Chapter 3: Reputations
11:34 AM (Japan Time), Sunday November the 3rd…
"… So… Any news?"
"Nothing. Save for a hunch…"
"What hunch?"
"That Opoulos has gone to Greece because it's his origin country and he might have connections or know a good spot to hide…"
"True. I'd forgotten. I thought he was a New Yorker."
"Well. He did live in NY for a lot of years so…"
"That sadist woman…! Again on the loose…!"
"I know, Meiru – chan…! I still remember that of the summer…!"
"I'm so gonna boycott her company!"
"How many times do we need to tell you, Yaito – chan…? That villain has no company!"
The twins, Nelaus, Meiru, Tamashita and Yaito had met in the playground of Akihara City and were discussing the recent happenings: the guys sighed while Meiru was burning, Tamashita grimaced and Yaito tried to play cool but ultimately failed at it: Meiru lashed out at her, annoyed.
"Don't ruin my spotlight, Miss Perfect!" Yaito snapped back.
"What? Speak for yourself!"
"Yeah, yeah!" Tamashita added.
"Uh-oh." The guys muttered.
"Trouble?" Sigma (in Netto's PET) whispered to Blood Shadow (on Saito's PET).
"Yeah." He drily replied.
"Obviously." Isaac fumed.
"I insist: you need to behave!" Roll scolded.
"Or else we're gonna get annoyed!" Felicia added.
"Yaito – sama, Mr. President is not going to…" Glyde began.
"Bat-gliders should go glide!"
"Not again." He groaned.
"Hmpf! How pitiful! Ronins."
"Oh heck." The guys growled.
"Who?" The girls and Glyde wondered.
"Yamato Man. Not you next." Isaac groaned.
"Hmpf! You disgraced samurai: shut your vile trap!" Yamato Man's voice taunted.
"I don't need sengoku speech!" Isaac fumed.
"Show your hide. If you've got the damned GUTS." Blood Shadow icily challenged.
"Hmpf!"
Everyone turned on their holographic screens to see Yamato Man (wearing the same armor Cloud Man and with his emblem on the forehead) standing on the entrance of the Cyber World playground area: the 3 guys had drawn their weapons (Sigma his sword, Blood Shadow his shotgun and Isaac a blade which seemed to be made of diamond) because Yamato Man had his spear ready as well.
"Samurai Man! Did I ever tell you to start WWIII?" Twilight suddenly growled over his radio band.
"Huh! Twilight – sama! I thought I might…"
"You snuck out without even telling Popsicle Man! Where is your damned loyalty? Huh? Or was it gone with the wind? In Casablanca?"
"T-that is… I thought that I might show them we're a formidable foe!"
"We'll do that when I feel like it! Not when YOU feel like it! Else I'm going to exile you inside of a dimensional gap like Ganondorf did with the useless Phantom Ganon!" Twilight growled.
"R-roger, sir! You got lucky…!" He whispered.
"I heard that!" Twilight got further annoyed.
"Yamato Man… You just had to screw it up!" Freeze Man groaned.
"Y-yes, sir…" He gulped.
"COME BACK! FATTY MORON! Brandenburg Gateman! Use your damned piece of junk!"
"Not again." Zoan Gate Man complained in the background.
"MOVE IT!"
"Y-yeah! Remote Gate!"
"I'll be back!"
Yamato Man jumped inside of the Remote Gate and it vanished: the group sighed in relief and lowered their weapons.
"You lot better don't dare think I was generous! I stopped that fatty moron 'cause I can't stand idiots who want to play smart! Once all is ready I'll come bury you 100 feet under!" Twilight threatened.
"Hmpf. Come anytime. Ex – senpai." Nelaus drily replied.
"MALASHASHALASHA~H!" He growled something undecipherable.
The broadcast ended and the Operators fumed along with the girls as if they'd had more than enough of that behavior.
"… Maybe the whole of it was an act?" Blood Shadow suggested.
"Hmmm… Could be. The guy didn't behave like that back when I was being trained but that was because ex – Boss was there to keep the guy on check 24/7…" Nelaus rubbed his chin.
"There's a possibility." Isaac admitted.
"Hi there! Are you Akihara Middle 4th year?"
"Huh? Yeah. Who are ya?" Meiru replied.
"Karazawa Mana! I'm gonna transfer into Class 4 – B next week!"
"Whoa!"
A girl they didn't know walked into the playground.
She was about Meiru's and Tamashita's height and she seemed to be about their same age too.
She had long blonde hair which she'd tied in a ponytail and brown eye irises.
She wore a brown leather jacket, a knee-long yellow skirt, black stockings and brown heeled shoes.
She also carried a purple purse with blue patterns over its surface and an arm-strap for a Link PET.
Her Link PET was colored mahogany with crimson edges: the Navi emblem had golden edge, purple body and the kanji for oujo or "Princess" written on it using azure color.
"I'm from Nagoya City! Turns out the private academy I attended was stained by a corruption scandal and shut down: my aunt happens to live in Densan City 3rd district and she recommended Akihara Middle to finish my studies. I arrived yesterday." She explained as she sat on one of the benches.
"Hey! That purse! Maeda brand, isn't it? Hi-class!" Yaito spotted.
"Oh yeah." She looked like she got in the mood to boast.
"But it loses to the Sakari brand."
"You've got a Sakari~?" She gasped.
"Heh! I'm not Miss Heiress in vain."
"Heiress? Of what?"
"Gabcom Inc.!"
"Whoa!"
"There we go." Meiru and Tamashita sighed.
"My, my. Quite some handsome boys here… Looks like I landed on Paradise, even…" She suddenly glanced at the guys.
The guys made no comment and looked unimpressed at what seemingly was a teasing attempt: their dry faces made Karazawa gulp and her cocky mood seemed to vanish.
"W-what's with those faces?"
"Sorry. But there are too many trolls around here. Best way to shake them off is to make this face. It makes them give up." Nelaus shrugged.
"Heard that?" Blood Shadow suddenly questioned Sigma.
"Whoa! Blood! I haven't done anything today!"
"Not today. But insofar."
"Guys… Don't quarrel." Isaac sighed.
"I just need to remind this brute about how to behave."
"Leave that to Omega, will you?" Isaac insisted.
"What's the matter?" Karazawa asked.
"We happen to be somewhat tense today." Saito shrugged.
"Too much accumulated frustration leads to these. Too often." Netto rolled his eyes.
"By the way. Are you going to introduce us to your Navi?" Roll asked her while looking unimpressed.
"Or that hi-class PET is there to shine and sparkle?" Felicia added.
"HMPF!" Karazawa tried to pose as indifferent.
"Hah! I'll show you what hi-class means." Her Navi's voice boasted.
"Be our guest." The girl Navis challenged.
"I'm Scherezade!"
"Charmed."
The Navi projected out of the Link PET.
Scherezade was a girl Navi who had a golden helmet with a large diamond set on the center of its forehead.
Her eyes' irises were colored platinum and she had a smug grin across her face.
She also sported a pearl collar around her neck.
Her chest had a sleeveless silk cloth over it decorated with silver patterns and having a crystal star on the center of it.
Her chest emblem was the same as the one set in the Link PET.
Her arms had pinkish transparent silk cloth over them and she sported 4 rings in each hand's fingers save for the thumb finger: they were respectively colored, from left to right, red, green, blue and yellow.
She wore tight black silk pants with white patterns spiraling down their length in each leg.
For footing she used grayish heeled shoes which each had a ruby, a sapphire and an emerald set on each of them forming a column spanning down the length of them.
Lastly, she also wore a thin silver-like silk cape hanging from her shoulders and reaching until the ground.
Overall, she felt like she wanted to boast about being hi-class and having a superior air like she was in charge.
"… Ah. We see." The girls muttered with some dryness as if they'd realized something.
"What? How can you not be impressed by this might?" Scherezade annoyingly questioned them.
"Very hi-class but… In the end… You're an otaku."
"Huh!" Karazawa gasped as if she realized what they meant.
"Could you please tell us? Sorry for being dense." Nelaus drily requested without beating an eyelash.
"Very easy! All those jewels and colors… They're based off the main series Pokémon games! Red, Green, Blue, Pikachuu… Gold, Silver, Crystal… Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald… Diamond, Pearl, Platinum… Remakes don't count because they use the same colors as the originals." Tamashita calmly explained while grinning.
"Ah." The guys weren't too surprised.
"In short. Very hi-class but in the end you're an otaku of a popular all-ages series. Not a very promising start, is it?"
"Fine! I confess! I'm not hi-class! This purse is a Chinese imitation I bought in a bazaar! There! Satisfied?" She grumbled.
"Ah. How honest of you." They seemed to be slightly surprised.
"Why did ya go and say it, Mana?" Scherezade complained.
"Aunt said it! That that farce wouldn't last forever!"
"Why did you listen to that gal, anyway?"
"She's my aunt! If I'm living here now it's thanks to her! I was raised to always listen to advice from family, you see!"
"Ah. Yeah. You'd brought it up before. What a pity."
"Sheesh. If only you'd remained as you were… You weren't so prideful before, ya know!"
"Princesses are supposed to have pride, no? I'm just living up to the name you picked. Should've picked a worker woman instead."
"Hi there! What's with the tense mood?"
"Oh. Charles. Been a while."
"Who…?"
"Oho! Morgangantz, Charles Morgangantz. Analog Snatcher! 'Long Capt'n Dave!"
A guy casually stepped into the playground.
He could be about a meter and seventy-five in height but his age was around his early 20s.
He had messy silver hair which spread slightly backwards and formed some spikes: his eyes' irises were blue.
His clothes consisted on a navy blue overcoat which had a central silver button about the waist.
His coat then opened to expose his legs although it covered the rear of them.
He wore a black shirt beneath the overcoat plus black fingerless gloves on his hands: he also sported black jeans and sneakers.
The right shoulder contained blackish armor with an orange-colored edge and a silver button right over it which seemed to help it be gripped to the shoulder: three circles were then drawn on his right sleeve before a triangular piece of armor expanded over the hand: its main body was black too and it had orange edges.
His PET was colored silver and brown and had an emblem: it was a perfect golden-colored cross which was drawn inside of a silver circle having a brownish edge.
"Davis. Not Dave. Charlie~ Team." The Navi sighed.
"Did ya come back from the depths of Saturn?"
"No. And you know it."
"Mr. Black Slab knows it all!"
"It's but a computer, man."
"Ask someone and no – one."
"Sheesh."
Davis, the Navi, popped out next.
He had a deep brown bodysuit and he appealed as being about a meter and eighty tall in height.
His eyes' irises were chestnut brown and his face seemed to be shaped after a man on his early 20s: he currently displayed some annoyance which he didn't bother to conceal.
His helmet's color of choice was red: and so were both of his boots and his forearms.
The helmet had the kanji for "seigi" or "justice" written in a golden coloring vertically across his forehead's height.
The Navi seemed to wear a vest over his chest armor colored silver: this vest had bronze edges: it also had the Alphabet character "D" colored golden set on each side of its body.
His arms contained four thin brownish stripes running down the north, south, west and east side of them until they drew four circles around the wrist: his forearms had extra armor over it colored in a grayish color plus a small red dome inside of each palm.
The legs' length had been designed to include a network of patterns interconnected by some nodes which were reminiscent of human nerves: the boots' front edge was shaped like a triangle and so was the heel: they apparently served as close-quarters combat weapons.
"Who are ya guys?" Karazawa asked.
"The Justice Club! Not to be mistaken with DC Comics' Justice League!"
"I think I've heard rumors of you guys… Some kind of NGO that wants to expose skeletons in the closet of powerful guys and gals…" She apparently recalled.
"Yeah. That's more or less what we do." Charles admitted.
"By the way… Did you hear?"
"What?" Netto asked.
"The Society News magazine will be publishing a new series… It'll be named "Hellfire Period"… The author is a young writer named Taeda Samara… It'll apparently be a fiction work written in first-person style and depicting an "exciting life"…" Davis explained.
"Taeda Samara? I read her previous work, "The People of the Future", which was about the mythic Mu Continent, saying that the survivors of the disaster that sank it hid underground Earth and developed a very advanced civilization outside of other humans' sight… Someone then said it looked like it'd been plagiarized from a comic book having a very similar argument but involving Atlantis instead…" Meiru recalled.
"True. Yet it differed in some aspects too. Like saying an alien civilization had come to Earth before humans existed and left behind hidden relics across the world…" Tamashita added.
"When is the first chapter?" Karazawa asked.
"Today. It's going to be digitally released at 12:00 PM."
"Could be interesting to kill the boredom…" Nelaus muttered.
"Greetings, Reclaimers! It's been a while!" A cherry voice rang out from close by.
"Spark? Been a while, yeah."
"Who?"
"Guilty Spark 343. Monitor of Installation 04."
The spherical android known as Guilty Spark 343 suddenly hovered into the playground while humming.
"How can that thing be in the real world?" Karazawa gasped.
"The tech to do that has advanced a lot in recent years. Or so it's rumored yet it's still experimental." Scherezade shrugged.
"Correct. I have explosive news."
"Explosive news?" Saito frowned.
"The assets of Miss Joke & Co. are plummeting."
"E~H? Who said that? I meant it as a joke, but there's no real company with that name!" Yaito gasped.
"Monitor… What's your source?" Isaac sighed.
"Explosive News. Like I said."
"Oh come on. That's Cloud Man."
"Is that so?"
"The guy's insulting your intelligence…"
"What! Vexation! Vexation!" He got annoyed and began to fly around like mad.
"Cloud Man? Wasn't that a member of Neo Gospel? The forums are recently filled with people who say they spotted him on Halloween night with a flying pumpkin." Scherezade frowned.
"Yeah. A lame troll." Blood Shadow grumbled.
"I thought Neo Gospel was a terrorist org?"
"It is! Just happens that Cloud Man is the group's oddball." He explained to her.
"Ah. Then why don't they sack the guy?"
"Despite being an idiot he's got some battle potential nevertheless so he remains there."
"Odd org."
"Their boss being the oddest of them all." Sigma sighed.
"Why?"
"The guy's so damned random." Roll fumed.
"And annoying." Felicia added.
"I shall show them what I mean when I get serious!"
"What about the Installation? Who's gonna watch over it then?" Nelaus reminded him.
"Oh my! Good point, Reclaimer."
"I've lost track of what the heck's going on."
"We've got a troll loose. That's it." Meiru summed up.
"Ah. When you put it like that…"
"You can see "those"?" Yaito whispered with a grin.
"Very funny, chibi." Karazawa drily replied, not being amused.
"What was that?" Meiru and Tamashita questioned Yaito.
"I'm sorry!" Yaito gasped.
"Hum. But don't say it again in public." They warned.
"Y-yeah, I know."
"Huh?" Glyde wondered.
"Don't mind it." Roll told him.
"Alright…" He looked doubtful.
"It's no big deal, really. Don't mind it, I say." She insisted.
"If you say so, Roll – san…"
"In that case I shall go continue my patrol! And prepare a new Perfect Mathematical Sentinel Enforcer Dance of Might and Passion."
"Too long. And you're supposed to be logic-based?" Isaac sighed.
"Maybe Anderson overdid it, even." Nelaus whispered to the twins.
"Well. Can't blame the guy. He wanted something to help him take out stress of overwork so…" Netto replied.
"He surely didn't think he'd keep it around this long." Saito added.
"By the way… Any of you know a gal named Kataka? I found her on my way here and she seemed to know who I was. She tried to convince me to come to an all-girls' academy saying she'd let me join her "elite club" but something about her behavior didn't convince me."
"My ex – senpai. You did well on not listening to the gal." Tamashita rolled her eyes and sighed.
"Why's that?"
"Simple. Yuri dominatrix."
"Eh!" She gasped.
"I almost fell into her claws, too, but ran away in time."
"Heck. Now I see what that glare was. Pure unrestrained lust!"
"Indeed. Next time tell her a cop's trailing her. She'll run as fast as she can: guilty as charged. I always do it when she dares to stick out her hide around me."
"You hadn't told me, Aura – chan." Nelaus frowned.
"My bad. I thought I'd rather solve it myself. It's personal, see."
"Ah. Alright. But if it gets troublesome then…"
"I've got the mower."
"The mower?" Karazawa wondered.
"Heh! My best invention to date. It shows up, swings saw-equipped arms, and chases you flying for 1024 meters while yelling."
"Why 1024 meters?" Scherezade asked.
"I wanted to make an irony of how 1024 bytes make a kilobyte instead of 1000 bytes. You know: kilogram, kilometer…"
"Ah. When you put it that way… But does it really cut?"
"Of course not. The saws are holograms. But it does set the fear on the weakling. Tee, heh, heh." She giggled.
"Well. Charles has something he wants to tell us so we'll be going. See you on Monday. And, Karazawa – san… Beware of troll emails and of the Chip Store owner. You'll soon see the why." Nelaus warned as the guys began to head away.
"Guess that." She wasn't surprised.
"We'll make proper introductions tomorrow." Netto added.
"Bye."
"Tell Frozen Guy I want him to drop by the tree house!"
"Tooru – kun isn't your boyfriend anymore, Yaito – chan. Stop forcing him to stick around when the only thing you ever did was to bombard him with trolling." Saito grumbled.
"I knew it." Meiru muttered.
"Huh? Am I THAT readable?"
"How many years do you think I've had to bear with it? 5 years!"
"5? Thought it'd been 3."
"Times flies by faster than one thinks." Tamashita dully told her.
"By the way… The smooth brown-haired… Your boyfriend, Miss Red?"
"Nope. Got no boyfriend yet."
"The blonde is MY boyfriend!" Aura warned.
"Fine. Do they have a girlfriend yet?"
"Nope." Meiru shrugged.
Roll seemed about to say something but she quickly stopped the gesture and put up an unimpressed face yet that didn't escape Scherezade who snickered.
"Oho. That shotgun guy is your type, Miss Pink?" She snickered.
"Who knows?" She shrugged.
"The blue fellow is my boyfriend so stay away." Felicia warned.
"My, my." She snickered again.
"Uitty-uitty-whu-whu!" Someone made what seemed to be guttural-like sounds.
"What?" They all wondered.
"Mwah, hah, hah, hah. Recognize me?"
"Swallow Man next?"
Swallow Man was indeed standing atop the Cyber World jungle gym and looking down (literally) on them while sounding cocky.
"Bird Man! Your mission wasn't there!" Twilight hissed.
"B-but… It's just a stop along the way and…"
"Questioning ME? Bird Man?"
"N-no, sir! On my way, sir! At Mach 1!" He gulped.
"Hmpf. About damned time, you pigeon…"
"P-pigeon? But I'm a swallow, sir!"
"Whatever the friggin' ever! Move it, moron!"
Swallow Man quickly jumped into the air and formed a Dash Condor to ride atop and soon vanished out of sight.
"Well. That guy's also a troll but is an amateur compared to Cloud Man, anyway." Felicia shrugged.
"Guess crazy stuff does happen here." Scherezade was unimpressed.
"Ya don't know half of it." Roll shrugged.
"Fine. Let's meet tomorrow, then. Bye, chibi – chan."
"KI~H!"
"Trouble."
12:05 PM (Japan Time)…
"… And then I went and told that guy "it reeks of looted cologne"!"
"Guess it did, Charles. Can you get to the point?"
"Oh come on. Can't you try being a bit more positive?"
"It's hard to."
"And you want Twilight to get away with it?"
"Ah!"
"Thought as much… We're dancing to the guy's flute again!"
The 3 students were sharing an outdoor café table with Charles: he tried telling them a joke but the twins were hardly impressed: Charles sighed and attempted to cheer them up: he failed but when he brought up a point both gasped and Nelaus lifted his eyebrows.
"Damn it. There we were, falling for it again." Netto grumbled.
"We're not perfect." Saito reminded him.
"Yeah, but nevertheless…"
"Hey. Charles. Chapter 1 is out. Hot off the press!" Davis announced.
"Heh! Good. Let's see… What!"
"What's wrong?" Davis asked.
"Read it!"
"What! "My name is IQ. This is the tale of my campaign to become the ultimate ruler."… Does this mean that…?" Davis read and asked.
"Anaya must've struck a deal with the writer! She'll be the ghost writer and let the writer take the credit! And use this as a campaign to smear our names!" Charles grumbled.
"By all the…" The others cursed.
"What do we do? Tell the magazine to cancel the releases?"
"That wouldn't be wise. The magazine surely doesn't know about the truth of this and thinks it's all a work of fiction." Isaac warned.
"Cancelling it would be like admitting we're afraid." Blood Shadow warned them next.
"So what do we do?" Sigma asked.
"Easy. Pretend it doesn't impress us." Omega suddenly appeared inside of Netto's PET.
"Commander Omega, sir!" Both Navis saluted.
"Vadous got a hold of this?"
"Chief Lezareno got a hold of this because a worker on his department told him. Everyone if not most of the people in the "Committee" has heard of Anaya as "IQ", anyway." Omega explained.
"But if she's bothered to advertise it as a work of fiction… Then people will believe it is fiction." Blood Shadow guessed aloud.
"Exactly. So there doesn't need to be a scandal. Something tells me that if Anaya used her title instead of her name it means that she doesn't dare come out to light. And that means that she's not going to say our names… Or will use nicknames. That's Boss' reasoning for now."
"Hum. I see." Charles calmly muttered.
"Fine. So let's see what's written… "By the time I began middle school I felt like I needed to do something. But I was young yet, lacked knowledge and didn't have the slightest idea of what I should do. I decided to wait. I gained a lot of knowledge and by the time I began high school I'd reached a decision: to be the ultimate Queen. Yeah, I'm a woman, in case you hadn't noticed."… So she openly admits her gender, huh?" Davis continued reading before pausing and making a remark.
"She must believe that none of the underground lot would read this: we just happened to have heard of that author before."
"Good point."
"… "But what to do? Obviously, I wasn't gonna become something as boring as the Emperor's wife. Too boring! And besides, the guy would take all credit and I'd be just a bonus. Then I thought: there are S&M "Queens" so… Why not become the ultimate S&M "Queen"? The "Ice Queen"! That was it! But it wouldn't be so easy: of course not. Yet I was lucky. Several factors contributed to my quick rising."… Such as?"
"To be honest… I dunno. Boss never liked to talk too much about Anaya and didn't bother to dig into her past, either." Omega admitted.
"Hum. "I got a hold of a micro-robot patent. Using those I could spy powerful people and take videos of secretive deals, affairs or money-related underground businesses. Or stalk them to figure out their bank accounts and passwords. Using that knowledge, I and my pal Marcus soon amassed a considerable underground fortune. I'm talking about the period from 1996 to 1997. Yeah, in under 2 years."… So that's the origin of her dirty money: equally dirty money."
"Should've imagined it…" Omega shrugged.
"… "I decided to hide my gender and pretend to be a man using the IQ initials. IQ is usually associated with "Intelligence Quotient": I made it look I believed myself to be very smart. I used Marcus as my secretary and spokesman to reinforce the idea. I also discovered an underground boxing ring with about 10 fighters there. Ready to do anything for the highest bidder… I permanently hired them and used them to impose my authority over the underground, ceasing the pointless in-fighting between each and all of the clubs and gangs. Those who would not obey would be disposed of or, to humiliate them, tipped off to the cops. I then decided I needed a symbol of my power. So I built myself an architect Navi which I named Gateway and charged him with building me a palace."… So. Gateway instead of Gate. And Marcus instead of Marco. Vadous' hunch is proving to be correct insofar." Davis told Omega.
"Hum. So it'd seem. For now, that is." Omega looked wary.
"No wonder. You can't know what awaits us."
"Maybe those were the guys who tried to kidnap me years ago…"
"You mean those ones who assaulted one of the hideouts that that guy used back then, in March, 2005, right?"
"Yeah. I wouldn't be surprised if they were."
"They were. Our investigations later proved it." Omega admitted.
"Ah. I see. Don't feel guilty for not telling me: I didn't have any need to know it, anyway." Netto calmly told him.
"Fine."
"… "But no ordinary palace. Using secret Ameroupe military tech, I designed it to have a fusion reactor as its core and to able to achieve HEO (High Earth Orbit) in a stealth manner. And to remain parked there for months, like how submarines can travel the world for months without the need to emerge. It would also double as a prison where selected prey would be closed and trained. I made sure to hire potential S&M sadists, both women and men. But I came up with my own rules. Men could only fuck men and women could fuck both. Those were the rules within my private domains."… Hence why Twilight is a damned shotacon. The rascal told him he had to be so." Davis grumbled.
"Hmpf… Worthless…" Omega was unimpressed.
"… "Construction would take almost 3 years, from 1997 to 1999. But in the meanwhile, something would happen. Something that would mark the beginning of the "Hellfire Period". The reason for this name? The Demon Tribe was about to rise under the guidance of me, the Demon Goddess, and they would rule both the underground and the surface! And then the world would be razed by the ensuing hellfire! It would bring an end to the short Heisei Period and begin the Hellfire Period! You want to know what it is, don't you? Admit it: you want to know! But! I'm a sadist. So I'm going to deny you that desire. You'll have to wait until the next chapter. Denial play: very efficient to totally train prey whose will has crumbled and they can't live sans the feeling of being punished… Tee, heh, heh. I'm a genius and in the next chapter you'll see why. Look forward to it while trembling in fear like the coward you are! Hah!"… So… That means she's going to talk about Vadous and the others in the next chapter."
"Denial play? Sheesh." Charles grumbled.
"You can feel the villain's snicker in those words alright. I always was mistrusting of it and my hunch would turn out to be correct." Nelaus grumbled next.
"And no feeling of guilt, as usual!" Netto fumed.
"Hmpf. What were you expecting? After that of the summer." Saito growled next.
"What exactly happened, anyway?" Sigma asked.
"I guess us Navis can't understand the full implications of it. In short: it's not something to joke about." Blood Shadow dully replied.
"Yeah. It's not." Isaac's eyes burned with anger.
"Cool it. I know it was a living Hell but if we let the anger control us we're gonna end up like Vader. Although you've got to admit he was a rather poor fellow." Nelaus sighed.
"Huff. You needn't tell us." The others sighed.
"Fine. We're going to investigate the author discreetly to try to see how she gets the chapters. But if Anaya is being smart the gal's using some proxy or other means to deliver it. Speaking of which: the prison staff said they'd seen her write a lot as of late… So that's what the damned villain was writing… Stay on your toes: we can't lower the guard." Omega grumbled before he ran off.
"Another morning spoiled. Damn it all. I feel like we're being robbed of our happiness little by little until none of it remains." Netto cursed.
"Yeah. I've got that same feeling as well… No use crying over spilled milk."
"Well said. I'm going to mobilize my pals as well. Tell the Net Police. We need to search every nook and cranny." Charles stood up, nodding.
"We won't let those villains get away with it. Our word!"
All of them nodded in agreement: the hunt for the villains was on…