I pocketed my phone while Addison's capitalized meltdown continued filling the group chat and headed back to Building C with my hands in my jacket pockets and a stupid grin plastered across my face that I couldn't quite kill. The elevator ride to the fifth floor gave me exactly forty-seven seconds to think about what tonight actually meant in operational terms. Two full extractions.
Four fresh cups for the vault. Gold-tier buff for Naomi. Silver-tier buff for Belle. Enough banked essence to Overclock twice during tomorrow's gate if everything went sideways, which it would, because everything always went sideways.
Hikaru's door was shut when I walked in. No light underneath. The nurse's pre-clearance workup was at the medical center across campus. Blood work, mana circulation checks, and a physical stress test, so that tomorrow's sign-off would be a formality instead of a surprise about whether her torso would split open again. She'd be gone until at least ten.
