20 Chapter Twenty: A Day To Remember (2/2)

”Oh” Rose says in a disappointed tone.

Jumping to the opportunity, Finn declares ”I'll take you on a date, Rose!”

”No thanks” Rose says.

Finn's heart almost shattered as Rose says ”I don't really want any romance in my life right now. That only increases the likelihood of getting hurt more during times like these”.

Almost as if immediately consoled by Rose, Finn says in a still disappointed tone ”I guess you're right on that one”.

As Zia seemed like she was about to speak up, suddenly Satomi's phone started ringing. Picking up her phone, Satomi says ”Hold on a second”.

”It's me” Holly says through the phone, ”first of all, I'd like to thank you for making it easy to find your phone by leaving your multiple emails and social networking accounts on your phone”.

”So that's how you got my number” Satomi says, with a mixture of feeling alarmed and impressed at the same time.

”Secondly” Holly says, ”I left back doors in all the networks for the volumetric displays that I could find. The first step is ready. Come back and we can discuss in privacy about when you plan on setting the stage”. A click is heard on the phone as Holly hangs up. Satomi puts her phone back in her pocket as she says ”Let's head back”.

As the crew arrives back at the hotel, Holly asks ”How soon do you plan on starting the performance? I can't keep these back doors open for too long”

Trying to keep up, Finn asks ”What's a back door?”

”It's the term used for when someone hacks into a network and leave a point of easy access or an exit point. That way, if they come back to the server, they'll still be able to access the network as easily as they have before”.

Seeming confused, Finn asks ”... what?”

Letting out a sigh of disappointment, Holly says ”it's a hacking thing, don't worry about it”.

Changing the subject back to the discussion of the plan, Satomi says ”We can start as early as tomorrow. We already have a few songs selected that we can play, so we just need time to mentally prepare and get everyone in the right mindset to carry the rest of the plan out”.

”Good to hear” Holly responds, ”Then I'll have everything ready on my side until then. After the performance, in order to keep people from recognizing my tampering with the network, I'll do the safest thing I can think of to erase the fact that we had anything to do with this”.

”And that is?” Alex asks, crossing his arms.

”I'll erase the networks completely” Holly responds. ”This will obviously show that someone tampered with the display's networks, but no one will know who. You see, if the same hacker is involved in a series of attacks, it becomes easier to protect against it or to track me down. They can find this out based on the way that I place codes into networks. My code is like my fingerprint, so I'm erasing my fingerprints. If we're lucky, with the right timing, the masses will think The Ly'Lum is responding to them in an aggressive way. Obviously, that wouldn't be a good sign for The Ly'Lum”.

As Siran stretched across the floor, getting more comfortable, he says ”Good. It sounds like we're set to start then”.

Sitting down against the wall, Alex adds ”Tomorrow it is then”.

”Then let's take some time to get some sleep” Mikoto says. ”If we wake up earlier, then we'll have more time to make sure everything for the plan is in its place”.

As the team goes to sleep one by one, Zia sat outside on a set of stairs. She sat there by herself, thinking and remembering the past. As she recalls, she sees the time when she was a teenager. She was in her house she lived in before meeting Siran at the age of 17 years old, with her dad in the kitchen making food and her mother by her side. She was talking to her parents about hearing the full story about this hero that fought against Naris. ”You said you'd tell me the full, true story about the person who fought against Naris when I was old enough” Zia said to her dad.

Looking over his shoulder, her dad said ”We will, when you're old enough. You're not old enough now, just be patient. The story has been passed down from generation to generation in this clan without being changed, and we promise it will be passed to you too”.

Next, Zia sees the past when she was finally 21 years old. The story still hasn't been passed down, and she was asking her dad ”If not now, then when?”

”I'm sorry Zia” her dad responds in a sad tone. ”We're a little busy trying to fight back against The Ly'Lum without using violence. We were promised peace but they still want to meddle with our affairs”.

In a flash, Zia sees the past when she was 25 years old. Zia, her mother and her brother stood in front of their house. Fighting against The Ly'Lum broke out. Her father went missing, and Zia and her mother were sitting behind Zia's brother Vince. Vince was shielding the two of them from the sight of the battlefield, and telling them to hide. As the two of them found a place to hide, they heard screams that sounded like they came from Vince.

In a panic, Zia's mother shoved Zia into the hiding spot and says ”Stay here, I'll be right back!”

After a long silence, Zia came out of hiding. The fighting sounded like it moved elsewhere. When she got back to the front of their house where they stood before running, Zia found her mother's and brother's dead body. Falling to her knees, Zia covers her mouth with her hands and cries. After a long time passed, she noticed through her tear covered eyes that her brother's dagger was on the ground next to them. She picked up the dagger and ran into the battlefield.

As Zia came back to the present reality, still sitting on those stairs outside of that hotel in Shibuya, she pulls out that dagger she's been carrying around. The same dagger she once pointed at Siran when they met. As if talking to the dagger itself, Zia says quietly ”You promised me”. Tears started flowing slowly out of her eyes again, as she continued. ”You told me you'd be there to tell me that story... I'd give up on some stupid story if it meant keeping you”.

Siran then walked outside too, but he didn't expect to see Zia. At the sight of her, he almost jumped in surprise. Sitting next to Zia, he noticed something was wrong. ”You alright?” He asked.

Putting away her dagger, Zia replies ”Yeah, just thinking about the things I can't change”.

Taking some time to think to himself, Siran says ”I've been there before. If you ever need any help, I'll always be here if you need me”.

After another long silence, Siran eventually stands up to walk back inside. As Siran walks up his first step, Zia says ”Hey Siran”.

”Yeah?” Siran asks.

”Thanks again” She says in a low voice. ”Thanks for always trying to help”.

Siran thinks to himself for a short second and softly says ”Anytime... really, I'm all ears if you need me”.