Heroes of the Cause

Chapter 2: The Black Hand / The More the Merrier / An Unlikely Ally

POV: Third Person: Ziko

Ziko followed Yukina to her safehouse as they navigated one of the small neighborhoods of Tokyo. It was early in the morning and the sun just began to rise over the horizon.

"Who are we searching for exactly?" Ziko asked his purple-haired companion.

"A hacker named Walnut," Yukina briefly explained, "Apparently, he has died many times over the past 30 years. Even someone like the Global Army Corp is struggling to find him."

"A hacker," Ziko echoed, putting his hands into his hoodie pocket, "I'm guessing there's more to it than finding him."

Making a turn on a block, Yukina continued, "Well, Direct Attack wants him dead. But I was specifically tasked with finding him to find some missing guns."

"I've never heard about anything like Direct Attack nor the Lycoris until yesterday," Ziko remarked, "But hearing you speak highly of them means they must be highly professional people."

"Well..." Yukina breathed, "We wouldn't be taking this job if it weren't for some mistakes they made."

"So we're basically cleaning up a mess," Ziko finished.

"Yep, pretty much," Yukina replied, halting to a stop. "Oh, we're here."

Ziko stood behind Yukina as he looked at the building in front of them.

"Wait, if DA wants Walnut dead, then why are you tasked with finding him to locate the missing firearms?" Ziko asked.

"After locating the firearms, we'll be handing him to DA," Yukina answered, "And they will take care of him. And by taking care, I mean they will kill him."

"Hmm," Ziko hummed, "Then the hacker must've pissed them off."

"Probably..." Yukina said as the two of them proceeded to enter one of Chimera's bases of operations located in Japan.

Upon entering it, the inside looked like the usual Japanese home. But after Yukina moved a tall bookshelf located at a wall, hidden behind it was a door that led under the building.

"This is one of Chimera's Base of Operations? To be honest, I kinda expected more..." Ziko mused, following her to the bottom floor. Entering the area underground as lights turned on, Ziko was presented with a big room where things like weapon racks filled with guns on some walls, a whole set up of computers that hackers or anything of the like can use, and multiple armored vehicles littered around the back.

"...I take back what I said earlier," Ziko uttered, walking to Yukina who sat in front of a large setup of monitors. "Let's move on with the briefing."

"Sure thing," Yukina replied, the biggest screen on the setup of monitors turning on as it showed info about Walnut. "Our objective is to track the hacker named Walnut. Since he is a veteran, it will take a lot of time but I did gain a little progress since I started out a little bit earlier."

"So how do we catch someone who has been presumed dead a lot of times in the past?" Ziko questioned.

"I used the transmitter from my Mammoth Avenger and tried to differentiate every device here in Tokyo since I thought this would be a good place to start with," Yukina explained.

"Oh, I was wondering where the Avenger was when you came to Solis," Ziko wondered about Yukina's personal modified aircraft, "So you left it here in Japan?"

"Yep," Yukina nodded, "Although it did the job, Walnut is now currently masking his location with multiple radar pings."

"And this is where I come in I suppose?" Ziko claimed.