This was technically Yu’s second time imprisoned. This first had been in Quldald’s castle with Ein, and now he was under house arrest in an old hotel. The difference, though, was that his own people and Devicer Seven were his captors this time.
“There goes the twenty-four hour mark,” he murmured. The clock had just passed three in the afternoon. Yu had spent an entire day armorized.
The window of his room on the twelfth floor provided a wide view of the clear June sky. According to the Mark III’s sensors, he wasn’t being listened to or watched, but this was still “enemy” territory.
Yu made full use of the Frame’s life support systems, and he hadn’t once left the chair he sat in nor touched the food Officer Kaji had brought for him.
“She’s my only visitor, I guess.” Not that he wanted to talk with the military, but it was telling. “Could be that most people here don’t want anything to do with me. My guards outside definitely haven’t seemed very motivated.”
A few soldiers were stationed in the hallway. The Mark III picked up on their whisperings.
“So what’re we supposed to do if the new Three stops playing along?”
“Pray they don’t level the whole building.”
“What’re we supposed to do with these pea shooters? Shoot the dude? Yeah, right. Top brass is outta their minds.”
“It’s not actually them, I hear. It’s him again.”
“Friggin’ figures. The Mark VII can’t be that strapped for options, can it? Kid’s gonna take over the whole military if we let him.”
They had to be talking about Devicer Seven. Leo Makishima. This whole thing was probably his idea, to keep Yu in one spot.
“And I still don’t know if Ein or Ijuin are okay,” he muttered. “I hate this.”
Leo’s whole objective was Ein, the Replicant. Yu had no idea where she was or what they were doing to his partner, and he couldn’t stand it. He was sick of losing the people he cared about.
Suddenly, the sound of static made him perk up.
“...ose! Ichinose!”
It was a commlink. And the voice was Ijuin’s. But how? Nano-communication had been completely jammed since yesterday.
“If you’re getting this, say something!” Ijuin pleaded. “Listen, you won’t get through like normal. I’m holding this connection through Avalo. I couldn’t reach you with the usual commlink, so I’m trying satellite communication!”
“Like before!” Yu was amazed. Ijuin had said he wasn’t confident he could get it to work again. And it even bypassed Kaji’s jamming.
“Natsuki busted me out of the hospital after they treated me,” he continued. “But Ein’s still missing. We’re looking as hard as we can, but I was running out of options, so I tried accessing Avalo again. And then I found the Mark III’s coordinates! And I found out I could reach you through the satellite!”
“Rudra, patch me in,” Yu instructed. “That’s amazing, Ijuin! I’ve got the gist of the situation, but I’m stuck here while they have Ein hostage.”
“Figured,” Ijuin replied a few seconds later. There seemed to be some lag communicating via Avalo, but the fact that they were communicating at all was huge. “Don’t worry. We’ll find Lady Ein! I’ll let you know as soon as we’ve got her, so hang in there!”
“I’m counting on you, Ijuin.”
A little bit after cutting the commlink with his friend, Yu had a thought.
“I wonder what kind of intel Rudra and I can get from Avalo.”
Perhaps he could find something on Ein’s whereabouts. The man-made Asura acquiesced to Yu’s request, and a window appeared displaying text in English.
[Connecting to AVALO Satellite]
“Rudra, can we get anything on Ein’s coordinates?”
The Mark III did not respond. There was no progress bar nor even an error message. This was strange. Yu always took the artificial god of destruction’s onboard intelligence as a rather courteous entity. It would normally give some form of response or another.
Worry and anxiety swelled in Yu’s chest once more. “She could be unconscious. Maybe the link is possible, but she’s just not able to respond,” he reasoned. “That’d keep us from confirming her location...I guess.”
Whatever his purposes, Leo clearly needed a Replicant. He needed Ein, so he surely wouldn’t hurt her...
No. Ein was a proud woman. She would never surrender or go quietly, especially not to that haughty Devicer. What if he resorted to violence in order to make her submit?
“Ein...”
Yu was suddenly faced with the harsh reality that he might really, truly lose her. That they might never see each other again.
Just like he could never see his family again.
His home in Kita ward had been lost in an instant. With the people he loved. Flooded. Drowned. Along with countless others. The water elementals had stolen so many lives during Kanto’s destruction and the typhoons had toppled buildings. And somewhere among the rubble were the corpses of Yu’s family.
Their bodies hadn’t been found, but all he’d heard from them was deafening silence. Yu had quickly given up on seeing any familiar faces when the survivors evacuated west.
His chest hurt. He’d lost a part of himself that day. A part he could never get back. A year had passed since then, but the first six months had been the hardest. There were times when he’d think of them, and the tears would come, but he couldn’t let them fall. He couldn’t vent his pain through words either, because he wasn’t the only one who’d lost something.
And now it was happening again.
“Where are you, Ein?!” he cried out to the sky. “Tell us!”
And in his desperation, his voice and all its emotion became a commlink, a message that traveled all the way to Avalo.
Several seconds later, a reply came.
“Yu... I am here...”
The voice was weak. It didn’t sound like her. But it was. Avalo had carried Ein’s voice to Yu. His friend. His partner. The one he’d scarcely been apart from for even a second ever since they’d met.
And then, Yu saw a vision. Not from his own mind, but from Ein’s. Her memories. It was a facility of some kind, and it had to be where she was being kept hostage. They could narrow down their search area now. They could find her.
“Thank you, Rudra,” Yu said to his other partner. “You were trying to connect us.”
Part of it, too, felt as though his overflowing emotions had been the final push. It was silly to think feelings could affect machines, but somehow it felt right.
He had to let Ijuin know.
But just then, a high-pitched beep sounded in Yu’s ears. He had told the Frame to alert him to any approaching enemies, even if he were asleep. Was it a soldier? Had Leo finally returned?
Yu prepared himself for anything. Anything except for the young man suddenly standing in his room.
“Hello again, warrior of black and gold!”
Quldald of the Whirlwind flashed a brilliant grin.