Chapter 22

“Hay Sam,” the message read, “can you get your pilot to look for her mother.”

When Sam received that text, she was watching the match while sitting beside Sachiko. Sachiko was a little disappointed since she wanted to watch with her mother, but her mother had to attend to the business that she had come to town to do. It was at least a slight consolation that they could watch Sara's match. Sachiko had also been brought up watching recordings of Sara's matches so she was excited to see her in person. That was something she and Sam had in common, though Sam was admittedly more fanatic in her devotion.

Sachiko certainly admired Sara, but that was mostly her mother's influence. She described her mother as completely devoted, and her mother said that she had been at every one of Sara's games. They supposedly went to school together, a revelation that shocked Sam as she somehow had never thought about her idol ever being a student, and were apparently close. Nearly twenty years later and Sachiko's mother said they were still close, though she admitted that she had never seen the two together.

Knowing that, Sachiko was surprised when her mother said she was too busy to watch the match together. She had assumed that any work her mother had would have been pushed aside in order to play. It was definitely rude to say, but Sachiko insisted that it was a sign that her mother was growing up, either that or it was an order from Sachiko's grandmother, who was apparently a woman that always found a way to get her way. Hearing the Kaya family described that way was certainly disappointing to Sam, but it also helped to humanise them in her mind. They weren't 'the family that creates and controls the supply of cores,' but were instead 'her friend’s family.'

Sam had no reason to think that Jeff's request had anything to do with the match. In fact, she knew Jeff was a reliable teacher, albeit with a gambling problem, who had ensured several years of students had succeeded enough to graduate. Considering how carefully he tended to plan things, it was likely that he was aware of what Sachiko's mother was working on, and was just helping Sachiko out. With that in mind, she relayed the message and they left the arena just after the second round started. As they walked out, they could see that Sara, equipped in her golden harpy armour, had taken the field and was keeping her distance from Savannah’s rig. From their distant exit, it appeared that her rig hadn't been changed at all.

They started their search by calling around, asking the hotel she was staying with if anyone had seen her. They were lucky, when Sachiko's mother left, well an early in the morning, the breakfast shift chef happened to notice her. Since the area around where she was headed had been cleared, for both safety and parking, she had to have been going to the arena. Since Sachiko's mother was there for work, there was a limited number of places she could be; an executive or administrative office, a corporate box or one of the workshops.

A corporate box could almost immediately be crossed out. If that was the case, she would have brought Sachiko with her. A company would be crazy to have a problem with Sachiko being there, she was a future head of the Kaya family after all and offending her could have long term issues for that company. An administrative office was also unlikely. Most things involving them could be covered over the phone or through emails, the only reason Sachiko could think of for her mother to go there would be if her grandmother ordered her mother to do it in person as a form of punishment. While her grandmother would do something like that, Sachiko couldn't think of anything her mother had done recently to warrant it.

That just left an executive office or a workshop.

Asking at the reception desk, after confirming Sachiko's identity, it was clear that she hadn't been to see any of the executives. That just left the workshops. Luckily, Sam had a clearance pass to her team's workshops and, since Jeff was still on paper as one of her teaching mechanists, Jeff had given her a guest pass to get into his team's room. That meant that Sam had access to every workshop, although courtesy said not to just visit. They started with their team's workshops, since abusing Jeff's pass could get Sam in trouble, and visited each room by first knocking on the door, then asking if Sachiko's mother was inside through the door.

Having no luck, they paused in front of Mia's door. It felt a bit awkward. Partially it was because Mia was still visiting Satou in the hospital, and partially because it was currently being used by Sara's mysterious mechanist.

Somehow that just felt wrong. Sam's friend's partner was hurt and their room was taken away as well. Sara's team already had a workshop of their own, so taking over Mia's felt like they were just trying to hurt them. It was a weird week for Sam; she was learning a lot about her hero's and not a lot of it was good.

Since Mia had the room fitted with extra sound proofing, apparently something that her family had insisted on her doing, knocking on the door would be pointless. Since the mysterious mechanist was probably going to be wearing a mask, they were confident that they wouldn't find out their identity just by opening the door. It would also be bad if they distracted them while the match was on, but they rationalised it as they were only going to ask a single question. It wasn't a good rationalisation, but Sam had always wanted to meet the mysterious mechanist.

As the door slid open, they immediately regretted what they saw and heard.

“..Kaya Family Anti-Tampering override, code zero two.” said Sachiko's mother, dressed only in her underwear and sitting hunched over in front of a monitor. Her neck-length black hair was tied loosely back without any care to appearance, and her clothes, a formal business suit, was thrown on the floor and crinkled. With a green message on the screen saying that the voice recognition was successful, Sachiko's mother continued to speak over a headset microphone, unaware of their presence.

“It's all good Sara, the extra power's yours; don't say I never get you anything. Now hurry up and smack that brat so I can cash the cheque. I need to get paid before mum finds out that we're back at it.”

Neither Sam nor Sachiko could move, let alone speak. Too many thoughts and feelings were crashing through their heads and they needed time to work through it.

“Oh yeah, I forgot to mention. After the break, that brat changed some parts so look out for... breeze?”

Noticing the breeze that the open door had caused, Sachiko's mother turned around to see the two of them standing there. A faint sound from the headset could be heard but the three of them were too stunned to notice. More than a minute passed as they stood there in silence before their stupor was broken by the roaring of the crowd.

The three of them rushed over to the monitor to see Sara's rig cut into two pieces, with one of the wings hitting the ground together with one of Sara's arms and feet. Despite it being a friendly match with almost nothing at stake, an unprecedented amount of limb loss had occurred. For the crowd that was a good thing, but it was somehow unsettling for the pilots.

While looking at the replay, Sachiko's mother looked pale. The troubles began after Sara began her offensive and started flying at her full speed. She landed some deep blows against some sensitive looking areas, though they didn't seem to slow Savannah’s rig in the slightest, and had her opponent on the defensive. That changed abruptly after a minute or so, when the bayonet shot out, propelled by the rifles magnetic field, and narrowly missed Sara.

But the blade had a razor sharp wire cord attached.

With Sara's unmatchable speed, the wire, which had secured itself into the arena floor, sliced through repulsion field, metal and flesh. If Sara had been travelling even the slightest bit slower, she might have been able to use her rigs incredible manoeuvring to avoid it, but instead had her rig cut through like warm butter.

“I... I was... I was just about to warn her.” Sachiko's mother stammered as she spoke in a nearly inaudible voice. She clearly felt that that was her fault; she hadn't warned her pilot about something that important. Sam could sympathise with her, though she could also understand that the illicit extra speed was the cause.

Unfortunately, the match wasn't over.

Sara was still flying, hovering with one wing while blood gushed from her missing wrist and shin. Other rigs would have returned to their cube form after taking that kind of punishment, but the monitoring system had been disabled when the anti-tampering was. From what Sam could see, the rig was also helping Sara live, by applying pressure to severed parts and restricting blood-loss. That didn't seem to be a feature of rig so much as a result of the damage forming a pinch.

It was obvious that Sachiko's mother wanted to turn that system back on, but if she did so without taking any further damage, it would look too unnatural. Thankfully, Savannah was there to lend a hand, and put a bullet into the chest of the defenceless Sara. Having taken that extra damage, the rig dissolved and Sachiko's mother didn't miss her cue.

With Savannah winning two rounds, there wasn't a need for a third. The match was hers and she returned to Jeff's workshop to celebrate. It was clear that the crowd was elated, Savannah had established herself as a contender, not just beating her own generation’s threat but also the old generation's hero. Many would see the match as a passing of the torch. If Sara was the progenitor of the pit method, then Savannah was the progenitor of the full body method.

Savannah’s style was clearly a reflection of her own body's ability being improved by the rig rather than just replaced. It was something that experienced pilots would develop to some extent, but Savannah took that to an extreme. It was a sure thing that younger pilots would, at least for a while, place more importance on their own bodies. Though that trend would lead to the top pilots being better on average, less skilled pilots would likely get worse with less time and focus on actual piloting.

With Sara taken away by the medical staff, the attention of those in that workshop returned to what they heard and saw. It was clear that Sachiko was taking the news far worse than Sam, so when Sam was asked to give them some time alone to talk she accepted it without complaint. While it was obvious that Sachiko's actions were far too practised and relaxed to have been the first time they were done, somehow it just felt wrong that the athletes she had looked up to were built on such a lie.

She also knew that her friend was having it worse, having just found out that her mother was the mysterious mechanist, and her mother was involved in repeated crimes. She was even brought up to admire Sara's team. It was like her mother was shamelessly boasting about her actions; that Sachiko and the other fans were all fools. If time and conversation would make that somehow right, then Sam would give her all the time she needed.

Not that she really thought there were any words that would make it better.

Not knowing what to do while she waited, Sam went over to Jeff's workshop. He and Savannah had already left to celebrate their win and the room was vacant. It was by no means a neat room, but the way that the parts and tools were strewn about was clear and somehow organised. There were even unobstructed paths to the exits that just barely ensured that no workplace health and safety codes were broken.

Sam had wanted to tell him something, but seeing that he had already left she felt that saying it in person could wait for another day. Even under the effect of Sleepless, she still felt tired. Although that mental fatigue didn't actually make her drowsy, sleep would have gone a long way to calming her down and working through what she was feeling. But she couldn't sleep even though she wanted to. Her last dose was only a few hours ago and if that weren't the case it would still be dangerous for her to skip a day. It had been a long time since she had genuinely felt like she missed sleeping.

As she left there to go and find something to pass time with, she left a note for Jeff on top of a pile of reports that looked like he would see.

“Thanks for letting us find that out, I really mean that. I can't believe we were lied to like that.”