// Companion(s) Equipped! //

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"To be honest, if we're also thinking more outside the box, maybe Ike was still at the IKEA. As his phone probably got stolen by some passerby." Shu explains, thinking carefully before anyone of you would start doing something big.

Everyone except Ike are now reunited in the Luxiem Lounge's penthouse living room, there's a serious aura within you all.

You quickly remember that not only you have a modern phone, but also have the phone bought from the future by Ike himself. You try to dial the contact Ike once gave you to see if he still has his other phone-

Until a window popped out from your screen.

"Ike Eveland Behind Bars...." You read, catching everyone's attention.

"What- I thought he was still at the IKEA...?" Shu peeks at the phone screen from your shoulder to confirm. There's an extra photo taken of Ike behind lazer bars inside a futuristic jail room. "Ok, that's definitely Ike located somewhere else....-"

"It's hard to believe Ike would commit any kind of crime... Other than being too cute." Vox says as rest his hand on the side of his face, showing small hint of distress.

"VSF, top most-privileged police department, reported the world's best known novelist of 20xx of crime committing on Twitter...- wait, Twitter still exists in the future???"

You read before questioning with slight astonishment. "Now I'm scared that someone from the future will somehow read my old tweets eventually-"

"What if he's been framed....?" Luca says, coming up with the reason why Ike was arrested. "Can't remember him using a lot of social media here either-"

"It doesn't mean we can stand here and do nothing while our friend is in trouble!" Vox strongly replies, already determined to get the morally innocent Novelist out of the jail.

"Let's get to the bottom of this...!" Mysta exclaims seriously, "But wait- how can we all go to the future if the machine isn't ready yet...?" He went back to his clueless detective look.

"You all literally forgot, that I can actually time travel without the machine like Ike does." Shu points out, chuckling.

"OH SH*T, RIGHT-"

"There's a limit, though." Shu warns, "I can only bring 4 people including me per day. I made that as a limit due to mana draining reasons-"

"So we have to choose at least 3 of of us carefully, besides Shu, and have one of us watch from the lounge." Vox says, cueing to start a plan to execute.

"A plan for a break-in, POG!" Luca says eagerly.

"H-Here...-" You offer as you struggle to lift a suitcase but fortunately make it to the table where the boys are, and open it to reveal special walkie-talkies you have worked on not too long ago. "They can be used at a certain distance between two different timelines."

Shu whistles at the sight, inspecting the mechanism intently. "Sweet..."

"I think I would suggest to have Mysta get into the timeline with Shu- we need his skills to track where Ike is." Vox says as you look at Mysta, who seems to also now feel much more confident than before by the praise yet a serious fact.

"Not bias, he literally found Luca and Vox much faster, comparing if Ike went out along to do that...-" You agree.

"Y/N is right in this one." Shu agrees as he nods, "We still have one of Ike's scarves, Mysta's sense of smell can actually reach within miles as the radius."

"I want to suggest something too." Mysta says, looking at Y/N then at the walkie-talkies as if he just figured out something with a focused gaze, "I remember seeing Yin working on bombs and special mechanisms that we can use for the break-in."

It was your cue to spill on you choco-milk from your glass-

"E-Eh?" You nervously say. "I know I'm doing that pretty illegally but there would eventually be some emergency, like this one, and-"

"What are you talking about? Illegal? Not such thing in my dictionary!" Luca chirps as he gives you a loving, tight embrace from the side. "Pog!"

"Hehe..."

"Yes, I think we need Y/N to be in Shu's party. No one has a bigger knowledge on high-tech mechanism other than Shu and her. She'll help us with her supply of explosives and other tools." Vox explains.

"And now, only Milord and the Boss are left to decide....-" Mysta says, looking between the Voice Demon and the Mafia Boss with a thinking look.

"I'm a big expert with break-ins, I'm a mafia boss for many purposes!" Luca persuades with a determined smile.

"I think the tech and security will be very tight in the future timeline compared to the 1920's security, Luca." Shu explains, pointing out a disadvantage.

"To be honest, I know you're actually a big bad*ss when you use your machine guns- but you don't have them with you right now, so the only thing you can put into use is your muscle strength as defense..." Vox says worryingly.

"I'm still can knock down a group of three in one go!!!" Luca whines.

"I can lend him some shooting weapons he can use." You offer thoughtfully, making Luca's spirits go even more up.

"Mm..." Shu hums, thinking what to do. Everyone here is pretty useful for this break-in scenario, but he can't take everyone at the same time-

...However...-

It seems a light bulb appears above the Sorcerer after a few minutes of contemplation.

"Alright-" Shu starts.

"???" Everyone starts facing Shu to hear him.

"Yin, your suitcase."

"Oki." You quickly place your other suitcase, which has light weight setting on, and equip it on you.

"Mysta, get your magnifying glass ready."

"Got it-" Mysta makes the magnifying glass appear under his hat, before equipping a walkie-talkie on him.

"Vox, Luca, you're going in. I'll stay and watch over you."

"Wait what-"

"How???"

"Simple, I can just substitute myself with someone during my teleportation ritual."

As Shu explains, he closes his eyes to start the short ritual, making a purple circle patter appear in front of him as flames on his back start to grow wider and wider. So you quickly hand Luca a loaded gun with the safety lock on.

"WOAHHH-" Mysta exclaims as he feels himself floating, you and the other boys are also find ping yourselves floating along with a levitating Shu.

The Sorcerer then opens his eyes, which are now shined with a purple light. He smiles sneakily before softly saying his words:

"Good luck, guys~"

.

.

.

.

.

"WHAAAAAAAAAA WHA, WHAAAAAAA!!!"

Mysta can't stop screaming as you four are now falling into some magical rabbit hole-

"Mysta, please shut up-" Vox was at first lightly panicked by his floating state but eventually calmed himself down not too long after.

"POOOOOOOOOOOGGGG!!!" Luca cheers as he just swims around the hole as he is still falling.

"Luca, be careful, we might eventually fall on something-" You say with a worried tone.

As if your statement was the cue, you finally find yourself falling on some vent, and before you can land on the floor of inside a storage room, Shu was able to catch you with his floating shikigamis. Despite still in the Luxiem Lounge with the walkie-talkie and 4 camera screens that show the point of views of you, Vox, Mysta, and Luca separately.

"You think I will forget about you, guys?" Shu jokingly asks as he adjusts the volume of his earpiece, trying to hear your voices.

"Thank goodness your little friends just caught us-"

You thankfully reply along with a relieved sigh, finding yourself patting one of the little shikigamis. Which seems to also be able to respond to your form of affection by wrapping its little paper arm around your finger.

"They are my followers." Shu responds with a smile, glad that you're already getting along with them already.

"Alright, just head carefully through that door that is in front you and- oh."

Before Shu can instruct further, Luca nonetheless ends up kicking the door open, making a loud boom sound across the hall-

Now the atmosphere becomes quiet for a few minutes...

"...Good thing I brought you all to where there are barely guards around, sheeeesh,,, what a kick.😅" Shu quietly says, having the tone of trying to process what just happened. Pretty much sweat dropping while smiling nervously.

"Hehe..." Luca replies bashfully, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Okay- what were you saying?" Vox says to Shu through his speaker.

"Right, sneak quietly forward, until you find an elevator- make sure to go to the 30th floor."

Shu explains as you and the squad start to form a lineup setup quietly: Having Vox in the front as the strongest who protects with his voice and his sword from the front. Mysta gets either beside or behind the Voice Demon, as he needs to get to the front to perform his role as the tracker. Luca has to be in the last line of defense. Despite being also strong enough to be in the front line as Vox, he also oaths to watch everyone's backs from behind with his pistols. Last but not least, you have to be in the middle, behind Mysta and in front of Luca, to be able to provide the boys supplies as a support.

"Though be careful, stay cautious, as there may be some armed men hanging by the elevator and the other floors besides the one you're in."

Shu warns, looking through the map of the VSF headquarters he managed to get from the one of the spared devices that were made from the future.

"Roger, let's move then." Luca responds as everyone starts moving, eventually finding an elevator that is not big nor too small.

Vox steps to where the elevator is but stops himself to look at the buttons, up and down.

"What floor number are we in....?" Mysta asks.

"4th floor." Shu responds.

"Ah, up." Vox nods in understanding as he quickly presses the up button, making the elevator doors unnaturally open. "Huh...???"

"What- we usually have to wait for the elevator to reach us-" Mysta says, dumbfounded by how quick the elevator just moved.

"Welcome to the future! Where technology here is unpredictable." Shu says with a half-optimistic tone, chuckling at the end quietly despite sounding as if he didn't experience the futuristic technology that easily.

"Hold up- camera." Luca points out as he shoots the camera that is hanging from the elevators setting before letting the others enter first. The camera was about to shoot Vox with a lazer.

"Sh*t... We might end up getting traps on our way if is that unpredictable. I'm surprised that there are no cameras here-" The detective mutters out loud, noticing how the 4th floor is the only floor so far with no security cameras present....-

"Probably because the 4th floor only provides a bathroom and a janitor room, and one vent." Shu comments, noticing how empty the floor actually is through one of his purple, sorcery screens.

"Huh...." You suspiciously say as you finally enter the elevator with the rest.

Vox cautiously presses the 30th floor button, despite how half-anxious he may be by how many buttons are on the wall.

"Oh d*amn...- This facility is so high." Mysta says, probably a bit nervous.

69 floors.... gulp.

"Don't worry, I once visited a building with 50 floors before... We can manage..." You quietly mutter despite that it doesn't seem to encourage by how nervous you are notably looking. "Plus, I read a little and it seems the headquarters has lasted for 2 decades so far- must have been built with such resilient, construction material."

"Look who did the homework...~" Shu heartedly teases, impressed by how observant you are with the details.

"I'm gladly taking it as a research report rather than homework to be honest...-" You quietly whisper, notably sounding like you don't want to break the elevator with loud voices still. "Oh gosh,,,, someone please hold me-"

"."

Vox, Luca, and Mysta reply at the same time with no hesitation as their arms were extending for you- before looking at each other silently. You just end up trembly holding Luca by the arm, who you can actually reach his bicep for your head to rest on. As you are lacking awareness, Luca is internally squealing in his mind as his face gets slightly flustered by how snuggly and tiny you look.

'Alright, Luca... Stay focus and do your part-' The Mafia Boss reminds himself of the situation he's in as he thoughtfully reloads his pistol.

"Okay guys, the elevator will bing in 10 seconds- guards will arrive from both sides so beware." Shu warns, he just hacked through the cameras to see 2 pairs of guards about to approach from left and right.

"Alright, you know the drill." Vox says, preparing himself to unsheathe his katana.

Mysta cautiously gets you behind him with his gloved hand as a smoke grenade- or bomb(?)(which you gave it to him) is on his other hand, ready to be unlocked. Luca is already prepare to shoot someone's head by the dark mafia look he is unironically but unusually wearing.

3...

2...

1-

*Bing!*

"VSF, HALT-"

"BOOM!*

*SLASH- SLASH SLASH-*

*BANG BANG, BANG!!!*

Mysta already threw a smoke grenade after he clicks the ring of the granite off with his teeth, making smoke spread in the armed men's sights. Vox then quickly dashes towards the left as Luca goes to the right, you can hear a certain cursed katana slashing through vest-covered flesh and bullets coming in contract through surfaces.

The armed men are now downed.