Ever since she had returned from her trip to the secluded church, things were quiet. The examination of Nu-13 didn't take long to finish. After an extended period of time spent unconscious, their overall condition was unsurprisingly sluggish and weak. But the recovery process should be fairly quick for a Prime Field Device, so Kokonoe left her under the care of her sisters.
Without any more pressing matters to deal with, she found herself studying the Susanoo Unit's self-Observing phenomenon, hoping to transfer the equations into an imitable construct. As for the unit itself, it had remained in the same spot since it had arrived—inside of its own reinforced chamber in her laboratory. Even by her standards, it was quite the addition compared to the other projects occupying the space at her disposal. But what was one more dangerous secret among the many in her laboratory?
Naturally, her regular obligations didn't go ignored as she did her research on the side. While keeping up the appearance of everything having returned to routine on her end, she saw to it that her tracks were covered. The cauldron had to be investigated according to the Committee's post-incident procedures. Being the first to arrive at the scene, she conveniently got tasked to write the report. Using her credentials as one of its chair members along with some doctored evidence, she got the old coots to believe that the whole event happened due to a computer glitch mishandling commands.
"All right…" Covering a yawn, Kokonoe leaned back against her chair. Next to the screen in front of her sat a pile of wrappers which she swept into a disposal bin beside her worktable. She had just finished drawing up a prototype to test her theory for the self-Observation system. With a push against the table, she left the corner where she had been holed up.
To let her mind rest from the desk work, she wandered to the other end of the room. Past the maintenance equipment and Tager's repair station was the containment bay a floor below where the white armor stood, head hanging limply.
As she neared the glass, tiny pins pricked the surface of her skin. A shift of sorts had stirred the air.
Although startled by the sudden hair-raising sensation, Kokonoe focused herself on finding the reason behind it. Thankfully, her machines had also detected something. She glimpsed at the information projected on the corner of the transparent surface. "This reading level… It can't be…?" Brows knit, she rushed to the subsection's control terminal nearby. Her hand grabbed the microphone installed on it to adjust the angle. "Hey! Gimme a response, why don't you?"
Hearing her speak to him, the various red eyes located around the unit's body gained a conscious shimmer. Slit-shaped pupils snapped upwards in her direction.
"Would you look at that… You're not so dead after all, Hakumen of the Six Heroes."
His voice filtered through the intercom. "The Susanoo Unit…must be returned…to the Boundary's depths, Grimalkin."
"I'm amazed that you're able to survive like this, let alone speak." With a finger, she pushed her glasses up. This turned interesting. Had that man expected something to happen at a later time when he left the unit behind? Either way, she decided to keep Relius' involvement in this to herself. "So, Hakumen, care to share anything about the origin of this continuum? What really happened to the Takamagahara System? What about the Lynchpin? Surely, you have to know something."
"I see that...your pursuit for knowledge never tires… But this endeavor…is foolish. I will…tell you nothing."
She clicked her tongue, already sick of his inflexible attitude. "Whether it's 'foolish' or not, that's not for you to decide. One way or another, I'm gonna find out. It's only a question of when. If you're gonna take up precious space inside there, you might as well make yourself useful by talking!"
Hakumen was unyielding in his stance on the matter. "Return the Sankishin unit to the Boundary… I will not repeat…myself. There shall be no…further…discussion." Heavy static distorted the sound of his voice, as if the echo of the man inside wavered between life and death.
During her initial analysis, she had attempted to pull memory data from the unit. The scans came out empty, reinforcing the idea that he had long died. However, being disproved was good if it meant that Hakumen could give the information she sought. But having experienced his uncooperative nature, that option turned out to be not as effective as she would have liked.
Kokonoe breathed out a sigh, uncrossing her arms. "Fine, I don't have time to waste arguing with you anyways. Feel free to reconsider while you're stuck in there, dumbass." His weakened state made it impossible for him to move anytime soon.
"Hmph…"
Giving Hakumen one last side glance from the upper deck level, Kokonoe then walked away. She could try forcing answers out of him since asking didn't work. Yet, based on her previous scanning attempts, she doubted she could extract anything from what was left of him.
Once back at her work area, she went towards one computer in particular. That one held the data of a copy of herself recovered from the Boundary. There were a few things she wanted to review in detail, namely this 'Embryo' and the events that had transpired inside of it. Perhaps there, she would find some kind of feasible solution.