World of Hearts: Linked as One (Book 1)

3-4: Unraveling Secrets

Kizuna, Madoka, Yoh, and Izuku had gathered back at Eva's Mansion, occupying another room.

"So Ruby chose to give herself up so we could be free..." Kizuna said. "This is all my fault..."

"Kizu... nobody knew we'd be walking into an ambush," Madoka said. "Besides, we can still rescue her and the hostages."

"Even so..." Yoh chimed in. "We can't let Torchwick get away with this."

"And then there's that deal at the docks..." Izuku said. "Whatever it is, we can't ignore it forever."

The four teens put their heads together, thinking of what to do. With Ruby captured, things will be tough with less manpower. The police have been notified of the details, but have yet to formulate a plan to bust the deal. Kizuna paces back and forth. Sora projects himself into the room.

"Man, this C-Rank mission is starting to turn into a B-Rank mission..." Sora said.

Kizuna couldn't help but feel worried about Ruby. He felt partially responsible for her being captured by Torchwick.

'Dad... if you were in this situation, what would you do?' Kizuna thought to himself. "I guess we should form our plan for rescuing Ruby and busting whatever deal Torchwick is trying to make."

The door was slid open, and Amon was standing there.

"You don't need to worry about the plan. I'll take it from here," Amon said.

"Mr Amon..." Madoka said as she looked at him.

"You have a plan?" Izuku asked.

"Yes, and I got some intel regarding the deal you were discussing," Amon said. "One of Mrs Daichi's scanner androids caught wind of a conversation."

A male YoRHa android walked into the room. Kizuna smiled as he looked at the droid.

"Nines?" Kizuna asked. He wrapped one arm around the android.

"I'm glad you still remember me, young master," the android said.

"Guys, this is 9S," Kizuna introduces the android to his classmates. "He and 2B used to babysit me."

"You were babysat by androids?" Yoh asked. "This is the first time I'm hearing it."

"Mr 9S--!"

"Ah, you don't need to be formal with me," 9S said with a smile. "As for that intel that you were wondering about? I'll let my Pod do the honors. My Pod and I share a datalink with the other droids."

A floating rectangular machine with small arms floated over to the room. It began to show a hologram displaying the layout of the warehouse district and the docks. The group was surprised to see all of this.

"When did you have time to do all of this?" Madoka asked.

"While Mr Midoriya and Ms Ruby went to the docks, I was ordered by Mistress Eva to do a bit of reconnaissance there and to watch you from the shadows in case you missed anything. I even went so far as to scan the ship and all the warehouses nearby," 9S said. "I found out that the real crew of the ship is in the cargo hold." He pointed to the ship that was docked. "I'm pretty sure that those two plan to use them as hostages if their activities are discovered there. The police's response would be delayed since the hostages would be at risk."

"So that means Ruby could very well be with those very hostages as we speak..." Izuku said. "What about the other warehouses? You checked them, right? The ones close to that warehouse?"

"A nice deduction there," 9S said. "You know, you would make a pretty decent detective, freelance or otherwise."

"W-Well... uh..." Izuku stammered.