The fortress became a crucible of two different worlds colliding. While Sakura and Himari made their final preparations for the journey to Silverwood, Haruto and Akane began the monumental task of turning the ancient stone relic into a modern military outpost. Their partnership was a study in contrasts. Akane, a product of rigid spec-ops doctrine, thought in terms of fortifications, kill zones, and manpower. Haruto, the engineer and officer, thought in terms of systems, automation, and force multiplication.
Their first debate was over the main gate.
"We need to build a series of baffles and a secondary interior gate," Akane argued, pointing at a holographic schematic she had projected. "It creates a fatal funnel. Any force that breaches the outer gate will be trapped and exposed to fire from elevated positions." It was a classic, time-tested defensive strategy.
"A valid approach for a conventional defense," Haruto conceded, "but it's labor-intensive and static. I propose a different solution." He manipulated the hologram, erasing her baffles and replacing them with a sleek, retractable turret system integrated directly into the walls on either side of the gate. "Automated plasma cannons, linked to a perimeter sensor grid. Anything non-human or without a friendly IFF transponder that approaches within five hundred meters will be targeted and neutralized before it even reaches the wall. The gate itself becomes irrelevant."
Akane stared at the schematic, her mind struggling to reconcile her understanding of warfare with what she was seeing. "Automated… you're taking the soldier out of the equation."
"I'm taking the risk away from the soldier," Haruto corrected her. "Why expose a man on a wall when a machine can do the job more efficiently and without risk to life?"
While the two Imperial soldiers debated high-level strategy, Kaito and Riku were subjected to the most intense training of their lives. Akane took charge of their physical conditioning and combat drills, pushing them to their absolute limits. She taught them Imperial close-quarters combat, a brutal and efficient martial art that stripped away the flashy, honor-bound movements of their swordplay and replaced them with ruthless, disabling strikes. They learned to clear rooms, to use cover, and to fight as a seamless pair.
Haruto handled their technical education. He gave them each a wrist-mounted datapad linked to the fortress's new sensor system. "This is your new set of eyes," he explained, teaching them how to read the topographical map, interpret thermal signatures, and track movement outside the walls. To them, it was the purest form of magic. The ability to see an enemy through solid rock was a power their ancestors would have attributed to a god.
Meanwhile, a similar clash of methodologies was occurring between Himari and Sakura. Sakura had fabricated two state-of-the-art stealth suits, complete with photo-reactive camouflage and sound dampeners.
"These will render us virtually invisible to conventional detection," Sakura stated, holding one up.
Himari shook her head, pushing the sleek black suit away. "In the wilds, perhaps. But in Silverwood, two women who move like ghosts and make no sound will draw more attention than an army. We must not look like soldiers, or sorcerers. We must look like merchants. Like refugees. We must be so ordinary that no one looks at us twice."
She laid out the clothes she had prepared: simple, homespun wool cloaks, worn leather boots, and coarse linen tunics. It was the garb of the common folk.
"Our greatest weapon in the city won't be technology," Himari insisted, her eyes meeting Sakura's with a wisdom the clone couldn't deny. "It will be anonymity."
Sakura, ever the pragmatist, eventually conceded. She packed the stealth suits away, but secretly integrated a suite of miniature sensors and a personal energy shield emitter into the lining of Himari's cloak. It was a compromise, a fusion of their two worlds.
On the morning of their departure, the two pairs stood at the newly automated gate. Haruto handed Himari a small, featureless stone. "This is an emergency transponder. Press it, and it will send a compressed signal with your location. We will come for you. Only use it if there is no other option."
Himari nodded, clutching the "stone." Sakura and Himari, dressed in their drab cloaks, looked like any other travelers trying to survive in a broken kingdom. They exchanged a final look with Haruto and Akane, then turned and melted into the forest, their two-person infiltration mission officially underway. Haruto watched them go, then turned back to the fortress. Phase one was complete. Now, the real work began.