Part Fifteen: Breaching the Wall

"Wakey wakey, bro," Tamashi woke up his Echo, " We've got important stuff to do today."

'I know…' Nozomi rolled out of bed, still quite drowsy, 'I was barely able to get any sleep last night.'

"We don't have time for sleep right now," Tamashi urged, "Get ready!"

'Jeez, what's got you so antsy?' Nozomi asked, mildly irritated due to his lack of rest.

"Come on, man!" Tamashi said, "It's an infiltration mission! How can you not get at least a little hyped?"

'I mean, we aren't participating in the actual infiltration,' Nozomi reminded him, 'We're pretty much just Spade Echo, Roboco, and Melody's getaway car.'

"Ugh, could you not be a killjoy?" Tamashi groaned, "Let me feel cool."

'Whatever,' Nozomi cracked a smirk, taking his green kimono and his accompanying sheath, walking out the door.

...

He walked into the meeting room, finding the three necessary to carrying out the plan, those being Melody, Spade Echo, and Roboco, sitting down and having a word with YAGOO.

"Ah, Nozomi," YAGOO noticed the black-haired teen, "Melody's confirmed that she might be able to breach the firewall, depending on its strength."

"I can handle most things," she nodded, "Of course, there are some things I can't handle, but that's normal for everyone, isn't it?"

"I know a thing or two about hacking, and Roboco is a robot," Spade Echo piped in, "We should be able to take it down. All we need to do is bust in there."

"I can phase out of sight, and Spade Echo is a phantom thief," Melody pondered, "We'll have to keep Roboco out of sight."

"Sorry to be a bother…" she looked down, still trying to maintain a smile.

"It's no problem," Spade Echo shook her head, "Honestly, on missions like this, it's good to have a little extra manpower."

"If you say so," Roboco said, turning to face Nozomi, "You ready?"

"Yeah," he said with his usual smirk, unsheathing his sword and focusing his energy to its tip. Once the energy had sufficiently amassed, he slashed through the air, creating a white portal to the Mirror. The four glanced at each other with determined expressions, entering the portal and starting the mission.

...

Dropping down in the snowy field the group had encountered the polar bear-like Malice in, Spade Echo immediately got to work.

"Follow me," she said, quickly looking from side to side and running east. The group began following the phantom thief as she helped the group avoid and take out Malice silently. Dashing towards a small group of trees and climbing its branches, she glanced at her team.

"The stronghold's over there," she whispered, "There's guards over there. Can you take care of 'em, Nozomi?"

"With pleasure," he said, unsheathing his sword. Taking note of Spade Echo's techniques, he began lurking in the shadows, as to avoid being detected by the guards. Taking a closer look at the twin guards, they were wearing battle armor similar to the ones that Nozomi's doppelgangers were wearing, but they appeared to be quite cheaply made and weren't of any special color, instead being merely gray. They were also grasping fairly standard assault rifles, with one carrying a grenade on him. Nozomi took his sword and quickly decapitated one of the soldiers.

"Hey!" the other said, pointing his gun at Nozomi. Thinking on his feet, Nozomi swung his sword at the armor-clad soldier's wrist. He fell to his knees, looking at his now handless arm, gasping for air through gritted teeth. Nozomi then pointed his blade downwards, thrusting it into the man's skull. Pulling it out, he sheathed it and ran towards the trees.

"It's safe," he said to Spade Echo. She nodded, dashing up to the stronghold's door. She took a look at a small panel next to the door, clicking away at it. She scoffed.

"Tch," she turned to Melody, "They increased the security since I last came. Could you demonstrate your expertise for us, Melody?"

"For sure," she walked up to the panel. She put her hand on it, and, all of a sudden, she disappeared. The panel lit green, and the door to the stronghold opened. As this happened, Melody reappeared, her usual sly smirk covering her face.

"What was that about?" Nozomi asked.

"Oh, well, since I'm a computer program and all, I actually go inside the computer and mess with the files when I hack," Melody explained, "Anyways, when we go in, we need you to close the door. Just press the blue and yellow buttons at the same time."

"Alright," he said, turning to Roboco, "Promise you'll be safe."

"We promise," she said with a fiery look, "Let's go, everyone."

The three bolted into the stronghold, the door closing behind them.

'We better not fail our first official mission,' Nozomi thought to himself as he held down the blue and yellow buttons.

The three girls began running down a large series of corridors and hallways. Melody began to giggle.

"Nozomi-kun is kinda cute, don't you think, Roboco?" Melody said.

"E-eh?" Roboco stammered, "W-what do you mean?"

"Do you like him?" Melody interrogated, "Honestly, if you do, I can't blame. He's smart, strong, not awful looking, and from what I've heard, he's saved your ass twice."

"You heard about that…?" Roboco said, still running, "I don't know. He asked me if I wanted to be friends with him, and I thought that sounded nice, and he's made me happy ever since."

"Maybe he's the type to attract artificial girls like you and I," Melody theorized. Roboco chuckled at this remark.

"Maybe so…" she thought, her face somewhat red.

"Enough of the boy talk, you two," Spade Echo teased, looking up at the air ducts, "Roboco, I'll help you up."

"That won't be necessary," Roboco denied, jumping up and grasping the vent, tearing it open. She then jumped again, grabbing the edge of the entrance to the ducts and managing to crawl up.

"Not bad," Spade Echo grinned, quickly jumping to the duct. Melody snapped her fingers, teleporting up to the area. The three girls began making their way through the ducts, crawling to the nearby computer room. Kicking down the vent, the three girls dropped down. Much to their surprise, there weren't any guards, nor had the body of the person Spade Echo had "silenced" been disposed of.

"This place must be pretty tucked away," Spade Echo assumed, "Either that or they just don't care if one of their own died."

"Honestly, after hearing about what they're going to do with Ina and Iofi," Roboco said, "I wouldn't be surprised if it were the latter."

"Alright, this is it," Melody pepped herself up, disappearing into nothingness. The two remaining girls watched the computer as it flashed. As this went on, the walking of various soldiers could be heard. Eventually, one of them glanced through the window of the door.

"H-hey! Intruders in computer room 07!" he shouted. Several soldiers came barreling through the door, all similar to the guards Nozomi had faced except rather than guns, they brandished spears. Spade Echo took out a switchblade, grimacing, and Roboco transformed her arm into an automatic rifle of sorts.

"Hang in there! I'll almost be done!" Melody shouted to her group. The tip of a soldier's spear was narrowly blocked by Spade Echo's knife. Quickly realizing her position, Roboco fired at the soldier who was attacking Spade Echo, swiftly taking him out. The two of them readied their weapons, flashing them at the group. They became somewhat intimidated, but they readied their weapons in response. Roboco began shooting the guards with intense precision, while Spade Echo stabbed them in the back, Their strength was shockingly low, and they didn't put up much of a fight. Surprisingly soon, the group of gray-armored soldiers had been defeated. Spade Echo tore her blade out of her final victim, while Roboco reverted her arm into a standard robot arm.

"Shit, you guys can slaughter if you put your minds to it," Melody quipped, "I'm almost done cracking this firewall."

"We should get out of here as soon as possible," Spade Echo said, "Let us know when you're done."

"Yeah," she said, completely focused on the task at hand. After about 3 minutes or so, Melody sighed.

"I've done everything I can," she said, "There's one password I can't get through, though."

"Is there a hint?" Spade Echo asked.

"Yeah, but I can't tell what it is from this," Melody informed, "The data said it's a three letter word, and the hint is just 'Artificial Niku'."

"Artificial Niku… three letter word…" Roboco pondered deeply, appearing to be in her own world, "It's KEY. All uppercase."

"How do you know?" Melody asked.

"I can't be sure," Roboco shook her head, "But just trust me."

"It's our best guess," she muttered, as she typed away, spelling KEY into the password section. Much to Melody's surprise, the computer's desktop was shown.

"How did…" Melody stammered, exiting the computer.

"I'm not sure," Roboco said, quite shocked herself, "I just had a feeling."

She walked up to the computer and put her hand on the PC. For about 5 minutes, she stood still, continuing to keep her hand on the PC. After these 5 minutes were over, Roboco turned to the two.

"I've downloaded the entire PC," Roboco informed, "Copies of everything are in an external hard drive."

"Nice," Spade Echo grinned, "Let's get out of here."

The three climbed up the air duct once again, retracing their steps to the large door to the stronghold. Melody dissipated into thin air and entered the terminal that they used to open the door in the first place.

"Nozomi!" she yelled to grab the teen's attention.

"Melody!" he said, "Was the mission successful?"

"Yeah, we've got the PC copied and downloaded onto Roboco," she explained, "Turn the right dial twice and we can get out of here!"

"Understood!" he said, doing as he was instructed. The door opened, and Nozomi quickly unsheathed his sword, gathering his energy. The two girls burst out of the entrance, and Melody returned to her humanoid form, exiting the terminal. Soon, Nozomi was able to slash the air, creating a portal to their world. The four of them ran into the rift, making their exit. The operation was a success.

...

Finding themselves in the Cover Corporation offices, the four walked out of the rift and went to the meeting table where YAGOO sat.

"It's good to see you all in one piece," YAGOO smiled, "The mission was a success, I presume?"

"Yeah," Spade Echo nodded, "We've got the PC downloaded onto Roboco."

"Excellent," he nodded, "Let's get you hooked up then, okay?"

"Of course," Roboco bowed. She motioned to a set of cables attached to a large PC monitor and hooked them up to openings in her neck. After entering a password at a nearby keyboard, YAGOO accessed Roboco's internal PC. He then took a look at the external hard drive that Roboco used to download the PC.

"Hmm…" he pondered, "This might take a day or two to fully analyze."

"Will it really?" Nozomi asked, quite surprised by this revelation.

"Well, yeah," Melody piped in, "It's, like, 6 terabytes of data or something."

"S-six?!" Nozomi stammered, "That's understandable, then."

Roboco giggled to herself. "It's okay, though. That means we get tomorrow off."

"I guess you're right," Nozomi chuckled, "Tamashi probably wants to go on another date with Ayame."

"H-huh?" Roboco stammered, "Tamashi is going out with Ayame-chan?!"

"She never told you guys?" Nozomi asked, "Yeah, they went on a date fairly recently, I helped him briefly transfer her consciousness to my mindscape and they hit it off."

"I'm happy for them," Roboco smiled.

"Yeah, me too," Nozomi smiled in return, then turning to address his group, "Let's get home, yeah?"

"Yeah," they nodded, as they began to leave the building.

...

"004," a man in a soldier's uniform bowed, "We've retrieved the camera footage from outside where the two guards were killed."

"I see," the boy in the lab coat nodded, holding his clipboard and a pen, "Turn it on, then."

"Yes sir," the man complied, putting the aforementioned footage onto a projector screen. It showed Nozomi taking down the two guards before he opened the door, allowing Roboco, Melody, and Spade Echo access.

"Wait, play that back!" the boy in the lab coat looked at the video in horror, "Do it!"

"Of course, sir!" the man panicked, playing the video back.

"PAUSE!" the boy in the lab coat ordered.

The man quickly paused the video. The boy in the lab coat got up to look at the video at a closer angle. His face contorted, slowly turning from fearful to angry.

"Is that 000… with the Pearl Sword…?" he muttered to himself, looking down in fury. He trembled with anger, clenching his fists so hard that he broke the pen in his hands.

"GODDAMN IT, 001!"

...

"Of all the V-Tubers I get paired up with," Conner complained, "I could have gotten paired up with that cute little dog that says 'I love you', or that toxic gamer that everyone said I'd like…"

"Connor, shut up," Ironmouse said with a cheeky grin, "I know you love me."

"You wish," Connor groaned, looking around, "You're from the Underworld, right? Does this place look anything like it?"

"Hah," Ironmouse giggled, "The Underworld is much more inviting than this shithole."