Part 13

Kirika stared at Tsubasa in surprise as the latter reached out with her hand. "What are you waiting, Akatsuki? Or do you really want to be caught by Ogawa and his team?" Tsubasa asked impatiently.

"Can we trust you or is this a trick?" Kirika asked cautiously and Tsubasa stared long and hard at her as Miku struggled to maintain her grip on both girls in her care.

"That's a risk you're going to have to take," she replied as the SUV started to rev up. "I can't give you any guarantees that this will not end up in your capture other than my word. So will you trust me?"

Kirika closed her eyes and glanced back at the glade for a moment. She still cannot see the agents or hear them but given Shirabe's and her current condition, it might not take the agents very long to catch up to them. "Alright..." she said finally before climbing into the SUV and she was greeted by the soft sounds of radio chatter in the background.

Miku helped Shirabe into the vehicle before climbing in as well, her eyes darting into the glade as well. "Is there anything that we can do about Hibiki and Chris?" she asked, closing the door behind her. The SUV jerked forward and sped away at this point and the driver glanced at them.

"I can let Ryoko know that Ogawa has them in his custody. She might be able to pull some strings to make sure that they are treated properly," Genjuuro replied, causing Miku to let out a surprised squeak. Shirabe peered at him for a moment before sighing and he glanced at her, letting out a sigh of frustration.

"Tsukuyomi, do you know how hard it's been to get the class under control without your help?" he asked a moment later and Shirabe broke into a small, tired smile.

"Quite. Aren't you glad that the class picked me as their representative?" she said before closing her eyes and resting her head against Kirika's shoulder. On her part, Miku fidgeted about nervously while Tsubasa sat quietly in her corner of the vehicle, her eyes closed as she was thinking about something.

"So...where are we going?" Miku asked after a moment of awkward silence.

"We're going to hide for a while so that I can try and talk to my father about this mess. This has gotten too far out of hand and we need to stop this," Genjuuro said grimly and Kirika looked about, almost frightened of what happened in her absence.

"Why? What did he do?" she finally asked and she felt Shirabe stirring against her, as if she was aware of the conversation.

"Maria and Serena Kovalchuk are still under 2nd Division custody and...they have not been treated well, I'm afraid to say," Tsubasa said grimly. "My grandfather has ordered their interrogation to be carried out as quickly as possible and so they have been drugged, deprived of basic necessities. We've tried to convince him not to be so extreme but he has refused to listen to us."

"I knew we should have tried to rescue them," Shirabe whispered softly and Kirika took her hand, trying to get her to calm down.

"So Ogawa's team finally got a hint about your location and when they were making their preparations, we decided to move out as well so that we could rescue you before they can get their hands on you," Tsubasa continued. "Kanade had to stay behind at the base though since she's still recovering from her injury and we're hoping that Grandfather does nothing to her once he catches word of what happened."

"What about my family? Are they okay?" Kirika asked cautiously and Tsubasa closed her eyes once more, taking a deep breath in order to calm herself.

"For now at least. Grandfather has them under house arrest right now in hopes that you would try to contact them but clearly you didn't," she said. "That threw him into a loop and it took his agents a while to search for you because they only checked your family and your classmates. Once they remembered to check your older friends, they managed to find you within a day. You were lucky that they were careless, Akatsuki," she said.

She nodded in response before asking, "Where are we going now?"

"Out of the city. We're going to lay low for a bit before we head back and try to talk to Grandfather about this mess," Tsubasa responded quickly.

"May I ask something?" Miku asked timidly, raising her hand and Tsubasa nodded.

"Kirika said that she and Shirabe were looking for a possible third party who might be the one to have stolen your robots. Did you find out anything that would indicate that this is true?" she asked and Genjuuro chuckled.

"Actually we did raise that issue with the investigation team. I reviewed one of the...interrogation tapes and asked if they had investigated this affair from that angle. Apparently, they were considering that approach since they were getting nowhere with Maria and Serena but my father refused to consider that notion at all," he replied.

"But you did your own search right?" Kirika asked and he nodded.

"I need to cover as much ground as possible, don't I? Tsubasa has mentioned your doubts about the Phantom Thieves to me and I did a little digging here and there, although I myself was not permitted to interrogate the two girls. Based on my analysis so far, the intruders' abilities and your abilities are not similar. In the heat of a fight, you might not notice it but their power's trappings are not the same as the Phantom Thieves," he explained.

"So you believe that they are not responsible for the attack?" Miku asked and Genjuuro paused for a moment.

"I believe in the possibility that the three Phantom Thieves that we've been engaged with so far are not the ones who broke into our base. There might be a second group of Phantom Thieves who did it, although I don't know why they chose to disguise themselves as the original trio. It is possible that they are trying to pit us against each other but I don't know why," he said at last, his voice taking on a very careful and diplomatic tone.

Shirabe pushed herself up and tried to move forward. "And just what are you trying to say?" she said, her voice soft and yet very dangerous. Kirika reached out to pull her back but Shirabe pulled free and continued to glare at Genjuuro.

"I'm saying that I do think that there is another party at play and that whoever that party is, they're playing us for fools," he replied, his voice calm and equally as menacing as hers. "We need to tread carefully here and not show our hand too soon or else we'll be caught in a trap that we cannot break out of."

That seemed to calm Shirabe down and she sat back once more although Kirika can feel the anger radiating from her. Or maybe it was just the fever. A moment of silence passed by and the dark-haired girl calmed down a little, no longer fuming with anger.

Genjuuro cleared his throat and said, "I'm going to need an explanation from you, Shirabe. Tell me what's going on from your side so that I know how I can help you."

"Help me to do what?" she asked sullenly and Genjuuro chuckled softly.

"What else? Free your fellow Thieves and find out who's behind this mess," he proclaimed solemnly.

***

It took a while for Shirabe to tell her story to Genjuuro and Tsubasa and Kirika fidgeted about nervously in her seat, waiting for the other girl to finish telling her story. When she was done, Genjuuro nodded his head solemnly and he remained deep in thought for a while.

On the other hand, Tsubasa seemed to be somewhat taken aback by the story. "I...wait, Maria and Serena are voice actors?" she asked Shirabe, who nodded in response.

Do you have a problem with that?" she asked, folding her arms and staring hard at the older girl.

"No...it's just..." Tsubasa spluttered for a moment before looking down at her feet. To everyone's amazement, she seemed to be embarrassed about something and Miku tapped Kirika's shoulder lightly.

"She doesn't seem to be like her public image at all," she whispered to Kirika and she nodded once.

"You should see her when she's with Kanade," she whispered back. "It's kind of like how you and Hibiki act around each other some times."

"Oh my..."

Tsubasa cleared her throat and said, "Never mind. It just reminded me of a discussion that I was with the younger Kovalchuk before this whole incident." She took a deep breath and nodded her head firmly. "That's what happened."

Seeing Tsubasa like this made Kirika curious about the discussion but she shoved the thought to the back of her mind when Genjuuro cleared his throat once more.

"Well now that everyone is on the same page, here's the plan. We will lie low for now until Shirabe has recovered from her fever. Tsubasa and I will conduct a search for clues about this third party while you rest and..."

"Why?" Shirabe suddenly asked and everyone turned to look at her. "Why are you conducting the search and not Kirika or Miku? Why should we trust you?" She sounded a little delirious when she said that and she made as if to stand up but Kirika pulled her back.

"You're not well. I'd be a real bas..." he paused for a moment, glancing at Tsubasa briefly before clearing his throat. "You're sick and that's why you should rest. 2nd Division has not picked up on the fact that we rescued the three of you yet and so this is the smartest thing for us to do," he said.

Shirabe opened her mouth to say something but nothing came out of her mouth and she leaned back, grumbling angrily and Genjuuro nodded, satisfied by her response. "Any more arguments from the rest of you?" he asked and no one spoke up.

"Then it's settled. Strap in, ladies. The rest of the ride will be quite bumpy," he said before turning the volume on a little louder. "There's plenty of agents coming in on to this area and we need to avoid them as best as we can. Miku, Kirika, Shirabe, I need the three of you to hide for a bit."

After a bit of struggling, the three of them crouched down at the bottom of the SUV where it would be difficult for any passing cars to notice them, especially with the vehicle's tinted glass. Kirika could hear several cars drive past outside as the radio chatter grew more distinct.

"Kazanari-san, do you read us? HQ says you are in the vicinity," Ogawa's voice suddenly said and Genjuuro answered in the affirmative. "Have you seen the fugitives?"

"Not yet," Genjuuro replied calmly. "I'm still driving around looking for Igalima and the Phantom Thief."

Ogawa grunted in response before saying, "Keep us notified in case you've spotted them. We've apprehended two civilians who have been aiding them and we're bringing them in for questioning. Reports also indicate that there is a third civilian who assisted them in escaping."

"Roger that. I'll keep an eye out," their driver said before the radio clicked and became background chatter once more. Kirika can hear Miku sobbing behind her and her fist balled up in helpless anger. They have to do something and soon, she decided to herself.

***

After an hour of driving, Genjuuro brought the SUV to a halt and said, "We're here." Kirika stretched her arms before moving Shirabe aside and peer out of the SUV. To her surprise, they were now at Ryoko's mansion outside of the city and she stared at Genjuuro, waiting for his explanation.

"Oh, I'm borrowing this place from Ryoko for a bit since she's busy with upgrading the base's security. She hasn't even left for a change of clothes in the past week," he said with a slight grimace and everyone looked at each other uneasily.

"Well, that explains a lot," Miku said under her breath as the four girls left the SUV and approached the main entrance. Then she seemed to have thought of something and said, "Are we going to be safe here?"

"Probably safer here than any other place, I suspect. At the very least, it will take them a long time before they consider searching Ryoko's place for the three of you since they don't know that we're helping you," Tsubasa replied and that seemed to put Miku at ease.

After reaching the entrance and entering the long password, they entered and Shirabe looked about the entire mansion in surprise. "Just how many rich people do we know?" she asked and Tsubasa looked away, not wanting to reply that question.

Kirika laughed nervously and said, "Well, supposedly Sakurai-sensei was the one who designed the Symphogear units that we used to fight the Noise. I'm guessing that's where most of her money comes from." That seemed to satisfy Shirabe and Kirika led her to where she believed a bed is so that she could rest.

Genjuuro and Tsubasa stayed for a little while, making sure that the three girls were fine first although Miku did ask if she could see her parents or at least contact them first in order to give them some assurance as to her whereabouts and safety.

"I'm sorry but I can't risk letting you get caught," Genjuuro replied sternly before his face softened and he said, "But we'll do our best to end this as quickly as possible so that you don't have to wait so long to see them again."

Miku looked down at her feet, clearly disappointed by the answer and Kirika reached out to take her hand as Genjuuro and Tsubasa left the premises, leaving the three of them alone. It did not take long before Miku looked up once more, putting on a brave face as she said, "Do you know where the bedrooms are, Kirika-chan? We better get Shirabe to a bed so that she can rest properly."

The three of them searched around the mansion for a little while before finding a spartan looking guest room with a bed on it. After helping Shirabe onto the bed and making sure that she was comfortable, Miku and Kirika left her so that she could rest and the two of them walked around the mansion for a little while.

"You've been here before?" Miku asked and Kirika nodded her head in response.

"Sakurai-sensei ran a few tests on me after I...well, after I died and came back to life. So I was stuck in the lab while I was here. Might as well take the chance to check this place out," she said while doing her best to stifle a yawn; she did get some rest while in the SUV but her exhaustion was still kicking in, it seems.

"Well, you look kinda tired to me," Miku said cautiously as she stopped to look at her friend. "Are you sure you should be doing this?"

"I'll be fine," Kirika said confidently. "Besides, I don't feel like sleeping just yet so it's fine."

Miku nodded hesitantly for a moment before she continued walking as well and Kirika walked alongside her. "How are you though?" the latter asked. "I know it's hard to suddenly be in all this and now you're away from Hibiki and your family."

The older girl paused for a moment to take a deep breath before she turned to Kirika with a sad smile. "I'll be fine. I'm worried for Hibiki and Chris, obviously but I'm sure that Kazanari-sensei and Sakurai-sensei will do their best to protect them," she said, although it sounded to Kirika like she was trying to reassure herself.

"Don't worry. We'll rescue them and bring them back safely," she said, putting on a confident pose to help reassure her. Miku smiled, appearing grateful for the show of support as the two of them continued to explore the rest of the mansion.

Even so, there really was not much to see in the mansion, Kirika noted to herself. It was as sparsely decorated as the first time she visited and she stopped to make a face when she saw several familiar looking take out containers. She was pretty certain that they were the same ones that she saw the first time she was here, in fact...

"Let's not touch those..." she said to Miku who nodded in agreement, her face pale with disgust as they left the area as quickly as they could. After several twists and turns, they found themselves in a massive library, with bookshelves lining every wall and taking up space on the floor. There is also a table in the center of the library, stacked full with ancient leather bound tomes.

"Whoa...I definitely didn't expect this many books in here..." Kirika said in surprise and Miku glanced at her with a slight smile.

"Well, she is a researcher. It would make sense for her to have this many books," the latter said and Kirika frowned.

"I just think it'd be easier to look stuff up on a computer instead of looking for the book that you want. I mean..." the younger girl walked over to the table and picked up one of the tomes, casually flipping through its pages. "I mean, yeah it's got a lot of weird pictures like this person here but I can't read a single word of what it says."

Miku peered at the picture that Kirika was talking about: a strange doll-like figure with clearly clockwork parts and organs, its wooden expression that was similar to that of a slasher killer. She shuddered and looked away as Kirika closed the book to look at its cover.

"Kri A Ti O Aw Tem Poo Pah," she read out loud, sounding the words phonetically. "Did I even pronounce that properly?"

Miku shrugged and looked at the title herself. "I think it's Latin but I can't really say for sure," she said after a moment and Kirika sighed.

"Seriously, how does Sakurai-sensei read all this stuff?" she said as she started to explore the rest of the library. "Maybe there's something that's a bit more fun for me to play with." She reached out and took out a few books at random. "Al ki mista ee ta li a no," she read out loud. "Huh?"

"That one looks Italian, I think," Miku said, peering at the title on the book. "Don't ask me what it means though."

Kirika grumbled a little as she continued to explore the library with Miku. As she walked along the western wall, she noticed a book that was rather worn and that was jutting out from its shelf. Her curiosity was piqued by the sight and she reached out to pull the book out. It refused to be pulled out however and Kirika grumbled as she continue to pull at the book before she accidentally pushed the book into the shelf.

"Whoa..." she said in awe as the entire shelf slid into the wall and to the side, revealing a secret passage.

"A secret passage...who'd thought?" Miku said, looking into the passage and Kirika shook her head.

"No...I can actually picture Sakurai-sensei having one of these things. I mean, her lab is hidden here as well, so having a second secret passage makes sense," she said before stepping into the passage.

"Are you sure we should step in here? What if there are traps along the way?" Miku asked worriedly and Kirika waved her hand in a dismissive manner.

"We'll be fine. I don't think there's going to be a trap here and besides, it'll probably be just some sort of alarm that will alert the 2nd Division or Sakurai-sensei that there's an intruder and I just made the whole travel into the secret passage sound like a bad idea to myself, didn't I?" Kirika asked and Miku nodded in response.

She turned back to the passage and stared at it for a while, her eyes flitting about as she tried to locate anything that might look like a trap. She didn't see anything though and she decided to just try her luck out. Taking a deep breath, she walked into the passage as quickly as she can, bracing herself for trouble.

As it turned out, the passageway is free from traps and Kirika managed to walk all the way to the end without any trouble. Guess Sakurai-sensei thought that her outer security was good enough to keep people from breaking in, she thought as she stared at the vault door in front of her. By this point, Miku had caught up and she stared at the door, impressed by the sight.

"What's that doing here?" Miku asked as Kirika reached out to touch the door. Nothing happened and Kirika guessed that the vault door was there to stop any would be thieves. I wonder if Shirabe can get past the door, she thought idly as she shrugged in response to Miku's question.

"Maybe it's a second lab that Sakurai-sensei uses for her private experiments?" she suggested and Miku stared at the door for a while.

"It could be," Miku said as she knelt down to study the floor. "There's no dust on the floor and on the door so I'm guessing that she uses this room quite often." She got up and peer at the door, examining the keyboard located by the side of the door. "Keyboard's clean too so yeah. She uses this room a lot."

"Wanna guess what the password is? Maybe 1234?" Kirika suggested and Miku shook her head.

"If it's a proper keyboard, then it's probably something pretty complex. Let's get out of here before we do something to trigger any alarms," she said, tugging on Kirika who sighed and decided to follow the older girl out. Maybe Shirabe can open it tomorrow if she asked her, she thought to herself.

***

There was little else of interest in the mansion and after a short walk, Kirika decided to just rest for the night. After finding two rooms for herself and Miku, she bid her friend good night and lay down on the dust-covered bed. A fitful cough and several tosses and turnings later, she managed to drift off to sleep.

She woke several hours later at the crack of dawn, feeling very uncomfortable in the bed that she was sleeping on. Getting up, she wandered around the mansion, looking for a bathroom to use. No toothbrush and toothpaste too, she thought to herself grumpily as she washed her face. Maybe Tsubasa and Kazanari-sensei will remember to do buy some for us.

After cleaning up, she headed downstairs where she heard the rumbling of a vehicle and she cautiously peered outside to see who it was. To her relief, it was indeed Genjuuro and Tsubasa, both of whom looking extremely tired after presumably spending the whole night searching for clues.

The two of them entered the mansion, bearing supplies for the three girls and Kirika rushed to see if there were any toiletries in the mix. Thankfully, there was and she grabbed one before running off to the bathroom to clean herself properly. She re-emerged a while later to see Genjuuro and Tsubasa both lying on two different couches, their eyes closed as they rested.

"How's Kanade?" she asked cautiously as she sat down with them and Tsubasa turned to Kirika, her eyes still closed.

"She's getting better but we have to leave her in the base for now since she hasn't recovered yet. But if everything goes well, she'll be out of critical care in a week and then it'll be two more weeks before she can start some light rehabilitation," she said.

"Whoa...that long?"

"Back injuries take a while to heal. We have to cancel a tour because of that as well," Tsubasa said although she did not sound too angry about the second part. Kirika fidgeted nervously, her feelings of guilt resurfacing as she remembered how Kanade was injured in the first place.

"If you're beating yourself up over it, don't, Akatsuki," Tsubasa said as she turned over to lie on her side, facing the couch. "You need to focus on proving your innocence right now and get yourself out of this mess."

"Er...okay..." Kirika said softly before she remembered the discovery she and Miku made last night. "Hey...do you guys know anything about a secret passage and a vault door in the library?" she asked and Genjuuro's eyes flicked open at this.

"What secret passage and vault door? Ryoko only has the lab installed here. There shouldn't be anything else," he said and Kirika made a slight squeak at the intense look on his face. Calming herself down, she explained to him about their discovery and he glanced at Tsubasa, who had just opened her eyes out of curiosity.

"Don't look at me. This is the first time I'm hearing about this as well. I thought she didn't keep any secrets from you," she said and the intense look deepened into a more troubled look.

"She doesn't. And with all the additional trouble that we are currently facing, this is worth looking into," he said grimly as he pulled himself from the couch he was resting on. "Now let's have a look at this secret vault of Ryoko's." The three of them got up and left for the library as Miku and Shirabe walked down the stairs, the latter duo staring at them in surprise.

Kirika led them to the vault door and pointed it out to them, where Genjuuro's troubled look grew. "Now I know that it's nearly impossible for her to get this done without the 2nd Division knowing about this," he said, tapping on the door lightly. "What exactly does she have hidden inside there?"

"Can you crack the security?" Tsubasa asked and he shook his head, a rueful grin appearing on his face.

"I think Ogawa might be able to pull this off but..." he let his words trail off and Kirika nodded in understanding.

"Did you want to get into the vault?" Shirabe suddenly said behind them and they turned around, looking at her as she walked in with Miku by her side.

"Shirabe, are you okay?" Kirika asked as she trotted to the other girl and she nodded once, her face filled with grim hope as she stared at the door.

"Better than I've been the last couple of days," she said, her eyes fixed on the vault door. "So...this is Sakurai-sensei's forbidden secret huh?" She stepped forward and touched the door as if trying to get a sense of its strength.

"Well?" Genjuuro asked and Shirabe shook her head.

"It's a lot more reinforced than I expected it to be and I can't do it alone," she said before turning around to give Kirika a meaningful look. "First, I'm going to need something to eat and when that's done, you're going to help me with opening this door," she said and Kirika's eyes widened in surprise.

***

After a quick meal and a short rest, the five of them stood in front of the door once, ready in their attempt to open the door. Both Tsubasa and Genjuuro had grim looks on their faces while Miku was looking at Kirika and Shirabe worriedly.

Kirika herself was feeling rather nervous about the whole thing and she asked Shirabe if this was the best possible way to get their task accomplished.

"It's likely that we can pull this off," she said, giving Kirika a confident look. "You can channel my power and focus it into something more potent, just like how we defeated that Noise together."

"If you say so," Kirika said hesitantly before Shirabe took her hand and gripped it tightly.

"I do," she said before turning to face the door. She took out her crystal pendant and held it in her free hand, concentrating with all of her might. The passageway glowed for a moment as bright light filled it before it dimmed as Kirika's heart started to pound in her chest.

Shirabe continued to focus some more, sweat dripping from her brow and Kirika gasped painfully as more power poured into her body, filling her up and causing her heart to beat faster and faster...until a huge burst of energy burst from her body.

The two girls began to sing as one while Tsubasa and Genjuuro backed away, pulling Miku with them. Her heart seemed to chime instead of beat this time and Kirika gave Shirabe a brilliant smile before she started to focus everything she had into her fist. There was a brief stutter before a staff made of energy appeared in her hand and it sprouted a glowing green blade while Shirabe manifested several yo-yos in her other hand.

As one, they swung their weapons into the vault door, cleaving it in half and they repeated their motions several times until the door collapsed forward onto them. "Kirika!" Miku shouted in worry but the two girls jumped forward and kicked the falling door aside with ease.

Kirika let go of Shirabe's hand at this point, panting heavily from the exertion but not before catching Shirabe in both hands as the latter started to collapse. "That...was a lot...more effort than I thought it would take," the dark-haired girl said and Kirika smiled as she helped her up to her feet.

Tsubasa and Genjuuro ran up to the two girls, fussing over them in order to make sure that they were fine, which Kirika reassured them that they were, although she was starting to feel some fatigue setting in. Shirabe seemed to be the one who was worse for wear though and both Miku and Kirika volunteered to help Shirabe back to her room to rest for now.

"Alright. Tsubasa and I will check out what's inside the vault and we'll let you know what's inside," Genjuuro said. "Kirika, you should rest too," he said, looking pointedly at her before she can say a word.

"Fine..." she said, grumbling a little before she helped Miku to guide Shirabe out of the passageway. At least it looked like they were getting somewhere with their problem, she thought to herself. Maybe there is something in Sakurai-sensei's vault that would explain what's going on right now.

But that would mean that Sakurai-sensei is the bad guy behind this whole mess, a second voice in her mind said and she shivered at the thought, unwilling to think of what would happen if that does turn out to be true.