Under the eternal night, all was awash in a sea of light.
In a shadowy corner of the great spaceship was situated a small bar, where amidst the middling crowd a group of three friends sat about a table, chatting, drinking, enjoying themselves. The jukebox near the counter was alight with sound and color, tinny rock music blaring from its strained speakers. The bartender placed three mugs full of ice-cold, fizzy drinks on their table and returned to his station, and the trio duly took swigs from their respective cups.
They leaned back onto their seats, allowing the nonexistent liquid to soothe their throats. The drinks might be virtual, but that did not mean they felt any less refreshing.
"Another good day of work," cheered their ringleader, a man with cropped hair who sported a loose-fitting red-and-green uniform and gray boots. "Maybe tomorrow we can start moving into the dungeon near the industrial zone if everything goes well."
His companions, a slender long-haired woman and a younger boy in his teens, nodded. "It'd be nice to get that dungeon cleared by the end of the week," noted the woman. "We do have the BoB prelims to prepare for, after all."
"I'm not worried about that. Who do you think I am? I made the finals in the BoB last year!" The man laughed confidently. "Now that I've leveled up even more, I'm a shoo-in for the last thirty. On the other hand, the two of you need to put in some more work."
"You're… right," the boy muttered, pursing his lips awkwardly. "Though I don't… really mind not making the finals that much. I just like watching you fight, Kerala."
"Don't be like that, Chibiko." Kerala leaned over and ruffled the boy's hair. "I don't keep you around just so you can mooch off me or gawp at how amazing I am. I want you to do well, too. If you do good, I do good."
Chibiko's gaze lowered even further, but his lips curled upwards slightly in a small smile. "Okay."
"What about you, Hanako? I remember you made the prelim semi-finals last year."
The woman sighed. "Yeah, don't remind me about that." She rested her head on her hands, gazing wistfully at the entrance to the bar. "I screwed up against that sniper – I accidentally let her see me while I was relocating. Otherwise, I would've made the BoB finals as well for sure."
"But that sniper went pretty far herself, didn't she?" Kerala commented. "Think she made the top twenty or twenty-something in the end. What was her name? Sheen? Shino?"
"Don't remember. Don't care." Hanako waved her hand dismissively. "I won't make the same mistake again. If I see her in the finals, I'll know what to do."
"Bet. I'll be seeing you there, too." Kerala wiped the foam from his chin. "Anyway, we should think about our schedule for the week. We talked about going to the dungeon tomorrow, then if all goes well, we could try for the boss on Thursday, and then-"
His words froze in his mouth, and Hanako and Chibiko, who had been listening absent-mindedly, turned to look at him.
"…Kerala?" said Hanako tentatively.
His fingers twitched, and the mug dropped from his grasp, thudding onto the floor and rolling away from their seats. Chibiko placed a concerned hand on his shoulder, noticing that a cold glaze had crept over his eyes, and his entire body seemed to be locked in stasis.
"Kerala? Kerala!"
Without warning, Kerala's body glowed, and his form fizzled out of virtual existence, leaving nothing but a few droplets where his drink had spilled.
The two of them stood, staring bemusedly at the spot which their team leader had just occupied. "What happened to him?" asked Chibiko in a trembling voice.
Hanako shook her head. "Maybe he had something urgent to do, or someone was at the door. He lives alone, doesn't he?"
"I… think so. But I don't know where."
"Neither do I. Let's just sit and wait to see if he comes back."
They resumed their seats, glancing anxiously at the vacant couch. At any moment, they expected the smiling, hearty form of their friend to materialize, apologizing for the disruption, saying that he had something he had to do. But that moment would not arrive.
The man they knew so well, their ray of sunshine in a dark and turbulent world, was never to return again.
The rain lashed against the squad car's windows, obscuring the occupants' view of the landscape behind a deluge of water. Searing lightning arced across the sky; violent winds roared as they battered the city and its inhabitants. The car and its entourage trudged through the storm, tires scrabbling for traction on the slick tarmac.
"The cameras nearby picked up a figure leaving, but their details were too difficult to spot in the darkness." Ginoza Nobuchika closed the hologram on his wrist-link. "Our primary focus is securing the area and looking for witnesses, if there are any. We shouldn't need our Dominators, but we'll bring them just in case."
"Got it." His protégé stared ahead at the road, peering through the curtain of water, keeping her hands on the steering wheel even though she wasn't actually driving. She was a youthful specimen, the quintessential eager new recruit, but that occasionally led her into places that she ought not poke her nose into. Ginoza did not mind that too much – she would have to learn, one way or another. His only concern for now was that she keep her mind on the task at hand.
"The place is just past this exit," he said. "Tsunemori, get ready."
Tsunemori Akane, his protégé, nodded. "Alright."
The car slowed to a halt, and the two Inspectors leapt out of the car, immediately coming face to face with the full force of the elements, the unrelenting rain soaking them from head to toe. They made their way to the van, where their Dominators were already being rolled out on the rack that protruded from the side of the vehicle, and their Enforcers, shadows standing silently in the murk, awaited their next orders.
"Kunizuka, stay downstairs and watch the lobby. The rest of you, come with me," Ginoza instructed.
The Enforcers nodded, and the six of them took their Dominators and registered themselves into the neural system. It was a surreal experience, having a voice reverberate around their heads as their came into contact with their Dominators, but Tsunemori had found that even the strangest things could soon become second nature. It was a part of their job as Inspectors to expect the unexpected – after all, the expected was taken care of by the Sibyl System, that great eye in the sky.
At this time of night, there were few – if any – people out, especially with the weather being as dismal as it was, so they made it to the victim's apartment with little fuss. Pushing the unlocked door open, they were greeted by a sight to disturb all but the most seasoned of Inspectors. Tsunemori put a hand to her mouth in shock; Ginoza and the other Enforcers grimaced and clenched their teeth in disgust.
A man lay sprawled on the floor, blank eyes staring up at the ceiling, a large round hole claiming the space where his forehead used to be. Blood seeped from beneath his supine form, dousing his clothes in crimson, pooling onto the floorboards. He was twisted, curled into an unnatural posture, limbs warped by the throes of impending death.
"Looks like the killer shot him in the front of the head with a pistol, judging by the size of the bullet hole and the entry wound." Masaoka knelt beside the body and scrutinized its features. "Conventional weapons, huh? Not many of them in this day and age."
Ginoza ignored him and went over to the foot of the victim's bed, where a headband-like metal object had been discarded. "This must be the one," he said. "The console that triggered the victim's Hue alert." He turned the device around and read the manufacturer's label on the back. "'Amusphere.' Have you heard of it, Tsunemori?"
"Yeah," his charge replied. "I think it's one of the newer models. I was planning on buying one soon."
"Hmm." He disconnected the console from its wire and slipped it into an evidence bag. "Give the room a quick sweep, then we'll leave it to the forensic droids." He glanced disdainfully around the room, which was mostly filled with clutter and garbage bags. "This guy must have been a slob. Maybe he got up to his neck in something he shouldn't have been dealing with."
Nothing else of interest revealed itself, and with their job there complete, Division 01 exited the apartment and returned to their respective vehicles. It was getting late, though the squad had seen their fair share of midnight calls and all-nighters. They would make a pit stop back at the office, then call it a day.
The rain did not let up for a single moment, and so it was a relief to return to the sheltered environs of the Public Safety Bureau's headquarters, where they could dry themselves as best as they could whilst they headed up to the analyst's lab. The combination of the freezing air-conditioner and their wet clothing sent unpleasant chills rippling over their skin, but the temperature was the least of their current concerns.
"It's a nice little console, the AmuSphere," said Karanomori, the resident analyst, who had connected the device to her workstation and was busy sifting through its contents. "Runs a lot of high-end VR games, including the one this guy was playing." She pulled a screen up into view. "Gun Gale Online. One of the biggest full-dive titles around today. Any of you heard of it?"
Everyone else shook their heads.
"Thought not. Anyway, from what we know, he was in the middle of the game when someone pulled the headset off him and shot him in the head. From the looks of the room and of his body, there was a bit of a struggle, though you wouldn't be able to tell that straight away given the amount of trash there is."
"Why not just shoot him while he's in-game?" Kagari, the youngest of the four Enforcers, asked. "He's not aware of the real world when he's diving, right? If the perp wanted to kill him, he'd have been a sitting duck."
"Exactly." Karanomori twirled her finger. "There's a special motive behind the killing – it's not just your typical armed robbery. Having had a look through the victim's info, I can't find anything that might suggest he has any enemies at work, and he has no surviving family left."
"So, your guess is that the game has something to do with it," Ginoza said.
"Bingo. If we want to find out what's going on, we may have to dig into the game itself. Or rather, one of you will have to. I know how VR works, but I'm horrible at games, and I get a migraine when I use VR." Karanomori spun around in her chair and stared at Tsunemori with a grin, pointing squarely at the Inspector's face. "But I think you may be the one for the job, Inspector."
Tsunemori tilted her head in confusion. "Me?"
"Yeah. Remember that VR case, with Spooky Boogie or whatever their name was? It seems like you already have a pretty good handle on VR, unlike the rest of us, so this should be a piece of cake."
"Right, but that was a VR chatroom. Games are a different thing entirely."
"I think Karanomori is correct," Ginoza added. "We need someone familiar with virtual reality to take the lead in investigating this matter. We can research the details of the game without playing it, but that can only take us so far. It might be worth having a look in your spare time, at the very least. You can report back to us with your findings later on."
"I… guess." Tsunemori sighed in resignation. "What's this Gun Gale… game about?"
Karanomori quickly pulled up a screenshot of the game. The moment it appeared, a stab of fear pierced through Tsunemori's heart, and the ground began to melt beneath her feet.
The chrome barrel of the gun blinded her vision, not just in her eyes, but in her mind as well. A memory she thought she had already laid to rest was brought crashing back into her head. In a flash, she saw the weapon at her feet. She saw the knife at the throat. She saw the blood she had spilled in the name of mercy. She saw the life leave the eyes of one of her closest friends, of the one she loved.
It had already been a considerable amount of time since that incident, but for the darkness that lurked in the recesses of her thoughts, it seemed like no time at all. She could never truly escape the horrors of that day, even if she tried to convince herself otherwise. She would be condemned to live with it for as long as she breathed.
"It's a shooting game," Karanomori explained nonchalantly. "You fight monsters and other players, and take their stuff, basically." The analyst turned around. "Tsunemori? You okay?"
Tsunemori blinked rapidly, shaking herself out of her reverie as she noticed that the others were staring at her. "What? Yeah, I'm fine. Just a bit tired."
"It's almost midnight. Maybe we should return to this tomorrow," Ginoza suggested. "As we discussed, you should procure an AmuSphere and research the game this week – the Department can reimburse you for the cost if you want. Just a small preview, so we can understand the gist of the game's mechanisms. I'll see the Enforcers back to their quarters."
"I… Alright. I got it."
"We're counting on you." Kougami, the Enforcer who Tsunemori considered her closest friend in the Division, put a hand on her shoulder. "Don't let the guns get to you. Just take a look around and get out. That should be enough."
"Don't need you to tell me that," Tsunemori replied, though she nonetheless offered Kougami a smile. He had immediately understood what had happened to her, and as always, he knew exactly what to say. "Just leave it to me."
Kougami briefly returned the expression, then joined the other Enforcers and Ginoza out of the room. After picking up some extra information from Karanomori on the game, Tsunemori made her own way back to her office.
She had her misgivings, of course. It would be hard not to. Yet she knew that if she could not manage even this brief contact with the ghosts of her past, then she would not get very far at all. Her ultimate adversary, the silver-haired demon known as Makishima Shougo, remained at large, and if he preyed on her vulnerabilities again, she would need to be ready for it.
Just a peek, she told herself. Just a quick jaunt, so she could learn the ins and outs of the game, and bring them one step closer towards the truth behind this murder.
What could go wrong?
A/N: Just an idea I've been steaming over for some time. I wanted to write a crossover but didn't know what to go with, so I just picked the two series I'd written fics for before. This was the result.
Depending on the feedback I get, I may or may not continue writing this. So, feel free to let me know what you think.