Wing sat down in Nero's office.
"Wing, there's no easy way to say this. But there is a way that only uses 4 words, so that's probably pretty easy. Your father's mega dead. Actually I could leave out the 'mega' and make it even easier. Either way, your father is totally fucking dead."
"OK," said Wing, emotionless, "what happened?"
"An explosion at his work. You know, the way all deaths that don't leave bodies to confirm the death go."
"Can I go to his funeral?"
"Sure, it will be held in Tokyo late this week, because Tokyo is the only Japanese city anyone cares about. You can have another student accompany you, you know, for plot reasons."
"Otto," Wing replied immediately. What a surprise, it was probably a good thing that Wing had no other friends, because otherwise the plot might not work out. "If that's all, can I go back to lessons?"
"Okay, but Fanchu?"
"Yes?"
"You're one fucked up kid."
…
Otto was sitting in his room reading when Wing walked in.
"Hi Otto, guess what?"
"What?"
"My dad's fucking dead."
"Oh, holy shit dude, are you ok"
"Yeah, he was kinda a dick. Anyway, they're letting me off the island to attend the funeral."
"So you're going to China?"
"No you racist fuck, I lived in Japan. Jeez, not every Asian person lives in China. Anyway, you can come if you want to, I'm allowed to bring one other student with me."
"Hell yeah I'll come, it'll be a chance to escape!"
"Dude, I'm going to my father's funeral and you're just thinking about escaping?"
"But you said he was a dick," Otto defended himself.
"Yeah, but still, that's fucked up man. Anyway, the entire reason you'd said you'd stay last time is because I need to find out why Nero has the other half to my amulet, is that just off now?"
"Well, I just don't understand why you haven't just asked him."
"Oh my God, Otto, I can't just ask him, that would be much too straight forward and have the potential to avoid conflict."
Otto sighed, "I guess you're right."
…
Shelby and Laura were now with them, while Wing practised fighting with Raven below them, because despite not having actually done anything in the last book, Wing was suddenly worthy of one on one training with one of the most deadly killers in the world. They were practising kendo, partly because it was a fighting style, but mainly because it was Asian. And everyone knows that the only fighting styles worth knowing are the Asian ones.
"Is he ok?" asked Shelby, a hint of genuine concern betraying the fact that she was obviously Wing's love interest.
"I think so, he's pretty good at fighting," said Otto.
"No, I meant is he okay that his dad's totally dead."
"Oh, yeah, that. I don't know."
Near them, the fight ended as Raven completely fucking wrecked Wing with her cool ass kendo moves.
"I'm sorry," said Wing, "I can't concentrate because I'm more emotionally affected by the death of my father than I'm letting on."
"For God's sake Wing," Raven told him, "just further repress your emotions, nothing bad can come of it. Anyway, we'll be doing krav maga next week, it's only western Asian so obviously no one really gives a shit since it's not Chinese and doesn't have some weird philosophy going on with it, but we thought we might as well teach you at least one martial art that has some basis in real world situations."
As Wing walked over, the screen behind the group flickered into life. Why do all the screens in this place 'flicker', was that a purposeful effect? On the screen was the unmistakeable face of HIVEmind, who they hadn't seen in 6 months.
"HIVEmind, you're back!" exclaimed Laura, who's weird attraction to HIVEmind suddenly returned at full force, "how do you feel?"
"I do not feel. I am not designed to experience emotions. Or use contractions," HIVEmind said, "Mr Fanchu, Mr Malpense, please report to your quarters. Final preparations for you departure are complete." With that, HIVEmind disappeared from the screen.
"What the hell did they do to him?" asked Shelby.
"Something terrible," muttered Otto, "they turned him into a dick."
"This is all our fault," moaned Laura, "this is literally the worst thing that's happened."
"My dad's totally dead and you think a machine getting fixed is the worst thing that's happened?" Wing stormed off.
"Oh yeah," said Laura, "I forgot about that. Although that sentence would have made more sense if he'd called HIVEmind a piece of software and not a machine. Machine kinda implies a physical form."
Otto raised an eyebrow at her, "geez, now you're a dick."
Later, Otto and Wing began their journey to Japan, with Raven there to ensure their compliance, and Nero had a gut feeling that something was wrong. Not that he did anything about it.