Asanuma and Shinra are now standing in the designated area behind the bridge, between the bridge and the dam. The centipede Yokai on the other side of the bridge was ready to attack. The centipede Yokai crawled quickly toward Asanuma and Shinra. Seeing the centipede Yokai's movements, Makoto immediately said over his smartphone.
"Now!"
Ken, Yukari, Shu, and Makoto slashed the four pillars supporting the suspension bridge, one in front of them, each with their Yokai weapons. These pillars began to collapse, the steel cables anchored at it, which had lost their place to rest, began to loosen, and it didn't take long for the suspension bridge to finally collapse.
Back to Shinra and Asanuma, they looked apprehensive, with the centipede Yokai in front of them creeping closer and closer. The centipede Yokai crawled quickly, and the suspension bridge that collapsed fell right above its head, causing the centipede's movement suddenly stop instantly. The wave of water that arose from the hard fall of the bridge was quite large and hit Asanuma and Shinra. The centipede Yokai now does not move at all, with a ruined bridge over his head. Asanuma looked surprised
“Did we kill him?”
Shinra looked doubtful
“I think he just fainted…”
Elsewhere, Makoto and the others are surprised by the results of their actions that could make the suspension bridge precisely fall on the centipede Yokai. Ken's expression turned curious.
"What will we do next to the centipede Yokai, Grandpa? Should we seal it?”
Makoto looked disagreed and shook his head.
“No, it would take much time and effort. Moreover, I don't think he's weak enough to be sealed yet. Trying to seal or injure him now only has the potential to wake him up and fight us again. We’ll use this opportunity to focus on our investigation.”
Ken’s expression turned serious; he then nodded. Makoto informed the others via his smartphone.
“The situation is safe; we are regrouping now at the upper part of the dam.”
Said Makoto while looking at the silhouettes of Yukari and Shu across the river gorge. Shu replied
“I see; we're going there now.”
They both ended the call and headed toward the dam building.
Sometime later, Makoto, Yukari, Ken, and Shu, as well as Asanuma and Shinra in their energy-saving mode, with Asanuma, the size of a wolf in general, and Shinra, the size of a tiger in general, regrouped near one of the turbines in the tunnel above the dam. They together lowered this turbine with a manual mechanism they found nearby. After the turbine drowned into the water current again, it spins rapidly and produces electricity fed to the generators here. The generator filled inside the storage buildings starts to turn on one by one until they all finally turn on. They walked away from here and gathered at the bridge above the tunnels. Makoto said
"Now we check whether the password lock device on the entrance door is on."
They agreed and nodded, then walked away from here. Now they are in front of the password-locked steel double door they had previously visited; the mechanism on this password-lock device is turned back on. Makoto said
“The power is back, but we still don't know the password.”
Shu appeared to realize something
“Let me try something.”
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Shu connected his smartphone to the password lock device and tried to hack it. Seeing Shu, the others looked curious. After some time, Shu finally managed to crack the password. The door then slides open to the right and left. The others are surprised. Makoto said
“I didn't expect you to have such skill?”
Shu smiled
“In carrying out investigations, there will be many situations that we will face. Like breaking in like this. Therefore, I prepared myself to be able to adapt in all eventualities.”
Hearing that, the others looked astonished. Makoto said
"Okay, thank you for all your preparations so far, so we can enter and go in now. For now, Shinra and Asanuma could rest in their medium form for a while.”
Shinra and Asanuma didn't appear to mind. Black smoke began to billow from all over Asanuma and Shinra's bodies, then enveloped them, and from behind it, they returned to the form of glove puppet Asanuma and stuffed doll Shinra. Ken and Yukari picked them up from the floor. They then stepped into the dam building.
The atmosphere looked dim because wall lights were lit only in some corners of this long corridor. After walking a few steps, Makoto appeared to remember something; he then took out four single earphones from his waist bag.
“We better use this to ease our communication; these devices had been already set up to communicate with each other.”
Makoto handed over the earphones, and the others then accepted them.
They resumed walking down the corridor in front of them inside the dam adjoining building half drowned by river water at the back of the dam. It was getting darker; they then turned on the small but bright flashlights. They continued to walk together and arrived in front of another large steel double door; they opened this unlocked door and then walked in. They arrived at a large and tall room, with a combined height of about three floors of the building, where each level had a circular open hallway with steel railings and a circular steel staircase. This large room contains dozens of large standing turbines, each connected to empty water tunnels embedded beneath this large room, with the control room above the room. Their expressions turned curious; Yukari said
“These large turbines must be the main power plant.”
Makoto appeared to realize something.
“Right, the smaller turbines outside appeared to be getting backup power separate from the power generated by these main turbines.”
Ken looked curious
"So, the power generated here is to supply the city when it's still operated before?"
Makoto looked slightly doubtful
“Yeah, and it's also possible to supply energy for other things….”
Yukari’s expression turned serious.
“There must be a reason why my father gave the coordinates for this place.”
Shu smiled
"Don't worry, Yukari. I have known Fujiyama for a long time; his actions will help us."
Yukari smiled, then nodded. Makoto looked around, and his attention was drawn to the control room above this room.
“Let's split up to check this place. Use the single earphone I gave you guys to communicate. I'm going to the control room; immediately report to the others if you guys find anything.”
The others appeared to agree and nodded. They put their single earphone on each of their ears, then split up.
Makoto immediately approached the circular steel staircase to the control room above. After going through the stairs, Makoto arrived at the entrance metal single door to the control room, which had slightly opaque framed translucent glass. Makoto tried to open the door, but it was locked; he then peeked into the room through the translucent glass. Inside the control room were rows of mechanisms to control the various machines and devices in this dam building. Makoto smashed the doorknob with the tip of his katana, opened the door, and walked into the control room.
Inside is a relatively large control room with a control dashboard containing various levers, gauges, and control buttons facing a row of rectangular glass windows showing the view of turbines below. On the control dashboard, there is a keyway to turn on the turbines and other machines before they can be controlled. Makoto looked around the room with an astonished expression.
“So far, there was nothing strange here…”
Makoto tried to check the locker row here, but there weren't any interesting things except manuals for operating the controller device and log books. Makoto opened the manual book for the machine in this dam, and there was nothing strange. Makoto browsed through the log book, and one note caught his attention:
“Day xx, Month xx, Year xxxx
I was told about some kind of special mechanism, a turbine startup sequence I had yet to learn what it was used for. I am still trying to figure out what difference it makes if these turbines are started in this sequence or when I just start them up normally, no matter which sequences the turbines are started. I was only told that this sequence was for these turbines' "maintenance" purpose and was done only when I was told to. It's better to write down the sequence."
This log entry is followed up with a sequence of starting up these turbines mentioned earlier. Makoto's expression turned astonished.
“You are right, sir; it has nothing to do with it. Maybe I should try the sequence….”
Makoto took the manual operation book and logbook to the control dashboard. Makoto activated his single earphone and was about to contact the others.