K: Tales of Midnight
Chapter Three: Hakkā
1 AM had come and gone, Fushimi passed the late night hours coolly withdrawn and adequately crazed from his overloaded intake of fizzy drinks, the most recent of which he downed in several long-drawn swigs until the can was empty, tossing it with carelessness atop the others littered on his desk. The cool electric glow of his computer screen produced a vague reflection like a poorly fashioned prism off the blurred fluorescence of aluminum and the glassy glare of his rectangular specs, the scowl beneath them warped in concentration.
Rei Kiyoka's signal failed to re-emerge since its last disappearance from Tachibana Tower nearly four hours before, and Fushimi had begun to lose all hope of ever seeing it again. Nevertheless, anticipation kept him active. Ceaselessly, he readdressed his former clues, the research he had gained (or had been purposely led to) over the course of weeks gone by, hoping somewhere to have found some sort of a connection: a slip in Kiyoka's stratagem he might have overlooked, though mercilessly in vain. No hint of idle planning could be sighted in the pristine mess he looked upon. Thus, he recommenced, overly alert, leaning heavily into his restlessness with the added sugar of his current high, to scan the confines of the inter webs in random, aimless fashions he knew well, by then, were pointless.
Finally, his overexposure in his fruitless campaign, coupled with the dawning of the two o'clock hour, brought him all at once to terms with the ridiculousness of his quest. He sprang up in a violent action, grasping at the nearest object readily available: an empty soda can. With a rousing grunt, he chucked it through the room, slumping in his chair, his worn-out features pointed at the ceiling. "The hell am I doing?" He said to it.
His weariness, ignored for far too long, began to creep up to the surface of his formerly obsessed invigoration. He didn't bother trying to contain it any longer but allowed it to encompass him entirely. Leisurely, his eyes began to close, and opened with a start. A familiar sound — the chime of his alarm — lit up his PDA, accompanied by buzzing palpitations rattling his desk.
Instantly, he bolted forward, snatched it up, a look of wonder spread across his face. Rei Kiyoka's signal had returned.
"Took you long enough," he gritted out with a sort a bitter satisfaction.
His drowsiness abated as he flashed his once-more focused eyes across the holographic map appearing in the air. The crimson dot of Kiyoka's form was moving at a rapid pace along the city's surface, as seen through winding routes down streets and alleys wholly nonexistent under ground. "Now where are you going?" He asked, narrowing his gaze. A moment passed and suddenly he jumped, his eye drawn back to darting signals blaring from his monitor.
"What in the —? Where are you coming from?" He asked.
Blinking through the haze of electric beams, he focused on the source. Past windows of his unrelated searches, lines of code, and games he'd since grown bored of overmastering, he found, far in the rear, the link to the city's power distribution grid.
His eyes lit up at once. The Algorithm!
Zooming in, he traced the strands of power webbing through Shizume toward a singular location on the screen.
"Is this…? Wait a second," He said, thinking aloud, and a flick of his finger sent the PDA's holographic map to the desktop, layering his targets in Shizume with a hunch.
Just as he predicted, the two collided perfectly as all the electric power of Shizume — along with the rest of Tokyo — was routed to the same exact location in which Kiyoka's signal locked itself.
Fushimi formed a sinister grin. "Got you," he said.
"Well done, Mr. Fushimi," came the voice of Captain Munakata in his ear.
Fushimi jumped. Always, he'd forgotten the lapel communication link the Captain seemed inclined to use at every opportunity.
"Don't you ever sleep, Captain?" He asked, jarred to agitation.
"Don't you?" Was the reply.
Fushimi clicked his tongue.
"Consider me as anxious as you are, Mr. Fushimi."
Not likely, he thought. "Fushimi to Akiyama," he said, ignoring the Captain.
"Akiyama here," came the remote audio over the coms.
"Move into position. Your target is the Akira Industries Distribution Center. I'm sending the location."
There was a pause, then a light ding on the other end. "Got it."
"Wait for my command. And don't screw it up."
The Blue King's chuckle rumbled in his ear. "What of the Algorithm?"
"Uploading now: currently at twelve percent."
"And you're certain this time?"
This slight insinuation met Fushimi with a twinge of irritation. "After the…incident at Susanoo," he rigidly began, "I developed a more accurate program to narrow down the list of locations with enough power input to maintain a program of that magnitude. I then linked it to the distribution grid and set it to inform me if any of those locations got a hit. That way, I'd know for certain where the Algorithm is before sending in a team."
"And were our suspicions correct?" Resumed the Captain. "The origin of Miss Rei Kiyoka's signal on returning back online?"
"The signal reappeared just west of Yoyogi Station — right on the edge of Shizume."
"Then it seems the circle is complete. Excellent work, Mr. Fushimi. As for the situation at hand, we may conclude that Miss Rei is aware that her actions have already drawn ample attention and has no doubt come prepared."
"No more of those idiot goons," Fushimi agreed. "Once Akiyama gets there, we can get a heat-signature readout to determine how many accomplices are with her; but for now, we'll have to assume they're aura-wielders with the same abilities as hers."
"Precisely why I've approved your request and asked Ms. Awashima to deploy a separate squad to accompany Akiyama's."
Fushimi contemplated a moment. "Even then, it may not be enough. You should have gone too, Captain, or at least sent me."
"She will be anticipating either one of us to attend."
"So what? If we're there, it wouldn't matter what she'd do. We'd have enough of a force to incapacitate the others and take her in for questioning."
"Indeed. However," the Captain added drolly, "though I cannot speak for myself, it would seem that Miss Rei has a sort of affinity with you, Mr. Sashimi."
"I should not have told you that."
"Am I wrong? If she is expecting your arrival, she will find herself sorely deprived upon your failure to appear, and thus, anxious to learn whether or not her methods earlier produced the desired results. And most certainly, my absence as the head of Scepter 4 (to whom her message was directed) is sure to cause a disturbance with regard to her methods."
"So your plan is to rattle her, force her into action with the hope that she might reveal something we can use – something she wouldn't normally reveal when put into questioning. And we get to be the bait simply by not being there, by feigning disinterest."
"Indeed."
Fushimi grunted disbelief. "Now who's taking a risk?"
A lull commenced, the Captain's drollery returned. "Do you object?"
Fushimi shut his eyes and sighed. "You'd better be right about this."
"Allow me to take full responsibility, if that is what worries you."
Fushimi clicked his tongue. "Isn't that what a king's supposed to do? take responsibility?"
Munakata hummed, conveying his amusement.
Fushimi's screen lit up again: a bright red 'WARNING' box appearing on the distribution grid. He frowned.
"Something the matter?"
"The upload's only at thirty percent," Fushimi answered, "but it's draining all the power in the city. If this goes on, there won't be…" he trailed off, inching closer to the screen, his brow scrunched deeper toward the rim of his glasses. "Wait a second. She's using Akira's mainframe to upload the Algorithm!"
"And?"
"And if I can hack my way into the mainframe, so long as she doesn't lock me out or plunge all of Tokyo into a city-wide black-out, I can piggyback the system and trace the upload to its destination, meaning: I can figure out exactly where she and her boss are operating from."
"How much time will you need?"
Fushimi deliberated a moment. "Like you said, she knows we're coming: she'll be expecting a large-scale operation. We'll have to control our approach. If our guys rush in too quickly, she might catch on and sabotage the trail; and if they don't, ... "
" — she will have successfully uploaded the Algorithm and escaped before our forces can intercept her," the Captain supplied. "However, by then (granted the city retains its power), we will have gained the Algorithm's true location, and with it, the whereabouts of her hidden fortress."
"'Fortress?'" He repeated. "What is this, the medieval era?"
"Wherever there are enemies, Mr. Fushimi, there will always be castles to storm. I am a king, after all."
"And that makes me what? A member of your little Round Table?"
"I thought we agreed you're not a knight."
"Fifty percent. Good. I don't do that shining armor crap." His voice then dipped back into seriousness. "What are your orders, Captain?"
There was a pause, a deadness in the air. Fushimi felt his eagerness a fire ready to unleash.
At last, the Captain's fluttery air appeared. "Do as you wish," he said.
The floodgate burst open. "Fushimi to all units," he said at once.
"Akiyama here. We're in position."
"This is Lieutenant Awashima. My team is on the scene, however, we're experiencing some interference with our coms systems."
"Us too," agreed Akiyama.
"It's the power surge," Fushimi informed them. "It's messing with the signal."
"That isn't all it's interfering with," the lieutenant answered. "We've scanned the area for heat signatures, but the influx of static electricity is disrupting the readout. It's impossible to obtain an accurate reading on the number of individuals we're dealing with. Shall we proceed?"
"No," he uttered flatly.
"But the Captain — !"
" — gave me authority over this mission, and I say: stand down and wait for my command."
There was a heavy silence. "Copy that," came Awashima's curt reply.
"Sixty percent," Fushimi mumbled to himself. "Almost there."
He had just succeeded in stealing into Akira's central mainframe and was in the process of locating the singularity represented by the Kawaguchi Algorithm's noticeable technological and supernatural thread inside Akira's standardized system. All power being routed to the facility followed the trail of the Algorithm's subsequent upload into Rei Kiyoka's offsite hard drive and already, the trail had left the building, heading eastward through Shizume.
As soon as he had hijacked the trail, a line of firewalls emerged, one for every outlet on its course. He broke them down over a spans of several minutes, maintaining his pursuit through Shizume and into Shinjuku. Seventy percent, he read on the screen.
Another alarm rung out. Fushimi froze his fingers in a hover on the keys. "What the — !"
"Fushimi!" The Lieutenant hailed him on the coms. The audio was worse than before. "I'm picking up critical levels of voltaic activity coming from inside the facility," she reported. "The area's becoming unstable. What's going on?"
"Nothing. Hold your position."
He resumed a furious typing on the keys. She knows I'm on to her, if she didn't know it before, he contemplated. But it's too late now. Even if she wanted to shut it down or sabotage the trail, she wouldn't be able to without disrupting the upload and potentially losing the Algorithm.
He glanced at the percentage point. It read at ninety percent. It's gone past Shinjuku, he observed. It's in Bunkyō now. Ninety five percent. Arakawa. He paused. Hold on. It just jumped to Katsushika. Now it's in…Nerima? Ōta? Ninety eight percent. Something's wrong. Itabashi? Shinagawa? Ninety nine percent. This is taking me all over the place!
With a ding, the upload rung out at one hundred percent. Suddenly, a message board appeared across his screen, halting him outright.
Hello Sashimi, it typed out for him.
Eyes wide, he tightened up with shock. "Is that…?"
I loved your little gift. You really shouldn't have.
"Shit," he whispered. "All units: close in!" He ordered loudly on the coms.
"All units closing in!" Awashima answered on the other end, and a grand commotion followed, static, choppy; the sound of auras bursting and the zapping of electric bursts that raged beyond control came thundering through the coms.
Simultaneously, the lights above Fushimi's head began to flicker in and out, as did his screen, his PDA, the entirety of Scepter 4's headquarters: all of central Tokyo upended by the surge.
Sorry to have to do this, the message board continued, but you know how it is.
Fushimi clicked his tongue.
Oh drab, I've angered you, haven't I?
"Fushimi!" Akiyama called. His voice pierced through the pops and cracks of power lines exploding, sounding eerily like gunfire. "Fushimi! The place is lighting up! We can't — " His words became a mix of fuzzy fragments before fading altogether to a dull white noise.
Once again, the message box went on. Oh well, it said. I suppose I'll reap the pleasures of your wrath another time. In the meantime, I wouldn't worry too much if I were you. You'll see my little Algorithm again in no time. Didn't I say I'd keep it safe? I was the one who built it, after all.
"What?" He breathed, eyes wide.
Oh my, I suppose you didn't figure that, did you?
"Who the hell are you?!" He yelled at the screen.
How confused you must be, he read by way of an unintended answer. Forgive my amusement. I only wish that I could see your face right now. But oh look! I can!
The green light of his webcam turned on as a window of himself, staring dumbstruck at the screen, popped up beside the message board.
There you are!
"Gah! What the — !" He tried to cover up the screen, to block her view, to somehow shut it down.
Just then, a sound broke through the speakers on his screen: a mechanical vibration, materializing into a familiar human vocal pattern, and evolving still further to a steady rhythmic chuckle. Fushimi felt his skin crawl, his body cringing up with rage. That laugh…how the hell is she — !
And then her voice appeared as lewd and all-invasive as he never thought was possible. "Better luck next time," she teased. The voice seemed to surround him. "Maybe then, you'll manage to catch me. Believe it or not, I rather hope for that, if only to make it interesting." She hummed again, a slight amalgamation interwoven in the laugh as like a blurb that had no life at all. "I trust you won't let me down. Until then, Sashimi. I'll be waiting…"
Upon her final word, the message box zapped shut in a sudden static charge. The screen itself began to fizzle out, the hard drive overheating in a surge of smoke and wiry sparks. Before Fushimi could react, the entire desk exploded with the supernatural force of an aura: a black aura: Rei Kiyoka's aura.
Caught inside the reverberative thrust of the blast, Fushimi catapulted backward on the squeaky wheels of his chair, landing in a roll across the floor. His glasses flew apart somewhere, a ringing hit his ears; he choked and coughed, an acid burn enveloping his throat and eyes from waves of thick, mechanical fumes that filled his small apartment to the brim.
The lights snapped violently into darkness with a black-aura burst, and any light that entered through the windows dimmed as all of Shizume, along with Tokyo itself, was thrown into an equal state of midnight blackness.
A thickening silence gave way through the dark, broken by a high-pitched line of feedback shrieking in his ear, causing him to lash out in a sudden bout of pain.
"This is Akiyama," he heard screeching through the coms. "Come in, Fushimi! Fushimi, do you read me?"
Fushimi had forgotten that the coms were still on. He coughed again, pinching his eyes shut to counteract the burn. "What!" He snapped.
"Fushimi, there's no one here. The place is completely deserted."
"This is the lieutenant," Awashima called in, no less choppily. "We found the source of the black-out. It came from a remote hard drive connected to the Industry's data processing unit. Unfortunately, the drive itself — not to mention the entire computer system here — is fried: something like a black explosion burnt it to a crisp. There's nothing left to salvage."
Fushimi sighed. A proxy server, huh? Laying on his back, he turned his head and found his PDA cast several inches from his face. He snatched it up, gave it a good tap against the ground, and watched the screen blink stubbornly back on. He saw that it had locked itself on the map of Akira Industries, wherein he saw the small red dot of Kiyoka's signal flashing in position in the center of the building.
He drooped his lids, his voice depleted. "Akiyama, is there a tracking device sitting nearby?" He asked, knowing full well what the answer would be.
"A tracking device? Uh, hold on, I'll look," Akiyama answered, and there followed a brief moment of shuffling. "Yes, it's here."
Again, Fushimi sighed, swearing internally.
" — along with a bottle of liquid," Akiyama added.
Fushimi flinched his eye wide at the ceiling.
"It's a type of black substance, but with a sort of glittery, clear hue to it — like an elixir."
The voice of Munakata intervened. Again, Fushimi winced, a gong-like ringing in his ears. "Is there a problem Mr. Fushimi?" He asked.
Fushimi sent an arm across his eyes, groaning irritably. Damn it, damn it, damn it, he thought.
"I lost her, Sir," he said aloud. "She's gone."
"Is that so?
"Yes, Sir. I was a proxy, Sir."
"She used a proxy?"
"That too."
"Well, which is it?"
"Both, Sir."
A brief silence followed. "How unfortunate," Said the Captain. "I wonder, though: did you, by chance, retrieve a clue as to where the Algorithm was sent?"
"You're sitting in the dark, Captain. What do you think?"
There was another pause as neither said a word. Even so, the silence did its job.
With a steady breath, Fushimi shut his eyes again, softening his tone. "She left us another vial, Sir."
"Oh?" Came the Blue King's force of intrigue.
"It isn't like the last one, though. Akiyama said it's black."
A final silence followed, yet something of a heaviness was borne about the air. Then the Captain spoke, all laughter having vanished from his voice. "That is grave indeed."
Chapter Four: Rook