Chapter 4: Denpa – Henkan!

10:29 AM (Japan Time), Friday February the 7th…

"… Extra! Extra! Buy Densan Times! Extra! Extra!"

"Man! That guy either doesn't sleep or I dunno. In just two nights it robbed over 10 places!"

"Maybe it's a wizard?"

"Dunno."

"… Let's check it out. I'm fed up with this "wizard" talk…"

"I also skeptical of it, Enzan – sama…"

Enzan had been walking down a street in Densan City that morning when a newspapers' kiosk owner began to try to get the attention of the pedestrians: some of them bought the newspapers and began to mutter aloud while sounding nervous at the prospect while Enzan was obviously fed up with the chatter: he bought one too and began to read it as he continued down his path.

"…Hmpf… "THE MYSTERIOUS CHARON STRIKES BACK'… Hmmm… After stealing the ancient sword exhibited at Tokyo's Culture Museum, a scroll about the code of the traditional ninjas at Hokkaido's Japanese History Museum, and the crown of one ancient emperor at Kyoto's City Museum during last night, the individual known as "Charon" has issued another message to the media. In it, he or she state that they will strike again tonight somewhere in Japan. No matter how powerful the security measures of any museum are they all end up being short-circuited and burnt whenever "Charon" appears on the scene. All security staff which has encountered the individual suffered an electrical shock and wake up with a slight loss of recent memory. The name comes from the fact that the scenes of the crime always have the name "Charon" written somewhere using a yellow crayon. The police are looking into the affair, but, insofar, there are no clues as to the exact nature of this individual and how they can rob five museums across the nation in just 6 hours last evening and the previous one…"

"Isn't it obvious, Enzan – sama, sir?"

"Yeah. "Dimensional Converters"… Golden Star speculated "Dullahan" might be using them so this "Charon" and that "Dullahan" are in league and even more with something Noir sent me over the mail yesterday: the "Dullahan" in the game Golden Sun: The Lost Age can use the second-most-powerful "Summon" in the game named "Charon" against the player's party to inflict massive and all-party damage thus adding another reason why "Dullahan" is easily one of the most frightening bosses ever fought…" He argued with Blues.

"Exactly, sir. The naming pattern cannot be coincidental, sir. I am convinced that they are in league with that "Gray" man as well and they are part of something, sir."

"Yeah. And that "something" has been clever enough to direct our attention into a ton of blind alleys. They've also been able to hide their existence from Golden Star's "System" and slipped out of the radar: this is not gonna be so nice. Golden Star made it clear from the start that they were trying to realize Serenade's visions and wishes and thus they rejected any unnecessary deletion and death too. And they've been loyal to their word. They were refreshing. A change of airs. But now these guys promise to be dangerous from the start and we could end up walking over thin ice even."

"Undoubtedly, sir."

"My, my. If it isn't our naughty boy… Ijuuin Enzan." A girl's voice suddenly rang out with a hint of sarcasm.

"Hmmm? Wait. You're…"

"Ikada Bertha. And here's Sandra."

"Yo."

"Hmpf… So… What have you figured out?"

"That you're naughty."

"And apart from that?"

"Zero has deduced that "Charon" is about 171cm tall, has good health, gives off a normal IR reading, he's a bona fide human, and can walk in long strides. He guesses his form of lifting objects and such is because he's a body builder."

Ikada Bertha showed up from behind Enzan all of a sudden but he wasn't surprised as he turned to face her.

She happened to be a woman on her early 20s and having long platinum blond hair plus eyes with blue irises to them: she had a ruthless-like figure to her.

She sported a simple green wool sweater plus navy blue jeans and a pair of black boots.

She carried simplistic-looking black handbag hanging from the right shoulder while a cobalt-colored Link PET with a golden-colored Alphabet "S" character on it as emblem was set on her arm-strap.

"Yo. And I'm Sandra."

Sandra, her Navi projected out of the Link PET with the normal-sized hologram and grinned.

Her bodysuit's main color was cobalt coupled with a golden band around the waist, golden shoulder plates and golden bracelets on both the wrists and the ankles.

Spiral-shaped magenta patterns travelled down her arms' and legs' surfaces while eight lines of the same color spread from the blackish edge of her chest emblem.

Her helmet had a ruby set on its forehead and her eyes irises' was green: her face was shaped like a woman on her late teens or early 20s and its profile had an almost smooth shape to it.

Overall she looked prideful and like she wanted to be ahead of the others given the brightness in her eyes.

"Hum. At least that's something useful. Did you detect how he moves around, anyway?"

"We believe it to be "Dimensional Converters" but he seems to use them while being literally underground so we dunno where he's picked up by those… And his random picking of targets makes it impossible to have anyone be ready on advance to seize more data… Our own data comes from one of last night's museums: we accessed their security server and we used their IR camera to figure this out." Sandra told Blues while shrugging her shoulders.

"I see."

"Hmmm?"

Enzan had distractedly stuffed his right hand on the right pocket when he noticed something which hadn't been there before: he took out a piece of folded paper which had a computer-written message recorded upon its surface.

"… "Densanville hound-sama! I'll be waiting to check what stuff ya are made of at the old video club store… Come ASAP and bring Uncle Merton's ill fortune along plus your Queen. Gray." … Gray! The culprit of the incident two days ago…! What sarcasm."

"Oh my. And he must've recognized us too."

"Stay outta this: it's my call."

"Sure, naughty boy. We'll have the "System" check on what's going over there and draw our own conclusions. See you around and try not to go too far with Wan 'cause he's my little toy-boy…" She giggled.

"Hmpf." He was unimpressed.

"See ya."

"Hmpf."

Ikada headed away while giggling under his breath while Enzan folded the newspapers and headed for the location while looking both untrusting and ready.

"Get ready." He muttered.

10:52 AM (Japan Time)…

"… And crashing goes the berserk 3:33 PM Oklahoma Express with the Alaska Express… I'm a genius!"

"There you are."

"Ijuuin! Come back from the moor, have you?"

"Shut up."

Enzan got inside of the unlit locale and found "Gray" sitting on a chair, swinging it backwards and leaning his feet atop the counter while clasping both hands behind his skull and acting just like he was the owner of the place to begin with: he still had his sunglasses on despite the low lighting and a broad grin was drawn across his face.

"Battle, are you going to?"

"Stop acting like Master Yoda." Enzan snapped.

"Oho. Hit a spot. Well then! Call me Eisei Aaron."

He lowered the feet into the ground and stood up while drawing his Link PET from the pants' right pocket and distractedly tapping it with his right hand's index and middle fingers.

"Eisei Aaron then. "Dullahan" and "Charon" are your pawns?"

"Not mine's. Aibou's."

"And who's that?"

"Uncle Moriarty's half-brother's son: his favorite half-nephew." He laughed at the joke.

"Speak!"

"Speak, have you come to?"

"GRJFTX!"

"Heh, heh, heh. That annoyed face is funny. I could stare at it all day long and not get bored - at all."

"Get to the point or I'm gonna have you kiss the concrete floor in 10 seconds' time." He icily warned.

"I'd rather invite you to become one with the counter."

"Become one with the counter? Stop screwing me."

"Discuss, have you come to?"

"I'm about to go berserk." He warned.

"Oho. The 5:55 AM berserk express?"

"T-this JERK!" Enzan snapped.

"That sounded more like ya."

"You've researched on me." He guessed.

"Yessir. Uncle Moriarty told me to."

"Where's "Dullahan"?" Enzan demanded to know.

"In your imagination, Dr. Mortimer." He laughed.

Enzan lost all patience and tried to hit Eisei but he was maddening fast because he'd already stepped three paces to the right and Enzan's impulse made him run forward and hit the counter with his legs: he groaned and turned around to try to hit Eisei but he caught his fist with the left hand and whistled a tune while looking like it was no real effort for him: he suddenly applied pressure on Enzan's knuckles and Enzan yelped: Eisei delivered him a kick to the upper torso which made him recoil and fall into the ground: Eisei stuffed both hands on his pockets and then loomed over Enzan while having a smug smile on his face.

"You started it, Mr. Anderson."

"Fuck."

"Wanna have a new-gen showdown?"

"What, a Net Battle?"

"Close, Mr. Anderson, close."

"Fuck."

Enzan got to his feet just as Eisei began to do something with his Link PET while humming a tune: he accessed a menu and selected something titled "DH" to then confirm its activation: he held the Link PET up with his right hand and forward as if to showcase the thing.

"Heh, heh, heh! Look closely! Ijuuin Enzan! Blues! Denpa – Henkan! Eisei Aaron, On Air!"

"What!"

Light began to come out of the device in the form of eight streams of dull grayish light spreading in eight directions followed by a growing sphere of energy which grew past the size of the PET and the right hand: Eisei quickly lowered it to place it in front of his chest and grinned as it kept on expanding: the light forced Enzan to close his eyes and step back while shielding them with his right arm.

"Blues…! What's going on?"

"The sphere has encompassed the guy's whole body, sir!"

"Huh… Is it me of the light is dimming?"

"It is dimming, sir, and… What!"

"Heh, heh, heh."

"Huh? E~H! W-what in the…?"

The light dimmed to reveal something shocking: where Eisei had been at now a Navi-like guy was standing there.

His face's skin color had changed to a dull olive green – like coloring and a faint black and thin line drawing of an electrical current's spectrum shaped like a triangle formed on the SW and SE corners of his face and climbed past the note until they ended slightly beneath the forehead's helmet edge.

His eyes, nose and mouth were unchanged even though the eyes' irises were of a blood red color.

His hair had become orange-colored and spread out from behind the helmet in a wild flock manner reaching until the base of his neck.

The helmet's design was peculiar: it had a form seemingly made out of a spheroid's upper half and its main color was gray: the center of it had a drawing which could be interpreted as an arrow pointing downwards which also had two small triangles popping out of the sides: it seen from above and looking from north to south it could be a cutaway silhouette of a tree as well: a golden-colored plain horn formed on the middle of the drawing and aimed upwards.

The ear-pads had two parts: they began as simple gray metallic disks attached half-way between the upper helmet and the sides of the rest of the helmet: then a dome formation sprouted from there and had a small hole cut atop it.

The sides of the helmet included two slightly curved triangles colored orange spanning past the lower jaw by a few centimeters.

His neck was protected by circular gray bands stacked one atop the other with a total of three plus a wider circle at the base of the neck.

Regarding the chest armor, it could be described as simplistic: the color of choice was gray again and the only noticeable things on it were two cavities cut on the center of it shaped after diamonds: they were red on the inside and there was a very thin black line cutting through them spanning half-way across the chest.

His arms were covered by a peculiar golden armor which seemed to reinforce their strength: each shoulder had a soup bowl – like shape along with the cover set over it: a golden horn spread from the center of the cover.

The armor then continued with a slight division drawn half-way the arm located between the shoulder and the elbow: the elbow segment happened to have a circular piece from which a curved fin aiming towards the shoulder emerged: this elbow armor could be divided in four different segments: the first one was a little piece of golden armor in the form of a circle's lower half.

It was continued by a set of three half-circular metallic bands spreading downwards until the start of the wrist.

A screw bolt's head was set half-way between the lower and upper halves of the elbow armor: a black cross was drawn on it (or rather the grooves where a screw driver would be set at) and a straight black line travelled forward from the eastern edge until the wrist.

The last part of the complicated elbow armor included the aforementioned fin.

A small segment of golden armor covered the little space between the elbow and the wrist.

The wrist and part of the hand were encompassed by one featureless metallic black circle from which his usual five fingers (covered in golden "skin") came out.

The body below the chest armor was rather plain: a central vertical stripe which contained the helmet's pattern towards the end as it reached the waist spot: it was painted gray expect on the outer edges where the color switched to purple and ran down the sides of the body including the inner surface of the legs: the outer surface was colored gray too.

His peculiar boots began just at the knee's height and had a customized design which looked like some attempt at being "futuristic" for some reason or another: their color was gray.

The reason why his boots looked peculiar was because they had a descending triangle-shaped ramp running until the ankles and with three golden buttons set in a vertical manner one atop the other near the end of the piece.

The ankles' armor was built in the manner of three purple trapezes set one over the other: the soil of the boots was also designed to have a trapeze form and painted gray.

There was something which looked a recent addition, though, and that was an emblem on the forehead which was the same depicted in Eisei's own Link PET.

"W-who the…?" Enzan finally managed to ask.

"Gray Thunderbolt." He announced.

"W-what?"

"This cool thing is named "Denpa – Henkan". Basically speaking… My organic body gets digitized thanks to a program. It's not unlike the "Cross Fusion" thing those Golden Star guys came up with. But the difference is that I ain't in need of a Net Navi to do that. I can do it on my own and whenever I wish. Oh. And I also can come into the Cyber World when I feel like it: I'm the one the Golden Star guys "felt" around the district: guess I haunt their minds." He laughed.

"Denpa – Henkan…!"

"Ah! And as you can see I'm not dependant of those "Dimensional Areas" to begin with. So I've total freedom of movements: I can also warp around and project a hologram at the same time… See!"

He formed some kind of "black hole" the edges of which rippled through the air and seemed to distort it before he vanished and one computer turned on: another "black hole" formed behind Enzan and Gray Thunderbolt emerged from it having drawn a yellow blade without hilt on his right arm which he drove through Enzan from behind but it turned out to be a hologram: Enzan turned white and his jaw hit the floor as if he'd been pierce from behind: Gray Thunderbolt vanished again and a giggle rang out from the computer.

"You smell of Laika's cheap deodorant."

"Wha~t?" He growled.

"I know he's fucked ya already."

"Damn it."

"But I couldn't care less."

"Phew."

"Come and bite me if you can, Hound of Densanville!"

"GRFJTX! Plug In! Blues, Transmission!"

Blues entered the Cyber World which had been redesigned into what looked like an installation's corridors where alarms were constantly ringing out: the sound of weapons at some distance could be heard and some bloody human corpses were spread across the ground along with spent ammunition: some tall alien corpses with bluish/greenish blood and odd weapons were also scattered around the ground too.

"Welcome to the UNSC Pillar of Autumn currently in landing approach to Installation 04, Mr. Anderson."

"What the hell is this?"

"A Covenant boarding party. Ask Meijin – sama for the details. I can't wait for the remake of this game to come out this fall. It'll be cool to see how they improve them." He laughed.

"Enough tricks! Fight!"

"Ever played Pocket Monsters?"

"Why?"

"Ever heard of Pikachu's most famous attack?"

"Huh… "100,000 Volts"…?" Enzan recalled.

"Yessir. Gray Thunder!"

He suddenly clasped both hands together and his fingers became barrels: electricity travelled down the golden arms and accumulated in the form of an spheroid which he shot into the air to then start making thunderbolts rain down around Blues surrounding him and one bigger thunderbolt hit him and he roared: he collapsed on his fours and panted as Gray Thunderbolt formed a psycho-like face.

"Impossible! One attack and Blues has lost HALF of his 2800 HP? What kind of attack was that?"

"My best shot. But don't worry. I've got plenty more stuff. Elec Sword: let's go, Blues – chan!"

"Shaddup!"

"I've got 2500 HP myself. Let's see if you are made of air or not to begin with, my fellow rebel." He joked.

"Shaddup! Long Blade, Wide Blade!"

"Cheap. Grunt's Plasma Gun! Elec Sword!"

He drew the "Elec Sword" on the right hand to block Blues' incoming attack and then formed a gun on his right hand which had a rather peculiar design: it basically was the upper half of a circle with a grip protruding out of the southern end and then having a curved magazine-like object connecting to another piece having a shorter length and a curved form: the front end had some kind of thin pillar made of energy: the gun had no obvious muzzle.

"Eat this!"

He charged up greenish plasma and shot it at Blues as he tried to deflect it with the Wide Blade which melted: Gray Thunderbolt wasted no time in bombarding him with a barrage of plasma rounds before jumping down from atop the crates he'd been standing at and suddenly dropping the gun to pick up a sword of some kind having a cylindrical handle and two slope-shaped blades made of heated up plasma aiming forward and running parallel to each other: Blues tried to use his Long Blade but it got split in half and a burning wound was opened on Blues' body: he growled and stepped back.

"Damn. I lost 400 HP! These things are overpowered!" Blues growled as he tried to ignore the pain of the wound.

"Well yeah. They're Covenant weapons after all."

"Fight like a man!" Blues challenged.

"Well… Bring it on." He challenged as he discarded the weapon into the heap of other weapons.

"Sword, Wide Sword, Long Sword! Program Advance! Dream Sword! GO~!"

"Slow."

Blues tried to hit Gray Thunderbolt with the Dream Sword but he'd fused his arms again and charged up the spheroid of energy which flew upwards and this time made nine thunderbolts rain down on Blues bringing him to his fours again.

"Fuck! I'm left at my last 100 HP!" He cursed.

"Heh! Guess you're really outdated then. This is turning boring so I'm gonna go challenge Golden Star next. See ya… Grah!"

Gray Thunderbolt had turned around to leave but Blues suddenly shot a Tank Cannon's blast at him from behind: before he could recover, though, a newly formed Dream Sword impacted on him: Blues suddenly drew the three-prong Muramasa Blade and attacked with each of them at the same time as they shone with reddish energy: Gray Thunderbolt roared from the wounds opened in his body and warped to some meters down the corridor while panting and looking at his bodily wounds.

"D-damn… I pushed him and he got desperate… And I got cocky myself, really… The Muramasa Blade…! What power…! Aibou was right on being wary about it!" He cursed.

"Hmpf! With this I've lowered your HP to around the 250 HP mark: now who's in charge?" Blues challenged.

"Crap. They've gone "Full Synchro"…" He grumbled.

"Fight!"

"Che! I won't lose so easily! Rocket Knuckle!"

He formed a copy of his forearm which incorporated a rocket and it began to orbit around Blues but he swung his blades around at a maddening speed and tore it into several fragments: Gray Thunderbolt tried to drop down from above but at that moment Blues looked up and began to attack at him: he kicked him into the floor and landed atop him while aiming the swords at his neck.

"Gonna delete me?"

"No, but that's because of my Navi program. No matter what form you lowlife take you lowlife are still a human. Navis can't harm humans directly or indirectly and you lowlife are fortunate enough to fall into that category." He grumbled.

"Heh! You'll be regretting this… But anyway it'd been bad publicity for you Cyber CID guys and Uncle Merton."

"Someone called?" Oda suddenly appeared in the real world behind Enzan while having a broad smile on his face.

"Wha! How did you…?" Enzan gasped.

"That fellow sent me a mail."

"Yeah. Let Ijuuin tell you all he's found out during this debriefing while I go hunt for hounds…" He chuckled as he managed to stand up.

"Who are you lowlife?"

"The "Seraphs"…" He grinned.

"Seraphs!" Oda gasped.

"You've heard of us, eh? Well then… No pain no gain! Ciao!"

He warped again and he was gone: Enzan pressed the "Plug-Out" button while Oda looked nervous.

"The Seraphs… We're in for a world of trouble… And here I thought this was just some Moriarty wannabe…" He muttered.

"Who are those "Seraphs", Superintendent Oda?"

"I'll prepare a meeting. I've been on their trail on certain moments over the last 10 years and they always give us the slip but the few glimpses we've had of them have been terrific enough… If they're behind this then we can expect them to make us sweat a lot."

"The Seraphs…!" Blues and Enzan muttered.

"All's changed by now… Nothing will be as it was before… And I'm afraid things will turn worse than they are…!"

14:17 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Huff, huff… Grah… Man… Jeez… Shit…"

"… Gray. What happened?"

"Huh… Aibou. I screwed it up."

"You mean to say you were defeated?"

"By that bloody three-prong thing…"

"Didn't I tell you to be wary of it? Plenty of times too."

"I know! I got confident. My fault."

Eisei made it back inside of the throne room and Kuroban looked up from a holographic screen reporting something: he sounded slightly annoyed and like a teacher reprimanding the student as Eisei dragged his feet inside and clutched his chest while panting.

"I hope you've learned the lesson, Gray. Over-confidence leads to a quick defeat and you were rude if you turned your back to him. No, not just rude. Foolish. It's a fool's choice to ignore an opponent who can still fight and is known to have done the impossible. Didn't you spend all these months studying his strategies?" He scolded as he stood up and walked down to the ground level while leaning both fists against the sides of his body.

"I know! Man! It won't happen twice! I'm just in need of some rest and then I'll begin talent-hunting…!"

"Good. Don't push your body and rest: I'll handle the people out there with some distractions. Did you tell them our name?"

"Yeah… And mister Oda realized they were in a tight spot… He's feared these guys for over 10 years already…" He chuckled.

"Hmpf… Fine… Go rest."

Eisei nodded and came out through the doors while Kuroban stepped out into the balcony and laughed aloud in a victorious tone of voice…