And here is Chapter 6. A better turnaround time, but with me about to leave my first job, my second about to break for the summer, and having to bang out an application for grad school (and hope to God I have a chance) and study for licensing exams, things will be dicey update-wise. I thank you all who have continued to follow this story despite the long gaps between chapters (of which I have barely scratched the surface) and reviewed it to help make me a better writer.
lostinafeeling: I'm flattered by your appraisal of my work, and I most appreciate your view on this. Natsuki is my favorite character, and I hope future chapters will continue to develop her (and everyone else) as well as you say I have so far.
MartialHorror: Yeah.
ProcupineTree: Hmm, you think I should lift the ban? I suppose two years is long enough...
Nyloel: It's actually kind of interesting that you and PT have praised my character development. That was actually my weakest point when I wrote a short play for English class.
Again, My-HiME belongs to Sunrise.
6/4/09
12 March
20:11 (UTC+9)
Fuuka City, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan
Breaking and entering wasn't a felony that Nao had practiced as much in as battery, but when the safehouse has to front as an actual business as well, that left some options open.
"And go."
Nao leaped over the fence and crossed the back alley before hopping onto a pair of garbage cans as Natsuki's voice began counting the seconds through the earpiece. She grabbed the windowsill and used it to pull her way up the wall to the second floor window.
"…seven, eight…"
Nao carefully stood up on the windowsill just as Natsuki said ten. "Just in time," Nao thought as she spied the security camera's power button light up. She took out a glass cutter from her back pocket and traced out a semi-oval around the lock of the double-hung, moving slowly since it had to be done freehand and she needed to apply a decent amount of pressure. "Ready."
"All right, one second." Nao waited for Natsuki to give the OK; bad things would likely happen if she was caught tapping the pane at that point. "Looks clear."
"OK." Nao began hitting the inside of the semi-oval with as much force as she could, which wasn't a whole lot; there wasn't a lot to hold on to in order to make sure she didn't bounce herself down to the ground. Plus, hitting too loud might alert Searrs, which would be bad. After a couple of minutes of tapping, the glass gave way enough for Nao to brace herself and give it a good push to send the cut piece to the floor inside. She reached in and unlocked the window. "It's open."
"All right, I'll be waiting."
Pulling the bottom window up like a normal person would was difficult due to Nao being forced to stay standing on that narrow sill, so with effort she pulled the top window down as far as she could before slipping inside and landing on the carpeted floor. Nao got up, took a quick glance at the door, and slid the window back into its old position as much as she could. There wasn't much that could be done about the hole in the glass; they'd just have to hope it won't be noticed.
Nao shuffled her way across the carpet to the door. Opening it just a crack, she saw the back of one of the employees walking away from her and towards the stairs. This late on a Sunday evening, there shouldn't be too much activity going on: the building housed a clothing store at ground level and some offices on the upper floors, so the only employees around should stay on the first floor. Thankfully for Nao, her destination was one floor up. Casting a fleeting glance down the other end of the hallway, she waited until the employee started walking down the stairs before following his steps to the staircase. She kept about ten or fifteen feet of distance to avoid drawing attention to herself before she reached the stairs and proceeded up.
Nao reached the third floor and cautiously opened the door to the dark hallway beyond, lit by the occasional LED-filled panel. She slid inside the hallway and let the door close softly behind her. "Well, then," she said softly to herself. "Let's get to work."
"Welcome," the cashier greeted as Natsuki strolled into the store. "Is there anything I can help you with today?"
"I'm just looking around," she replied.
"Very well, then. Please let one of our employees know if you need any help." Natsuki acknowledged it with a nod before moving on to the back of the store at a leisurely gait. She didn't want to tip them off by homing in on the "Employees only" area right away, after all.
The plan that Natsuki drew up that afternoon was fairly straightforward: Nao goes in the back way, slips upstairs, and disables the security system long enough so that Natsuki could slip into the back rooms and find her way downstairs. Natsuki would then investigate what Searrs or whoever's running the show was up to, make copies of as much as she could, then get out of Dodge. Nao would act as a lookout and back-up while Natsuki did her thing. This plan would accomplish what Fumi had asked her to do, but more importantly allow Nao to do something more tangible yet keep her out of potential problems if that guy should be there. To be specific, Natsuki would shield her from his presence if he was indeed there. Rash actions are a bane to these kinds of operations.
The minutes ticked by slowly and became increasingly more heart-pounding for Natsuki as she tried hard to feign interest in the chic styles on display. She usually wasn't one to care a whole lot about what she wore beyond making sure it was comfortable (what went on underneath was different story), and her ability to put on a show was hampered even more by the ever-present temptation to check her cell phone every forty-two seconds. At least twice she had to tell herself to slow down and actually try to look at the clothes lest her anxiousness to get inside draw attention and either blow her cover right there or raise suspicion if she did slip away but the lack of activity strikes one of the employees in the store. It didn't matter that she had done this kind of thing several dozen times before: you only need to screw up once. Such is life in this line of work.
Natsuki cell phone let out a very soft humming as the vibrate function set off, her signal from Nao that she had about a minute and a half to get inside. Fortunately for her, when she glanced back at the front desk, there were only two employees within sighting distance, one of them focused on something on the computer and the other addressing a customer. Without further ado, she glided over to the "Employees only" door and slipped inside to the hallway. Without hesitation, she walked down the hall to the second to last door on the left, pulling out an ultraviolet light about the size of a pen and a small capsule. Natsuki frowned, though, when she saw the metal buttons on the keypad: her plan to blow powder onto the pad wouldn't work. In the cool and dry environment of the hallway thanks to air conditioning, the powder would not stick to the buttons and more likely raise an alarm than tell her what buttons are in the code. She put the capsule away and glanced at her watch. Seventy seconds.
Natsuki's eyes caught sight of the 2 and 5 keys, which were noticeably more worn than the other keys. Maybe that could give a hint. She thought back to when she was reviewing the stolen security tapes from that same store that afternoon. She remembered the man punching the pad a total of nine times; first on the third row, then the first, second, second, first, second, second, first, then the last. The pound key was on the last row and was more visibly worn than the star, so that was probably the "enter" button. But what's the actual code? Natsuki took a deep breath and glanced at her watch again. Fifty seconds. She looked up at the disabled-for-the-time-being camera, waiting for its chance to pounce and send her down in flaming failure. "Enough," Natsuki told herself as she refocused on the keypad. Fear was OK. Paralyzing fear was not.
Natsuki looked closer at the pad, close enough to read the Roman letters assigned to each button. Maybe the code was a word or a phrase; it'd certainly be an easy way to remember it. Natsuki gritted her teeth; she'd have to go on that with the clock ticking. OK, then, what's the word? S-E-A-R…no, too short. G-O-L-D-E-N-M-I…way too long. V-A-L-K-Y…it's the right length, but her finger would not match the order in the video. Natsuki checked her time again: twenty-seven seconds. Last chance to abort, but she could taste the answer like mayo! Come on, think! Her finger hovered over the keys again: 8 for "V", 2 for "A", 5 for "L"…wait…maybe that was it. Natsuki threw up her Hail Mary pass: 82542552. She finished with an emphatic punch of the pound key, and the red LED light turned a merciful green as the sound of a lock releasing its hold on the door reached Natsuki's ears. She opened the door, hurried inside, and began pushing the door closed, trying to hurry the stupid pneumatic door shut before time ran out. She stared at the last few seconds of the timer ticking away: six, five, four, three. The door clanged against the jamb just as the time reached two seconds, and Natsuki didn't release her breath until the clock reached zero.
It wasn't that failure to close the door would have been an automatic blowing of her cover, but that was the limit of Natsuki's video-looping program that she had Nao install in the system when she broke in on the third floor. The door being open all of a sudden would have been suspicious to anyone watching, and though there was no guarantee that that was the case (there would be the chance that the Searrs guards would have been napping or otherwise distracted), why risk it? It was fortunate for Natsuki that her reckoning that the code was a word was accurate, and fortunate again that she hadn't cut Midori's class the day they discussed Norse mythology. Natsuki took a minute to recover from those ninety seconds of adrenaline-filled terror. It wouldn't be a good idea to proceed until she could think clearly.
But damn if that rush wasn't exhilarating.
Miyu made no comment about the fact that Alyssa's homework probably didn't have anything to do with testing out the validity of the stability/instability paradox. The normal work assigned to Alyssa, even after skipping three grades, was still a cinch; she sought out more complicated problems to investigate. Miyu simply watched as the big trajectory lines arced down from the Arctic, other lines curved in from two oceans, and the results came streaming in:
Seattle – 1.3 million casualties
Buffalo – 1.0 million
Vancouver – 1.8 million
Minneapolis/St. Paul – 1.8 million
Honolulu – 0.5 million
"Oh, God, here comes the hurt," Alyssa said ruefully to the screen, as the payloads reached their targets. "Stupid ABM Treaty."
Toronto – 2.1 million
Washington – 2.6 million
Boston – 2.7 million
Anchorage – 0.2 million
New York – 13.2 million
Los Angeles – 8.9 million
Portland – 0.9 million
Philadelphia – 4.0 million
Baltimore – 1.8 million
San Francisco – 2.5 million
Norfolk – 0.6 million
"Mistress?"
Alyssa turned around. "Yes, Miyu?"
Detroit – 3.7 million
Sacramento – 0.7 million
Cleveland – 1.5 million
Columbus – 0.7 million
San Diego – 1.4 million
Chicago – 7.1 million
Milwaukee – 1.1 million
"I presume the European theater was struck already?"
"Unfortunately. Asia's been glassed and Latin America's doomed too. Stupid NATO tactical nukes."
San Jose – 0.8 million
Pittsburgh – 1.7 million
Miami – 1.3 million
Phoenix – 1.1 million
Indianapolis – 0.7 million
Denver – 1.3 million
"Mistress, I believe I have pointed out previously the futility of watching this particular simulation play out. The end result is already known to be unacceptable."
"I knew that as soon as Brussels went boom."
Cincinnati – 1.1 million
Montreal – 1.3 million
Tampa – 1.1 million
St. Louis – 1.9 million
"I do not understand why you would persist in watching when you already know its outcome."
Alyssa paused to think over what Miyu just said while the casualty list continued to grow:
Atlanta – 1.7 million
Kansas City – 1.0 million
Dallas/Ft. Worth – 2.3 million
New Orleans – 0.8 million
Houston – 2.5 million
San Antonio – 0.8 million
"It is also 8:16 PM."
Alyssa checked the clock behind her. "Oh wow. Didn't notice." She quickly typed in a command to the computer, and the depressingly glowing map disappeared, replaced by a solitary window with "Calulating…" on it. It was soon followed by a summary report detailing just how screwed the world had gotten, broken down by region. Alyssa had the data saved for later viewing and closed the program. "I'll need a couple minutes to get everything ready."
"You have not answered my inquiry, Mistress," Miyu reiterated as she approached the array of wires in the console next to Alyssa's computer.
Alyssa ceased typing. "Well…" Her hands fell to her sides. "You know…I'm not quite sure," she concluded hesitantly. "I mean, in a way it's fascinating, watching millions of lives vaporize in a matter of minutes."
"I see," Miyu replied flatly.
"Don't get me wrong, Miyu," Alyssa said quickly, "I wouldn't want this to actually happen. It's just…well, the more I think about things like Antietam and Midway and Cuba, the more I think about what might have been."
"You are referring to Special Order 191, JN-25, and Vasiliy Arkhipov, Mistress?"
"Yeah. You know, how it's the little things that can change everything."
Miyu was silent for a moment, then ever so slightly nodded. "I understand, Mistress." She waited by the console as Alyssa prepped for the next installment of "Android Improvement".
Nao was bored. This statement may seem odd given that she was illegally trespassing on private property and was in the middle of a mission to hit Searrs, but being stuck on the third floor doing little more than standby while Natsuki got to do all the fun stuff left her with nothing to do save for sitting in office chairs and staring out the window. At least she was inside: out the window Nao saw how the clouds buried the sky and threatened to rain. Hard, too: Nao caught a glimpse of a flash of lighting in the distance, though it was apparently far away since no sound of thunder ever reached her.
"Maybe I can play some games while I wait," she said to herself as she moved over to the computer. That idea was quashed, however, just as she was about to play Solitaire. Nao had barely started on the game when she heard the distinctly disheartening sound of a hammer cocking right in her ear.
"Excuse me, miss. Could you come with us please?"
Fucktastic.
She had to admit, even after four months, she still hadn't gotten used to wearing these kinds of clothes. She didn't really consider them inferior or anything compared to what she usually wore, but this denim jeans thing felt rather tight on her. And this "hoodie" was probably too big if the top kept coming down on her eyes. Nevertheless, it'd have to do until her school uniform came in tomorrow morning.
She looked down at the creased piece of paper that was in her hand:
Your instructions are to enter Fuuka Chapel and search for the former Searrs laboratory in the basement. Report back on its status: whether it is currently in use, extent of facilities and equipment, extent of efforts to hide it (if any), etc.
It didn't need to be done for another few days, but there really wasn't much else for her to do during the dead time of Sunday night. Well, OK, that was a lie: she could have spent time to see who else she could find here. But then, she'd already seen about nine or ten of them walking around campus; given how things have gone so far, she wouldn't be surprised to see another one or two in the next hour. Besides, as much as she found it interesting, she would rather not get on their bad side by failing to be punctual and reliable. They were her only ticket home, after all.
The girl folded the piece of paper up and placed it in her pocket before stepping through the doors and walking inside. Luckily for her, Ms. Steinberg was not around, so she quickly sidestepped into a side corridor and began looking for a way down. She had to be quiet and very careful, and there were a couple of close calls when Ms. Steinberg came into view to perform some chores, but she remained undetected until she found a stairway. Without further ado, she slipped inside, closed the door, and walked down.
The next five or so minutes were spent exploring the basement corridors, trying to find this secret lab. The possibility that it was no longer there (they had said that it was abandoned two years ago) began to grow in her mind as the minutes passed and no sign of anything out of place came up, especially since it was supposed to be very easy to find and it couldn't have been that big of a basement. Maybe someone came and cleaned it all out. That last thought was dismissed quickly when she turned the corner and saw an array of glowing lights being reflected off the walls of the corner ahead of her. She quietly moved to that corner and peered around it, careful to step around a bundle of cables that ran by. In the room ahead was a large panel of various screens and consoles. Seated in front of it was a girl, no older than her pre-teens, yet performing what appeared to be a lot of programs and diagnostics that she herself would have had no chance of comprehending. But it was what she saw towards the left side of the room that captured her attention: Miyu. She recognized that face anywhere. That was who she saw upstairs that morning; she hadn't been sure because her face had been turned away from her position in the back the whole time. The girl got up from her seat and walked over the Miyu. From her position, it appeared she was her caretaker or engineer or something, doing things like rewiring her internal systems and installing computer things or something.
Suddenly, Miyu's head, which at that point was facing downward, turned to face the intruder. The girl let out an "EEP!" before shutting it with her mouth. She backpedalled quickly, but had forgotten about the bundle of cables that ran from the hallway into the room. With an almost comical moment of arm-flailing, she tripped on the bundle and fell backwards, her hand sideswiping a nearby power box. Some of the lights shut off as her fingers ran across the panel.
"Who's there?!" the blond preteen yelled, alerted by a sudden dimming in the room and turning towards the source of the commotion. Alyssa dropped her clipboard and began running towards the stranger, who got up and began to run away. "Stop!" she shouted as she ran around the boxes that impeded her path between her and the hallway. The chase ran through the basement, the pursued dashing up the stairs and knocking Sister Yukariko off to the side as she opened up the door leading to the basement. Alyssa ran by and caught sight of the intruder running out the front door. "Hey!" she shouted, but it was no use: the other girl was much faster than the top speed her own body could put out. By the time Alyssa reached the front door, there was no sign of the intruder in the raining night, the few streetlamps that lined the roads not revealing anything.
Meanwhile, in Alyssa's haste to catch the stranger she had inadvertently kicked one of the boxes with the side of her foot, sending an open soda bottle that sat on top of it toppling over, its contents streaming across the top of the box and onto one of the computers.
"Where's the alarm coming from?"
"Third floor security terminal." The pair rushed by, completely not noticing the figure in the adjacent hallway. "God damn it, Nao," Natsuki muttered as she snuck down the halls. "I told you not to cause trouble." Hallway sirens flashed as Searrs personnel hurried to and fro while Natsuki hid in a conveniently placed janitor's closet, watching the activity. Nao, for all her ability to give a man a beat down, was hopeless outclassed by a trained dozen of them, and judging by their communications it seemed that her second floor exit was already out of reach. Her best chance of escape, then, would be if the number of them above ground was limited to the four or five already there. She bit her lip as she flipped open her phone, though she held no high hopes of being able to call for help outside since she was underground. Natsuki frowned at the signal strength indicator on her cell phone, which twitched between zero bars and one bar like it was tapping Morse code.
This kind of situation, of course, was what that was for.
A few seconds later, the next wave of soldiers walked by the janitor's closet, in much less of a hurry to head upstairs (I mean, one against six of them?). "Finally, we get to do-" one of them said before being smacked in the face with Natsuki's fist, instigating a hallway brawl. Natsuki knew it was an impossible fight, one unarmed intruder (damn metal detector at the store entrance) against maybe fifteen armed guards who would inevitably show up. But she had been caught before. She could take whatever interrogation techniques they could throw at her. She didn't know about Nao. The angry ones were the most vulnerable ones. But as she was finally subdued and given a taste of the linoleum floor, all she wanted at that moment was to give her chance to get out, hoping those twenty seconds she made them waste would be enough. Natsuki knew that there was a chance Nao would just ditch her once she escaped, but she was fine if it came to that. At least it would shake some sense into the girl.
Her hopes faded, though, as she was hauled up by her handcuffed wrists when she heard the next transmission over a radio:
"Alarm responded. Intruder in custody."
Natsuki was soon escorted away, the guards providing the escort. She was careful never to look back at her hiding place, specifically the garbage can inside, where underneath a couple of spent paper towels, a cell phone laid. It dialed a number, but no answer came forth due to poor signal. "I'm sorry; your call cannot be completed as dialed." The phone hung up, waited, and dialed again. "I'm sorry; your call cannot be completed as dialed." The phone hung up, waited, and dialed again.
"I'm sorry; your call cannot be completed as dialed."
The phone hung up, waited, and dialed again.
"Aaah!" Alyssa rushed into the room when she saw the cascade of error messages that had propagated the screen. All thoughts about who that stranger was and what she was doing down there were mentally pushed aside as she physically pushed aside empty boxes (and stumbled over a not-so-empty one) to get to Miyu. "Miyu! Are you all right?!" Miyu's body made no response. Alyssa frantically searched around the room before grabbing a dry rag and began cleaning up as much of the spilled soda as she could. "Miyu! Oh my God, I'm sorry! Please, say something!"
Suddenly, Alyssa saw Miyu's head twitch, and her fingers began to move. That was enough for Alyssa, as she ran up to hug Miyu. "Miyu! You're all right!" Alyssa's joy was short-lived, though, when seconds passed and Miyu made no sound save for a soft groan. Relief turned into confusion. Miyu never made that sound, ever. At the very least Miyu would have said that she was all right and tell her not to worry. It only grew more confusing for Alyssa when she turned up to see Miyu, who had a very confused look on her face and was looking at her fingers. If it was a normal human being, that expression would have already merited inquiring what was wrong, but consider that this was Miyu, who was stoic even after getting the new body, something was very wrong. Even if Miyu had become more expressive in her emotions thanks to the upgrades, she would have been expressing relief at seeing her…wouldn't she?
"Miyu?" Alyssa asked again, much concern in her voice. "Is everything OK?"
"W-what's going on…" Now Miyu was speaking English. While that in itself wasn't strange (she was built in America), she only ever spoke to Alyssa in English when she wanted to say something privately in the company of others, preferring Japanese for normal conversation. But it was what she said next that told Alyssa something was definitely wrong. After blinking a couple of times and noticing Alyssa hugging her stomach, she said, "Can I…help you?"
"Miyu? Don't you recognize me?"
"I, um…I don't understand what you're saying…"
Maybe her Japanese language module got fried, Alyssa thought. She switched to English. "Miyu? It's me, Alyssa. You know, your…" Her speech faded when she saw a lack of recognition in Miyu's face.
Miyu looked her with a questioning look. "Who's Miyu?"
Alyssa barely had time to register her answer and what it meant before Miyu suddenly whipped her head around the room, looking around. "Where am I?" She held up her arm high and noticed the wires coming out of it. "What's going on?!" she said in alarm. "This…this isn't my voice."
"Miyu? Are you OK?" Alyssa stepped back, not comfortable where this was going. Miyu never had that kind of panicked look on her face. Ever. And she never would start tearing away at the wires connecting her to the computer so forcefully. "Miyu! Calm down! It's OK!" But Alyssa's pleas did not stop Miyu from breaking away and begin to scramble around the room like a startled deer. Alyssa feared the worst: did her memory get corrupted?
"Alyssa-chan! Miyu-san! What's going on?!" Alyssa turned to see Sister Yukariko in the doorway to the room.
"Where am I?!" Miyu demanded as she backed into a corner.
"Alyssa-chan! What's wrong with Miyu-san?" the Sister asked.
"I don't know!" she replied.
"Miyu-san, is everything OK?"
"She doesn't understand Japanese, Sister. I think her system's been corrupted." Alyssa pointed to the fallen soda bottle to her right.
"What's going on?! What are you two talking about?" Miyu pointed a finger towards the two of them.
"Miyu, please…"
"Who is this Miyu person?!"
"It's you!"
"No, it's not! My name is –" "Miyu" cut her rant short when she noticed a bathroom mirror leaning against the wall. Specifically, she saw her opened chest, revealing circuitry, pneumatics, and other things that definitely do not belong in a human body. A moment of silence passed.
Then "Miyu" screamed in utter terror.
"Apparently that soda caused something to malfunction while Alyssa-chan was performing upgrade work."
"Ah, I see. And that is how she has become crazy?"
"I suppose you could put it that way, though she seems more scared than insane."
"Where is Alyssa-san?"
"She is out looking for her."
"I will get help. Please stay there while I go get Tokiha-san and others, in case she returns."
"All right." Fumi hung up and swiftly grabbed her address book and cellular phone. She hurried out of the office, eager to organize a search party before more people than necessary learn about Miyu's true nature. She began dialing on her phone. "Tokiha-san? Yes, this is Himeno…"
Not ten seconds after Fumi walked out of the Director's Mansion and towards her car, the phone in her office rang.
Once again, reviews are most certainly appreciated.
Notes:
* Stability/Instability Paradox: Nuclear weapons make direct conflict between superpowers less likely but smaller indirect ones more likely. (i.e., no direct war between US and Soviet Union, but many smaller ones in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, etc.)
* Special Order 191: US Civil War - Robert E. Lee's lost order which gave George McClellan a big intelligence boost and led to the Battle of Antietam.
* JN-25: Japanese code in WW2 which was broken by US prior to the Battle of Midway and enabled US to inflict crippling casualties on Japanese Navy.
* Vasiliy Arkhipov: Soviet naval officer who persuaded submarine captain not to use a nuclear torpedo during the Cuban Missile Crisis when it was being forced to surface by the US Navy.
Apologies if the history is a little excessive in this chapter.