The morning came and with it the first rays of the sun illuminated the face of Yukino, who, upon feeling that warm glow, regained consciousness. Her right arm was completely numb, feeling something heavy leaning on hers preventing her from moving it freely.
Lucero had spent the whole night lying next to her on the hard floor of her room, contemplating the peace that that beautiful face of hers showed, I doubt for a second to wake her up. But she knew that they had to carry out the plan without major mishap. In order not to arouse suspicion, they would both have to go to school even if Lucero was not yet an enrolled student. So it would depend exclusively on the channeler's ability to distort the memories of the people they meet along the way.
"Lucero, wake up. My arm hurts and you weigh like a rock" - With a mocking and condescending tone, Yukino ran her hand through her friend's hair as if it were a merely maternal instinct. She received in response babbling with a hint of annoyance and a pair of delicate and soft hands that moved in a torpid way trying to push Yukino away from her.
"You can tell what they are doing!" - Anzu slammed open the door, extremely angry with the scene he was contemplating. The dialogue that Yukino had with Lucero until a moment ago had made him imagine a thousand and one things, even more so with the intrigues that Hiro himself had spilled yesterday afternoon before the two young women arrived at the mansion. For an extremely conservative woman, that scene let all her prejudices about her escape her.
Approaching in an aggressive manner, she violently grabbed Yukino's shoulder and threw him to the side of the bed. "I am in charge of guarding the honor of this mansion by order of Master Hayate and I will not allow a vulgar whore of mud blood to stain this house with her behavior"
Her face was completely flushed and the expression that her gaze had was of repudiation, so much so that the anger she felt from her seemed to shake her entire body. Without giving her time to explain the situation, Yukino started getting slapped as she pleaded for her to stop. In the midst of her desperation, she tried to put her hands in it, only causing that woman to become more cruel to the point of hurting the fingers of her left hand.
Lucero was horrified thinking that this punishment was just a small part of everything that the real Yukino had to undergo before she died. She could only be silent as she made an effort to contain herself from screaming, biting her lip helplessly knowing that she could only make things worse if she got in the way.
Already exhausted from taking out her frustration, the governess turned around giving the order that they wash their faces and go eat breakfast. What kind of hell did he have to live? It was what Yukino repeated to herself as she tried to wash her face, enduring the pain and burning of her touching herself to clean her blood. While Lucero in a fit of compassion embraced her waist, resting his head on her back. The sound of running water from the sink faucet was the only thing that could be heard in the bathroom, no words were spoken.
After finishing breakfast, Yukino and Lucero rushed to the door of the mansion where the car was waiting for them. The driver was silent, but behind the sunglasses he was wearing, his gaze expressed a feeling of pity when he saw the young woman's face hiding the marks of punishment with a blush.
The whole journey was silent, no one said a single word. In the back seat of the car, Yukino was staring at the clouds, staring at the horizon. Feeling guilty for not being able to do anything, Lucero looked at Yukino sadly as she reached for her hand to hold him.
When her fingers met, the reaction was almost reflex. Both held tightly to each other while a tear came from that sad look that was lost in his thoughts with each cloud.
"We have arrived" - The driver stopped the car in front of the school, getting ready to get out to open the car door. The students who were at the entrance stood watching as the two young women descended, as if they were trying not to lose detail of each part of that moment.
With each step they took together, they felt as if the gaze was focused exclusively on them. The female students in the corridors murmured maliciously about Yukino and the newcomer, that place had a hostile atmosphere that could feel as if the air became stale and heavy.
In the building's facilities there was nothing different from what one might expect from a private school. Hoshi School had a high standard in its enrollment enrollment, only the children of prominent members of the society were mainly admitted to that institution. The smartest and wealthiest, the cream of the crop in Tokyo society.
But even in that environment, discrimination and harassment was something that could not be exempted like any other school. Like an animal on the alert for danger, Yukino continued walking with Lucero in order to reach the prefect's office as soon as possible.
Just as they turned to take the stairs to the second floor, a female student appeared in front of them. A slender figure with a charismatic appearance, short brown hair, hazel eyes and slightly tanned skin, on her right arm she wore a red band with black stripes and a sparkling earring that stood out for its shine on her left ear.
It was the student council president, Kojima Akane. The most outstanding student not only because of her physical beauty or being the daughter of one of the most prominent politicians who was aiming shortly to become the next prime minister. The most captivating part of her was the persuasiveness and oratory that characterized him just like her father.
Nothing happened at school without her knowing it, she was no stranger to the conflicts and constant struggles for power that represented the position of president of the council. Her best trump card to maintain control was simply to unleash her overbearing temper by organizing repressive factions among the students.
Looking at Yukino, her lips showed a smile that seemed to be affectionate, something that contrasted greatly with the environment that she had had to go through the front door and the corridors.
"Oh my gosh, your face! What happened to you, Yukino-san? Has Hiro hurt you again?" - Putting his hand to his mouth in astonishment, her appearance and her body language really showed great concern for Yukino's appearance. But keeping a low profile, she denied such a situation claiming it was part of the injuries she had suffered from the building collapse.
Nodding her head, Akane diligently listened to all the details of Yukino's explanation of her apparent accident. She had dated a friend who had just moved to Tokyo to attend that school and while they were walking around the city for a tour, they entered the building out of curiosity and were caught in the collapse.
The frown in Akane's gaze turned grim as he finished listening to her explanation, as she firmly held both of Yukino's hands as tears welled up in her eyes. "Please don't do something crazy like that again. You're one of my best friends and I wouldn't know how to react if something happened to you."
Those words penetrated deep inside Yukino, who had only experienced abuse since his reincarnation. It was a different experience, a feeling very similar to what might be considered inner peace. Giving a sense that the existence she now took into her hands was not a waste of time.
"Before I forget, I come from the director's office. She was watching you from the window that overlooks the street and wants you and the transferred girl to appear, who I suppose is your sweetheart" - Lucero was somewhat surprised at so much trust that was left in the hands of that young lady, so it seemed a bit strange to her but in the end she did not give it importance.
Extending her arm forward in a guiding gesture, Akane invited them to accompany her until they reached the door of the principal's office. As soon as they reached the door, the director's voice was surprisingly inviting them to pass; Which was strange not only because she knew they were right outside the door, but also because there was something about the voice that was familiar to them.
"Miss Kojima, can she please leave." - Behind the desk, the silhouette of a woman was slightly appreciated behind the back of a fine leather chair. A puff of cigarette smoke was exhaled from her lips as she turned to face the students she received.
"We are on the fifth floor and I know that Freyja did not authorize you to use your powers freely. If you do not want to fly out the window, you better keep your composure in my office" - Lucero's throat was suddenly dry, his pupils they expanded like those of a deer looking directly into the fog lights of a truck on the highway. His lower lip trembled like that of a girl who has seen a monster and is struggling not to scream.
That hair that resembled the indomitable fire of hell, the graceful walk of a woman entering her best years and those soulless eyes. There was no doubt in Lucero's heart, she was none other than Hanabi. The Loa who had almost taken their lives in previous nights was there as if it were a joke of fate.
"Why are you trembling little one? I know I'm too much for your poor mind, but do me the favor of not peeing on the carpet like you did in that building, little pig" - Staring into his eyes while holding his delicate chin, to the So he caresses that trembling lip with his thumb. Hanabi made the rules clear in her domain.
Turning his gaze towards Yukino, he smiled in a cynical way indicating that they should take a seat to explain their situation. Freyja had already informed him about Yukino and he considered it necessary to explain to him that even though he was a Loa, he could not interfere in the affairs of the city without his permission. As the oldest guardian, Yukino was relegated to a mere subordinate; though to Hanabi's eyes, she was more like a new toy that was available to her whims.
Yukino let him know of her intention to enroll Lucero in school, in order to keep her close to her due to the need to use the channel until her powers stabilized. She from what she saw the need to break into the Tokyo city hall systems and create a fictitious identity for her so that she could fit into society.
Leaning against her desk resting her chin in her hands, Hanabi's eyes lit up with excitement as she heard the elaborate plan she had in her hands to give Lucero an identity. She smiling with diabolical malice she agreed to support them regarding the enrollment in the school, but she emphasized that if they were caught she would not put her hands in the fire for them.
Having finished having that talk, they looked at the clock in the management office, realizing that it was already past twelve noon. They needed to go to the town hall in order to carry out their plan without delay. Just as they were about to cross the threshold, Hanabi told Yukino that there was something she had to tell him later in private.
She didn't know what it was about, but coming from someone like Hanabi it couldn't turn out to be something pleasant or friendly. Remaining in reserve with her, she told him that whatever matter it was about her, she would attend to him immediately as a student of the school.
"Lucero, go and wait for me at the front door. I have to do something first before we go to the city hall" - Yukino knew that for her plan to work, she had to have access to the city hall offices. But without the support of management, her last chance fell into Akane's hands. A cover letter requesting a guided tour was sufficient, having previously investigated Akane's background, she knew that her father's political relationships were also an attribute she counted on.
The sound of the knocking of the door of the student council hall announced the presence of Yukino, who sensing who it was, did not hesitate to invite him to pass. With that same smile and candid face, she was received by the president of the council, who for formalities served her a cup of coffee.
Commenting on her wish to take the new student to City Hall on a guided tour, Akane did not hesitate to open her desk drawer and pull out a letterhead on which she wrote a recommendation on behalf of Yukino, in order to be allowed the necessary visiting facilities without interfering with government functions.
Just as she was about to take the page from the desk, Akane's hand slid gently over Yukino's, who for a moment was stunned by the delicate sensation of that young student's skin.
"There is only one semester to go before we have to go to different universities, but while that moment arrives remember that you can count on me as you always have" - Confusion took over every thought in Yukino's mind, no matter how hard he tried to remember Specific moments of his closeness with Akane, he couldn't make out any like the one he was experiencing at that moment.
Turning around, she could only say hesitantly until tomorrow. All of this was new to her, all that she had previously experienced meant nothing if she couldn't remember it. That repeated to herself as she walked to the front door where she finally met Lucero.
Together they went to the main avenue to take a taxi that would take them to the city hall, but on the way Yukino's face worried Lucero, who preferred not to ask unnecessary questions in order not to disturb him more.
I spend little more than an hour in the taxi ride, where silence reigned inside it; They both knew what to do, but they had to go through all the steps to avoid making a mistake that would put them in unnecessary danger.
Yukino couldn't say anything to Lucero in that car, it was a risk that the driver would listen and compromise her plans completely. It was also impossible to write it because due to the rush she had forgotten her phone at the mansion.
"Lucero, can you understand what I'm saying now?" - Yukino remembered that while they were in the corridor of reminiscence where she first met Lucero, she was able to speak fluently in Spanish. This thanks to her abilities as an astral entity, but having been stripped by Freyja of all her power, it was practically impossible but she lost nothing by trying it.
Lucero took out from her bag a keychain with a rabbit-shaped stuffed animal, it was the same channel that she was given when she became human. With the peculiarity of changing size at the owner's own will. "Yes, I can understand you well, Adam" - Smiling in an almost childish way, Lucero answered him with fluent Spanish. Before the astonished look of the driver that she was looking askance through the rear-view mirror without being able to understand a word.
They both began to discuss the plan at length until the taxi pulled up in front of the imposing city hall building. The metropolitan government that governs all the neighborhoods and towns that make up Tokyo was concentrated in that place. The influx of people entering and leaving the building was an unequivocal sign of the great importance of that nerve center in terms of information.
The security of the building was easily passable with the letter of recommendation that Kojima had provided. A guard at the reception led them to a waiting room while he set out to find an official who was available to carry out the guided tour.
A few minutes passed and a young lady no older than 23 years old appeared before them with much emphasis on her reverent greeting. From her demeanor and the way she arranged herself, she gave the impression of a newly hired bureaucrat who had been delegated that task by some superior.
Instead of angering Yukino, this made him happy in a way. Since being a novice employee it would be easier to use social engineering tricks to extract information and manipulate it in order to carry out the fulfillment of her plan easier.
Yukino asked him to give them a tour of the offices in charge of population registration and tax issues, arguing that they needed to write a report for the school that addressed the issue of life expectancy and retirement planning in old age.
The slightly surprised young lady smiled nervously considering that she did not know much about these topics, but in view of being recommended by the Kojima family, refusing would mean that she could lose her job.
With a subtle gesture of his right hand, Yukino slid her flash drive up to her fingers to give it to Lucero. Just as they passed one of the computers, Yukino would drop her bag to distract the bureaucrat's attention while Lucero connected the pendrive to the usb port.
The Script that I had scheduled at night had three functions: the first was that when it was connected, it would be copied to RAM and duplicated on the hard disk, creating a scheduled task with a trigger event at the start of the session. The second function was that after three minutes the script would restart the computer, thereby forcing the user to retype his username and password, and to re-enter the intranet portals of the city hall, with this the keylogger would provide the information.
Lastly, the third statement in the script used low-level language. With a thirty minute timer the script would access the microprocessor instructions generating a voltage surge in the RAM memory. With which the computer would collapse and be unusable to be used by the user, thereby preventing the network traffic monitoring systems from detecting a duplicate user operating the system.
With the pendrive connected, the guided tour continued through some floors, being the eighth floor where Yukino was able to contemplate an office that was under renovation with the passage closed to the public. This place was the perfect place to start infiltration operations into the City Hall's data systems.
"Oh hell my phone is not here, I think it stayed on the third floor when my bag fell to the floor" - A bit of annoyance could be felt in the expression on the face of the employee who wanted to end the visit and return to her work, who reluctantly agreed to return to look for the cell phone.
On the third floor, Lucero and Yukino made the pantomime of looking for the phone while she approached the order to remove the pendrive discreetly. But she was surprised by the computer user who got up from her seat who was heading to the printer to pick up a job.
Feigning regret for not finding her phone number, Yukino told the manager that the information they had received from her was sufficient for her task and that they were preparing to leave. But first they had to go to the bathroom, so it was not necessary to wait for them to accompany them to the exit.
Nodding her head and with great relief, the bureaucrat fired them at that moment with no concern for anything other than returning to her accumulated work.
In a sneaky way, the two girls were heading to the bathrooms and taking advantage of the fact that the guide had turned around, they entered the elevator to go to the eighth floor. Inside the remodeled office, Yukino started to connect her laptop to the network. Not without first connecting the pendrive, disabling the autostart.
Looking at his watch, it was a minute until the third part of the script activated and damaged the computer on the third floor. Right at that moment she could connect and break into the security of the network, but not before changing the physical address of her network adapter with the data that she obtained with the help of the pendrive.
The minute was up and the computer was damaged as planned, the IT department would go for it in a few minutes and possibly disable the physical address of the servers' IP allocation table in less than 20 minutes.
Only 20 minutes was the margin of time they had for the operation, in a frantic search Yuriko checked the keylogger's text file to observe the stored urls and find the user keys.
Once obtained, he proceeded to enter the records that corresponded to the deceased in order to find a student who perfectly matched the biological age that Lucero appeared and did not have matches with anyone related to the students of Yukino's class. .
The minutes were running out and the hit list wasn't helping much; It would have been easier to create a new birth record, but that would bring more inconvenience when developing data such as parentage numbers, medical service, among others.
A little less than five minutes after his time was up, a name popped up on the list of results: Yamamoto Kaoru. A young woman who, if she were still alive, would turn 18 in less than two months. That was perfect so that Lucero could enter the university together with Yukino.
In the hallway on the eighth floor, the same employee who gave them the tour was looking for the smoking area. She was forced to be a guide and the pressure of the paperwork she had pending had completely sapped her nerves; she needed to take a good puff of tobacco or she would feel like she would collapse, but a clicking sound coming from the remodeled office caught her eye.
When I spoke to one of the IT managers during the morning of her training, he told her that the office would not see her for another four days. So her curiosity pushed her to look through the plastic that covered the entrance and she could see that the two girls that she had guided were there.
"What are they supposed to be doing?" - Really annoying, she clenched the cigarette pack while she gritted her teeth. She yukino knew that everything was finished, they had been discovered and the only thing she had left to do with her was tell Lucero to escape from her and not look for him until she contacted her.
"You've done enough Yuki, now it's my turn to play a bit" - Jumping like little jumps, Lucero approached, looking defiantly into that woman's eyes. Whoever in a moment of panic did not know how to react to the phlegmatic attitude of that young woman with the lost look. A second is enough for Lucero to rest her hands on the cheekbones of the young bureaucrat and blowing her nose, she fell unconscious to the floor.
"What did you do to Lucero?" - Completely stunned and incredulous at what she just observed, Yukino did not give any credit to that event. Lucero explained that the only ability she had through the channel that did not depend on her powers as Loa, was the wind of oblivion. Through this ability she could put the individual into a trance and rewrite her memory to adjust it to a different reality.
With this, she gave Yukino time to disconnect from the network and put away her laptop, while she erased the memories of the visit that were in the young and unfortunate bureaucrat. Just before leaving the room, Yukino bends down to pick up the pack of cigarettes while she smiles in a pleased way at the success of the mission.
As they walked down the avenue the lights of the street lamps began to turn on before the sun was setting behind the skyline of buildings in the business district. The night sky stretched out like a blanket covered in stars that were silently contemplated by Yukino. The end of that day had a taste of success for her, perhaps without any real significance but the simple fact of having broken into a government building and gotten away with it was enough to make her feel ecstatic.
"Now that my name is Kaoru I feel nostalgic Yuki. Ever since I am aware that I exist I have always been Lucero, that name was the only thing that remained of my past nature" - Those words were charged with nostalgia and a bit of sadness, like someone who lets go of something very valuable from their hands, losing it forever.
Contemplating that melancholic expression in Lucero's eyes, Yukino takes out a cigarette from the pack she had just stolen from the bureaucrat while she was unconscious. As she watches him carefully, she touches him on the shoulder and saying: "When I was still Adam, I was no different from that woman we left behind. The first days I started working for that computer security company the stress was so great that I had to go back to this old habit to calm my nerves "
Finishing speaking, she lit her cigarette and took a deep breath, flooding her lungs with nicotine. At that moment she realized that her Yukino had been a smoker for at least a year before she died, because she barely took a puff she expected to have a first-time coughing fit. Which did not manifest, but she instead felt as if her body had completely relaxed for a long time.
"You know, to me you will always be Lucifer. This name that we have gotten you is just a facade; you will always be you, regardless of the fact that you now have a mortal body." - Lucero's heart felt swollen with joy when he heard from Yukino's lips what had become a wonderful moment that he wanted to treasure in his memory.
They continued walking bathed in the lights of the majestic city, embracing each other as if they were two sisters. Taking into account that that day July 5, 2017 coincided with Kaoru's date of birth. So Yukino suggested that they go to dinner at a nearby fast food restaurant to celebrate her new life with her. Lucero nodding happily not so much because of the place or the dinner, but because now more than she ever felt that the bonds that had formed that distant night in the alley, would be stronger with each passing day.
There were only a few days left until the arrival of the summer holidays and with it the last period in the school would be closer than ever.