Invisible Hollow Incident | A Zenless Zone Zero Fan Story

Chapter 10: As It Comes Into Fruition

"Is Nagi going to be done soon? I wanna goooo... I hate being stuck in here."
A slightly irritable Soukaku is pacing back and forth, waiting for Yanagi to come back from 'a very important meeting with the directors.' Things have been different within Section 6 lately, nothing internal is wrong, they are all still as close as ever, but there's just a general tension in the atmosphere that can't quite be narrowed down. They had been going out on less missions lately despite the fact that so many events seemed to be happening, as a consequence, they had been spending a lot more time than usual cooped up in the office and it's starting to drive Soukaku insane. Eventually, after enough insistence, Yanagi had given in and allowed Soukaku to have a free day off early, today is that day, all she has to do is wait for Yanagi to finish her meeting so she can drop Soukaku off at the Metro. In reality, she hasn't been waiting that long but after being trapped in the office so much recently, it's already feeling like an age.

"She will be done soon, we all have to be a little patient right now."

Harumasa looks up from his documents.
"Didn't you sneak out for a couple hours yesterday?"

Somewhat guiltily, Miyabi averts her eyes to her desk and mutters a half defense about having to expend energy being a thiren.
True to Miyabi's words, it isn't long until Yanagi is walking through the door and back into the office, almost slamming the folders she's holding onto her desk.
"Denied again, this is getting nowhere."

Miyabi walks over.
"Do you think they're onto what we're doing?"

"No, there's no reason for that, I think they're just trying to keep everything frozen in general, I've heard complaints floating around other sectors as well. The frustrating part is I don't know what they are even trying to accomplish with this, I couldn't even get permission to contact any independent investigators!"

"So, what do we do now?"

"Nothing. Until we can find someone to fill the gap of being a proper navigator we're stuck. Trying to contact a Proxy ourselves would be impossible to do without arising suspicion somewhere, we already took enough of a risk trying to pull one person outside of the defense force into this. I thought once we got this far I'd be relieved but it just feels frustrating only being one more step away but still not seeing a way forward."

"Wouldn't your contact be able to find someone?"

"They could easily enough, but every good candidate is either well known to the point that it'd be easily noticeable if they stopped or they already have some active tie to the defense force. It's why I need some kind of go ahead, doing this in secrecy is not an option unless a miracle happens. At the very least I managed to get approval for leaving a couple hours early today so if all goes to plan, at least something can progress tonight."

Yanagi takes a moment to neaten up the folders she had placed none too gently on her desk before turning to Soukaku who had been waiting next to them not wanting to interrupt but still desperate to get going.
"Are you ready to leave, Soukaku?"

"I've been ready all morning!"

--
Cyrus is sitting in bed, looking through his new phone. Just before he and Jane had entered Random Play, she reached into a satchel that she'd grabbed on the way out of the PubSec building and handed Cyrus the phone. After getting him to swear he wouldn't tell anyone else about it, she explained how it was purpose made to be as difficult as possible to bug or intercept its signal in any way as well as included an emergency mode that would alert Jane and allow her to track it. After asking her why she gave him the phone, she only responded;
"Because I know whether or not you want it, you'll find trouble or trouble will find you, it's always good to have a life line when that happens."