A/N: (SPOILERS!) This is supposed to be an off-shoot of the News Capture Articles, "The 2 Division Title Emperor" and "Online Jack Suspends Transmission", supposing that sometime after the press conference where that NEAR-enter Inc. announced they would no longer produce 'Online Jack' an anonymous e-mail was sent to Aihara with Haseo's offline information. So he saw it as an opportunity to bring the show back by doing a story on something positive about The World.
This was supposedly recorded somewhere between Vol. 2 & 3, after Aihara's gotten out of the hospital and was aired shortly after Phase 7 of the Doll Syndrome Investigation and the posting of the second mentioned article, at the beginning of Vol. 3.
Login003: Online Jack Special
"Hello folks! I'm Aihara Salvador and this is Online Jack!" Outside the front gate of a private high school, Salvador stood in front of the gate gesturing to the inside. "I'm here today at the location of Kxxx Private High School. According to my sources, Misaki Ryou, who plays the Player Character known as 'Haseo' on the popular online game 'The World' attends." Salvador turned to the gate behind him; Miwa and Fusao walked out of the gate, leaving for the day.
"Samba, samba!" He exclaimed, checking the girls out. "What would you two say to a date with me, Aihara Salvador!"
"What a geek!" Miwa giggled.
"Wait! Isn't that the guy from that online news show?" Fusao asked. "Wasn't that show canceled? What is he doing here with a camera crew then?"
"Who cares!" Miwa scoffed. "A guy can't expect to just walk up to a girl and ask her on a date! Especially since he's an adult and we're minors!" They walked off and the scene changed to one of the hallways of the school. Salvador spoke to the camera again.
"I am outside the classroom of Misaki Ryou and he is about to leave for the day."
Ryou walked out of the classroom, wearing the same uniform as before, carrying a briefcase-style backpack by the top handle and hanging it over his shoulder.
"Misaki Ryou, I presume?" he asked, approaching Ryou.
"What's it to you?" Ryou snapped, glaring at Salvador.
"Is it true that you play the famous PC that has won the championship of two division Arena titles in the online game 'The World' known as 'Haseo'?"
"Uh...!" Ryou looked at the camera with a shocked expression on his face. He brushed it off and his face slid back into a glare; he turned back to Salvador. "I have nothing to say to you."
"Oh, come on! You can tell me!"
Ryou slid one of the shoulder straps to his backpack onto his shoulder and folded his arms, "You think I'm an idiot? I know who you are; you're that Aihara Salvador guy. I don't understand why your show was so popular; you suck at undercover investigative reporting. I mean..." He pointed at the camera on Salvador's head. "What the hell? You call that a 'hidden' camera? Any moron with eyes could see you're wearing it and that it's recording!" He turned to point at the cameraman with his thumb, still looking at Salvador. "And that's beside the fact you also have a cameraman..."
"But I'm sure your fans want to know all about you!"
"Not interested. Besides, what does what I do at home on my computer have to do with investigative reporting? Why don't you get back to what that bastard Sakaki had to do with Doll Syndrome? I was actually interested in that..." He walked off.
"Wait! Are you somehow related to the events involving Sakaki? You... seem to have a definite opinion of him..."
Ryou ignored Salvador, walking without turning around and waving his hand. "I said, 'no comment'." Other students in the hallway turned to him and began whispering amongst themselves.
XXX
Later that day towards sunset at Ryou's apartment complex, it was a plaster building of six two-story apartment units. Salvador was standing in front of the front most apartment unit in much of the same fashion as he had been with the school.
"Second chance! I'm at the location of Ryou-kun's home. Let's knock at the door!" Salvador held his thumb up at the camera to indicate the okay and turned to knock on the door. Before he could, Ryou opened the door. He was now wearing a red woven shirt half unbuttoned, a black t-shirt could be seen underneath; he was also wearing a pair of blue jeans. In his arm was a yellow bucket with bathing necessities in it.
"Uh! It's you...!" he exclaimed.
"Ryou-kun!" Salvador grinned. "So how did you come to start playing The World?"
Ryou tried to ignore Salvador, double-checking to make sure that his door was locked, "Look. I already told you, I'm not saying anything! And don't address me like you know me!"
"But the people have a right to know!"
Ryou turned to Salvador and brought his face right into his, Salvador's cheeks flushed. Ryou grinned and grabbed the camera off Salvador's head and threw it out into the street. Salvador rushed out to grab his camera but stopped short when a garbage truck ran over it.
"My camera!"
"Next time it'll be your face! Quit stalking me!" He walked off, making a point to kick pieces of the camera as he passed by it.
XXX
Outside a public bathhouse, Salvador was standing at the entrance holding a yellow bucket similar to the one Ryou had been holding before and mysteriously had his camera back in perfect condition.
"We are here outside the local public bathhouse where we believe Misaki Ryou attends regularly to bathe. Let's take a look."
Inside the men's changing room the men were, you know, changing. Everyone seemed to be conveniently covered somehow except for a couple of three year-olds who were running around, but you still couldn't see anything. Salvador approached Ryou, who was in the process of pulling his t-shirt off.
"Ryou-kun!" he smiled brightly as the boy was pulling the shirt off of his arms; he stopped to look around to see whom it was that was calling him.
"Grr! You...!" Ryou jumped to his feet, growling and threw his now crumpled t-shirt to the floor. "Bastard! I'll file a restraining order against you!"
"Just answer a few questions and this'll all be over. Now, is there anything you like to share with your-!"
Salvador's speech was cut short, Ryou had side kicked him in the face, knocking him into some lockers behind him. "Ow..." He rubbed his face, trying to get up. "You're a hard kick, boy..."
"I told you next time it would be your face! Didn't you bother to read up on me at all? I'm not much different from my PC! When I make I threat, I do good on it! See you in court!"
The cameraman turned off his camera and Salvador reached up to his headset to turn it off. Ryou sat back down on the bench he had been sitting on to change before and folded his arms.
"Okay, I just said that for effect. While I probably could talk my parents into letting me use their lawyers, I really don't want to waste my time on something like a court order. Not to mention the fact that the rest of the media would probably find out about it and have a field day with it, pretty much rendering itself useless... But I will say this: 'Nurse Carnival'." He grinned, looking pretty satisfied with himself. "Nice Password. Don't know what it's for, but..."
Salvador was able stand at this point, but was still rubbing his neck and lower back, "What...? Where did you get that password?"
"You really should be careful about who you talk to on the Net." Ryou grinned, shoving his face into Salvador's once again for emphasis. After a few seconds, he pulled back, shrugged and smirked. "Maybe everyone on the forums would like to know that Kazubolo, The World's 'last hope', is really Aihara Salvador."
"You? When I looked at that e-mail I thought I recognized your PC... You're that guy from the other day that I kept running into when I was logging in from the hospital!"
Ryou held his pointer finger up, "Bingo! Now here's the deal. You've probably already recorded enough material to do something, so I might as well let you have your interview. But, it has to be another day in another place, I'm not doing an interview in a mens' public bath changing room. Now, I don't want anyone knowing every detail of my life, its bad enough you've already revealed where I live, attend school and bathe, so... You can ask any questions you want, but I may not answer them. If you press me to answer any questions I'm uncomfortable with, I'll let everyone know about your secret identity. Agreed?"
Salvador pulled back reluctantly,"...Agreed."
XXX
A few days later at a hospital, Salvador sat in a chair in one of the waiting rooms, facing an empty one. Ryou plopped into the empty seat, was now wearing a light blue t-shirt, white dress shirt and jeans.
"Okay let's get this over with..." Ryou said bluntly.
"Why did you begin playing 'The World'?"
"A friend of mine said it was fun. It was only after I logged in and got PKed that someone pointed out they may have been referring to Revision One... I asked the friend later..." His pupils narrowed. "Turned out that's what he meant..."
"You said you got PKed, is that what made you become a Player Killer-Killer? Or was there some other reason?"
"...That's personal."
"What made you quit being a PKK? When did you quit?"
"That's also personal." Ryou paused to think. "...I guess it was, maybe a week or so before entering the Arena."
"Do you plan to enter the third Arena Tournament, 'Sage Palace'?"
"I don't exactly have any future plans... That's enough questions. Bye." Ryou stood to leave, but Salvador stopped him.
"One last question, please. It seems with your dual championship you've acquired quite a few lady fans, so tell us. What do you look for in a girl?"
Ryou had begun to sit back down but shot straight back up and turned red,"! Now I'm really leaving! Bye!"