.Hack: Penance
A .Hack fanfiction by Renfro Calhoun

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

Notes: Happens after the end of Quarantine. Parentheses are thoughts. You may recognize a name here; you may also recognize a date here. I assure you that while the former is intentional, the date is quite incidental. Our hero's reaction in many ways parallels my own, if exaggeratedly so. With that in mind, I decided to run with it. If you're wondering what the hell I'm talking about, read on, and you'll see what I mean :)

This chapter done to the tune of: Tantric – Astounded

Chapter 23 – Knowing Something About Everything

From: Stolls

To: Kite

Subj: Let's Meet

Hey, Hiro man. I want you to know that what happened, happened thanks to your help, but this isn't the best place to do it. We need to square away everything that's been going on; I'll tell you what I know, and you can tell me what I missed out on. Sorry for being vague, but if you-know-who is still doing you-know-what to your computer then it'd be safer to go into this in person.

Wait out in front of school tomorrow, I'll be there after your classes are over. There'll be a lot of kids and teachers around, so you should be okay.

I know you're probably skeptical of whether or not this is really me. The best I can do is ask you to trust me, and tell you that if anything looks suspicious, head back inside and call for help. But regardless, I'll be there.

"First, let's go over what's happened so far."

Masamoto leaned forward and propped his elbows up on his desk, sharing space with the neatly ordered piles of paperwork around his computer. Across from him sat Dean, clad in a white button-down shirt and a pair of jeans, leather jacket slung over the back of his chair. Noticeable rings under his eyes hinted at a lack of a good night's sleep.

"Now you told me at the hospital that you were watching Asara, and they had hired several men to steal from Cyber Connect, like you were originally supposed to."

Dean nodded. "Here's what I've got. Harald coded a series of artificial intelligence programs into 'The World' – including Morganna, which was originally meant to govern the game, in a sense."

"Yes, I remember speaking to that programmer for Cyber Connect." He motioned to Dean. "Go on."

The younger man made a vague gesture with his hand. "Something went wrong with her, though. All those mysterious coma cases at the hospital have to do with her, and things she was trying to do. Aura was a program meant to fix her, and yet I'm not entirely certain what else she was meant for." His mouth twisted into an odd smirk. "At the moment, she seems to have replaced Morganna, but nobody's seen either of them for a while."

Aniki looked confused. "Wait, wait. At the hospital, you said she spoke to you. What happened?"

"I'll get to that," said Dean, "but first let me tell you how I got involved. One of the guys who came to Japan with me – Max Kerrek – works for Asara; he's the one who contacted me, by order of Rosenberg. Rosenberg got away pretty clean from everything that happened that night, even though Max was willing to blow the whistle. Most of the evidence we had was either circumstantial, or… well, gained from somewhat illegal methods."

Masamoto watched intently as he continued. "Anyway, Max called me one night and told me that their CEO had met with one Felix Croker. I got suspicious, and started poking around; it got worse when I intercepted a fax meant for him and found out he'd been meeting with other ex-cons. Then I recovered a disc detailing an operation, where they would try and extract Aura from the game."

"So they were trying to get Aura for Rosenberg?"

"Yeah, that's what I was thinking, too." Dean sighed as he added, "But, nothing I have links them to Rosenberg; or, more accurately, nothing legal. You probably know the rest. They caught me snooping around, kidnapped me and kept me doped up so they could use me as a decoy in the game, had me telling others exactly what they wanted me to tell 'em. That's where I saw Aura; my guess is in the process of trying to extract her, they woke her up, and she woke ME up. Made it all seem like some elaborate revenge thing, some kind of system anomaly, but it was all cover for a theft."

"Something about this sounds familiar," said Masamoto.

Dean leaned back and ran a hand through his hair. "Yeah, they did something like that in Die Hard 3." He laughed softly. "Ain't that a freakin' riot?"

The lieutenant grunted in amusement. "So that's the story so far?"

Dean shut his eyes and stretched, covering his mouth with one hand as he yawned. "Huaaahh… mmm, sorry, I was tossing and turning. But yeah, that's what I've got. What did you guys find out?"

Masamoto reached over to the nearest stack of papers, and took the sheet on the top, which he then handed to Dean. "This is a list of everything we found in the office. I've highlighted the interesting parts."

Dean mumbled the words to himself as he read the list. "Intravenous solution, EKG monitor, RA-series anesthetic… what's that?"

"A rather potent painkiller. We figured they mixed it with some of the other chemicals on that list to make a sedative; one of the side effects is that it inhibits the senses, and makes the user very open to suggestion, though the effects don't last longer than a day or so."

The detective muttered a quiet "Hmm" to himself as he kept reading. (Software for 'The World', hidden microphones, cameras but no tapes, one Browning handgun plus ammo, three magazines of 7.62mm ammo, one… wait, is that right? 'Dragunov SVD rifle plus ammo'.)

"What the hell were they doing with a sniper rifle?" he asked to himself. He looked up, alarmed. "Have there been any recent shootings?"

Masamoto gently shook his head. "None that haven't centered around you. Gun violence is very rare here, especially with these kinds of weapons."

"Super," Dean remarked in deadpan; Aniki couldn't tell whether it was intentional or just from fatigue. "So they were planning on killing someone."

"You might have just changed their plans, though," Masamoto replied. "You were right about MacReady; it looks like he was hired as a guard. Just some small-time armed robber that was recently bailed out of Rikers. The other victim is one Aaron Walsh, and his prints were all over the sniper rifle. I think you killed their shooter."

He shrugged at the news. "That leaves fourteen; the fax I found said there were sixteen in all. I thought I had the roster at home, but I guess I was imagining things. I tried looking for it and couldn't find it. The only ones I can remember offhand were Felix and James"

"In that case, we have something that might be of use to you." Aniki turned to another pile, and skillfully plucked a manila folder from it, handing it to Dean. "The lessee for the office is a man named Calvin Cahill."

Dean took a look at the name on the folder. "This isn't his file?"

Masamoto arched his eyebrows. "He has no file. It's probably an alias, but," he held up a finger, "this Cahill fellow checked out the office several times before securing the lease. Two of those times, there was another person who was on-site that day, aside from building staff. That file you're holding is everything we know about that person."

Opening the folder, Dean was greeted by the photo of a plain-looking, middle-aged Japanese man, hair short and curly with a single lock hanging down over his forehead, a lopsided smile on his face. "Junichiro Tokuoka," he read. "He checked out the office, too?"

"I've reason to believe he was spying on Cahill," Masamoto explained. "On that list, you might have noticed there were listening devices? We didn't find any prints from the bodies on them; it's my guess that Tokuoka planted the bugs, but right now that's all it is – a guess."

"And you want me to follow up on it, right?" Dean asked.

Masamoto smiled. "Well, you were going to do it anyway, weren't you? Maybe not on him, exactly, but…"

Dean waved a hand and cut him off in mid-sentence. "Yeah yeah yeah, I get it. Don't worry, I'll check this guy out. You got a post-it or something I can copy the address on?"

The lieutenant tossed a small stack of yellow sticky notes his way, and then handed him a pen. "Here you go."

"Heh heh." He hastily scribbled down the address and then put the file down on the desk. "You realize this isn't exactly legal, right?"

"You let me worry about that," said the aging policeman. "Trust me, there's a very large gray area when it comes to securing civilian assistance in emergency situations." His smile vanished; his voice became stern. "Understand that I'm not turning you loose, nor am I giving you implicit freedom to do whatever you want without police interference. There are still rules, and you still must come up with legitimate information before we can proceed. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir," Dean quickly responded. "You can count on me, Mas, I'm all about gray areas."

"Glad to hear it." There was a faint glint in Aniki's eyes, almost mischievous. "Now go do what you do best."

He scanned the crowd carefully, the mass of uniforms and black hair denying his best efforts to check each student as they passed. (C'mon, Hiro, where are you?)

Casually leaning against the chain-link fence surrounding the school, Dean gave up watching the kids as they exited the building, instead staring straight forward, idly rapping his fingers against one of the fence poles. His knuckles counted off the seconds against the metal, and hit sixty-two times before he heard a voice he recognized.

"Hey, Dean! Over here!"

He looked out over the crowd again, which had thinned out considerably; he spotted a hand up over a small cluster of boys, and when they passed he spotted its owner, a smiling Hiroshi standing next to another, taller youth with slightly longer hair.

Dean grinned and jogged across the enclosure, joining the two boys. "Heya, Hiro man."

"Hi, Dean!" he said cheerfully, as if it had only been a day or so since the last time they saw each other face-to-face. He indicated his friend with a nod. "This is Yasuhiko."

Dean nodded courteously. "How you doin', man?"

"I'm all right, thanks," he answered. "It's… nice to finally meet the real you."

The detective chuckled warmly. "Yeah, likewise. C'mon, I'll give you guys a ride home."

Hiro and Yasu joined Dean as he headed past the fence, towards the parking lot. "You boys did a hell of a job," he commented, getting right to the point. "Got me out of trouble and stopped them from taking Aura. Not bad at all."

His comment seemed alien, out of place in the real world, and Hiroshi could only imagine what anyone eavesdropping might have thought. "What actually happened, Dean?"

Dean groaned, digging through his pants pocket for his keys. "Well, it's pretty much like what I came here to do, only they're actually good at it. Bunch of bad guys – and believe me, that's the best way I can put it for now – anyway, a bunch of bad guys have been hired to kidnap Aura. I started looking into it, they caught me, doped me up, used me to deceive you guys, et cetera."

"That sounds awfully simple," Yasu said warily.

"It IS awfully simple," the detective agreed. "All that crap about Felix and getting even with me, bringing down the internet, or whatever the hell they were talking about back then, it was all a smoke screen. It was all about kidnapping Aura."

"That much I figured out from your notes," said Hiroshi. "But who are they?"

He spotted his vehicle, the blue Civic with dice in the window. "That's what I intend to find out, my friend. I don't suppose you found out about anything else?"

"Hiro and I followed the others," said Yasu, "and we found them all fighting a bunch of other characters, including yours. They were using Helba to get to Aura, and we barely got to her in time."

As they reached the car, Dean fumbled with the door key, sliding it in, then removing it and turning it right side up and trying again. "Hmm. I think it's safe to say they'll try again, but I don't think they'll do that trick twice. We're going to have to be careful from here on out." He opened the door and hit the lock release, unlocking the other doors. "Was there anything else?"

The three climbed into the car, Hiroshi sitting up front and Yasuhiko in the back. "Actually, yeah," said Hiro, "I remember Balmung mentioning a guy's name, somebody Stolls was talking to at the time." Buckling his seatbelt, he called back to his friend. "What was it, Yasu? I know it started with an M."

"Monroe," corrected the taller boy. "Balmung said Stolls gave the order to lock the field down to him."

"Monroe," Dean echoed. "That's gotta be their hacker. The place I saw wasn't that big, they must be operating out of other locations."

Hiro gave him an odd look as he slid the key into the ignition and started the car. "The place you saw? You mean that office, right? Is that where you've been this whole time?"

Dean threw an arm over the back of the passenger seat, looking through the rear window as he slowly backed out of the parking space. "Yeah, they were basically using me as a prop for the whole thing. Had me playing as hacked characters without even knowing it." Finished backing up, he faced forward and shifted to drive. "Thought I was losing it," he said quietly, a distant look in his eye.

Hiro caught the look, recognized it. "Are you all right?"

"Eh…" he couldn't give a verbal answer, instead raising a hand and tilting it in a so-so gesture. "Had a hard time sleeping last night, I'm running on caffeine now." A mild itch welled up on his left side, just over his waist, and he grimaced as he scratched at the sensitive area. "And aspirin."

"What happened to you?" asked Yasuhiko. "Oh, take a left out of here, my house is closer."

"I saw Aura after my character got killed." He braked at the stop sign, hitting his left turn signal. "I think when they tried to draw her out, she sensed that I had been knocked out. She managed to wake me up, and that's when I found myself in the office. Then, I got shot trying to get out."

"Oh my god!" Hiro gasped. "Are you all…"

"Yeah, I'm fine," Dean interrupted. "It wasn't too bad, well, as it goes anyway. Patched me up, couple days at the hospital… it wasn't pleasant, don't get me wrong, but it could've been a lot worse. Guess I lucked out."

Yasuhiko leaned forward between the front seats. "What does it… feel like?"

"Well… it's over pretty quick. Let's leave it at that." Spotting an opening, he touched his foot to the gas pedal and rolled forward. "So what else is new with you guys?"

"Heh heh… funny you should ask." Yasu looked over at Hiro. "Go on, tell him."

"Tell me what?"

Hiro suddenly looked embarrassed, glancing out the window. "Well…"

Dean glanced back at Yasu. "Where to?"

"Straight ahead and left at the next light," he answered. He then turned back to Hiroshi. "Come on, you told me easy enough."

"C'mon, Hiro man, you can tell me." Dean saw a flush of color on his younger partner's face, and a sly grin crossed his own. "Oh-ho-hooo, wait a minute. Is this about a young lady in particular?"

Hiro clammed up even further. "Um…"

Dean's eyes went back to the road. "Bingo."

"I-I didn't say anything!" Hiro exclaimed.

"You didn't have to," countered Yasuhiko. "It's written all over your face." Then to Dean, he said, "He's got a date with BlackRose on Saturday."

"Outstanding," was Dean's response. "I knew you had it in you. You have to let me know how this goes down. So where you two going?"

"The, uh… the tech fair. That festival they're having downtown this week."

The car slowed down as it hit a red light, drifting into the turn lane. "Oh yeah, the Annual Global Tech Expo. What's this, 5th year so far? It coincides with the cyber-terrorism conference. That's cool, you guys are both into online games and stuff. I went there once… whoa."

Hiro drew his head back in surprise as Dean stared at him. "You're going this Saturday?"

"Yeah, why?"

"As in, Saturday the 14th?"

The shorter boy heard his friend mutter "Uh-oh" before repeating himself. "Yeah, this Saturday. Why?"

The light changed, and Dean started the turn. "Well, you know what February 14th is, don't you?" A blank look on Hiroshi's face told him to continue. "Word to the wise, you may want to get her something nice. That's Valentine's Day, my friend."

Dean and Yasuhiko shared a laugh at Hiro's reaction to the revelation. Were it possible for a human to blush and turn pale at the same time, they were certain Hiro would be doing it.

"And I thought my life was interesting," said Dean between laughs.

Chapter 23