Part 14

Miku led both Kirika and Shirabe to the living room where the couches were and they sat down in order to rest from the combined power use. Shirabe seemed to be worse off compared to Kirika and it was not long before she fell asleep once more, her head leaning against Kirika's shoulder.

Kirika glanced at Shirabe for a moment before she turned to Miku and asked, "What do you think they'll find down there?"

"Honestly? Something that would let us go back home," she replied. "I have no idea how you managed to keep up with all this. It's overwhelming me right now and I just want Hibiki and Chris back here with us," she continued, wringing her hands in worry.

"I..." Kirika started to say before her hand touched her chest where her scar was positioned. "I guess anything is easy to adjust to once you've died once and come back to life," she said, trying to sound as light as possible and Miku glared at her, making her look at her feet. "Sorry."

"But..." she said after a moment of silence. "I did die and I did come back to life. So I'm just really grateful for this second chance at living. Even if I have to do all this, I'm not going to complain about how everything changed just because of that."

The other girl was silent for a moment before she sighed and gave Kirika an apologetic smile. "Guess it's my turn to apologize, huh?" she said before she got up and bowed, making Kirika laughed nervously.

"You should get some rest yourself," Miku said as she turned to walk away. "I'll wake you up when they find something." Kirika nodded, feeling the fatigue creeping throughout her body and she closed her eyes, falling asleep before she realized it.

Some time later, she felt someone shaking her shoulder and she opened her eyes blearily, staring at Miku. "Here, have something to drink first," she said, holding two glasses of water. Kirika took one and shifted away as Shirabe stirred and took the second glass.

"Did they find something?" Kirika asked and Miku nodded, gesturing at two figures on two nearby couches.

"They did and they're taking a nap right now because they're tired. I'm going to do my best to explain to you what they told me so bear with me..." she said and waited until they have finished drinking before gesturing at them to follow her.

"What's in the vault?" Shirabe asked, sounding very much more alert that she was as the three of them walked back to the secret passageway.

"A computer, several really old books and a some sort of shrine," Miku replied and Shirabe looked at Kirika in confusion.

"Sakurai-sensei is religious?"

"We...don't know. It's a weird kind of shrine that we've never seen before complete with a language that none of us could recognize," Miku admitted to them. "You'll see once we get there but Tsubasa-san did say that some of the symbols on the shrine looked like some sort mural."

"The elevator mural?" Kirika asked curiously and Miku glanced at her.

"Something like that. She didn't really explain further but she did say that you will know what kind of mural she was talking about, so I guess that must be it," she said as they reached the vault door. Kirika peered inside first and waved her hand a little to clear some of the air.

There was a strange burnt smell in the vault, she thought to herself. Like incense, probably. As Miku had described earlier, the vault was relatively spartan, with a computer by the side, a table with several tomes on the opposite side and a strange looking shrine in the center.

It was similar to the Stonehenge, Kirika thought but they were inscribed with the elevator murals and in the middle of the shrine was an intricate circle, lined with red candles that had burnt down to stubs. In the center of the circle were several indentation, numbering ten in total and looked like they used to fit something small in them.

"This is really weird," Kirika said out loud and Shirabe nodded in agreement staring at the murals.

"I...I think I've seen some of these murals before," the latter said after a while and the two girls turn to look at her. "Sometimes Fine would come to our apartment and she draw these on the walls. I asked what they were and she said, it was a prayer to her God, asking for His protection. The symbols would stay on the wall until morning and then they'd disappear like they had worn off."

"So...Ryoko knows about Fine's religion and practices it in secret?" Kirika asked in confusion and Shirabe frowned at the thought.

"Maybe I should ask Fine about it," the latter said after a while of thinking and she closed her eyes, appearing to be deep in thought. Kirika glanced around and decided to walk to the computer instead. It was a brand new model but it had seen little use, judging from the dust on it. Curious, she turned it on and waited for it to boot up first before fiddling around with it.

Thankfully, there was no password; maybe Sakurai-sensei thought that her vault door was enough security to prevent that, she thought as she moved the mouse around to search in the computer files. As far as she could tell, it was mostly files and reports but there was a folder in there with her name on it. Curiosity got the better of her and she opened the folder.

Inside there were more files and reports but there were also pictures which Kirika opened. They appeared to be pictures of her scans, in particular her crystal heart and each picture seemed to be monitoring her heart's condition. Each scan was tagged to a report and Kirika opened them as well.

Most of them turned out to be nothing more than how she was doing over time and how the crystal was affecting her. Boring, she thought before she clicked on the latest file, dated approximately to the time when the 2nd Division base was invaded by the 'Phantom Thieves'.

"Subject has experienced exponential growth in mastering her newfound abilities. She is now able to tap into the energy manipulation function of the Resonant crystal with her chest without needing to undergo prior training or even knowledge of the ability in the first place. Possible side effect of having the crystal implanted into her body perhaps? Must investigate further."

Investigate further? Does that mean that she is going to implant more crystals in other people? Kirika frowned at the implication until she recalled that there was no other crystals in the 2nd Division unit. How was she going to get more crystals?

Kirika folded her arms, thinking about this for a moment as Miku walked over to her side. "Did you find out anything interesting?" she asked and Kirika pointed at the files she found. "Maybe she has an extra stash of crystals somewhere?" Miku suggested and Kirika frowned.

"How? Unless she managed to get crystals from the Phantom Thieves but I don't think that ever happened," she said, thinking hard about the matter. At that point, Miku let out a gasp of surprise and Kirika turned around as a shimmer next to Shirabe. Kirika hopped up to her feet and trotted over to Shirabe as Fine appeared in the room.

"What..." Miku spluttered in surprise before she walked over to them, looking confused about what is going on. Shirabe opened her eyes and introduced Fine to Miku as the priestess' eyes focused on the shrine, staring at it as if she was thinking about what to do about it.

"So...what do you think, Fine?" Shirabe asked after a moment had passed and the priestess turned to her.

"It does look like a very good replica of the symbols that was used in my time. Perhaps this...Sakurai-sensei is a collector of relics from my past and she is simply trying to figure out what they all mean," she said and Kirika stared at her. There was something about her voice, she thought to herself. Like she was doing something to it in order to mix it up a bit.

"You're saying that the shrine means nothing?" Shirabe asked and Fine shook her head in response.

"I'm saying exactly that. It looks like a recreation of something of the past and does not really hold any meaning to me as far as I'm concerned," she said dismissively and Kirika raised her hand.

"So...what exactly is this shrine supposed to be a recreation of then? What is it meant to do?" she asked and this time, Fine smiled.

"It's a constellation map actually. The circle in the middle is used to represent the constellations that we saw in our time. Only instead of animals or heroic figures, we saw symbols in our skies that represented God's protection over humanity," she explained smoothly before walking over to the circle and tracing a line so that everyone can see what she meant.

"Oh," Kirika responded, feeling a little disappointed by the explanation. Even so, a nagging doubt ate at the back of her mind although she was unable to figure it out still.

"Is that what that shrine was?" another voice said and everyone turned to look as Genjuuro walked into the vault room. He still looked tired but he seemed a little more alert than he was when Kirika had opened the vault door earlier. "I thought it would have been something a little more epic than that."

Shirabe redid the introductions once more and Kirika noticed that Fine seemed to be backing away from Genjuuro, as if she was afraid of him for some reason. He appeared to have noticed this as well, judging by his narrowed stare at her but he did not comment on this, instead asking Fine, "So why did you choose Maria, Serena and Shirabe to be your cohorts in this endeavor?"

"Why did you choose to employ three girls as your warriors against the Noise?" Fine countered and Genjuuro's eyes narrowed further.

"I...have no say in this matter. They were the only ones we've found capable of activating the Gears and don't think that I would not have volunteered to fight in their place instead. And you did not answer my question. Why them and not you?" he asked, stepping forward to confront her and she backed away from him some more.

Fine simply growled angrily before she smiled, as if she realized something and she disappeared instead of answering his question. Genjuuro clucked his tongue at her reaction and sat down at a nearby table instead, his brow furrowed in contemplation.

"You know...we chose to fight the Noise, sensei. If she didn't offer us the chance, we would have done it on our own," Shirabe said quietly and Genjuuro turned to her before patting her head.

"I can see that...but that's not why I was asking her that," he said and Shirabe stared at him in confusion. "Don't worry about it right now though. It's just something that I was thinking about when I laid eyes on her and I was trying to make sure of it. Too bad I can't do it now."

"What were you trying to confirm?" Kirika asked curiously. "Was it the fact that she reminded you of someone?"

He grinned at her. "You're a lot sharper than you are," he said before nodding his head. "I'm not sure who though and that's the part that annoys me." Now it was Shirabe's turn to look annoyed and she folded her arms angrily, staring at the two of them.

"Why are the two of you trying to make Fine seem like a villain? She's been nothing but good and kind to me, Maria and Shirabe and now you're just trying to insinuate that what? She's masterminding everything behind this situation?" she demanded and Kirika faltered while Genjuuro stared at her.

"Maybe I am. I just want to know more about her before I can clear her off the suspect list. And right now, I can say that she is being extremely suspicious despite having only just met her. You can hate me for that but I want to make sure that everything goes well for everyone here in this room," he said at last.

Shirabe glared at him before she turned around and stormed off, causing him to sigh and he turned his attention back to the vault and its contents. Miku looked at Kirika and whispered to her, "Why don't you talk to Shirabe and calm her down?"

"Eh? Why me?" she asked, alarmed by the idea of confronting an angry Shirabe.

"Because you know her the best and the longest out of everyone here," she replied immediately and Kirika sighed before agreeing to Miku's request and going out to find her.

***

She found Shirabe sitting in one of the mansion's empty rooms, brooding alone as she stared out of the window. Quietly, she made her way over to the other girl's side and stood next to her, staring out of the window and taking in the sights of the surrounding area.

"Do you believe that Fine is against us as well?" Shirabe asked after a while and Kirika hesitated, trying to figure out the best way to share her opinion without getting into trouble. This earned a glare from Shirabe who said, "Of course you do. Otherwise you'd have answered immediately."

Sighing, Kirika said, "I have my suspicions, yeah. I mean, she's entitled to her secrets but if she doesn't share anything that would get her out of trouble, it would make people feel weird about her. Still, I just think that she knows more than she's letting on, if that makes you happy."

"How is that supposed to make me happy?" Shirabe snapped and Kirika backed away, holding up her hands in a defensive manner. "She saved me! Am I supposed to show my gratitude by thinking that she's somehow culpable in my family's death? That she is training us for her secret agenda?"

"I don't know. Only Fine can really answer that question and that we should also be prepared for anything, even if the answer isn't to our liking," Kirika replied after a long thought and Shirabe responded by hitting her across her face angrily.

"Get out," she said and Kirika simply bowed apologetically to her before stepping out of the room and closing the door behind her. She let out a loud sigh, rubbing her stinging cheek ruefully.

"Guess I really screwed up, huh?" she said aloud as she walked away from the room.

***

After her failed attempt at talking to Shirabe, Kirika returned back to the vault where Genjuuro was sitting and staring at the computer, reading the files that Kirika had found. Miku was nowhere to be found; she had probably left to do something else, Kirika decided. As she approached, Genjuuro cleared his throat and said, "What do you think about the reports here?"

"I don't know. I guess they look like ordinary reports to me," she said and he nodded in response.

"Exactly, but these are reports that she never filed with the 2nd Division. Her own private experiments and her reports here are completely different from what I've read in the official ones," he said, frowning as he continued to read through another report.

"But you knew that she conducted her own experiments right?" Kirika asked and he smirked grimly at her statement.

"Everyone knew that. But everyone expected the results to be identical or close enough to her official ones. Science is all about duplication and repetition after all. If the results don't match up, something went wrong during the process," he said and turned to her.

"The results don't match up?" she asked timidly and he nodded in response.

"Exactly. The numbers indicated here are significantly higher than what she had posted in her reports to my father. I'm guessing that she lowered the numbers in her report, enough to keep him invested but low enough so that he would not pay too much attention to you," he said. Then he highlighted the latest report and pointed at it.

"And this report was not even duplicated and filed in. She mentioned that energy blade of yours but had dismissed it as a one off fluke, a byproduct of excess adrenaline bleeding out without connecting it to the Phantom Thieves," he said. "I can only think of two reasons why she'd do something like this. Either she's trying to protect you from my father or..."

"Or...she's planning on making her own versions of me?" Kirika said hesitantly and he nodded. "But how? We don't have that many crystals in our stores since most of them were taken by the Phantom Thieves. Right?"

"That's one of the many problems we're facing," Genjuuro said with a frown, folding his arms. "There are no extra crystals for Ryoko since most of them are stolen by the Thieves and the few we have are kept under strict surveillance at all times."

"What about the four crystals she had here in her secret lab?" Kirika asked and Genjuuro stared at her in surprise.

"Four?" he asked and she told him about the time when she came here with Kanade and Tsubasa as part of returning the favor she performed for them. Genjuuro frowned and turned back to the computer. "Okay...I might have to rethink what I thought about the crystals being in strict surveillance if she can alter the security videos that easily."

"So..."

"I knew that she could dip into the security feed and make some minor adjustments but the security on the Dissonant crystals were supposed to be several magnitudes higher than that. They were designed by a different security team and were constantly updated so that they could not be so easily hacked," he said and a moment later, his frown turned into a look of alarm.

"And now she's installing the new security system for the 2nd Division base," he said and Kirika felt the heckles rising on the back of her neck.

"That means everyone in there is in some kind of trouble," she said and Genjuuro nodded, taking out his phone.

"Not necessarily. We don't know what Ryoko's plan is so we're still operating in the dark. At the very least, we know that she cannot be completely trusted with you or the crystals," he said grimly as he selected a name in his contact list and made a call.

"Ogawa?" Genjuuro said, surprising Kirika who nearly made a startled gasp until he shook his head, warning her to be calm. She covered her mouth with her hand as he continued to talk. "Listen. I need you to do me a favor. Can you check on Ryoko and see what she is doing right now?"

The two of them exchanged words with each other over the phone for a while with Genjuuro making a few negotiations until he bowed down once and hung up on the call. He glanced at Kirika and let out a sigh of relief. "I managed to get him to investigate Ryoko's actions. It won't be much but we might be able to get a few clues as to what's going on," he said.

"Better than nothing?"

He nodded his head. "Not only that, it might help to give the three of you a bit of a break since now half his attention is devoted to investigating Ryoko," he said thoughtfully before he turned back to the computer. "The problem is that there are too many inconsistencies and holes in the plot right now," he murmured to himself.

Kirika glanced around for a moment before walking over to the shrine and examining the circle in the center. The symbols really do look like the murals on the wall, she thought to herself as she ran her fingers along them. In fact, they seem to follow a similar pattern...

Her fingers brush across the indentations on the circle and she stared at them for a while, her thoughts circling around in her mind for a while. Up close, they seem to be about the same size as the Dissonant crystals, she thought to herself idly.

The thought shot back into her mind and she stared at the indentations again. Maybe they're holes for the Dissonant crystals, she thought to herself. But if so, just what is their purpose supposed to be? She called out to Genjuuro and mentioned her thoughts to him and he stared at the shrine for a bit.

"I hate this," he said a moment later and Kirika sighed in response. "There's just too many things here that doesn't add up unless..." he turned away and walked away from the vault, leaving Kirika alone in the vault. She looked down at the circle for a while before she gave up and left the vault herself.

***

Shirabe came down on her own an hour later while everyone was gathered at the living room, discussing their discovery. She glanced at them, her face expressionless but Kirika got the feeling that she was still extremely upset over their previous conversation and she hesitated to call out to her.

It was Genjuuro who did so, waving her over and she did so reluctantly, sitting down away from everyone else. "What?" she asked in a sullen manner, staring at the rest of them. "Are you trying to figure out how to implicate Fine in this matter?"

"Actually no," Genjuuro said calmly. "We're discussing possible motives for Ryoko to have done this in the first place but we're coming up with blanks."

This caused Shirabe to blink in surprise before she looked at everyone for confirmation. Tsubasa nodded back in a stoic manner while Miku gave her an encouraging smile. Kirika hesitated for a moment before she glanced at Shirabe and nodded timidly.

The Phantom Thief stared at the four of them for a while before relaxing her scowl and saying, "Right...so how do we nail Sakurai-sensei?" Her tone was extremely excited and Kirika cringed at how she sounded like to her.

Genjuuro seemed to have noticed this and he frowned as well. "Not yet. We're trying to discern her motivations first. There are too many variables that we are not aware of at this point but having an idea of what she might want will help us prepare for the worst," he said and Shirabe glared at him.

"So you're still going to target Fine as your main suspect then?" she snapped and he sighed at her response.

"Your Fine is one of the suspects on the list, yes. We don't know her motivations, she is mysterious and she has acted suspiciously around us. We are just trying to cover all the bases so that we are not surprised and that we know how to react when we find out who is behind the trouble that we are facing," he explained as calmly as he can.

"But..."

"Do you think I want to believe that Ryoko is guilty of manipulating and tricking us?" he continue to say, his voice quivering a little in anger. "She is my best and oldest friend in this world and I have to consider the fact that she betrayed us. I'm sorry but you're not the only one who's has to suspect a loved one of betrayal, Shirabe."

She glared at him angrily for a moment before folding her arms and looking away. He took a deep breath before continuing on with their previous discussion and Shirabe did not say anything throughout their talk. In the end, they could not come up with any sort of satisfactory idea and Tsubasa clucked her tongue in annoyance.

"Excuse me," she said as she got up and took out her phone, walking away as she started to dial a number on it.

"Tsubasa, can you try not to call Kanade so often?" Genjuuro called out but she ignored him, walking away as she waited for a response. He sighed and closed his eyes, rubbing his temples a little as Miku clenched her fists tightly and Kirika reached out to touch her hand lightly.

"We'll get them back," she said in an attempt to reassure her and Miku nodded once, although she did not seemed convinced by Kirika's words and the younger girl felt a little despair as she looked over at everyone's current state. Is there something that we can do, she thought to herself.

As she was thinking this, she noticed that Tsubasa was staring at her phone in confusion and repeating "Hello" several times. "What's wrong, Tsubasa-san?" she asked and everyone else looked at the blue-haired girl as she gave them a frustrated look.

"I don't know. Kanade was suddenly cut off while I was talking to her. Give me a moment and I'll try to contact her again," she said before redialing her friend's number. Genjuuro frowned and took his phone out as well, tapping the screen rapidly as he made his own call.

"Ogawa," he said a moment later. "Are you having trouble contacting base?" He listened for a moment before he explained that Tsubasa had trouble talking to Kanade and he waited before hanging up. "He's going to do a quick check," he said, glancing at Tsubasa who was frantically dialing Kanade's number. "Let's wait."

It did not take long before Genjuuro's phone rang again and he answered it immediately. A look of intense worry grew on his face as he listened to his phone and he grunted an affirmative before he hung up. "Looks like Ogawa has lost contact with the home base and he's heading there right now to check out what's going on," he said.

Kirika raced to the window, her eyes darting in the direction of the school and asked, "What about the students? Does that mean they're in trouble as well?"

"It's...it's possible that they might be in trouble," he admitted after a moment's consideration and Kirika turned to look at him, a look of determination appearing on her face.

"Then we have to go and help, don't we?" she said and everyone looked at her in surprise. "What? You said that there might be trouble going on in the base. It might be whoever is behind this decided to make their move and there's bound to be a lot of fighting. That means it might reach the surface and we have to protect our classmates. Right?"

Everyone else looked at each other for a moment and Genjuuro smirked at Kirika's words. "Alright then. Everybody, go get prepared. We're leaving in five minutes," he said and everyone rushed to get their affairs in order.

***

"Here's the plan," Genjuuro said as everyone gathered in the SUV and he started the vehicle. "We get to the school and assess the situation first. Find out what's going on before we make our move. If we confirm that there is a situation, Miku and I will help evacuate the students while Tsubasa, Kirika and Shirabe will take the elevator down into the base. Understand?"

"We're not going to rush in?" Kirika asked and Genjuuro shook his head.

"Not until we know what the situation is. All we know is that communication has been cut off. The wisest move right now is to let Ogawa and his crew handle the initial infiltration for now and get them to inform us about the situation. If there is trouble, we move in. If not, we back away and they don't find out about us," he explained to her.

Kirika grimaced at the plan even if she did acknowledge that it was a sound one; it felt like they were just waiting for things to happen. Genjuuro noticed this and said, "We are waiting for things to happen. The problem is that we do not know what the situation is and rushing into things blindly will cost us dearly."

She grumbled again as he started the car but allowed the plan to proceed; even Tsubasa was fidgeting impatiently in her seat but she seemed to be going along with the plan. Shirabe was silent for the most part, seemingly content in waiting things out while Miku was just as nervous as she was.

They drove off to the school as quickly as they could and when Genjuuro turned on the radio to listen to the agent's chatter, everyone became silent, letting only Genjuuro talk. It seemed that the situation was as dire as they thought it was: no one could contact the base although school was proceeding normally like nothing was happening.

That was a relief to hear, Kirika thought to herself and glanced at Miku who also gave her a relieved smile. At least, nothing was happening on the surface. Still, there was the issue of Kanade, Chris, Hibiki and the rest of the agents in the base, she thought to herself.

After nearly an hour of driving, they arrived at a convenience store close to the school and Genjuuro parked the SUV there. "Stay here," he said as he got out of the car. "I'm going to rendezvous with Ogawa and the other agents right now so don't do anything that would get you caught."

He left them in the car and the four girls waited impatiently, Kirika twiddling her thumbs as she waited for any sort of news from Genjuuro. Shirabe closed her eyes, making it seem like she was resting but Kirika can tell that she was shifting about nervously. Miku was staring out of the window with a worried look while Tsubasa was fiddling with her phone, still trying to contact Kanade.

Ten minutes passed by before the radio crackled and Tsubasa answered it. "Looks like we need to get the operation started," Genjuuro said grimly. "You know what to do." Tsubasa turned around and nodded at the other girls and they nodded back before they got out of the car.

She handed her phone to Miku, instructing her to call Genjuuro on where she should meet up with him and as Miku ran off, Tsubasa turned to Kirika and Shirabe. "Alright. We're going to collect a few things when we head into the base so get ready," she said.

"You mean..."

"I'm not going to go in there empty handed, if that's what you're thinking," Tsubasa said simply as she moved ahead and Kirika and Shirabe ran after her. After a short trip, Kirika found herself in front of the vehicle entrance, waiting as Tsubasa opened the entrance and they quickly ran in, her heart pounding with both nervousness and excitement as they rode the elevator heading down to the base.