Mother's Instinct - A GWH Story

Mother's Instinct - Chapter 4

"See? I told you you'd get results." Largo grinned on the holo-screen.

"Results would mean they found a lead on Riku." Mika sighed, returning the grin faintly. "But I guess you were right about coming here. The Nexians are super hard-working and diligent. Plus, they gave me this sweet place to stay in."

She was in her new room, talking to Largo over a communicator built into the desk. The room had all the commodities she would ever need; it was certainly a lot comfier than the cold, dark, steel ship she had lived in for quite some time now. It even had a balcony. Even though Mika had lived in a separate shack during her time at the Niji Base, she really appreciated the view that her comrades' balconies provided. The first thing she did once she finished settling in was to stand on the balcony and contemplate the sunset, and the first thing she did in the morning the next day was to perch herself there again, watching city life commence in the capital. It was a small detail, but she really appreciated it.

  "Hey, don't get too comfortable. You did mention something fishy was up with them, right? Don't take your eyes off of them."  

Of course, she couldn't lose sight of her real objective among all these nice things. Good thing she had a friend to get her back on track.

"Heh, don't worry about it." Mika winked. "I'll pay the investigators a visit once we finish talking here. Besides, I think I know where to start looking for their scheme, and if things get too dicey, I have a way off the planet. You know me, I don't sleep on the job. We're cool."

"If you say so, tough girl." Largo chuckled. "I'm sorry we haven't been able to be of much help, though. We're not as many people as the Nexians, and we have less tech to work with. Besides, Ani and I have been busy with the adoption agencies. You know how important this is to us." He added, shrugging but not dropping his friendly mood.

"Oh, that's alright! I'm not judging you for it; take your time. How's that been going, by the way?" The female soldier asked, cheerfully.

"Ah, you know, they like to overcomplicate things, so it's been slow. Understandable, given the place we live in. But we have a good feeling it'll work out."

Due to the experimentation on him, Largo suffered from the same infertility problem as Mika. He and his wife Ani didn't live on Tetra, instead choosing to settle down in Lux, an independent industrial planet famous for its various mercenary guilds. It wasn't a pretty place for the most part, but there were guaranteed jobs for everyone there, so they had taken the opportunity to make a nice home for themselves and live in relative peace on that world. And now, since they did want kids, unlike Mika, they were making the arrangements with an adoption agency. A very bureaucratic one.

"I'm sure it will." The young woman told her friend. "It's a good dream. You two'll be able to achieve it, no doubt about it."

"Thanks." Largo replied, grinning even wider. "We're supposed to go have another meeting with the agency in an hour, so I better get ready. I'll try to get you some results on Riku once I get a moment, alright?"

"Hey, I told you, there's no pressure." Mika reassured him. "You go work towards your dream, man. Best of luck to you."

"And may you have success in your search, buddy. Thanks a lot." The bearded man said, giving her a thumbs up before hanging the call.

The Nexian investigation team hadn't made much progress, even though they did the best they could. However, they did uncover a few things. They had begun their search with the Selene Family, the closest they could get to Cath and her Mistress Arcanum. It turned out that, ever since the Devil had taken possession of the scythe, she had the Family constantly busy trying to repel her chaotic actions against them, which was the reason the Nexians could access their information networks more easily. They had also discovered an important piece of information: Cath had stopped assisting Arcanum in her operations since just a couple weeks before the date of Riku's kidnapping, and hadn't been heard of since, which could mean two things: Either the devil servant had her hands full with him away from the front lines of the battles at Arcanum's request, or that she was doing whatever she was up to of her own accord. The latter option seemed less likely, given that devil slaves didn't have that kind of freedom, but the possibility worried Mika a lot.