[center][h1][color=ed145b]Akane[/color][/h1]
[color=9e005d]The Raijin Shogun[/color]

[img]https://i.ibb.co/MDHT42Fk/a634f67337fd6b6dcac18bedcd1fb386.png[/img][/center]

The knock on Akane's door echoed into an empty room. Ren no doubt had too much on his mind to remember that she had been sent out on a mission... five years of them monitoring every little thing she did, and finally, they had decided to send her off on her own without so much as a hint of monitoring. Letting her loose on a job all her own, with absolutely no idea how it would turn out. They had no idea of knowing if she would get the job done, if she would destroy the equipment she was sent to retrieve, if she would return at all in fact. Or worse... if letting her loose would result in another incident like what happened five years ago...

No news was good news. No major news about major engagements that would have anything to do with her. No news about any major massacres that would have any involvement with the job she was sent on. No news about major Jaeger deployments... And it wasn't as if she would have been taken out, not her. If she had, it would have been news, because she wasn't someone who could simply be... taken out. It would have been some sort of massive scene, and news would have been spread about a major conflict. It would have had to involve the Jaegers somehow and...

Nobody thought like that... nobody was being kept up at night wondering where she was. That was where her mind landed. That was how the world worked, wasn't it? You succeed, or you fail. You live, or you die. You come back, or you don't. If she failed, would there be... disappointment? If she never returned, what would they feel? What did this group feel for her, this collection of creatures who believed they could carve out something better from the filth that was this city... What was, disappointment? She almost forgot, that word, individuality... she couldn't speak it, she didn't know how. What did it mean... each of them thought, differently? This collection of souls, they were not one entity, they each were... different. Would any of them care if she didn't return? If she left to find her own way, would they care... would they prefer it? Would they be angry if she disappeared... Why would they be... angry? What... was disappointment? Why do these connections exist between them... do they exist between them and her? These invisible strings that bind them all together. Did she have strings? 

There was no real process to the thoughts in her head. She stood high on a building, staring down over the city below. This jungle of concrete and steel. This... prison.

A click sounded from her armor, as electricity arced across the surface. She was fully recharged. Jumping from location to location took much of her energy. She had to stop from time to time. But it was time to go again. She looked down at the box she held by the handle, then on to the city, spotting the familiar structure, and with a flash that crackled across the sky, she disappeared.

[hr]

As a thunderous bolt of lightning struck the roof of the building, its foundations shuttered and the lights in some rooms flickered. The common areas where people were gathering were reinforced enough that nobody would notice, but in other places that wasn't the case. 

She let her thoughts get the better of her, she was thinking too much again... and she had expended every last bit of energy she had into a single jump, and all that energy came crashing down with her. Even as nearby pylons absorbed the electricity, it hadn't been designed for THAT much power, which caused the system to temporarily overload. 

If nothing else, this was the surest sign that Akane was back... and was not in a good mood. Not she was alone in having a bad night. Her armor sparked slightly, before much the lights faded. She looked down at her hands, noting whatever electronics her armor had were overloaded and had shut down to prevent damage. The only thing left active was her ability to see through the helmet. As she walked to the elevator, stepping inside once the doors opened, she couldn't help but wonder what use was armor if it could not withstand her power. 

The doors eventually opened, and she stepped into the briefing room... she had no idea what was going on... or that something was going on at all. She just had a box to deliver. Unfortunately, it was one box, of the expected two boxes. The good news, was that this one box likely accounted for about eighty percent of the value of what she had been sent to retrieve. 

Only other issue was, her blade smelled of blood... which without a doubt, meant someone was dead. And more than likely? A lot of someones were dead.