinged and the doors slid open.

"Kirito."

Yuri embraced him.

Asuna felt a pang of jealousy. Why did Yuri have such a large chest?

Maybe she used the Third Eye on herself just so she could seduce Kirito-kun?

"We need to get down," Kirito said.

"What about him?" Asuna asked, pointing to the doctor.

"You stay here," Yuri ordered him. "Stop anyone from trying to get to the elevator."

He nodded.

"Let's go down," she said.

Yuri stepped into the elevator. The doors closed.

"Yui?" Kirito asked.

[On it, Papa.]

"Papa?" Yuri asked.

"Yeah, she's my daughter."

"Your what?"

"We adopted an AI," Asuna said, emphasizing we. Let's hope she got the hint.

"Right," Yuri said slowly. She still looked very confused.

The elevator doors closed and they went down.

A nervous silence fell.

Luckily, it wasn't for very long. Soon, she felt the elevator slow down and come to a halt. The doors slid open.

Kirito wasn't sure what he expected. Certainly not this.

Monica was standing there, surrounded by dead bodies. She carried a large knife and her grey dress was covered in blood. The blood was so fresh it was still dripping down on the floor.

"Ah, there you are," she said, smiling broadly. As if she wasn't covered in blood.

"What is…"

"I took care of the guards," she explained.

"Where are the other girls?" Kirito asked.

"I told them to hide in case more guards came down," Monica explained. "They are further down." She pointed backwards with her thumb.

"I'll go get them," Yuri said.

She walked past them.

Monica looked at Kirito-kun. "Kirito?"

"Uhm, yeah?"

"Did I do well?"

"Yeah."

"You… You don't seem too happy."

"Uhm. You did great, Monica."

He walked to her and patted her on her head. She smiled at him, like a little puppy. Then…

"Kirito!"

She fell into his arms and pulled him in a tight embrace.

"Hey, watch it with the knife," Asuna warned her. As if that was the thing that bothered her the most.

"Sorry," Monica said.

They got out of their embrace.

Yuri returned with the other girls.

Everyone was here now. Natsuki, Sayori, Yuri, Monica and one more girl he didn't recognise. Must be a new prisoner.

"Alright," Kirito said. "Everyone get undressed."

"What?"

"What!"

"Come again?"

"Are you crazy?"

"Kirito," Asuna complained. "This is not the time."

"You all need to put on guard uniforms," Kirito quickly clarified. "If anyone sees you wearing that, they will know what's up right away."

"Oh. Right."

Asuna blushed.

Wait, what had she said before? Shouldn't she have been angry at him? The timing was hardly the biggest problem with it.

"Right," Monica said. "No time to waste."

She pulled off her shirt.

Huh. No bra. And she was pretty-

Wait.

"Stop staring," Asuna hissed.

"I wasn't," Kirito insisted. He quickly turned around.

"Yes you were."

"Now is not the time," Kirito shot back.

Hm. Well he was right about that.

"Uhm… Kirito-kun?" a voice asked.

"Huh?"

"Could you… help a little?"

Asuna clacked her tongue in disapproval. But there wasn't much she could do.

Kirito helped with the girl with the red ribbon. The pink-haired girl needed help too (although she insisted this wasn't the case).

The uniform wasn't the problem. It was raking it off a corpse that was the hard part.

But eventually, everyone was in a guard uniform (apart from Yuri, who wore a lab coat).

Still, if anyone came close, they might get suspicious of all these cute girls wandering around. And they would notice the blood staining the uniform.

They'd have to hope that everyone was too busy with the 'blackout' to notice them slipping out.

Still…

Asuna began to doubt the plan. Maybe they should have just assaulted the base with a big force? Even if that endangered the hostages.

"Let's go," Kirito said.

They all got into the elevator. With seven people, it was pretty crowded. They had to stand really close together.

Somehow, Yuri maneuvered herself so her chest was pressing against Kirito's back.

Asuna clacked her tongue. The sooner they were out of here, the better.

"Yui," Kirito said. "Take us up."

[Yes, Papa.]

The elevator rose.

"With a bit of luck," Kirito said. "They are still busy and we can sneak-"

The elevator stopped abruptly.

"Luck huh?" Monica commented.

"Yui?" Kirito asked.

[I'm locked out,] Yui said. [They must have used the main power switch to shut down the entire system.]
"Damnit. Can we hack back in?"

[Not if they don't turn on the system again. And even then it could take a while to hack back inside.]

"We don't have a while. We need to get out of here before they find us."

"This is bad," Natsuki said. "We-"

"What if we climbed up?" Yuri suggested.

"Are you crazy?" Natsuki snapped.

"Wait, that's it," Kirito said. "Someone give me a leg up."

The girls helped him. With some punching, he managed to get a part of the ceiling loose. Kirito climbed up on top of the elevator. He looked around.

Up high, he saw the doors.

"This is it," he said. "We just need to climb the cables to the top."

"Just?" Natsuki argued from below. "This is crazy."

"You prefer to stay here?" Kirito asked.

"No."

"Well then."

"We can pull you up," Yuri suggested. "If we find a rope up there."

"Whatever we do, we need to hurry. If they turn the system on again, they will see us."

"Let's climb together then."

Yuri climbed up on the elevator too.

"Woah, watch it."

Kirito grabbed her arm. It was pretty small up here. Especially since they had to avoid the hole he just made.

"I'll be fine," Yuri said. She grabbed a cable. "Shall we?"

"Okay."

They began to climb.

Kazuto tried to remember any climbing techniques from PE, but he couldn't remember if they ever did climbing. Plus, they probably wouldn't be climbing metal cables in PE.

The metal chafed his skin, but he tried to ignore that. It wasn't that far. Just a little… damn it was that far?

It felt like they weren't going up at all. Well, he wasn't going up. Yuri was climbing smoothly. She was much higher already. When he looked up-

"Woah."

His grip slipped.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

He managed to grab the cable and stop his fall. But not without tearing enough skin on his hands to draw blood.

"Fuck!"

"Kirito?!" Asuna called.

"I'm fine."

"What are you doing?"

"I uhm… I got distracted."

"By what?"

"Nothing."

He quickly began to climb again. This time, he kept his gaze forward.

Eventually, he reached the doors. Yuri had already pulled them open. With some help from her, he climbed out on the floor.

Kirito let out his breath. He sat down and leaned against the wall.

"Damn."

"What happened?" Yuri asked.

"I looked up."

"And?"

Kirito dropped his voice to a hushed whisper. "You're not wearing panties."

"Oh," she blushed a little. "Sorry about that."

"How…"

"I was abducted at night."

"And?"

"I sleep naked," she added.

"And they gave you nothing else?"

"This isn't a hotel, Kirito-kun."

"Right," he said slowly.

"Besides. I think the guards rather enjoyed it."

Kirito jumped to his feet. "Did they-"

"No, no," she assured him. "I don't think they were allowed to harm the test subjects. An act like that could completely screw up the mental state of the test subject."

"As opposed to locking them up?"

"Well I think they needed just the right amount of fear to really open the Third Eye. It responds to emotion, so a little stress-"

"Are you two done over there?" a voice yelled from below.

"Sorry," Kirito yelled. "We'll look for a rope."

He opened the nearest door. Hm. Looked like an office.

He searched the desk, but there was nothing useful there.

"Damnit."

Kirito went back out.

There wasn't much time. At any moment-

"Hey," a rough voice called.

Fuck. A guard.

"What are you doing?" the guard demanded. He walked up to them.

"Uhm… we're uhm…"

"Who are you? I've never seen you-"

Suddenly, the guard froze.

Slowly, Kirito turned to his right.

Yuri.

She was staring at the guard. At the top of her head, something glowed.

The Third Eye.

"Find us a rope," Yuri ordered.

The guard nodded. He turned around and walked back.

"Yuri?"

Suddenly, she swayed.

Kirito quickly wrapped his arms around her waist to prevent her from falling. Their eyes locked.

Damn she was close. He could feel her hot breath on his skin.

"You okay?"

She nodded weakly. "The power, it's… tiring."

"Do you need to rest or something?"

"No, it's… I'll be fine."

Kirito let her go.

"Let's hope I won't need it again." She smiled weakly.

"Yeah."

The guard returned carrying a rope. Wordlessly, he handed it to Yuri. His eyes were completely glazed over.

"Perfect."

She walked to the elevator shaft and tossed one end down.

"Tie it around your waist, we'll pull you up."

Kirito looked at his hands. He was still bleeding.

"You don't need to-"

"Don't be crazy," he told her. "You can't pull them up by yourself."

"They aren't that heavy. Besides." She nodded to the guard.

"I'm helping anyway. Try and stop me."

"Not like I can," Yuri said.

"We're done," a voice from below called.

"Let's do this," Kirito said.

The three of them grabbed the rope and began to pull. With their combined strength, it went really fast.

"Woah, watch it," a voice called.

Natsuki. Of course she had gone first.

After a bit more pulling, Natsuki reached the top. Yuri let go of the rope to help her climb on the floor.

Natsuki sighed. "It's not like I needed your help," she said.

"Of course not," Yuri said.

"But," she looked away. "Thanks anyway."

Yuri smiled. "Come on. We should keep going."

They tossed the rope down again.

Strangely, things didn't go faster with Natsuki's help.

They pulled up Monica, the unknown girl and Sayori.

Asuna must have waited until last on purpose.

"Almost there," Kirito said. "Come on, toss the rope back down."

Sayori was fumbling to get the rope loose.

"Come on."

Kirito quickly helped her untie the rope. He tossed it down to Asuna.

"There they are," a voice called from above.

Kirito looked up. At the top, he saw a face. The face of a guard with a bushy brown beard and wild hair and eyes.

"The prisoners are escaping," he yelled. "Sound the alarm."

No alarm came though. Electricity was probably still down.

The guy seemed to realise this too.

"Damnit. Where is everyone?"

"Asuna, hurry," Kirito yelled.

"I'm busy."

Then, they heard a strange sound.

Kirito looked up. What the…

The guy had taken out a knife and was trying to cut the metal cables.

"What an idiot," Monica said.

"But if he cuts them-"

"Elevators have a spring safety system. It won't crash. Besides, it will take him way too long to cut all the cables."

"But-"

"Pull!" Asuna yelled.

They all pulled on the rope. Asuna went up smoothly.

"Damnit," the guard cursed.

"I think he's coming down," Kirito said. "Yuri can you-"

"I'll handle him," Monica said. "Move aside everyone."

They all obeyed. They didn't want to mess with Monica.

They heard the footsteps on the stairs. Then, the door burst open.

"Aha."

The guard saw Monica. He pulled out his knife and swung at her.

Monica sidestepped and gave him a shove. The guy stumbled backwards, right into the open elevator doors.

With an ear-piercing scream, he fell down the elevator shaft. Then, they heard a… a bad sound. Looks like it hadn't ended well for him. But Kirito had no desire to go and check.

"Right," Monica said. "Let's get out of here."

She walked towards the staircase.

Everyone else was briefly frozen in place, staring at Monica.

"Wow," Kirito mumbled.

"Kirito?" Asuna said.

"Hm?" His eyes remained fixed on Monica.

"Stop looking at her ass."

"Asuna?"

"Yeah?"

"You need to sort out your priorities."