Akane Kurashiki peeked around the corner, making a mental map of what would come next as they made their way through the building. A carefully application of pressure to the construction supply company had produced rough blueprints of the complex they were infiltrating, from which Crash Keys had been able to identify the likely heart of the facility. Through careful inspection of the plans, reasonable assumptions about how the people inside were using the space, and some morphogenetic insights Akane herself had supplied – with no desire to explain what it'd taken to arrive at them – they had plotted several routes to that central point with good opportunities for cover and that should avoid most of the foot traffic.

Akane had led a small team of Crash Keys agents along one such route. She knew that SOIS had infiltrated via the other routes. With luck, they would all make it through to here, on the ninth floor of the central building.

All Akane had to do now was ensure the safety of this last stretch. So she peered around the corner of the corridor, examining the path to the plain and simple, but strangely foreboding, door that was the entrance to the heart. She was ready to lead her people towards it – Not just yet. Someone was coming.

She waved her team to hold back, then focused her attention on the man who'd just appeared into view from a corridor crossing their path. Middle-aged and Japanese, he was distracted from his surroundings by the phone pressed against his ear. The drained, hollow look in his eyes marked him as a victim of the morphogenetic field; the driven purpose of the stride reminded Akane that he was still an opponent. Indeed, everything they'd seen of the people drawn to this place had reminded Akane of a cult. Maybe not as bad a cult as Free the Soul was looking to be, but enough to still make this a more immediate concern for Crash Keys.

What the man was saying did nothing to dispel that impression. "It's almost time… It's almost time," he kept muttering into the phone. Whoever was on the other end of the phone call seemed to be acting like this was a normal thing to hear.

It wasn't long until the man had passed by, the sound of his babbling receding away. Akane and her squad wouldn't have a better chance to make to their target. Akane beckoned them forward, then stepped with purpose out into the corridor. They crossed the space with quick, soft steps and gathered in a well-practiced formation around the door.

They'd expected, going in, that the target door would be secured. Locked, guarded perhaps, maybe even booby-trapped. Akane found none of that. Instead the door opened immediately to her touch. Suppressing her surprise in front of the people she had gathered to her cause, Akane stepped inside.

And in there, in the heart of the cultists' facility, Akane found… another corridor. This one was markedly different to the corridors they'd passed through to arrive, however. The light was dimmer, only coming from small circles in the ceiling and the occasional lamp hung on either side. Brass handrails ran along the dark grey walls. The entire corridor somehow managed to seem like it should have been a lot longer than it was; instead it was only a dozen or so metres to the other end, and the pair of doors there that led back out the other side. Those doors, made from solid oak, were decorated with intricate patterns around two golden diamonds. A spear-and-shield symbol was carved into the lock below the door handle.

Just as Akane had taken it all in those two doors swung open. For a second Akane tensed up with readiness; had they been discovered? But then Akane was put at ease. The overwhelming pinkness of Clover, at the head of the newly-arrived group, made it obvious that this was one of the SOIS squads that had infiltrated alongside Crash Keys. Beside Clover was her brother Light. And further back, escorted by the squad of extravagantly-dressed SOIS agents that were backing the Fields up, was Akane's own brother Aoi.

"These chumps," Aoi said by way of explanation, even as the agents surrounding him bristled warily, "didn't feel like they could spend a moment out of my company."

Akane smiled gratefully at him. He'd taken on the risks, to make up for her mistake. "You've done well," she said in reply.

By now Clover, Light, and the agents who'd accompanied them were peering around the corridor they'd entered, curious and cautious in equal measure. Clover, who'd been examining the smaller doors leading off to either side of the corridor, suddenly perked her head up with confusion. Her nose wrinkled. She glanced first, beseechingly, at the more experienced SOIS agent searching nearby, then turned towards Akane with suspicion in her eyes. "This place feels real familiar, somehow…"

It wouldn't do Akane any good to hide it. Even if Clover and Light didn't eventually come to the realisation that was already on the tip of Clover's tongue, the earpieces they all wore could connect them within seconds to someone who could answer the question for them. SOIS had gone over Building Q with a fine-toothed comb after she'd abandoned it, after all.

"It's the second class cabins," Akane stated, her voice unwavering but nevertheless subdued.

Clover's eyes narrowed. "Huh?! As in, the Nonary Game… How the hell did we end up back there?"

"Not exactly. We didn't suddenly teleport hundreds of miles. But it's certainly a very good recreation of them," Akane said.

Even with his eyes closed, Light took in his surroundings. "There are a great many things about here that remind me of the Gigantic, it is true. And the general atmosphere… Still, it is not quite something I recognise."

Aoi scoffed cockily. "Yeah, sure. The two of you didn't get to come through here, so I guess it –"

"In this timeline," Akane interjected.

"In this timeline, right." Aoi nodded exaggeratedly. "In any case, I guess it stands to reason you guys wouldn't recognise it on sight." He turned towards the side door that Clover had been examining, pointing out the plate that read 'B93'. "Or we gonna have a look at what else they managed to put together, or what?" He opened up that door and slipped inside.

Akane went the other way, into the door labelled 'B92'. Her first sight inside just confirmed how much this space was drawing from her Nonary Game. The same calming blue wallpaper covered the walls, the same pattern of checkered tiles could be found in the ensuite, even the box of matches and the tiny golden key that she'd included for the escape puzzle were in the carefully chosen locations she'd designated.

Light and Clover had followed Akane in. "Is there any particular reason why the victims of this mind virus would choose to recreate part of your Nonary Game?" Light asked. "It's a peculiar choice, for the inner sanctum of a facility such as this."

"I'm not certain, yet," Akane replied. A half-truth.

Clover folded her arms, tapping her foot. "Well, when we work out what's causing this whole thing, then we'll know what you've got to do with it." She glanced around the cabin. "So? Where the hell is it? What in here's causing the morphogenetic field to get so crazy?"

Akane closed her eyes. It was true that this place, this replica of the second class cabins, was a place of morphogenetic power. The cultists had built it to be so. But at the same time… "This place isn't complete yet. We came here too soon. Whatever's at the heart of this, it's not here yet."

It wasn't clear that Clover was going to accept that, just on Akane's word. But the other SOIS agents had pulled out various devices and were waving them around: experimental prototypes that allowed them to test the morphogenetic field what Akane knew as plain fact.

"Damnit! I thought we were so close, too," Clover said with a scowl. "I guess we'll just have to round everyone up, see what we get from them."

The SOIS agent nearest to her put a finger to her earpiece, listened carefully, then nodded at Clover. "HQ are saying that we should clear out before the ordinary police move in. Avoid crossfire. So let's…" She cut off suddenly; when she spoke again her voice was harsher, more urgent. "Reports are saying that the opponents have spotted our infiltration points. They've moved guards into the parts of the construction site we used. The other teams have successfully exfiltrated, but our path is cut off. Crash Keys', too."

"Are we gonna have to fight our way out?" Clover asked. Her voice was half-filled with trepidation, half psyching herself up.

Akane concentrated, delving deep within herself for each and every detail she'd picked up about this facility and the people who'd been drawn their like moths to a flame. "There may be a way out, without violence," she said. "But you're going to have to trust me."

o-0-o

The two groups, now moving as one, had left the recreated second class cabins. They'd found a storeroom, and purloined from there everything they expected to need. Now they were gathered at their final resting point, sheltered just off to the side of the open foyer that took up most of the building's ground floor.

Akane's planned exit? Through the main entrance, in plain sight.

"Remember the one thing we know about these people," she said. "They all just got caught up in this thing and came here. They don't know each other. They aren't entirely sure themselves what they're doing here. If we move through with purpose, we'll appear to belong just as much as any of them."

Clover shrugged. "It's as good a plan as any I've got."

"Very well," Light added. He held out his robe from among the ones they'd taken from the storeroom. "It seems that being compelled into strange, cult-like, garb is just something I have to expect these days."

Strange it was, as were all the other robes they'd taken. Black divided from white into uncoordinated blobs all along the fabric, like wearing a Rorschach test.

Light turned to his sister. "Clover, please help me don this. It would be a shame to get this far and be caught out by a misplaced hood."

After they had done so, and after all the other members of the group had put on robes as well, Akane stepped forward into the open light of the foyer. She surveyed the crowd milling about in front of her, took a single second's judgment, and then plunged in. By an instinct trained over a decade of preparation, she knew not to be tempted to scrutinize the people she passed for their reactions. She just kept walking forward with a steady pace, hoping that those behind her – SOIS and Crash Keys both – were following her lead.

They were about halfway across the space, the towering glass of the exit coming closer and closer. No-one had noticed them yet. It had to be working.

And then one of the figures in front of her diverted from their expected path. Akane collided with them, barely stifling her gasp of surprise, and the two of them tumbled to the floor.

Akane looked down at the man who had stopped her. As the hood of his robe fell away, a kind and innocent face looked back up at her.

"…Jumpy?"

"Kanny?"

"What are you doing here?!"

"Huh? What are you doing here?! You –" Junpei's face contorted in a desperate confusion. He mumbled, "We were investigating a missing person. Plan was for us to sneak in and see if we could find him. But you…"

Akane got up as Junpei trailed off and helped him to his feet. At this point she noticed three things. One: the imposing figure of the detective who had rowed her away from the Gigantic a decade ago. How on Earth he'd managed to disguise himself using a cultist's robe and sneak in… His actions against Cradle had proven his aptitude for stealth, however surprising that would seem from first glance.

Second: an unnatural silence had descended on the foyer. The entire crowd of cultists had turned to face the escaping group, hollow-eyed stares boring in.

And third, Akane's disguising robe had fallen away in the tumble.

"Interlopers!" came one astonished shout.

"Her! In the purple," a hiss-like cry came up from somewhere in the mass of people. "She's the one who did this to us!"

Then the crowd rushed in, a berserker wave.

Akane knew that Aoi and the Crash Keys members she'd brought with her could handle themselves. The hand-to-hand skills of the SOIS didn't need to be mentioned. And the detective had decades of experience bringing down violent criminals. Once they could just form ranks they'd be able to hold out against these random untrained people plucked from the street.

But there was a second or two before that could come together. Grasping hands reached in towards Akane. She flinched back, flailing with her arms. And the Junpei stepped into the way, batting away a couple of the arms.

"Kanny! Run!" he cried out. Then he was yanked off his feet and drawn away, disappearing from sight into the mass of people.

Akane reached after him, but it was too late. The detective came up on one side of her, shielding her from blows, and Aoi pulled her back by the arm. "Fuck it, Akane! You can't do anything," he said. "Junpei's gone." Ignoring her protests he dragged her back into the squad of agents, who'd attained a defensive formation too late for it to count.

The cultists formed up around them, more arriving by dribs and drabs at the back as they were drawn to the commotion. For a moment a ring of no-man's land took shape between the two groups. Then a piercing battle-cry went up, and the enemies charged.

"All hail the Funyarinpa!"