XXXI

Almost Midnight

"N-Nana-chan... j-just how c-could you d-do… t-that to our little… s-s-sister? W-W-Why... did you do it? W-Why d-did you... cause her... so much pain, do you even know... how long it's going to take... for her to recover…? T-Tell me… Nana-chan?" Saeko stammered with each step she took forward, her hands folded across her chest as she approached her kin-sister. "S-S-Saori-chan… might not even wake up for the weekend... and possibly... even the next week, and… all... because of what you... did to her... Why Nana-chan…? Why…? Just… tell… me… why?"

Mayu was about to get up from her futon to tell Saeko that it wasn't true but Nana stopped her before she could, telling her to get behind her instead. "Mayu, she's not going to listen to you," Nana cautioned her, her arms stretched out in an effort to keep herself between Mayu and Saeko. It was obvious to her with that way that Saeko was moving and the way she was talking that she was not being herself at the moment, more likely that she was lost in her thoughts.

Getting up on her feet Nana spoke to her, trying to explain why she had to. "Saeko-san, please listen to me. I didn't want to, you have to believe me. But she left me no choice, that wasn't the Saori-san that you know and love but rather her vicious side, the voice had her under its hold," Nana explained to the best of her ability, stressing that there was nothing that she could have done to convince their little sister otherwise. "She would've hurt or killed if she had seen anybody else, if you have been there you would've seen it for yourself, you should be glad that you weren't."

Nana bit back the guilt she was feeling, Saeko had no idea how much it had pained her having to harm her own little sister just so she wouldn't pose a risk anymore to the family. A tear dropped on the floor in front of her feet. "T-Tell me Saeko-san, do you know how it feels? H-How it feels in having to hurt your little sister? H-Having to hurt her simply because y-you have no choice. You were lucky you weren't here."

Saeko stopped in her pace, standing there as she heard the words that Nana was addressing to her as she looked up the others could see her tear stained eyes. Was it true what her sister had just said? Did Nana truly feel remorse over what she had done to their little sister? No, it couldn't be, if she really felt sorry about then she would be upstairs doing everything she could to help Saori get better. She didn't, she was here, going to bed instead.

"Saeko-san, just listen to me! I-I didn't want to do it! I-I really didn't want to! S-She left me no choice! D-Do you even know how much I hate myself for having done it?! I-I hate myself! I-I simply loathe myself for having had to hurt Mariko-chan! T-That I did something that would make papa sad! D-Do you even have the faintest idea how that feels at all?!" Nana blurted the words, raising the volume of her voice with each sentence. She didn't care if anybody else in the house was going to notice or even hear what she was saying, she wanted to get it off her chest and she wanted it now. "Y-Yet... y-you... c-come... h-here… and… a-accuse me… o-of h-hurting our dear little… s-s-sister… t-that's… s-so mean… of you… Saeko-chan… r-really… m-mean…" With those last words, she broke down and dropped to the floor, crying as she lay there on the floor, her hands gripping her face, eyes wide open.

"I-I-I… c-can't… I-I-I… c-c-can't…n-n-n-no…" she whimpered as she cradled back and forth, seeing her lying there Mayu couldn't get back on her feet fast enough as she rushed forward and wrapped her arms around Nana. "Nana-san, please? Please be alright?"

Unable to move, Saeko just watched as her sister lied there on the floor. No, this just wasn't fair at all. It just wasn't fair at all that Nana was now in pain as well.

Dropping to her own knees she tried to reached out for Nana. "Nana-chan, I-I'm so sorry I-." But before she could she was stopped by Mayu who told her that it would be better if she were to just go back to her own room and leave Nana alone for the night. She was going to need some time alone to get over. Trying to object Mayu told her again that she needed to leave.

"Saeko-san, please just go. Nana-san just can't take any more of it, can't you see she's suffering because of this as well. Please go?" Mayu pleaded to her, trying to make it clear to her that right now Nana needed to be left alone. It would be better for everybody if Saeko were to go to her own room and just watch after Saori.

With a forlorn expression on her face, Saeko nodded her head, accepting that her further presence wasn't appreciated anymore and simply left the room.

There was nothing left for her anymore, nothing other than to go back to her own room and see if she could bring herself to close her eyes and get some sleep, already it felt like she wasn't going to be able to do it. She was just too depressed from it all. '…Why…?'

It was the only thought that kept going through her mind, why did this all have to happen, why?

He had heard enough, for Dai, it was starting to become clear that he was indeed feeling guilty about having left Bando to his own devices, he should have gone with him but there was nothing that could be done about that anymore. "I'll need to make up to him somehow."

Mako was standing behind him, her arms resting on his shoulders. "You should but not today, you need to rest and tomorrow you can think of a way to say sorry to him. Though I'm not really sure if you want to get to that point," she giggled as her head turned away.

He just rolled his eyes. "Really funny there, now I'm even more reluctant to do it," he laughed with her, taking away some of the worries he had been having. "What do you say if we get back to bed and stop keeping the kids awake." His eyes trailed off, past her face and towards the door. This seemed like one of those moments that either of the girls would walk inside and ask for a glass of milk. "I'm so expecting either of them right now."

Turning around she stared at the door as well. "You would wouldn't you, you know I wouldn't mind something warm to drink myself as well. I can't sleep anyway, what do you say if we all join in the kitchen for a nice cup of hot cocoa?" She winked as she grabbed a coat. "You coming dear, I'll let Kyou make them."

Well that meant they were going to be pretty damn sweet, now Dai liked cocoa as much as the next guy but in his mind what Kyou made was just way too sweet for his taste but she did make them with love. Then again something sweet might not be such a bad idea right now, he certainly could do with something to take his mind off things.

"Wait for me," he said, keeping his voice down as he didn't want to wake the kids just yet even though it kind of sounded stupid given they were likely going to wake up the girls or they were already awake. Catching up with Mako he told her. "You go ahead to the kitchen, I'll go and check up on the girls."

Nodding in agreement Mako did tell him to be cautious about it and not to scare them, they both knew exactly how Kyou was going to react, let alone if her little sister was scared. No, they didn't want that as then everybody in the entire block was likely going to be awake.

"I'll check up on Sei-kun, see if he's asleep. If not then you can go ahead as I'll stay with him." She went left at the end of the hall while he needed to go right to the bedroom of the two girls.

Walking on his toes or at least trying to he cautiously approached the door, standing there he placed his ear against the door in order to listen if he might pick up the sounds of their voices. It remained rather quiet which made him think that they were still asleep, well he had better be cautious then, taking a deep breath he gently turned the handle of the door and pushed it open as quiet as he could. Peeking inside the room, it was dark, no sign that one of their lights was on. Well, it wasn't even midnight so, he kind of expected them to be awake, but much to his surprise both of the two girls seemed to be asleep.

Taking his first step into the room he noticed how quiet it was, guess they were both sound asleep which made waking them up was going to be a bit tricky.

"I should start with Kyou first, if it goes well then is one worry less for me," he whispered as he approached her bed, he could just see her shape all rolled with the sheets wrapped around her. "I can't imagine that you can sleep like that, thank goodness it isn't summer just yet." He smiled as he reached out for her with his hand. "Kyou-chan, wake up," he whispered towards her as he leaned in closer.

The attack came out of nowhere, catching him off guard. Dai had no time to react as a heavy blow hit him full in the back, unable to see anything he lost his footing and tumbled on the floor. He could hear his assailant from somewhere behind him.

"I got you oto-san!" Kyou laughed as she dropped down from the ceiling. "I got you good, you didn't see that one coming did you, oto-san? Nobody sneaks up on me." Her thumb up she pointed towards herself, seeming to take a certain sense of satisfaction in her deed. "Oto-san you're not so smart if you didn't see that one coming, I mean I didn't even try to make a good dummy to fool you this time."

So that was what had happened, moaning a little Dai got up. 'Oh hell she got me there alright, honestly I did not see that one coming. Maybe it wasn't such a stupid idea, after all, to not go with Bando, if I can't even dodge a pillow then what chance would I have against a bullet or a grenade…?' Getting back on his feet he barely had time to see that the figure lying in Kyou's bed was actually just a few blankets the young Diclonius had rolled up. 'Very clever.' He had to admit, also a bit scary to see how refined Kyou was becoming at this.

"Oto-san, get up, it's no fun if you're not trying to fight back at least." Barely had she said that or Dai got sandwiched between two other pillows that for a moment knocked the wind right out of him. Using the bed to keep himself steady he wondered how she had managed to pull off that trick but the answer came just as quick; her vectors.

Barely did he have time to recover as another blow came from an unexpected angle, he didn't have the time to dodge and sure enough this blow swept him cleanly off his feet.

"Nice work Ryou! You really got oto-san with that one!" Kyou cheered with excitement. "Do it again! Again! You need to hit him again Ryou!"

"Just great, now she's even spurring her sister on, she had-," he whispered, seconds before he got knocked to the floor again, he had been hit pretty hard with that last one. Still conscious he barely heard Kyou shout something before a heavy blow knocked him to the ground.

About to faint he heard Ryou cry in surprise. "… O-Oto-san?! …O-Oto-san?! … P-Please wake up?! … O-Oto-san…?! His eyes closed as he slumped into darkness.

Inside the office, going through all the paperwork Sakai had to fight back the urge to just scream and slam his fist on the table in utter frustration. "Dammit these papers are just a mess, nothing has been sorted or filed. Searching all of this is going to take days at best."

Stepping away from the desk he turned his attention back towards the PC, hopefully, it was going to hold more useful information as the pile of paperwork behind him was a goddamn mess. "Honestly I can't understand how these people can work like this, there is no structure or organizational order behind it. Not even the most incompetent customs officer could be fooled like this."

Turning on the PC he noticed that it hadn't even been locked. "Bunch of amateurs, honestly you would expect something better but not this pile of crap."

As he kept on ranting and typing Bando kept his attention focused on the doorway and the adjacent corridor, Sakai could grumble and search for all he liked, Bando knew that their sloppiness wasn't something to get irritated at. No, on the contrary Sakai should be offering thanks because it should be easier that way to find the right files. Well, it wasn't his concern as he would rather keep his attention at making sure they weren't going to get caught.

He still didn't feel easy about what they had seen but so far there was little evidence that he could use to persuade Sakai that something was wrong on this ship. Well until he did and he had no doubt that it would find them first he was going to have to remain vigilant.

He tried the radio several times but there was no reply, furthermore, it seemed like that, rather than any of the other teams not replying, the network was being jammed; there was only static.

That could because of the way the ship was built, he was aware that large metal constructions could have an interfering effect on radio transmissions. Of course, there was also the notion of them being jammed on purpose but if that was the case then they would have been detected already.

'Finally!" Sakai remarked as he smiled in triumph. "I finally found the damn files, maybe I was being a bit premature with being so negative about the sloppiness of these people. Well, I now know where we need to go to next but it's going to be a long walk to get there."

Just what he needed to hear, another long walk. Honestly, it almost seemed like Sakai wanted to get caught on purpose, the more they walked the bigger the chances of bumping into the wrong people. "You had better know where we are going, Sakai," he snapped.

"Don't worry, I know exactly where we need to go. Once there it shouldn't take us long to gather enough evidence and then we can leave. Now move aside, I'll take point on this."

"Be my guest." Shrugging his shoulders Bando simply stepped aside to let Sakai take point, he didn't need to be the first one to get shot at. Even though he wouldn't mind some action he did need to take it easy as otherwise, his body was going to be in even more danger than last time. His leg hadn't fully healed yet and the only reason he could keep walking was by a hefty dose of painkillers, nearly his entire supply.

Dammit, he found it hard to admit but he was kind of missing his crutch, he really could use the damn thing right now. "So tell me Sakai, any ideas on what you're expecting to find in that room? It had better be worth the mess we have gone through so far otherwise you're the one who's going to pay."

Sakai stopped. "I expect to find the evidence that we have been looking for, the proof that these people are involved in a shit storm of clandestine operations for which we haven't been able to touch them for years because of a lack of evidence." About to set off again he stopped and turned back to face Bando, pointing at him. "I don't care what we find but if it helps us to nail these bastards to the wall then that's fine with me, whatever it takes."

Well, that certainly seemed like Sakai was more out for vengeance rather than approaching this in an objective manner as one would come to expect from a federal agent, guess there was more to this operation that he could have guessed. Well it was not like he had any right to speak, how much time of his life had he wasted himself in a blind search for vengeance on a certain horned girl and it had nearly consumed him; body, mind, and soul.

He had been fortunate enough that there had been one person who had been determined enough to save him and if it hadn't been for that very special person than Bando was under no illusion that he likely would have perished a long time ago or at the very least would have been forced to live a wretched life full of misery which would have likely end up with him blowing his own brains out.

Perhaps he did have some right to speak. "I trust that it won't mean for me to sacrifice my life just so you can get what you want. Don't even dare to think for a fucking second that I would catch a bullet to save your sorry ass!" He had something to live for.

Sakai grinned. "The feeling is mutual you bastard, you have given me enough headaches to last me an entire lifetime and the only reason why I even tolerate your presence here is because you're good at what you do best and right now I have a need for such a man."

Their little talk coming to an end as they quickened the pace, the time for small talk was over.

Sitting there at the table, still holding an ice bag against his eye Dai waited for his hot cocoa though it seemed that for now, Kyou tried her utmost best to avoid his gaze whenever she came anywhere near him.

Her fingers holding the mug Ryou just stared at him. "… Oto-san, we're really sorry, we didn't mean for you to get hurt, right onee-chan?" Asking that question she turned her head towards Kyou, hoping that her sister would provide an answer as well.

"I know you are dear, neither of you needs to apologize, I know that she did not mean any harm to me. It was just some awful dumb luck that it hit me right in the eye."

"My, my, my," Mako mentioned, teasing him a little as she entered the kitchen and saw him sitting there. "Did you run into the door again? You really need to turn on the lights so you can see," she smirked before quickly turning away her face. "I'm so sorry, that was just mean of me but I couldn't help myself there."

"I'm glad to hear that you're amusing yourself at my expense, thank you, dear," Dai rebuked, dropping the ice bag on the table as Kou came and handed him a new one. "Thank you, dear," he said as he took it and handed her the one he had already used. Oh, it felt good to have a fresh one pressed against his eye, that certainly helped to take down the swelling. "Do I feel happy about tomorrow being a Saturday and not having to go to work, I really do."

Yeah, he was feeling lucky about that, he just couldn't come up with a suitable explanation for having a black eye and his colleagues were certainly going to ask him about it.

He couldn't just tell the truth nor could he come up with a lie that Mako punched him. No, that was only going to get him into even more trouble than he cared for. Letting out a sigh he left his hand and the ice bag rest on the table for a moment, his eye starting to feel a little numb from the cold.

"Oto-san you should make sure you cool it enough to prevent it from further swelling."

Quickly placing it back he nodded to her. "Yes, yes dear. I'll make sure to keep it well cooled, thank you kindly nurse Ryou."

Hearing it Ryou turned away abruptly, just barely managing to avoid the others seeing her face turning bright red from the embarrassment. "… I-I-I… just mean to…" She slammed shut, keeping her hands folded in front of her chest. "… Y-You know… just…"

Then Kyou noticed it and her reaction was very predictable. "Baka oto-san!" she snarled, grinding her teeth. "Guess I haven't hit you hard enough, after all, stop making my sister all flustered! You jerk!" Already her hands were cramping up, gazing down she stared at the empty mug she was holding. Maybe she needed to give him a good whack with it.

Meanwhile, Dai was doing his best to make it up to Ryou. "Come on dear, you don't need to be upset over something silly like that, come here and give me a big hug."

Turning around slowly in response they all got a good look at her face and it did very little to take away the anxiety that Kyou, who was still holding on tight to the mug, was experiencing.

He turned his attention towards her as well. "Do you want to get a hug as well?" he asked while smiling doing his best to ignore the pain,

She approached him carefully though it was met with some hesitance. "So oto-san isn't mad at me?"

"I can't stay mad at you, just promise me that you'll be a bit more careful next time. It still hurts and it's going to take a couple of days before the swelling and bruising will disappear."

Nodding her head Kyou leaped forward and wrapped her arms around his neck as she began to sob and apologize to him. It was typical of her.

Sitting there with both of his daughters in his arms he didn't mind the pain anymore, he simply just wanted to savor this precious moment he got to spent with them. They were really starting to grow up now, in a year or two, perhaps even shorter this was going to be a bit more difficult to do with them. "I love you two…" he whispered in their ears.

Standing at the doorframe Mako just smiled as she watched the three of them. "Well I guess now might be as good of a moment as any to tell you two some good news that you're certainly going to like. Girls, your father and I had a long talk about an offer and we have decided to go with it."

Turning their heads away from Dai in confusion they looked at her, the full attention was drawn towards what their mother was going to say next. Waiting with baited breath they leaned in closer.

"This is of course if you girls want, it's your own choice if you want to stay or not. Alright, are you ready for it? Kouta-san has offered to let you girls stay at the inn for not only the weekend but also for the coming week, which means you can spend nine days with your sisters without having to come home. What do the two of you say about that?"

Halting all of a sudden in his stride Bando came to a stop, Sakai who was in front of him didn't seem to notice at first but then he hadn't seen what Bando had.

Finally noticing it Sakai turned around and doubled back towards him, cursing in irritation at this delay. "Bando, we need to keep going! We don't have any time for any sightseeing!" he hissed, keeping his voice down in order to prevent an echo from going down this corridor.

Bando didn't reply, he just lowered himself, hunkering down as he reached down and picked up a pistol; lying there on the floor, as if discarded. On a closer inspection, he noticed that it wasn't a native design but a rather old soviet era design. Odd that such an old weapon was here, lying on the floor as he couldn´t imagine its owner being so careless,

Seeing what it was Sakai didn't hold back. "It's just a damn pistol, somebody likely dropped it there because they were being sloppy. Now can we get a move on again?!"

Picking it up Bando didn't notice it at first, that was until the light overhead reflected upon the metal and he saw the blood, touching it with the tip of his finger he noticed that it was sticky. "It was dropped yeah but not because somebody was sloppy, something happened," he mentioned though its meaning was lost on Sakai, searching the immediate area he noticed a series of blood drops almost like a trail leading towards the center of the corridor where it suddenly stopped.

"Did you find anything else?! Geez Bando we don't have the time for this shit now! Oh, shit is that…?" Sakai hissed underneath his breath, his grip on the weapon tightening as he noticed it as well. It seemed that he was starting to understand what they were looking at.

There they found a bigger pool, staring at it, they both noticed it when a drop splashed into it. A quiet tense moment followed as both of them understood what that meant, removing the safety of their weapons they raised the barrels high in a rapid movement, pointing them at the ceiling. They had expected to see a clear sign of an opponent or the possibly the victim of the attack but much to their own relief, there was no enemy above them.

"You've gotta be shitting me!" Sakai cursed as he stared in disbelief. "You scared the shit out of me there Bando! I honestly thought for a moment that we were going to have some fucker jump us!"

Bando raised his hand, signaling for the man to be quiet. "I expected something far worse, that gun wasn't dropped because somebody was sloppy but more likely because its owner got attacked before he could even react," he pointed towards an open hatch just above them, likely it was part of the ship's ventilation system to bring fresh air into the lower decks.

"Poor guy never knew what hit him until it was too late." Just as the edge of it, they could see blood, a drop falling down every now and then. "And judging from the state of the blood it seems to have been very recently. I'd say we watch our heads as well."

"For whom exactly? That guy just got unlucky, those kinds of ducts are barely large enough for a person to get through. Maybe you're just overreacting, it is possible he just bumped his head, got a cut and was brought back to the infirmary by his fellow crew. Certainly isn't possible that he got dragged all the way in there. Who did it then, some kind of midget ninja?"

Sakai definitely had a point there which Bando had to admit but for some reason, this wasn't letting go of him, deep at the back of his mind his instinct was telling him to be cautious. But until he would have more concrete evidence he was to have to leave it at that. "Let's go then, let's find that evidence that you're after."

Nodding in agreement Sakai led the way though even he took the occasional glance at the ceiling from time to time. Guess he wasn't one either to let down his guard. Well, that meant he was going to have an early warning, hopefully, there wasn't going to be more trouble up ahead. It didn't sit well with him but for now, there was little he could do about it.

As the door slid open the muzzles of their guns were the first things to enter the room, stepping inside they fanned out making sure to keep watch of the other person as well as of their immediate surroundings.

"All clear, no hostiles inside." Sakai signaled over towards Bando, getting the same reply back he lowered his weapon as it seemed that this area was, for the moment at least, secure. There had been a few tense moments where they had nearly stumbled into an enemy patrol though luckily they had noticed them first and had managed to quickly evade their sweeps.

"We should be in the clear for now, Bando keep your eyes on that door. I would hate to have somebody catch us by surprise. Whatever has been keeping them busy is likely coming to an end as their patrols got more frequent."

Bando nodded, he had noticed it as well. While at first, they had not encountered anybody as they had traversed nearly the length of the ship however on their relatively short trip to this room they had encountered no less than four separate patrols. "Looks that way, makes you wonder if they have managed to catch any of your men. Certainly looked to me like they were actually searching rather than just patrolling."

Sakai couldn't deny that the thought has surfaced a few times with him as well, it certainly stood to good reason and so far there was plenty of indirect evidence to support that possibility.

"If they have already talked then it means I made a gross error in my assessment of these men. But until I have conclusive evidence saying otherwise I will give them the benefit of the doubt," he said before he started to look around in search for his evidence.

"You think too highly of them, only the strongest willed people can endure pain for a prolonged period of time, if these people are indeed as you claim they are then I wouldn't be surprised if they had an expert in interrogation and torture with them, you honestly think that your men could resist having their nails pulled out? People can be cruel you know." Bando remarked, grabbing a cigarette as he was fully aware of the fact that mercenary bands often had quite some experience in the various form of torture, often groups that had been pretty active in war-torn regions would resort to all sorts of brutalities in order to get their hands on the information they sought. If Sakai's men were to subjected to that kind of torture then he had no doubt they would crack within mere seconds.

Sakai rebuked. "You're a twisted man, if these people would have lowered themselves by resorting to such brutal forms of interrogation then I'll make sure they get the appropriate treatment when I get my hands on them, now focus again on the door." He went on with his search, stepping further into the room as it became more spacious. Craning his neck up to get a glimpse of the size he wondered what could be transported in this room, certainly its size kind of left him wondering as it was simply too big for what he had been expecting.

That said he also noticed it all of a sudden, a chill running down his spine as it started to get far colder the deeper he went, already his own breath was visible. "This is odd, it's almost like I'm in some kind of cold storage, that doesn't make sense…"

Checking his surrounding he noticed that condense and even small pockets of ice were forming at certain locations, this only got stranger by the moment. Grabbing his radio he called in Bando, he was going to need an extra hand in exploring this room and right now he was all that he had on hand. "Bando, ignore the door for now. This room seems to be more than that it might give away, I need an extra set of eyes. Just keep your weapon at the ready."

He could hear the reluctance in the man's voice but he came nonetheless. Waiting near something that appeared to him like a large storage container his interest was piqued.

Honestly, he had been expecting some weapon storage or such but somehow this room didn't match the description he had found. "Why would anybody call this a weapon components room? What kind of components for weapons would require being kept cool during transport? This doesn't make any goddamn sense…" His thoughts trailed off.

"I'm here, what do you need me for?" Bando appeared, staring at the container as well he asked. "Any idea on what that might be? What exactly are we supposed to find in this room anyway, feels more a giant oversized freezer if you ask me." To him, the drop in temperature was also noticeable, something about this room didn't make sense to him.

"It sure makes you feel that way, doesn't it? Honestly, I thought there was going to be information with regards to shipments of weapon or other illegal material but this doesn't match with what I've been told or what I've imagined it to be," Sakai sighed, seeming to be visible down from the disappointment. "It also doesn't really match with the ship as well, it's far too modern to be on a cargo ship, and somehow I would expect a room like this at a top research facility of something like it. I don't know what but there is something off with this room and if that data on the PC was correct they have five more rooms like this one."

The mere mention of that made Bando raise one of his eyebrows, as that meant there were no less than six of these rooms on this ship, which was indeed suspicious to him. "If that is so then I say it´s about time that we tear this room apart and see what is so special about it."

Finding himself agreeing with that Sakai got up from where he was sitting. "If we are going to do that we need to be systematic so that we can cover the most ground in the shortest distance, the last thing either of us needs now is wasting hours on a search."

Just as they were about to start the door opened, jumping for cover both of them cursed as they heard multiple footsteps coming inside. They were trapped inside here.

Closing the door behind her Mako let out a sigh of relief. "Well, that certainly went a lot different than what I had expected, I knew they were going to be excited about it but I think they established a new record for how excited a person can be." She nearly dropped on the bed, well after she had managed to calm down the girls a bit and had to coax them to back to their room she could really do with some sleep right now.

Dai lied next to her. "You don't need to tell me that, I was right next to them when they started to scream. I think that I might have suffered some damage to my hearing, to be honest."

To him it had felt like an explosion had gone off right next to his ear, Kyou and Ryou really must have expended every inch of their lung capacity to make such a shout. "You know, in hindsight, I think it might have been better if we had told them in the morning, there is now no way that either of them is going to catch any sleep after that. They're pumped."

Staring at the ceiling Mako didn't even turn her head to look at him. "I think you're right but I'm simply too tired now to even think about how dumb it was of me. Just let me sleep alright and we can go over how bad this was tomorrow, okay?" Although she tried to raise up her arm it didn't get all that high before it dropped back on the bed.

"Sure…" Was all that Dai could get over his lips before he had to yawn as it seemed that the exhaustion was finally getting him as well. "Tomorrow then…" Honestly, he was feeling so tired right now that he wasn't even feeling that guilty anymore about having left Bando on his own, his consciousness could come back in the morning to plague him further with guilt when his brain had managed to catch some hard needed sleep.

"… They were really happy…" Mako whispered to him, finally managing to turn around and look at him. "…When was the last time they appeared to be so happy…"

"… You mean…?" Dai asked though he kind of understood where Mako was going with this, honestly, he hadn't paid all that much attention to it at first but now that he started to think about he had to admit that there was some truth to what she had told. Well, he was feeling too tired to think about it much but on the other hand, it started to gnaw at him how terrible that reflected on him, wasn't it his responsibility as their father to make sure that he knew when his daughters were truly happy. Rolling around to avoid Mako from seeing it in his eyes he actually felt really bad about himself that he didn't know. "Goodnight dear…" he whispered before closing his eyes though he didn't feel like needing sleep right now.

Maybe he would be able to tomorrow but for now, this was disturbing him, even to the point that he was forgetting the pain from his eye, which was the least of his concerns as far as he was concerned. Just a black eye, that was all that it was, nothing to lose any sleep over but this, this was something totally different, something that made him question himself.

Lying there in their room, with her feet in the air Kyou simply couldn't go to sleep, after what their parents had told her she with bristling with excitement as the prospect of staying at the inn for no less than a whole nine days, that was simply unheard of to her.

The only time she and her sister had been allowed to stay there for so long was when they had just been freed from the institute. And that had already been a long time ago in her mind.

Lying opposite of her Ryou seemed to have the same kind of trouble of getting to sleep though she did manage the lying still part better than her sister. "… Onee-chan, you should try and keep your voice down, what if oka-san and oto-san hear you?" She pointed out to her sister.

"Who cares," Kyou said in return as she kicked the pillow. "Neither of them is asleep and besides if they wanted for me to be quiet then they shouldn't have told me that before we went back to bed, I can't sleep you know…"

How could she even close her eyes knowing that in a few short hours she was going to spend a long time at the inn with her other sisters and off course her dear big brother Kouta, oh the mere thought of spending time together with him almost made her giggle with excitement.

"… O-Onee-chan, are you having thoughts of doing things to Isuzu-kun again, you shouldn't do that, remember what happened the last time. You should be more considerate of him. Besides he and Ueda-san are dating you know."

Rolling her eyes Kyou just turned around and gave another kick to the pillow, as if she needed to be told about that again. She knew about it but that didn't mean that she could not have any fun with him. And besides it was not like he didn't like it either otherwise he would have told her so from the beginning, no, the only thing he had said was for her to be a bit more gentle.

"I know, I know Ryou. You don't need to keep going on over that like oka-san does," Kyou sighed, honestly she had heard that lecture already far too often anyway. "If it troubles you that much then how about making a promise? A really special one."

Ryou looked at her. "O-Onee-chan, you mean a pinky promise?"

"Yep," Kyou smiled. "Our special pinky promise that's just between you and me." Reaching out and holding her hand in front of her Ryou took it as their pinkies interlocked.

Hearing the approaching footsteps getting ever closer Bando and Sakai exchanged looks, this was going to be it, they couldn't remain hidden here forever. At some point, they would have to come out and if they were going to get discovered then at the very least they were going to make sure that these bastards weren't going to get a chance at sounding the alarm.

"On the count of three, make every shot count, we'll give them something to remember," Sakai whispered, coordinating his attack along with Bando to improve their chances of pulling it off but they did have the decisive edge here; their enemy wasn't aware of their presence, the enemy had no clue of them being here and right now they were the ones going to get caught in an ambush.

"One." Thus far the footsteps were getting closer, no sign of them slowing down.

"Two." They weren't stopping nor paying attention, they made too much noise "Three."

Leaping from their cover, their weapons trained on the approaching figures in an instant.

"Whoa! D-Don't shoot! Oh please have mercy!" The nearest man screamed as he dropped to his knees, begging for his life. "P-Please, I have a wife, I have children. Oh please have mercy."

"Lower your weapon, Bando, it seems we have found some of our missing men," Sakai mentioned quickly, his jawline loosening as he recognized the man's face in the light cast by the flashlights. Although it took him a moment Bando eventually lowered his gun as well as he caught a closer look of both this man and the other three approaching them.

"Honestly, now can any of you care to explain to me why any of you failed to answer me on the damn radio when I called you in. I want an explanation and I had better get it right now!" He was glad to have made contact again with some of the missing men but he sure was pissed as well about nobody having reported in or tried to establish contact again, he even wondered if meeting them here was them having used their instinct or it had been a fluke of good luck.

Still, an explanation as to why these men had failed in their duty to report back was in order. "You had better answer me dammit, what the hell happened?!"

The men looked at each other and then back to him before giving their answer. "We tried sir, we tried hailing you multiple times but somehow we didn't any reception on the radio, at first we thought we were being jammed but we found out that the ship's own radio system is also suffering from it as well. We even overheard a group of them cursing for not being able to raise anybody, there's something going on on this ship that is disrupting communication."

That was new to Sakai, honestly, he hadn't thought about such a possibility, never bothering to find out if it was just their radio that was being jammed. "Is that so? When did you learn of this?"

Bando kept listening to their explanation as well with great interest, if what these men were telling was right then the jamming was being done by somebody else. It begged the question who exactly but he was certain that they were going to find out at some point.

To him it remained to be seen if they could discard the notion that it was being caused by the structure of the ship but he found it unlikely now that the crew would not have taken any precautionary measures given them of all people should be fully aware of it, then again the internal systems shouldn't be affected by interference, wireless being disrupted was one thing but if the system that was built into the ship also was affected then it was an entirely different matter. He was having a really bad feeling about this.

Turning away from the others Sakai spoke to him. "Bando, it seems like there is more going on here than what we had initially expected or what we had been briefed on, our source's intel seems to have left out some very important details."

"You're fucking kidding me, what the fuck happened to the source is reliable. To me it looks more like your pretty little source royally fucked up to mention that there would be issues."

"Enough! We have been over this before Bando! The source is reliable, it has proven itself multiple times before and that is the last of it, dammit! If this wasn't in the report then likely it is because the source didn't know either."

Bando waved him off. "Fucking nice excuse, try and come up with something better. So what are you planning on doing next, you still have three more men out there and no evidence."

Sakai merely grinned in response. "You're right about that but I do now have a few more abled bodies to help with searching through this room, resume your position back at the door and keep a tight watch." Turning on the spot he left Bando to his own devices as he went and informed the men on what he wanted them to do.

Shaking his head in disagreement Bando shrugged his shoulders and went back towards the door, he was going to focus on his job and that would be that. Now that some of his goons were here Sakai could have them do the boring work of looking through this place. That said he hadn't lost the feeling that this room was exactly what it looked like to him, a cold storage room but for what exactly? It kept haunting him.

By the time they had finally finished their sweep of the room the results were pretty disappointing, much to the contrary to what Sakai had been expecting there was nothing that could actually tell them what was being transported and even a thorough search of the containers they had stumbled upon almost by accident did little more than raise even more questions. It was a misguided failure of an operation, Sakai swore as he was becoming more desperate. "Dammit, you have just got to be fucking kidding me here!"

From where he was standing Bando was rather enjoying himself, it served the bastard right and besides if he honestly hadn't been able to find any evidence than he was, even more, dumber than Bando had initially given him credit for, the answer was under their noses.

He could have told them a while ago but he wasn't feeling much for throwing them a bone, besides it was just much more enjoyable to him to see these men wiggle and squirm in order to find that piece of evidence they so desperately clung to. Ah, it well it served them right.

"Search the room again, you must have missed something!" Sakai barked an order.

"We didn't miss anything sir, there is nothing back here," One of the men replied to him, the frustration on his face clearly visible as well. Drips of sweat could be seen on his face even with the cold temperature that this room was being kept at.

Even though he had taken up position near the door that hadn't stopped him from doing his own study of the room and where Sakai and his men had failed he had succeeded. Well, he did have the benefit of knowing what he was looking at, he had seen it before.

That said he wasn't exactly thrilled about the prospect, no seeing it back here meant that he had a damn hunch who was likely also present on this ship and what was being transported. Honestly to think that he would run into those people again made his blood boil, well on the good side it did mean that he was going to be able to exact some revenge for what happened before. The prospect of such a violent battle made him grin, truly he was looking forward to it even if he had been stuck with idiots like Sakai and his goons for the most part.

Finally, he decided that enough was enough, this had been going on for far too long. "Sakai, you guys should just call it a day. If you can't even see it when it's lying under your damn noses then you're just worthless as federal agents." He left his place at the door and made his way across the room, going towards where the large containers were standing. "You barely looked at these," he remarked as he tapped the side of it, the sound it made telling them that it was hollow. Removing a side panel he pressed a button and turned back to Sakai and the others who had been gathering. "This is what you're looking for, right?"

A humming sound signaled that he had activated it, an electric motor was started as parts of the container began to move, opening to reveal its content. With a hiss the seals were broken as vapor escaped from within, nobody dared to move for fear of what might be found within.

There was no such fear within Bando as he had already told himself that no matter what he was only going to allow it to spur him on even further and to exact a bloody vengeance on the sick bastards who were responsible for this.

"How did you know this?" Sakai uttered as he stepped closer to examine it. "How did you know how to activate that unit and what the hell is it? Bando, you need to explain this to me right now."

Once next to him Sakai could see her lying there as well, a young girl, maybe no older than fourteen or perhaps even thirteen. With the tranquil way she was lying there, one might be left with the false impression that she was sleeping peacefully but the hard reality kicked in as he noticed a series of infuses, medical equipment and restraints connect to her "Just what the hell is this? Is she even alive?"

Leaning in closer towards her Bando took off the glove covering his left hand and pressed it against her face, her temperature was low, difficult to tell if she was still alive or not though he had a feeling that she was being kept in some sort of artificial coma. "Hard to tell, I can't even feel a pulse but given she is being kept cold it's possible that her pulse is too low for me to even notice," he said as he still kept his fingers pressed against her neck.

"So human trafficking, still only a single person isn't enough to make a case, we need to see if there are more people they are keeping like this. Oh and Bando, good job. I owe you an apology." Sakai nodded, still keeping his attention focused on the girl. "Just what exactly are these people planning on and why do the reports class this girl as a weapon component?"

Bando didn't bother to try and come up with an answer to that question, he was more preoccupied with further inspecting the workings of the container. He reasoned that because it was impossible to tell what the subject's condition was from looking at them that there had to be a display or something like it somewhere to allow the people handling these things to see how the subject was doing, likely it was even placed so that one could check without having to open the damn thing. As he ran his fingers of his left hand across the outside he stopped all of a sudden when he felt that there was a separate panel, gently pressing it the cover slid open.

"That's very clever," he remarked as gazed at the display, sure enough, it offered all of the relevant information on the subject that one might need, blood pressure, body temperature, pulse, her brain activity, and a whole host of other information that he couldn't place. "Seems like she's still alive, my guess is that they're keeping her like this for ease of transport but I have no idea why they would go through all of this trouble, this doesn't make any sense."

This was just like those girls back at the trailer, a lot of effort and resources going into their transportation but for what possible purpose, this wasn't normal human trafficking.

"Sir, maybe-." Was all the man next to him could say before a sharp, buzzing crack whipped by them and blasted the back of the man's head open in an explosion of blood and brains. The man crumbled slowly and toppled from the railing.

"Holy shit!" swore Sakai, jerking back and switching his gaze from the headless corpse to the remaining men. The whipped noise slashed past him again causing sparks to fly from the metalworks next to him. "Sniper!" he yelled, issuing a warning to the others.

Sakai ducked down behind a heavy steel panel and cocked his gun, his head worked left and right as he saw two more men dropping, no doubt picked off by the sniper as they couldn't get to cover. He swore again, they had already lost no less than three men in less than a minute.

"What the fuck's going on?!" He shouted over towards those that remained. "Bando we need to get-!" But before he could finish his sentence he was interrupted as the telltale noise of dozens of boots clanging against the metal floor told him they were surrounded.

Lying next to him Bando's lips curled back as a familiar voice reached out to them.

"Well, this is certainly a surprise, to be honest, I hadn't expected to see you back so soon, mate. I'd wager you'd be pretty desperate for getting yourself so beat up like the last time, tell me, does it still hurt? If you want I can stab the other leg this time."

As he dared to take a peek Bando saw to his own surprise and anger that the person standing there, the one who had just spoken to them was none other than the Seventh. "It's been a while hasn't it, mate," The grin on the Seventh's face was as wide as it was malevolent and as he stared past him Bando could see the missing men from Sakai just standing there, smiling as well. They had been set up, this had been nothing more than a damn trap from the start and they had walked right into it.

"And now it is time for you all of you to die! Be a couple of good sports will you and just do as we say. This will be so much easier if you cooperate with us." They could hear him laugh right before a deafening barrage of gunfire was unleashed. "Don't be shy now! Step into the light! And die you magnificent bastard! Die! Die! DIE!"

Author's note: Well here it is folks, the last chapter that I'll be posting this year. The last couple of days have been pretty busy so it's a little later than I had originally hoped, I fully put the blame on the fact that I was baking my way through 5kg of batter to make enough waffles for family and friends, but then better late than never.

Hopefully, you've found the chapter to be enjoyable. As always I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts, opinions, or any other kind of ramblings you might wish to hurl in my general direction. If you spot anything or just want to have a talk, feel free to contact me.

The only thing left for me to say is to wish you all a Happy New Year and I'll be seeing you all again soon. Take care folks, celebrate the change of the year safely, and enjoy yourselves.