Chapter 1: Plot
16:55 PM (Japan Time), Monday November the 19th…
"… Five minutes left. Check your answers."
A teacher was walking down one aisle of desks set inside of a classroom: a dozen students were inclined over their exam sheets and absolute silence ruled in the classroom: the clock over the teacher's desk slowly ticked and the low hum of the fluorescent lights could be heard: the teacher was checking on all students, but, insofar, none of them were doing anything suspicious or held anything out of place.
"… Four minutes. Check your answers."
He reached the end of the aisle and began to patrol the next aisle while still looking on: one student picked the eraser and corrected something but the teacher didn't see anything out of the ordinary with it, so he continued forward and then sat back on his chair behind his desk: he looked at an open agenda for a minute and then looked up again to make sure none of the students had changed their poses: some were flipping their papers to check what they'd written insofar.
"… Two minutes."
Some students sighed and placed their answer sheet beneath the question sheet while they looked upwards but didn't break the silence: one or two students were still rechecking their answers.
"One minute."
The rest of the students sighed in relief as they looked up and stopped writing to leave their papers ready to be picked up: the classroom's bell rang out.
"Time's over. Don't move from your posts: I'll pick the papers."
The teacher stood up and picked the papers which he glanced at: he stopped at one and frowned.
"There's one unnamed paper. Whose one is this?"
"Yikes! Eh… Me, sensei…"
"Ooyama – kun. First thing when you start an exam is to write your name and today's date." The teacher sighed.
Ooayama Dekao slapped his forehead in defeat, to the surprise of Hikari Netto, his brother Saito, Sakurai Meiru, Ayanokouji Yaito, Hikawa Tooru and other students.
"Hai, sensei…" He sighed.
"Fix it."
"Hai~…"
Dekao fixed his mistake and the teacher checked the other papers before storing them on a leather case.
"See you tomorrow."
"Good afternoon, sensei!" The class chorused.
Everyone began to pick their backpacks and then headed outside of the classroom and into the hallway.
"Yo! Akashi Hiro! What did ya think about our totally nightmarish Math exam?" Netto asked one of the students.
"Wasn't that much of a nightmare, really…"
This student looked slightly over a meter and fifty tall: his hair's color was jet black and it was totally messy (similar to Netto's) while his eyes' irises were blue: he was shrugging.
"Yeah. Your "Math-nightmare" habit is resurfacing, Netto – kun. And if you wanna clear 1st grade then you need to toss it away. I thought we'd talked about that enough times by now, Netto – kun. Hadn't we?" Saito told him with a grin.
"Oh. Come on, Saito – niisan… I didn't protest last year!"
"But you tried to skip homework and I had to pull your ears eighty-eight times to snap you outta it, Netto – kun."
"How the heck can ya remember how many times you did it during those ten months?" Netto looked baffled.
"I have good memory."
"Hah! I can remember how much I weighted a decade ago!" Dekao suddenly boasted.
"59 kilograms!" Meiru sarcastically told him.
"Wha!" Dekao gasped.
"Have at cha." Yaito grinned.
"Dekao – kun…" Hikawa rolled his eyes.
"Man."
They reached the lockers and changed their shoes while they picked their Link PETs: Hiro's one had the lowercase delta character painted silver and set against a black background as main emblem: the PET's colors were red and white.
"Yo! Delta! Did Ms. Moon drop by while I was in the class?"
"Jeez! Hiro – kun!"
Delta's main body color was jet black while his forearms, boots, shoulder plates, rear-pack and helmet were painted silver.
His face looked strikingly similar to Rock Man's although he had some slight differences regarding the eyes' irises (which were blue) and the shape of his cheek bones.
His emblem was the same delta character set on his chest and ear-pads: the central part of his helmet had a murkier silver color to it plus two rectangles and one band cutting across it starting at the back: some jet black hair came out from behind the helmet as well.
Overall, he looked extremely similar to Rock Man and seemed to be around his height as well.
"Heh, heh, heh. This never fails!"
"Yeah. I know. I met Forte." Delta rolled his eyes.
"Oho. What's his newest joke?" Hiro sounded amused.
"Read it. It's kilometric and silly." Delta merely replied.
"Forte never writes silly things, Delta – chan!" Hiro teased.
"Hiro – kun!" He protested.
"They have a war of hit-and-run." Saito grinned.
"Oi, oi…" Netto looked surprised.
"So, Roll?" Meiru asked.
"So… What, Meiru – chan? You didn't charge me with any errands in particular today." Roll frowned.
"Are ya gonna make a move and seize it?" She asked in an exaggerated hushed conspiracy tone.
"Seize what? A ticket…?" She asked.
"No, no! A candidate!"
"I've got no rush."
"Tooru – kun! Don't forget that we're an official couple!" Meiru suddenly brought up.
"I know, Sakurai – san…" He sighed.
"You look worried, Tooru – kun, desu." Ice Man commented.
"Don't mind it."
"Yaito – sama: the gardening is complete." Glyde reported.
"Good! Is the car on its way?"
"It's already waiting outside, Yaito – sama."
"Excellent. Well then… See ya guys tomorrow. Oi! Ooyama! Become Ookarada! See ya! Nyah, hah, hah, hah, ha~h!"
"E~H?" Dekao looked totally baffled.
"GATTSU~?" Guts Man sounded terrified as well.
"Leave it to Yaito to turn the thing around." Netto grinned.
"Yeah. So they say." Saito looked skeptical now.
"Well then! Tooru – kun!" Meiru grinned.
"Hai~…"
"Let's go!"
"Hai~…"
She closed her right arm around Hikawa's left one and dragged him out while he looked at the ground with a defeated face.
"She's gotta have him carry her shopping bags…" Hiro commented in a hushed tone of voice.
"Sure…" Netto looked somewhat unsure.
"O. K.! I'm gonna go home and sharpen my secret weapon!" Hiro blinked them an eye.
"What secret weapon?" Dekao asked with eagerness.
"It ain't a Battle Chip." Hiro shrugged.
"Man." Dekao looked defeated.
"Go work on the Gorilla Idiom – Japanese dictionary, Ookarada." Hiro told him with a broad grin.
"Ooyama!"
"Hiro – kun… I thought we'd agreed on…!" Delta began.
"Save the lawyer's speech for later, Delta Team!"
Netto chuckled at the joke while Saito rolled his eyes: he made a gesture with his head to indicate something to Delta, who nodded in understanding and sighed in defeat…
17:33 PM (Japan Time)…
"… DS_013… Agent Romeo, Head of Weapons, speaking…"
"It's me."
"Master!"
"What's wrong with the mid-month report?"
"The mid-month report, sir…?"
"Page 38, Paragraph 3… 0.5% of deficit!"
"T-there has to be an error, sir. I made the numbers myself, sir. There's no deficit, sir…"
"Who printed this?"
"Smith, sir…"
"Smith?"
Dr. Raher was using a laptop to conduct a live videoconference with a man on his 30s wearing a black cap: he had brown eyes and his brown hair was rather loose.
"A replacement, sir… I had to go close a deal with a Yugoslavian contractor and I left him on charge of the last revision and printing of this report, sir…" The man reported with some nervousness.
"Tell him he's fired." Dr. Raher sentenced.
"Roger, sir!"
"Print the report again and dispatch it on the next 48 hours."
"Roger, sir!"
"I want the next one by the 30th."
"Roger, Master!"
Dr. Raher finished the videoconference and then typed something to bring up imagery of a standard model Navi colored red and orange.
"H – M! Tell Romeo's Net Navi, Eto, to bring me Smith's data ASAP in the next 4 hours." He commanded.
"Roger, Master." A Navi's voice replied.
He typed another command and a new videoconference was started with a woman on her mid-20s who had blondish hair and bluish eyes.
"DS_012, Agent Laura, Head of Counterfeit, speaking."
"What happened to your mid-month report? It should've reached me by yet, shouldn't it?"
"The mid-month report…? Sam! What did you with the report?"
"What report?" A man asked off-screen.
"You idiot! The mid-month report!"
"Wasn't that the end-month report?"
"No! There are two monthly reports!"
"Tell that man he's fired. I find it strange, though, that we such incompetency all of a sudden."
"They're replacements, Master… Most of the competent staff has caught colds or the flu, so… These are money-hungry idiots who think we're fools and that they can take profit of us to gain money, Master…" Laura was sweating from nervousness.
"Fine. I'll check with the others. Keep on the job."
"Roger, Master!"
"H – M. Visit Xenara, Laura's Net Navi, a Heel Navi. Then send me the info on this Sam man as well. They have 4 hours."
"By your orders, Master!"
"Replacements, huh… What an idiotic system."
He picked a folder and began to check it: he spotted something and began to look annoyed.
"This is getting ridiculous." He cursed aloud.
He started a third videoconference with a man on his early 20s who had black hair and brown eyes: an old scar was visible on his right cheek as well.
"DS_010, Monty, Head of Laundering, speaking…"
"Monty. What's wrong with the bank accounts?"
"Eh… Excuse me, Master?"
"The Barclays Bank's three accounts. I've only detected movement in two of them and one hasn't been used ever since a month ago. We need to use all three accounts or else we can't process the laundered funds properly. So? What's wrong with the third account?"
"Eh… The third account… Registered as Jean Smith… Wait… Who did I put in charge of that…? Jack! What did you do with the Barclays accounts, huh?" Monty yelled to someone.
"Barclays accounts, Boss…? I did what you told me…" Jack reported.
"And the 3rd account, the one titled "Jean Smith"…? What's wrong with that one?" Monty questioned.
"Nothing's wrong, Boss! I did everything you told me to…"
"… Check the report." He grumbled.
"Wha! I forgot to update the info!" Jack gasped in fear.
"… Replacement?" Dr. Raher guessed.
"Yes, Master… Started 3 weeks ago…" Monty gulped.
"Kick him out." He resorted to vulgar language.
"Jack! You imbecile! You're fired!" Monty roared.
"E~H?"
"Security! Kick that man out!" Monty ordered.
"W-wait, Boss! And my pay?" Jack pleaded.
"No pay! We don't give money to imbeciles! Get out!"
"H – M. Tell Bater, that standard model Navi colored black and azure to send me the info on that replacement, too. I'm going to elaborate a blacklist and send it to some circles." Dr. Raher icily commanded like he was holding his inner anger back.
"Roger, Master…"
"I'm going to check with everyone. And we're going to fire the replacements. I don't care who you need to pull over to cover that post, but no more replacements." Dr. Raher commanded.
"By your orders, Master!" Monty quickly bowed.
Dr. Raher cut the videoconference and leant backwards on his armchair: he began to rub his beard and look annoyed.
"… Too much of a coincidence… Or not…? I am not a real medic because my specialty is psychology, yet… I thought flu or colds happened in December or January… But they say this winter is colder than others recorded before, so… It's not crazy." He muttered aloud.
Shrugging, he began yet another videoconference which connected him to a man of obvious foreign origin given how sun-burnt he appealed: he was bald and his eyes were brown: he seemed to have a composed glare to his eyes.
"DS_010, Alkhum, Head of Department P., speaking…"
"Tell me, Alkhum… Have you hired any replacements as of late?" Dr. Raher directly questioned.
"Why! Yes, Master… A man named Tobihiro… But I think he lacks some intelligence. I guess he's only here for the "bonuses"…" The man, Alkhum, reported while saluting.
"Well then, tell that man he's fired. These replacements are no better than leeches." Dr. Raher firmly commanded.
"Guards! Drag Tobihiro out: he's fired!"
"Yes, sir! Right away, sir!"
"H – M… Huff. Tell his Heel Navi, Letai, to look up Tobihiro's profile and data."
"Acknowledged."
"Alkhum…"
"What are thou commands, Master?"
"Keep it up. Your report is good. This department generates good profits, really. Are you keeping it discrete?" Dr. Raher formed a smug smile and began to sound in a better mood.
"We are, Master."
"Excellent."
"We've even set up some fake documents to link us to an Eastern Sharo Nation region group: in the worst-case scenario, this would throw the cops into the wrong direction and given some well-placed bribes over there, the local police wouldn't investigate it. They'd get stuck." Alkhum added with a reverence.
"Good thinking! Tell that to your companions of the other departments, too. This way, we can avoid any investigations on the "Syndicate" because we'll scatter them around the globe into hard-to-survey regions with a background of instability." Dr. Raher congratulated.
"Please leave it up to me. And we can always pretend we're all fans of a disbanded heavy metal band if they question about why we all wear the same clothes."
"Good. I'll leave everything on your hands, Alkhum. Later."
Dr. Raher finished the conference and rubbed his hands in excitement while he formed a smug smile.
The idiotic police won't be able to grasp my perfect plot…! I'm a genius!