MafiA's Gamble

TWENTY NINE

Idle Calm

     It was only about ten minutes since both Eleyne and Ley had left before Yuki had stopped working. Somehow, she had already begun to get ready to procrastinate progress on the HADES. It wasn't like she didn't care about how destructive that thing was, she just couldn't really get on with it. After about three minutes of staring into nothing mindlessly, she turned to Raito and called out his name to get his attention. "Heyy Raitoo~, Raitoo~~!" Surprised over the fact she was calling for him, Raito immediately looked towards her direction, replying with an almost automatic response. "Yeah?" Tilting her head, Yuki held her hand to her chin to assume a thinking pose. "Well.. you see, I'm kinda bored... So, um... Oh wait, before we go there, you don't have to worry about the HADES. I made an approximate estimate as to when it would potentially explode, which would be in..." She paused, silently counting her fingers, and looked back at him smiling. "One and a half years. Plenty of time, right?" Pausing briefly, Raito considered the situation. He could tell she just wanted an excuse to stop productivity for a while, but seeing that she still had been working on the matter for quite a bit, he decided she deserved a break. Nodding his approval, he proceeded to ask what exactly she wanted to do. "Hmmmmm.... I .. dunno. Got any ideas?" Raito stared pointedly and refused to contribute an idea. "Well, you were the one who wanted a break, so you think of something."

     Yuki began to rack her brain for something to do, when a sudden memory from not so long ago came to mind. "Oooh I have an idea! Why don't we follow Eleyne to her date? I wanna see who this boyfriend of hers is. I'm sure you're curious as well, right?" Raito couldn't exactly deny the statement, as he too, was curious as to who on earth with a sane mind was able to put up with Eleyne's slightly eccentric personality. All things considered, he decided to go along with Yuki's plan. "... Alright, fine. But do you even know where she is?" Yuki nodded enthusiastically. "Yeahhhh didn't she say she was going to report back at MafiA's headquarters before meeting up with her boyfriend? We can wait for her to leave MafiA and then follow her?" Seeing Raito's doubtful face, she added on. "Of course, if that's too much of an unreliable lead, I can always just hack into MafiA to get her location via trackers, a system I helped implement, by the way." At this, Raito couldn't help but question, "Wouldn't it be a better idea to work on the HADES instead of pouring so much dedication into stalking a friend?" He, of course, didn't say this aloud, and seeing Yuki's enthusiastic face, he gave in, letting go of his reservations. "Sure. Let's go then." "Yay!"

     Alice sat on her desk, an indication of how much less time she had to even properly get seated in her chair. Drowning in heaps of paperwork, at the current moment, she was calculating the total costs of the whole operation. In fact, the amount of paperwork was so exceeding the normal, even Dawn and Krystal had to help. Meanwhile, Lia was kept busy at the head office computer, constantly flipping through public surveillance cameras -systems she had hacked-, searching for rather gruesome glimpses of wandering MafiA members, dead bodies, and the like before sending someone or the clean-up crew to deal with the issue. At that moment of silent, endless work period, a familiar old chime of an elevator sounded, and everyone looked up from what they were doing, to see who was there. They weren't expecting anyone that day; in fact, staff were even told to avoid the head office for fear of disruption. As the doors parted, a familiar voice greeted the tired, relentless workers. "Hey guys, I'm backk~!" The first to regain her senses after a stupor of awe, Alice greeted Eleyne and opened her mouth to ask a multitude of questions, when Eleyne slammed down a stack of more papers, labelled 'TOP PRIORITY REPORT'. Alice absentmindedly closed her mouth, as Dawn and Krystal tried to avoid glaring at the new stack of papers that glistened for all to see. Nothing against Eleyne, but the news of her pleasant return was rather spoilt with... more... white... papers. A few days of that wonderfully manufactured, processed tree bark was enough to make them immediately tired at a single glance.