Chapter 6

"How's it going on your end? " Akira asked of her Shoko-oneechan.

"Almost have the first test done. Starting on phase 2."

"Rune loss? " Akira asked.

"Down to 8%" Shoko shouted across the Vavrave Hangar.

"Still not good enough " Akira shook her head. "We need to get this right the first time. Haruto-chan and Saki-oneechan are counting on us".

Shoko wanted to tell her Akira-oneechan that even if she got something wrong it'd be alright. She wanted to tell her the plan would definitely work. She wanted to; but couldn't. They both understood what was at stake here; the risks to be taken. Unfortunately, it wasn't their lives that were at risk. It was the lives of the two closest friends they ever had.

"I don't know what's going wrong. This should work!" Akira chastised herself aloud quite loudly banging her forehead with her hand.

Shoko began to feel the despair of defeat creeping into her very existance. Surely if Akira-oneechan couldn't conquer the problem at hand there was nothing they could do. They couldn't keep thier promises to either Haruto-kun or to Saki-oneechan.

"Have you tried building a sort of filtration routine into the software?" a familiar voiced asked from the shadows behind them. "It might help to strain out the bad data from the good". "A sort of signal booster may work as well".

Startled, both young woman would spin around to see a familar face neither expected.

"L-Elf? How long have you been standing there?" Shoko asked her Secretary of Defense.

"Long enough to see I was initially on the right track" he chuckled.

"He laughed!" both ladies thought to themselves. In all the time they've known him he never laughed. "Maybe, he never had a reason to". "Could Haruto actually mean more to him than he's even let on" they both thought almost with a shared consciousness.

"You're definitely on the right track!" Akira chimed in running over to L-Elf giving him a huge hug.

A twinge crept into Shoko's heart "Keep your hands off him" she thought stunning herself in the process. "What was that?" she had to ask in her own head. This was her Akira-oneechan. How could she ever be jealous of her. "Jealous?!" she thought "Jealous of Oneechan touching L-Elf?". She needed to get these thoughts out of her head.

"Hey, oneechan!" yelled Akira. "Get over here, we need to get this into overdrive now that we have another set of hands!"

"On my way, oneechan!" Shoko shouted back, putting on a happy face hoping they couldn't see what she was really thinking.

Shoko struggled through the next two days, working non-stop around the clock helping make sure they got everything right on first try. Her feelings were slowly growing out of control. "Why am I feeling so uneasy around L-Elf?" she thought; "Why am I getting so angry everytime Akira-oneechan accidentally brushes or bumps into him?". "It's almost over" she thought thinking maybe all she needed was a nice cold shower.

".04%" L-Elf called out with a bit of joy in his voice. Joy easily noticed by Shoko.

Akira-chan ran over to L-elf showering him with a thousand thank yous, or at least it probably felt like a thousand to him. She wrapped her arms around him, squeezed tight with a big bear hug thought impossible from such a petite young woman and gave him a quick peck on the cheek.

"I can't believe her!" Shoko thought to herself. Turning away pretending to adjust a wire so neither of them could see the obvious anger on her face. "How dare she kiss my L-Elf" thought Shoko in a hateful way she'd never experienced before. For a moment time froze at the reality of the thought in her head; "my L-elf?!". Shoko tried shaking off the fog she soon found in her brain. "There's no way" she thought.

Akira interrupted her oneechan's thoughts with a big hug from behind whispering in her ear, "It took you long enough!" she whispered devilishly.

Shoto turned around looking her oneechan in the eyes. Was she complaining about her taking too long to adjust the wires or did she know. It wouldn't take long for her to get her answer.

"Haruto wasn't the only oblivious one around here" Akira whispered. "L-Elf's always been so into you. Now get up and go put your brand on him" Akira laughed.

Shoko stopped her "but aren't you".

"Trying to get you two together?" Akira smiled. "He's all yours" she hugged her oneechan tighter. "Just so you know, I already have my guy. He just doesn't know it yet!". Akira-chan winked at her oneechan with a mischievious grin on her lips. "This is gonna be soooo much fun!" she thought.