Notes: I really hoped to finish this by the weekend, but Christmas and being sick makes for an unpleasant combination. I'm all better now though, so I hope Umi fans out there enjoy this upcoming chapter. By the way, happy holidays to everyone! Hope you've all enjoyed them so far. ^^
Also, the quote at the beginning of the previous chapter was originally planned to tie in with this chapter, but I decided to cut it off early. I love how it took me longer to come up with a new quote than it did for me to write half the chapter... LOL. While I'm quite happy with the final result that I eventually came up with, I realized too late that it would've been way more appropriate for Chapter 5. I was tempted to switch them around, but... Oh well.
Chapter Title: Ninelie - Aimer ft. chelly (EGOIST)
"Long ago, when we were little, I promised Alisa that I would be there for her no matter what. I promised her that if she ever got lost, I'd come and find her.
At the time, the promises seemed almost weightless, and I spoke them without thinking as I held her hand while she blew the seeds from a dandelion stem. But now, they couldn't be more meaningful… especially because I wasn't able to keep the first one, and I wonder—how much will it cost me to keep the second?
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't afraid. But I've come too far to turn back now, even if it costs me more than I ever thought it would. I'm sorry, but I can't be sad at the idea of Alisa being alive, with a whole future of endless possibilities in front of her." —Ayase Eli
Umi checked the tension on her bow string for what felt like the hundredth time that evening. She resisted the temptation to fidget; outside of Rin's shop, there were too many bounty hunters and mercs that worked for some military company milling around, and their mere presence was enough to make her twitch. While she wouldn't necessarily classify herself as claustrophobic, Umi detested the atmosphere that tended to settle when there were more than just a few bounty hunters gathered in one place.
Fishing in her shoulder bag, she found the earpiece that Eli had dropped off for her earlier in the week. Slipping it into her right ear, she was glad to find that it didn't occlude her hearing as much as she thought it would have. While Umi liked to rely on her own senses and training to complete a job, she couldn't deny that this time, having Eli in her ear would be a huge asset, especially seeing as she would be treading into uncharted territory… literally.
A crowd, formed mostly out of mercs sitting on military vehicles, though she spotted some bounty hunters here and there, was already beginning to form just at the entrance of the gate, all clearly eager to be the first ones to charge out beyond the fence to claim the prize that the government had set for them.
For them, the hunt was only part of the thrill. Even the monetary reward that accompanied a successful mission paled in comparison to the bragging rights that they would obtain. It was precisely that attitude towards the Ceresis that made Umi utterly despise other bounty hunters and mercs alike, but it would never be safe enough in Tokyo for her to voice those thoughts aloud.
She hung towards the back of the mob of people, preferring caution over charging into things headfirst. She didn't absolutely need to be the first one out the gate, and it was probably better if some idiots got themselves killed over something stupid so she could scope out what, exactly, she was going to be up against. She fingered for her cellphone tucked away into the wide strap that kept her quiver of arrows strapped to her back, turning it on.
Someone bumped her roughly from behind, and Umi whipped around only to stare into the arrogant brown gaze of none other than Satou Fubuki.
"Evening, Sonoda," he greeted her, fingers of his left hand drumming against the handle of his sword, clearly having run into her on purpose. "Here to join in on the fun? I thought you were above this kind of work nowadays. Or am I wrong?"
She merely coldly held his gaze, knowing that any sort of justification she gave to him—not that she wanted nor needed to—would only give him ammunition.
Her silence only seemed to fuel him further as he laughed in her face. "So you're actually here to play. Well, I sincerely hope you have some fun out there tonight, Sonoda. But remember, I'll get there first." Although a grin was still etched on his face, she knew him well enough to know that he was serious, at least about the last sentence.
She watched him walk away, shoving aside another merc on his way to push himself to the front of the crowd, as the edge of a full moon finally peeked above the line of the fence, outlining the ruts in the dirt road that led out of the district in silver light. There would be no Edenra victims in the vicinity of the gate tonight—the presence of a large amount of armed bounty hunters and military corporations was enough to make even the bravest of them stay away.
The time on the illuminated screen of her cell phone ticked to 2200, the scheduled start of the operation, as Umi heard the tell-tale sound of the gate being opened. The roar of noise at the front of the crowd only served to confirm this fact as she stood still, waiting for the rest her unwanted company to leave before she slipped out of the fence.
She had already loaded a pre-Edenra map of the surrounding area onto her phone that before leaving, although the landscape was bound to have changed in the eight years that it had lain untouched, mostly by nature slowly creeping up to reclaim what had once been part of a bustling metropolis. Umi slipped the phone back into her pocket as she entered the silence of the forest beyond the fence, the distant sounds of other bounty hunters and military vehicles already fading away.
Footsteps silent in the undergrowth, she followed the main path that had been trampled into the forest floor for awhile, wincing when the sound of explosives echoed through the trees up ahead barely ten minutes into the operation. Idiots. She ducked into the shadows of the trees when she reached a small cliff. There was a little-used path that she knew quite well that would take her fairly close to the waterfront in a relatively short period of time, although Umi already knew that she did not want to be the first one into the factory.
She removed her bow from the strap on her back and loaded an arrow onto it as she continued onward. Most of the Ceresis in the immediate vicinity of the expanding fence had been eliminated, and while there was a relatively low chance that she would run into one for the time being, she did not intend to be caught off guard.
Her earpiece crackled to life. "Umi? Can you hear me?" Eli's voice filtered through the tiny speaker. For a place with almost non-existent reception, her voice was surprisingly clear.
"Yes," she replied, and she heard the click of keys being tapped in the background on the other end. "Where are you calling me from?"
"The district's command headquarters," came the reply. "I'm supposed to be monitoring the operation's progress, as well as being prepared to break into any security that you might run into along the way."
She crept forward in the undergrowth, past a patch of wildflowers waving gently in the late June night breeze, scanning the area carefully before she started down the small incline that would eventually lead to the waterfront. So that's what she meant when she said she would be in contact. "Wait. Are you even allowed to be calling me personally?"
There was a slight scuffle of static on the other end—Umi imagined Eli shrugging. "I have to be in touch with someone. It might as well be someone I know and trust."
Umi hmm'ed a response as she made her way around several large, cracked boulders. The area she was currently in had once been part of the park that lined Tokyo Bay, the broken stone and craters merely a small product of the amount of explosives the army had used in a final, desperate attempt to reclaim Tokyo Bay before retreating back into the part of the city that they had managed to save. On a normal night, the thought would have made her wistful, but tonight, she was glad that there were no buildings or other run-down apartments to slow her down: it had been a Ceresis hiding in a deserted alleyway during Bloody Valentine that had caused Rin to tear the tendon in her ankle that had permanently crippled her.
The sound of gunfire erupted up ahead as the forest was illuminated once in a flash of firelight before it was extinguished. She narrowed her eyes—gunfire could only mean that whatever military group or bounty hunter ahead of her had run into some Ceresis. Senses immediately alert, she slowed down, making sure to press each footstep into the dirt to muffle any extra sounds. She didn't dare say a word even though she would've liked to confirm that fact with Eli, keeping her mouth pressed into a thin line, in case there was another Ceresis around that was close enough to hear her voice.
Creeping through the undergrowth, half-bent to avoid low-lying branches, she made her way towards the source of the sound. There was a burst of birdsong as a flock of crows exploded into the night sky, and Umi grimaced: noise of any kind was sure to attract any Ceresis in the area. She increased her pace by the tiniest amount—there were voices up ahead.
She peered around a strand of trees to spot three heavily-armed mercs standing in a circle around a dead Ceresis, the sound of their conversation carrying in the silent forest. Not wanting to be spotted alone, she located a suitable tree not too far away from her. She scaled it quickly, hiding herself in the darkness of the summer leaves as she looked down on the three men gathered in the small clearing.
"Easy," one of them was saying. "Now where the hell is that factory?"
None of them seemed to have a map with them as they surveyed the area, continuing to talk in loud voices. Umi bit down on her lip in order to stop her instinct to tell them to be quiet—as much as her sense of duty would have wanted her to say something, her instinct for self-preservation won over.
After a few more minutes of arguing, the three of them set off in the completely wrong direction, back into the thick of the woods. Umi waited until their voices had completely faded into the night before dropping down from her perch, landing almost soundlessly on the dead undergrowth. She pulled out her phone, wincing at the sudden, bright illumination of the screen as she checked her map, making sure she was still on the right track.
There was an old park walkway not too far from where she was that would be relatively free from bushes and overgrown hedges, but that meant being out in the open, a prospect she did not like at all, especially given the sound of gunfire coming from up ahead, echoing off the choppy waters crashing against the abandoned beachfront in the distance. But it would be the quickest way down to the waterfront, and Umi weighed the benefit of time against discretion. Her sense of caution won out in the end, though, as she ducked under a half-fallen tree to stay within in the forest, but close enough to keep the almost overgrown path in sight. It was more difficult than she had originally imagined—flowers, weeds and an assortment of grass alike poked through the cracked concrete and at certain points obstructed the walkway completely, even though there was a full moon that offered adequate lighting otherwise.
The road sloped steeply downward as she approached the beach area, both hands still on her bow and arrows as she emerged at the hilltop. From here, she could see the moonlight reflected off the restless waves, and picked out the dark tops of buildings behind a rusted chain link fence. Occasionally, a staccato of gunfire broke the otherwise unworldly silence that had settled over the forest, and Umi narrowed her eyes when she heard the familiar screech of a Ceresis echo off the building walls.
A rustle in the bushes behind her caught her attention and she whipped around, bow already raised into position as she turned. A man stumbled out of the undergrowth and she took an involuntary step backwards as she took in his appearance. He was wearing a typical military garb, but it was stained with dirt and blood, torn in several places. Umi recognized the uneven, jagged cuts that were consistent with Ceresis claws and realized that it was already too late for him: she could make out the marred, darkened flesh that was beginning to spread from where he'd been initially been slashed.
While the speed of Edenra's progress varied between different people, the man in front of her had clearly been unfortunate enough to have the virus nearly take over his body almost right away. There was a guttural moan that was dragged from his lips as he raised a hand towards her, pupils in his eyes constricted in some final spark of emotion she couldn't read in the darkness.
Umi released her grip on the arrow she had loaded into her bow as he took another step towards her.
The point of the metal arrow buried itself in the man's temple as she watched the Namidite in its head dissolve the broken flesh.
Rest in peace. Umi pressed her hands together once in a quick prayer for a few heartbeats before turning away.
She didn't have time to mourn for mercs that weren't smart enough to keep themselves alive in unfamiliar territory, and she pushed him to the back of her mind as she half-ran, half-skidded down the hillside, glad for once for the long grass that concealed her less-than-stealthy approach to the waterfront.
The sound of fighting here was louder, and she could actually hear the sound of weapons hitting the chain link fence as she neared the old warehouse district by the bayfront. She scanned her immediate vicinity quickly, but found no movement.
There was a dusty dirt path that looked too worn and well-used for it to be eight years old, and Umi furrowed her eyebrows at the fresh boot prints in the dirt. She pressed the earpiece in her right ear, hoping that Eli hadn't hung up on her in the time she'd been silent. "Eli."
There was a small crackle of static. "I'm still here."
"You're right," she reported, keeping her voice down though she was still mostly concealed by the trees. "Someone's definitely down here."
Eli hummed a response, and Umi could hear the clicking of keys in the background. "Are you in?" the blonde asked her a few seconds later.
"No," Umi replied. "I'm looking for a way in now, but I'm not the first one to make it here."
"Stay off whatever main path you find," Eli warned her. "I'm still trying to get access to their site map."
Umi acknowledged her statement with a grunt as she kept to the undergrowth, peering over the bushes every few seconds to check where she was going. In the gaps in between the otherwise dark buildings, she occasionally spotted the bright flash of an overhead light. Power was scarce in the outskirts of Tokyo to begin with—the fact that power had been hooked up to the old warehouse lights meant that there was absolutely no doubt that the old factories were inhabited, as any area outside of the fence hadn't been maintained in the eight years since it had been abandoned.
As she rounded a corner, Umi spotted a group of mercs and bounty hunters gathered around a particular spot in the chain link fence. They seemed to be arguing, as she crept closer to overhear their conversation. She could already spot Satou Fubuki at the very head of the crowd, towering over the other men in the group.
"Get this damn fence open now!" one of them was yelling, and the corner of her mouth twitched in a scowl—surely they were smart enough to know that loud voices would only attract unwanted attention?
Satou shoved aside a smaller man as he squared up to the merc who was standing in front of the fence with his company. "Who gave you the right to order us around?" he snarled back.
Out of the corner of her eye, Umi spotted movement in the darkness.
Glancing around quickly, she looked for a convenient place to conceal herself. The trees here were too low and thin to hold even her lighter weight, and the undergrowth wouldn't conceal her for long if it the motions belonged to Ceresis.
The only structure that would be sufficiently tall enough for her to avoid an initial swing of a claw—or a weapon if it came down to it—was an old guard booth stationed a little bit away on the remains of what had once been a paved road. It would partially conceal her from anyone looking in her direction due to the trees that both shielded it slightly as well as blocking out the moonlight from above, but it wouldn't hide her forever.
But she supposed it was better than nothing, and Umi winced as she stepped on a twig in her haste to cover the thirty or so feet of distance. However, the men gathered at the fence didn't react to the sound of breaking wood, presumably still too preoccupied in their shouting match to make it into the factory district first.
She swung herself up on top of the security tower in three quick motions—the small structure was really only big enough for one security guard to stand or sit in at a time, and she felt a small twinge of relief when the stone withheld her weight as she positioned herself in a crouch on its roof, bow in one hand, the other pressed against the cold stone, ready to draw an arrow if the situation called for it.
The unearthly, unmistakeable screech of a Ceresis—or multiple Ceresis—cut through the babble of noise at the gate entrance, and Umi watched as the half a dozen mercs and bounty hunters instantly drew their weapons, but it was already too late: the Ceresis moved with surprising agility as it emerged from the woods, swiping at one of the mercs and catching him in the shoulder. Umi felt every muscle in her body tense: Ceresis screeched to signal others who were in the same vicinity. Soon, there's going to be more than one of them here.
She cast a quick glance over to the chain link fence; from where she was crouched, she couldn't determine if it was Namidite or not, but even if it was, an armed patrol was necessary even along Tokyo', so the fact that guards from inside the fence were strangely absent meant that they had been warned about this particular assault. As uncomfortable as that made her, she could see the ingenuity behind it: the Ceresis and the mercs could fight it out before any of them even made it into the facility.
Satou Fubuki shoved a stumbling merc out of the way before swinging his sword across the chest of the first Ceresis just as two more staggered out of the forest. One of the other bounty hunters dove for cover behind a stray rock as the Ceresis converged, missing several shots into the forest beyond. Standing up in order to get into a better position to aim, Umi loaded an arrow onto her bow, but paused just as she was about to shoot, struggling with her inner instinct to help the people who needed it, even though she knew that the group of mercs gathered by the fence did not deserve her help in any capacity.
One of the newly arrived Ceresis was dropped relatively quickly as another merc shot it in the head, and Umi felt the her fingers tighten on the metal of her bow as the third one sank the claw of its deformed left hand into the body of a bounty hunter before being cut down by Satou.
There was a brief moment of silence before a final gunshot rang out. Umi closed her eyes for a moment, knowing what the merc's company would require him to do. For a brief moment, she felt a pang of regret, knowing she could've intervened but chose not to.
You can't save everyone, Umi-chan. There're people out there who can't be saved, no matter how hard you try.
Kotori's voice echoed in her mind and Umi shook her head once.
Satou gave the chain link fence an angry kick. The metal rattled loudly in the disquiet as Satou stalked away, the remaining two mercs and single bounty hunter in tow, clearly fuming and determined to find another entrance since he couldn't wrest the lock from the gate. Umi spotted a rounded, cylindrical shape in his left hand as he passed her hiding spot.
He rounded a corner and disappeared from sight. Umi held her breath, unwilling to move before she was sure that there was nothing else alive in her immediate vicinity. She dropped down from the security booth and followed them at a discreet distance, taking care to conceal her footsteps in the fallen leaves underfoot. Long minutes passed in silence as she made her way through the forest, following the fence line. Briefly, Umi wondered what, exactly, Satou was looking for and wondered if it was worth her time to even follow him, but her caution won her over: it would be suicidal for her to attempt to force her way through the fence alone, especially if she could obtain valuable information about the facility this way.
She spotted flashlights up ahead as Satou's group met with a larger gathering of mercs, all inspecting a section of fence that was stone instead of metal. She spotted Ceresis bodies lying on the ground nearby. They seemed to be trying to force their way through it, and Umi warily kept her distance, wondering just how much longer the mercs planned to attempt to be discreet, especially given the very obvious lack of guards along the fenced perimeter.
Her prediction came true within minutes as one of the bounty hunters—along with Satou—pulled out what she assumed was a grenade, and moments later, heard the telltale boom of explosives. Immediate gunfire answered the sound of the grenades as guards over on the other side of the fence opened fire.
She stood there for a moment, watching the fight break out and knowing she had absolutely no desire to throw herself into that particular fray before an idea came to her. Turning on her heels, she broke into a run, fairly confident that the obvious sound of combat was enough to draw away any unwanted presences as she quickly headed back the way she came.
"Umi?" Eli's voice came over the earpiece—she had almost forgotten she was there. "You okay?"
Up ahead, Umi caught sight of the locked gate in the fence, innocently illuminated in the moonlight. "I'm okay," she breathed out. Slowing down to a fast walk as she neared the gate, she approached it cautiously, senses still on alert for anything that might be tailing her.
There was an electronic pad that had clearly been recently installed in the fence that held the links of the metal closed, clearly the subject of Satou's frustration with it. "Eli," she hissed into her earpiece. "I'm at a locked gate, but it looks like I can get in from here."
A few taps came from the other end. "Okay," was the reply. "Can you see any wires that power it?"
Umi looked the fence gate up and down, noting the thin coating of liquid Namidite that had been brushed over it. She spotted a thick wire that protruded from the ground that connected to the base of the electronic lock. "Yes."
"Take out that wire piece I gave you, and wind it around the wire from the lock," Eli instructed her.
Fumbling in the strap that held her quiver in place on her back, Umi finally found the two pieces of equipment that Eli had left her, with explicit instructions on how to use them. Locating the thin piece of wire, she carefully wound it around the one that powered the lock. "Is this okay?" she asked, carefully keeping the volume of her voice down in case the lock was voice activated.
There was a moment of silence on the other end, and then Umi heard her blonde friend crack her knuckles. "Perfect. Give me a moment."
Exactly three seconds later, the red light on the screen of the lock winked green, and Umi pressed her shoulder into the linked metal barrier, expecting the chains to creak as it opened. But it opened soundlessly, and she closed it behind her after carefully scanning the outside area once to make sure she wasn't being followed.
She crept into the deep shadows provided by the bulk of the warehouses, one hand gripping her bow tightly. She could hear the continued sound of gunfire in the distance as the mercs tried to brute-force their way into the warehouses, and Umi could only hope that the action at a different section of the fence was enough to draw attention away from the fact that she had entered from the back.
There was the sound of furious typing from her earpiece as Umi pressed a hand to it. "I'm sending you the layout for the facility to your phone now," Eli said over the speakers.
A moment later, her phone buzzed, and she pulled it out, quickly scanning the layout of the warehouses. She could see where security had located the mercs who were trying to fight their way through the front of the facility, and she picked out the locations of the various factories that had been established. "This is pretty sophisticated," she muttered as she peered around the corner of the warehouse.
"I know," Eli agreed.
Seeing no one and presuming all the guards had been summoned to deal with the mercs and bounty hunters, Umi stepped forward, wincing and shielding her eyes from the bright glare of the warehouse lights. "Can you get into their data yet?"
She heard a few clicks on a keyboard. "No. They were smart enough to keep their security and data networks separate. You have to get into their server room." As Umi carefully made her way forward, she could hear Eli talking to someone in indistinct words on the other end of the line—it sounded like she had put her hand over the mic on her end.
Using the map that Eli had sent to her phone, she tried to avoid what looked like the bigger avenues for the warehouse district, trusting the sound of the waves crashing against decades-old concrete and gunfire to mask the sound of her boots on pavement.
There was a crackle of static in her speakers as Eli removed her hand. "Umi. Whatever's happening at the other side of the facility is starting to draw in Ceresis to the area. Hurry."
"Got it," she said as she raised her bow, arrow already loaded into it as she crept forward, catching the sound of footsteps and voices around the corner just in front of her. She paused at the edge of the shadow cast by the end of the building, tense as she waited for the pair of guards to approach.
"The president's ordered an evacuation," one of them was saying to his friend. "Obviously he's already long gone on his hovercraft."
"Shouldn't we be going too?" the other one asked. "Delta squad reported a lot of mercs where they blew the wall, and that's bound to attract Ceresis."
"Ceresis we can handle," the first one replied, his voice growing louder as they neared where she was hiding. "But I don't want to run into government funded mercs—do you? We'll just wait till the other squads have mostly cleared out where the mercs are coming from, then run for it. Who cares about guarding the president's data anyways? It's not like he's cared about us in the whole time we've worked here."
Umi raised an eyebrow as she heard the last sentence. "Really now," she muttered under her breath to herself as the footsteps drew close, painting shadows on the lit pavement as the two guards came close to rounding the corner.
The first guard was kicked under the chin by her boot before he understood what was happening—the blow sent him reeling back, clutching the bottom of his face as the second found himself staring down the tip of an arrow almost touching the bridge of his nose. He stumbled backwards, dropping his gun in his panic as Umi took a step forward, keeping her bow raised in position.
The first guard looked between her and the gun strapped to his waist. Deciding that she could shoot him faster than he could reach for his gun with one hand, he raised his hands in a gesture of surrender, prompting his partner to do the same.
"Who is the president you're talking about?" she asked, keeping her voice icily calm as she threatened to take another step forward.
"I don't know," the one on the right stammered. "We've never seen him in person before and he only checks in on this site about once a month. I swear, I don't know anything about him."
Umi watched the men's body language carefully. By the way his hand shook as he spoke and the way the other was clenched on the cold concrete below him, she decided that he was telling the truth—or he thought he was, at the very least.
She kicked aside the gun lying at her feet, watching it as it slid over the edge of the pavement and into the restless waves. "Get out of here and don't come back."
The two men did not need any further encouragement; scrambling up and stumbling around the corner she'd been hiding in with surprising speed, the one she'd kicked was still holding his lower jaw as they disappeared into the darkness.
Umi heard a short burst of sarcastic applause behind her and she whipped around, the corner of her mouth twitching into a scowl of disgust as she spotted Satou Fubuki leaning against the wall of a warehouse, sword stuck into the concrete beside him. He smirked at her. "Well played, Sonoda, catching out a few worthless guards. Not going to join in the fun in blowing up the warehouses?" He punctuated his sentence by gesturing behind him, where several buildings already lay in flames. "Or are you here to claim the bigger prize?" He pulled his sword out of the ground and took a few steps towards her.
Umi did not answer him, eyeing him as he approached her slowly. He stopped when he was only a foot away from her, towering over her smaller stature. "I told you before, Sonoda. I'm going to get there first. Don't forget that."
He made a motion as though he was going to spit in her face before he thought better of it; Umi still had her bow in a lowered position and could have easily raised it and claimed it was self-defence. He glared at her for a few heartbeats longer before turning away, stalking in the opposite direction. She watched him go and made sure he was gone before she turned around herself.
"Ass," Eli mumbled in her ear, clearly having heard the exchange.
Umi did not reply, too incensed by Satou to come up with an appropriate response. She checked the map on her phone again, noting with not a small degree of satisfaction that Satou had stumbled off in the wrong direction, leaving her relatively free to seek out the operations room in peace.
She was more cautious now that the sound of flames in the distance drowned out some of the softer sounds that could have signalled an enemy, and Umi made sure she was positive no one was waiting to ambush her as she rounded each corner.
The warehouse district's operations room was located at the very back of the compound, a small, two-storey structure that was oddly abandoned. Umi hesitated for the briefest moment before she kicked in the flimsy metal door, which crumbled under the weight of her boot. She pressed her back against the outer wall, but no security guards came running.
Poking her head in the doorframe, all she saw was a long hallway lit by aeroplane-strip lights, winking innocently at her in the darkness. The door to each room was closed, and as much as she would have liked to, Umi knew she didn't have the time to search all of them.
The server room—also completely abandoned—was located on the second floor, computer screens still blinking in screen-saver mode as she entered. There was a persistent, soft hum that didn't seem to belong there present in the room, but she didn't have time to worry about that at the moment. Umi picked the nearest computer and sat down in the chair, glancing over her shoulder as she did so: the flickering light coming from outside seemed to be intensifying.
Pulling out the second piece of equipment Eli had given her, she smacked the keyboard once, bringing the screen to life. It promptly asked her for a password, but that was what the OSD was for, as she plugged it in. "Eli, go," she hissed into her earpiece.
"Already on it," her friend replied, and Umi could hear the furious clicking of keys in the background.
She kept an eye on the door as the password prompt disappeared and the machine began to boot itself up again.
The hairs at the back of her neck rose when the same unearthly screech of a Ceresis echoed through the small building. She cast a desperate glance at the screen of the computer, not knowing enough about computers to completely understand what Eli what doing. What she did understand though was that she had less than a few minutes to complete her task and get out of there. "Eli, hurry," she snapped, her impatience making her words shorter than she intended them to be.
"I know! I just need… five seconds…" The blonde's voice trailed off as it was drowned by the sound of keyboard keys being tapped in rapid succession. Umi's hand tightened on her bow as she heard the sound of uneven footsteps on the stairs. At best, she would have to fight her way out and cold sweat broke out on her skin at the thought of fighting in the room she was currently in: she held the advantage in wide open spaces that allowed her to pick off enemies one by one slowly, but her bow was substantially less effective in close quarters. She did have a knife tucked into her belt for that specific purpose, but her knife-fighting skills were significantly less developed and Umi did not like her odds in a melee fight with even a single Ceresis.
Eli's voice sounded unnaturally loud in her ear a minute later. "I'm done—get out of there, Umi!"
Umi did not need to be told twice. Vaulting over the computer desk, she heard the shouts coming from outside as she used her bow to smash the closed window, not wanting to take her chances in a dark, enclosed hallway.
The distance down wasn't extremely high, and while Umi wasn't acrophobic, she still hesitated for a single heartbeat before she dropped down, landing on both feet in a crouch, wincing as her gloved right hand dug into a shard of broken glass.
The blaze of fire around her was much louder now as she broke into a run, keeping low with one arm over her nose and mouth to prevent asphyxiation. She ducked around a pair of mercs still battling it out with a Ceresis and buried an arrow in the temple of a Ceresis who stumbled into the avenue.
In the second that it taken her to reload, another one took its place before she shot it down too, past caring about her poor aim in the growing smoke as the warehouse district burned, turning the choppy waters of Tokyo Bay into a mirror that reflected the dancing inferno.
She didn't stop until she reached the forest beyond the ruined chain link fence, spotting the hovercrafts in the night sky. There were too many coming and going at once, and Umi suddenly remembered the security guard's words at the sight of them.
"The president's obviously long gone in his hovercraft."
So whoever had owned the factory known then. There was no explanation for it—all in all considered, it had been almost too easy to storm the waterfront warehouses, even if she'd had Eli to get her into the compound without detection.
"Are you still okay, Umi?" Eli's voice came over the speakers again.
She coughed once, trying to dislodge the taste of smoke from the back of her throat. "Fine."
There was a pause. "There's almost nothing in the data that was still on the computer. Whoever it was must've wiped what they could before they left."
Umi tightened her grip on the handle of her bow as she watched a hovercraft touch down to pick up the assortment of mercs and bounty hunters waiting in the forest clearing for extraction, the artificial wind it generated whipping her long blue hair around her. "I'm not surprised," she replied, staring up beyond the burning ash of the waterfront over the dark waters to its very edge, where the slightest hint of dawn was touching the horizon.
Notes: Fear not, Umi-chan, I know that doesn't surprise you.
I received a request on AO3 to post this on here, so here's what I have so far (working on Chapter 7). There are some inconsistencies with the chapter text between this version and the AO3 version because I did a lot of on-site editing on AO3 in various chapter, but they didn't have an export function that translated well, so I ended up digging up the word docs for all these, which don't have the edits. When I have some downtime, I'll go back and correct all the inconsistencies.