Minutes Before

Akira stared at the panel before her, her eyes narrowed as she listened to Uriel in her ear giving her instructions. Erica was nearby keeping watch for her. Her hands carefully tapped the glass panel, bypassing the menu and accessing the code and the magic behind it.

“Alright, from here, all you need to do is enter this code,” Uriel said into her ear. 

A line appeared in front of Akira, the line being displayed so that only she could see it on the lenses of the glasses she wore. Her fingers flew and she rapidly inputted the line into the mainframe. Then with one last check, she hit enter and waited. A few moments later, Akira got her results.

“Alrighty now. I’m inside,” Uriel announced. “Let me scout the entire building and plot out a pathway for you. It’ll only take a little bit. Maybe a minute at most.”

“Go ahead,” Akira replied. Her hand went up to her ear and tapped on her ear piece, switching the contact. “Erica, Uriel’s in.”

“Great, when can I come back?” Erica asked.

“Start heading back now,” Akira said. “She should be done in a few minutes.”

“So the gem is in the treasury, right?”

“Yes. Yuki confirmed it. So Uriel is locating the exact location and the best way to get to it.”

“Alright. I’ll be right there.”

Erica went silent and Akira leaped into the brush that surrounded the entrance to the Lewin family’s treasury. It was only a door. The actual building was below ground and encased in magic reflective metal. Akira tried to probe it before, but could barely get any readings passed the metal barrier. 

A few seconds later, she felt Erica approach her location. When she arrived, Akira nodded to her and kept track of Uriel’s progress. Now that Erica was here, there wasn’t a need to keep watch. 

“Time?” Erica whispered.

“Seconds left,” Akira replied quietly. “We’re almost there.”

“Mmm.”

They waited silently until Akira heard a small ding from her ear piece. 

“Alright, I’m all set,” Uriel announced. “Come on in and I’ll lead the way~.”

Akira motioned to Erica to follow and quickly crept up to the locked door. When she reached it, she heard the sound of the lock disengaging. She opened it with her gloved hand and Erica slipped inside noiselessly. Akira followed after.

The path down to the treasury was a long flight of concrete stairs. The two of them carefully made their way down them, not wanting to make a sound. The walls around them were solid rock and the area was cramped. A single noise might create an echo loud enough for someone to hear.

‘Thank you Yuki for showing me how to sneak around,’ Akira thought with a little smirk. 

Minutes ticked by until they arrived at the bottom of the staircase where they were met with another entrance. This time is was a set of heavy metal doors that looked to have some sort of biometric lock. Akira and Erica waited patiently for a few moments until the doors slid open.

“Thank you,” Akira heard Erica whispered to Uriel under her breath with a little laugh.

“Your welcome~,” Uriel replied. “Here’s your route. I’ll let you know if any problems arise.”

With Akira’s glasses, Uriel superimposed a holographic map onto her surroundings, a red line indicated the route. Akira tapped on her watch and opened up a birdseye view of the map in the corner of her vision. Every few seconds, a red blip appeared on the map in various spots. These blips would slowly move around the map.

‘Security,’ she thought. ‘I’ll have to keep watch of that.’

With a nod, Akira set off with Erica closely behind as Akira followed the carefully outlined path Uriel had plotted. There were cameras, but Akira knew that Uriel had already taken control of them or she would have already warned Akira. Then they approached a door. There was a guard or two behind it based on Uriel’s map.

“So there are two guards here,” Uriel said. “I can’t find another path around this room, so if you can deal with them that would be wonderful.”

Akira nodded and lifted her fists. She did a few punching motions and tilted her head to the door, directing her gestures to Erica. Erica nodded in reply and clenched her fists. 

“Open it up,” Akira whispered. 

“Righto.”

The door slid open to reveal the faces of two guards, one looking confused and the other shocked. Their hands went down to their waist bands and Akira leapt into action. She rocketed towards the guard that looked only surprised, identifying that guard as the main threat. Sweeping her leg, she knocked the person over, their head smashing onto the ground. The guard wore a helmet, so they didn’t seem to affected from the way they immediate began to try and stand back up.

Akira didn’t let them do that. With her legs, she shoved the person back down. They fell flat against the tile floor. Then Akira grabbed the helmet the guard wore and tore it off them, the helmet automatically opening so as to not injure the person wearing it. The now revealed guard tried to turn his head behind, but Akira promptly smacked the back of his head and the guard went limp.

“Done?” Akira asked as she got up from the man laying silently on the ground. 

“Yup,” Erica replied. “Let me wipe them really quick and then we can go on our way again.”

Akira nodded and waited as Erica went to each of the unconscious guards and touched their heads. Once she was finished, she gave Akira a smile and Akira refocused her attention on the red line that guided them. For the rest of their path, most of the guards were fairly avoidable. Most were on circuits and so Akira and Erica would hide for a few moments until the guards passed. Others were stationary, but could be circumvented easily unlike the first room.

“Here we are,” Uriel announced. Akira stopped before what looked to be a circular vault door. “This is the main vault where the Lewins store their greatest treasures.”

“How do we get in?” Akira asked.

“Well, that’s a bit of a problem since it’s on a separate system from the rest of the treasury,” Uriel replied. “So I need you to get me into that lock.”

“How?” All Akira could see was a single glass panel. When she tapped on it, it opened up to a scanner and nothing else. No menu or any buttons of any kind. “I don’t see a way in.”

“Yeah, that’s the other part of the mission. You know what type of mission we’re doing right?”

“Burglary?” 

“Well, yeah, but also breaking and entering. So we’re going to be doing a bit of the breaking part now.”

“That sounds like something Yuki would say,” Akira sighed though she smiled. 

“Yuki did make me,” Uriel said. “So anyway. Smash that panel good and get to the circuitry.”

“Wouldn’t that trigger the alarms?” 

“Well, yes, but since the alarms are part of the regular treasury system, I can intercept the signal before it actual sets off the alarms,” Uriel explained. “So break that thing to your heart’s content. Though make sure someone doesn’t pass by because I can’t hide noise. I’ll warn you if I see anyone.”

“Got it,” Akira nodded. She turned to Erica. “You want to help me?”

“Break the panel?” Erica replied with a raised eyebrow. “I’m okay. I’ll keep watch over you. I don’t know why I can’t just short circuit the entire thing.”

“That would break everything,” Uriel immediately responded. “It would lock down the door.”

“Akira could force it open,” Erica suggested.

“Yuki wants to minimize the breaking part of the breaking and entering.”

“Fair enough.”

“Quiet,” Akira said. She positioned herself right in front of the panel and judged the distance. “Let me focus. Just watch my back.”

With her left hand, she felt the glass panel, analyzing it for any flaws that she could exploit. She gauged the strength of the material and the structure. Then with a small nod, she pulled her fist back and let loose a rapid flurry of blows. The panel shattered to reveal the contents behind it left untouched.

“Ok, what now?” Akira asked.

“You have that thing that Boss gave to you right?” Uriel said. “Just stick it into one of the ports. Just remove a wire. Tell me which wire you’re pulling out first though.”

“Alright. I’m taking the green one out,” Akira said. She touched where the wire was connected to the circuitry and yanked it out, leaving a port behind. Then she took out a small device and slotted it in the port perfectly. “Done.”

“Perfect,” Uriel replied. She stayed quiet for a bit. “Alright. I’m in now. Now before I open the door, here are a few heads up.”

“A few?” Akira said, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah. One is that there are no cameras or biometric sensors inside that room,” Uriel said. “So it’s basically dark in there for me.”

“I see.”

“The second is that there are a couple of other things in there, so make sure not to disturb them because they each have alarms rigged onto them. They’ll sound nearly immediately, so if you disturb to many of them, I don’t know if I can stop all of the without shutting down the entire room. Which then you’ll might be stuck in there for a little bit.”

“That’ll be bad.”

“Mhm. So don’t do that.”

“Is that all?”

“Yeah.”

“Erica, we’re going in armed,” Akira said. She snapped her fingers and summoned a sword. “Uriel doesn’t know what’s in there, so we’ll play this safe.”

“Got it,” Erica replied. 

“And don’t touch anything that doesn’t need to be touched.”

“I know, Akira,” Erica smiled. “I was listening too.”

“Alright, open it up,” Akira said.

“Have fun,” Uriel bade as the lock on the vault door disengaged and the red light over it blinked to green. 

The door shuttered open and Akira raised her sword as she narrowed her eyes. The inside of the vault was dim, but Akira could see everything like it was as bright as day. And then she let out a soft sigh of relief.

‘Nothing.’

Still holding her sword cautiously, she crept into the vault room and scanned its contents. It only held a few items, but they all seemed of high value. One thing that caught Akira’s eyes was an ornate chestplate that almost glowed with mana. The enchantments that surrounded it were something she had never seen before.

‘Yuki would love to mess with that.’

She returned her attention to the searching for the naturae jewel. Her eyes landed on a pedestal where a shining lush green gem rested on a cushion. The target of the mission. She dropped her sword and quickly but carefully made her way to the gem. 

“Uriel, I’m taking the gem,” she said.

“Thanks for telling me,” Uriel replied.

Akira touched the glowing gem and snatched it in one fluid motion. She paused and waited to see if an alarm would sound. Nothing.

‘Perfect.’

“Alright, Erica, let’s get going now,” she said, turning around.

“Eh, we have a small problem,” Erica replied, her voice calm. “Some visitors.”

Akira stopped and stared at the silhouettes of two people standing at the front of the vault. They had helmets on as well as armor. And they weren’t guards.

‘Oh,’ she sighed. She raised her sword. ‘Let’s get this over with.’