Moths to a flame

The heavy rain masked the sound of our footsteps as we made our way through the city. The streets were deserted. Civilians had been mostly forced inside at night due to strict curfews, but even the MPs that had been terrorising the place were nowhere to be seen.

It felt like the whole city was holding its breath for us.

We had run most of the way, but now we were on the final approach, we subconsciously slowed to a walk, as if trying to delay the inevitable just a little bit longer.

Finally, we stood directly in front of it. The tallest building in Japan, a skyscraper so tall it dwarfed every other building in the vicinity. A box of glass and concrete, just as much an eyesore as it was a symbol of tyranny.

That’s where she was waiting for me.

“You girls ready?” I asked as I stopped in front of the door.

“Ready as one could expect,” replied Ryou.

“I’ve been ready for a long time,” said Nabiki.

“Ready? I’ve been waiting for this shit. Let’s give this bitch what she deserves,” added Fujiko.

“Alright then.” Time jumped down from my shoulder and turned to face the four of us. “It’s time to change the world.”

I breathed in deeply, then stepped forwards and opened the doors.

Inside we were met with a generic lobby you’d see in any office building. Though, the first thing I noticed was that all the lights were on despite the building being completely deserted. Not a person in sight. Not a sound to be heard. It was almost liminal.

“I was expecting a… warmer reception, shall we say?” said Ryou, sheathing her sword. “With the streets devoid of MPs I had assumed they were lying in wait for us.”

“It’s a little hard to tell ‘cos all the lights are on, but I don’t feel any of the electronics you’d expect either. No cybernetic parts or targeting sights or whatever. Place feels abandoned,” added Fujiko.

“…somehow that makes me feel even more like this is a trap,” I muttered as I stepped through the lobby.

I tried the button on the lift but, to no one’s surprise, the damn thing was turned off. She wanted to drag this out as long as she could.

“I suppose it’s the long way then,” said Nabiki, “but at least that gives us more time together before the end, no?”

“I wish I had your optimism,” I sighed as we began our climb up the stairs.

The sound of our footsteps on the metal stairs, along with the quiet hum of the lights, were the only sounds in the whole building. It was so eerily quiet that it made my hair stand on end.

After a little while of walking, we found the stairs ahead of us had ended. We were nowhere near the top, which meant the staircase split there.

We walked through the double doors and found ourselves in a long hallway with offices and meeting rooms either side. Looked damn near the same as the Kurogaisha building. Was there not a single ounce of personality or uniqueness in any of these damn corporations?

We were about halfway through the hallway when something odd happened. All of the nearby screens, including one mounted on the wall next to us, switched on all at once. They all showed a camera feed pointing at the front of the building.

“Y’know, Toki, I really gotta thank you in a way.”

A voice sounded out around us. It wasn’t playing through speakers, and it had no discernible origin, as if it was completely omnipresent. As if it was being directly projected directly into our ears. There was only one person it could be.

“Aki.”

“I obviously had planned to butcher your little harem at some point too, but just doing it in their homes wouldn’t make for a good showing. If I wanted to make the plebeians fear me, I would have to do it publicly. Show them that their little heroes stood no chance against the system. I had expected it to be a total headache, trying to find the chance to do it. But you delivered them right to me. Like moths to a flame. Now, time to let your friends burn up in the inferno.”

“Quit playing games, you bitch-”

I was cut off by the noise from the camera feed. The instant I saw what was happening, I realised why this had all felt like a trap. The reason the building wasn’t full of MPs? It was because they had waited for us to enter and then followed us up. Thousands of cybernetic soldiers blocked our one route of escape.

Going up meant facing Aki. Going down meant facing an army. We played right into her hands.

“Shit… at this rate they’ll overwhelm us long before I’m done with Aki,” I said. We don’t have a second to waste. Let’s keep moving.”

We ran to the far end of the hallway and through the double doors behind us. But as I continued up the stairs, I stopped. Why could I only hear three sets of footsteps?

I turned to look back, and found that only Fujiko and Nabiki were behind me. I stepped back down the stairs and looked through the glass pane on the door. Ryou was still standing on the other side.

“Ryou? What are you waiting around for, we have to go-” I pushed the door, but it didn’t move an inch. “...Fuji. Why is the door magnetically sealed?”

I turned my head to Fujiko, but she looked away. She held her arm awkwardly, a guilty expression on her face.

“Thank you, Ms Denka. I’m glad you understood my intentions.” Ryou’s voice was just about audible through the door.

“Your intentions? What? I don’t get it, Ryou, if you don’t come with us now you’ll be overrun by the bastards. Stop wasting time, just teleport through the glass.”

“Would that I could, dear girl. But as it stands, you’ll be crushed between two enemies unless someone intervenes. It needn’t be that way. I don’t know how much time I can buy you, but I can pray that it’s enough.”

“Buy us time? The hell are you talking about, that’s suicide!”

“Perhaps. But my life is not necessary to complete the mission. Yours is. Please, waste no further time. We are already short on it.”

“This is ridiculous! Come on, Nabiki, tell these two they’re being absu-”

The second I made eye contact with Nabiki I stopped. I lost the will to argue any further. I had just enough of my awareness left to realise she was charming me. But not enough to fight it.

“My apologies, my love. It must be done.”

“Nabiki…” I wanted to curse her out, but my head was too foggy to get the words out. I felt Fujiko’s arms wrap around my shoulders and drag me up the stairs. I couldn’t fight back, but in my head I was screaming. This is all wrong. This isn’t how it should be. We were supposed to all make it out of this together.

Nabiki opened the doors to the next floor, and Fujiko threw me through them. My senses started to come back to me, and I darted towards the door, but was stopped by the sound of straining metal. Fuji had blocked the way to the stairs using the stairs themselves, magnetically ripping them apart and covering the door with them.

I sank to my knees. Tears welled up in my eyes. I knew I wasn’t strong enough to overpower Fujiko’s magnetism, even before she merged with Electron.

I had no way to save her.

“Hey.” Fujiko knelt down beside me, grabbed my chin and turned my head towards her. My face and hers were so close our noses were nearly touching. “She’s down there willing to sacrifice everything she has to buy you time, and you’re gonna waste it sitting her moping? Get up.”

She let go of me and stood up. She and Nabiki stood a few metres back from me, waiting.

Dammit. Dammit all. For fuck’s sake. This wasn’t what I wanted. This wasn’t it at all. Ryou had been with me since the start of all this shit, now we were leaving her to die? This wasn’t right. It was too cruel. To come all this way and not even get to see the ending? The hell is up with that?

…I was being selfish. Fuji was right. I couldn’t let it go to waste.

I slowly rose to my feet and wiped the tears from my eyes.

“Dammit all… we’re coming back for her when this is all over.”

“Of course we are, idiot. Now come on, let’s get moving,” said Fuji, turning towards the next staircase.”

Hold on, Ryou. I’ll come back for you.