Yuki had led the other two into the plains, a formerly beautiful grassland now had become a battleground between bandits and small warlords. Swords and guns lay scattered across the ground. However , the vegetation still grew much like it had before. The only difference was the fact that it surrounded expired blood and old corpses that had been consumed by maggots and creatures of the land.
"So this is where they're hiding out? They must have some sort of facility. Theres no way they posted up outside when theres so much battle." Tengoku thought to himself, unsure of why they were stationed in such a disgusting environment.
"The battle could be hiding in the base beneath. It could all be a distraction or some kind of warning if needed to dissuade mana tracking, it's a good thing I placed that mana tag on her or else we wouldn't be able to sense her with all the mana that was left behind from the dead bodies."
"So what's your plan then? Are we just going to go in guns blazing?"
"No of course not, we have to sneak in, the signature is downwards but there's gotta be an entrance somewhere nearby that can lead to them."
"Alright. Let's try and enter from below them..thats our best bet..We may have to deal with some soldiers though..and remember there could be mana barriers. Nothing may work here..or it will.."
"So if there's mana barriers doesn't that not affect you since you also negate mana?"
"No. It would cancel out because it's two forces rejecting mana. My technique wouldn't work on the barrier, but it would work on someone who is using one, because they have to maintain it while using a mana reservoir themselves. It's different with a seal, something they placed here to deal with Witches and People like us."
"Ah makes sense. In Shibuya they have mana blockers all around so people like us can't just roam freely, they started cracking down and segregating us like dogs… as an assassin I get a pass because I do jobs for those same people but the higher ups want it to be a mana free city… even though they war with each other using cybernetics… it's ironic isn't it?"
"Sure..I think that's the only thing they can do. You've gotta control the population there. Thats where the baddest criminals have always been. My family used to do insane deals there..that is until recently where we've hit a financial jump, to the point where Shibuya isn't an option for us anymore. We've become wealthy. Doing rundown jobs and deals in that city is like asking for a deathwish to just show up on your door. We can deactivate the mana barriers if we get rid of a large amount of the source, wherever that may be."
"So… if we can find the barriers or the jammers themselves we can disable them… I'm actually pretty tech savvy so that shouldn't be a problem."
Yuki continued walking forward, picking up the signature at a higher level.
"There's gotta be a trap door somewhere around here…"
"Jeez..what the hell are they planning though? Some kind of soldier serum or something?..and you heard those soldiers. It might be war from here on out..these aren't even the main guys."
"Yeah… maybe there's a point behind this besides making Zenin bred soldiers, we are a dying clan with select few members that remain of our blood, my blood is as special as my cousins, sacred even…"
"We can find out when we get in."
Tengoku ran his hands in the ground, looking for the trap door.
"It has to be something more than what we think it is though..something deeper.."
"Of course."
Yuki stepped and heard a click from a plate on the ground, opening a trapdoor to the left of the three. Tengoku followed her to the door and stepped through first, climbing down a ladder into the bunker.
Yuki followed after, scanning the hallway into the bunker and noticing a vent.
"If I can… I'll sneak into there and try to find the barrier…"
"I can follow you through the vent..that way if you run into someone we can handle them together."
Yuki smiled at Tengoku's offer and agreed with him.
"Of course… now don't get too close, I don't like people being too close behind me, Other Guy, I need you to watch our six, if you can disguise yourself I say do it."
She popped the vent open and climbed in.
"I can't promise you anything it's going to be pretty crammed."
Machi nodded as Tengoku went in behind Yuki, crawling through the vents. Yuki crawled down through the infrastructure, finding an opening where she peaked through, watching a small meeting.
Tengoku followed and ran into her a bit by accident.
"D-Do not stop like that!"
Yuki angrily turned her head and put her finger up to her lips to signal him to be quiet, she looked through the vents and noticed a pair of two soldiers talking below them, she slowly gripped the hilt of her pistol and reached into a back holster, twisting a silencer onto the tip of her mana blaster, she looked downward and aimed it at the soldier on the right.
Not a care in the world for his life.
She suddenly pulled her pistol back and whispered to Tengoku.
"Not worth it… let's keep moving."
She put the silencer mana blaster back into the holster and continued to crawl through the vent.
"It was never worth it. Who are you showing off to? You want to sound off the alarms and have us both get fucked? We needed to keep moving anyways."
She stopped once again whispering back to him.
"You're the one that bumped into me like an idiot, I'm used to this stuff and you aren't so just hush!"
She continued once again leading to a ending of the vent revealing a massive room that was deep underground, a facility, with workers and soldiers alike.
"What the…"
The workers were either moving freight from one side of the room to another, or they had a machine strapped to their face, unconscious as they were testing something it had seemed. Tengoku looked around.
"This doesn't look good."
Yuki propped her back against the wall, She pulled out an advanced Multi Tool and unscrewed the bolts on the corners of the vent cover, a platform lay below the vent cover for ventilation maintanence. She slid the cover down silently and quietly dropped to the platform below, they were now above the guards and workers. She peered downward as she was unnoticed by this point. Searching for a possible entryway into where she might possibly find Nadeko and the other people she would possibly be working with.
"You're probably not much of a sensory person..but a couple halls down theres a ridiculous energy. Maybe ten times that of Nadeko when we saw her..I'd be careful."
"That's why we're being careful Tengoku."
She whispered annoyingly. Yuki then silently walked across the platform and watched the workers below, looking for any reactors that might be able to be tampered with.
"Your death call. Act all annoyed and then when it's time for a fight and you're getting beat up i'm supposed to help you..Women I swear.."
"Shut the fuck up before I throw you down there to fight for yourself."
Yuki looked down at the moving crates trying to calculate when to drop down.
"Your call and then when you and your sister die you'll regret ever doing that."
"You know I'm starting to regret bringing your ass now."
Yuki continued along the platform leading to another vent cover.
"You gonna be quiet? If not I'll just do this all myself."
"Whatever.."
Tengoku continued following her silently. He still liked Yuki and wanted to stay on her good side despite their disagreements
Yuki removed the second vent cover and hopped up into the vent continuing the crawling until she felt the energy getting closer and closer.
Tengoku grabbed her leg from behind.*
"Listen…I know we've been arguing and such but something is telling me to stay away from that energy. We can still find cynil..but i'm being serious."
"What do you mean? She has to be near that energy… there's no way we can turn around from here either Tengoku."
"The mana source is starting to force its way through nature itself. It's moving effortlessly through the entire facility, which means it's growing. This can't be just some kind of weird slave thing with your cousin. It's way deeper than that. It's as if they're trying to abduct her…My suggestion would be to slowly make our way over there. We need to eliminate everyone on the bottom. That way there's no interference when we face that growing source."
"Killing them is something I'm fine with, and she's my sister, so if you want to make our way back there slowly that's fine if it means we get to eliminate the soldiers."
"It's only a suggestion, not a demand or order. If you have a better idea i'd love to hear it."
"Well in my mind that is the best idea whether you like it or not."
"Why do you have to be an asshole? Is it in the Zenin blood? Is your sister an asshole too?"
"It's none of your business now keep going before we start arguing again."
Yuki and Tengoku arrived back at the first platform, she pulled out her silencer and waited for the right time to start picking off workers left and right, her blasters had little to no recoil and she fired in complete succession. Tengoku looked around for a bit before he sent a small mana blast, tripping and dropping some of the workers and distracting him. He rolled his eyes, considering the fact that he had no clue how this would pan out and if he could even work with Yuki.