61. Reveal and Unexpected Guess

“Ehh, so you really don’t know, Jinko-senpai,” Hikari let out a smirk.

“Out with it. Don’t need to play coy with me,” said Jinko sternly.

Hikari let out a small playful laugh.

“There are very few things that could shatter national power balance like that and luckily for you, I have my own information dealer that told me exactly what it is that exists here,” Hikari said with a teasing tone before looking around her. She knew that the place was safe to talk in due to the jamming device and yet still exerted a modicum of awareness. Jinko, who saw this, brought herself closer to Hikari.

Hikari brought the back of her right hand to her mouth before whispering towards Jinko: “There is a decent possibility that a vault containing base cores is hidden somewhere in the Lawless Maw Zone. If not, at least instructions of finding one.”

Jinko couldn’t help but open her eyes wide at hearing this information. Though, it didn’t take long for her to go back to normal. If this was a negotiation table, she would have given her opponents valuable information about herself and her value. Luckily it was just her underling.

“...Interesting.”

“Yeah. This place is a mess thanks to this. More and more players are arriving by the day.”

“My goal to find a young girl seemed so small all of a sudden,” JInko said and once again, she took another sip out of her cup.

“Are we still going to search for this girl despite the risk of treading in a warzone?”

“Yes,” Jinko replied immediately, no hesitation.

“What about the relic? What are we going to do about it?”

“Nothing. The relic is of no concern to us. However, the problems that come with it are. During this search, I demand you two prioritise your safety over the mission. Consider the relic our secondary and optional objective. I will decide what to do should we come across the thing.”

“Roger!” Hikari saluted.  Yoake, who saw this, also gave Jinko a salute. 

“Good. This operation shall be called ‘Lost Soul’ and both of you are to refer to it as such.”

“Noted,” Hikari replied before silence came over the table. Jinko was taking her time, enjoying her small cup of tea.

“So, uh. About this girl… how do we even begin to find her?” Hikari asked.

“That’s why I brought you here. You are the better tracker.”

“...right,” Hikari let out a self-deprecating laugh. “Any clues? For me to get started that is.”

“She allied herself with a powerful Living Core. My first encounter with her was at the asteroid fields near this port. My engagement against said living core ended up with an unexpected defeat. My second encounter with her was at the Little Foot quadrant where a large engagement occurred. She escaped via warp drive during the chaos.”

Hikari let out a gasp and gave Jinko an incredulous stare. “Eh?! She beat you, Jinko-senpai?!”

“Indeed. I vastly underestimated her. I wanted to do it quietly without commotion and waited for her to leave the port. I sent a simple fighter for a simple ship. Thinking about it, I should have gone all out,” Jinko said. Though her tone and body language remained calm, Hikari could tell that she was angry.

“I... I see. Well, I guess we ought to start at these two locations, the asteroid field outside the port and the Little Foot Quadrant. Perhaps going back to the scene could get us new clues or even her warp signature.”

“I’ve been to those areas several dozen times already. I’ve even gotten her warp signature. Went to an approximation of where she warped and found nothing.”

“Then her last warp location then. Perhaps there may be something to be found over there.”

Jinko nodded towards her subordinate. “Understood. Then we begin—” Jinko said before suddenly stopping her sentences.

Once again, she looked outside the window, looking at something that was not there. After a moment, she closed her eyes before letting a frown. Jinko peered into the camera systems of her battlecruiser, towards a particular ship who had just parked right next to her. It was a black-coloured destroyer, the citadel of which looked like a bunch of boxes glued together. Glowing red lines with a skull symbol could be seen on the ship.

Suddenly, the automatic door to the lounge opened up. Passing through the door was none other than the owner of said ship: a small girl wearing black military clothing. She had shoulder-length black hair and wore a sailor’s cap that covered one of her eyes. Her other opened eyes carried the look of a dead fish. On her chest were the symbol of the reaper’s scythe and a name tag that contained the words:’Sensenmann’. 

She walked up to the location where Jinko and Hikari were sitting as if already knowing where they were. As she made her way, she gave Jinko, with her one eye, an analysing glare. Despite her small stature, she gave out a rather terrifying aura. Her footsteps were barely audible, but to the normal person, it may sound like a monster stepping over a city.

It wasn’t long before she arrived at the table, her head barely above the table in question. She briefly scanned the occupants of the table before stopping at Jinko. She then checked the table before finding a small device near the corner— the jamming device. Nodding at the device’s existence, the young girl opened her mouth. She only uttered one word:

“Parley.”

Jinko didn’t answer immediately, she took this time to take another sip of her tea. It seemed that she was rather fond of doing that; perhaps it was an attempt to anger the opposing side. Letting out a satisfying breath of air, Jinko turned to look at the new arrival.

“Unexpected, yet somehow, I am not surprised.

Intrigued, yet somehow, I do not particularly care enough to ask.

The face of a young girl she carries, yet somehow, all fake, lies.

I believe this establishment doesn’t allow children, girl. May I ask that you leave?” Jinko said to her.

“No.”

Jinko didn’t take long to respond. Her response came with a deathly glare. “I am Jinkoshijin and there are two things I hate the most in this world. People who take advantage of my kindness and murderers who wear the skin of children.”

“People hesitate at the sight of children. Hesitate even more when it’s the image of a broken one. Girls get more points for appealing to older parental demographics. They wished to protect at the cost of other’s lives and their own. Playing on my enemy’s emotional flaws makes it easier to dispose of them. I do not wear this skin for laughs. I am Sensenmann and I am not leaving until we have a proper discussion,” Sensenmann said. Her face showed nothing but a broken child with dead eyes, but the tone of her voice was so calculative and so full of contempt, hate and enervation.

“You do not deny that you’re a murderer then?”

“...”

“...”

The table went dreadfully silent after that. Jinko and Sensenmann glared at each other without saying anything else. Both of them were testing each other, analysing each other and their next words. Hikari and Yoake kept quiet, but they both were fully aware of the situation, being alert and ready to act at any moment.

“I wish to propose a temporary partnership,” Sensenmann said. She was the first to speak up but not before taking a seat next to Jinko and pouring herself a cup of tea.

“Partnership?”

“During the battle at Little Foot, I can’t help but noticed that you were interested in catching a blue shark rather than actually fighting. The fact that you left soon after failing despite being the one who started the whole engagement, proved that you were more concerned with the content of that ship than the whole proxy war that is going on. I do not know the content of this ship or your purpose of wanting to catch her. However, I do know that you are willing to fight a carrier of the Freedom United for it.”

“What about it?”

“I can tell you the location of this ship.”

Another silence occurred as Jinko stopped to think about the matter. She asked herself how Sensenmann knew about the Blue Shark’s location. Though, there were better questions to ask.

“What’s the catch?”

“I have knowledge that a particular Supercarrier, the Abigail E. Eternity is in the area, alongside a fleet of Freedom United carrier groups. I have two objectives in this sector. My primary is to obtain and secure the relic in the sector so that it may not fall into wrong hands. My secondary, if possible, is the destruction of the Abigail E. Eternity.”

Sensenmann took a short breath before continuing.

“In order to lure the ship out, I have been destroying various Freedom United ships ever since arriving in this sector. Every single shot that came out of my guns contained a piece of a special tracking device. The plan was to destroy Freedom United ships unti—” 

“What does this have to do with the blue shark?” Jinko cuts off Sensenmann, not interested in her words.

“... I have reasons to believe that she is now docked at this carrier.”

“And you want me to assist you?”

Sensenmann gulped down the entire cup of tea that she poured herself before leaving the table. 

“Think about it,” were the last words she said before leaving the place.

“...”

“...”

“Jinko-senpai?” Hikari called out once Sensenmann was no longer in sight.

“Focus on the mission. She reeks of lies and disaster. We leave for the blue shark’s previous location in two hours. Resupply all that you can at this time.”

“Roger!” Hikari saluted before leaving the place as well, Yoake followed suit.

Letting out a small sigh, Jinko soon stood up to prepare for her next move. She walked through the empty space lounge towards the empty streets. The news of an escalating proxy war caused the residents of this place to evacuate the place. The only people left in Ashen port were the skeleton crew that kept the place operating and even then, those people will soon be gone.

‘Easy retreat from a battle will no longer be viable once this place has been fully evacuated. If the daughter is truly in that carrier, what are my options? This was supposed to be an easy task, yet it is spiralling out of control.’

Jinko pondered, how the next meeting with the blue core was going to be like.

Kotohood