Chapter Text
Kafka looked around at the chaos she had just caused.
Voidrangers, the foot soldiers of the Anti-Matter Legion, lay sprawled on the ground. At the moment, said legion was attacking the renowned Herta Space Station.
It was not the first time this happened. The owner of this space station, Herta, was pretty well known for driving away the forces of the Destruction several times.
However, this attack, even if it was not that much more outstanding than the other tries, was bound to do more damage than the others, for the sole reason that the Genius that defended it was not present, her puppets only working through their automatic protocols instead of being controlled manually by her.
Kafka felt a pull at the back of her mind. A sense of both discomfort and pain, feeling her mind.
Sigh.
"Seriously, does everyone on his world have to deal with these things everytime?"
As if already knowing what to do to fix her discomfort, she started adjusting her clothes. Her sleeve, her jacket, and even retouching her make-up.
As she was doing so, one of the voidrangers suddenly sprang to his feet behind her and rushed forward, the blade in his arm aimed straight at her heart through her back.
She did not move, merely letting someone else deal with it.
A sudden 8-bit sound could be heard as the figure of the voidranger dissipated into colored cubes.
"Dealing with other people's messes is not in my job description, Kafka."
Finally looking behind her, Kafka stared at the young girl that was chewing a piece of gum while sitting in one of the nearby desks. This young girl with gray eyes and hair, styled in the form of a drill, was Silver Wolf.
"Oh, don't be mean, Wolfie. I'm still trying to get used to my Flaw, you know?"
"Oh please. Your performance decreases a whole Tier just because of a simple debuff? You expect me to believe that?"
"Fufu. I was just making small talk, Wolfie. Anyway, where did you send it?"
"Are you really concerned about something like that?"
They both stared at each other for a moment.
"Some random coordinates, not important."
Kafka chuckled.
"That fancy technique of yours is as interesting as usual."
"Just a little trick of tampering with the data of reality, I wouldn't call it fancy. It has become even easier since Awakening."
"Makes sense. What were you looking at so intently just now? Can I see?"
"Herta's Toys, a catalog featuring the space station's collection of rare items. They've got a lot of interesting gadgets, you know."
Kafka raised an eyebrow of interest.
"Oh? Like what?"
"There is this gun, it can rate any creature within its crosshair from 0 to 100."
Kafka's interest seemed to rapidly fade from her charming face.
"... Doesn't sound that interesting."
"Aren't you curious about how much you would score? I kinda wanna know mine."
Silver Wolf failed to reveal the amount of excitement in her voice.
"Fine, I guess we can swing by and play with it if it's not far. Where should we head to?"
Seeing that things were starting to go back to the good old boring main quest, Silver Wolf went back to a more professional stance.
"Go down the corridor behind the door on the left. There's a room where some kind of rare item is stored, it seems."
"So that's where the Stellaron is?"
"That's where we can find where the stellaron is."
With a clear direction of where to go, they started to move.
As they made their way through the second corridor with an unhurried step, they ran into several other voidrangers, however, neither Kafka nor Silver Wolf were the type to take the small fries as actual threats.
With simple strikes of a sword, a few shots of guns, and the occasional teleportation to the vast expanse of space, they dispatched them pretty easily.
"You know, Kafka. Since we are in easy mode this time, should we drive-test our Aspects?"
"Now, now, Wolfie. Elio said to start by simply learning how to flow Essence along with Path Energy, besides, we cannot risk catching Herta's or the Astral Express' attention on that topic."
"How boring... I don't get what's in Elio's mind. Why couldn't we awaken earlier, or if we can't reveal it now, why awaken just before this mission?"
"For the same reason, He doesn't have a bounty. Besides, Elio thought we should start getting used to it now, any later would probably disrupt our performances in the next scripts."
"How can we get used to being awakened if we can't use these new buffs?"
"He wants us to be used to our Flaws and not our Aspects. There is a reason why we are the ones here and not Bladie or SAM."
A flash of worry crossed Silver Wolf's face.
"They didn't get off easily, huh?. As if they weren't already full with their past and conditions, they had to have such flaws?"
"You know how it is, Flaws are not meant to be lenient."
As they approached the door to the Monitoring Room, Kafka paused in her steps.
"Hold it."
She looked around cautiously before calming down slightly.
"Someone, or something, is here."
At that very moment, four Voidrangers appeared around them.
"Looks like we are being ambushed." Silver Wolf said, her boredom clear in her speech.
"But they are the ones getting besieged."
With a swift turn, Kafka delivered a quick strike with her katana, slicing one of them in half.
[You have slain a Voidranger: Reaver]
Without giving any attention to her bracelet's notification, she aimed her gun at the second voidranger and delivered a volley of bullets.
[You have slain a Voidranger: Distorter]
Silver Wolf acted at the same time, rushing forward with a holographic sword. She slashed at a void ranger, decapitating it in one slash.
[You have slain a Voidranger: Distorter]
Using her motion of slashing, Silver Wolf used that movement to turn around, her sword switching into cannon mode and firing a single shot at the remaining voidranger.
"These bracelets really are very handy."
"Indeed. I heard from Elio that He used the help of a certain hacker to steal various databases to properly document the enemies slain." Kafka said, her tone slightly teasing.
"I only helped get the data, he was the one who made them." Silver Wolf looked away, embarrassed.
"It always impresses me that you are so weak to compliments when He is involved."
Silver Wolf grumbled and walked forward to their destination.
Kafka chuckled and followed her.
As they entered the room, Kafka noticed something.
"Not a single soul here. Impressive evacuation work. Did Herta organize it herself?"
Silver Wolf looked at a screen and then shook her head.
"According to the access history, she hasn't logged in here for over six months. The evacuation was directed by the acting lead researcher, a girl named Asta."
"Doesn't ring a bell. Oh, right, Elio said we wouldn't run into Herta. It seems she really isn't here."
Kafka walked deeper into the room and looked around.
"Where's the Stellaron?"
"Elio's script doesn't include any info about the location of the Stellaron, which means in the future he foresees..."
"... We would find the Stellaron in a non-physical way?"
"This space station is packed with extraordinary objects, I wouldn't be surprised if there's one that can make it happen."
Kafka sighed in slight admiration.
"Hiding something extraordinary with something extraordinary... this is pretty, Herta. I assume you know what to do? I mean, you've read that catalog for quite a while."
"I've got all the clues we need. The only piece missing is a simple trick."
She cracked her knuckles in mock preparation.
"Help me investigate the terminal in this room, our item might be inside." she said.
Kafka let out a small laugh in amusement.
"Okay, the stage is yours~"
As Kafka walked around the room, she checked the terminals, asking Silver Wolf if it was the correct way forward. But none of them helped in any way.
In the end, Silver Wolf sighed in annoyance and moved forward.
"Make your way over here then, there's no point in trying to search like this."
As Kafka approached Silver Wolf, she looked at the girl with interest.
"So, got a master plan? I'm all ears."
"It's a matter of hacking the surveillance system directly."
"Aha, I see. Herta's collections aren't in the system, so anything unaffected should be our target."
With a few clicks on her own terminal, Silver Wolf made quick work of the surveillance system and hacked into all available terminals she could find.
Soon, several screens lit up and projected the same symbol of a wolf, Silver Wolf's own signature.
Except for a single spot, where the screen continuously glitched, failing to show the signature.
"Simple, crude, but effective. Look, I found it."
A small smirk found its way to her face.
They both approached the glitched screen.
"Huh. What's this?"
Kafka asked, confused yet slightly interested.
"Item number 211, "Blind Spot": A simple light-deflecting field. It allows an object in its field to pass unnoticed, but if a different item ceases to be obvious, the object gets revealed."
"So Herta hides her collection with something as simple as this?"
"The simplest method is the hardest to spot, isn't that our motto?"
Kafka nodded.
As they walked closer to the glitched screen and made contact with it, they felt themselves being pulled by something, suddenly appearing in a new place.
"Interesting, she's a member of the Genius Society alright."
Kafka couldn't help but be impressed.
"The Stellaron is up ahead, let's hurry."
Without any hesitation, they walked forward in the direction of the Stellaron.
It was in the center of the room, shining its divine light upon its walls. Looking at it, some would think that it was a miniature star that someone had successfully plucked from the night sky, no one would think that it was actually a world-ending disaster waiting to happen.
It was sealed, for now.
Silver Wolf studied for a few seconds and checked her terminal.
"It has its own security system... I guess even for Herta, a Stellaron is no ordinary rarity."
"Can you get it?"
Kafka sounded serious, it seemed as the mission reached its climax, her teasing and joking tone had disappeared.
"Of course, even the genius Herta can't compete with me when it comes to hacking."
"Good, then I'll also count on you with the preparation of the receptacle."
Saying that, Kafka saw Silver Wolf typing furiously on a holographic keyboard, once the protection over the Stellaron was disabled, she did not hesitate and grabbed it with her own hands.
Meanwhile, Silver Wolf also finished her preparations for the vessel.
"The receptacle's ready"
As if grabbing something on her screen, she pulled something out and threw it in Kafka's direction.
"Your decision."
In front of Kafka was now a screen depicting two possible receptables.
One was female, she had long grey hair and bright golden eyes.
The other one was male, he had short black hair with a few hints of grey, and his eyes were black, resembling dark gems carved from an abyss. A few hints of gold could be seen if someone looked hard enough.
How did Kafka know that? Well, let your imagination run wild.
She picked the male receptacle almost without hesitation, next it was his name that needed to be decided.
She also didn't hesitate.
Sunless.
Just typing it, not even saying it, made her heart stir.
'Am I worried for him? I guess I am. Could this be considered fear, I wonder?'
She crumbled the screen as if it was paper until it became nothing but a small cube, which she threw back at Silver Wolf, who continued her work.
"There we go."
Suddenly, a sound that resembled the start of holographic projection filled the room, and floating in the air, the male receptacle, Sunless, appeared bit by bit.
Stellaron in hand, Kafka approached him.
"How much does he remember?"
"... They'll remember you."
Kafka could be imagining it, but was Silver Wolf jealous?
Deciding not to dive too deep into it, she approached the now falling Sunless.
Holding him close to her, she breathed in deeply and prepared for what was next.
"Time to get up."