Notes: You may notice by the title of this chapter that I've split it in half. This was originally planned to be the penultimate chapter of this fic, but then it got way too long and out of hand, so I had to split it for several reasons (my sanity is one of them).
Chapter Title: Heaven is a Place on Earth - fripside
"This is it. Everything that we have worked for—everything that we have lived for—for the last eight years comes down to this—a single day.
Would I say that I was afraid? Probably not, but every time I think about what could happen in the next twenty-four hours, I'm reminded that no matter what happens, we still have a future. Life still goes on.
For the sake of everything that has brought us here, I want to be able to create a future that we will not regret." —Sonoda Umi
Rin placed the gun on the counter in front of them. "This is the gun nya wanted, Umi-chan. I loaded it for you, but I put some spare clips with the arrows you wanted."
"Thank you," Umi said, picking it up. It was heavier than she expected, but she couldn't imagine that that fact would make much of a difference to Maki.
The orange-haired young woman watched her curiously. "Who's it for, Umi-chan? I don't remember nya wanting to use a gun before."
"No," Umi admitted truthfully. "This is for Maki."
Rin's hazel eyes widened as she put down the cat she was holding. She didn't even notice as it balanced precariously on one of her legs with unsheathed claws before it leapt lightly to the floor, disappearing into a corner of the store. "Are you serious? She's going with you?"
Nodding, Umi tightened the strap on her bag before replacing it on her shoulders. "Yes. She wanted to." The words 'actually, I insisted on accompanying her because this is something that she said she had to do' didn't quite make it out past her lips. Even though the store was empty apart from her, she did not feel comfortable disclosing that information out loud.
Somehow, she felt like the gravity of that moment would be lost on Rin.
But the other woman straightened up, brushing the cat fur off of her pants as she met Umi's gaze with an unexpectedly serious one of her own. "Then the two of you had better stay safe out there."
"You know I always do," Umi replied steadily, after a moment's pause.
Rin grinned at her then. "Good. All the private military companies have pulled out of the outer districts early because there's no point in hunting something that won't exist anymore in a few days. You better show them up, because I want to hear all about it when nya get back."
Underneath the banter, the younger woman's sincerity gleamed.
Umi waved to her over her shoulder with one hand as she held aside the burlap flap that served as a front door to leave. "I'm sure you will."
The sound of their footsteps on the undergrowth was the only thing Umi could hear.
She did not want to admit it, but the silence of the pine forest around them unnerved her slightly as Umi peered around a tree, spotting nothing but dark green, occasionally flecked with snow, against grey ahead of them. Fingers of one hand tight against the curve of her bow, she beckoned to Maki behind her.
"Are you sure you are okay with doing this?" she asked dubiously, watching Maki stumble on a large tree root, muttering a few curse words under her breath as she regained her balance. Deep down, Umi knew the answer, but the cautious part of her still wanted to double-check.
The redhead scowled at her. "I'm a physician, not useless."
Umi could not help but notice the way she was holding her pistol in her hands—she could point out a few ways that Maki could improve her grip on her gun, but after a few moments of deliberation, she decided to keep them to herself. As uncharacteristic as it was, she could sense the anxious energy that radiated off of her friend and it was likely that commenting would only make it worse.
Maki pushed ahead of her indignantly, boots crunching dead leaves heavy with frost into the hard earth beneath them as the ground sloped up slightly. "You better be sure that the bullets in this gun actually work," she grumbled as she passed.
Speeding up slightly so that they walked shoulder to shoulder, Umi looked at her pointedly out of the corner of her eye, meeting her friend's challenging amethyst gaze with her soft brown one. "I checked it myself," she informed her seriously. "Besides, Rin wouldn't sell me something that was defective."
"You better hope so, then," Maki told her dryly. "Remember, if we die out here because these don't work properly, there's going to be someone back in Tokyo that's going to bring us back from the dead just so she'll be able kill us herself."
She didn't stop, but the words made Umi pause for the smallest fraction of a heartbeat as she almost faltered herself, even though there was nothing on the rough earth path to trip over.
Steadying herself, she checked the tension on her bow. "I'm aware."
Eli wrung her hands together; her hands itched to stop her friends, even though she knew the effort would be fruitless. One of them broke free anyways as she involuntary took a step forward, her right hand extended in motion to stop them. "This isn't right," she insisted. "I should be going with you."
Maki snorted. "How much help do you think you're going to be out there? You can't fight, and we don't need you to implement the cure. You'll actually be useful if you can get into whatever security system's left in the environmental plant up there, so it's just better if you stay here."
The tone was impatient and derisive, as though the redhead was speaking to a child who didn't understand the implications of what lay in front of them.
She ignored the hand Nozomi put on her shoulder. "Still," she repeated. "It doesn't feel right."
Part of her wanted to express the true fears that had settled into the bottom of her stomach, but it was a vulnerability she knew was better kept to herself.
I… I'm already losing part of my family because of this. I can't lose the rest of it.
Umi took a step forward, covering her hand with one of her own, holding her fingers in a steady, firm grip. "We will come back," she said. "I promise."
Maki put her hand on top of theirs, her nails digging into the side of her wrist until it hurt. "Count on it."
The tiny speaker in her ear crackled to life. "I can hear you, you know," Eli said into her ear.
Despite the impassive tone of her voice, Umi knew that somewhere, perhaps deep down, Eli was still struggling: it was a burden that she knew all too well could never be put down, no matter how much its weight diminished over time. It concerned her, but she also knew that Toujou would have never let her in the command headquarters if she didn't believe that Eli could handle it.
Surprisingly, she found that that particular judgement was one she trusted.
"That's the point," Maki snapped, peering around a large boulder that lay in the middle of the trail that led up the side of the mountain, her gun raised. "You were the one getting all sentimental before we left, so I decided to remind you that I have no intention of dying out here."
Umi heard a scuffle of static on the other end—it sounded like Eli was putting her hand over the microphone to speak to someone beside her. Shaking her head once, she adjusted her grip on her bow before continuing to move forward.
The undergrowth here was sparser now that they were at a higher elevation and it was much less quiet than it had been on the forest floor—the closest hovercraft could get them to the entrance of the environmental plant that had been built right into the mountainside on top of an old Namidite mine in a desperate attempt to create weather conditions that Ceresis could not survive in—but the absence of sound below had not been the only thing that disturbed her.
The loud, sudden screech of a crow caused her to wince, especially when the sound carried against the bare rock that surrounded them. Watching as it swooped away from where their footsteps had disturbed its perch, Umi waited for something—anything—to emerge from the line of trees just ahead of them, but there was nothing.
It's… strange. How quiet it is up here. She had expected to run into a fair number of Ceresis on the way to the environmental plant, but apart from a few that had been easy pickings for the two of them since first stepping off the main path an hour or two back, the forest around them had been deserted.
Umi was sure the illusionary tranquility was not for the lack of Ceresis in the area. Gunfire had echoed through the dense, unmoving trees more than once, and she had spotted a large plume of smoke in the distance when the two of them had cleared a small cliffside. A few times, they had passed old sentry buildings and small, residential cottages long abandoned; all of them had borne the telltale marks of Ceresis claws, cementing her belief that they were not alone out here.
"Eli," she said into her earpiece. "How much further until we reach the entrance into the plant?"
She heard rapid typing of keys on the other end.
"At the rate you're going, about half an hour if you don't run into anything on the way," came the answer after a few moments.
She frowned at the prospect. "Are we going to run into anything? I mean, can you see anything?"
"The plant's security systems are offline. I won't be able to see anything until you reactivate the power once you're inside. Sorry," Eli told her.
"Great," Maki muttered beside her, kicking aside a rock on the uneven pathway. "All the more reason to hurry up."
As they continued to climb the gently sloping trail, the faint sound of voices up ahead caught her attention. Quickly holding out an arm to stop Maki from turning the corner beside, Umi silenced the redhead with a look when she pulled up angrily, ready to object to the sudden motion.
"What?" Maki mouthed angrily at her.
Drawing her bow, Umi paused, jerking her head in the direction they were headed in. After a few seconds of silence, the stiff breeze died down long enough for distinct voices to echo across the eroding rock and stone again to reach them. Maki closed her mouth then, pressing her lips together in a grim line.
Creeping forward slowly, she lifted her bow into position, tightening her hold on the string as she peered around the corner.
Up ahead, the path dipped steeply downward into a crevice where a large stream flowed through the cracks in the stone, creating a small glade surrounded by several taller rock formations. Next to the water were two bounty hunters. It was clear from the way that their weapons and supplies lay scattered around them that they had let their guard down when they had been resting, because a group of Ceresis were rapidly advancing on them.
Without stopping to think about it, Umi released the string on her bow. The shot struck one of the Ceresis squarely in the middle of its chest, bringing it down almost instantly. It was a clean shot, but that fact meant little in the face of the half-a-dozen more that were still lumbering towards the pair of bounty hunters.
She grit her teeth together in frustration as one of the two men slipped on the wet rocks by the bank of the stream in his desperation to get away, making him an easy victim for one of the Ceresis that easily closed the distance between them.
The second man fared no better without his weapon as the Ceresis closed in on him, as Umi took aim at another.
The sharp sound of a gunshot rang out behind her as the bullet caught one of the remaining Ceresis in the shoulder. It let out a dying screech, the metal in the projectile already eating through its skin as it stumbled into the water.
Planting her feet firmly on the uneven ground beneath her, Umi knew they had to eliminate the Ceresis quickly before the sound attracted any more that were in the area.
Ducking behind one of the rock formations, she picked an angle to shoot from. The uneven ground and the uphill incline in their direction meant that it would not be as easy for the Ceresis to close in on their position as it had been for them to catch up to the two unprepared bounty hunters, and she used that fact to her advantage as she took down the remaining Ceresis with two quick shots in succession.
Silence settled over the small clearing as the last Ceresis dropped motionless to the wet earth, though Umi knew it would not stay that way for long.
As the two of them cautiously made their way down the steep trail, she heard Maki make a sound of disgust as they passed the bodies of the two bounty hunters, pausing only to inspect the supplies that they had left by the stream. "Idiots," Umi heard her mutter, bitterness corroding the end of the word.
She said nothing; she had seen what had happened before her many times before in the past eight years—far too many to count. But by the end of today, I hope that I will never have to see it again. The fervent prayer was belied by her actions, as she rifled through the men's packs. Her fingers closed around several clips of spare ammunition.
Umi felt the familiar pang of unease as she handed them to Maki, before she pushed the uncomfortable feeling out of her mind. Somehow, it felt wrong to take them, though she knew that others in her place would have no qualms about doing so.
After all, the dead did not need them, but there was a possibility that they would.
The redhead gave her head a small shake as she pushed her unruly dark hair out of her eyes. "Come on, let's get going."
Umi led the way as they left the stream behind, finally clearing the treetops of the forest below them as the trail continued to spiral upwards. It was not long before she spotted rusted metal railings lining the narrow path. Fifty feet past the end of the last set of railings, she picked out the metal set of doors carved into the mountainside.
Drawing closer to it, Umi let Maki try the set of door handles while she kept watch over their surroundings, bow drawn.
"No luck," she reported a few moments later, holding her hand up to her earpiece. "Eli, can you get us in?"
"Is there some sort of door control you can see?" came the question from the other end.
Umi looked around, keeping a wary eye on the path behind them as she did so in case someone—or something—unwanted was following them.
"Yeah, I see it," Maki reported a minute later. "Want me to try to activate it?"
When Eli responded to the affirmative, the redheard strode up to it, shrugging off her rucksack as she did so. Slapping the monitor to life, Umi watched her type a few things on the keypad below it. "Access denied," Maki read off the display. "This looks pretty complicated. You sure you can get through this door?"
Eli did not reply immediately, although Umi heard a crackle of indistinct static coming from the other end—it sounded like muffled, soft laughter.
"Try now," the blonde said dryly a few minutes later.
Umi allowed herself a small smile behind a hand when the display winked green and Maki scowled. Pushing her shoulder into the doorframe, the decade-old door opened with a creak of rusted hinges.
Coughing into her elbow at the pungent smell of Namidite in the darkened hallway beyond the door, she closed the door behind them, cutting off the bright daylight that cut through the gloom like a blade.
Emergency lighting flickered to life along the sides of the catwalk they were standing on—enough to see by, but not nearly enough for her liking. If an enemy happened to approach them, they would have perhaps a few seconds of warning at best.
With the sound of gunfire that was occasionally punctuated by the screech of a Ceresis coming from somewhere below them in the darkness, Umi did not like that prospect at all.
"Find me a security console," she heard Eli instruct in her ear. "Then plug in that OSD I gave you."
"I don't see one," Umi informed her, glancing around in the semi-darkness. "There might not be one where we are, so we'll keep going. I'll let you know when we find one."
Maki gave her a curt nod as Umi passed her, taking the lead. The metal grating of the catwalk rattled very slightly underneath her boots as they progressed, finally reaching a set of stairs at the end of the walkway.
Peering down into the darkness, she winced when she heard another screech split the silence, followed by the sound of rapid gunshots. I know what we'll find if we go down. Exchanging a significant look with Maki in the half-light, she began to climb, the cramped, narrow steps threatening to trip her if she was not careful about where she was putting her feet.
At the top of the flight of stairs, she found the security console that Eli had told her to look for. She motioned wordlessly for Maki to pull out the small storage device that had been given to them and waited for the screen of the console to blink on when she inserted it into a port.
"Okay," Eli said five minutes later. "I have access now. Some of the security cameras aren't working anymore, so I'll try to work around that. Give me a moment to find you the most direct route to the control room."
Umi waited, watching out of the corner of her eye as Maki checked the contents of her bag again. The large cylinder that held the results of her research was still intact—somehow, Honoka had come up with a way to compress the liquid into a plastic cylinder that was no bigger than her forearm. If it was dispersed at the environmental plant as planned, its release would cover almost all of the remaining districts in Japan.
It was not a universal solution, nor was it the ideal solution that she would have liked to see after eight years of trial, but it was the solution they would have to work with. Everything else that would come afterwards—the consequences of their actions—would be their responsibility to shoulder, whether it was good or bad.
"I'm done." Eli's voice snapped her out of her thoughts as her phone buzzed in her pocket. "I've sent you the site map to your phone. You'll have to keep going up until you reach another outer door to go back outside. The control room is located on the other side of the facility and that's the fastest way that I can see that'll get you there without running into any major trouble."
Umi pulled out her phone to give the layout of the environmental plant a brief look before she replaced it, reloading her bow again in case there was something hostile waiting for them at the top of the stairs.
"What's down below us?" Maki asked as they resumed their climb. "Doesn't sound like it's something you want us to get involved in."
"The access site at the bottom of the mountain was blown out when the last group of scientists tried to escape a few years ago," Eli told her. "Over time it's allowed the Ceresis to enter the facility, and that's what the bounty hunters and mercs down there are fighting. There is a lift down there that's still powered that could get you closer to where you want to go faster, but I don't think it's worth the risk at this point."
"No," Umi agreed as she made out the silhouette of another catwalk above her head. According to the map Eli had sent them, the exit that they were looking for was at the end of it.
Stepping off the stairway, she froze when she caught sight of what lay in front of them. She heard Maki inhale sharply just behind her.
Several bodies—dressed in military garb—were lying scattered across the catwalk in front of them, limp bodies splattered with crimson liquid that decorated the metal grating of the floor. It was recent—the blood had not yet completely dried—and Umi squinted down the walkway to see if she could spot the Ceresis that had undoubtedly ambushed this particular squad, but found nothing,
Maki squatted down next to a dead soldier. "They're all mercs," she reported as she used the tip of her gun to carefully shift one of the lifeless limbs to get a closer look. "It doesn't look like they put up much of a fight."
The low guttural sound of a Ceresis—somewhere below and ahead of them—reminded her that it would be unwise of them to linger as well. "Eli," Umi hissed into her earpiece. "Do you see anything in front of us?"
"No," came the reply a few moments later. "I'm looking over the security feed right now. The mercs in front of you came across that way from the lower floors about an hour back. I'm trying to track the Ceresis that they ran into, but not all of the security cameras in the area up ahead are working. I don't see anything from here, but that doesn't mean it's not in the area."
Umi acknowledged her words with a grunt as she carefully stepped over the dead bodies. Maki's quick breathing behind her, coupled with the semi-darkness of their surroundings grated on her nerves as she kept glancing around them, wary of any enemy that could be waiting to strike.
When the two of them reached the door at the end of the catwalk, they found it deactivated; it would be a waste of time to try to force their way through.
"Any ideas, Eli?" Maki asked as she looked around, furrowing her brows when the sound of gunfire echoed against the walls, coming from somewhere beneath them.
Umi listened to the rapid click of typing for a minute or two before Eli responded. "There's a master circuit breaker in the area that should reactivate the door. Do you see any pipes around you?"
"Pipes?" she echoed, looking around, spotting a dim red LED glow over the side of the railings that guided the catwalk. "Yes. Why?"
"They power the door," Eli told her. "Follow them."
Exchanging another look with Maki, Umi did as she was told, heading over to a ladder that allowed them to climb up onto the shoulder-height pipe system. The metal tubes easily held their combined weight, but every time her boot squeaked against the metal, she winced, expecting an enemy to emerge from the shadows at the unnatural sound.
The piping system led them back over the arrangement of walkways, away from the exit. The further they walked, the more the sounds of the Ceresis seemed to recede, but Umi did not let her guard down. She knew from bitter experience that a single Ceresis could wipe out an entire squad of unprepared soldiers, and to let her guard down now would be nothing short of suicide.
I made more than one promise to return, and I intend to keep them both. No matter what.
She shut the door on thoughts of her parting with Kotori; the memory would only serve as a distraction and that was the last thing she needed right now.
Climbing over the railing at the end of the pipes, she offered a hand to Maki when her feet were back on the walkway. The redhead shot her a look, but did not protest as she took it, clambering over the metal and hopping down lightly to regain her balance.
"Go up the stairs and down the catwalk to your left," Eli instructed. "There should be a ladder at the end of it that leads you down to the console with the circuit breaker."
"Anything we should know about in the way?"
"I can't see anything right now," Eli replied tersely. "The cameras in this area are powered down too. I'm going off the site map right now, but I should be able to see more once you've reset the circuit breaker."
Umi inhaled, holding in the breath as she crept down the walkway, straining to hear over the sound of their footsteps. But nothing came out of the darkness at them, and they descended the ladder with relative ease, although she noted that the very bottom of the ladder had been broken off, which meant that they could not go back up that way.
I hope Eli has a plan for that.
The winking red indicator of the circuit breaker was prominent in the shadows as she landed on the floor. Signalling to Maki that she should go press it, Umi lifted her bow up to shoulder height as she followed the redhead, muscles tense in case there was an enemy waiting to strike from the shadows.
Maki pressed her palm against the control for the circuit breaker, backing off slightly and redrawing her gun after she did so.
A soft hum began to reverberate through the metal floor and railings as power was restored, the strip lights overhead giving off a soft bronze glow, occasionally accented by some broken power cables sparking as the flow of electricity made them jump back and forth.
Umi had just turned around to go back the way they had come when the door to their right burst open in a shatter of glass and metal. Maki let out a shout of surprise at the sound as she whipped around to find a Ceresis postured aggressively before them. The eerie screech that it gave off caused cold sweat to break out on her skin—never had she been this close to a living Ceresis without being in complete control of the situation as she quickly drew back her bow just as it was about to leap forward.
She released the arrow at the same time Maki fired.
When the Ceresis fell to the ground, she realized that her heart was pounding.
If neither of us had been prepared for the possibility of a fight… Umi shoved the thought out of her mind as she met the redhead's eye. "Let's get back to the exit," she suggested, making an effort to keep her voice steady.
She glanced around—the ladder that they had come down on was too high up for them to go back on, but now that power had been restored, Umi could see a door with an orange indicator over its control, indicating that it could be opened with the right access.
"Eli, there better not be any more surprises waiting for us on the way there," Maki hissed into her earpiece, clearly also shaken from their encounter.
"I'm looking," came the reply. "Go activate the door control on the door ahead of you for now so I can open it for you."
As Umi palmed the door control, she waited as it processed her request. "Anything?" she prompted after a few seconds of silence.
"I'm working on it. Give me just a moment here."
Three seconds later, the door indicator turned green as it slid open. Umi heard the tapping of keys as she stepped through the threshold, taking in their surroundings now that they were no longer standing in the darkness.
"Okay," Eli said a few moments later. "There is another Ceresis near the stairs back where you guys came from. I don't see anything in your area right now, but stay alert."
"Alright," Umi acknowledged as she pulled out her phone to check their location again before reloading her bow. She winced at the sight of more bodies that neither of them had noticed in the dark lying on the catwalks as they retraced their steps to the exit, their boots echoing on the metal mesh of the floor underneath them.
"Umi! Maki! Listen to me." Eli's voice broke through the silence, unnaturally loud over the steady rhythm of her heartbeat in her throat. "There are three more Ceresis coming towards you. You need to get ready—now."
Umi heard Maki insert a new clip into her gun just behind her as she raised her bow to shoulder height.
"The closest one is behind that pillar beside the wall up there—get rid of it now before the other two are close enough to react to it!"
No sooner than Eli had spoken did the Ceresis in question lumber out of cover from behind the pillarthat formed the foundation of the catwalk. Rolling to one side, Umi concealed herself behind a k-rail while Maki ducked behind a rusted cargo box.
The redhead's first shot missed, the sound of the bullet hitting the metal wall beyond it echoing painfully in the silence as Umi drew her bow from where she was crouched.
The Ceresis dove forward the moment she let the arrow fly. Hissing a curse under her breath, she reloaded just as the Ceresis moved within striking distance of her before the arrow pierced its chest. Pushing herself into a standing position quickly, Umi glanced around their surroundings, trying to pick out any semblance of movement in the shadows where the dim lighting did not quite reach. "Eli, where's the next one?" she demanded as she raised her bow to shoulder height.
"On your left!"
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the telltale movement of the twisted limbs. Umi did not give it a chance to close the distance between them as she released the string of her bow. Breathing quickly, she motioned for Maki to follow her as she set her sights on the door less than fifty feet away from them. "The last?" she asked.
"On the stairs that you came up from earlier," Eli reported. "Take it out and get out of there so I can lock the door behind you."
Umi grit her teeth together at the suggestion. She knew it was the prudent thing to do—it ensured that they would not be followed once they left this side of the facility behind, but a small part of her was aware of the implications: they would be locking in the rest of the Ceresis with the remaining bounty hunters who would not be able to use that particular exist as a means of escape.
However, there was no time to argue as the Ceresis stumbled up the narrow steps. This time, Maki was ready for it as emerged from the stairwell, firing two shots into its torso before it could clear the top of the steps.
Umi hit the door control as the redhead caught up to her. Noting the quick, uneven rise and fall of her chest and the tense way Maki was holding onto the gun, she looked back in concern. "Are you okay?" she asked in a quiet voice. Caught in the moment and the ensuing fight, she had almost forgotten that her friend was not used to the lifestyle that she lived every day, and worry rose at the back of her throat.
"Fine," Maki ground out, tightening her grip on her weapon. Her amethyst eyes dared Umi to contradict her as the door opened.
A blast of frigid air hit her in the face the moment she turned to face the door, reminding her of the coming winter that would threaten to envelope the mountainside in a few short days if they did not succeed.
Stepping outside into the sudden brightness of the grey skies above, she allowed the door behind them to close once both of them had stepped over the threshold and she watched the indicator blink to red before turning her attention back to the redhead.
For a brief heartbeat, she opened her mouth to say something, but Umi decided against it. There was nothing that she could say that would not somehow invalidate the extent of her friend's conviction and the determination that had brought her to where she stood now.
"Okay," she said at last. "The entrance to the plant control shouldn't be far from here."
She resisted the temptation to grip Maki's arm as she passed the redhead, leading the way to the second entrance set in the mountainside only a few hundred meters away from them.
Once Eli had opened the door for them, they stepped back into the relative shadow. This time, Umi noted that there was no distinct metallic tang in the air, and the lighting on the floor of the corridor was different.
"The elevator up to the plant control is down your right," Eli informed them. "It should still be functional."
Taking care to keep the sound of their footsteps to a minimum, Umi took in their surroundings as they slowly advanced down the hallway. Soft orange lights on either side of them pulsed gently, indicating doorways that led to different parts of the control facility, but she ignored them—none of them would lead them to where they wanted to go. Her sense of caution warned her that it would be more prudent to make sure no hostiles lay hidden behind each of them, but Umi knew that they did not have the time to stop to make sure that the entire facility was secure.
At the very end of the hallway, the call light to the elevator blinked on and off as she pressed her palm against it. The clicking of machinery echoed down the elevator shaft as she watched the indicator light blink on once it arrived. Odd, she thought to herself as they stepped into it, leaving the dark hallway behind. I would have assumed that the elevator would be waiting on this floor.
She had no further time to dwell on that fact as the elevator arrived at its destination with a soft ding. Umi poked her head out of the elevator, peering down both sides of the landing before stepping out completely.
"Which way?" Maki hissed, looking around cautiously with one hand on her rucksack and the fingers of the other curled around the barrel of her gun.
When Eli didn't immediately reply to the redhead's question, Umi checked her phone. "The right," she murmured back. "Anything on the security feed, Eli?"
When the response came, whatever it was, Umi couldn't make it out—it was indistinct and fraught with static, as though there was interference… or her earpiece was malfunctioning.
But that can't be, because Eli checked all of these before she gave them to us. What… is going on?
Maki snorted in annoyance as she strode forward, palming the door control to the only door at the very end of the hallway. The indicator winked green as the metal doors slid open effortlessly, and Maki strode through them without hesitation.
Umi followed her, somewhat more cautiously, her sense of unease sharpening as she fiddled with her earpiece again, trying to figure out what was wrong with it.
"Umi—" Eli's voice broke through the static. "Don't—" Another burst of garbled feedback cut her off.
"What happened?" she demanded, holding her left hand over her ear to in order to focus on what Eli was saying.
There was another whine from the speaker before the interference cleared up. "Umi! Umi, I got through; the hack won't hold long, but listen—"
Whatever it was that Eli wanted to say, Umi would never find out, because she was cut off by the sound of the door closing behind them, the metal sliding shut as Umi heard the click of a safety being released on a gun. Distracted by what Eli had been trying to tell her, she whipped around to find herself staring into the dark eyes of Satou Fubuki and some bounty hunters she knew he considered to be his friends, one of whom had just released the safety on his shotgun.
"Sorry Sonoda," he said to her smoothly, a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth as he tested the weight of his weapon against the floor. "I know what you and your little friend are here to do—I'm afraid that I can't let that happen."