Anya had prepared herself for this. For this challenge.
To sneak into the Officer Library in Shibuya.
Military Buildings that she didn't know the layout of, where she would be going into completely blind.
It excited her, even though she tried to quell that sense of excitement. It was a distraction that she couldn't afford.
First Anya made her way to Ikebukuro, where it was laughably easy to sneak into and reach the subway, where she saw that her suspicions were correct and the subway tunnel had caved in. But what hadn't caved in was the maintainance tunnel.
Making her way trough the tunnel she played a bit with Beowulfs light ability. Using Beowulf to make light shine from her body in order to enable herself to see in the perpetual darkness of the small tunnel.
It around two hours to reach Shibuya in which nothing happened.
So she had used the time to experiment a bit more with Beowulfs ability to make her body shine. She had managed different intensitys of light, once even a really blinding light, but it had been intense to hold and as such Anya figured that until she could train that ability up to sufficient levels that she would use it sparingly.
Furthermore she had had the idea to see if Beowulf could suck light into as well as distribute it, but the few attempts she had made at it hadn't wielded any results. Something for later experimentations she supposed.
Once she finally reached Shibuya, she took a moment to ready herself and then peeked around the corner. There was a bit of rubble, but by far not as much as in Ikebukuro. Otherwisse the station seemed mostly intact, if not abandoned.
Being careful, she sneaked through the quiet station with Uyoku equiped, always ready to dash into the far shadows and out of sight.
When she reached the exit, she made a daring dash into the open and to the corner of the next building, hiding in its shadow. After nothing happened for a moment, she disappeared into the dark back alleys.
After weaving trough the back alleys of which she had memorised the layout that she had found in a plan in the Ikebukuro Library, she had reached the military buldings.
They were guarded and not something that unautorized persons could access.
And she was unauthorized.
But that didn't matter for her, as with the help of Uyoku she had reached an outcropping on the shadow side of the bulding from which she could reach the next and the next, till she reached the roof. The outcroppings at the building had been small and spaced quite a bit appart, but with the help of Uyoku it was relatively easy to reach the roof.
On the roof, there were several vent openings, all covered and locked of course but that didn't stop her, and she entered the building through it.
It took another hour to find the Library but when she did, there were people there.
Two of them, and from the uniforms they were pretty high up.
Once she got a glimpse of their faces she knew that she had just scored high.
It were Guren Ichinose and Shinya Hiragi.
Before the Apokalypse she had learned about many of the different familys that were involved in the shadows and there she had learned about them. Both were familys involved with the supernatural side of things.
Both had dabbled with the seraph of the end. And something must have happened, even though she didn't know what.
Something that stroke her as odd though was the way that Iyashi heated up the closer she got to them. She didn't know what to make of it that the Iyashi was reacting to their presence and she didn't know why it did.
While she was quite puzzled about that strange occurence she ignored it in favor of listening in on their conversation.
—————
„Guren, are you sure that is a wise idea? The kid's unstable, not to mention that he doesn't seem to remember anything."
„That doesn't matter, it is probably better for him if doesn't remember actually. You know how the ‚Thousand Nights' are. And it will give him a fighting chance."
„I know that, Guren, I do, but this still isn't a good idea, he just got out of the hands of the vampires and saw his friends get murdered right infront of him. He's too unstable."
„That is why he must be trained, Shinya. You know just as well as I do that the experiments can't be stopped. And if he is not trained, he'll just die. Furthermore, you can see the raw potential that he has, it won't be left to waste and if we don't take care of it, the Hiragi's will. So trust me, I know what I am doing."
*sigh* „If you say so. Just know that this will inevitably blow up on you. So be careful."
„I will be. Thanks."
„Ya, whatever. Have fun."
—————
Anya held her breath. After having listened to that conversation right now, she had information that she did not have before. Highly Classified Information. She basically just hit the Jackpot with that conversation. The boy, and she was very certain that that was the stray she had heard about in the rumors, had been a ‚Seraph of the End' experiment.
That changed a lot.
If she remembered right, then the boy had been part of a family that all came from the same orphanage. Though she hadn't been all that interested in the other children in Sanguinem, she had still overheard a lot of gossip, as that was a surprisingly good source of information. Not really reliably in regards to facts, but there was always a bit of truth mixed in.
Due to that she knew that the group had all been from the same orphanage and considering what she knew of the Brotherhood of Thousand Nights, the children had all been experimented on.
Which means that the 3rd progenitor Krul Tepes had housed and hidden remaining subjects of the ‚Seraph of the End'. For what end, she didn't know and she wasn't quite sure what to make of it. From what still limeted information she had on the vampires inner order and society, she thought that the ‚Seraph of the End' was a Taboo.
A Taboo that Krul Tepes apperently broke.
Anya really wasn't sure what to make of it.
But these thoughts would have to come later, she couldn't get lost in thought deep in enemy territory.
Shaking these thoughts aside she decided to focus on Guren Ichinose and Shinya Hiragi. The Iyashi had reacted to them, no, rather to one of them. After Shinya Hiragi had left the scene, Iyashi had still been reacting, warming slightly and almost vibrating. Something that was really puzzling.
Deciding to investigate, for why Iyashi might be reacting to the presence of Guren Ichinose, she decided to find his quarters and see what she could find there. After all, a persons living space could say a lot about them.
It took a bit of time and even more sneaking around but finally she found his quarters. And conveniently they too had vents.
Sometimes she wondered if they even seemed aware of how big a weakness they were. Nearly everywhere she had been, they seemed to have forgotten about the ventilation. It confused her.
But as it was, she used it to her advantage, to get the information that she wanted.
Dropping into Guren Ichinoses room, she carefully looked around observing the room she was in. It was relatively barren almost spartan room.
Nothing really of a personal note, even though Guren must have lived in there for years. He was controlling himself, she realized. The room bore no emotional attachment, nor any disrtactions. It was a room that allowed focus. Focus on control, very disciplined, as if there was something to keep hidden, to keep it in control. A monster in human skin, threatening to those around, and as such, required to be locked away.
Of course he could have also accidently trashed his place and having to have had to throw those thinghs out. But she didnt believe that.
There were no pictures of family or friends, just the desk with paperwork, a bed, and a closet. The part with no picture of family didn't surprise her, as she knew of what had happened with the Ichinose family prior to the apocalypse.
But everywhere she looked there was nothing personal. Nothing that could be of sentimetal value. Nothing.
Eventually though, she stumbeled upon the remains of a sword wrapped in cloth at the bottom of the closet.
She recognized the sword as the Ichinose family heirloom Kujakumaru. It looked as though it had been cut cleanly into two. And considering that the sword had been strengthened by magic with the curse of all those beheaded with the sword, that was quite the feat. The only thing that she knew of that could do that was a Cursed gear, and a powerful one at that.
Funny how he kept that, but didn't seem to have anything else of sentimetal value.
Suddenly her head snapped up as she picked up the faint sound of footsteps, nearly in front of the room now. Cursing under her breath she let the clothes fall back upon the sword, closed the closet and leapt up into the opening of the vent, all the while thanking her parents for all the lessons that they drilled into her head about investigating and having to make a quick escape, and also her luck in having found the weapons.
After landing in the vent, she had quickly placed the covering back and it seemed as if it was just in time too as she could hear the door opening.
Deciding that it was propably better to not stick around, she carefully made her way back to the library and once there went back to do what she had come here to do. Gather all the Information that she could.
While she had already a haul of interesting and important information, there was still more that she could reasonably gain in the limited amount of time that she could stay there.
So, this is another Chapter.
Thankfully faster than the last. I have also already begun with the next Chapter but that is going rather meh. It's fighting me while writing.
I know now what some of the other writers mean when they say that a chapter is fighting them.
But whatever.
I hope you enjoyed this Chapter.