Editing City Series:Volume3a Chapter 5 (section)

===Part 4===

There was no such thing as a peaceful night at Hong Kong Yard.

Even in the middle of the night, the headquarters had its lights on.

The white fluorescent light shined on a few night shift workers… and Rin.

She faced a desktop computer and wore the same clothes as when Akira and Gunmal had left.

She had been here dealing with this or that for over six hours.

“I finally got the search macro built… Now I just have to gather all the data.”

She removed her hands from the keyboard and stretched lightly.

“You work hard,” commented an elderly worker at a nearby seat, so she gave an arbitrary response and wiped away the tears in the corners of her eyes.

She finally looked to the window. It was growing brighter and a blanket with wings lay on the sofa below it.

That was Akira.

“I can’t believe she can sleep face-down like that. …Of course, Kouga can only sleep inside a coffin.”

She tilted her head.

“But when did she pair up with Gunmal like that?”

The two of them had patrolled the streets of Hong Kong ever since then.

Akira belonged to Cleared which more or less dealt with the citizen’s troubles. They would get rid of poltergeists created by disturbed Lives or Tune destroyed houses to fix them.

“That’s a lot like a mother’s way of thinking.”

…''Well, I doubt it will end as pathetically as with me and Fei.

She then changed the look in her eyes and the direction of her gaze.

She looked to the monitor beyond her glasses. The cursor on the screen followed the movements of her eyes thanks to the sight device in the edge of her glasses.

The cursor moved along the displayed results of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and searched for the company names that matched the conditions she gave.

“So Archs RDC really is going to break up at seven tonight. The stocks of the inheriting companies are rising, so the insider traders must already be at work.”

She muttered her thanks for that as she closed the stock exchange page.

The screen now showed the system’s OS.

She looked to the icon on the far left that led to the Yard’s databank.

The cursor moved there and she clicked on the keyboard.

As soon as the databank server’s screen opened, she began typing.

She displayed the business details of the companies from her previous search and saved them.

Overlapping windows of text appeared on the screen. More and more appeared at a pace of about one every three seconds.

“Hm, this is a lot.”

She grabbed her coffee cup and took a sip. It was cold, but she did not care.

She could barely taste anything this late at night, so she only tasted the bitterness.

She thought about the flavor of the bitter coffee while connecting the computer to Hong Kong’s network line.

It immediately asked whether she wished to use any assistance software.

“…”

She silently inserted the MD-ROM she had prepared.

The computer read in the communications assistance software approved by the Governor of Hong Kong.

Once the official title popped up, she forcibly ejected the MD-ROM.

She then pulled a different MD-ROM from her pocket and shoved it in.

“No matter how much the corporations go crying to the governor, they can’t come up with a way of keeping me from doing this.”

Without waiting a moment, the computer resumed reading the MD-ROM.

The title on the screen blacked out and the network map appeared instead.

The commands were displayed on the upper right, but the display was different from the legitimate program.

“These Japanese programs are frightening. This thing can even destroy pursuing programs. …ID spoofing, ID changes every hour, decoy creation, and the option to transfer into a decoy. And it’s all automated from a single command.”

She went through all of the commands and began working.

That was when the headquarters’ door opened.

…''?

She turned around when she heard all of the night shift personnel quickly stand and she found the General standing in the entrance.

“Ah.”

Surprised, she stood too and saluted.

Before she could greet him, he gestured for them to sit. As they all did, he walked over to her.

He looked toward her and Akira who slept over by the window.

“Oh, what’s this? A young girl like you shouldn’t be workin’ so late. It ain’t good for you, Rin.”

“This is my job.”

“I see. …Are you usin’ that machine to search for that cheeky Huang bastard? Oh, you’ve got a lot you’re searchin’ for there.”

Rin looked to the text already displayed on the screen and nodded.

“I always have these in reserve for dummy searches. If they can tell what you’re focusing on as soon as you get your footing, they put their guard up a lot quicker.”

She brought her hands back to the keyboard.

“I’m going to input the search terms I need now.”

She looked at the text lined up on the monitor.

The very top of the search list was the name Fei Garland.

That was a dummy search.

That name had yet to return any search results.

…''I haven’t found anything in five years now.

Just as she began to type, the General spoke up as if he had just remembered something.

“Oh, right. Hey, Rin. If you’ve got the time, could you search for ‘Device’ and ‘J-Gun Maldrick’ too?”

“Are you referring to Akira’s case?” she asked with a bitter smile. “I’m doing those searches at the same time here. The two of them asked me personally, but…as they said, you shouldn’t hope for much.”

No matter how skilled a Buster swordsmith he had been, she could not imagine a personal workshop would have a connection to Archs RDC. Still, she could at least use it as a dummy search.

“What, are things not goin’ well?”

“Why do you think I’ve been up all night? …And does this mean you’re curious about Akira’s case too?”

“Yeah, a little. I suppose.”

After hearing his answer, she continued.

“General, you told me before that Akira’s father was your subordinate, right?”

“…”

“And just between the two of us, her father died in the exact same way as Huang Daquan.”

“Oh?”

“By any chance, do you secretly know everything going on behind the scenes in this case?”

“Why would I know that?”

She hesitated but answered.

“I feel a connection here. A human and a Nein Engel died in the exact same way and you have the exact same scar on your cheek as that human.”

“A connection, huh?”

“You may not have noticed, but you’re a bit of a mystery. What were you doing before the Fourth Divine Punishment War, why do you never call anyone over to your house, and does your wife actually exist?”

“I hear everyone’s bettin’ money on the truth of some of that.”

Hearing that, Rin looked taken aback and quietly cleared her throat.

“I-I apologize. I got carried away just now. …I haven’t gotten enough sleep.”

She then looked to Akira’s sleeping form and gave a deep sigh to shift her focus.

The General looked over, too.

“Is somethin’ the matter with Akira?”

“Apparently she wasn’t able to do anything when J-Gun died.”

“Well, there’s no helpin’ that. Not even a Tuner can just walk up and Tune someone who’s about to die.”

“But she’s kept her Device by her side ever since then. She used to keep it safely in her locker”

That had changed over the past few days.

“I think it’s a good change. Recently, she’s been teaching the local children about Tuning and she’s changed in a number of other ways too.”

“Sigh. I see you’re really watchin’ closely, Rin.”

“That’s just the kind of person I am.”

Rin looked back to the monitor and gently licked her lipstick-covered lips.

“Now, I’m about to make my way into Archs RDC’s databank. This is probably my last chance at this.”

She then hit the enter key to set it all in motion.

It only took five seconds for something unexpected to happen.