... all according to plan.

Internally, Chouko needed to hide her elation at her current success. As the mercenaries, Steele and the rest, are trying to figure out where Chouko could have escaped, one of their very own allies is escorting her along. Under the disguise of Shortcake, she's cemented her temporary escape. Black hair hidden by fake white locks, and crimson red eyes inconspicuously narrowed to conceal their prominent color, not a single one of these daft mercenaries notice anything wrong.

It's astonishing to Chouko that Shortcake, one of the many lifelike human androids, can just detach her hair. That's a very interesting thing to learn about Shortcake, one that came up in the middle of their planning. A very convenient thing to know, especially given the fact that Shortcake's hair is long enough to hide her very own.

There are some... differences, but these mercenaries can't tell anyway. It's not like they saw the android as a person with characteristics. This plan ultimately only works because Chouko is the one these mercenaries are focused on, the person that they need to pay closer attention to than the android. Chouko takes the android's identity for now, hands holding onto the hair to make sure it doesn't fall off at any point during the walk.

Granted, Chouko does feel great amounts of guilt leaving Shortcake behind. An act, a temporary setback, on the forefront of her mind. However, if either of them are to leave unharmed, this temporary sacrifice needed to be done. Shortcake will hopefully be fine...

If she isn't, then... it will just have to be another thing that Chouko kills these mercenaries for.

She could call for help, sure, but so can these mercenaries. However many of them are in this building, if she doesn't take them out now, they'll call for assistance to put down the escapee. No, action needed to be taken now, action needed to be within the walls of their hideout.

Now that she's come across the mercenaries working for him, working for the killer, the killer hired by the actual Kuroiwa, Chouko didn't need to put this face on. She's ready to enact her vengeance as Chouko Ashford. Her escape into the building going as planned, her given escort the one chance she will ever have.

Chouko takes a great- great note of the building in question. An office building with four floors. Some mechanical security at the front door, which the mercenary bypasses by pressing a button to tap into the building's intercom system. The one single entrance and exit of this building, minus some fire escapes that only open outward.

"Hey- coming in now. Steele wants this android to be looked at by our hacker."

"Got it."

The doors open, and the two walk in.

Entering the front lobby of the office building, traditionally designed. Some elevators present, with a mercenary behind the front desk to operate the doors. Several doors split off from this lobby, doors that lead down hallways to other doors on the first floor. All she can see on this first floor is this relatively small receptionist's lobby. Whatever else happens on this floor is unknown to her, for now, except two elevators and a stairwell to the left of the entrance.

To her knowledge, this building is quite reminiscent of the Connection Office that Sedimate had. Only, instead of androids being remotely piloted by humans, it's humans coming in to do the work of androids. The mercenaries appear to have made themselves at home in this building long before her arrival, their plans mostly a mystery to her... but the building layout is familiar and recognizable enough.

The elevator doors open.

"Alright. Get in," the mercenary tells the android, pushing her into the elevator.

"Right..." Chouko sensitively responds, doing a very good impression of Shortcake. Making sure her hands remained on her head, securing Shortcake's synthetic hair in place... glancing to the mercenary with worry. "S... So, uhm, is- is memory extraction going to hurt, m-mister...?"

"Why does it matter if it hurts? You can just be turned off during the whole process," the mercenary spitefully comments, an uncaring and uninterested look on his face. "Keep your mouth shut and you might get out of this alright, android."

"Right..."

... this unknown procedure of unspecified pain. Something to be cautious of, Chouko supposes. All of this is foreign territory to her, and she needs to be careful that she doesn't have her brain involuntarily lobotomized.

In the enclosed space of the elevator, Chouko discreetly took her time to gain her composure. Without Charon to guide her, Chouko is to rely on all of the information and memory of the work she's done herself.

Her memory being the only useful asset she has on her right now. No weapons, no phone, nothing.

So one great, great step towards that, to gaining her belongings back, is getting to the hacker. Getting her phone back and all, and seeing what she can do from his office. The technology itself remains in tact in the phone, even without Charon's assistance, so retrieving the phone will give her great defense against the cybernetic mercenaries.

Chouko knows well enough that Griffin, the invisible man, is an easily dispatchable threat with the phone. Steele is a different story, one that requires she gain armed weaponry before his metal leg could hurt and damage her.

As for the killer...

...

The elevator door interrupts her train of thought as it opens on the third floor. The sound ringing out before the mercenary pulls Chouko out of the elevator, leading her along and escorting her with a rough hand.

Chouko notes that the elevator and stairwell enter into a cubicle area, supporting 12 cubicles in the center of the room and eight of them next to the wall of windows. Each of the cubicles seem to be occupied, curiously making her wonder... how many of these people are working as mercenaries?

In the possibility that all of them are enemies, Chouko notes that she will need to find a way to kill multiple people before they fully overwhelm her. Eight people alone overwhelmed her... especially the invisible one. Optimally, she either needs to find a weapon to carry a surplus amount of ammunition, or she needs to take weapons from the mercenaries as she goes along.

Furthermore, if none of them are enemies, Chouko considers that she will need to filter the civilians from the mercenaries. There's a signifier to simply shoot at whoever tries to hurt her, so... in the event of murder, the civilians would likely flee for their lives instead of attempting to kill her. That should be a good enough filter, unless there are any brave enough civilians wanting to...

... no. No. The system works for now. Chouko is in enemy territory, no clue about which case. Both could be true, half and half. If someone is truly innocent, if someone is truly free from all of this mercenary work, then Chouko will not have to worry about them. They'll just keep themselves or their friends safe.

Keeping the innocent people alive and unharmed is a chore, but it's an essential responsibility to Chouko. To not have a repeat of what happened in the hotel that day...

... the woman thinking about all of this in depth as she's guided into a hallway, passing by various doors to private offices.

Chouko and the mercenary take a right around the corner and pass by a few more doors. Then, the mercenary stops in front of a door, knocking on it. "Oi. Repairman. Got the android here, need to get it scanned for Ashford."

"... scanned for Ashford?" a voice calls out from the other side, a confused tone in his voice before annoyed seriousness bleeds out of his lips. "You're kidding me."

"I'm not. She's managed to escape, and the android here's an accomplice. Steele needs her memory scanned to figure out what she's done," the mercenary explains.

The hacker is behind this door. The one experienced with machines, with technology and all. Chouko keeps her eyes narrowed, even more narrow so that the eye color isn't as noticeable to the hacker. Keeping her gaze inconspicuous as the office door opens, and the sunglasses wearing mercenary approaches.

His pair of sunglasses currently atop his head and buried in his hair, idly looking up at both the mercenary and the supposed doll - the one with her eyes closed - with a tense look on his face. "Okay. Okay. I'll take the android from here..." the hacker idly tells the mercenary. "Come back in about five minutes. That should be more than enough time."

"Got it." The mercenary begins to leave, heading out to quickly report back to Steele. Leaving the hacker and the "android" by their lonesome, unknowingly sealing the hacker's fate.

The hacker has his back turned, idly rummaging through his belongings for his toolkit and such. Preparing items to begin accessing the android's memories, having more than enough experience on accessing its visual data.

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"Alright... let's get to probing that memory of yours, android..." the hacker responds, picking up his step stool and putting it in front of the "android". Climbing up onto it, making his height match with the side of "Shortcake's" head as he reaches for the hair, pulls it aside...

... and seeing the black locks immediately.

"... oh sh-!" the hacker calls out, his eyes wide and mouth gaping to scream and shout for help.

Immediately, the short hacker has the front of his head gripped by Chouko's hand. A forceful rush forward with all of her might, kicking the stool out from underneath him and forcing him straight into his desk.

At this angle, Chouko aims to deliver a critical blow to the back of the head. In the brain, the occipital lobe is located at the back of the head. Meaning, injuries to this part of the brain affect vision and sight, and - depending on the severity of impact - can blind the mercenary completely, if not concussed.

However, the lesser case doesn't apply to what happened to the hacker. Chouko didn't hold back and dealt immensely severe When the hacker's head impacted the edge of the table, it completely knocked him out. Critical injury to his brain, rendered immediately knocked out upon impact. In essence, experiencing blunt force trauma that leaves him on the verge of death.

"..." Chouko stares down at this man's body as he falls limp against the leg of the desk. A cold, cold gaze as she watches the dying man, dusting her hands off and looking around the room.

Idly looking around, she mostly just sees messes of papers and devices sprawled across the room, some metal trinkets and such. The hacker has a laptop on the desk, as well as an open family-sized bag of potato crisps on the desk, and an open can of lime soda.

There isn't anything else noteworthy to her, among the hacker's belongings... though, the crisps are good.

Chouko takes a potato crisp... and eats it.

For a dying mercenary, he has a fine taste in snacks... Chouko supposes. Salty, savory. While these are unhealthy, eating a few in moderation is quite nice.

... anyway. After that, there is something of hers instead that comes to attention: her phone. Contently on a desk with wires peering out of it, all connected to the hacker's laptop.

Chouko takes a moment to look between her phone and the screen itself, curious to what is happening. On the computer screen, it shows that this hacker is 20% done attempting to bypass the phone's protection. Some blue progress bar, in the middle of checking her call logs...

... an intriguing sight to behold. One that Chouko immediately responds to, by canceling the process and unplugging the device altogether. Completely halting that progress bar and returning it to 0%.

As Chouko observes the screen, she begins to browse through whatever information she can gather from the laptop. The hacker has folders upon folders of documents, some downloaded video games... a chat message thing with names, and that's about it.

Chouko sighs as this laptop doesn't seem too particularly useful, or- at least, doesn't know how to make use of any of this information within her time constraints. It's not like she can consult Charon anymore... maybe it would be a good idea to bring this laptop to a new informant, after the events that will transpire here.

Suddenly, another knock sounds out. Someone knocking on the door, catching Chouko's attention immediately. She looks to the door, focusing on the aggressive pounding from the hand of whoever is on the other side.

"H-Hey! Hacker, you good in there? I thought I heard you fall in there...!" the voice calls out.

A mercenary...

"U-Uhm- the hacker h-has his- headphones on, he doesn't want t-to be disturbed-!" Chouko calls out, stalling for time.

This response, this explanation, is met immediately with: "S-Shut up! I KNOW I heard a thud in there- I want to hear it from him! I know he can hear us through those things, open up!"

... tch. Chouko's time is outstandingly short. She needs something to defend herself. Anything, anything in this room should work as a weapon, anything solid enough.

What about the stool? ... no, it's too light, it's just a plastic stool. What about the hacker's chair? No, it's unwieldy and inviable in an enclosed space...

"God damn it- I'm kicking this door down! Repairman!"

... tch.

Chouko takes a moment to pick up the hacker's laptop, closing it and holding it in her hands. This laptop is just right as an impromptu weapon. At least one good hit is available by swinging this. The downside is that, in essence, she will render the information on this device completely useless if the machine breaks.

... then again, if it's broken, then they cannot use it either.

A budding opportunity, regardless of outcome.

Chouko walks to one side of the door, her back against the office wall... waiting. Waiting ever so patiently, waiting for the very moment this mercenary breaks in. The moment this mercenary breaks the door down, the moment this mercenary barges in blindly out of concern...

... then, it happens. The mercenary slams his foot against the door several times and manages to kick the door out, forcing it to swing out and hit against the wall on the opposite side.

The mercenary storms into the room. Armed with a gun in hand, a 9mm pistol that takes magazines, pointing it and looking around. His eyes locked on the hacker with a tense look on his face. "W... What in the hell?! Repairman-!"

Giving him no time to check on the hacker, Chouko suddenly swings the laptop and bashes it against the mercenary's face. A hard swing, with all of her might, the impact severe and devastating to both man and machine.

Chouko is by no means a strong powerhouse, but the average person still experiences great amounts of pain from this sort of impact, and this becomes very evident at his response: "G-Gah! WHAT THE F-?!" the mercenary loudly screams, recoiling backwards at this, feeling his nose breaking. "T-THE ANDROID'S GOING NUTS-! E-EVERYONE-!"

Chouko quickly lets go of the laptop, rushing forward to yank the gun out of the mercenary's hand. Gripping the gun in hand tightly, a cold and emotionless gaze in her eyes as she takes aim and fires two shots.

The first bullet going cleanly through the hacker's head, a sort of mercy to the man if he was still alive after the blunt force trauma.

And the second shot, into the mercenary's stomach.

Blood splatter gushes out of his body as he falls against the wall, drops to the floor and begins to bleed out. Experiencing excruciating abdominal pain as he stares up at Chouko, a tense groan out his lips with pure strain on his face. His voice noticeably more quiet as he suffers from his wound.

"Y... You- You- won't- get away with this..." the mercenary groans, his voice noticeably more quiet as he suffers from his wound and glares at the girl. Aching and calling out this statement, as if trying to convince himself of this fact.

"Keep your mouth shut," Chouko repeats his words as she kicks his face, shoving his words down his throat. Crouching down and prepared to rummage through his pockets for any spare ammunition he may have, keeping a close eye on his trembling and shaking hands.

Before she could find any, however, Chouko hears approaching footsteps out in the hallway. A number of mercenaries storming and closing in. Likely alarmed and alerted by the gunshots, the footsteps came from the way she previously walked.

No time to aimlessly search... she has to gambit and hope for the best, with the bullets that do remain in this gun. Chouko takes a deep breath, taking a moment to stuff the back of Shortcake's hair into her clothes to make sure the white locks are secured. Then, phone in hand and the gun in the other, both of her hands are ready for what's to happen next.

The girl assumes that these mercenaries are coming in to shoot first and ask questions later. Enough time has passed, even, since Steele and the other outside mercenaries should have become privy to her ruse, so she needs- needs to assume the very worst of whoever is coming.

Every one of them coming for her, they must die before they can kill her. So, with a deep breath and a sigh, the crimson of her eyes lit ablaze with anticipation and drive...

... her onslaught begins.

And it starts with a trick up her sleeve. Chouko quickly presses a button on her phone, having saved what she used on the cybernetics of a previous target. Testing the viability of her offense against these mercenaries' cybernetics, pressing the button to try and send signals for involuntary electrical discharges.

The sounds of electric static and pained groans of agony are a good indicator that the trick worked. Chouko swiftly dashes out of the room and takes aim, ready to shoot whoever she sees. Counting three- no, four, incoming mercenaries that were walking down the hallway, all of them experiencing severe headaches that stun them in place and disorient their senses completely.

Right now, they were all blind and recovering from this sudden sharp pain.

Chouko seizes this wonderful aiming right at their heads and seizing this opportunity to shoot. Bang. Bang. Bang. Three gunshots fired out, hitting their still targets perfectly. Easily taken out with single shots, piercing shots lethally inflicted while their senses are utterly distorted by the phone's programming. Blood messily splattering out onto the walls, the mercenaries' bodies falling and collapsing against the floor.

The fourth mercenary remains standing as he's recovering from that sensory assault on his cybernetics. A piercing sound in his ears as he flutters his eyes, taking aim forward and firing. It didn't matter if he aimed at Ashford, all that matters is that he shoots forward. That he shoots bullets all around the hallway, hoping to God that one of them hits.

"D-Damn it! W-We- we need backup! I need backup- A-Ashford's up here, killing us!" he cries out to the other mercenaries, his storm of bullets firing out as he backs away. Unaware of if he's even hitting her as he's completely blinded by the pure distortion over his eyes... the mercenary gets auditory confirmation as Chouko cries out in pain, as the mercenary hears his shots hit into someone's body. The gushing, splattering sound echoing out as Chouko screams, yells, aches in agonizing pain.

A believable ruse... as Chouko hides back in the hacker's office, throwing her voice as the bullets fly past.

The only reason the fourth one remains alive is that Chouko's gun didn't fire.

She took cover in the office, out of the mercenary's firing path as she detaches the pistol's magazine from the gun. Confirming for herself that the gun is out of bullets, idly looking forward to the mercenary bleeding out in the office.

What did she expect from these people, really? To make sure the gun is loaded, so that there are more than just five bullets in a 20 round gun?

Chouko shakes her head, thinking quickly. This isn't the only gun that she has access to, there are three dead men with readily available guns as well... she just needs time to retrieve them, or- possibly retrieve any bullets from the deceased mercenary.

She looks around the room for a while, teeth clenched and eyes searching for anything she may have overlooked. Curiously, her eyes look back to the soda on the late hacker's desk. Taking a moment to hold the can, idly wiggling it to confirm how much was left inside.

A plan is contently lingering in her head as she glances to one of the power sockets, something that the broken laptop was previously plugged into...

... and she looks and looking visibly relieved when she finds that the can is half full.

"W-What's going on?!" one of the mercenaries shout, meanwhile, gun in both hands as he watches the wild gunfire.

"I- I'm blinded! S-She did something that messed with our eyes-!" the shooting mercenary shouts, his gun now out of bullets. Aimlessly scrambling for his pockets, frantically moving to reload.

"M-Messed with your eyes?! L-Like, tampered with-"

"Yes! My freaking EYES just turned to garbage-!" the mercenary exclaims, aiming forward. "Be careful, she might do the same thing and make it so you can't see anything either!"

Suddenly, a loud spark sounds out in the room Chouko is in...

... and then, the building's power completely shuts off.

A total blackout that does - in fact - take away the ability to see, as every single light in the building shuts off. The darkness completely blinding the building's inhabitants, a sudden occurrence.

"... w... what in the hell...?"

A foreboding air fills the floor as the mercenaries are grouped up, as they're left confused and in the dark about why the lights are suddenly off...

... and Chouko equips herself with the spare guns.

"..."

A massively wide grin on her face...