### **Arc 10: The Price of a Ghost**
#### **Chapter 39: Buried Alive**
The darkness in the control room was absolute, broken only by the rhythmic, blood-red pulse of the emergency strobes. Every tremor of the mountain was a visceral threat, a reminder that tons of rock were pressing in on their concrete shell. The air grew thick with dust. For Kuro, a mind that thrived on data and control, this sensory deprivation was a unique form of torture. He was blind, trapped, and for the first time in a long time, he couldn't calculate his way out.
"Kuro?" Hikari's voice was a small, steady presence in the chaos. He couldn't see her, but he heard her move closer. "Are you okay?"
"The primary geothermal power conduit has been severed," he reported, his voice a strained attempt at his usual analytical calm. "We're on emergency battery. Life support is functional, but limited. Estimated operational time: seventy-two hours." He paused, the unspoken conclusion hanging in the air. After that, the air scrubbers would fail.
He felt a small hand find him in the darkness. Hikari's grip was firm. "Renji will find a way," she said. It wasn't a question or a hope. It was a statement of faith, an anchor in the storm.
Her empathy, usually a tool for reading others, now served as a beacon for him. She felt his rising panic, the cold tendrils of claustrophobia that his logic couldn't suppress, and she met it with a quiet, unshakeable certainty. In this tomb, she was the strong one.
Kuro took a breath, his own frantic thoughts slowing to the steady rhythm of hers. "Okay," he said, his voice clearer. "Okay. Let's work on the problem. The bunker was designed for a prolonged siege. There must be a secondary exit. A 'bolt-hole' for the original command staff."
He began feeling his way back to the consoles, his mind clicking back into its familiar patterns. The physical world was chaotic, but the digital one might still hold a map. He just needed to find enough power to read it.