The Six Guns - 20 Chapter Twenty

The next day arrived, as the team finally wakes up. As the crew wakes up, they find that the Ueda sisters were already awake and making some food to eat for everybody. As if the smell of food alone gave everyone energy, everyone sat up to look at the Ueda sisters as they brought plates of food into the room where everyone slept.

“Breakfast is served” Mikoto says in a cheerful voice as she begins to hand over plates to Finn and Rose first.

Satomi, handing plates to Zia and Siran, says in a contradictory tone “Well, it’s actually afternoon, so it’s too late for breakfast”.

Rubbing his eyes and then putting on sunglasses again, Siran says “Thanks” to Satomi as she walks away to grab two more plates.

Already eating, Finn says after swallowing his first bite of food “You two are the nicest people we’ve met!”

“That’s sad” Mikoto says after coming back with two more plates as well. Mikoto then hands one plate to Holly as Satomi hands a plate to Alex. Then they both sit down with the rest of the group as they all eat.

After taking a few bites of food, Siran asks Satomi and Mikoto “So what’s the plan so far?”

Clearing her throat, Satomi says “Well, first we’ve got to get a gig. Once we can have the stage, we can try to play some songs that will motivate the masses to take action. Any action should be fine, such as protests or whatever, as long as the people make it as hard as possible for The Ly’Lum to progress. The ideal stage, of course, would be as close to any Ly’Lum base or outpost as possible”.

Seeing a hole in the plan, Finn butts in saying “What if we can’t get you a stage?”

The Ueda sisters thought for a moment until Holly said “Well, I have an idea. This city has a lot of volumetric displays all over the place. These volumetric displays have a server that they function off of, so if I can hack into that, then we could broadcast everywhere instead of just one place”.

Almost dropping her fork again, Mikoto says in an impressed tone “that’s actually a really good idea!”

“That way” Holly adds, “we could stir up action over a wider range, and hopefully really scare the shit out of The Ly’Lum!”.

Suddenly, as if not as impressed as before, Mikoto says “… She scares me a little”.

“Oh don’t worry about Holly!” Rose says cheerfully, “she’s completely harmless, she won’t bite-“.

Holly, without turning her head to look at Rose, puts a digital sound barrier around Rose’s head. Rose kept talking, but no one could hear her. As everyone looked at Holly in silence, Holly replies to the glares with “She’ll stop talking eventually”.

“Riiiiiiiight” Satomi says, in an almost worried tone while slowly looking away from Rose and Holly. “Anyways, if you can broadcast us across the entire city, or maybe even further than that, then we’ll handle the music for you. If all goes according to plan, then during the time when the masses are occupying The Ly’Lum, we will all observe The Ly’Lum’s reactions and plan the next steps after that”.

Finishing his food, Siran puts down his plate and fork and says “Sounds good to me”.

“Just give me some time to find a way into the network that the volumetric displays are connected to” Holly says. “There’s probably a lot of networks to crack into, since there’s so many different volumetric displays. I’d doubt they’re all connected to the same source. Oh yeah, and almost forgot-“. Holly then removes the digital sound barrier spell that was around Rose’s head. Rose was simply pouting to herself as she eventually came to the realization that no one could hear her the whole time.

“You’ve got to stop treating me like a child…” Rose says, still pouting.

“Anyways” Finn says as he changes the subject, “so what are we goin’ to be doin’ while we wait for Holly to crack her way into those servers?”

“We’re going to blend in and act normal” Satomi says.

Suddenly stiffening up, Rose interjects “Wait a minute, what’s the plan here?”.

Alex, just finishing his meal, says “Holly’s going to hack into the displays around the city to broadcast these two as they try to perform some music to stir up the people living here. While that happens, we’re going to lay low and act normal”.

Seeming like she’s barely keeping up with the plan, Rose then asks “So basically some nerd stuff, then some fun stuff will happen?”

“In an oversimplified way, yes” Alex responds.

With her attitude lifting into a happier tone, Rose then asks “Does this mean we can have more girls nights out!?”.

Letting out a sigh mixed with a small laugh, Mikoto says “Yes, we can have another girls night out”. To which, Rose lets out a loud cheer like “Woo!” while throwing her hands in the air for joy.

All of the girls, later that day, head out together with the exception of Holly. Not long after, the guys decided to go outside of the hotel they were in to pass the time. After a while of simply walking around on the streets, unsure what to do, they ran into the girls. Rose and Zia were still dressed in their Cheongsam dresses but Rose’s long pink hair was now tied up in a bun, much like Satomi’s hair. Surprised to see them here, Mikoto asks “what are you guys doing out? Having a guys night out?”

Not showing any surprise, Alex says “Something like that”.

“We’re not even sure what to do here” Finn says, “what do you guys do on a girls night out?”.

Zia shrugs and says “Mostly just visit a bunch of stores and stuff”.

As if suddenly getting a good idea, Rose says “We should see if there’s any weapon shops around here! I want some more ninja gear, like throwing knives and stuff”.

Showing disappointment, Mikoto says “There aren’t any shops around here like that. You won’t be able to buy weapons here, that’s illegal. Also, can’t you stop thinking about fighting for one day?”

“Better to be safe than sorry” Rose says, puffing up her cheeks as if she’s beginning to pout.

Almost alarmed, Satomi asks “Seriously? You don’t even think of boys or dates or anything?”

“What’s a date?” Rose asks, confused.

“Oh… my… god” Mikoto responds, very shocked yet impressed at the same time. “A date is when you spend alone time with someone you like very much… you know, in a romantic sort of way?”

“Oh” Rose says in a disappointed tone.

Jumping to the opportunity, Finn declares “I’ll take you on a date, Rose!”

“No thanks” Rose says.

Finn’s heart almost shattered as Rose says “I don’t really want any romance in my life right now. That only increases the likelihood of getting hurt more during times like these”.

Almost as if immediately consoled by Rose, Finn says in a still disappointed tone “I guess you’re right on that one”.

As Zia seemed like she was about to speak up, suddenly Satomi’s phone started ringing. Picking up her phone, Satomi says “Hold on a second”.

“It’s me” Holly says through the phone, “first of all, I’d like to thank you for making it easy to find your phone by leaving your multiple emails and social networking accounts on your phone”.

“So that’s how you got my number” Satomi says, with a mixture of feeling alarmed and impressed at the same time.

“Secondly” Holly says, “I left back doors in all the networks for the volumetric displays that I could find. The first step is ready. Come back and we can discuss in privacy about when you plan on setting the stage”. A click is heard on the phone as Holly hangs up. Satomi puts her phone back in her pocket as she says “Let’s head back”.

As the crew arrives back at the hotel, Holly asks “How soon do you plan on starting the performance? I can’t keep these back doors open for too long”

Trying to keep up, Finn asks “What’s a back door?”

“It’s the term used for when someone hacks into a network and leave a point of easy access or an exit point. That way, if they come back to the server, they’ll still be able to access the network as easily as they have before”.

Seeming confused, Finn asks “… what?”

Letting out a sigh of disappointment, Holly says “it’s a hacking thing, don’t worry about it”.

Changing the subject back to the discussion of the plan, Satomi says “We can start as early as tomorrow. We already have a few songs selected that we can play, so we just need time to mentally prepare and get everyone in the right mindset to carry the rest of the plan out”.

“Good to hear” Holly responds, “Then I’ll have everything ready on my side until then. After the performance, in order to keep people from recognizing my tampering with the network, I’ll do the safest thing I can think of to erase the fact that we had anything to do with this”.

“And that is?” Alex asks, crossing his arms.

“I’ll erase the networks completely” Holly responds. “This will obviously show that someone tampered with the display’s networks, but no one will know who. You see, if the same hacker is involved in a series of attacks, it becomes easier to protect against it or to track me down. They can find this out based on the way that I place codes into networks. My code is like my fingerprint, so I’m erasing my fingerprints. If we’re lucky, with the right timing, the masses will think The Ly’Lum is responding to them in an aggressive way. Obviously, that wouldn’t be a good sign for The Ly’Lum”.

As Siran stretched across the floor, getting more comfortable, he says “Good. It sounds like we’re set to start then”.

Sitting down against the wall, Alex adds “Tomorrow it is then”.

“Then let’s take some time to get some sleep” Mikoto says. “If we wake up earlier, then we’ll have more time to make sure everything for the plan is in its place”.

As the team goes to sleep one by one, Zia sat outside on a set of stairs. She sat there by herself, thinking and remembering the past. As she recalls, she sees the time when she was a teenager. She was in her house she lived in before meeting Siran at the age of 17 years old, with her dad in the kitchen making food and her mother by her side. She was talking to her parents about hearing the full story about this hero that fought against Naris. “You said you’d tell me the full, true story about the person who fought against Naris when I was old enough” Zia said to her dad.

Looking over his shoulder, her dad said “We will, when you’re old enough. You’re not old enough now, just be patient. The story has been passed down from generation to generation in this clan without being changed, and we promise it will be passed to you too”.

Next, Zia sees the past when she was finally 21 years old. The story still hasn’t been passed down, and she was asking her dad “If not now, then when?”

“I’m sorry Zia” her dad responds in a sad tone. “We’re a little busy trying to fight back against The Ly’Lum without using violence. We were promised peace but they still want to meddle with our affairs”.

In a flash, Zia sees the past when she was 25 years old. Zia, her mother and her brother stood in front of their house. Fighting against The Ly’Lum broke out. Her father went missing, and Zia and her mother were sitting behind Zia’s brother Vince. Vince was shielding the two of them from the sight of the battlefield, and telling them to hide. As the two of them found a place to hide, they heard screams that sounded like they came from Vince.

In a panic, Zia’s mother shoved Zia into the hiding spot and says “Stay here, I’ll be right back!”

After a long silence, Zia came out of hiding. The fighting sounded like it moved elsewhere. When she got back to the front of their house where they stood before running, Zia found her mother’s and brother’s dead body. Falling to her knees, Zia covers her mouth with her hands and cries. After a long time passed, she noticed through her tear covered eyes that her brother’s dagger was on the ground next to them. She picked up the dagger and ran into the battlefield.

As Zia came back to the present reality, still sitting on those stairs outside of that hotel in Shibuya, she pulls out that dagger she’s been carrying around. The same dagger she once pointed at Siran when they met. As if talking to the dagger itself, Zia says quietly “You promised me”. Tears started flowing slowly out of her eyes again, as she continued. “You told me you’d be there to tell me that story… I’d give up on some stupid story if it meant keeping you”.

Siran then walked outside too, but he didn’t expect to see Zia. At the sight of her, he almost jumped in surprise. Sitting next to Zia, he noticed something was wrong. “You alright?” He asked.

Putting away her dagger, Zia replies “Yeah, just thinking about the things I can’t change”.

Taking some time to think to himself, Siran says “I’ve been there before. If you ever need any help, I’ll always be here if you need me”.

After another long silence, Siran eventually stands up to walk back inside. As Siran walks up his first step, Zia says “Hey Siran”.

“Yeah?” Siran asks.

“Thanks again” She says in a low voice. “Thanks for always trying to help”.

Siran thinks to himself for a short second and softly says “Anytime… really, I’m all ears if you need me”.
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