A dark room illuminated only by the orange glow of red filtered LCD displays. Houka Inumata's face shone in this artificial light, his mind full of calculations.
"Their servers should be weak near the coastal terminal they use to connect overseas…"
The not-yet three star sat in a cheap swivel chair, his fingers to his temples. His was face contorted in heavy thought. What he planned would not be easy but still well within his capabilities.
In the darkness, Inumata plotted his next venture into the networks of the Takarada Conglomerate. Takarada's company had used its great deal of wealth to invest particularly heavily in cyber security. If Houka could be successful the access he could gain to their servers could allow for a variety of potential benefits to come his way. Benefits such as fuel for blackmail, extortion, and of course money itself.
"That terminal connects them to foreign banks...if I could just crack at least just one server…"
Houka opened a simple word processor, writing out brief notes scripted to delete themselves once closed.
"I'll have to make sure the exploits in their architecture still exist before I go in too far…"
Inumata had been experimenting in the past couple of weeks, assessing the strength of the Conglomerate's network. Using a mix of information collected through anonymous sources and his own tests, he had been able to identify key flaws in its security. A few of the servers owned by Takarada ran a version of their software that was already several months old due to an obscure hardware connection issue identified just twenty-seven days ago. Ever connected to a variety of shady communities and news aggregators, it had been that exact moment that Houka had started his investigation.
Inumata found that the majority of the Conglomerate's network surrounding their headquarters in Osaka were up to date and in fact updated automatically without a problem. However two of these bug affected servers happened to be situated right in the line leading to the Takarada Conglomerate's private connection to the WORLDCOM Banking Corporation located in Norway. The Conglomerate had several such connections to a variety of international banks, it seemed to Houka that they had forgotten to fortify this particular one.
"I suppose I'll have to probe for a bit more information just before I enter."
Memorizing the notes on the LCD display in front of him, Inumata closed their window allowing them to be permanently wiped. He double checked that his own encrypted connection was still connected to his private network, a sudden disconnection could doom his operation. Like always though, he put faith in the service he paid for anonymously.
"Time to get started."
Inumata lifted what appeared to be ski goggles tethered by wire to his computer. In reality they were a head mounted display he often used for these more risky endeavors. Putting them over his eyes and pulling the straps behind his head, they sprung to life giving him a panoramic view of his desktop. Houka already had a voice command in mind for this particular gadget.
"Run Network Graphical Interface"
/-+++-\\\\\\\\\
ENTERING NETWORK VISUALIZATION
PLEASE STAND BY…
/-+++-\\\\\\\\\
The view of a stunning three hundred sixty degree view of a skyline wallpaper faded to large white text akin to a command prompt window. A few seconds went by before the text dissolved, revealing a virtual world populated by floating geometric shapes.
"Public Web Connect Takarada Coast "
A preset command dissolved the view around him once more, taking him now to a floating position above a chaotic neon grid under his feet.
"Rotate 90 Degrees Z Axis"
The grid translated itself upwards, visually cutting through the polygonal representation of Houka's own body.
"Translate Forward 40 Units"
The visual representation of the network moved backwards away from Inumata's body, giving him a better but still awkward view. He sighed to himself.
"Translate Forward 10 Units, Translate Up 5 Units."
The grid moved once more backward, this time also lifting itself up better centering in his vision.
"I suppose I should have made these settings default... no time for that now of course."
The young hacker knew the moment he connected to Takarada's network he would have to start moving fast if he was going to go all the way. Quick experiments carried little risk, but a serious operation with a set goal was an entirely different matter. The longer he waited the more likely it was that someone would notice he was there. Scanning the grid with his eyes, he quickly found the specific target he was looking for.
"Center View Server Name TC41"
The grid quickly adjusted its position once more, now putting a particular octagonal shape directly in line with Houka's eyes.
"There's little chance they've already patched this hole...but let's take a safer route first."
"Status TC41"
The view of the grid faded slightly to give way to a solid black window containing gold yellow text.
[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[-TAKARADA CONGLOMERATE-]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]
DISTRICT SERVER 41
LATENCY 67 M/S
GOLDEN TROUT : V. 5.93
"5.93? Looks like I was worried over nothing."
The young hacker gave a grin only visible to the offline world. He prepared his next move.
"Close Status. Run Network Diagnostic Tool."
The gold text dissolved away, in its place a simple prompt appeared.
RUN DIAGNOSTIC TEST ON SELECTED SERVER?
[Y] [N]
"Yes."
Houka's smile became slightly more devilish, he braced himself for the wonderful display he knew was in store for. Text began to scroll in front of his vision.
DIAGTOOL START…
PINGTEST….OK
NETCHECK…OK
IPCONFIG…..OK
HANDSHAKE…..
….
Inumata began to chuckle.
"What fools…"
….
8ukG65AMx7o45huGHMv
A0oUSERKANEOhw8lWq
vPASSISRICH92QaKsc25
GVO5LSCPWVp4jVvTGW
"STOP. Translate 10 units up. Switch Process, Grid."
In the broken mass of garbled text, Houka found what he was looking for as the diagtool fell victim to the server's vulnerability. His command shifted the position of the diagnostic tool's window just above the image of Server TC41.
"Kaneo is rich? These cavemen!"
His giggle became a sort of maniacal laughter, he let himself enjoy this moment of dominance. Remembering though he was on a time limit, he quickly brought himself back down with a slight touch of embarrassment.
"...Connect Server Name TC41, Login KANEO, Password ISRICH"
The grid dissolved into what looked like neon TV static, morphing into the image of a simple file explorer application.
"This…..is so primitive. Did they really entrust something so important to such ancient software? I wouldn't have even needed Visualization for this."
Moving his arm in virtual space, he scrolled down a long list of folders and various file names. His eyes locked on a particular directory.
"Open Directory WORLDCOM"
The window directory made the archaic click sound of an obsolete operating system as it opened. Viewing a folder named "BANKLOGIN", Houka couldn't help but begin to feel something was eerily off about this.
"No one makes it this easy…Kaneo is insane and stupidly ignorant….but really? How could this be his only security?"
Involuntarily his right hand began to shake in the non-virtual world. A grim thought creeped up the back of his neck carrying itself from a deep survival focused part of his brain.
"He's filthy rich….he can afford a better cybersecurity team than this. Not even someone's grandmother would make it this easy..."
The feeling traveled deeper into his mind, becoming conscious thought. Slowly dark possibilities began to be calculated as possible outcomes, slowly the words came to him.
"This…this might be…"
Inumata's shaking hand clenched into a fist, gritting his teeth.
"I don't know that yet….I must rule out the possibility. I've come too far, I will not go back empty handed."
"Open Directory BANKLOGIN"
Expecting the familiar sound of an ancient "folder open" sound effect, Houka's heart began to race when it didn't come. Nothing changed, there was no movement of the window nor opening of the folder.
With nervous frustration, Inumata's voice echoed through the dark apartment room.
"OPEN…...DIRECTORY…..BANKLOGIN"
The window remained frozen, no sound, no movement.
"No…"
Houka knew what to expect now.
"STOP. DISCONNECT. CLOSE PROCESS."
Houka's commands seemed to fall on deaf ears. He remained facing the frozen file directory. The young hacker took a deep breath and took a moment to think. Houka turned his head away from the open window to give himself a bit of mental space.
"Well...I suppose...it's possible they've managed to lock me out. This is of course an unusual way to do it but…..I should expect they may have put it in place to buy time to trace an attacker…"
He took another deep breath, calming his racing heart.
"Yes...well….I believe the only correct action now would be to try a manual disconnection to eliminate the possibility that well…..they find-"
Inumata's thought was interrupted by the sudden dissolving of the file directory in the corner of his vision. His head snapped back to its location reflexively. Unlike the grid before it, the directory was forming into a mosaic image. The blood pulsed in the young hacker's temples. Within his head mounted display his eyes opened wide and pupils dilated. The mosaic cleared itself into a coherent image, the image of a moving Kaneo Takarada.
"Soooo, Inumata! I see you were interested in my grand collection of wealth!
How envious you must be!"
The face of Osaka's powerful entrepreneur looked mockingly back at Houka. His eyes magnified behind giant pompous glasses, his teeth grilled with jewelry glinting even still in its now pixelated form. The young hacker's fist reflexively clenched and his teeth grit once more before returning to a grin. His arms folded, giving a look of confidence.
"So it was a trap afterall. I have to commend you Takarada for being so convincingly incompetent. You must really be more self aware than most people realize."
"Hoho! A strike at ME in YOUR position. It's my team who caught this little thief and it's you who fell for our golden goose egg of a ruse!"
"I don't believe that's how that metaphor works but I will humor you seeing as your self esteem is obviously very fragile."
"Hooo! Is that so? Well I think the fragile one is you in this situation."
Takarada fanned himself with a wad of money he obviously had kept handy for this occasion. His face had a confident maliciousness begging Houka to question his safety. Inumata took the bait, having himself enough bravado to not at all feel shame in having to briefly inflate Takarada's ego.
"I suppose you're going to attempt to trace me while I'm here is that it? What's to stop me from simply severing the connection? I assume you also know I never run unencrypted or without an anonymizer?"
Kaneo laughed loudly, still holding on to his wad of Takarada Conglomerate currency. Inumata felt a slight ache from his ears, there was no way easy to adjust his volume in this position. No voice commands were available to him and his second hand HMD goggles had a broken slider. He beared it for now, knowing he could still remove them off at any time.
"Inumata! You don't think I don't know all about you already?
I hope you didn't assume my five billion yen security force
didn't notice you poking around a while back!"
Houka felt his heart beat again and his breathing became labored. He instinctively looked downward, taking his vision away from the face of Kaneo.
"How….how did they know that was me….that could have been anyone….how did they know it was specifically me…"
The painful return of Takarada's booming, pompous laugh shot his face back upwards to meet his enemy's eyes. Both of Houka's fists clenched before relaxing once more as he gave himself room to think.
"He has to have….I don't know how...but he has to have….."
"You knooow Inumata, when I first heard from my team about this I nearly fell down laughing just like now! You really had no idea you bought one our products did you?"
Houka's calm once again left him, his teeth gritted as he tried to process this statement. His mind raced attempting to make sense of it, going down a mental list of what it could mean. His face once more faced downwards away from Takarada.
"Bought? Bought his product….does he mean a physical item? A metaphorical one? No… he's not that clever…"
Looking back upwards Houka realized Takarada was lying relaxed, leaned back in his chair obviously enjoying the sight of him attempting to solve this riddle.
"Now, while you work that out Inumata. I'd like to say that I want to propose you a little deal. It could possibly be very profitable for you! BUT if you don't agree to it …."
With his free hand, Takarada pulled out what looked like a gold plated smartphone from the pocket of the lavish fur coat he was wearing. The pompous head of the Conglomerate tapped away at the screen as if to be searching a particular application. Houka attempted to calm himself enough to understand what to expect from this.
"Obviously he's about to blow his own secret, he's probably just barely restraining himself from blurting it out."
"Tada!"
With a look of childish pride, Kaneo turned the screen of his golden phone towards Inumata. Houka's eyes strained to make out what it was in such a pixelated display.
"Lines….a grid...labels….numbers and...names above?"
Seeing Inumata's reaction Kaneo turned the phone back to look at the display himself. His voice betrayed a bit of embarrassment, he obviously had been expecting a better reaction.
"Uhh….well! I don't really know if you can see it very clearly where you are BUT…
Does your apartment come with air conditioning? I hear low-rent places like yours don't. How do you wear those goggles of ours in all that heat?
So sweaty!"
Houka's fists instinctively bashed the table, his cool finally completely gone.
"Takarada…"
His voice carried anger with it, his fear had been replaced with rage. All the pieces had finally fit together. Houka knew how this chain of events came to be.
"But really! Who would have thought our product would make its way to your hands!
What a lucky catch! What a jackpot! I guess it's good nobody's snitched about the bug we put in all those or such a big pay off would have never come! To think it all came from your visit to an auction website!"
Houka's mind took him to the time and place he was when he made the purchase. His old pair of goggles had completely broken very suddenly after several years of use. In a moment of frustration he bought the cheapest model he could find online, he never thought to investigate who was the manufacturer. He took a deep breath before giving his response.
"So you have my address. What of it? You know I can leave before you'd be able to send anyone out here."
"Ohhh! Well I have to admit you might be right there. I have no time to send anyone to that little ratty corner of Tokyo you live in. HOWEVER…money travels far. I don't know if you're familiar with your ward's police force. I happen to be very good friends with them! Hoho!"
Takarada threw the wad of money he had been holding onto in the air, letting the bills drop down around him. He laughed maniacally, making Inumata flinch from the pain in his ears. The young hacker thought carefully about how he should respond.
"Alright Takarada, I see the game you're playing. What is the deal you have for me?"
"I'm so glad you ask! You seem very adept at your….profession. Why don't you work for me and I could let you have some of those riches you apparently desired. I think you'd be right at home here! The very people who caught you could become your new co-workers!"
"I'm afraid someone has already made me a better deal."
"Ohhh, is that so? How unfortunate! But Inumata, won't you tell me who gave you such an offer? It wouldn't happen to be the Kiryuin family would it?"
"That's exactly right actually."
In response a grinning Takarada folded his arms and shook his head.
"Tsk tsk Inumata. What a shame really. How sad, though I guess there's no reason to feel too bad now about what happens to you! I don't believe your ward's police are looking to make any arrests tonight…"
Houka's heart jumped hearing this last statement. The anger returned to his voice.
"Kaneo Takarada….."
" Well! Time is money as you know, and I don't wish to tax any more of what little you still have. Goodbye Inumata! What a waste of such talent!"
With a final wave of the hand Takarada gestured farewell and he dissolved away into neon static. Houka didn't have time to stop and process this, he had to act quickly. With one motion he tore off the goggles that had betrayed him, throwing them against the wall.
"Do I have time to pack….to destroy my hard drive? No... no... there's no way to know how close they cou-"
His thought was interrupted by the distinct sound of a helicopter flying overhead. Houka instinctively turned toward the door leading to the outside. He may not have any time left at all. Taking his first hurried steps towards freedom, the glass of his windows shattered and in came distinctive metal canisters. With a violent pop, chlorine gas rapidly began to fill the area between him and his escape.
"No…"
He eyes began to well up and it became hard to breath, he started to cough uncontrollably. Covering his face with his cheap hoodie, he attempted to crawl his way to the frame of his front door. His head to the floor, he heard the sound of boots traveling up a flight of stairs. They were headed Houka's way.
"NO…."
Houka turned towards the only other option, the balcony of his apartment on the sixth floor. He knew his life was in jeopardy regardless of the path he took. The young hacker burst from the floor into a run despite the pleading of his brain to not rise into the cloud of gas above him. Blind and nearly breathless he stumbled towards the glass sliding door of the balcony, slamming into it sooner than he thought he would. His lungs crying for fresh air and his eyes sealed like burning locks, he groped for the handle. His fingers made contact just as the loud banging of boots against the front door began, followed by metal slugs bursting the hinges.
"NO!"
Houka pulled the handle with all his might, knowing it might be the last effort to survive he'd ever make. He felt his way open up just as the front door collapsed some meters behind him. He ran blind not knowing what would become of his body once he crossed the boundary of the balcony. Houka heard the stomp of boots behind him, knowing the violent crack of automatic rifles would likely come next. In the blurry portrait his bloodshot eyes showed him he could see a bright light in front of him, he was approaching the edge. Houka's legs leapt him into the air with all the might they could possess. He lost thought of life, his mind usually racing with calculations went blank in the dissociation of near death. The loud whirring of a nearby helicopter replaced the words that would have filled his thoughts.
But he did not fall.
"CORRUPT PIGS ON THE BRIBE OF TAKARADA. STAND DOWN BEFORE THE MIGHT YOUR TRUE SUPERIOR."
Massive tanned arms had caught the young hacker, in his blind haze he looked upward to see the distorted face of a large blonde male. His neck craned itself all around attempting to understand his situation. To his right he saw the white bright blur of a tall black haired female carrying a particular sword.
"HOLD YOUR FIRE, HOLD YOUR FIRE!"
A gas masked police sergeant yelled out in desperate fright. His unit did more than obey. Many threw down their Type 89s and lifted their arms in the air, kneeling in surrender. A few in the front bowed with their forehead touching the ground, prostrating themselves in front of Lady Satsuki. Inumata felt himself being carried and lowered on to what felt like a metal seat, the inside of a large transport helicopter. He could breath again, and slowly his vision was coming back to him. He realized how lucky he was his glasses hadn't fallen in the commotion. He realized just after this thought how lucky he was to be alive.
The large tan face entered Houka's vision once more.
"Houka Inumata! Consider yourself an indebted man! Are you ready to begin paying that debt starting immediately?"
Slowly coming to understand who had saved him, Houka began to reply between the labored breaths he took.
"Well…..it's…..certainly…...better…..than...my…. last….offer."
A massive hand slapped him on the back brotherly, causing Houka to begin to violently cough again.
"Welcome aboard Inumata!"
Following this, Houka heard the painful loudness of a very different laugh. This time through the coughing however, he laughed as well.