Chapter 115
[147]
“Damn I can’t believe I used to wear these things, they feel so heavy on my face.” Ren remarked as he removed the glasses from his face, examining them.
“Would you stop fiddling with them? You’re gonna make us look suspicious!” Futaba whispered, elbowing him as they followed the rest of the tour group.
“Kids, quit messing around back there. Your mother and I have been looking forward to this all weekend and you are not going to ruin it for us.” Yosuke Hanamura said in his best ‘dad’ impression.
“Dude, you’re like 5 years older than me, no one is going to believe that you’re my dad.” Ren replied.
“Would all of you shut the hell up!?” Chie Satonaka whispered aggressively. “All of you are making us look suspicious!”
“Excuse me!” The woman guiding the tour called out to the four of them. “The rest of the group is heading to the next room, please don’t fall behind.”
“Yes ma’am!” They all called back.
As the quartet fell in line with the rest of the group, Ren recalled the circumstances that had brought them here.
It had been over a week since Kamoshida’s second attack on Shujin High School and the man was still on the loose somewhere in the city. When Ren learned about the attack, he immediately cursed himself for not being there, only to then be pulled out of his self-loathing by Futaba, informing him of an upcoming event that would be of great interest.
In the weeks following Silver Sable’s security team becoming an alternative to the conventional cops, many citizens claimed that Shido was turning Tokyo into a police state. In an attempt to increase P.R. numbers, Shido Sciences had decided to open their doors to the general public, giving ‘full clarity’ as to how their operation was run.
“And that’s our in.” Futaba smirked, pushing up her glasses as she continued to type away on her laptop.
The group of Ren’s and Naoto’s friends were sat in Leblanc discussing their next move to address the issues of both Shido and the escaped convicts from the Raft.
“And why exactly do we want an ‘in’?” Ryuji asked as he shovelled a handful of chips into his mouth. “Ain’t Shido the enemy? Why would we want to tour his chocolate factory?” Next to him, Futaba snickered. “What? What’s so funny?”
“Hehe, butts.” She replied, continuing to type.
“Wha…?” Realization donned on the blond’s face. “Oh come on Futaba, grow up!”
“Anyways…We’re fighting a war on two fronts right now,” Makoto explained. “And if things keep up at this rate, we won’t win either of them. The past few days have made that abundantly clear.” She turned to Ann who was sitting at the counter with an ice pack to her head.
“Hey, we can’t all heal from concussions overnight.” The injured girl replied.
“Shouldn’t our enemies be fighting each other though? I mean, they are literally cops and robbers.” Ren asked, wiping down a glass from behind the counter.
“You would think so,” Naoto chimed in. “But I took a look at the number of escaped convicts who’ve been captured by police and Sable’s forces, and it’s shockingly low. Despite the numerous checkpoints set up across the city, there’s been little progress made in regard to finding the Ryker’s inmates and no word regarding the Raft’s escapees.”
“Well then what the hell’s the point of all these checkpoints if they ain’t doin’ squat!?”
“It’s called ‘security theater’. It’s a practice where those in power attempt to make things seem more secure than they actually are by making people go through bureaucratic red tape in their everyday actions and convincing them that this system catches criminals.” The detective explained.
Haru looked concerned “So then, if they aren’t putting much of their manpower into catching convicts…”
“They’re probably more focused on catching us.” Ren finished for her.
“Which brings us back to why we need to break into Shido Sciences.” Futaba continued. “If I can get into their servers, who knows what goodies we could get our hands on? I could tamper with those Centurions’ AI, hack into Sable’s comm network, hell maybe even get a video of Shido monologuing his evil plan and post it online. This opportunity is too good to pass up on.”
“Still though, doesn’t this seem a bit too risky?” Yukiko protested. “Putting ourselves in the heart of enemy territory?”
“Big risk for a potentially game-changing payoff? Doesn’t sound too bad to me.” Yosuke countered.
“Hehe…” Kanji chuckled from the back of the room. Everyone turned to face him. “S-Sorry…I uh, I just got the butt joke from earlier.”
“...”
“...Kanji, you’re un-bear-able.” Teddy commented before being smacked on the head by Chie.
“Can we focus please?”
“Yukiko’s right, it is a big risk. If, by some chance, Shido knows our identities it could mean big trouble and his immediate victory.” Makoto explained.
“So we send in a small team then.” Ren replied, walking out from behind the counter. “Keep a low profile and minimize the risk. Obviously I’ll be going-”
“We can’t risk that!” Makoto countered. “If Shido gets his hands on you there’s no telling what he’d do! You’re too important to m-er…to the mission!”
“Real subtle there, Makoto.” Futaba commented under her breath.
“Makoto, there’s no one better suited to a stealth mission than me. Show of hands, who here can turn invisible?” Ren raised his hand, answering his own question. The spider-powered girl tried to argue but nothing came out. “So then…who else is coming?”
Back in the present, Ren snapped out of his memories as the tour group entered a large room bustling with scientists. All around them, men and women in lab coats worked moving various machines across the large room and arguing over complex code and math problems written on tablets. As the group reached the center of the large room, they came to a halt as a woman in her twenties with long brown hair greeted the group with a smile and a casual wave.
“Hello there, welcome.” The woman greeted in a friendly manner. “My name is Kuon Ichinose, and I’m the head of AI Development here at Shido Sciences. Now normally, this would be the part where I give you a whole spiel about what it is we do here and the exciting new projects we have in development, but I have a friend who I think you’d all rather hear it from.” Ichinose turned around, placing her hand on the table behind her, causing it to light up blue as a large holographic image of a woman stood before the crowd.
“Greetings, I am EMMA, your AI companion on this journey through the history of Shido Sciences…”
As the holographic image continued to speak, Ren felt a tug at his arm. Turning to the source, he saw Futaba looking up at him.
“If we’re gonna go, now would be the best time.” She reminded him.
“Oh…right.” Ren nodded, forgetting for a moment why they were there in the first place.
The two looked over to Yosuke and Chie who nodded in understanding before commencing their part of the plan.
*SLAP!*
“You cheating bastard!” Chie cried out, grabbing everyone’s attention. “Did you really think that I wouldn’t find out?”
“Wha-? Now? You want to bring this up now?” Yosuke asked, rubbing his cheek from the very real slap Chie had just given him. “Look, it was nothing, just some texts-”
“JUST SOME TEXTS!?”
“Ma’am,” A security guard approached the pair only to be pushed back by the brunette. “Ma’am please, if you don’t stop we’re going to have to remove you from the premises.”
“Oh go ahead and try!”
The distraction being caused allowed Ren and Futaba to slip away unnoticed by the crowd. The two reached the nearest door, entering the hallway behind it and seeing an elevator close by. That was their ticket to the basement where there was no doubt plenty of useful intel. As they approached the lift, the pair were caught off guard when another security officer turned the nearby corner and spotted them.
“Hey! What are you two doing back here?” The man asked, one hand moving to his side while the other moved toward his radio.
Before Ren could speak, he was beaten to the punch by Futaba.
“S-Sorry sir…err officer?” She questioned aloud before continuing. “M-My boyfriend and I…we were just looking for the bathroom and got separated from our tour group.”
“Uh huh, sure…” The officer looked skeptical before reaching for his radio.
Realizing that they would be caught if he didn’t do something, Ren acted quickly. Due to the security check at the front of the building, webshooters were a no-go, so instead he relied on his other method of incapacitation, sending a few thousand volts directly from his hand into the man’s body, causing him to instantly fall to the floor, unconscious.
Turning back to Futaba, the girl had a panicked look on her face.
“Wha…Why did you do that!?”
“He was about to rat us out! I had to do something or we were done for!” Ren assured her. “Besides, he’s fine.” He gave the body a light kick, a small groan escaped the man’s lips. “...Mostly fine.”
“Ugh fine, we’re breaking the law anyway, might as well knock out whoever gets in our way while we’re at it.” She moved toward the elevator, reaching the touchpad next to it only to realize that it required a card to access. “Shit, this could be a problem.”
“Ahem.” Ren held up the guard’s access card, a smug grin on his face.
A minute later, the two of them stood awkwardly in the elevator as it descended toward the basement. Deciding to break the silence, Ren spoke up first.
“So…I thought our cover was y’know…brother and sister.”
“Wh-What!?” Futaba turned to him in surprise, a large blush growing on her face. “I-I-I-uhh.” She began to panic, searching around the cramped elevator for a place to hide.
“Whoa, Futaba I…I was just teasing.” He stated, a slight blush creeping onto his face. “Um, do we need to talk about this?”
Before the conversation could go any further, the elevator dinged as it reached the basement. As the doors slid open, the two cautiously peered out from inside the elevator, ensuring that the coast was clear before stepping out. Luckily the floor seemed to be clear of any employees…for now at least.
“O-Oh, good there’s a computer over there.” Futaba pointed toward a nearby room containing a desk with a monitor sitting on it. “I’ll try to get some info off of it, you keep a lookout.”
“You sure you can hack it without getting caught?” Ren asked as the smaller girl walked off.
“Have you forgotten who you’re talking to?” I'm Alibaba, hacker extraordinaire.”
As Futaba sat down at the desk, she began to do her thing, hacking through the network security at incredible speed. This was her element, where she felt more comfortable than anywhere else. It felt nice. However, as she blitzed through the company’s firewalls almost on autopilot, her mind drifted back toward Ren and his comment on the elevator.
What was there to talk about? After all, Futaba knew her place in the friend group. She was the little sister of the team (despite the fact that she was clearly the smartest) and no one would see her as anything else. Not as a superhero, not as a woman, she was just the ‘guy in the chair’ sitting behind a computer screen all the time.
And who could blame Ren for not seeing her as anything more? She wasn’t quite as…developed as the other women in his life. She wasn’t as pretty as Ann, or as fierce as Makoto, or as sweet as Haru. She didn’t know how to flirt or dress nice or go out. This was all that she was good for in the end.
‘Well, if this is all I’m good for, at least I’m the best at it there is.’ She thought before pressing the ‘enter’ key and watching as the data rolled out onto the screen.
As she quickly read through everything on the screen, one file in particular caught her eye.
“Ren? Come take a look at this!” She called out.
The boy was in the room almost immediately at her call, walking over to the computer screen. “Find something?” He asked.
“Here.” She dragged the file out and displayed it full screen. “Prototypes of the Silver Sentinel robot. They’re contained in a room on this floor. If we could get our hands on their schematics or maybe get access on their code-”
“We could find out how to shut them down, maybe all of them.”
“Looks like there’s only one model left in working order, the rest have already been decommissioned and used for parts. This last one is set to be scrapped later today, so we should move quickly.” Futaba stated, standing up from her seat.
“Right.” Ren nodded and the two of them set off to the listed room.
As they ran through the halls, they peaked through the other rooms, seeing several strange projects that looked to be dangerous and scary. It was no wonder that the public wasn’t allowed down here, clearly this was where Shido Sciences worked on their weapons contracts.
They arrived at the door they were searching for and found the room inside full of mechanical parts in various states of deconstruction. Lining the walls were a number of glass tubes, all of which seemed to be empty. Save for one.
With a shocked gasp, the two stared at the figure inside of the tube. It looked nothing like the SIlver Sentinels they had encountered beforehand. Rather, this one was much smaller and featured a sleeker design. The most notable part however, was the face. It had a human face, specifically that of a young woman with short blonde hair. Looking at the nameplate hung next to the tube, Ren read it aloud.
“Model SS-02” He muttered before seeing the name written below it.
“Aigis.”
[Bonus]
“Sorry about the late start on our tour folks.” The guide apologized to the crowd before her with a brief bow. “There was a bit of a commotion in our last group but I assure you all that there’s no problem and that we will be continuing as scheduled. Now if you’ll just follow me we can begin right away.” She said before turning to enter the building.
As the group moved forward, two redheaded girls near the back of the crowd walked with them. The twin with the red ribbon in her hair turned to her bespectacled sister, seeing the sad look on her face.
“C’mon Sumi, chin up.” The older twin said to the other, nudging her. “You love this kind of stuff. Isn’t it exciting?”
“Yeah…sure Sis.” The younger twin replied, looking away.
Kasumi groaned at her sister’s reluctance to be excited about anything. Sure, things hadn’t exactly gone her way as of late. She wasn’t doing too great in competitions and she had lost touch with the few friends she had after school was closed. But the primary source of her depression could be traced back to one guy.
Ren Amamiya.
If her sister hadn’t gotten involved with that guy to begin with, she would be much better off now. Just the thought of it made Kasumi grind her teeth. Taking her sister’s hand, she pulled the meek girl into the building with her.
“C’mon Sumi, just you wait. We’re gonna have a blast.”