The Great Adventures of 207

by Mind's Odyssey

(AU) Characters are in the real world, and the main characters are school detectives. Nemix (OC), with Zexion, Roxas, Axel, Demyx and Xion, solve every mystery and case like going on adventures. Rated T for some language, some violence. May contain some social/sensitive issues one might be offended by, some very mild suggestive themes. View full picture at DA!

18. Invisible Invasion

DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING EXCEPT A PART OF THE PLOT!

Chapter 18 – INVISIBLE INVASION

I was quite excited today. Why? Because on last Tuesday, we finally finished off PMR for good! Holy bananas, I finally made it to the end… It truly wore me and my poor neurons out… After ten months of suffering and agony, I could finally not pick up textbooks or notes for once. Of course, Organisation XIII was delighted too, even Roxas forgot his "promise" to burn his History textbook (luckily he did not burn it, or else he might be stabbed by Miss Larxene). For now, everyone came to school just for the sake of it; aimless. So as not to let us get bored and get crazy ideas to create chaos, the school organised butt tons of activities to keep us busy.

This led nicely to my earlier statement "I was quite excited". Since the school insisted that it was democratic, so a list of activities was disseminated to us for reference, and we were to choose up to three top choices. The school would then collect the responses and allocate us into different activities. By now, the list was in my hands. I grabbed it over eagerly and surveyed the listings. There was a myriad of choices, like languages, STEM, arts, living skills etc. Anything you could think of, they might have it. They really seemed to be scared of us dying of boredom… I thought through every option, facing tough decisions. In the end, I eliminated some choices. My first choice was… Home Economics. Hey, do not laugh at me and just listen first; it was a very important surviving skill; cooking, sewing and whatnot. I had to leave home at some point for education or career purposes, so I had to be at least a bit savvy about it, right? One, I could save money. Two, I could eat healthier. And I could eat whatever I wanted, however I wanted, whenever I wanted; I called the shots. And do not give me the whole "Home Economics are for girls, so it is not surprising if I chose it" bull. Personally, I supported gender equality. House chores were for everyone in the house; a family. Why should a man only work and put food on the table, while women should only serve her husband and children and worry about housework? Family with both working parents were ubiquitous nowadays, women were not born to respawn in kitchens and limited within the house; they were also capable to pick up responsibilities in building nations and supporting families. Therefore, it was about time for husbands and children alike to take a load off the shoulders of the people who quietly worked behind the scenes, no? Never take the dishes laid out before you, the squeaky clean floor you stepped on when you returned home, the tidy comfortable bed, and everything done for you for granted. Furthermore, my only "cooking" skill was boiling water. I never had a chance to actually cook anything, so this was naturally a great opportunity for me to have fun.

OK, I droned on for too long, next! The second choice was Japanese Culture. To tell the truth, I was always interested in joining the Japanese Culture Society, but due to the schedule clashes, I would miss the society activities after my martial arts classes ended, so I had to give up. Japan had left a very deep impression in me since my early childhood. Although the first things I came across were anime and manga, and then JRPG, these were only superficial knowledge of the country; a tip of an iceberg. I always wanted to learn Japanese. However, I did not have the time, so I had to give that up too. Luckily I got to visit Japan for a longer period of time earlier, or else I would not get over my regrets. I hoped I could come into contact and understand more of Japanese culture this time. Lastly, I picked Mathematics as my third choice. I was once the girl who never understood Math, but after I started improving by leaps and bounds in 8th Grade, my interest in Math rose all the way to that of a nerd. You could say I could not get my mind off of it. The only cure was to solve more mathematical problems until I exhausted myself. And that was why I chose it.

I checked three times, afraid of making the wrong choices out of overexcitement. I handed the form in after I was satisfied with my decision, and returned to my seat and read with a smug expression. Recently, I asked Zexion for his opinion on good reads. He understood me very well; he found a manga titled "Persona 4". The story was rather good, it was just that the school forbade anyone from bringing manga to school, so I could only read it online at home. The story was about high school students investigating the mysterious disappearances and murders in their town while gaining the abilities to summon Personas. It was exciting and hilarious. Nevertheless, the manga had only two volumes published so far, and I also could not wait to find out what happened next, so I watched the original game's playthrough online instead, since the game came out before the manga did. And I spent hours on end laughing at my monitor screen. I was almost mistaken as a maniac. The one I was reading right now was "XX Country Treasure Hunt Adventure", borrowed from the school library. This was a comic series with at least a dozen treasure hunt adventure stories in different countries. Zexion thought my temperament resembled that of the series' protagonist. When he read it in a bookstore, he thought of me immediately, hence the recommendation. I was about to get mad at him for making fun of my behaviour, but since the plot was interesting, thrilling, educational and funny, I decided to let him off the hook. I also borrowed a novel titled "Indiana Jones and The Lost Crusade" as the next one to read in my queue, and I found playthrough videos of "Uncharted: Drake's Fortune" and "Uncharted 2: Among Thieves" online… Hoo boy, this was getting fun!

Speaking of Zexion, he did keep his promise; he prepared pasta enough to feed nine people for our lunch. And they were all different dishes, matching the preferences we mentioned in that conversation some time ago. He did not voice it, but I could tell he had gotten out of bed earlier than usual to cook, and he prepared so many different pasta sauces and garnishes (it was obvious from taste that they were not ready-made from cans or bottles), loaded them into nine lunch boxes and brought them all to school. We thought he started a food delivery business… Zexion looked tired, but when he saw us (especially Axel) digging in happily, he did not say much but watched contently while savouring in his hard work. Truly a stay-home dad if he wished to be one… Thanks a bunch, Zex!

Such a rare sight, was it not? Everything happened since last year rose and dipped like a rollercoaster, and we finally had some actual happy, relaxing moments. We were not given any missions or tasks, so our days were easy. And now when we saw our 11th Grade seniors busying around for their high school leaving exam, SPM, we could only provide moral support… Good luck, they were going to need it.

However, there was a saying; no one was fine for a thousand days, no flower was red for a hundred days. Good times never lasted long. Sometimes, the ones above just did not like seeing you being happy, and purposely picked the wrong time to ruin your day.

Right now, my facial expression was as foul as humanely possible, and I did not utter a word. With a stony glare, I scanned the paper in my hands before me. This was the form I submitted three days ago, and it was returned to me just now. It held the results of the post-PMR activity allocation: I was not allocated to any of my top choices, I was instead sent to… the computer class. That was barely tolerable, but what angered me was the allocation feedback: 1) First choice: This activity was reserved for students from the last three classes. As it was not necessary for you to participate, we regret not being able to fulfil your wish; 2) Second choice: After consideration, the school decided to cancel this activity due to lack of manpower and it being a non-essential activity; 3) Third choice: This activity was only for students with potential to take part in Olympiad Maths, therefore it was reserved for students from the first class, your application and performance was deemed undesirable in elimination rounds, and you lacked Olympiad Math participation experience.

I would let you be the judge; what was this nonsense? If they did not want everyone to sign up for an activity with restrictive criteria, then bloody write that down when I first applied! How dare they misuse my trust in them… and how dare they discriminate me? On what grounds did they say I had no potential (although I was not interested in going to Olympiad Maths at all…), just because I was not from the first class? Also, who the hell said culture was non-essential? Why did they only focus on academics? A smartass without culture was useless either way! Goddammit! What were they trying to do, putting me in the computer class? To mess with me? All of us had to attend computer lessons in school back in 7th Grade, and it was boring as heck, and now they thought I was not bored to death yet? I had nothing against computers, but I hated sitting in front of one all day doing nothing but stuff I did not like to do!

Once I finished reading the feedback, I tossed the paper into my drawer, pretending it did not exist. I then stewed in my pent-up anger. Demyx and Roxas were probably intimidated by my unwelcoming aura, so they did not dare to ask me what happened. This state of mine continued for about half an hour, after which I started taking out the library book to read, trying not to think about the activity for now. I did forget about it after a few days, until the school's PA system reminded us a day before the activities commenced. I could only sigh.

The day after, I arrived at the computer lab unwillingly, the teacher let us sit at our respective seats after taking attendance. We had one computer set each. What baffled me was Roxas' absence; I heard him announcing excitedly about joining the computer class, but he did not show up. Did he not get what he wanted too? The teacher started a long and boring speech, something about us, the elite class students, having to have strong computer skills, how this activity was specifically designed for us, and how the country's future depended on us… Oh, so it was unimportant if my Math skills were poor? In computer class, I was an "elite class student", and I was nothing outside of the computer lab, and there was no need for me to learn basic living skills? It was absolutely OK if I became a mindless, uncultured bookworm, derailed from the rest of the world? They wanted me to be so bad at calculations that I could not buy daily necessities without breaking the bank, just because I could not work out the best value buy? Fine then, let us see if this sort of people would contribute to the country or shame it while living off of it like a parasite!

Today's assignment was to use some publisher program, as well as animator programs. It was already jargon apocalypse when the class started; even a demonstration ended up unintelligible. I almost dozed off, when I finally got back to reality, the teacher had already prepared some work due two hours later. Although I did not pay attention, there was fortunately a handout of steps and SOPs, so I could at least follow them to do whatever needed to be done. I was slowly proceeding through the written instructions, and the teacher suddenly added, "Be serious about this! You all will be sent as school representatives at the Multimedia Design Competition. This is on a national level, so don't let the school down! Your numbers are enough to form a group, put in more effort and learn."

If it was not for the fact that I was tongue-tied due to shock, I would have pounced on the guy, shaking him while yelling, "What did you say?!" He was not kidding me, right? I originally thought I could just muck around here just to pass time. I could manage to overlook the fact that they allocated me a spot in an activity I never requested for; I could always do the bare minimum just to get by. That was already a lot to ask from me, and they had the nerve to send me to a competition without my informed consent and permission?! Did I not matter? I came here not on my own free will from the start, did they honestly think they could push me around because I did not say a word? They really thought a seemingly tame tiger was a sick kitten, and they could walk all over me since I would rather not talk?

That was it! I had had enough. It was intolerable, so there was no need to tolerate anymore. I immediately reached out with my very limited information channels, and after days of asking and probing, I finally got an extraction plan from the intel expert Roxas himself; the Board of Prefects also decided to launch a Prefect Digital Competence Camp, with equivalent status to the ones we chose. But its duration was longer and had more workload than normal activities, so participants could opt to deregister from their previous commitments in other activities. And of course, this camp was open to all members of the Board of Prefects only.

There we had it. I almost dislocated Roxas' arm when I shook his hand as a thanks because I was too agitated. I wasted no time in adding my name into the camp participant list. I waited for a day until, finally, I received a transfer approval letter from Mr. Saïx. Right after I dumped the letter on the computer class teacher's desk, I skipped out blissfully and went straight to the camp held in the Prefect Meeting Room. I was free at last… Despite also being digital stuff, it was a thousand times better than that boring and stifling computer class. It did somewhat look like shirking responsibility on my part, but it was loads better than carrying on despite knowing my incompetence and demotivation, tarnishing the school's name in the process!

When all 9th Grade prefects were there, Mr. Saïx started announcing, "This is a camp to deepen your digital competencies and also to improve your skills in using digital software on missions in school. We collaborated with an external app development company and came up with an app you need to download and use via your smartphones. Throughout this camp, you're allowed to bring your phones to school, but do not use them outside of the camp whilst still in school." And then, he tapped a button on his laptop and a presentation slide was projected onto the display canvas, changing to the next slide. He then continued explaining.

This app stored a prefect's duty schedule, any new missions, important announcements etc. in itself. When tapping on the icons in the app, one could review those details. There was also a private messaging feature within Counter Crime Group members, but it was not set up for communication among groups. Prefects could also report important findings to Mr. Saïx via this app, as well as calling for an emergency meeting with their Counter Crime Group members (somewhat replacing the way we did it previously). One more caveat; this app could only be used within school compounds, because it only recognised the school's network and Wi-Fi. Once it left the school, even with internet connection, it was as good as dead, its functions inactivated and its content not updated. However, since it was still in a trial stage, the ability to access the app outside of school might be enabled in the future, and also some debugs and refinements. The main point was to let us test it out on a smartphone to provide feedback and suggestions. If all went well and the app was a go, the school would then buy in smartphones specifically for this purpose for prefects to use in school and they would return the phones when school dismissed. Therefore they would not have to bring their own phones to school.

"… That's the app's brief introduction. Any questions?" asked Mr. Saïx when he reached his last slide. Everyone expressed perfect understanding. He then said after seeing nothing was up, "Then bring your phones tomorrow. We will download, install and use the app on site." … Well, that was good and all, but… I did not have a smartphone. Yes, you were still not blind, and I was not lying, I really did not have a phone of any kind. My family was not very rich, and I did not see and feel the need to use a phone, so I had no plans to get one for now. I then asked Mr. Saïx after the briefing. He thought it was no big issue, and I could share a phone with my group members. After all, we would be using the phones provided by the school at some point, I just needed to test the app and give feedback.

The next day, everyone brought all kinds of smartphones with them to the Prefect Meeting Room. Only I was empty-handed. Roxas said I could share a phone with him, but when I saw his phone screen, I got blurry-eyed; his installed apps were ridiculously many, and I had lost count… What was he doing with this many apps anyway? Following Mr. Saïx's instructions, we went to the App Store to download the app in question. It was called "KHHSBoP" (Kingdom Hearts High School Board of Prefects), though I felt the name could use some revamp. Its size was not very large, so it took thirty seconds to successfully download and install it in Roxas' phone. Its icon was a combination of the school badge and the phrase "Board of Prefects" in dark blue with a white background. Roxas opened the app, and it required him to create a new personal account. Once he keyed in a username and password, there was a long thick text of terms and conditions to read. But, like 99.9% of people out there, we skipped to the very bottom and ticked the "I agree" box. That brought us to the main menu of the app.

"I believe you are now in the main menu. Here you have all important notifications at a glance, besides a list of functions available. You can try them all out for now, let me know if you run into any problems. One more thing; when you first open up a feature, there will be a pop-up window asking for permission to access your personal details, camera, media files and so on. If you denied access then the feature will not be usable," explained Mr. Saïx. And then we were left to our own devices (no pun intended) and played around with the app.

I suggested to Roxas, "Let's try messaging." Roxas tapped on said icon to enter, and just like Mr. Saïx said, a window popped up asking for permission to access the phone user's personal details, image gallery, media files and contact book, as well as the user's phone number. I asked, "It asks for so much… It's just a messaging feature, why does it need so much data and info?" Roxas explained patiently, "Since it's messaging, it needs contact details of the sender and receivers. And if we want to upload and send voice recordings, images or other files, it needs access to every media file there is." I thought about it and added, "The data's safe, right? Won't there be anyone like a hacker stealing our info?" He shrugged and replied, "This risk isn't high, since this app development company is approved and filtered by the school. We should be able to trust them. Also, this app becomes useless and broken once the phone leaves the school grounds, we cannot even open it. It will not pick up anything happening outside of school. They should have user data protection measures in place." He input his phone number, allowed accesses and filled in his student biodata. A few seconds later, the private messaging and group chat room were populated with Organisation XIII members' names and contact numbers, except for mine.

"Eh? Nemix's data isn't here?" mused Xion. I looked at them and said, "I don't have a phone, so… yeah…" Demyx said, "But this is so cool. We just fed it a bit of personal information, and it automatically filled in the rest of the details." Just then, Roxas' phone vibrated and he checked it. He tapped on his screen a few times and said, "What is this?" I went up to get a better look; someone left a message that read, "I'm hungry. Committed it to memory yet?" I looked at Axel and said, "Really?" He feigned innocence and said, "Why me? Do you have something against me?" I sighed, "No prejudice at all. It's purely because I understand you far too well, and others' behaviours are not as quirky as yours." Roxas commented, "But I can't tell who messaged… I should probably include this in the feedback."

Zexion mumbled, "Let me try calling for an emergency meeting…" He put in some details and tapped on the red button on his phone screen. Seconds later, our phones started vibrating violently, even creating noises, but without an actual alarm. "Hmm, this definitely works, it can even wake up the dead," said Xion, nodding her head firmly. Demyx added, "And my duty schedule completely matches the one in here, it is a weekly schedule." On Roxas' phone, the same phenomenon occurred after he tapped on the schedule icon. It showed the times and duration when he had to be on duty, normally before the first lesson, during recess and school dismissals. Since none of us had any new special missions or announcements, the sentence "No latest announcements/missions" appeared when we tapped on the icons in question. "I feel it could've been set up to be more convenient, like we don't have to tap on each icon to see if there are any updates or notifications…" said Naminé to herself, looking at her phone screen. Ven asked, "Maybe they can make them into rows and not icons, and we can see them straight from the main page, something like a top banner." "Good idea…" said Kairi.

After thirty minutes or so, we had totally roamed around this app, so everyone reported their findings and provided feedbacks and suggestions. After Mr. Saïx noted down all opinions, he said, "OK, that concludes the activity for today. I will reflect the feedback to the company for them to come up with improvements as soon as possible. They also said not to delete the app for now. They will release a patch next week and it will be downloaded into your phones automatically. You're all dismissed." When he was done talking, school was also over for the day, so we returned home.

Good heavens, times had really changed, and technology was always one step ahead and advancing faster than time. I could vaguely remember the time I was in 6th Grade, when there was one phone model that provided users with a great audio experience and became a hit. Anyone in my class who possessed this phone instantly became a celebrity. And music players were in that time… Sometimes I would steal (read "borrow") my cousin's phone to listen to music or play mobile games. One to two years later, music players of minimalist design and touchscreen tablets were born and subsequently became all the rage of those days. Soon, touchscreen phones came out, and all blocky phones and foldable flip phones were replaced by smartphones. Technology in all fields developed at breakneck speed, there seemed to be no chance of catching a breath. Should I own a smartphone too? But that would happen after high school at the earliest, huh? After all, I did not have the need to use one, and it was pricey as heck, not to mention that phone bills were yet another expense to take care of… Oh well, I would cross the bridge when I got there. Let me think about it when the time came.

In the next few days, we did see some changes, and now new notifications could be sent into email boxes. To test this out, everyone added their email addresses into their app. And Mr. Saïx's test announcement did appear in everyone's mailbox. One had to have downloaded the app in their phone first, so even if I had an email address, I did not receive any emails. I did not add mine because, again, I was sharing a phone with Roxas, so he used his email address instead. This app seemed very convenient, although the nostalgia aspect of a notepad was gone, it had its pros. Perhaps this would prove its worth in duties and missions in the future.

Since exams were over, we also reconnected with our former Matsuaki Academy classmates. Everyone seemed to be faring well. John had started to work part-time to earn spending money as well as college funds and to spruce up his CV. It was unlike him to plan far ahead… To me, he seemed to go about his life without a care in the world, but I never thought he had this prudent side to him. Great! Ian complained about how autumn came again, drizzles were everywhere, and soon the weather would revert to the stereotypical gloomy British one. He also said he was preparing for GCSEs and frustrated about A-Levels, having to face tons of subjects. This resembled Malaysia in a way. We were heavily influenced, huh…

Carlos was happy-go-lucky like always. Recently he flew to Italy to visit Antonio, and both boys made a spontaneous journey down south to Naples and Pompeii. They even hiked in Mount Vesuvius! They had got guts, I should give them credit. And they even posted so many photos of food and travelling. I was drowned in envy… Antonio did fulfil his role as a good host and scoured every corner for good food and fun for his pal, and they seemed to have had a great time. Laura started out as a trainee in a clothing design store, and she mentioned leaning towards this field for future career development, but she also intended to get a business degree. She expressed a high possibility of studying abroad, and had yet to have a concrete plan. Anne, however, had it all figured out; she would finish undergraduate, and then a master's degree, aspiring to be an accounting or finance consultant one day. Good god, I did not even know what to do to tide over to 10th Grade after PMR, and she thought about this much? Was I being unambitious or was she being overzealous?

Soo-Ji had been busy; getting into high school was a big deal too in South Korea, sometimes even surpassing Japan. She said she went to cram school until her brain was chargrilled, almost giving up at some point, but if she could not overcome this then she would not get into a prestigious high school. Failing that meant mission impossible to get into the Korean top universities (SKY universities). I did not know how to respond… I attended tuition classes too, but not as hard core and intense as hers. It felt as if this sort of education system and cramming tactics were common flaws in a majority of Asian countries. To only study 24/7 and nothing else could kill, or else what could explain the high suicide rates in South Korea, and that most victims were young kids? I hoped Soo-Ji would realise that she just had to give it her all and it was OK to fall short of her expectations sometimes… Harayuki and Ryutaro were not any better, so they could empathise with Soo-Ji the best. They both were basically going around taking entrance exams, pretty much like Ienzo. Looking at myself, lounging here with no purpose, I felt a bit ashamed. May all of their dreams come true! Because Yuanfang could not use foreign social media in China, he has to use a VPN to communicate with us. He was doing fine, he even said he wanted to venture into electronic engineering in the future, but he would have to rack his brain to get into the top Chinese universities. All the best, guys!

Katra was on semester break at the moment, but she still had to prepare for national entrance exams for high school admission. She decided to get an undergraduate degree, but had no idea what to study, or even what jobs to find in the future. I could relate to her, because I only knew I wanted to stream towards Science, but that was it, my planning ended abruptly right there. William was pretty excited about the upcoming year-end holiday (same here; just one more month to go). However, when he thought about the prospect of preparing for the Singaporean Cambridge O-Level next year, he could only feel bummed. I could only comment… please grab whatever rest he could get, or he would not get to rest anymore. Lawrence was pretty chill, as usual. Despite going to high school next year, he was steady and still playing on his PS2 and watching anime all day. He even recommended an anime called "Ghost Hunt" to me, and it did look cool. He was always smarter than me, so he had nothing to worry about naturally.

The above interaction would have been a pain without modern scientific technology. Nobody had got the time to wait for handwritten letters to circulate around the world. Therefore advanced technology had its perks. Whether they could max out their worth would depend on the user's intelligence and good judgement. The internet was not only intended for stalking people, mindless consumption of social media feeds and so on. It had many other uses too, mind you.

The camp was still on today, and there were innovations and improvements from last time. When I reached the school gate, my GPS device rang. I took it out only to see the "Emergency Meeting Button" flashing again. What could have happened? Ever since Sharon's case, things had been relatively peaceful so far… While I was pondering the reason, Xion's voice came through the device, "Come quickly to the Prefect Meeting Room." It was useless to enquire now anyway, so I hastened my pace and quickly made it to the venue in question. All 9th Grade prefects were there already. Once I entered, Xion pulled me over to a corner where Organisation XIII was waiting. I started, "What happened?" Zexion replied, "… All data in our phones disappeared."

Wait, what? I did not understand, so I asked, "Um… please elaborate?" Demyx took over and said first, "When I got out this morning all data was still intact, including last night. I wanted to show them a picture I took yesterday so I tried to find it in my phone gallery, but it was empty in there, nothing was left!" Xion continued, "I was trying to access social media to check on something, but when I tried to share a photo, only then I realised there were none in my phone." I asked, "Only the pictures were gone?" Roxas shook his head and said, "There's more! That's exactly what I was worried about; would other files be missing? So I checked every single file in my phone. I discovered that even voice recordings, videos, music and contacts' info were gone." "My situation is basically just like theirs; the data was all gone, but the rest, like settings, remained just fine," added Axel, crossing his arms.

OK… This was strange. Frowning, I asked, "Only you guys experienced this?" "… All 9th Grade prefects had this problem, except you, because you don't have a phone," said Roxas. Zexion explained, "We asked everybody before you arrived and got a grasp of the situation. Their issue was exactly like ours; they all lost their media files and some contacts' information." "Oh? Ven!" Just then, Xion looked at the door and said. Ven just arrived. I darted to him and asked before anyone else could say anything, "Ven, check if your phone photos are still there." He was startled by my sudden request, but he complied after blurting an "Oh".

A few seconds later, he said, "They're still here… Why?" "What?!" exclaimed Roxas, standing up abruptly. "Can you let me have a look?" I asked, extending my palm. With a confused expression, he handed me his phone. I immediately pulled up the music gallery and contact book to check, and sure enough, things were still in there, but it was unclear if some things were lost. "How are you OK when Naminé and Kairi lost their data too?" mused Axel, his face looming over the phone screen as he came closer to look. I returned the phone to Ven, whose head was still in the clouds. Said girls went up to him to ask him the same questions as ours, and they filled him in on the current situation.

What exactly was this? How did data in a phone just evaporate into thin air? And all affected files were media files? This involved so many people… This might not be just something simple. Just then, Mr. Saïx arrived, seemingly unaware of the unrest in the room. He said while setting up his laptop, "Today the company added a support online chat, so they want you all to try chatting with the troubleshoot team via the app." Everyone hesitated a bit, unsure about whether to tell him the burning issue, but since disappearance of photos from phones had no correlation to the app, everyone proceeded as told. However… "…Sir, I can't enter the app," said a prefect, tapping his phone screen and then he looked at him nervously. More people reported the same thing soon, "I can't open it too… it looks like it's broken?"

Roxas attempted a few times himself. We were brought back to the phone home screen after tapping the app icon. "Looks like it crashed…" mumbled Roxas quietly. Mr. Saïx could see something was up, so he tried opening the app using several phones from the prefects, but all tries ended up as failures. Axel glanced at Zexion, Zexion nodded a few seconds later. Axel shot a hand up and said, "Sir, I have something important to report." And then he walked towards Mr. Saïx and explained about our phones. He was clearly at a wit's end, and after contemplation, he said, "I can only pass on this situation to the company, I can't solve the issue for now… I'll keep you posted. Today's activity will have to end now. Head back to your classrooms."

When Organisation XIII, Naminé, Ven and Kairi got back to K3B, no one was in there, because everyone else was attending their activities and had yet to return. I started, "I think we should sit down and sort this out…" Roxas nodded and Zexion agreed, "That, we should." We pulled our chairs to form a circle and sat down.

Zexion started, "The current situation is that all camp participants' phones encountered an issue except Nemix and Ven. The missing data are pictures and images, making up the majority of the affected media files, which also include voice recordings, videos and music files. Some even reported issues with their phone contact books." Axel stared at Ven and said, "I just find it odd why your phone is safe and sound." "I don't get it either…" sighed the blonde, taking out his phone to check. While tapping on the screen, he said, "I did nothing but use my phone normally and- eh?" He stopped midsentence, staring at his phone. After a few more taps, his eyes went wide and with a panicked expression, he looked at Axel, saying, "My stuff's gone too."

"What? How…?" exclaimed Demyx, his eyes wide too. Xion asked nervously, "Weren't they in there earlier?" I asked worriedly, "You sure? How about other files?" Ven showed us his phone screen and said, "It's true! They're all gone." Kairi slapped a palm onto her face and groaned, "Great, just great. We even lost Ven…" It had just been ten minutes tops, how could phone data vanish in an instant? Magic? Zexion reassured, "Guys, calm down. Something must have been done in between for this to happen, otherwise phone data will not disappear without rhyme or reason." Roxas snapped his fingers and said, "Zexion's right. Ven, try recalling; after you got your phone from Nemix, what did you do? No matter how trivial or normal it is."

He started reminiscing, "Hmm… I got my phone back, and then Nami and Kairi came to spoke with me. Soon Mr. Saïx came, and we started to use the app… but we couldn't open it at all, and so we walked back here." I sighed and said, "This sounds very normal…" Axel said after some thought, "These are what we already know, so there should still be things we missed out, right?" Everyone was quiet for a moment, and then Naminé said, "Oh, right. Ven, the website you asked me to find last time, I found it. I'm going to send it to you via Facebook." Ven replied, "Ah? Oh… let me reconnect to the Wi-Fi…" Xion raised her brow and asked, "Reconnect?" He looked at Xion, shrugged and said, "Well, I always turn off Wi-Fi connection on my phone when I'm not using it, or else it's very taxing on the batteries."

"Um, excuse me…" Just then, a voice came from the classroom door. We all turned to look at a girl. She seemed to be an 8th Grade prefect. She continued, "Mr. Saïx sent me to get you all. He wants to see you in the Discipline Room now." … At this rate, things were indeed going down south. We got to our destination only to see the man going back and forth between his laptop and computer. Once the door was shut and locked, he said, "You said your phone data were gone, yes? It happened to my computer and laptops too… all media files were gone. And not just that; all computers and laptops across the school shared the same fate." Oh crap… I guessed my jaw might have dropped again. Zexion contemplated and spoke, "They should all have a commonality; they are all school property after all…" And then, Mr. Saïx's phone rang and he answered it. As the call went on, his expression turned grimmer. After a few minutes, he hung up. He told us, "It's the IT department. They confirmed all computers and laptops are indeed affected, and that the school network is currently down, so they are working on a solution."

The gears in my mind started reeling, "School computers, cell phones, laptops, school network… these things must have some kind of correlation, like Zexion mentioned. The similarity so far is the disappearance of media files. Why only this type of files? This wouldn't be natural, so it has to be manmade, and disappearance of files by manmade means is usually deletion… Why delete the files? And so many other people's files, no less? No, wait…" Only now did I realise the real problem, and I blurted to myself, "The video is deleted…" Everyone else stopped what they were doing and looked at me. I elaborated with panic evident in my tone, "Crap, Sharon's video is gone, deleted!" Seconds later, Demyx pulled out his phone to verify my words, soon panic settled on his face and he stammered, "Holy hell, it really is! Why didn't I think of it?!" Zexion frowned and said, "This is obviously a ruse; to create a façade of mass file deletion. The ultimate objective is just to remove that video."

Mr. Saïx checked his phone and said, "Here's a new message. The repair crew discovered a few computers which are alright; all data are intact." Roxas chose now to butt in, "Sir, were those computers unable to connect to the school network before today?" Mr. Saïx looked at the blonde for a second, and then he messaged the crew for verification. When the reply came, he read it quickly and said, "Correct. Those computers are under repair since last week because of this issue." Roxas snapped his fingers and muttered, "That's it!"

Kairi pressed on, "What? Are you onto something?" Roxas explained with mild agitation, "I suspect it's the school network's problem! Any electronic device connected to it had their media files deleted. Also, Ven, didn't you say you always turn off the Wi-Fi connection on your phone whenever you're not using Wi-Fi?" "Um… yeah," Ven answered slowly, still not comprehending the situation. Roxas continued, "So that means when you got to the Prefect Meeting Room today, your phone was not connected to the network yet, right?" And now, Ven finally understood, saying, "… That's right. I only turned on the connection when we needed to use that app! So that's how my data got wiped off… I didn't take notice of this gesture." "The exact mechanism of remotely deleting data via network connection, I am not entirely clear, but at least I can be sure that someone did something via school network to the computers and phones connected to it," concluded Roxas, directing orbs of certainty towards our superior.

"… If so, I'll have to tell the IT crew to keep a close eye on the network, and replace it entirely if necessary. Now that your video proof is gone, we need to find a way to restore it and everything else, or we will have to start from square one. Can the nine of you help?" This sounded out of our league, but then again… since when did we pay any heed to staying within our limits? Zexion stated, "As long as there are enough clues and support, this is not an impossible task. However, we do require a certain amount of time to investigate…" "That can be arranged. Just… before the truth is revealed, keep the investigation a low profile," said Mr. Saïx. After finishing delegating the tasks, he let us leave. We headed straight to our HQ for a discussion on how we should go about this.

Axel started off, "Now we lost the video as evidence, what to do? Any ways to restore it?" Roxas replied, "It's not that there is no way… It all depends on whether you all normally backed up your data. Like using online cloud storage, or keeping a copy in your computers." Roxas looked at everyone, and everyone was awfully quiet. I raised my hands slightly in defence and said, "Don't look at me like that. I don't have a phone to keep a data backup from." Zexion mumbled, "I do have a backup, but it is in my home computer, and that was a backup from six months ago." I cut to the point, "I think it's more important whether Demyx had a backup, no? Because he is the only one who had the video, and he didn't send a copy to anyone else…" "… That, I didn't do… Ugh, if only I've sent it to you guys…" groaned Demyx dejectedly. Xion sighed, "If it makes you feel better, it's pointless even if you did that, seeing how our phone data were also wiped clean now."

Roxas scratched his head and pressed on, "You really don't have a backup plan?" Demyx was still demoralised, but then he abruptly looked up from his downcast gaze and exclaimed, "Hold on a sec! I opened a new account last week, with an online file storage service! I copied my phone data into my computer and then transferred it to there!" Kairi almost yelled, "God, why didn't you say this earlier?!" Roxas said nothing but pulled out his laptop and switched it on. Xion grinned and said, "Awesome! This way, the problem will be solved!" She rubbed her palms with glee, but Demyx then added, "But I think I forgot the login details…" We almost fell out of our seats again. Axel threatened, "What the hell, Dem?! You'd better recall ASAP, or I'll make sure you won't be able to recall anything!" Poor Demyx could only recall as if his life depended on it, not daring to even waste a second. Naminé commented, "Speaking of accounts, I received an email the day before yesterday. It said someone was trying to access my Google account, so the system locked my account automatically. If I wanted to unlock it, I had to key in the OTP sent to my phone and change my password too… It really got to me, so I had to comply and I changed my password successfully."

"Huh? You received it too, Nami?" asked Xion curiously. She replied quickly, "Yeah, you too?" Axel straightened up from his seat and asked, "Why did we get the same type of email… Wait, who else got it?" Everyone's hand rose up, except for me, Roxas and Demyx. Suddenly, Demyx cried out, "Yes! I remembered!" We all stared at him expectantly, and he stuttered upon sensing the attention directed at him, "W-why are you… staring at me like this?" I summarised, "An email about Google locking your account, did you receive it?" "… Google? Nope, I only got an email from Outlook, but it was about the same thing. Why? You guys had it too?"

A creased formed on Roxas' forehead as he was thinking, and he mumbled to himself, "Complied? Replied?" Just one second later, horror was written all over his face. He looked at us with panic in his eyes, and he instructed us with a serious tone, "Except for Nemix, the rest of you log into whatever accounts stated in those emails. Right now." The absence of his usual carefree tone made us tense up subconsciously. I watched on as everyone else dug out their phones immediately, connected to the web using mobile data, went to their respective accounts to try logging in. Since Demyx did not have any mobile data, he flew over to Roxas' side to use his laptop to log into his account. About twenty seconds later, Ven blurted, "Wrong password?" Axel joined in, "Me too… What the heck?"

"Is everyone else the same?" asked Zexion calmly, his usual demeanour unfaltering. Several nods and curt replies of acknowledgement came. Roxas proceeded to ask, "Then try changing your passwords using the 'forgot password' link, see if it works." "OK then… but Roxas, how about you? Can't you log in too?" asked Kairi, tapping away on her phone. Roxas typed on his laptop keyboard for a bit and replied, "I didn't actually receive the weird email, because it ended up in my spam mailbox. I discovered it just now." This time, it took only a few seconds until I heard Xion state with confusion, "My security questions are different from before! How can it be?" Demyx also nervously said, "No way? Me too!" Axel got a bit annoyed and said, "Let me guess, we all hit a brick wall again?" Except for Roxas and I, everyone else proved him correct.

Roxas slammed a palm right onto his face and groaned, "Crap… we're definitely invaded by hackers." Zexion asked tentatively, "… How did they do it?" A distressed groan came from Roxas, and then he tapped away on his keyboard and mousepad. Finally he turned his laptop screen to face us all. The screen showed an email, with the following paragraph:

Dear customer,

We detected a suspicious activity in your account on Xth X Month 2010. To prevent malicious people from accessing your account and to protect your safety, we have locked your account. This email is to make sure only you can unlock your account. If you are the owner of this account, please click on the link below. In one minute you will receive an OTP (one-time password) on your phone, and please enter the OTP in the box in the link. You will be brought to another page to key in your details to change your password. We urge you to take swift action to protect your personal details.

Many thanks,

XXX Team

"This looks very real, they imitated the official email almost impeccably," I muttered, secretly feeling a chill in my heart. Roxas explained seriously, "The close imitation is just to steal your login details. Although the Google logo and email template are used here, this email still has a few flaws: 1) 'Dear customer'; genuine emails will address you with your real name or your registered username, it's impossible for 'customer' to be used. This might be because the hacker isn't sure who we are, so they decide to cover all their bases to see who will take the bait. 2) OTP; no matter the circumstances, only you and you alone will know, possess and use OTPs. Even genuine senders or genuine employees will not, and cannot, know and request OTPs from you. Since it's this personal, the hacker had to trick you to hand over the OTP this way. This is easily the greatest flaw of all. 3) The whole impression of this email is scaring you, forcing you into doing what they want. Genuine emails will never force you to surrender your details. 4) Look at this email address…"

Roxas hovered his cursor over the sender email address, a small window appeared, showing the complete address. He continued, "This is supposedly an email from Google, so the domain should have been 'google. com' at the very least, and not 'gooogle. com'. The hacker must have created a random domain to blend in, though the 'noreply' is something they can get away without suspicions… Try to remember the phishing emails you got, see how strange the sender addresses can get." Sure enough, everyone's domains were different; email domains from "Google" comprised of "googlemail. com", "security. google. com", "activity. google. com" and so on. Whereas emails from elsewhere had varying versions, usually with different spellings or extra words. However, some were not able to recall.

"… This also means the hacker figured out our email service accounts from our email address domains to target every brand specifically… but just how did they know our email addresses?" mused Zexion, finally showing a slight frown on his face. I was in the middle of thinking of a reason, and that was when an idea flashed in my mind. My palm hit the table lightly and I said, "I think I know how… Remember how we gave KHHSBoP information and permission to access information in the last ten days? Could it be the culprit?" Everyone went silent, starting to ponder this possibility. Roxas thumped the table lightly and revealed his Eureka moment. "I got it now! It's most likely like this; the app had our email addresses and phone numbers, the hacker could have chosen either one to log into our accounts. Nevertheless, they failed because they didn't know our passwords. So, they chose the 'forgot password' route to bypass the need of a password to log in. They may or may not have provided our phone numbers for cross-checking with the email service's records from when we registered our accounts. It was after that when the system sent an OTP to our phones. Since our phones were with us, and also due to the time limit, the hacker sent all their drafted emails out to us, waited for us to click onto the link and be brought to a fake online form, and then they went through the aforementioned steps of requesting OTPs, so we would enter them into the form and send the OTPs to them within its validity. Thus, they successfully logged in, changed all passwords, security questions etc. You thought you had changed your passwords for safety, but it was futile and ironic. That's how the hacker locked every single genuine owner out of their accounts."

The expressions of everyone affected tensed up as Roxas explained animatedly, as if saying "we messed up, big time". Axel still did not fully understand, so he asked, "Hold on, if the hacker already knew our details, did they purely want to keep us out? What does this have to do with the deletion of data from our phones?" Roxas shook his head in dismay and continued, "Of course things are not just that simple. Think about it, we roam the Internet with just one email address and one phone number; how many accounts had we created and logged in with them? Furthermore, one can access some accounts with a single universal account. If the hacker get their hands on these details, they can certainly log into any related or unrelated apps and accounts! Through this, they basically had already wiped any of your online backup clean, making you nowhere to start with when trying to restore any lost data in your phones."

A sigh left the slate-haired boy and he said, "If my memory still serves me well, some phone models and brands require users to create a phone account compatible with their own software. If that was hacked…" "Oh crap…" added Xion, realising the weight of the scenario, her hand covering her mouth. Roxas confirmed, "That's right; any data in the phone can be deleted. But it is also possible for the hacker to gain access to our phones via KHHSBoP, yet I don't know the whole mechanism and details…" Naminé posed her question, "They went through a lot of trouble, just for the media files? And not some other more valuable data?" This indeed was fishy. With my brows locked in a twist, I said, "It could be just as Zexion hypothesised earlier; the ultimate motive is to destroy Sharon's video clip, and to make damn sure we have no means to restore it from any backup. The way the hacker went about this was through that bloody app! We were already stuck in their trap since the beginning, yet we didn't realise it."

Up to this point, everyone was no longer in the mood to continue discussing. Almost everyone was assaulted by an unseen enemy, almost "dying" without knowing how. I was only lucky enough to escape this fate simply because I did not have a phone and did not download the app, while Roxas missed the hacker's email in his spam mailbox and avoided the same predicament… Whenever I thought about this whole elaborate scheme, I would shiver involuntarily. After a moment of silence, Roxas suggested tactfully, "The main thing now is to quickly fix any loopholes and increase defence. Contact your email services, tell them your accounts were hacked. See if you can get your accounts back, along with trying to restore all that is lost. While you're at it, forward those phishing emails to me once you can log in again. I want to see who dared to mess us up." Nodding lightly, Zexion said, "I will also report this to Mr. Saïx. This involves the Board of Prefects and even the school. What we can do for now is just this…"

Later, we decided to head to the Discipline Room to update Mr. Saïx about the current situation and our planned actions. He did get a wee bit upset; the app he introduced caused such a racket and dragged so many people down. He had to bear partial responsibility. After a rare sigh, he stated, "Understood. I will provide support if you need it, and I will also follow up with the company… or perhaps it's time to speak with the principal. Just… things will definitely not end this easily. Stay sharp."

---

A weekend passed, and I, still reeling from the aftershock of the events, burst into a flurry of actions. The first thing I did after coming home that day was to back up everything in my computer into an external hard drive, and then I changed my password to my email account. Those who were locked out of their accounts had all submitted hacked email reports or sought help from their respective email services. Some received a reply, but most found a way to recover their accounts via the FAQs, and actually succeeded. After implementing hacking prevention measures, they forwarded the hacker emails to Roxas. Roxas launched an investigation by adding in the email in his spam as clues. When Monday arrived and we gathered for another meeting, he looked like he had not slept for several days straight, even his coffee was super concentrated, with a proportion of 70% instant coffee powder and 30% hot water.

He dragged his heavy feet to his seat, pulled out the chair and sat down, placing his laptop on the table and switching it on. He also put his steaming mug of coffee next to the device. Xion queried, "Say Rox, you still OK?" Roxas scratched his head and muttered, "At least I'm still alive, so I'm OK…" Zexion stared at him and carefully asked after weighing his options, "Then, we can start discussing? Is everyone able to log into their email accounts normally?" Fortunately, everyone's answers were positive, or else this would have turned really depressing. Roxas took the baton, "… The emails you forwarded, I'd got them all. All sender email addresses were randomly created. It may seem like works from different people, but there's only one person behind this…" He sipped on his coffee and continued, "This is because all of these emails were sent from the same IP address, and that means it's highly likely sent from the same computer."

I leaned forward slightly and asked, "If that's the case, we already know which computer it is, so we can immediately locate it and catch the mastermind, right?" The blond boy sighed, "I'm not finished… I wasted two days just to pinpoint the computer's location. Let me show you all something…" While he was speaking, his fingers were already dancing across his laptop keyboard, as well as skidding and tapping on the mousepad. Soon, he turned the screen to us again. It was a screenshot. He started explaining, "As you can see, this is my IP address search result. This is a search result area of a five-kilometre radius, within this circle are numerous public places, residential areas, workplaces and our school, not to mention even more computers, laptops and phones. It's a problem to know where to start looking." Roxas switched to another screenshot and continued again, "Online searches returned non-specific results; it only tells you this device the emails were sent from is in Penang, Malaysia. Even with the postcode, it's not much help…" After listening to him, I slapped a palm onto my forehead and groaned, "Great, I got happy too soon, again…"

After some thought, Axel added, "But the possible locations included our school. Wouldn't it be logical to start investigating it?" Ven looked mildly exasperated, saying, "But there are at least a few hundred school computers, excluding any laptops as well as phones! Are we going to check each and every one of them?" At that moment, an announcement came from the PA system, telling us to head over to the Discipline Room pronto for some discussion. Only we knew what that really meant. Once we got there, Mr. Saïx started, "After investigating, I discovered something; the objects at the back of my office in this room were arranged in the wrong way. I had not tidied up here recently, so by right the location and arrangement of any objects should be as they were two months ago. They were seemingly displaced, however… Besides, I suspected someone infiltrating here due to this, so I looked up the past security feed from the camera outside of the Discipline Room just now, and I found something… odd…" With that said, he motioned for us to come over to his computer to watch something. We surrounded the computer to see a security video feed playback running, dated in mid-September. The time was past two in the afternoon, which was when the afternoon session was on, so there was not a soul outside the Discipline Room. "… There's no one," mumbled Demyx, staring at the computer screen. I was about to agree when I caught something off. "Wait! This playback… is edited!"

"What?" Maybe Xion's eyes got blurry for staring so intently at the playback, so she did not react quick enough. I looked at Mr. Saïx, and he seemed to understand what I was trying to do, so he backed up one step for me to get right in front of the screen. I rewound the playback by a few seconds, saying, "Pay attention to the upper left corner, where a corridor was. There's a sparrow on it. Watch its movements…" After I finished my words, I hit the play button and let the video start running. Everyone was directing attentive orbs at the spot I pointed out. Three seconds later, the bird disappeared from the screen suddenly. After a split second, it jumped down from the handrail and hopped around on the ground, only to disappear again after three seconds. By now, Zexion caught onto what I meant, musing, "This is a looped playback. The sparrow keeps repeating this move, but awfully identical to its previous movements… Nemix is right; someone cut this scene out from a similar security video feed from another date or time, looped it and edited it into the real playback."

Roxas scratched his chin for a second and added, "If so, the real thing was probably deleted or replaced by this fake and doesn't exist anymore. It's just… why edit a security feed? And how did this person get their hands on the recording? Who in the world are they?" Zexion reeled back from his bent-over-looking-at-the-screen posture and stood up straight, but kept his gaze on the screen. He concluded, "Whoever it was, they must have been wanting to cover up something using this method. Such sneaky acts, and with how the camera was directed at the Discipline Room entrance from the side, this can only explain one thing." Xion clapped once and finished Zexion's explanation, "Someone did sneak into here, and this person didn't want anyone to see them, thus this playback."

Mr. Saïx said, "Correct. And this part played again later in this recording. The intruder must have snuck into this room and then out, and that part had to remain unseen, so the same trick was used twice. Continue watching the recording." The scenes later showed Organisation XIII running to the Discipline Room and went in. About ten minutes later, we came out and stayed outside the door for a while, until Xion started chasing Axel around. We left soon after. Another fifteen minutes later, Mr. Saïx came out, probably on toilet break. Once he left the picture, the same loop repeated for fifteen seconds or so. After that, everything looked very normal again. "With this security video feed, and the misplacement of things in here, I suspect this infiltrator may have overheard our conversation, and knew about Sharon Farelle's video," he concluded, shifting his gaze towards us.

At that moment, I felt my eyes widening, a familiar feeling of impending doom rushing up into my heart. Did he mean this bastard had many things to do with the loss of data from the prefects' phones and school computers? Zexion seemed to think the same; he asked, "This person… Are they related to the deleted data? Could they be the mastermind?" The blue-haired man nodded and agreed too, "Just as I thought… Seems like I'm not being paranoid in this matter." Xion posed her question, "The problem is, who would do this? If we're talking about destroying evidence, the people affected by Sharon's video the most were only two; Samara and Scumbag." "Scumbag?" Mr. Saïx was confused by Xion's "sudden" nickname. Demyx hurriedly made up an explanation, "Ah, it's nothing. We still don't know the name of the guy in the video, and Nemix especially hates him, so that's how we got that name… haha." I quickly defended myself, "Oi, oi. Don't just talk about me. You're all thrown into trouble thanks to him, I'm surely not the only one who hates him, OK?"

Zexion massaged his temples and said, "That is not the point. The both of them are suspicious; if it was Samara, even if she does not seem to possibly be able to direct those events, from Sharon's video clip we know someone from her family owns a company that produces electronic devices. Sharon herself mentioned this too before she left. She could have handed down the order, or someone requested her to create this string of mess." I continued, "As for that scumbag, he's the one most threatened by the video, yet he's also the most unknown character. His motive is so painfully obvious, and he has Samara's protection, I'd say nine out of ten it was him!" Demyx glanced at me and mumbled very quietly, "Yup, extra agitation and speaking like a machine gun once he is mentioned. I'm right after all."

"Pfft! One of them being suspicious basically means both of them are suspicious anyway!" grumbled Xion, not amused, crossing her arms before her chest. Ven gently poked Demyx's left shoulder and said quietly, "Looks like Nemix is not the only one who hates them, so she's right." With evident worry, Naminé said, "If that's the case, how do we find him? His whereabouts was a mystery since last year. If we approached Samara about this, we might not get anything out of her and we very well might also alert him unnecessarily." Axel was almost at a wit's end. He asked, "Is there any way to force him out of wherever he's hiding in? At least to make him expose his whereabouts even by a bit…"

"… I can try to minimise the search radius. I will start investigating the school. School computer facilities are at least easier to weave through, there are only a few hundred of them, it's not impossible…" suggested Roxas tiredly, running his finger through his messy hair. Ven saw his overworked status and could only sigh. Kairi patted Roxas' shoulder and said, "Let us know if you run into any problems. Don't crush yourself under your workload."

---

A few more days passed and Saturday arrived. I was originally going to stay at home, drinking my tea and watching anime. But a sudden phone call last night completely destroyed my plans…

[Flashback]

"Hello?"

"… Hello? … 207… c'est toi?"

"… Who are you?"

"Seriously, 207? You can't even recognise my voice? It's me, 013!"

"What the heck, Rox? Why are you acting all mysterious?"

"Nothing, really. This is a critical period we are in, we can't afford to not be careful. Oh right, are you free tomorrow?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"It's like this… We have something to discuss with you, so we're asking you to come out."

"… And it can't wait until Monday?"

"This is urgent, we can't procrastinate… It has to be tomorrow."

"Uh, fine. Where and when?"

"In Twilight Café. Noon."

"Twilight Café… Wait, isn't that near my house?"

"Oh really? I only know that now. Ah, almost forgot. Remember to bring a pendrive with you."

"For what?"

"… It's classified. Can't tell."

"… Whatever, I'll bring it."

"Great! See you tomorrow then! Bye!"

"OK, bye…"

[Flashback ended]

Therefore, I was now heading over to the aforementioned place, walking along the pedestrian sidewalk. It was pretty hot today, even if there were clouds blotting out some sunlight, I could still feel my sweat seeping out. I really wanted to stand before an air conditioner… Luckily the café was right ahead. It should be cooler inside, so I picked up pace and jogged towards the entrance. When I entered, no one was inside despite being lunchtime and a weekend. I went over to the counter to ask if a big group of teenagers had arrived and had been waiting for someone. Alas, the people there said no. I glanced at my watch; I was not late. In fact, I arrived just on time. So, where was everyone?

Since standing around was not going to help, I found a quiet lone table and sat down, while ordering a cup of tea. What in the world were these guys up to? Being late, no less? When the teabag was steeped enough in hot water, I lifted the teacup and was about to carefully sip from it. And then a voice reached my ears, "Holy moly, is that Mansex?"

My grip shook and almost tipped the cup over and spilled the tea (literally). Luckily I put the cup down the same time that happened, so nothing was spilled or broken. It was a rare sight to see the principal, especially in my neighbourhood. Legend had it he never left his house, so students rumoured sighting him equalled bad luck. It was a harmless but well-known meme, so every single student from Kingdom Hearts High would drop what they were doing and scan their surroundings upon hearing his name, hoping he would not be within their five-mile radius. And that was what I was doing now, observing everything around me… to find no one at all. Who let out this false alarm? Only certain people would scramble his name this way though…

As if on cue, that voice rang again, "OK, pretty sure it's 207…" Hold up, come again? My eyes followed the voice, only to see Demyx and Roxas walking over to me. I swore I could also hear Axel's smothered laughter, but I was not sure whence it came. "What in bloody hell's name are you guys up to?!" I truly wanted to yell at them, but it had been quiet here, and I preferred it to remain that way, so I ended up watering down my tone. Demyx quickly put out any potential fire, "Sorry about that, 207. We're very cautious now. If we carelessly let the enemy know we're trying to capture him, then it's all for nothing. At least we have to make sure no one tap our phone conversation yesterday, and also that you're 207 and not an impostor." I seriously had no idea how to react to this, so I could only change the topic, "Whatever, that's not the point. Where were you guys, and what's the purpose for asking me to come out?" Roxas replied, "It's not convenient to speak here, follow us and you'll know." It looked like cooperation first and questions later for now, so I brought my tea and followed them to a quite well-hidden corner in the café. Organisation XIII and our other three friends were already there.

Axel was still snickering. I reckoned the Mansex test was his idea, and the two blondes were either too gullible to listen to him, or just decided to go along with it. Zexion looked like he really wanted to have nothing to do with the idiots surrounding him, so he stayed completely silent. Seeing how the situation got a tad awkward, Xion waved lightly at me. No one else did anything. I set the cup and teapot down, and asked, "Alright, can you all please tell me what you're cooking up?" I sat down and Zexion started explaining, "… It was Sharon. She contacted 135 again yesterday, saying she had a Plan B." Whoa, whoa, whoa, had I misheard that? Plan B meant… there was still hope? I considered everything and then said, "Details?"

Demyx explained this time, "She said she heard about the cyberattack in school. Regarding her video clip, just as she said before, she deleted it without saving any backup. Still she expressed her desire to help, so she searched through her computer and any online files. The video was a true lost cause, but she managed to dig out a private message history in her online storage account. And more importantly, it's about the content in her video, and perhaps more!" With disbelief, I said, "Is that true? How did she have a backup?" Due to the technical nature of the following explanation, Roxas took the baton and filled in the gaps, "Luckily, Sharon transferred schools long before the cyberattack, so everything about her, digital or not, is unaffected, and the hacker did not track her down. What she found was her, Samara, Shorty and Scumbag's group chat history. Inside contained enough evidence to ruin his whole career!"

Xion interrupted, "Wait a minute. Logically, wouldn't she be kicked out of the group chat after she officially became enemies with Samara? How would she get the chat history? Should she not be able to see the group chat anymore?" Shaking his head, Roxas denied, "That's not it. The backup she found was created before she was removed from the chat. Once we downloaded and opened it, we should still be able to see it." I drank a gulp of my tea and continued, "Then that's it. We'll just go straight to Mr. Saïx, report and get the job done. Though, I kind of want to see that chat history… Did you download it?" "… Yeah," said Roxas. Hurriedly, I said, "Then open it and let me see."

"Slow down, 207. We have not seen the chat yet, including 013," Zexion saw his chance to intervene me just in time. Surprised, I asked, "Huh? Why?" Kairi replied, "013 was informed by 135 about this, and then he informed us all. Sharon sent the backup to 013 via email, but due to recent events, everyone's a bit jumpy. We can't afford to let the invisible enemy target us again." Axel turned a bit more serious and said, "So the general consensus is, the one without a phone, nearly considered dead on the Internet, not using any social media is the least vulnerable. And the only person fulfilling these criteria is only… you alone."

… Crap…

Everyone's eyes were on me, and I could feel some sweat seeping out from my palms. I gulped and said, "So… what do you… want me to do?" Naminé reassured, "Don't panic. We just wanted to give you a copy of the backup, so that's why he asked you to bring your pendrive." Oh, yeah, I completely forgot about the small device lying in my pocket. While I took it out, Roxas brought out his laptop too and booted it up. He said while waiting for the laptop to start, "I've already backed up all my files in here, uploading to an online storage and also copying into an external hard drive. I also formatted my laptop for good measure, so I'm certain there's no virus or malware in it. OK, give me your pendrive." I handed it over, once he took it he stuck it into the USB port. He then opened the file explorer to find the drive.

Xion suddenly said, "Eh? Why is there a video in the pendrive?" A video in my drive? That was odd, because I would never bring a drive with content out to use it in public. Roxas immediately clicked on the video to see what it was. We only heard "…Whatever. This pair of goggles can let us see through these types of glass very clearly." "This can't be right, this sounds oddly familiar…" mumbled Roxas to himself, staring at the screen. Xion did not understand it either, until she exclaimed, "Ah! Isn't this the pendrive I gave to 207 in Tokyo?" … Oh snap! I grabbed the wrong pendrive for the occasion! Then that meant… this video was the one where Demyx's FBI goggles recorded the whole karaoke centre mission? "207… Why didn't you tell us about this?" Axel started, with an even more serious expression. It seemed that everyone else caught onto what this video was about… "Oops… I totally forgot about the existence of this video, and forgot to tell you guys too. Not on purpose, sorry… hehe…" I could only laugh awkwardly, hoping they would not kill me. I still had a ton of bucket list of things to do…

"Forget it, that's not the point. We can always add this into our arsenal to further pin the scumbag down!" Xion shook her head and said adamantly. Roxas said after a few seconds, "… OK, copying complete. Now we need an unsuspecting computer for me to play around with. So, 207… we need to go to your house."

I absolutely did not expect that, so I stuttered, "W-what? No, wait… it would make sense to use your laptop to read the chat history, right?" Axel had had enough of any procrastination, so he replied in Roxas' stead, "Desperate moments, 207. Like I said before, only your computer is the safest. No matter how convenient 013's laptop is, it's not going to be much help in this case. Also, we can't read the chat out in public like this. So finish up your tea and settle the bill. Be a good girl."

At this rate, I did not know whether to laugh or to cry. But for the sake of public interest, I had to comply. Fifteen minutes later, I arrived at my house with everyone in tow. Fortunately, everyone else in my family had gone out and left me to watch the house, or else I had no idea how to explain how this bunch of people suddenly appeared here. I could not be blamed; I never had friends coming over to my home. I must have been acting like a robot whose brain was fried; unsure and awkward. My movements were quite stiff, and when I spoke, either I did not know what to say, or I talked faster than a machine gun. I was like a total idiot…

I messily pointed where the living room, kitchen and bathroom were, and then we came to my bedroom. My room was not very messy or dirty, but except for my family, no one else had ever set foot in it. I mentally buckled up, crossed my comfort zone and opened the door, letting them in. I literally marched all the way to my computer and switched it on. When everything was set, I plugged in the drive and opened up a window for file browsing. Only after Roxas swore to protect my computer with his life and revert it to normal after using it did I willingly let him operate it. The following things he did was confusing to me to say the least; I only registered many windows opening and closing and numerous progress bars filling up. Anyways, he managed to restore the full chat history after three minutes. We started reading what it was about.

"Oh my god…" said Kairi slowly, not believing everything she saw. Oh my god indeed. The content of the chat generally was the same as that in Sharon's video, but it contained more detail on the plan on Fayra's sexual assault. However, it was only the details, not the motive. We may have lost something valuable, but we picked up something even better. The hacker thought they had decimated us, they thought we had lost any ability to retaliate, but they overlooked one evidence, one fatal evidence. Roxas reeled back to lean on the chair and breathed, "God bless the Internet and modern technology…"

Tentatively, I said, "Guys, I know the last time I said something similar, we're almost done for later, but I still want to say… we got this. Chill." Ven looked at me and asked, "This evidence is strong, sure, but how do we find this guy and catch him? You thought so too yourself; his whereabouts is a tough nut to crack. To solely depend on this evidence is a bit risky. Also, Samara won't possibly divulge anything." I merely sneered quietly at no one in particular. I could feel my trademark 207-nasty-plot smirk appearing on my face. I said to Ven, "Who said we're going to find him?" After that, I turned to look at Zexion and continued, "I'm sick and tired of this battle where the enemy lurks in the dark and we out in the open remain vulnerable. It's about time we take the initiative. What say you?" He looked at me for three seconds, and then a knowing smirk surfaced on his face. He seemed to know what I was thinking about. Demyx looked at me and then at Zexion. He then placed a palm on his forehead and said, "That's it. We've lost Zexy to the darkness…" The slate-haired boy landed a brief glance on the blonde, narrowing his eyes. But he completely ignored his words otherwise and said to me, "Great minds think alike, as they say. We can discuss about this plan to make sure we succeed in one shot. Shall we hear about this nasty plot of yours then?"

---

Today was Monday. Ever since the cyberattack happened, all non-essential activities were halted until further notice, so all 9th Graders stayed in their classrooms for free activity, with the condition of not creating noises so as not to disturb the 11th Graders, who were going to sit for their final exams soon. Everyone was cooperative so far while busying with their stuff, and the teachers were organising their documents. Out of the blue, a voice from the PA system shattered any tranquillity, "Attention please, this is an announcement. Following the cyberattack launched at the school two weeks ago, the school opened an investigation right away while having to stop most post-PMR activities. The school wishes to express its greatest regret for any inconveniences coming from this act. However, I bring you good news; with the efforts from the investigation team, we have already caught the culprit. Due to the serious nature of this matter, the culprit has been sent to the director's office for further instructions. The school has also contacted the police and will hand the culprit over as soon as possible. We will continue to follow up with the relevant authorities for any new updates. Thank you."

"Eh? It's the principal's voice."

"He rarely makes announcements, so why make history today?"

"Ah, the cyberattack was a big deal. It's no wonder he's concerned!"

"Yeah, it made me not able to do what I like…"

"But they caught the culprit so soon? They're even quicker than the police."

"Who could it be?"

"Most likely a freak with super thick glasses, who stares at multiple screens in a dark room!"

"Seriously, your imagination was way off the chart! You watched too many movies."

"Haha, or what do you think? Are you expecting some Korean stud?"

"Hey!"

With the end of the announcement, similar conversations popped up here and there in all corners of the school, surrounding any ears. This phenomenon completely incited panic and paranoia in a certain somebody…

"How… how could this be? What actually happened? Didn't he say all went well? Darn it, he's discovered… What should I do? … No, I have to find that person and see what's up!"

Samara tried to conceal the panic in her heart. She waited until the teacher was preoccupied with trying to control the buzz in the class and slipped out secretly. She ran all the way to the Devilish Director's office, she did not even bother to knock on the door and just barged in. Once she saw said person, she started, "What's the situation now?! Where is he?" Devilish Director suppressed her anger and explained, "I don't know what's going on either. I had no idea about the capture. He did promise he would handle the cyberattack flawlessly and it won't implicate us… Or was the police one step ahead of us and shared clues and intel with the school, so it turned out like this?" Samara was still panicking, but she could not grasp the situation. She asked with confusion, "He said this was but a move to remove any troubles left behind; a piece of cake, but now this is exposed… What the hell…?"

"Huh, so this is how it is…" I said, pushing away some big boxes and walked out into the centre of the room. The remaining eight prefects came out from hiding spots like in the cabinet, below the table, behind the curtains etc. Samara and Devilish Director totally did not expect our sudden appearance, and were rendered shocked. Samara, however, recovered instantly; she got mad very soon and yelled, "You again? What are you doing here?! Were you all at it again?!" I ignored her and said, unfaltering, "We were assigned to investigate the cyberattack, and targeted every suspicious person, incident and object in school. In the end, you two bore the most suspicion." Devilish Director asked, also unamused, "So you're the so-called 'investigation team'?"

I looked at Roxas and made a signal via eye contact. He nodded and continued, "I tracked down the email IP address. Although I was given a wide possible origin area, after following the clues, I discovered that the sending organisation from each phishing email was 'Kingdom Hearts High School'. Since students don't have school email accounts, only employees and employers can send emails bearing this organisation's name. Nevertheless, up to now, we were still unable to figure out which computer was used by the hacker to send emails, so Nemix and Zexion thought about using the principal to lure you out. I suspect the hacker using the director's computer at most, but from your reactions just now, I can at least tell he and you are connected, along with the cyberattack." "Using the principal?" Devilish Director asked. Axel shrugged and said, "I made the speech recording and Roxas edited it to deepen and slow it down. It matched his voice, doesn't it?"

They were both stunned by Axel's and Roxas' explanations. Zexion took his chance to add, "I believe this is an eye opener; this person is very cunning. After he achieved his goals, he disappeared without a trace and erased his trails. Should there be any slipups, you two, who are connected to him, will be the ones to face all the blames and accusations; perfect scapegoats. You are too reckless for believing in him. You can deny all you want, but what proof do you have to say there is nothing between you and him?"

Samara looked as if she was about to combust in anger, but it was not clear what caused this; she being a naïve idiot or Scumbag being a sly fox in our eyes. She was about to say something, but Devilish Director let out a frustrated breath and said, "Darn it, this is his blackmail after all…" I tried to be patient to see what other reactions she would have. She seemed to panic, pacing up and down. Finally, she stopped before her desk and slammed a fist onto it, groaning, "This happened regardless… Darn it!"

Everyone did not dare to move a muscle. Zexion and I locked gazes briefly. He nodded and lifted his hand slightly; he meant to handle this himself. Tactfully, he said, "He had done so many unlawful and immoral things, troubling many people along the way, including you two. We want to help you too, being on the same boat and all. Are you willing to confide in us and tell us the truth?" She shifted her gaze to Zexion, while Zexion steeled himself and looked straight into her eyes. Devilish Director also looked at the rest of us, I thought about it and added, "If you only want to tell Zexion, I can always exit and wait outside." She sighed through her nostrils and said, "That won't be necessary." She walked to her office chair and sat down, looking at us. She started, "It began sometime in mid-September…"

[Flashback]

Devilish Director was working in her office when someone knocked on her door forcefully, as if there was an urgency. With a click of her tongue, she pressed the unlock button under her table. The door swung open violently in an instant, revealing an angry man storming into her office. What was more worrying was the man was covering his anger up, so even if his face portrayed only annoyance, his aura convinced otherwise. And one knew well this sort of people should not be dismissed simply… Devilish Director merely stared at him without a word, slightly unamused. He suppressed his anger and said, "We need to talk."

She replied disdainfully, "Oh? If so, it's considered that you're asking me a favour. And is that how you should speak to me?" The man merely sneered and said, "Ha ha, who're you talking about? Please stop being the pot calling the kettle black. Once you heard my words, our stances might change, you know… What I'm about to say has something to do with the reputations of you and I, even our lives too." No matter how unwilling the director was, she had no choice but to listen on. "… Go on."

"… Your office is a pain to look for, probably because of the location change. When I thought I found it, I had to hide in this… what's it again? Oh, the Discipline Room, so I remained undiscovered by the person walking towards me from a distance. Originally, I thought about sneaking out when the coast was clear outside, but never would I thought that same person would walk into the room and proceed to sit down and work in there. He must have been the Head of Discipline in your school, yes? He's definitely a capable hardworking person, but perhaps too slow and dim to notice my exist-" "Get to the point, I don't have the time for your epic," interrupted an impatient Devilish Director, not being able to stand the man who was animating out his experience while narrating. No one liked to be cut off, so the man was not very happy. He glared at her for a second, the forced amicable expression from earlier gone without a trace. Nevertheless, he went straight to the point as requested, "I overheard the conversation between the Head of Discipline and those meddling kids, saying they had an evidence that was able to accuse me of ruining Fayra's entire life. It's provided by a former student whose transfer request was approved by the school. She was also one of the pawns in our plans."

If the director was surprised upon hearing that, she did not show it. The man turned to face the bookshelf on the wall and started waving his arms around to narrate his point dramatically, "At that moment I thought 'oh no, I had to talk to you ASAP'. I waited for ages until that workaholic left." He spun around to the other side and started pacing around, saying, "I then took the chance and slipped away, and finally found your office! The end~" He blissfully thought his little drama act was done and turned his head to look at the director, who was still seated at her table. He seemed to be observing her for any reactions (or if she had any opinions on his speech delivery skills). However, except for a mildly bored expression, her face had nothing else going on. That would not do; the man sauntered towards the opposite side of the table, facing her. He put his palms on the table, leaned forward, stared into her eyes and whispered, "You… couldn't possibly think this won't affect you and is unrelated to you, right?"

"… What are you getting at?" asked the director, frowning a bit. One could tell she was starting to feel a little anxious, and the man saw through that too. He let out a chuckle and then switched to a serious tone to say, "You're the one who brought me into this mess, don't you forget it. So I want you to get rid of all obstacles, and that means those twerps you all call Counter Crime Group 13 and that video." It was very possible that Devilish Director had never had anyone ordering her around, so the scorn on her face was like an open exhibition. She retorted, "How many times had I already helped you to clean up the mess? Since you are so high and almighty, you can solve your own problems just fine. There's no need to rely on me, yes?"

Scumbag's eyes twitched a few times; obviously angered. He reeled back and stood up straight to draw out his full height. He growled lowly, "What big talk… You sure don't waver unless you got a taste of reality. I want to remind you; you have no say in this matter. You only have two choices; one is to listen to me and destroy all troublesome people and evidence, two is to ignore my words and pretend nothing's happening." Now that her authority was challenged, the director got bolder and retaliated, "Who do you think you are, ordering me? What if I say no?" Scumbag looked straight into the eyes of the stubborn woman before him and threatened with the same low growl earlier, "Then I'll personally make sure that you're in hell. By that time you'll wish you'd never met me. Just you wait…" He pointed to himself, saying, "If I go down…" Then he pointed at the director and continued, "You go down with me. Oh right, and your dear daughter Samara will join us too. She's such a gorgeous and cute young girl. If a delicate flower's future is ruined just like that during its bloom, wouldn't it be a big waste…"

Now, Devilish Director was metaphorically pinned down by the man, so she could only glare at him. She said to him, "You saw it yourself too, those pesky prefects are just like weed that grow when you look the other way. I ensured their disbandment and expulsion, set up numerous troubles and obstacles, yet they kept coming back like pests. If you have any brilliant ideas, please spit it out for god's sake. Don't just throw everything to me." "… Even you have such desperate moments," mused Scumbag disdainfully, mockery in his eyes. Seeing how lost the director got, he said smugly, "I do have an idea that can wipe out the evidence and we don't have to confront anyone directly. Of course, I want to finish those kids in one go too. However, judging the situation now, they must have already heightened their caution, so that can only be our optional victory."

And then the two plotted and decided to let Scumbag lead the cyberattack, while Devilish Director would provide human and material resources as well as other support. Scumbag thought no one would suspect the director, so he used the computer in her office to send out phishing emails and also trigger the attack, consequently paralysing the network. The app was created by a small team under Devilish Director's company. All data collected by them were handed over to Scumbag to enable him to hack into email accounts. The deletion of data from everyone's devices in the end was to create a pretence of indiscrimination, and not targeting specific people (aka Organisation XIII and any related people). The plan worked; all devices connected to the school network were seriously affected, key email accounts were hacked and their owners lost any backup. The app development team was dissolved, and that took care of human evidence. The app was designed to crash after the attack, so no one could trace back to them. No matter how the Head of Discipline tried, he would never find them again.

[Flashback ended]

"And then, he edited the security feeds to escape detection. He presented the plan, carried it out, yet it failed…" With that, Devilish Director finished retelling the story. Roxas was right; everything was done by Scumbag while Devilish Director allowed it to happen by looking away. He was left to wreak havoc, and she seemed to be fine with the school being sacrificed. After taking it all in, Zexion continued to query, "Why would he threaten you? What does it mean when you said 'blackmail'?" True, Devilish Director was still the school director after all, how did she end up having something to do with someone like him? Could she have secrets he could use against her? I said quietly, "Maybe… it's not just about providing support in the cyberattack plan, huh? He even said to destroy evidence, and that you are involved in it, and that's how we wound up here now."

"…" Once again, she fell silent and looked at each and every one of us, seemingly struggling internally over whether to tell us some secret of the century. Finally, she tore down her defence wall. She let out a long sigh and said, "This is a very long story, and I won't repeat it. Listen well if you want to know." Old habits die hard, huh?

No kidding, this was a very long story: The real name of Scumbag was revealed to be Vanitas Inanis. He was acting under Devilish Director's orders from the very beginning. The director, Fayra and Samara were from the same family. Fayra and Samara, being cousins, were once candidates to inherit the family's financial assets and business, but due to the fact that Fayra was the eldest grandchild born to the eldest child in the family, she obtained the title of future heir by default. Devilish Director was definitely not pleased about it, and Samara also thought herself as a more excellent and qualified successor. However, Samara never really exacted any revenge the way Devilish Director did; she just wanted show Fayra that she was more desirable in every way and to oppress her, purely a catfight. In order to disqualify Fayra, Devilish Director singled out some decisive criteria in choosing a successor: the candidate's reputation, mental health, academic performance and qualifications.

She had laid down her pawns way back in time. She discovered Vanitas via several connections and channels. He was a fairly infamous con artist specialising in love scamming, having a string of past records but was never apprehended. Apparently his victims never reported him. Devilish Director wanted Vanitas to taint Fayra's reputation, and every other criteria would be ruined down the line in a chain reaction. Of course, the dark-haired man would not take orders from anyone just like that, so both parties fixed the reward after negotiations; after Samara inherited the assets, he would get a big cut from the inheritance. Thus a self-proclaimed brilliant plan was born in Vanitas' mind; to get intimate with Fayra, dishing out his scamming abilities and to wound her emotionally, sexually then financially (inheritance). Alas, with our advice ignored and our forced expulsion from school, Vanitas succeeded; he impregnated her, collaborated with Samara, causing her to, futilely, take her own life and even resulted in her miscarriage. In the end she chose to quit school. Just like that, he ensured the non-compliance of her inheritor criteria, and Fayra was subsequently announced to have lost her right to the inheritance and that right went to Samara instead. There was a catch; successors must be at least fifteen years old, and Samara's birthday was in early November, so the handover would have to wait until then.

As time dragged on with loose ends untied, there were bound to be hitches due to long delay, and that was why Vanitas opined to get rid of any potential trouble. He successfully played the victim when we caught him at the karaoke centre, and kicked Organisation XIII out of the picture and subdued anyone related to us, like Ven, Naminé, Kairi, Xion and many more. But he did not want to wait for so long, so Vanitas decided to push Devilish Director's buttons a little; he teamed up with some disgruntled butlers from Fayra's home to kidnap her, while thinking that the director would hasten up the handover process out of fear of her schemes being exposed. What he did not see coming was the return of Organisation XIII thanks to the woman, and he actually almost fell into our hands but managed to escape. He was lucky to have two scapegoats to shield him, because their motives were valid anyway. Nevertheless, he had no intention to hold back anymore, now that the director had acted in defiance to their agreement.

When Fayra tried to end her life, Devilish Director had to do something to feign innocence, to show the public that she had at least tried to investigate the case. She picked on me especially, while also imposing a gag order on the news media, so the spread of the news on Fayra's suicide attempt was confined within the school. In reality, she was afraid of people finding out the truth and got herself pawned. Vanitas could see that, so he would occasionally threaten the director by saying that they would go down together if he still had not received his cut from their deal. At the same time, he started a romantic relationship with Samara to make her his safety bargaining chip, and also something to threaten the director with. Devilish Director might have finally understood that she had messed with the wrong guy, because it was obvious he would keep lingering around like a relentless spirit until he got his pay. With the appearance of the vital evidence lately, he would definitely not give up that easily. Either they kept everything a secret and remained cooperative until the inheritance was in everyone's hands, or they would go to hell together, losing any wealth and getting incarcerated.

That was the reason Organisation XIII and anyone on our side had suffered and not been left alone in the past year or so. After hearing the truth, I could not help but deplore; this all stemmed from one person's greed and selfishness… and to think I had to go through so much because of that. I felt as if being toyed around like a fool. On the flip side, we were one more step closer to the truth. After the revelation, all that was left was to sniff Vanitas out and bring him to justice! "Holy shit just got real…" whispered Demyx, an unbelievable expression on his features. Zexion stated firmly, "This matter is very serious and beyond our capabilities. Now all we can do is to report to the police and give our full cooperation. And you two can help by being witnesses. This way, the authorities might consider lessening your sentence."

"… You're lying… How could he do this to me?" Samara got desperate to the point of choking on her words. She was unwilling to accept the truth up until this point. I really wanted to slap her to wake her senses up and reprimand her on why she was still so stubborn. But in order to not let the opportunity before us, a result of everyone's hard work, to evaporate, I suppressed my hot-headedness, took a deep breath and said with a serious voice, "Stop lying to yourself and everyone. Can you still not see Vanitas' true nature? The director had told everything; he's not any good person at all. Besides, I don't think he will leave for good even after getting paid. As long as there is a soft spot to pick on, an advantage to take on, he will treat the director, and you, like a gold pot and suck on your wealth like a leech. He's just a money-minded con artist, nothing more. What he loves is your future inheritance, not you as a person. If he can treat Fayra like that, he can also treat you the same." She was infuriated upon being retorted, so much so that she darted forward to give me a good slap. Fortunately I anticipated any backlashes from her, so I sidestepped in time. Once her hand shot out far enough, I grabbed her offending wrist and glared straight into her eyes. She returned the gesture with blazing furious orbs. All prefects were startled by the sudden string of actions and were about to jolt into action, but I raised my free hand to stop them; nothing was broken. I stood my ground and convinced, "Calm down. Think about it, you're actually lucky. You don't have to go through what your cousin had gone through, and haven't lost almost everything except your life unlike her. If you want to think I'm begging you, so be it, but wake up now. This is surely not the ending you wanted, but it's the best ending for you."

As time ticked by, my words got into her stubborn skull. She hesitated, but the tension in her hand dissolved in my grip, and she managed to wrestle her hand out of mine. She did not say anything else, because her tears beat her to it by brimming in her eyes. I looked at Devilish Director; she had nothing else to add too. After what seemed like forever, she said, "… Fine. I suppose we could only testify him at this rate. It's not like we can still get the inheritance now after the cyberattack plot is uncovered." She returned to her office chair to take a seat and continued, "I will personally file an official report at the police station tomorrow… and also turn myself in. If your evidences and testimony are needed, you will be notified… You're dismissed." All prefects looked at one another, everyone nodded; our mission here was already complete, so we should leave. Before I got out, I saw Samara from the corner of my vision; she was still unable to control her emotions. Let her mull over the events herself. Let us hope she could take my words seriously.

After that, we went to Mr. Saïx to fill in him on the happenings, since he lent us the key to Devilish Director's office, so we could get in and hide before she came in, and wait for Samara and her to fall into our trap. He also somewhat approved (or rather, looked the other way) us imposing as the principal to make the announcement, so this plan could work. "Well done. Now no one would be on Vanitas' side to help him escape justice. If there are any updates, let me know. You did great."

The nine of us chose to gather at the school rooftop during recess; we needed some quiet time to think… Xion sighed, "Holy hell, I never thought this would be such an elaborate plan since last year. It's incredible how we managed to get here today…" Roxas nodded and agreed, "True that. It's unthinkable." "And the day finally arrived…" Axel could not help but agree too.

I let out a sigh before saying, "Good job, guys. I can now say this with much more certainty; we got this." Kairi chimed in, "Nemix's right. We're almost there, there can't be any slipups, nor can we give up!" Zexion added, "Our evidences should be sufficient. But we cannot afford to be careless. I will organise all files on hand, including the viral video posted by Samara, the group chat history and the karaoke centre video, and then I will send a copy to you all." Demyx said, "Yes, yes, yes. Let's not make history repeat itself. It still scares the crap out of me." Axel smirked and teased, "It will be heaven for us if you don't forget your login details a second time." "Stop teasing me. You didn't manage to salvage your phone data too, OK?" And there we had two boys bantering again, completely shattering the seriousness we crafted earlier.

This time, I would back off at nothing!

~ CHAPTER 18 FIN ~

TO BE CONTINUED

Oh my word, I did it again. My job was taxing and took time away from me to write this. There will be more delays going forward. But I managed it this time. I hope I can write more and finish this. Actually, the end is nigh (pun intended). This story will end in two more chapters, I just need to gather more ideas for the penultimate chapter… It is going to be big. Sorry for any delays and I hope you all are healthy and well in a time like this… Keep your distance, wash your hands and I will see you soon!