Spring Upon the Solstice

XXVIII - The Kraken Ouroboros

{ 001 }

"Alright, Fives, stay put."

As Sakura Four bursts through the ocean's surface, crashing amongst a stormy flurry of waves and sleet, I steer us towards one of the floating buoys in the bay. Once parked, I disembark from the titanic mecha and drag Jhiro out through the maintenance hatch.

"I'll come back," I say, securing the suit to the tower using some of the spare cables onboard. "As soon as we're done here, Sakura and I will get you away from everything. I'm sorry things came to this. I doubt you can hear me, but I'm sorry for not having done this sooner."

Of course, he's completely unconscious.

"Or don't say anything. See you in a bit."

I climb back inside Akuma-1, shove the syringes into my bloodstream, and carry on towards the mainland city of Wakkanai. The snowstorm that rolled into the bay hours ago hasn't dissipated, and combined with the oppressive pitch of nighttime fog, I can't get any visuals on the Harbinger. But despite the lack of visibility, I know that monster left behind a calling card—the shivering of my skin sends a clear warning, an instinctual anxiety that claws its way down my spine. I flip on the searchlights, scanning the horizon for a sign of movement; my radar comes up empty. Strangely enough, the beams don't reach that far.

"Computer, maximize power to our forward lights. Shouldn't we be able to punch through all this?"

Searchlights are currently optimized for both snow and fog conditions.

"Why the hell is it so dark, then? I can't see along the...waterfront..." My voice trails off, the gears in my mind spinning and slipping apart as I fail to explain the sight before me.

The water is black. Not just dyed black, but a thick and oily black, as though God himself stirred up the sea with the midnight sky above me. Ordinarily, light filters through the water and illuminates the immediate area around it, even at night. But this field of darkness, which swallows everything, including the snowflakes that divebomb along its surface, has got me worried. Is this the Harbinger's doing?

"Hey, Yumei, are you there?" I plug Sakura back into the communications network, and send a ping over to her. "Yu?"

I wait ten seconds on pins and needles, awaiting her familiar enthusiasm. At a time like this, an ocean away from home and from her, a few words of encouragement are all I need. Funnily enough, I can guess what her first words will be.

"Kat! Jhiro got away from us! I think he—"

"—went after me? Yeah. He climbed into the reactor room."

"The reactor room? Without a suit?"

"Look, I left him on one of the buoys. He'll be fine."

"I sure hope so."

"Well, I wasn't about to drag him into an active combat zone."

"How deep into the fight are you already?"

"I'm still approaching the city. Why?"

"Nothing."

"Yu, tell me what's bugging you."

"Don't worry about it."

"...I don't know what's going on with you, but we need to kill this Harbinger and I need eyes in the air. That takes priority."

"I—okay. Fine," she decides. "Alright, we'll do that. Then what?"

I raise an eyebrow; Yumei never keeps her thoughts locked up around me. She might have the occasional silent day, but she wouldn't say something like, 'Don't worry about it,' not at this crucial of a moment in time.