Two amber toned men of similar stature pushed through the metal alloy apartment door, ducking under the lower hanging frame about 175 centimeters off the ground. Both were wrapped up in false leather jackets that had definitely seen better days, worn at the seams and cracked at the natural body creases. Their dark blue jeans matched the same worn look, a couple holes littering the pant legs and the knees sported a much lighter blue. Pushing his similarly imitation leather glove through his straight dark blue hair, one of the guys dropped his weight on his back foot, sighing. The other man took his time surveying the small main room of the living quarters, picking up a small aluminum tray positioned to the left of the doorway and rotated his hand. With a dissatisfied look spreading across his rugged visage, he let it clatter back down onto its polycarbonate table.
Watching his partner fiddle around with a next to worthless trinket found off the street, the navy haired man pulled out a small bristled stick from his left pocket and a phone from the other. Holding the phone up to his face and making his dark blue eyes meet each other, his right hand flipped the comb around and began to detangle the left side of his head, pulling strands of hair behind his ear.
"Dude, are you serious? Can you stop doing your damn hair for three seconds? What more is there still to do? You haven't let go of that damn comb since we left the office!"
"Hey man, you wish you were hot shit like me. Ain't no girl gonna want you with your raggedy ass hair. At least a barber can fix that, so no girl gonna have to look at your face."
"Whatever man, at least my chick's gonna be with a real man that knows how to stack yuan taller than her. I swear you spend more time and more kuai on your hair than even my sister."
The bickering pair strolled further into the sub basement apartment, walking past the tattered and stained dark grey loveseat and wobbly coffee table in similar condition. With the amount of built up stains over the years, it may actually be more coffee than pseudowood. Kanashima didn't drink the bitter sludge, but the time spent there between her mother, Morgan, and warm mugs of the synthetic brew culminated over time into the surface that smelt more of coffee than the plastic makeup itself. Most citizens, even in the poorest of districts, usually had more furnishings in their place, at least a television or radio. Over the few years of living by herself, Kanashima had to get rid of more and more of the household items. She barely used them anyways, surviving mostly on preservative filled fake foods and whatever cheap eats she could get her hands on around the place. She kept the old basic communicator for entertainment, at least the tiny device could play some music.
"Man, this place is empty as hell. These fuckups usually had something interesting left behind, but damn. Who even lived here?"
Still prodding through his navy hair, he found his way in front of the tiny kitchen area, barely sparing a glance away from his phone at the surroundings. There were a few spots on the counter that weren't coated in a thin layer of dust, but that was too small of a detail for the hair obsessed man to notice.
"I already told you on the way here, and the boss told you in his office. It's Shima's place."
"Morgan's sister? No fuckin' kidding huh, small world. Surprised she's still around. Y'know sometimes I wish it went the other way around. She's fuckin' weird man."
"You said it Kor. Man, Morgan was the fuckin' man. Why the good guys always gotta die?"
"Good fucking question. Reaper's always lookin'."
A small frown formed out of Kanashima's thin lips. Sometimes, those thoughts crossed her mind too, maybe more often than they should, but did these guys she barely knew have to be so mean about it? In all fairness, the duo didn't know she was there listening in on them, but it still stung her fragile heart. Would they say such things to her if they knew just how close she was? If the work partners were just a bit faster and actually saw her when they broke in?
Who am I kidding, they definitely would. These guys were always like this.
It took her a little bit since the corporate pair entered the apartment, but she recognized them. The two guys used to be the average slum rats just like Morgan and her, hanging out with her brother whenever they got a chance. The three of them were actually fairly good friends too. Kanashima liked to believe that she was at least friends with them too, but that desire was never realized. She always just wanted to be included in things, like Morgan was, even though she didn't like people all that much. It was just nice to be wanted and appreciated, and she rarely got that.
It all changed when Kory, the midnight blue haired fashionista, contracted the virus. It completely changed the way he viewed life as a whole, especially when he landed a cushy job with one of the leasing companies. At that same time, he passed on the trojan to his best friend, Marinetti. There was no doubt in her mind that if Morgan was of age at the time, then they would've included her brother in their shenanigans. The corporate job transformed the two victims into these heartless drones that never gave a shit about the siblings ever again. Their relationship with Morgan went from friends to two guys that knew they could get whatever they wanted out of his kind soul. Regardless, her brother always did it with a smile, always saying how he liked to help them out. It costs nothing to show kindness, even to guys like them. The world needed more kind hearts in it if it wanted to heal.
What complete nonsense. Look at these two idiots. What good did your kindness do for them, Morgan? Look at how much your kindness costed you.
Continuing to survey the associates from her perch on top of the counter, she kept her thoughts and feelings unvocalized for the meantime, no matter how much she wanted to shout to the heavens and complain down to hell. It was rather easy, at some point in her childhood, she had to get used to shutting up and closing her actual feelings off. Besides, revealing her position would likely be disastrous, and she wasn't about to give up the advantage given to her by her system's lucky break.
Rather clueless to how she managed a cloaking technique when she was still a newbie to manipulating her electrical charge, she didn't think twice when it happened. She made sure to jump out of the walkway to not give her presence away from movement. Actually reflecting on the events, how did she even get away with this? When she heard the twenty meter alert, the only thought on her mind was of disappearance. If she could conceal her presence in some way, hide herself and any physical apparition that was hers and go fully undetected by any normal means.
Somehow her system managed to achieve just that without any directive from the actual girl in control. In a very similar way to the beginnings of her charge bolt, the electrons welled up in her core, draining from her internal battery. What happened next, Kanashima had no words for. It was relatively simple and direct what happened to the currents of energy when she fired off the energy blast. In the same vein, the electrons traveled along her nervous system, just throughout her entire body this time. Whatever it did, it managed to shield her entire presence from the two headhunters, and it was still going, the constant draw of power from her internal battery was very evident. The extent of its effectiveness was still unknown, she had no way of knowing if the two old acquaintances were attempting to sense or detect people with means that weren't their eyes. She was invisible for the moment, and that would have to serve for now.
I have to figure out what happened in my body. I need to know how to replicate this. Is this sort of hiding ability one of my properties, or is it my intrinsic? This is so cool. Maybe Marcel had a point.
So many more questions following the line of thought sped through her mind; not one of them she was able to answer in that moment except that it worked, and it was the only reason she was alive and well at the moment. If anybody had any way to find out more information and help her, it would be her boss and Cipher, and whoever else they knew. If she got out of this situation alive and conscious, she'd make the journey to them on the other side of New Bangkok.
For now, the hidden position would have to hold true until these guys got too tired, marked everything as clear, and left for their office. Only then she would be able to drop from the uncomfortable spot on the counter and leave as well. An easy enough plan, as long as plans went without any hitches whatsoever. Since it was one of hers, things weren't looking too great, especially now that the more attractive one of the duo was unknowingly approaching her perch. This unlucky encounter with the ruthless collectors was already an interruption, when did plans ever go right?
"You almost done there, Mar? Tonight's a total crap shoot, I'd say we just go hit up Drayno's after this."
"Yeah, we'll just mark Kanashima as missing and let the janitors come through. I'm starving for some of those wings. Shame, we'll never know what happened to her. Poor family."
Still entranced more with his own appearance over doing his actual job, the corporate mobster strolled near the empty window frame. As soon as he got into the relative vicinity of the blast zone, one of the larger tempered glass pieces found itself shredding into the undersole of his sneaker. Stepping fully down on top of the encroaching sharps, the piece bit deep into his flesh, almost poking out the other side of his left foot. Going unnoticed to the only observer in the room once more, a small spark of purple light shimmered from under the black shoe. Dropping the phone, the azure haired man recoiled in pain, backpedaling away from the sea of shards.
"Holy shit, Mar get over here! This whole fuckin' window shattered! Fuck that hurts like a goddamn bitch, I swear to God…"
Holding his injured foot in both hands, he lost his balance trying to retreat on the single leg. His rather wide back smacked into the fake hardwood flooring hard, shaking the foundation of the room and the ones stacked on top of it. Coming out from the direction of the bedroom in the apartment, the other inspector ran up to his downed partner. Kanashima couldn't help herself anymore, letting out a short giggle at the sight. What a joy it was to see somebody she absolutely despised get such a painful injury, and one she indirectly caused too.
Now this, this is definitely lucky. Wait, is he summoning one of his armament thingies? So it's a common thing for Electrogens.
"Damnit, look where the fuck you're going! This is why I always keep on telling you to put the goddamn comb down. You don't fucking need it!"
"Geez, sorry mom! Don't tell me how to live my fuckin life and just help me damnit. It hurts like a bitch!"
A small ball of red light appeared in the hands of the onyx haired male. It expanded into a large and flat frame of scarlet beams, then filling out with the actual saved item itself. Even with her rudimentary knowledge, she could tell it was a medkit. Next to the handheld case, a second sphere of scarlet luminescence expanded into a rather large knife, potentially to help with the dressing of the wound.
Oh how curious, that's what it looks like to other people? Is the wind up only personal then? How does that work?
Now that the two invaders were distracted with not only the injury, but hurling insults at one another, it was time for Kanashima to make a break for it. This opening was as good as she was going to get for a long while now that they discovered her burglary, it would only be a matter of time until they reported it. That and she could feel the power draw losing strength, and she was not interested in finding out what happens if she ran out of charge.
Climbing across the counter to the front of the window took a solid half minute as she tried to avoid stabbing herself with the same glass shards. Once her hands were fully grasping the frame, something inside of her finally lost its luster, the currents running all along her nervous system grinding to a halt. Reaching out to feel her internal battery, her blood ran cold.
Ah, my battery ran out didn't it?
"Who the fuck are you and what the fuck are you doing exiting this property?"