A/N: Wow, second chapter already. I'm surprised by myself.
-xox-
Dacoron glanced backwards when he jumped over the outer wall of the Kokubunji residence. Sato hadn't followed him.
He looked around, determining the best route, and jumped onto the nearest roof.
It was still raining, not that it bothered Dacoron. His coat was water- and stormproof, and he himself was built to endure much worse.
Not really knowing where to start, he tapped into the city's white noise and closed his eyes.
There were so many systems, most of them communicating with each other. It was the virtual equivalent to the streets of a bustling city.
Normally, Dacoron didn't interfere or even decode anything he recieved that way, but this time, it was necessary.
Checking every signal was out of question. Even for Dacoron, that would take too long. He needed to find those that were special.
-xox-
It hadn't even taken that long to single out some systems. One of them seemed to be especially promising.
Dacoron sighed and took a phone out of his pocket. He'd rather use his internal systems, but Sato had insisted.
"Hey, Sato." He smirked at her answer. "Just wanted to tell you, I've got a potential source of information. Seems to be a data bank. A huge one."
Dacoron raised an eyebrow. "Did you just spit out your tea? I'm just going to take a sneak peek. No need to worry." With that, he hung up. He could have rattled down his specs, but that wouldn't have made any sense to Sato anyways.
Instead, he focused on his target system. A data bank like that was bound to have some relevant informat-
Dacoron flinched. He had definitely underestimated the security systems. A jolt of energy ran through his body and he cringed. Within a few moments, most of his defense mechanisms were down, forcing him to disconnect before worse happened.
-xox-
It didn't take long until Sato's phone rang again. "Dacoron? You sound weird. Are you-" She frowned. "I could have warned you that the national data bank has a very protective security system." She raised her eyebrows for emphasis. "Still... you okay?... fine."
"Did he really...?" Minoru looked at Mikure.
"He tried and failed. Also, he's coming back. We should get going," Mikure replied.
-xox-
Dacoron returned not much later. Yuzuki accompanied him to the office where he flopped down on the cable-covered ground. "Did you get anything?"
Minoru looked up from the screen and shook his head. "Not really. There's nothing out of the ordinary going on since the blackout."
"Needle. Haystack. What are we going to do?" Mikure threw her arms into the air. "And on top of that, now these two government 'coms are on our heels."
"An external security system. Talk about high specialization. Explains how she could kick me out like that." Dacoron put his hands behind his head and looked at the ceiling.
"You must be quite advanced too if you shrug off government defense software like that," Minoru commented, still working on the screen.
"Confidential. If you don't find anything, I could try again." Dacoron took a pair of shades out of his pocket and put them on.
"No way." Mikure folded her arms. "Simply no way. That'll only end with at least one of you fried to a crisp. I can't let that happen."
"We all want Tanoya gone. It's... oh foo." Dacoron sat up and adjusted his shades. "Seems like they're tracking me down."
"Yay," Mikure deadpanned. "Well, they should know this place anyways... if we're lucky, they'll even help us."
"You're kidding, right? I just hacked that guy... tried." Dacoron stood up. "I'm going outside. It's me they're looking for, after all." With that, he opened the window and jumped out.
Yuzuki closed the window again. "Tanoya is dangerous. Still... to Dacoron, it seems personal."
"I think it is. And I have a damn bad feeling about that." Mikure grabbed into her pocket, pulled out a pair of green glasses and put them on. "I'll follow him."
-xox-
Dacoron smirked. He had those two government 'coms on his radar. They just had to know something. He had to stop Tanoya. Or did he? What if Tanoya just wanted his freedom. What if he just wanted to live in peace? Sure, there was no way to prove that, but it might be true.
He stopped next to a radio antenna. They were getting closer, and with them... what? What did he really hope for? Why should they help him?
Dacoron shook his head and looked over to the roof of the building next to him. It was a bit lower than his, so he had a perfect view at the two persocoms standing there.
They couldn't be much more different from each other. One was a tall man, the other one a short girl. While the former seemed to be the one he had tried to hack, the latter was the security 'com who had kicked him out.
All of a sudden, the small one tried to charge at Dacoron, but was held back by the tall one. Both, however, looked right up.
"No need to get up here," Dacoron said and jumped down.
Again, the smaller 'com tried to wriggle loose. "Let go of me, Jima! He's the one who hacked you."
"I know, love." The taller one smiled. "I just want to know why."
"I don't care why!"
Then, everything went fast. She slid out from under his arms and dashed towards Dacoron, who had anticipated that. He slid a cable out of his left sleeve, plugged it in on his right arm and pulled out the rest of it.
The smaller 'com reached for her ear ports under her hair, but before she could react, Dacoron gripped her by her wrist. He pulled her closer and connected himself to her.
The small persocom's eyes went wide as Dacoron rummaged through her files. A moment later, she slumped down.
Dacoron unplugged himself, let go of her wrist and jumped off the roof.
Little did any of them know that all that had been witnessed by Mikure Sato, who now hung at the fire ladder, mouth and eyes agape, and stared.