A sultry maiden's mosaic portrait reflected Sumire's silhouette across the only light source in the Meister's Art Gallery, which was a royal glass chandelier illuminating across the mineral-like granite floors. The orange lighting created a mellow definitive environment for immersive relaxation purposes, and it blotted out the darkened shadows. It was perfect to make a grand infiltration and escape without being noticed on the surface level, but Sumire's primary target was underneath.
Dressed in her slim nanosuit with crimson trims on her armor, Sumire placed her left hand on her hip pouch and snatched a recon gadget that extended and cloned itself into five different entities. She swiftly tossed each one of them in one of the shadowed and shrouded areas of the art museum and activated them with her neural interface. The gadget's adhesiveness clung onto its surfaces, and its pressure plates and hidden sensors on the recon gadgets activated to pick up audio and visual frequencies transmitted onto Sumire's interface.
"All right, all right, get a move on, boy!" A gruff voice echoed in the underground tunnels. Sumire activated the visual receptor on one of her recon gadgets clinging on the mineral floors, witnessing two burly tattooed mercenaries escorting Naoto through an interrogation room's passageway. "Damn it. How the fuck did you guys lose her? She was with us the entire time!"
"We can't head up, or else we'll get caught," Another bodyguard indicated. "The fuck went through your head when you realized she was gone, huh?"
"Shut up! It's fine, goddamn. This guy's plenty enough. He's a cop too. Melody'll pay us extra if we get enough information from where this fucker's from." The other mercenary replied.
Naoto's muffled voice could barely be heard from the gadget's receptors. "I'm not telling you-"
The guard shoved Naoto's back into an interrogation room without letting him finish his sentence. "Shut the fuck up! We're gonna make you talk later, don't you worry. We're just getting started." He threatened as he closed a cage-like gate to prevent others from entering.
Sumire shut off her gadget's receptors with a fiery temper overlooking the main hallway of the Meister's Art Gallery. "I'm coming, Naoto. Hang in there." She whispered to herself as she examined her surroundings to examine the best possible entrance without being caught.
Wealthy humans from Earth and aliens from other planets roamed the main hallway, attending the nightly art exhibitionist discounted for families and friends. The Meister Art Gallery was highly famous for its unique cubist portraits, sculptures, caricatures, and designs where hundreds of famous German artists were featured in. The gallery was also famous for its lack of doors, replaced by rotating massive walls that greatly resembled a puzzle or maze. It was a challenge to procure art fanatics to behold every piece of artwork in the gallery because of its complicated wall switching, which encouraged people to make multiple visits to delight in something new every time they arrived.
Because of its rotating walls, Sumire's journey to the underground would prove nonetheless difficult. Scattering her recon gadgets made it slightly easier to navigate its puzzle-like rooms, but she would have to concentrate and scan the wires beneath the floor to successfully maneuver through the gallery.
Sumire leaped into a darkened corner and touched down with ease. She deactivated her nanosuit to blend into the rest of its crowd, but she found herself lacking the gallery pass and wealthy clothes to enter beyond the main hallway. Luckily enough, none of Lucia's mercenaries were present on the top floor to avoid heavily suspicious activity. But to successfully search for Naoto, Sumire needed to procure a gallery pass to continue onwards.
She approached the front counter where the gallery's staff presided, supporting the guests with informational brochures and tour guides. Sumire stepped into line and tapped her feet on the granite floor in impatience, believing that time was being wasted. A wealthy human couple waited for another guest to pass by and utilized a fancy decorative Chinese fan to cool themselves off, as the orange lights were beginning to take a toll on their frail skin.
"Hmm, I wonder if our gallery passes will give us the rights to see that marvelous scale of a behemoth they've got in the back!" The woman expressed enjoyment at the sight of one of Meister's artworks. "Although it is restricted… I'm sure many people have come to see it."
"They can't find it though," The man replied, pressing his forehead in stress. "But legends say that it was a legendary blueprint. Although part of it's been stolen, they say. I can't imagine how much criticism this gallery had after they had lost it. All that's left is the scale. It's just utterly useless at this point! No person can create such an ancient item!"
Sumire listened to their conversation carefully, connecting their words with something Lucia might have stolen considering the underground portion of the gallery was one of her hideouts. She needed more information on where to find Naoto. Okay, let's try this… Sumire thought. For her next trick, she wanted to perform the most complicated, expressive, and heavy French and fancy accent to make her seem like a proclaimed art connoisseur. Her clothing, however, was not the part.
"Excuse me for eavesdropping," Sumire coughed and stated in the fanciest accent possible. "But where was this stolen ancient item that you two mentioned? I am greatly enthusiastic about the… uh," Sumire cut herself off, attempting to sound more profound with her vocabulary. "Legendary blueprint that you fine couples were speaking about. Do you know where I may find it?"
The man chuckled. "Why yes, but the area's completely off-limits now. You're only going to find a 'Do Not Enter' sign there. I guess you are curious about the blueprint as well, yes? Unfortunately, it was only part of the legendary blueprints. I'm not sure what its specifics were, but I know that it was made out of ancient machinery from another otherworldly planet-"
Sumire impatiently interrupted, breaking her accent's ruse. "Okay, and where the hell is it!?" She whispered in a hasty tone.
"Oh my!" The woman leaned back in astonishment at her behavior. "If you want to know so badly, it's on the third floor! It should be in the painting area! Now leave us be!"
Sumire memorized the location of the underground secret gallery, believing it was her only shot at locating Naoto. As the couple ignored Sumire and approached the countertop to receive their passes, Sumire overheard that despite their wealthy status, not even the more expensive pass could allow them to gain access to the third floor's site where the legendary blueprint was stolen. Because of its recent theft, entry was prohibited. As the couple moved aside, Sumire stepped in and wanted to purchase a regular pass to gain ease of access to the gallery.
Getting through the third floor without being detected proved a challenge.
"Hello, welcome to the Meister Art Gallery in Libra. Would you like to purchase an entry pass with a tour?" The front counter lady asked Sumire with a beaming grin. "Or are you on our list for tonight? RSVP guests get full access!"
Sumire shook her head. "Just an entry pass, please," She said, grabbing her wallet out.
"Of course! May I have your name?" The lady asked.
"Sumire Nakai," She introduced.
The desk lady entered Sumire's name through a computer database and gasped in awe. Sumire wasn't sure what was happening, for her reaction was completely unusual and out of order. "Oh my, Sumire Nakai! You didn't need to be so humble! We have you on our RSVP list! It seems someone in your family perhaps purchased a pass already! Let's see…" The lady pushed her head forward and peeked into the computer screen to look in more detail. "Ah, a Mr. Chiaki Sasaku? Perhaps your spouse?"
"Y-Yes!" Sumire abruptly adapted to the sudden acknowledgment of the unforeseen circumstances. Chiaki's name suddenly reserving Sumire's name at the Meister Art Gallery indicated that he was watching somehow, and due to his active and expert hacking abilities, Sumire reckoned that he was involved in such an unexpected move. "Yes, Chiaki. That's my spouse's name. Sorry, I really was trying to be humble. It's not often that I come here and glance at your marvelous works."
"Smooth." Chiaki's voice suddenly appeared through Sumire's nanosuit earpiece, indicating that he hacked himself through her communication transmission.
The desk lady bowed in respect before stamping an approval notice on an RSVP golden pass shining in jewelry trim. Sumire's name was etched in flawless cursive calligraphy on the printed pass, attached to a lanyard, and handed to Sumire's palms with ease. "Please enjoy the exhibition, Mrs. Nakai. And no need to be so humble next time! We welcome you any-"
"Yeah, sure, thanks," Sumire hastily snatched the pass and made her way towards the front of the exhibition, presenting her RSVP pass around her neck to gain entry. She pressed her hand against her ear to activate the earpiece to speak to Chiaki, who had been idly listening to her conversation. "Okay, what the hell? How did you know where I was?"
"Your friend Natia told me about it," Chiaki explained through her earpiece. "She had me hack into the gallery's mainframe to add your name on an RSVP pass. It's the only way you're going to gain access to the secret gallery, of course. But now it's all abandoned because Lucia Melody stole one of the ancient machine blueprints."
"Wait, you know about that?" Sumire said as she power-walked through the first floor of the art exhibition, ignoring the intricate photography pieces of ancient Germanic times. The neon orange light suddenly shifted into a teal color as she stepped into the cubist sculpture area. "So you know about Lucia Melody and this ancient machine thing she's stealing? Tell me about it."
"Well, kind of," Chiaki said. "I had to investigate myself when that lady talked about it. Also, I was able to pull up the recording of Ryo and Natia's conversation during their mission at the tunnels. Turns out that one of Melody's top dogs told them about a particle accelerator that she's building to mess up Aries. But the ancient machine blueprint's separate from that. I can't find anything else regarding it. What do you think?"
"Guess the interrogator's gonna get interrogated," Sumire suggested as she made her way towards the second floor through a set of marble stairs. "How the hell did you learn how to do all this stuff? Have you ever thought about joining Sunlight?"
Chiaki chuckled. "That sounds great, seeing how I get to spend more time with Senpai," He replied. "But sadly, it's going to be difficult. Remember, I have to take care of Miss Springwell's estate while recovering. Not to mention Star and Miss Springwell's cat. She's been very worried about Miss Springwell's condition at the hospital, so she's been a bit antsy about it."
Sumire reached the second floor with the RSVP golden pass gaining her entry into the elite section of the art gallery. Here, more of the ancient Germanic cubist paintings and caricatures that took years of assembly and spiritual guidance to construct such a beauty. Sumire disregarded the artwork, although she was extremely curious to explore the gallery in her free time due to her love for Natsu Higuchi and royal calligraphy.
"Damn it, that's right," Sumire said as she entered through a narrow hallway leading to the flight of stairs where the forbidden gallery resided. "Well, maybe we can work something out later. You're talented in hacking, and you might have just saved Naoto's life." She explained as her breath continued to spike up as she power-walked through impatiently. She expended some of her mental energy to increase her nanosuit's stamina as she reached the stairs.
"Definitely," Chiaki replied with a hearty tone. "Wait, hang on! I'm sensing something through the third-floor cameras. There are Melody's mercenaries guarding the place. You should prepare to fight. Be careful, okay?"
"It won't be a problem." Sumire guaranteed as she equipped her slim-fit nanosuit. As an alternative version to Natia's nanosuit, the trimmed edges were scarlet and her helmet visor's top ornament was an elongated set of Fuschia-colored strands that appeared like hair. The nanosuit's tightness revealed Sumire's busty figure, including her hips and chest. However, despite its tightness, Sumire could breathe easily through the nanomachine's technology.
Catching one of the tattooed mercenaries working for Lucia's organization, Sumire hid behind a wall before entering the stairs. She equipped her weapon by sliding her left hand towards the back of her right wrist; a crimson energy-generated blade appeared with a light humming noise to guide its arrival. Utilizing her neural interface and her recon gadgets, Sumire eyed the mercenary's fatigued eyes from a secretive distance. Without warning, Sumire leaped into the air and flipped to close the distance between the mercenary. She struck the mercenary's cheek with a mag-boosted infused jab.
"Hey! It's the girl!" Another mercenary guarding a neon violet room yelled as he brandished an assault rifle.
Before he could fire, Sumire snatched a throwing knife from her side pouches located on her nanosuit and tossed it directly at the mercenary's knee. With the mercenary stunned, Sumire dashed and ran along the walls before delivering a roundhouse kick to the man to knock him out in an unlethal manner.
Sumire was extremely lucky, as the mercenary's loud decree called for no reinforcements. As she brushed them aside and entered the violet-lit portion of the exhibition, she was left aghast at the amount of ancient Germanic paintings and sculptures defiled and vandalized with Lucia Melody's 8-bit designs plastered on top. Noble sculptures regarding old century German leaders were razed with marble debris. The ceilings caved in, and the warm orange light sources flickered on and off.
She disregarded the vandalism and made way for a neon back door with a prohibited sign etched on top. However, the sign was vandalized as well. Sumire descended a flight of stairs that led to a flickering hallway of neon lights paving the pathway. She treaded through the hallway and witnessed numerous amounts of vandalized royal paintings scratched and torn apart like useless scraps of paper. Sumire stepped across the shattered glass with her guard up, searching for Naoto as she slowly advanced further into the gallery.
"You know if the boss is gonna be here tonight?" Two mercenaries abruptly entered Sumire's vision, forcing her to rear herself back in hiding the moment they stepped out into the darkness. One of the bodyguards whimpered to his associate as he cowered in fear. "She scares me, man. I expected her to be a pony princess from that planet of hers, but damn. All the things I heard about her are scary as shit." He said.
"No one's ever seen her before," His associate replied with a stern look. "But we were loading something in the docks near this gallery earlier today. I guess she expected the bitch and her friend to come here tonight because that thing we hauled was some huge ass shit. Speaking of which, how'd we let her escape? Now we're gonna have to fuck up that other guy if we wanna know about what's happening with them."
Sumire knew in that instance that he wanted to murder the man who insulted her; however, as a member of Sunlight, murder was prohibited. Nevertheless, Sumire's violent temper acquired from her days in Asahikawa came alight as she clenched her fists tightly and slanted her thin eyebrows down with lethal intent. Even hearing the idea of having Naoto tortured for Sunlight's information made her want to lash out, but she knew she had to be patient while eavesdropping.
"Heard he's a real big hater for germs," The mercenary said. As he chuckled, he gave Sumire the heartless impression of exploiting Naoto's fear for information, which only increasingly aggravated her. "You go check on the others downstairs. I'll head up and check on the other guys."
The vile mercenary's ally grunted in acknowledgment before heading into the shrouded downstairs area. Sumire remained silent in the darkness as the mercenary passed her without noticing her presence throughout the hallway. Sumire summarized the information that the mercenaries provided her; Naoto was downstairs, and there was something that Lucia was shipping a gigantic item to a docking station attached to the secret gallery downstairs. Unsure of what the shipment was, Sumire ignored it and slowly trailed the mercenary up the stairs.
However, instead of going to check on his mercenary allies, the man approached the side door in the middle of the hallway and entered a sewage-scented bathroom riddled with graffiti, litter, and urine sprayed across the floors. Sumire preyed behind him with the anticipation to learn more about Naoto's true whereabouts and the shipment details. Before the man could lower the zipper down on his shaggy jeans, Sumire slammed the bathroom door shut by shoving it with her foot. She brandished her energy blade, held it up near the mercenary's neck, and pinned his throat by wrapping her arm across.
"Where's the boy?" Sumire asked, interrogating the man while being disgusted by his intentions.
"You... you're that bitch that got away," The mercenary replied. He stood still while eyeing Sumire's brandished weapon in hesitation. "Fuck you."
Sumire gently closed her eyes as she clenched the mercenary's mouth shut with her left palm. She couldn't bear to witness her next move; she slowly plunged her piercing energy blade into the man's thigh, penetrating and soldering his skin and muscle the more she advanced. "I don't have time for this shit." Sumire impatiently said.
Sumire's palm muffled the panged and tortured cries of the mercenary's despair. His voice trailed off as Sumire pulled back the blade to let him speak. "Ah, fuck you, you fucking bitch!" He spat in defiance.
With each consecutive insult, Sumire perceived his hostility as a personal attack. She grabbed his collar, yanked him to the nearest bathroom sink soaked in urine and mold, and slammed his forehead against the edge. Although her brutality was unjust, Sumire's growing impatience at his attitude gradually wounded her pride. "Where is he?" She asked after watching his forehead bleed after the bludgeoning blow.
"You won't... you won't stop Melody..." The mercenary's words slurred as the bludgeoning blow negatively impacted his brain to function much more slowly.
Sumire grabbed his head and slammed his forehead once more against the same sink. She pulled him back and became tempted to execute him on the spot. "I said... where is he?" Her voice fluctuated into an even more menacing and nightmarish deep tone.
"Downstairs..." The mercenary muttered. "Second floor on the left..."
"That's all you had to say, you bastard," Sumire said as she leaned the back of his head against the wall. "You wanted to torture him that badly, huh? And you didn't want to hold back."
"Suck my fat dick, bitch..." The mercenary insulted, despite his near-death experience. "You and that boy deserve to die. Hope you get fucked, you stupid-"
Sumire had enough. The mercenary's sudden spoken insults triggered an arise of negative feelings that caused her to jam her energy blade into the man's chest area to instantaneously end his life. His final words referenced Sumire's trauma, and she couldn't stand the idea of having someone exploit her weakness in such a vile manner. The idea of having Naoto, one of her closest allies being tortured against his will for wanting to help Melody's unjust goals didn't make much sense to her. The increasing hostility from Lucia and the mercenary's rampant insults brought her to execute him.
However, the moment she retracted her energy blade, Sumire froze in place. She removed her helmet visor and her incredulous heart began to take control of her mentality. She had never directly caused the murder of anyone before until tonight, where her absolute fury took the life of a man despite their hostile background. Her skin bitterly shuddered as she struggled to inhale. Sumire stepped back against the bathroom door after witnessing the man's mouth seeping with blood, covering her mouth in a state of shock. Her ears began to muffle themselves and close up as her skin began to flush itself in extreme heat.
"No..." Sumire whimpered as she attempted to deny her actions. However, she couldn't. No matter what happened in the past or present, she never wanted to stoop to her father's level of degrading abjection; yet she crossed that line of mirroring his vile behavior by taking someone's life. The humility in her heart began to lose control of herself. "No, no... n-"
Before Sumire could scream and jeopardize her location to the enemy, someone grabbed her waist and mouth from behind to silence her. It was Ryo who had arrived after his mission at the Hullbreaker Tunnels with an RSVP pass of his own. After Sumire had killed the man, a single minute passed that seemed like five minutes in her own distorted reality. In those additional four minutes, Ryo had already arrived and witnessed Sumire's complete breakdown after her sudden actions.
He had never murdered anyone except for the attempt at Ash Meguro's life. As part of the Yakuza, he never made it his goal to take anyone's life either. He had no true reason for doing so, and his inner conflict only made killing hurt much worse. Despite this, he couldn't imagine the agony that Sumire inflicted upon herself by going through with it, which was something he believed he deserved upon him.
"Sumire, stop!" Ryo silently spoke as he muffled Sumire's regretful cries. After hearing his sister's sorrow through her unpleasant bawling, Ryo stroked her black hair to calm her down as a brother would do. "It's okay. We have to go. We have to find Naoto."
"No, I can't..." Sumire's eyes were reddened beyond disbelief as she struggled to maintain her emotions. "Ryo, I... I killed him. I didn't mean to... I just... he just... he said about..."
"I know, I know..." Ryo whispered while embracing his sister warmly, just as she planned during those nine years. She never abandoned Ryo despite his unwilling and hostile attitude, and Ryo wanted to reciprocate that behavior back in her most desperate times, as a sibling and as a human being. He held her face close to his and gazed into her inflamed eyes soaked in salty tears. "Listen to me, Sumire. I know how it feels to be angry. You've known for a while now. And sometimes we can't control ourselves, just like what I did. I know it hurts, but his goal was to kill you and Naoto. This was an act of defense-"
"No, it wasn't," Sumire explained as her cheeks blossomed. "I took his life away because I saw my father in him. But my goal wasn't to kill him. I wanted to prove him wrong that I could live freely, but I can't...!"
"Yes, you can," Ryo said, stroking Sumire's hair even further as she began losing herself once more. "You can. You overstepped. You recognized you went too far and you won't do it again. You went past your limits and you can change things now."
"So can you, Ryo...!" Sumire reminded herself of the pain in those extended nine years that seemed like a millennium of torture and heartbreak. "You can too. You can...! You can..." She cried as she buried her face into Ryo's shoulder.
"I know..." Ryo whispered to himself after evaluating the truth. He was learning more about how he could redeem himself by forgiving himself. He overstepped his limits after attempted murder and joining the Yakuza. Although the past caught up to him in the present, Ryo never took any decisive action to actively purge the guilt from his heart until now. He realized he could change, just like he wanted Sumire to after pushing herself to the absolute limit. As he warmly embraced Sumire as the brother he had always wanted to be, Sumire's presence alone made Ryo want to change.
I know.