Zenless Zone Zero: The Front Line
Chapter 7: Lines
"How's your charge looking, Manami?" Shion asked as he sat down on the edge of his bed with a long sigh.
"My battery's at 87%. Do you want to go over the events of today?" Manami asked.
"Yeah, Vinny just went to bed and all the cleaning around the store is done so we can get back to business." He said, taking a moment to brush his shirt off before picking up his helmet from the charge station and putting it on.
"I'm pulling up the footage from today right now. Where do you want to start from?"
"Let's go from...after we took out the guys and it was just me and Crystal. I'm not familiar with her style and it looks like I'll need to be if I want to get to Bloodhound." Shion decided.
At his request, Manami put the playback footage up for Shion to see. He replayed everything that happened between them multiple times, first starting with the fight and then going on to the chase where Crystal disappeared through the Hollow fissure.
"Looks like you were right, Shion. She did know that fissure was there. Do you think she had that as an escape plan or she just caught it in the moment and took the risk?" Manami wondered.
"Hard to say – the whole ambush was planned out, but how exactly do you factor in something as unstable as a Hollow fissure for an escape plan?" Shion questioned.
"She must know her way around the Hollows really well." Manami guessed.
"That's a pretty handy trick to have in this line of work. Can you analyze the scan of the Hollow fissure? It might come in handy to know where those things are in the future." Shion requested.
"I'll extract what I can but we don't have a whole lot to work with just based off this one brief scan." Manami said honestly.
"That's alright. Run that diagnostic in the background after we're done. For now, let's stay focused on Crystal. I'm going to put in an address and you run it through the registry." Shion changed his focus.
"An address? Where did you get an address from?" Manami asked.
"I found her in Lumina Square like a day or two ago. I followed her to the apartment complex I assume she lives in. I don't know the exact apartment number but..."
"You followed her home, Shion?! Are you crazy?!" Manami exclaimed in shock.
"Relax, buddy. This is just gathering intel. It's standard procedure." Shion said.
"I don't think there is standard procedure for something like this." Manami commented.
"Hm, touche. Anyways, if Crystal is an alias, it probably won't be in the records, but still run through the apartments and see if anything pops up." Shion requested.
"I'm running it now...but we need to talk about boundaries, Shion. I know we have a job to do but stalking feels like we're crossing a line here." Manami presented his opinion on the matter.
"This girl is not our target – Bloodhound is. She's just our best lead. Once we have what we need from her, we'll leave her alone. Until then, we have to keep digging." Shion insisted.
"And what if you got caught doing this? You don't have authorization like that anymore." Manami pointed out.
"I haven't done anything illegal yet. Getting off on the same train exit as someone else and looking through public records is well within my rights, unless you plan on turning me in as a proxy." Shion said half-jokingly.
"Just watch your step, okay? Anyways, I found a match for a Crystal Watanabe in the system: apartment 313-C." Manami informed him, pulling up the record.
"Good work. No picture linked to the record though...who is this second name here? Cynthia Watanabe?"
"There's no information listed here. Her name isn't on the lease but she's listed as a resident." Manami explained.
"Dependent family member, perhaps? Sister? Mother?" Shion guessed.
"What does this have to do with finding Bloodhound exactly?" Manami questioned once again.
"People with something to lose or someone to protect always run the risk of having those things exploited. Bloodhound is no stranger to that, I'm sure. If Crystal is taking care of this Cynthia person then we have her motive for working for the Verdict gang." Shion explained.
"So what's the angle here?" Manami asked.
"Not sure yet...I need to learn more about this girl. We're gonna run into her again, but we might be able to get her to flip if we lean on this." Shion guessed.
"I still find all of this incredibly uncomfortable." Manami expressed.
"This is a little outside of your wheelhouse, I understand that. We just need Bloodhound; that's my only concern. I'll take care of that myself. I need you to send a message to Mr. Choi and update him on our progress. It's been a week – I'm sure he's getting antsy."
"What do you want me to tell him?"
"Just let him know that we're gathering information at this time on his affiliations with the Verdict gang and finding the best way to infiltrate. We're following up on leads at this time." Shion summarized.
"Alright. I'll find a more professional way to write that out." Manami said.
"Thank you, buddy," Shion removed the helmet and placed it back on the charging station. "And by the way...I'm not going to do anything to harm Crystal or Cynthia. I do understand that this is making you uncomfortable...
"I recognize the difference between getting our hands dirty and crossing boundary lines. That's the reason I left." Shion pointed out.
"I know, I know...I just have a bad feeling about this." Manami said with a sigh.
"Yeah...can't say I don't either." Shion admitted with a sigh, rubbing his eyes and laying in bed.
"Guess we'll figure it out as we go?" Manami proposed.
"We always do. G'night, Manami." Shion said before getting comfortable under his blankets.
"Night." Manami replied, playing some soft music from Shion's nighttime playlist to help him fall asleep...