Spring Upon the Solstice

XVII - War, Peace, and the Lunar Glow

{ 001 }

"Okay, so you would want to reroute the wire from this blue port into the yellow one," Yumei shines her flashlight into the depths of Sakura Four's internal mechanisms. "That'll let us bypass the first security checkpoint, but there's still more stuff to do. Then you need to cut out the purple one, with the black stripes. That disables the hardline connection but keep in mind it won't disable the wireless command."

"This is a lot of information," I admit, cracking my neck to relieve the pressure. We've been hunched over inside the Akuma's cockpit for a while now. Not to say that I'm complaining about Sakura—I try to avoid badmouthing her too much—but the designers never intended for this space to accommodate two people.

"Don't worry. I'll be there when we go, so you don't really have to remember any of this stuff. Talking out loud just helps me memorize things."

"How are we all going to fit in here, again?" Soru asks, his voice muffled by the welding mask strapped to his face. Periodically, the cockpit floods with white light, sourced from his blowtorch as he seals the fang marks between two metal panels.

Sakura, since my battle with Charybdis, has been mostly repaired, but since she's not entirely ready to rock, we get easy access to the guts of the machine. Conversely, our virus isn't even ready yet, making this endeavor fairly pointless. What's the sense in planning a rebellion when our way out can be compromised with the press of a button?

"You know," I say, "that's a really good question. How about we wing it? Or maybe, first come first serve. Loser gets to ride outside."

"Well, that certainly makes me feel better."

"If you'd like, I can stick you in the reactor room. Nice and cozy in there."

"Tempting offer, but I'll pass."

Yumei clears her throat, "Back on focus, ladies."

"Okay, so that's most of the procedure covered," I cross another item off my mental checklist. "We still have a few more bases to go over, but I think that we're ready to maybe do a practice drill?"

Soru chimes in, "I don't even know how that would work."

"Like I said before," Yumei crosses her arms, "it could take up to two weeks. Maybe get Klaus to see if he can remotely open the First Hangar's bay doors. That would help."

"He's not even here right now," I sigh.

"Exactly," she rummages through her toolkit. "Anyways, he messaged me earlier. Think he managed to find a third child."

"Oh?" I ask.

"Yeah. I'm guessing it's—" she knits her eyebrows together, "—Kaede Hirosano? That was the one he said he was going after first. The sister."

"I thought you only gave Soru the access codes."

"Klaus went through the prison level manually."

"Holy shit. Leave it to Klaus to either go zero percent or a hundred and ten. He wasn't spotted, was he?"

"I'm not an amateur, thanks," she sighs. "I gave him our spare jammer. Failure #4."

"That's awfully bold of you to trust him with something that valuable."

"Kat, they're not hard to make. If you want one, I can probably do it, but then I'd be devoting precious time to supporting your ego rather than using it to code a virus."