Dothack: Rejoinder

A Dothack fanfiction by Renfro Calhoun

Disclaimer: Project .Hack and attached concepts are property of Bandai and Cyber Connect. They are used without permission, but with the utmost respect.

Notes: Apologies for the delay; sadly, my schedule doesn't leave as much leisure time as I'd like. Like I didn't have enough problems sticking to a writing schedule, eh? Anyway, nothing major to note here apart from Dean being all sleuthy and struggling with the vagaries of another country's cartoons. We'll start to see stuff get crazy in the next couple chapters, so do stay tuned, and I'll do my best to write faster ^^

Onward!

New Leads

From: DStollis

To: Kite, Balmung, Orca, Sanjuro, BlackRose, Crim, BT, Kamui Subj: Sitrep

I went over the logs from last night and compiled it with my notes, and here's what we have so far: Kazushi Watarai (AKA Albireo) was working on something called Lycoris, apparently some... thing inside the game world; the woman I spoke with suggested it was some kind of rogue AI, separate from the Wave and Morganna and such. He butted heads with a few people on staff, and this is apparently where concerns over the long-term stability of The World began.

Apart from the still mysterious circumstances of Albireo's departure, I don't have anything personally to suggest foul play, or at least nothing that gives me a suspect. However, in light of what Poet said last night, we must still consider the possibility that something, or someone, is tailoring this infection to our behavior. I want everyone on their guard until we can figure out whether to trust her or not, and especially so if she's telling the truth.

I'm returning to Cyber Connect HQ to follow up on a few leads. As your administrator friend Kamui suggested, see if you can take down more bugs and use that data to track more. Beyond suppressing the infection, knowing how it works may give Lios and company a clue as to where and how it started.

Good hunting!

- Dean

"What do you have so far?"

The chair groaned a bit as Dean sat down in it. He folded his hands on Francis' desk and cleared his throat, careful to keep his voice down. "Nothing that links anybody to the virus, unfortunately. However, I'm getting a better idea of why Albireo fingerquotes-left."

Francis leaned forward, glancing at one of his colleagues as the man passed by his office window. "Go on."

"Nina mentioned he was working on something called Lycoris; she described it as some kind of rogue AI fragment that preceded the Wave. She said he butted heads with your man Tokino on the occasion, especially where system administration is concerned."

"I know only a little about Lycoris, but there have been doubts about our security from the beginning." Francis shrugged. "To be honest, I can see what they mean."

"Yeah. Anyway, Tokino didn't openly advocate cutting The World either," Dean continued, "but he did use Watarai's work as evidence that security wasn't up to snuff. The Twilight incident proved that it wasn't a one-off, and it sounds like he was suggesting it could happen again."

The older man palmed his chin thoughtfully. "That sounds like the same thing Nina was saying."

"I get the impression they're coming from two different angles, though. Nina seems more neutral. The way Junichiro put it, she wouldn't bring it up unless she thought the concern was real." Dean paused. "I could be wrong, we didn't get to talk for long."

"I see. And Tokino?"

Dean reclined in his chair with a sigh. "He's hiding something. He didn't mention his little arguments with Watarai. Why, I don't know. I was planning on bouncing that off him, if he's here today."

"He is, but..." Francis spun around in his chair, facing the sunlit Tokyo skyline. "It would not reflect well on me if I let an unsupervised American from outside the company just wander around our building questioning our employees."

The detective held up his hands in defeat. "I get it, I'll go back down and leave a message with the secretary."

"You misunderstand," said Francis slowly, deliberately. "I'm simply saying that if a person happened to overhear that Mr. Igarimatsu's office is one floor down, room 717... well, that person would have to be very careful."

Dean couldn't see the vague, crafty crook in his lips, but the message went through loud and clear. "I'm sure they will be," he said in a low voice. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it," said the administrator, facing Dean again. "I should tell you that Vice President Lee has taken an interest in your visits here. He'll probably haul me into his office the second he sees your name on the visitor list."

"I have that effect on people," Dean said flatly.

"Heh," Francis scoffed. His face then straightened out, the look in his eyes more serious. "Just watch your back."

"Will do. Thanks, Frank. Can I ask you one other thing?"

"Shoot."

The detective's tone changed from serious to silly, and he looked awkwardly off to one side. "Well, this is gonna seem kinda random, but last night I fell asleep watching some anime they made, like, years ago, and I wanted to ask you about..."

"Ugh," Francis groaned, palming his forehead. "Just spit it out, Dean."

"What the hell is 'I'm the bone of my sword' supposed to mean?"

The administrator stared at Dean, puzzled. "Did they mean bane?"

"Nah, he definitely said bone."

"Probably just a mistranslation."

"Ah-huh. Interesting." Remembering what he came to the office for, he cleared his throat and straightened himself out. "All right, I better get going. See you, Frank."

Francis waved to Dean as he excused himself, standing up and taking his leave from Moritsu's office. Doing his best to look casual, he made a beeline for the nearest staircase and pushed the door open.

His footfalls echoed up and down the staircase as he descended. He started to feel nervous, wondering if someone was going to call him out the second he set foot on the floor. What do I do if he's not there? he thought. Gonna have to think of something. And I'll need an excuse if I'm caught.

Arriving at the seventh floor landing, Dean casually slipped through the door, watching all around him for any passers by. Finding himself alone, he braced the door with an arm and let it close quietly, and he immediately started scanning nearby offices. Improvise, silly. What you do best.

He followed the numbers along taupe walls and wooden doors, counting down from 730. A few heads turned from nearby cubicles and offices, but looked back down in disinterest. The hall was clear, barely a soul in sight and little but the clacking of keyboards to be heard. Still, he felt apprehensive as he passed under an ominous black globe concealing a security camera. He couldn't help but brace himself for a shouted order to stop, a hostile interrogation by a suspicious guard or officer, the Japanese equivalent of "stop right there, criminal scum!"

721. 720. No order came. He sidestepped a ladder and toolbox set up under a darkened light fixture, with no one around to work on it.

C'mon man, loosen up. You broke into this place before, remember? You saved their asses and security's on your side. This is your house. 718. 717. Let's pick this guy's brain some more.

Dean's anxiety was wasted; Tokino's office was lit and open, but empty. He let out a deep sigh and muttered, "Swell."

A thought crossed his mind, and he looked at the nearest cubicles: both were vacant, and nobody else was nearby. Yeah, this is going to do wonders for my reputation. Eh, what the hell. He took a deep breath to calm his nerves, and entered Tokino's office.

His eyes swept the threshold, finding few noteworthy details: business degree on the wall, personal photos filling a shelf, a couple unmarked binders on a small table. Tokino's desk was a mess of indecipherable paperwork, and Dean was wary of disturbing the pile too much. Instead he grabbed a few clean post-its and went for the phone.

Snapping a pen off the desk, he hit the menu button and began cycling through incoming call records. At first only internal extensions showed up; he scribbled down a few of the more frequent ones, putting hash marks to indicate how many he saw. In barely a minute he reached the end of the record, a scant 30 calls, and had only three actual phone numbers.

Now for outgoing. He pushed another button and repeated the process, flying over the black text on the green LED screen. Starting a fresh post-it, he found a match with one of the incoming phones, and drew a quick circle around it.

A few minutes passed, and nobody was the wiser. He carefully put the pen back atop the paperwork and stuffed the notes into his pockets. Might be a dead end, but it wouldn't hurt to know who he's been talking to.

The detective wandered away from the desk, one eye on a nearby wall clock. "Wonder where he went," he said under his breath. "Can't stand here all day."

Voices from outside the office startled him, but one speaker sounded familiar. He spoke in Japanese, but the words were slow enough for Dean to translate: "Just tell them it won't be ready until at least Friday. We're still gathering information."

"Okay, I'll see you later," said another voice, walking away. Dean guessed the former was Igarimatsu, and sure enough, the bookish human resources chief appeared through the dooray. Dean started towards him to give the impression he was just leaving.

"Oh, hey!" said Dean with feigned surprise. "Sorry, I was just seeing if you were in today."

Toki didn't flinch at the detective's sudden appearance in his office, still absorbed in the clipboard in his hands. "Detective. I didn't know you were coming."

"I was in the neighborhood," he said quickly, his mind working with uncommon haste to generate an excuse to be here. "Long as I was here, I wanted to thank you in person for putting me in touch with Ms. Chinari. You didn't have to do that, and it was a big help."

"Of course, you're quite welcome, Mr. Stollis," said Tokino. Although he sounded surprised at the detective's words, if he believed them he didn't acknowledge it beyond a simple nod. "Was there something you needed?"

Dean stowed his doubts for the moment, adopting a polite facade. "Actually, I did have a question. Just one, if you have a second. If you're busy, though, it can wait."

Toki 'hmm'ed to himself, walking around Dean towards his desk and refocusing on his clipboard. "Go ahead," he said without looking up.

"Nina mentioned Lycoris, and said you and Watarai had disagreements over it. WOuld you be willing to elaborate?"

"In what way?"

"She said you had concerns about whether security could handle the problem."

Toki sat down slowly, and looked up at Dean again. He said nothing right away, instead turning the clipboard in his hands and sliding it towards Dean on the desk. He motioned to the chair in front of him. "Have a seat, please. There's something I'd like to show you."

Off put by the sudden change in demeanor, Dean obediently sat in the chair as Toki continued. "These numbers will be reported to the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Weelfare by the end of this week, two days from now. They'll likely be in the papers the day before. Please, have a look." He nudged the clipboard for emphasis.

Dean picked up the document and scanned it. The numbers may as well have been Greek to him, but the headline told part of the story. "'Pension and Benefits Payouts by Month, Fiscal Years 2010 and 2011,'" Dean read. "Walk me through the numbers."

"The numbers indicate a spike in long-term medical and disability payouts throughout the years, coinciding with the resurgence. There are earlier trends, but this is when they became more pronounced." Toki's tone grew icy. "Good men were hospitalized for months or longer thanks to this mess. As you can imagine, that can be quite costly over time. While it may seem callous to worry about the money, someone has to. You see, when your employees fall comatose in large numbers, well... let's just say Social Insurance starts asking a lot of pointed questions."

Dean quietly took in the data, rereading the document in his hands. Some of the numbers grew clearer, and as Toki suggested they showed a surge in disability claims and payments; a painful one, if he understood the figures correctly. "I'm with you so far."

"This created an accounting nightmare. While our actual coverage hasn't suffered - yet - this still adds up to a sizable amount of money from a pool that's been underfunded for years. Add to this a major selloff in response to our internal... difficulties, and you have an investment profile that can charitably be described as toxic. Smaller companies would have folded by now, and not much smaller to be sure."

Toki held out his hand, motioning for Dean to return the clipboard. Taking it back, he added, "And then there's the human cost, Mr. Stollis, which is what I'm most concerned with. Empty cubicles with no clear explanation. Panicked, tearful phone calls from friends, family, loved ones. People dying, detective, dying over a game."

"You don't need to tell me that part," Dean said glumly.

"I'm sure I don't. Nevertheless, to answer your question I felt Watarai's reports, especially Lycoris, were simply a sign of things to come. Watari did indeed care about The World, but he wanted more men and resources to investigate from within and I feared this would be putting them at risk. In light of prior incidents, I felt that risk was too great; the virus and the AI fragments were things we didn't know we could counter, and I felt a more conservative approach would be wiser."

"He disagreed?"

"Amicably, to be sure." Toki gave a bitter sigh. "As it was, I felt our administrators were incapable of dealing with the threat at the time, and also that the threat was both widespread and recurring. Watarai was able to handle Lycoris with the help of a handful of players - he mentioned one by name, Hokuto - but he never spoke much of it beyond that."

The name rang a bell with Dean, but he let Toki continue. "This did prove it was possible to contain the problems, but it and the resurgence supported the other half of my theory; that more were on the way."

"So in short, you're saying you felt your men could only delay the problem," said Dean. Of all things, memories of role-playing games flashed through his mind; of the thousand-year trope where the demon or whatever could only be sealed away, never killed. At least until the band of spiky-haired teenagers shows up to do it right. Heh, that actually works on a couple levels here.

"Somewhat, yes. That, I'm afraid, was our disagreement. I don't know if it's related to why Watarai left, but as time went on the costs got harder to justify. And who'd want to work on a product that breaks even more every time it's fixed?"

The point hit its mark, causing Dean to shift uncomfortably in his seat. He was silent for a while, head lowered in contemplation. "I see," he mumbled. "All right. That makes sense, then. Thank you for your time."

Tokino relaxed a bit, and nodded to the detective. "Certainly. If you'll excuse me, I have some work to do."

Dean pushed away from the desk, standing up. "Of course. Oh, one more thing. I wanted to ask Nina one more question, do you happen to have her extension?"

"Sure, it's 5725. She's not in today, but just leave something on her voicemail. She'll get back to you."

"Sounds good. Take it easy, Tokino."

The thin-faced chief smirked. "You too."

Hands in his pockets, Dean left the office, his fingers grazing the post-its he'd hastily grabbed. Well, his concerns seem legit. Can't fault him for being skeptical. But if Nina's just reporting the facts and Toki's just worried about staying in budget and keeping his people on their feet... I dunno. I'm missing something, I just know it.

Dropping the pretense of hiding, he headed for the elevators. Either someone's lying to me, or this thing's the real deal. And if he's right, then this whole thing could get a lot worse real soon.

"Fan out! Go for the body!"

Spear, sword, and daggers whipped through the air as they chopped at the massive stone beast. Lines of code flared up upon impact, concealing and regenerating each injury. The golem reared a fist back and threw it at the ground, causing the three players to scatter as the grassy plain was pulverized.

Kamui slid backwards several paces, spinning her spear and bracing herself for another lunge. She saw Kite duck back in and dance under the monster's swing, slicing quickly but fruitlessly at the hacked monster. Opposite him, BlackRose flipped head over heels and drove her massive blade smack into its arm, and the blow would have severed the hand of a normal creature of its type.

The report came early in the morning: several bug sightings spread out across multiple servers. The outbreak was worrying, but to Kamui for a different reason than the obvious one. We just happen to need to kill some of these, and look what shows up the next day. That's a little too convenient.

Although not in the game, both Kite and BlackRose had been online and at the ready. Kamui was quick to isolate one of the bugs specifically for Kite, and requested to form up and observe him taking the beast down.

She wound up with her spear, a custom weapon courtesy of system administration with quite literally the highest stats possible. It was little consolation as she drove it home; a large, red-colored number popped up from the golem's chest as she landed her strike, but its hit point counter merely changed from one set of random symbols to another. Fixing her jaw in place, she withdrew her spear and thrust again.

BlackRose jumped to her right, narrowly dodging another overhead smash. With no small amount of finesse, she then raked her blade along the monster's arm, carving a deep, jagged hole from hand to elbow in one smooth swing. "Come on, break down already!" she growled, righting her blade for another swing.

The golem's attention centered on the Heavy Blade, giving ample opportunity for Kite to jump at its back. Launching into a stacatto specialty, Kite bounced back and forth between strikes, practically leaping from one leg to the other as his blows landed. The creature was simply too slow for the three fighters; victory was only a matter of time.

Sure enough, as Kite finished a dramatic aerial spin away from his target, a bright green globe encircled the golem. "It's broken!" shouted BlackRose, stating the obvious. "Finally! Let him have it!"

Kamui backed up, keeping the monster well within her field of vision. Offline, her player flicked through the display, ensuring that the recorder was running. As before, lines of code stretched across the screen, ensnaring and tightening around the monster's hacked shielding. She saw Kite appear to hover as shards of green spun around his arm, arranged as if a bracelet. The shards pointed outward, and the lines pulsed; the field cracked and thundered as the corrupted code was blown away, and Kite abruptly dropped to the ground.

The grassland was quiet save for the annoying, repetitive battle music playing in the background. Kamui ignored it and charged back towards the monster, though she did notice Kite struggling for breath.

BlackRose struck on her side as Kamui lunged towards the golem's belly, and both warriors landed their strikes with deadly accuracy. Their Twin Blade companion barely had time to rejoin the fray and land a strike of his own before the rock monster had been crippled and disemboweled.

Its hit points exhausted, the golem tumbled back to the earth, its component rocks vanishing as they broke up and rolled away.

"Not bad," said Kamui, acknowledging Kite. "Not bad at all."

Kite smiled. "Thanks. Were you able to record what you needed to?"

"I should have, yes. I'll run the recording in a bit and isolate the residual data, and this should give us an idea of what to look for."

BlackRose watched as the last few rocks disappeared. "It's strange that so many would appear all of a sudden. Have any other fields been corrupted?"

Kamui glanced over at BlackRose, surprised that the girl shared her suspicion. "No, so far server integrity hasn't changed. We'll know later if this is a temporary surge or evidence of a larger outbreak. Hopefully this data will help us track it."

"Unless we're being watched, like that Poet player said," BlackRose replied.

"Even if we are, there's no way to know right now," said Kite. Looking thoughtful, he added, "although it would help if we knew who she was. Then at least we'd know if we could trust her or not."

Shouldering her spear, Kamui turned from BlackRose to Kite. "Well, she said she wasn't Hokuto, who's one of the few I knew for sure worked with Albireo. Chinari stopped by my desk the other day when I saw you with her at the tree, and she's the only other person I'd suspect. It has to be someone else."

"I wonder..." BlackRose said quietly.

"Hmm?" Kamui blinked at her.

"Oh, nothing," the Heavy Blade tried to wave it off.

Kite wasn't deterred. "What's on your mind, BlackRose?"

"Honestly?" she asked. "I'm starting to wonder if Poet's even a normal player."

"What do you mean?"

BlackRose let her sword fall to her side, the tip just touching the ground. "Well, Dean's email said that Lycoris thing Albireo was working on had something to do with AI, right? And... I mean, The World has had characters playing with their players hospitalized, hasn't it?"

Recollections flitted through Kite's mind: the showdown with Corbenik; his friend Orca, BlackRose's brother Kazu, and countless others appearing to help them fight. He heard stories of earlier events, of a Wavemaster trapped in the game and confused by Morganna as the player lay comatose in a hospital. "Yeah... yeah, you're right."

The Long Arm craned her neck skyward, mulling over the possibility. "I suppose we really don't know who or what we're dealing with, do we," she said under her breath. Louder, she added, "In any case, I'll get to work on the data. Good work, and thank you both for the help."

The words seemed stiff but sincere, and Kite replied with a friendly, enthusiastic nod. "Glad to help!" he said to her, throwing a smiley face at the end of the text box for emphasis.

BlackRose swore she saw the Long Arm roll her eyes before gating out, and for a moment she recalled taking orders from an older, fatter administrator. This is bringing back all sorts of memories, she thought bitterly.

"We should get back to town," said Kite. "You still have studying to do, don't you?"

"Huh? Oh, right," BlackRose fumbled, pulled back from her thoughts. She turned towards Kite's smiling face, and felt herself brighten a bit in response. All sorts of memories, she repeated, a touch happier. "Guess it'd be too much to hope for to get this sorted out in time for my exam, would it?"

Kite chuckled, shooting her a smiley. "Hey, you can always hope."