AFTERMATH: HACK
Part 2 – The Never-Ending Tale
Chapter 23 – Instigation
Kengo
.
Of course Revolver knows how to contact him. He's done so before, called him out to Link VRAINS and duelled him. Lightning has done so as well.
He's upgraded his security, of course, but Revolver's either stepped up his game or left a backdoor. Either way, there's a message from him. Even if all it's doing is confirming what he'd already known.
He wonders what took Revolver so long. If it took him nearly a week of comparing codes, it should have taken Revolver – who not only had been involved in the original creation, but also had the advantage of more data – at least half as long. And as he scrolls through the rest of the message, he realises the reason behind the delay. Revolver had tried and failed to stop the process. Was now focusing on circumventing it.
And he was going to give the Dark Ignis back to Playmaker. That's the height of foolishness.
Which means it's up to him to stop the evolution of that code before it reaches the point of manifestation. And that's probably Revolver's intentions, but he can't help but dance in the palm of his hand this time. He won't accept their return so blatantly. Revolver may have other priorities but not him.
And now that he isn't alone in this endeavour, he'll be even more effective.
He calls Emma. Emma who is surprised at being called instead of being the one to call, but she sobers up quickly when he explains why.
"Ai and Aqua were kind of cute," she says, disguising her regret in a seemingly off-hand comment, "but I get what you mean. We don't need more tragedies, and maybe it's too soon for such drastic change."
He resists the urge to snort at that; it's always too soon for drastic change as far as humans are concerned. Somehow they make do anyway. And maybe they could have adapted if forced to. Maybe, even after the bloodbath Ai talked about, the few humans left over would have found peace.
It was always easier to find peace with smaller groups, after all. Less likely for there to be a rotten grape in the bunch.
Still, Emma is helping, and it's hard to get the Zaizen siblings on the job either. The three of them were a formidable team back in the day, even if none of them had admitted it. They'd had different methods, different moralities – and they'd conquered every foe they'd stood against. One could even argue that recent events were no different – but it hurt his pride to admit they'd have been screwed over without Playmaker.
Playmaker who probably wants his Ignis back right now, but Kengo can't afford that sliver of pity, won't give him that sliver of pity. You're better off without it, now. At least there was a chance, in absentia, of putting demons to rest.
How could one put demons to rest if they lived on in one's duel disk?
But as much as he tried – as much as they tried (and he even used a few of his precious sick days to buy more time) – the code evolved.
It was getting close. Too close.
And then there is another message from Revolver. Any luck?
No, he replies, and he's not even sure the reply will go through because Revolver is as paranoid as they come and hiding one's IP address is one of the basics of hacking. Or maybe he's managed to set up an untraceable account.
Or maybe it's just worth the risk, at least until Kengo needs to expose him. Because even if SOL Technologies – if Zaizen Akira – has given up chasing him, there are others: politicians, businessmen, other business, who still bray for his blood. And they'll pay a pretty yen for it.
The Ignis is a personal issue, though. And maybe he'll come to understand Emma's own stance on Playmaker in the process.
But in the meantime, he's had no luck and neither has Revolver.
The other Ignis are reforming as well, said the next message. I told you only the Dark one to see if you could find a way to stop it.
He can replicate it, speed the process up – as if he'd one to do that, but all attempts at stopping and deleting the code is thwarted.
You've brought a couple more days, though.
He had? Well, that was useless… unless –
I've completed locks. How long they'll last though…
He grimaces at the taste of cold coffee and gets up to make a new cup. So Revolver has completed the locks he talked about… but with the Ignis constantly self-improving, how long before the lock is no good?
Pandor is a piece of work, but she's got limiters built into her very core. The Ignis didn't come with such things, and restricting fully developed adults is harder than influence malleable children.
That gives him an idea. Memories is the name of the game, perhaps: memories, all the things they've learnt since forming in the world. There's ways to see them. There's also ways to hack them as they saw with Bohman. He'd put on too good an act to fool Playmaker, otherwise.
And he's left the memory data alone after seeing that duel against Playmaker.
But now he can expose all of Ai's machinations. Even if the memory data is useless in influencing Ai, it will no doubt influence Playmaker. He's out of time to find the delete button, but until the dark Ignis redevelops its defences, he can do this.
Painstakingly, he records the memories, one after another. First is the duel itself, of course. Then, scrolling back, there are other duels, other conversations. He sees how that duelling house robot came to be – and how ironic that it was Playmaker's as well. Playmaker's innocent robot housekeeper dragged into the war between Ignis and humanity. He wonders idly if Playmaker has family, if they managed to avoid being dragged into it.
But that's a foolish notion, he thinks afterwards as he remembers the Lost Incident. Of course Playmaker's family is involved: in the past, if not in the present.
And then they go beyond the battle against the dark Ignis. He sees the tall SOLtis standing at a grave. Sees five symbols on the grave marker. It doesn't look like anywhere in Link VRAINS. Perhaps that's the Cyverse world. He flags that file anyway, in case there is still a way to reach it, still something to be found there.
And, a little further back, he finds the simulations. Hundreds upon hundreds of simulations. He sees one lone Ignis and human attempt to guide humanity. He sees how premature it is, how scared people are and how that fear grows when the Lost Incident and all the terrors of Link VRAINS are exposed. He sees Ai make promises he can't keep. He sees how the copies of the Ignis stumble, how they aren't perfect in preventing new tragedies. How, eventually, the world governments decide they need to be destroyed. How one high school boy thinks he can stand up to them and is shot down like a bird in a flock. How, that, somehow, winds up the trigger for an all-out war.
That boy must be Playmaker, he thinks. He pauses the recording, zooms in and tries to clear up the image. Still green eyes: the same green as Playmaker. The body shape is harder to work out with the uniform in the way. That's the same uniform as Zaizen Aoi's school. And the hair… is that blue and red? No, blue and –
He curses and disconnects the portable hard drive as static fills the screen. The Ignis' defences are restored, it seems. He won't be able to connect to the network with that drive, anymore.
He's got some things, though. Whether he can do anything with them is another story.
His monitor screen goes dark, except for the symbol as it searches and purges his history, his coding, his work. But everything that worked is in the drive and he clutches it with both hands, as though the Ignis can reach into a screen and grab him.
Didn't Playmaker say something similar, when they first met?
But the screen eventually fades, with no disembodied arms reaching out for the hard drive.
He sighs: first in relief, then irritation, and calls Emma again. "We're out of time. The Ignis' defences are restored. Pull your data."
"Damn," she grumbles. He can hear the sound of something being ejected and something else typed. "Thank goodness for portable drives, these days." There's a pause and a shuffle, then she adds: "I've let Akira know too."
"Good." Because Akira may have hired him once, but he's been Emma's client far longer than that. Client, ally, friend, whatever those two wanted to call it.
And as for the Ignis… Revolver's messages are gone as well. He hopes the other is keeping a sharp eye on his Ignis-related data or else they've lost their consolation prize as well.