Chapter 9 - Guilt

The good part of a day had passed before the twin helicopters that carried the group started to lower down towards the ground. The sudden drop in elevation jarred everyone from their travel-dazed states, and eventually woke up the few that had ended up falling asleep in either helicopter.
Upon glancing out the windows, the group found themselves looking out over a sea of trees and foliage, with no sign of civilization - save for the small town a few miles to the south - in sight. If they didn't know any better, they almost would've assumed that the pilots had flown them into the near middle of nowhere. However, they knew that there had to be some reasoning for them being brought here, so nobody tried to question it. And they were proven to be right, once both helicopters had landed in the clearing they hadn't noticed before, and they saw a humble, two-story house standing before them.
It took a few minutes before everyone had finally exited both helicopters, the last of which was Minoru, who had been sitting in the cabin with the pilot of the lead helicopter for the whole trip. He had been supposedly giving directions; the exact ones that had lead them here - wherever 'here' was supposed to be. It was only after the younger Hagane twin bid the pilot a brief goodbye and the helicopters were taking off again that Madoka - who was graciously acting as a brief crutch for Gingka (albeit refraining from touching him) - spoke the question was undoubtedly on everyone's minds.
"Hey, Minoru..." She began, "Where are we, exactly?"
To their surprise, Minoru answered quite simply. "My house." He said, much to their shock.
"Wait, your house?" Kira asked incredulously, briefly looking back and forth between the man and the farmhouse that stood before them.
"Well... My uncle's, really, but... You know." The blue-haired man said with a slow shrug. "Hardly anyone knows that this place is out here, and anybody who ever did know never cared. So... I figured it might be the safest place to be, at this point."
The group briefly inspected the house from where they
stood on the hill that led down to the building, wary of what could possibly be waiting inside. From the looks of the overgrown shrubbery, long dead plants that adorned the patio, and the peeling paint of the exterior, nobody had lived in this house in a long time. They doubted that anyone had even been there for a good few years, considering the state of it.

"Of course, it's not in the best shape..." Minoru said, seeming to read everyone's minds. "But nobody has really been here for about seven years, so..."
"Wait, I thought you said this was your uncle's house?" Ren asked.
At the mention of his uncle, Minoru suddenly looked quite uncomfortable, and become reluctant to speak. "Well..." He breathed nervously, "... he hasn't exactly been around here in a while... you could say..."
A few worried glances were sent his way at his last words, which were spoken more quietly than the rest; however, none of them said anything about it and decided to leave the man be. He was clearly uncomfortable talking about it, and they at least had the decency to spare him whatever sort of discomfort it may be causing him.
But while they spared his feelings, it didn't make them feel any better at the ominous way he had spoken of his uncle just now. Upon looking back towards the house, Madoka caught Gingka's expression out of the corner of her eye and noticed that he looked... sad. It was a weak way of putting it, but it was the only way she could put it. He just looked... sad. And it didn't take a genius to understand what he could be sad about, considering that he was the one who knew the most about Minoru out of all of them. She could ask him about it later when they were all settled into their current hiding place.
The group started down the hill and had only a few mishaps with the shrubbery surrounding the house before they finally found themselves on the porch. They allowed Minoru to work at the locked door, watching as he dug through one of the cobweb-filled flower-beds until he pulled out an old, rusty key. As useless as it looked, it did the trick in unlocking the door, which creaked open unpleasantly on its rusted hinges. But the moment the door opened, everyone immediately wished that it hadn't.

The most putrid, stomach-churning smell practically exploded out from the confines of the house, blasting them all in the face with a stench that could make demons cry. There were one or two people that managed not to gag, while everyone else doubled over and turned away; the more weak-stomached members of the group immediately ran to vomit into the overgrown grass.
"Oh my god, what IS that?!" Ren cried, just barely holding herself up on the railing of the stairs.
Nobody was keen to answer, all of them too busy aiming themselves away from the putrid smell that emanated from the house.
"It smells like something crawled in there and died..." Kira choked, bent over the railing of the patio.
"Probably because something did..." Gingka breathed. Most of them turned towards him in surprise, and he continued upon seeing their confused faces. "That... is the smell of decay..." He said, swallowing thickly with a hand placed over his mouth.
"How do you know that...?" Madoka asked painstakingly. Despite her question, it was clear she didn't want an answer.
"I grew up around it..." Gingka answered quietly, but everyone heard him nonetheless.
"You know what?" Shinobu whispered, shaking his head. "I don't even wanna know... I don't wanna know..."
It took a good twenty minutes before any of them even had the nerve to set foot inside the house. The acrid odor that pervaded every surface hadn't faded, but they had at least stood outside long enough for the place to air out at least partially. Even if it still smelled, they could at least say that they had grown accustomed to it the relatively short amount of time they spent at the doorway. But, excluding the smell, the interior could've definitely looked worse, considering the outward state of the house.

A thick coat of dust covered nearly every visible surface; stringy cobwebs filled the corners of each room and cupboard; the old paint on the walls was peeling away; various droppings of multiple critters could be found across the expanse of wooden floors. It obviously wasn't a five-star establishment after years of abandonment, but it could've been in far worse condition as far as they were concerned.
"Charming..." Kira muttered as he wandered into the living room with Shinobu and Kite. Surprisingly, it didn't hold as much sarcasm as they would've expected, but they supposed that the smell of a decaying corpse (or they assumed, from what Gingka had stated) was enough to set even him off. It was even more unsettling when they considered the fact that they really didn't know where it actually was. The thought of suddenly stumbling upon the dead carcass of some sort of rat - or maybe quite a few of them - was less than appealing. With that in mind, all of them were sure to watch where they stepped and to keep an eye out for any form of rotting fur that could be laying about.
"Well, you know..." Madoka said aloud as she looked around the dining room that branched off from the main entry hall. "This place doesn't look too bad... I've seen worse places that were abandoned for less time than this has been."
"Not too bad for being fully furnished, either," Ren commented as she hit the side of a plush chair tucked into a desk, triggering a mini-avalanche of dust. She then gagged at the disgusting odor that rose from the chair, clearly having been embedded in its fabric for as long as the dust had.
"Yeah, we could definitely do without the smell..." Kite said, still looking a little pale in the face from the persistent odor that refused to fade.
"What is that, anyway...?" Eight asked, still holding one of his hands over his nose.
"I'd say a raccoon, personally..." Kira said, "I don't think even a dozen rats could make that smell."
"What do you say, Gingka?" Madoka asked, turning her turquoise eyes towards the redhead near her. "You seem to be the expert on that sort of thing... apparently..."
Gingka looked slightly comfortable at the subject, more so than he had in smelling the terrible stench that had erupted from the old house, and he refused to look her in the eye.
Madoka was about to dismiss herself when Gingka answered with the most bluntness he could ever muster.
"It's a dead body," he said.
In saying this, he brought everyone's attention to him and silenced any sort of talk that could have previously been going on. The house was struck into silence; a silence that they all knew far too well from months of unnerving discoveries and truths that should have stayed in the closet from long ago.
Ren was the first one to break it, and her voice shook as she spoke, her face gone pale. "I-I'm sorry... w-what?" she stuttered. Her head was tilted forward, hoping that she had heard Gingka wrong.
Gingka said nothing and that was all the answer they needed.
"So, not like a dead animal, but..." Kite started to ask, but his voice trailed off when he saw Gingka's grim expression. Despite this, he still didn't look at any of them, his eyes instead fixated towards the other end of the room, opposite the door. Finally, they all turned to see what he was looking at.
In the midst of adapting to the horrid smell of the house and investigating the less-than-sanitary premises, none of them had noticed where Minoru had gotten to. Hadn't noticed as he had walked numbly into his childhood home. Hadn't noticed when he had walked almost immediately towards the opposite end of the front entrance hall, where the entrance to the kitchen stood. And they definitely hadn't noticed when he had practically thrown himself against the wall on their side after looking fearfully through the archway.
That was where he stood; eyes wide and horrified, his hand pressed firmly over his mouth, his arm wrapped tightly around his torso. Even without all of that, the way he leaned against the wall for support, his shoulders shook with transparent tears leaking from his eyes was enough to show his inner workings.

"Mi-Minoru?" Madoka stuttered, immediately stepping forward in concern for the man. But Gingka - though it should've been physically impossible in his current state - beat her there. He was there at Minoru's side before any of them could even think to step forward, but how he had managed that, none of knew - because none of them had actually seen it. When he was beside Minoru, Gingka seemed to understand that there was no point in asking him what was wrong, and instead walked a few small steps into the kitchen. He instinctively looked to his left.
"Oh..." He breathed, and took a step back, steadying himself on the wall. Madoka was the least hesitant of the rest of the group and made her way the quickest over towards the twins to see what was causing both of them to react in such discomfort. She looked to where Gingka had looked, and she got her answer.
Strewn across the kitchen floor was the body of a man. Not because it looked like a man; it couldn't be recognized as one anymore. The clothes and size were the only indicators of any sort of gender. The rest was all bones; bleached white and picked clean of any skin or muscle tissue, with the melted remnants of some few internal organs in a congealed puddle underneath it. There were still some flies hovering over the carcass, feeding on whatever remained of it. The sight was revolting and caused Madoka to reel back along with Gingka. The others had roughly the same reactions, and they were all struck into immediate shock.
"Oh my god..." Ren muttered to herself, and she was heard running back through the front door and down the steps again. Eight wasn't too far behind her.
"Why is that there?" Kira asked stiffly. "Why?"
"I think he probably died there, so..." Kite answered uncomfortably.
"So what did he do? Just lay down and die?"

"His neck is broken..." Gingka said quietly, thankfully drawing the attention of the younger bladers who weren't having the best time. "His spine is split underneath his skull, that's why it's bent at that angle. You can't just break your neck like that, someone has to do it for you..."
"But Minoru said that nobody even really knows this place is out here...!" Madoka pointed out, "And, either way... W-who would just do that?!"
"I did..." Minoru's voice, hoarse and pulled tight, was a shock in the silence overhanging their questions. It actually took a moment for them to realize that he was the one who had said it. All eyes went to the blue-haired man leaning against the wall, body shaking violently with quiet sobs that didn't reach their ears.
"W-what...?" Madoka asked, hoping that she had misheard him; hoping that they had all misheard him.

"I DID!" Minoru cried out, and he gave way to a mass of choked sobs and strangled whimpers as he slid down the length of the wall and onto the floor. All of them stood there, entirely dumbstruck, shocked, and they soon found themselves standing around stupidly while Minoru sobbed into himself, the body of his uncle broken and gone on the floor.
And through Minoru's cries, Gingka could hear his own; and the strangled sounds of his own father that he had buried so long ago...

Nearly 24 hours had passed since Tsubasa had aided his friends in their escape. And nearly 24 hours had passed since Hideyoshi had called him and restated the threat that he previously gave him beforehand. In all of those 24 hours, Tsubasa would be lying if he said that he had gotten any sleep. It wasn't just from his anxiety, either. He had been up all night with Ayano and the rest of the overall Management team settling terms with the hospital on Gingka's sudden, unsupervised discharge, and there had been a little more than a bit of shouting from either end of the line. However, in the end, they had managed to at least somewhat settle the whole ordeal with some cheques made and some passed-around medical records.
Aside from that, Tsubasa had spent the better part of the night in consoling Maru and Benkei in their own worries and had also been working with Ayano on and off on the whole 'Sichiro Subject', as they were now calling it. Neither of them were able to get very far with it, since looking into Sichiro's background didn't come up with anything that they didn't already know, and asking any of their co-workers or anyone who knew Sichiro was pointless enough as it was. Attempting to track his phone was all but forgotten; there were very few people at the organization trusted enough that they didn't have to keep any trackers on them - Sichiro just happened to be one of those people. Even trying to track the signal or IP address from his phone was tossed aside, as Ayano had said: if Sichiro was indeed as paranoid as they believed, he wouldn't bother keeping his private phone with him. That left them with dead ends no matter where they looked.
And with Hideyoshi's very vague threat hanging over their heads, it was easy to understand why neither of them was at a point where they could even come close to relaxing.
Tsubasa had sat up all night with Maru as she slept on his office's couch, battling off any restlessness she may be experiencing while anxiously waiting for something to happen. Another phone call, an ominous message, the failure of all power throughout the city; anything, really. He doubted that Hideyoshi was incapable of any of those things, and the mere thought of what he could able to do was terrifying. The waiting was the worst part. And there was nothing he could do but wait; either until Hideyoshi decided to make his move, or until Madoka and the others managed to get through to them from wherever they were.
And now, as he sat at his desk, absently hovering over the various papers that had been faxed to him by the hospital, it was the best thing he could possibly hope for...

Hours had passed since the discovery of Ryuji Hisakawa's body. Hours that were spent cutting through the overgrowth, digging a six-foot rectangle in the ground, and carrying a skinless but somehow still rotting corpse out of the house and actually placing it into the dirt.
It wasn't a pleasant time, and it was made even more unpleasant from the remaining mess that was left where the body had originally been.
Madoka, Kira, and Kite all stayed inside to try to clean up the mess, and hopefully tidy up the rest of the house, while the remainder of the group stayed outside to give the proper funeral rites (at Minoru's request) and finish burying the body.
The whole of it took until twilight was settling over the sky. All of them were covered in dirt and grime by the time they were finished, and it was un-doubtable that many of them would've been eager to go and wash off as soon as they could, considering what they had just been handling and burying. But none of the younger bladers dared to try and leave; not while Minoru stood there, wrapped in his own arms and lost in his own state of unreadable emotions.
Upon seeing his brother's state of distress once more, Gingka kindly gestured for the younger bladers to head inside and let him deal with it. Ren, Shinobu, and Eight all hurried off, albeit reluctantly at first; Gingka watched them go, and waited until he saw the door of the house close behind them before he turned back to the fresh grave before them.
The two of them stayed like that for a while; silent, with nothing but the crickets and the faint croaks of frogs to accompany them. It wasn't a comforting silence; nor was it an uncomfortable one. It was just... silence. The sort that you don't know how to feel about.
Gingka knew how to feel about it though; the same way he always felt about the silence nowadays. How he dreaded it, hated it, feared it as much as he feared his own reflection. But he didn't try to break it. He simply sat there, let the chirp-and-croak-filled silence fester and bubble, and waited for Minoru to break it himself. Finally, after an eternity in his own eyes, he did.

"I-I shouldn't have even reacted the way I did..." Minoru said quietly.
Gingka looked up at him from he sat on the grass.
He saw Minoru swallow thickly before he spoke again.
"I a-already knew what... what had happened to him, so... i-it shouldn't have been surprising, but..." A deep breath. "I guess I just... Maybe I just thought that..."

"That it was all a dream?" Gingka asked softly.
Minoru nodded, and briefly wiped at his eye with his hand. His cheeks were still stained with his tears from earlier.
"I shouldn't even be crying..." Minoru said as he wiped at the unfallen tears. "After what I did to him, I-I shouldn't even..." Quietly, Minoru shook his head, looking anywhere but at his uncle's grave. "He'd be disappointed... I mean, he was probably already disappointed, anyway, but... He wouldn't want me to be here... Not after knowing that I..."
Minoru was completely unable to finish his sentence and pressed a dirt-covered hand to his mouth to stifle the quiet sobs as pearly tears slowly started to leak down his face again.
Gingka felt an inexplicable ache in his chest as he watched his younger brother silently tear himself apart. He might have tried to comfort him if this was anyone else, in any other situation. But it wasn't 'any other situation'. It was one that he himself understood far too well.
Silently, Gingka looked back at the freshly disturbed mound of dirt in front of them and allowed himself to speak.
"You said," he began, gently testing the waters, "that you were the one that did... that... to him. What did you mean...?"
It was a long while before Minoru could finally bring himself to answer.
Gingka tried not to flinch when he heard his voice break.
"I was fourteen..." Minoru explained. "I'd lived here... my whole life. Uncle Ryuji was the one who took care of me... It was always just the two of us. I never asked about my parents, because I knew I wasn't supposed too. He said that they'd died, or something, and it hurt him to talk about it, so... I didn't. But it was good; being just the two of us... We both took care of the place, and we took care of each other. I mean, we had our falling outs, but..." Minoru paused and seemed to consider his own words for a moment. "Well... Maybe they weren't just 'falling outs', I guess, but... h-he was still good to me. It's not like we didn't have our good times, so... It was good. It was good..."
It was obvious that Minoru was trying to convince himself.
Gingka considered asking him more on the subject, just for a split moment, but decided against it. Minoru could talk to him about it if he wanted too. But he still couldn't help noticing how the way that Minoru talked about his uncle was far different from the way Alcorin had talked about him. And neither perspective was giving him too many positive thoughts on the relationship the two of them had.
"And then..." Minoru continued, his voice beginning to shake more than it had been. "...I, um... I-it was about seven years ago, obviously. I-it wasn't any sort of special day, really... Or at least I don't think, I can't remember, but... I-it was just a normal day, to start out with... We both got up early, and we did our chores, and we had breakfast, and all that. Like we always did. I remember the phone ringing, and then Uncle Ryuji sent me to go upstairs. I-I didn't ask why, because I knew I wasn't supposed too, so..."
Gingka bit his lip at the words 'wasn't supposed too', but he still said nothing. It wasn't his place to say anything about Minoru and his uncle, especially not while he was recounting the days and moments leading up to his death. He brushed aside his own not-to-fond memories that began resurfacing and kept listening to his brother as he spoke.
"So I went upstairs," Minoru stated. "And I was going to my room until I realized that... I-I'd forgotten my book downstairs. Reading was a more common hobby of mine when I was alone, and it kept me busy... I-I should've known better than to head back down, I know, but I did anyway. I mean, I didn't think it would cause any harm... It was just me getting a book, so it had to be understandable enough... But I got back downstairs, and I heard my uncle talking..." Minoru paused again and took in a deep breath. "He was talking about you."
Shocked, Gingka immediately looked back up towards Minoru, who refused to meet his eyes.
"W-well, maybe not just about you, I guess, but... I-I heard him say your name. And, of course, at that point, anybody who was anybody knew who you were... And me and him, we never really talked about current events too much. There was a newspaper lying around sometimes that I would read, and there was the radio, but... That was it. A-and I knew better than to eavesdrop. But I did anyway, and he was just talking about you, and then about me, and..." Minoru paused again and took a moment.

Gingka let him, allowing him his time to process the memories that he had undoubtedly never wanted to remember.
"And that is the day," Minoru said slowly, "that I learned that I had a brother. And... Something like that; it's not something that's easy to learn after years of being told that you're an only child, and you only have one actual family member left. And he saw me there... and he wasn't happy."
"What happened...?" Gingka asked carefully, trying to assure that he wasn't stepping on any more sore spots than he already was.
Minoru swallowed the lump in his throat, took a deep breath, and continued.
"He yelled at me..." the younger twin explained, voice rigid and stiff. "He told me I was supposed to be in my room and asked what I was doing down there; what I'd heard... A-and, I... I didn't know what to say, because I know what I heard him say and I didn't know what to do, because I had a brother that I never knew about, and how do you handle just learning that?" Minoru strained to calm himself, and then, voice shaking, he went on. "And he kept yelling at me, and I was scared because I didn't want to be in my closet again, but I didn't know what to do... And then... I... I-it was just like... I was watching it happen. I was seeing it, but I wasn't there. And I watched as he..." Minoru's voice broke, and he raised his hand up to his mouth again as the tears dripped down his cheeks again. He looked anywhere but Gingka; anywhere but his uncle's grave.
Gingka felt his own eyes slowly begin to well up with tears, but forced them down as best as he could. Because this was Minoru's time to cry, to mourn, to grieve; not his. But he couldn't help the faint pang of his heartbreaking as Minoru spoke again, wet with tears.
"He looked so scared..." He said, muffled slightly by his own hand. "And Alcorin just... threw him... everywhere. And I couldn't do anything...! And I heard him talking... and he was enjoying it, and I couldn't stop him..."
Yes, that sounded quite familiar. But Gingka pushed back that thought, and looked up at his brother in earnest, watching helplessly as he sobbed into his hand and shook with his own grief. But, finally, he could stand it no longer and reached up to tug on the hem of his brother's shirt to bring him down to his own level.
Even without an explanation, Minoru understood the message and lowered himself down onto his knees beside his brother. Ignoring any other instincts that his body gave him to not hug him, to not let him touch him, Gingka carefully reached around and brought his brother into a hug, and let him cry into his shoulder. He didn't care about the way that his body screamed at him to push him away; he didn't care how he felt his own skin prickle at the feeling of Minoru wrapping his own arms around him, just barely suppressing a flinch; this was Minoru.
He knew who this was, and Minoru needed this now, so there's no reason to be afraid.

pushhimawaypushhimaway

It was fine. It was all fine.
They stayed like that for about a minute before Minoru finally pulled away, wiping at his eyes with the sleeve of his shirt.
"I-I'm sorry..." He sputtered, "I-I know you don't... don't like being touched, I-I just-"
"No, it's fine." Gingka reassured him, "Really, it's fine."
Minoru didn't look convinced, but he didn't say anything further about it. "Sorry..." He apologized again, "I didn't mean to... to break down, it's... It's just hard to remember."
"I get it," Gingka said with a nod. "I-I know that probably doesn't help any, but I do get it... It's... Not exactly something you just learn to cope with so easily..."
The constant intruding memories of terrified eyes, shattering glass, and horrifying laughter were enough to prove that.
"I'm sorry about him." Gingka said, and gestured to the grave beside them, "Your uncle."
Minoru sniffled softly, finally sparing a glance at the freshly disturbed dirt. The younger twin didn't say anything at first but then turned back to Gingka. "I'm sorry about your dad..." He said.
Gingka felt another pang in his heart and looked down at the ground in front of them.
He wondered what sort of funeral they had given Ryo. Especially after the state that may have found him in. He had never contacted anyone back in Koma since then; all of it had hurt too much to even think about doing so. After what he had done, he wondered if anyone would even want to see him back there. There were many things that could be forgiven in Koma Village; murder was certainly not one of them. Even still, he should give Hyoma a call one of these days; apologize for all of his wrongdoings, and accept all the yelling and hate that would undoubtedly come his way. Maybe, after all of this was over, he could find a way to pick up the phone.
In front of him, he heard Minoru give a small laugh, and looked up at his brother to see him shaking his head.
"We are so screwed up..." Minoru said, not looking him in the eye.
Gingka found himself smiling softly at this. "Yeah..." He breathed, "We are."
The twins once more fell into their own silence and looked practically anywhere but at each other. Gingka looked up at the sky to try to distract himself from the quiet, and gazed at the fading light of the sun, quickly being overshadowed by a dark navy blue and twinkling stars.
"We should head inside," he said, "it's getting dark out."
"Yeah." Minoru agreed readily, clearly glad to have a change in the conversation, "Okay."
Minoru managed to help Gingka stand and steady himself without needing to lay a hand on him, and the two of them headed inside, both of them supporting the other in one way or another.
After several hours of meticulous cleaning with whatever old materials they managed to find in the house, the place could now be considered... at least partially inhabitable. Probably not for any long term period, but definitely for a few days or even a week, if that's what someone was looking for. Fortunately, the place cleaned up fairly well, and the oil lamps and candles spread around the lower level gave off a good amount of light and warmth was that much welcomed in their current situation. They probably wouldn't ever be able to get the stench of a rotting body out, but masking it with various lamps and questionably scented candles would have to be good enough.

"Oh, there you two are." Madoka said from the dining room table, looking up as Minoru closed the door behind himself and Gingka, "Just in time."
From the looks of it, they had definitely arrived 'just in time' for something, judging by the way that everyone was gathered around the table and watching intently as Kira worked away on three different holographic screens protruding from a small, metal bracelet that was set on the surface of the table.
"What are you up too?" Minoru asked as both he and Gingka made their way over to join the rest of the group.
"Kira's trying to get through to the WBBA while drawing as little attention as possible." Madoka explained, "We figured that the Tokyo WBBA might have all sorts of tracking devices through our own network, considering what happened last time. So we're hoping that we can get in through one of the more obscure lines."

"Which are almost non-existent, mind you." Kira pointed out, never once deviating from his task. "We're lucky there even is any sort of obscure connections in this network; let alone ones that are actually working. I don't doubt that is probably where the Tokyo WBBA has some of their bugs hidden."
"Comforting..." Ren mumbled and wrapped her jacket further around herself.
"So... you think that most of them would be in these ones?" Madoka asked.

"Well, probably not most of them, but definitely a few." Kira answered, "If they're as smart as I think they are, they'll have most of them in the public network."
"But wouldn't that just make them easier to find?" Eight asked, confused.
"Not necessarily. Bugs and viruses are a lot smarter than they used to be; they can easily disguise themselves as something completely harmless and plant themselves where nobody will even think to look."
"Plain sight..." Kite said in a moment of realization, and Kira nodded.
"Exactly." He said.
"How do you know so much about this stuff?" Shinobu asked.
"Guess," Kira answered, and said nothing further as he intently fought his way through the connection line.
Shinobu fell silent, but seemed to content enough with the answer; after all, it didn't exactly take a genius to guess how Kira knew all of this stuff.
"Got it," Kira claimed abruptly, once more drawing everyone's attention the screens in front of them, which had now been limited down to one once again. The symbol of the WBBA was displayed on the screen, while a 'Please Wait' was settled directly under it.
"Now what?" Madoka asked, "What do we do?"
"See if all that hard work pays off." Kira said, leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed, "With this level of technology, we shouldn't have too many problems in getting through to the main connection network. However, if your security has been updated to what it should be, after all the times you've been hacked this summer, then it will actively attempt to destroy any and all threats that it perceives as even mildly suspicious; which includes us, by the way."
"Yeah..." Madoka thought aloud, "I don't know if our security is necessarily that advanced, but I'd have to check the security department for that."
"Well, then you better check when you get back." Kira told her, looking over his shoulder at the brunette, "And if it's not up-to-date, then it needs to be because that will save you a lot of trouble. I'll give you guys credit though; it's a hell of a lot better than the last time I hacked into your system."
Madoka raised a skeptical eyebrow at this statement and wondered briefly whether or not that was meant to be a compliment.

"Um... Thanks?" She said.
Kira didn't respond to her confused tone, but that was because the screen had changed into one that Madoka half-recognized as one of the central hubs of the WBBA network; however, this one had a slightly different layout, and was definitely not as welcoming in presence as it usually was.
Well, obviously, she thought, we're basically breaking in.

"Alright, which computer do we want?" Kira asked, hands ready on the holographic keyboard in front of him, "There's about 15 at the very least, but most of them are public, and I highly doubt they want a bunch of teenagers showing up on their computer screen."
"Try Tsubasa's personal one," Madoka told him, leaning forward to see the screen better. "There's no guarantee that he's using it, but it's probably our best option."
Kira began frantically typing away and tapping at the screen, racing through several different windows in record time. "And, praise the lord, it's active." He stated, and then began typing in multiple rows of code into a small, black window. Given a little less than fifteen seconds, Kira broke through its security, and another screen opened.
They were immediately met with the startled face of Ayano. 'Startled' being a light term, considering that she yelped loudly and reeled back in the wheeled chair she was currently sitting in. She probably would have made a run for it had she not kept her eyes on the screen and recognized the occupants behind it.
"Oh... my god." she seethed briefly, before quickly regaining her composure.
"Sorry, Ayano!" Madoka apologized, pushing herself up beside Kira a bit so that she was more in frame. "We didn't mean to scare you. We just had to get into Tsubasa's laptop; it's the most private computer we know."
Ayano nodded. "Fair enough..." she said, brushing a few strands of hair out of her eyes. "I just didn't expect that so suddenly, is all..."
"Yeah, well, my specialty is being subtle," Kira said sarcastically.
Ayano somehow managed to politely ignore him with nothing more than a glance in his direction before she looked back at Madoka.
"So, what do you need?" Ayano asked, bringing her voice down into a cautious whisper. "Do you want me to get Tsubasa for you? He's been waiting for you to try and get in contact with him all night."
"Please." Madoka agreed. Ayano didn't waste any time in paging the Director down to the thirty-fifth floor...

Ayano's page to Tsubasa was met with an immediate reaction from the Director. As much as he knew he should at least try and appear casual, to not bring any suspicion from anyone that something might be up, he was hardly able to control himself as he hurried down to the 35th floor, Maru rushing behind him to keep up.
After about 24 hours of no sleep and the constant anxious episodes that something could happen at any moment, Tsubasa was nearly beyond the point of pretending that everything was okay. After everything with Alcorin, and Gingka, and Zyro, and the WBBA, he was almost convinced that nothing could ever actually be okay. Not in their lives, anyway. How could it ever really be okay after everything that had gone down since they were just children?
So he stopped trying to pretend and hurried down the floors with Maru in a hopeful descent. Wherever Madoka and the others were, they must be okay.
It was hardly ten minutes before he got to the storage room on the 35th floor. It definitely wasn't the most discreet place to be hatching a plot against the Japanese government (since it was a storage room), but, thankfully, this one was rarely occupied. However, that probably would make it seem even more suspicious...
Whatever the consequences, Tsubasa wasn't in the mood to care at the moment. He raced into the compacted room to find Ayano seated at a small work desk, his laptop - which he had lent to her previously that morning - open in front of her. The second the green-haired women saw him slam through the storage room door with Maru in tow, she practically leaped out of the chair to make way for him. Tsubasa couldn't remember a time when he had sat down faster.
"Holy crap, Tsubasa!" Madoka exclaimed from the other end of the screen, taken aback by his sudden entrance. The sight of her on the other side of the screen, along with Kira, Ren, Shinobu, and most of the others who were able to fit into frame, was enough to calm him from his hopeful high of adrenaline and made him feel more at ease than he had in the past day.

"Sorry..." The silverette apologized as he got himself settled in front of the computer. "Been a little on edge..."
"Yeah, we can see that..." Madoka agreed, worry evident in her face, "Jesus, you look like hell... You really haven't slept since we left, have you?"
"Well... no," Tsubasa admitted, slightly embarrassed. He hadn't exactly been looking in a mirror the past few hours, but he didn't doubt that he looked like hell.
"Madoka!" Maru exclaimed happily from beside the silverette, standing up on her tip-toes so that her teacher could get a better view of her.
"Maru!" Madoka replied affectionally, the immediate warmth that came to her face a sight to see, "How are you? Have you been doing okay?"
"I'm fine!" Maru said, "I can't say the same for Tsubasa, though..." The pinkette sent the Director a slightly pointed look, though it was clear about the concern that she held towards him.
Tsubasa just sweat-dropped, avoiding eye contact. "Yeah, well..."
"Has there been anything else from the Tokyo WBBA?" Madoka asked. Tsubasa sighed.
"Just a phone call as soon as you guys left yesterday." He said. " Other than that... nothing. Which is what worries me, to be honest. I haven't slept in a day; I can hardly afford to at this point... I don't know what they're planning, but I do know that Hideyoshi is pissed."
"That's gonna end well..." Madoka breathed.
"I know..." Tsubasa said, leaning back in his chair. "It's not exactly the most ideal situation, to say the least... I trust you all found somewhere safe?"
"For now." Madoka shrugged her shoulder. "The smell isn't exactly pleasant and there's no electricity, but it's somewhere, at least."
"Good to hear..."

"Anyway... Other than the no sleep and quiet, how is everything over there?"
"As good as it can get." Tsubasa answered, "Ayano and I have decided that it's best to keep all of... this... strictly between us, for as long as we can help it. Which isn't exactly easy, since we've been working with the Management team on dealing with the hospital, and, needless to say, neither of them are too happy about a psychiatric patient just suddenly disappearing."
He heard a mumbled 'sorry' from somewhere offscreen - undoubtedly from Gingka. Tsubasa gave a brief smile at that. "Other than that, I've been explaining things as best as I can to Benkei, and we've been working on finding Sichiro... Which is a dead end at this point. We've tried everything we can think of, but there's no way we can track him."
"So he's just... gone?" Madoka asked.
"Yeah. If he's telling the truth, then chances are, we may never hear from him again..."
Ayano couldn't suppress the need to shift her position at those words and lifted her hand to her mouth to anxiously bite at her thumbnail. Tsubasa sent her a brief, worried glance before looking back to his friends.
"You better hurry up," Kira said, coming a little further onscreen, "I can't guarantee how much longer we have before the system forcibly kicks us out."
"Okay..." Madoka said with a nod, "We'll try you again later, okay?"
"Yeah..." Tsubasa agreed, "Be careful."
"You too." It didn't take long for Kira to reach over and have them disappear from the screen.
After that, Tsubasa slowly leaned back in his chair again, and let out a heavy, weary sigh. Maru looked at him worriedly, her mouth pressed into a thin line. He noticed this and gave her a small smile for reassurance.
"I'm okay, Maru." He said. "Don't worry." He knew that sort of reassurance was pointless, though. Maru clearly didn't believe him.
The silverette turned back to face Ayano, who stood biting at her thumbnail. "Go find the Chief of Management, would you? I have a few things I need to talk to him about, regarding the hospital's demands for payment. Tell him I'll meet him in my office."
"Of course..." With that, Ayano left the storage room.
Tsubasa wasn't too far behind her, Maru following at his heels...

Having Kira cut off the call with Tsubasa almost felt like having a limb cut off. At least, it did for Madoka. After everything that had gone down in a matter of two days and suddenly being whisked away into the rural country at a moment's notice, having contact with someone from home (despite only being away for about twenty-four hours) was comforting beyond belief. So suddenly being cut off from that short-lived comfort hit her harder than it was probably supposed too. And she could see from the mild distress of some of the others' faces that she wasn't the only one wishing that they could've talked for longer.
The silence that came with the cut off of the call was short-lived since Minoru was quick to break through it.
"Okay kids, come help me find some blankets." He said and beckoned the younger bladers to follow him upstairs. Eager for something to do - anything to distract them - the children readily followed the younger Hagane twin up the stairs.
Madoka watched them go, her eyes trailing after them until Kite disappeared upstairs and their talk could just barely be heard from the second floor. Only then did she let out a heavy sigh and slump in the chair she was in.
Gingka looked back at her, eyebrows knitted together in concern.
"You okay?" He asked softly.
"Yeah." She said, though none too convincingly, "I just... I'm just tried."
"'Just'?"
Madoka sighed through her nose and looked up at the redhead sitting a few feet from her.
"You know what I mean..." She said.
Gingka looked at her for another moment before nodding and looking down to his lap.
"Yeah..." He responded, "I know what you mean..."
Madoka thought about leaving it at that; with nothing but the silence and silent understanding that she hoped she wasn't misinterpreting. But after so long of keeping everything to herself, and having no one to ever truly confide in the hopes of appearing strong for the younger bladers, she knew that that was impossible.
"I just..." She started, faltering for a split moment. Gingka looked back up at her, but she couldn't bring herself to look at him. And she really couldn't say why... "I really thought that this was all over..." She said, shaking her head as she looked down at the scratched wood of the table, "... I thought that you know, maybe things can actually go back to the way they were. That, maybe, we could just live our lives instead of trying to survive day to day and trying to save the world, like we always do! And now..." Madoka's voice trailed off.
She really didn't want to have to say it again... That Zyro was gone; kidnapped by the Japanese government and taken to God-knows-where to have Gods-knows-what done to him. Tears prickled at the edges of her eyes from her frustration, and she briefly wiped at them before they could fall.
"Why is it always us?" Madoka asked, her voice cracking in her own frustration. "Every time something bad happens, it's always us who have to do something about it. Why do we always have to be ones to fix things?"
Gingka shook his head slowly; Madoka knew he didn't have an answer.
"I don't know..." Gingka said in affirmation. "The universe really must hate us or something."
Madoka laughed softly at that. Gingka smiled at her in turn, glad to hear the sound of her enjoying herself, even for just a split moment.
"I just want to go home..." Madoka said, slouching down a little further into her chair. "I want to go home to Maru, and the B-Pit, and sleep in my own bed without having to wonder if we're going to have to be sent packing tomorrow... I just want it all to stop..."
"It will," Gingka said softly. "Maybe not tomorrow, but... eventually. I-I know that isn't too comforting since we don't even know how we're going to get Zyro back, but... It will. Okay?"
Sniffling softly, Madoka nodded her head and wiped away at the few tears that trailed down her cheeks.
"You know, I don't get it..." She said after a moment.
"What?"
"How you can be... so positive sometimes." Madoka said, looking towards the redhead across from her, "I mean, even you know that things could turn out badly, but... You still manage to see the bright side of things... How do you do that? After all that's happened to all of us, to you? How do you do it...?"
At that, Gingka was left lost for words, adverting his eyes to look at the table. He looked... lost. Maybe bringing up the things he had gone through hadn't been the best idea.

Madoka was about to dismiss her own question when Gingka finally looked up and shrugged his shoulders, a weak smile on his face.

"I don't know." He said honestly. "Sometimes even I wonder how I make it through the day at this point..." Alarmed, Madoka's eyes snapped back up to the redhead, but he just kept smiling at her. "I mean, it's not exactly like the days are always bearable." He continued. "People are always looking at me when I'm in the common room like I shouldn't be there. And everyone tip-toes around me like I'm going to snap at a moment's notice. I mean, it's not like they don't have a reason too - PTSD patient and all, tendency to lash out, a questionable sense of reality... But I always just kept thinking; 'I'm going to get better, and I'm going to get out of here, and I won't have to live with them looking at me like that every day'. And I think; 'if I learn how to get around by myself again, maybe I can be okay'... And maybe I'm just kidding myself, but I figure that it's worth a shot, even if I'm never allowed in public society ever again."
"Gingka..." Madoka said softly, straightening up in her seat, "Don't say that... You're going to get out of the hospital. Yeah, things aren't exactly great over there right now, but... You'll get better. It'll be okay! When we get back, you can keep doing your therapy... and you'll be discharged in no time. You'll see!"
Gingka's smile brightened just a little at that, and Madoka found herself smiling too. However, the brightness didn't stay for very long, and she watched as Gingka leaned sideways against the back of the chair, a frown replacing the smile that had originally been on his face.
"You know..." He started, voice small and far different from what had just been talking to her with, "When Minoru came into my room yesterday and told me and Kira about what had happened to Zyro... And how you guys were going to need to leave, and probably take me with you... I just sat there, and I thought: 'No. I don't want to go... I just want to stay here, and rest, and not have to worry about this sort of stuff anymore. I'm done'."
Madoka's eyes widened at this, and she watched as the tears trickled down from the corners of his eyes. He did nothing to stop them, refusing to look at her as he went on.
"I mean, I was worried about him. Of course I was. He's a great kid, and I never wanted to see anything bad happen to him, ever... I had once dedicated my life to making sure that nothing ever would... But in that moment, I just didn't care... I just wanted it all to stop. I didn't want to have to worry about this... and I knew that, ultimately, I had a choice to come with you guys or stay at the hospital... I knew, that I could stay in Meta Bey if I wanted too. And, despite just wanting to lay down, I came anyway. I-I don't regret coming along or anything, believe me, because we do need to get Zyro back, and I'd do almost anything for that kid, but..." Gingka paused in his soft rant, seeming to contemplate on whether or not he should actually say what he needed to say.
Madoka waited patiently and didn't pressure him to continue.
Finally, Gingka did. "The truth is..." Gingka breathed out, "I don't even think I actually came here for him... I just wanted to get out of that damn hospital... and I hate myself for it."

Madoka didn't get the chance to say anything else to him as Minoru and the younger bladers came clambering back down the stairs, loads of blankets and pillows stuffed into their arms from the upstairs closet.
Gingka quickly made an effort to wipe away the tears on his face and sit up straight as his brother entered the room, followed closely by the rest of the younger bladers.
"Alright, so I'm pretty sure we got all of the ones that aren't moldy," Minoru stated, "but there's still a chance that a few of you are going to have to share."
Madoka quietly told Gingka to stay where he was when he looked as though he were about to stand, and got up herself to go help sort out the blanket situation with the rest of the younger bladers.
Gingka briefly thought about protesting, but soon decided against it. It was probably for the best, anyway...
So he watched as she stood up and went to help with the blankets, his eyes following her for only a moment as she got tangled up in the small swarm that the children were making. It was almost a little comical, as they sorted through the multi-colored blankets, faces slightly scrunched from the faint moldy smell they gave off and going through every inch of them to see if they could find any hidden moldy spots.
It was enough to make him smile.
It was only when he started to turn to look away from them did he catch Minoru looking at him. The small smile that had originally graced his brother's face had now been replaced by a soft frown, the knowing worry in his eyes all the proof that Gingka needed to know that Minoru knew that he wasn't okay. Even if it wasn't in the exact words he had used, he still knew. They were twins, after all... He supposed that was what twins were for.
Their eye contact was only held for a few brief moments before Madoka called Minoru's attention back to sorting out the sheets they had gathered. Gingka took to silently watching as they went about their business, leaning into the back of the chair in exhaustion with a quiet huff.
As important as it was to get makeshift beds set out to at least make them comfortable, protect them from the chill, he felt that they may all know that it was pointless. Or at least, to him it was. And he didn't doubt that Minoru felt at least partially the same way as well. It didn't matter how muffled the stench of a rotten corpse was or how tightly they bundled themselves up - neither of them was getting any sleep that night.