Starting at my lips, boiling blood began circulating throughout my body … and converged at my very core. I never thought I would have been doing something like this with my childhood friend. That sentiment mingled with furious excitement and lit a fire within me. It was as if all the time I had spent with Shirayuki since we were children had come together and transformed itself into a source of heat that burned the center of my being with enough intensity to be painful …!
Ahh. … It’s happening. I’m entering … hysteria mode …!
From the tips of Shirayuki’s lips, bubbles rose to the surface as she exhaled. She was breathing. I kept our lips attached and after letting her take two more breaths … released my mouth from hers. Reaching out my hand to the drum lock wedged against her upper abdomen, I gathered my concentration and inserted the bump key once again. When the water rises to the ceiling, we’ll lose our means of getting air. The way I see it, that’ll happen in three minutes. No, it should already be less than that. In normal mode, I require an average of twelve minutes to open an anti-break-in CP–C lock via lock bumping. But in my current state, the slightest sensations picked up by my fingertips allowed me to understand the inner structure of the lock as if I could see right through it. Click.
In a mere ten seconds, I opened the first of the locks that even Aria had struggled with. The second lock didn’t take any longer, either. I went up for air, and while sharing it with Shirayuki again after coming back down, I took the bump key out the butei handbook she had tucked away between her chest and her priestess garbs.
Click!
The giant drum lock that had restrained Shirayuki made a loud sound as it opened, and the heavy chains also noisily slid down the pipe. Shirayuki and I rose to the surface, and our faces emerged from the water at the same time as we gasped for air.
Great. We made it in time.
Our heads were nearly bumping against the ceiling, but the warehouse wasn’t totally submerged yet.
“Kin-chan!” Shirayuki swam over to where I was and embraced me.
“…Shirayuki, you just said that you released me from my duty as a bodyguard, didn’t you?”
Ah. You idiot. I’m an idiot. Don’t talk in that low, cool voice. And stop with the piercing look in your eyes. It’s so annoying.
“Y . . . Yes,” Shirayuki answered.
I gently caressed Shirayuki’s face from ear to cheek with my wet hands while using my thumb to brush aside a tuft of her hair that was clinging to her skin. “Whether I’m your bodyguard or not isn’t relevant. I’m going to protect you. I want to protect you because it is you … no matter what. Shirayuki … I want you to accept these scorching feelings of mine,” I said in a low yet clear voice resembling a whisper.
There was a bit of surprise mixed in with expression on her face that showed she couldn’t have been more deeply moved, and she nodded once. When she lifted her head, it finally made contact with the ceiling.
Ah. Now isn’t the time to be giving her assurance with my sweet words.
It was a bad habit of mine that emerged during hysteria mode. Right now, we had to move to the floor above us as quickly as possible.
“B-But Kin-chan, our opponent is a Matsugi. I’ll fight too,” Shirayuki said, lowering her nicely shaped eyebrows in determination.
“You’re a brave girl,” I commented with a small, wry smile. I didn’t want to expose Shirayuki to any more danger, but I had to respect the will of a lady. “I’m hoping that won’t be necessary, but … alright then. If things start looking grim, give us a hand. Aria and I will take the vanguard. Shirayuki, you stay in the rear and set up an ambush.”
Now I had all my cards out in the open. All that remained to do was to meet up with Aria and launch a fierce attack. Then we would arrest Durandal, who had yet to even show herself. Our adversary was a strategist—and an esper at that. She wasn’t the type of opponent who could be beaten by an average butei. But the buteis assembled here were by no means average. We had Aria the Quadra, myself in hysteria mode, and Shirayuki as support. With these three cards on the table, we can definitely fight on par with Durandal. We should be more than a match for her in fact. Those were the thoughts I was mulling over as I opened the hatch leading to the upper level. The water was now practically touching the ceiling. I opened the three layered door, and to prevent being attacked the second I stuck my head out, I used my knife as a mirror to check the surrounding area above me. When I came to the conclusion that there was no immediate danger, I wondered if there might have been some sort of devise attached to the door because another dull sound echoed throughout Junction.
“… Tsk!” I clicked my tongue. The water level began to rise even faster. It reached the ceiling in no time, and a surge of water threw us out onto the floor above us.
“Aaah!” cried Shirayuki, arriving on the sixth basement floor and subsequently being swept away by a rush of water on the linoleum floor.
“Shirayuki, be careful! Get your sub-edge (support blade) ready!”
“R…Right!”
I wanted very much to go after Shirayuki, who drifted off into the shadows, but right now I had to stop this flow of water. If this floor were to become submerged too, we’d have to go through the same ordeal all over again. Still keeping a firm grip on the hatch built into the floor, I attempted to close it against the extreme water pressure.
“Urrrrrrgh!” I groaned, using all the strength I could muster to push down on the door … and barely managed to close it.
“Phew.”
Look’s like that put a stop to the water. If I were the normal me, I probably wouldn’t have been able to do anything about this, either.
“… Shirayuki,” I called out, but no reply came back. “…”
It could be … that she had found our enemy and was keeping quiet so as not to give herself away. Shirayuki was currently supposed to be laying in ambush, after all. I took a look around me and realized that this level, the floor of which was now waterlogged, had a large number of humungous computers lined up together like walls. This room housed a HPC server—or what’s commonly known as a super-computer. There were access lamps blinking all over the place. There weren’t, however, any signboards that read “Danger” or “Caution.” I pulled out my Beretta and after removing the bullets, blew the water out of the chamber. A little soak in water wouldn’t be enough to render modern-day guns useless. It was too bad for the guys in Informa and Connect, but I had no qualms with using my gun on this floor.