Name: Not Equal

Series: Medaka Box

Disposition: Unknown, assumed Villain

Location: Estimated to be present in any sizable human settlement

General information: The Think Tank "Solomon's Wives" was formed in order to find Master/Stranger sleeper cells before they became active. The moment they combined their powers and began scanning, they immediately identified several members of the accompanying PRT troopers as being members of "Not Equal".

Unlike the usual Master victims, members of Not Equal are fully aware that they can be controlled at any moment, but do not appear to care. They seem to believe that they somehow owe their existence to their controlling Master, "Ajimu Najimi", and will carry out her wishes in the manner of someone following the orders of someone they greatly respect/care about. (One member claimed they were like computer terminals - they had their own traits, goals, and personalities, but ultimately were just a component of Ms Najimi.)

Ms Najimi herself has never been located by the PRT.

Classification:

Master 6 - As above.

Recommended Strategies: Members of Not Equal will spend most of their lives living out their own desires, and will only be directed if Ms Najimi herself commands them (which has not happened yet as far as the PRT are aware). Master/Stranger isolation is ineffective against Ms Najimi's control. Instead, identified members of Not Equal have the ≠ symbol appended to their name on their official PRT documents, and will not be sent out against unidentified Masters just in case we are asking them to attack their Master.

AUTHORISATION LEVEL CONFIRMED... UNLOCKING REMAINDER OF FILE

While the above information is correct, one major piece of information has been left out of it to avoid panic: Not Equal's numbers.

To be frank, when Solomon's Wives was first activated, the first Not Equal they identified was one of their own members; who remarked "Wow, you can tell that?", unconcerned at having been found out. The rest of the group tried to raise a Master/Stranger alert, only to discover that most of the building's occupants were members of Not Equal.

At last estimates, one in every ten human beings on the planet is a member of Not Equal, and 87% of the PRT. This more than doubles her Threat Ranking from 6 to 14.

This is a threat of a different type from that of the Endbringers, but no less devastating. Ajimu Najimi could throw the entire world into chaos just by commanding her "terminals" not to go to work today. Even if a countermeasure against her powers was found, there would be no way to deploy it world-wide. Locating and negotiating with her is a top priority.

Incident report #4738
Date & Time: 7:34 PM, 12 April 2011
Location: Secure meeting room #3, PRT Central Headquarters
Context: Room was currently in use in a planning session to locate Ajimu Najimi.
PRT personnel involved: Director Costa-Brown, Secretary Milo, Protectorate Member Inju (in her role as head of Think Tank 'Solomon's Wives'), Protectorate Member Dragon (remotely)
Parahumans encountered: Ajimu Najimi, Hanten Shiranui
Details: [Audio log attached]
[Log begins]:
Director Costa-Brown: Can you explain what you mean when you say you can't trace her?
Protectorate Member Inju: Our powers aren't feeding us anything that makes sense! There are two many bonds for Mary to make out their destination, Ammy's compass just keeps spinning in place, and Joan's powers literally told her 'Signs unclear, check again later'!
Director Costa-Brown: We've at least cleared everyone in this room, correct?
Protectorate Member Inju: Correct.
Director Costa-Brown: What about digital means?
Protectorate Member Dragon: "Ajimu Najimi" was registered as a student at Hakobune Middle School in Japan, but vanished after another student supposedly ripped her face off.
Director Costa-Brown: ...assuming that's not hyperbole, that's one hell of a Trigger Event.
Protectorate Member Dragon: And a powerful motivator for revenge. I'll track down the student in question - if they're still alive, they may need protective custody.
Ajimu Najimi: Oh, don't worry about Kumagawa-kun. He's far too much of a Minus for anything in this world to keep him down.
Director Costa-Brown, Secretary Milo, and Protectorate Member Inju abruptly stand as they realise that Ajimu Najimi and Hanten Shiranui have at some point entered the room.
Director Costa-Brown (into intercom): Master/Stranger alert! I need full lockdown of this building!
Ajimu Najimi: Oh, honestly.

Rebecca's hand suddenly shot forward through the air as the intercom button she had slammed down suddenly disappeared, along with the table it was built into. In her peripherals, she could see Sam and Anna freak out as the rest of the room - and more importantly, Dragon's terminal - disappeared around them, leaving them in a featureless white plane, black pillars extending to the sky off in the distance.

Her long-honed instincts screaming at her, Rebecca didn't for a moment take her eyes of the new arrivals. The girl who had spoken was sitting in a chair from what used to be the end of the table (the chairs, unlike the other furniture from the room, hadn't disappeared). She had long white hair, and wore a traditional Miko outfit. For some reason, six screws the size of water bottles were embedded in her body: two in her legs, two in her upper arms, and two pinning her hands to her shoulders. She was smiling in what could be described as a patient, understanding way.

The man who came with her, by comparison, was almost unnoticeable. He stood silent and motionless, his back to everyone else, displaying the ≠ symbol on the back of his jacket.

Rebecca took all of this in and made a guess. "Ajimu Najimi?"

Ajimu leaned forward in the best approximation of a bow she could make with her hands still pinned to her shoulders. "That's me!"

"I thought you had lost your face." Out of the corner of her eye she could see that Sam and Anna had decided to huddle together and go quiet, desperately hoping that she could handle this.

Ajimu shrugged, apparently unfazed by the question. "Maybe I have more that one face." She said teasingly.

"Where are we?"

"We're inside the incident report you're going to write after this. I hate script-style writing."

Rebecca's eyes narrowed. If she wasn't going to answer the question seriously, she would honestly prefer she not answer it. "Why have you attacked the PRT like this?"

"Attack the PRT?" Ajimu shook her head, still smiling. "Oh, that's quite impossible. I am the PRT. ...well, nine tenths of it anyway. Can you believe some actual Normals signed up?"

She appeared to be continuing the claim that members of Not Equal were actually part of her, rather than just controlled.

"Then why did you have him" Rebecca indicated in the direction of the man who had arrived with Ajimu "bring us here?"

"Hmm?" Ajimu looked back at her companion. "Oh, Hanten-san? That's not the kind of Skill he has. I brought us here."

An unpleasant thought occurred to Rebecca. They'd been so distracted by Not-Equal's numbers that they'd forgotten Master 101: The minions Masters most desired were...

"How many of Not Equal are parahumans?" She demanded.

"None." Ajimu replied immediately. "Zion knows better than to stick his brain-worms in me."

Rebecca's blood ran cold. That was very secret information she had just casually mentioned. No matter how many people in the PRT she controlled, the only member that could actually tell her that information was herself; and her powers protected her from that sort of thing. The only way she could know that would be if she had compromised -

"B-but!"

The stuttering cry interrupted Rebecca's train of thought, and she remembered that she had two subordinates huddling off to one side.

Sam swallowed, but finished his outburst. "But weren't 'y-you' caught being a member of Solomon's Wives? T-that group is made up entirely of Thinkers!"

Ajimu shrugged again, still smiling. "Oh, Sakura-chan is definitely Abnormal, but that doesn't make her a Parahuman. It's like the difference between an expert basketball player and an idiot wearing a basketball-playing robot suit."

This was going nowhere. "Why are you here?" Rebecca demanded.

"Ah, now we get to the point." Ajimu tilted her head. "You were looking for me so that you could negotiate, right? I thought it would speed things up if I just showed myself."

Rebecca frowned. "And just how did you find out that we were looking for you?"

"Well, I could tell you that I have the Skill [Wind Whisper], and can hear anyone who's talking about me, but you wouldn't believe me would you?"

"I might believe that one of your minions had such a power." Rebecca conceded.

Ajimu rolled her eyes, her smile somehow still in place. "If any of 'me' have a Skill, it's because I've given it to them."

"Y-you can give people powers?"

Rebecca knew where the fresh wave of fear in Sam's voice was coming from. The only other Master/Trump of anywhere near that power was Teacher, and he was bad enough even without having seven hundred million minions.

Ajimu sighed. She shook her head in disappointment, though she was still smiling. "Powers, powers, powers... you keep saying that as though you can through everything this this world you don't understand into a box. As long as you can read the label, it doesn't actually matter that you don't know what's inside it, does it? That's why you keep throwing around words like Master, or Mover, or Breaker... you think you know what those words mean, so you have an excuse to stop thinking as soon as you hear them."

"Powers have rules." Rebecca objected. "Just because we might not know what the rules are doesn't mean they aren't there. Every time we encounter parahumans, our understanding grows."

"Really." Ajimu's smile didn't actually change, but the way she tilted her head changed the shading on her face and made her smile suddenly look sinister.

"Really." Rebecca leaned forward in her chair, ready to spring forward. If Ajimu actually attacked, she was going to have to defend Sam and Anna, secret identity be dammed. The thing was, 'Haten-san' was a complete unknown, and the logical reason for him to be here was as muscle...

"What can you tell me about the rules of Hamon, Director?" Ajimu said, her voice taking on a slightly sinister undertone to match her face.

Rebecca frowned. With her memory, it was simple to recall any report; even if she'd only read it once. "Hamon, also known as Ripple Energy. The power shared by Jonathan Joestar and Joseph Joestar. Conducted through organic and formerly organic substances, and can be held as a charge in metal. Generated when the user breathes. Can heal or interfere with biological processes, as well as increase various properties of objects."

"Correct! I'd clap for you, if I had my hands free. Now, as my follow up question: what can you tell me about Stands?"

Rebecca's eyes narrowed once again. "I do not know any power by that name."

"Ah, stopped before you reached Part 3, did you? Not that I blame you, Jotaro was such a disappointment of a protagonist after Joseph." Ajimu said. "But just knowing about Hamon is enough. You've noticed, haven't you director? How Hamon doesn't obey 'normal' parahuman rules."

Rebecca didn't answer.

Sam and Anna looked back and forth between Rebecca and Ajimu. Ultimately, Anna broke the silence. "W-what d-does she mean, Director?"

Ajimu gave a short, girly giggle. "The 'power' of Jonathan Joestar? As if. Jonathan-san died over a hundred years before the first parahuman was born."

Rebecca still did not say anything.

"How about Esper powers? Do you think you know how those work?"

"That is the name Academy City gives to the parahumans abilities it manufactures - " Rebecca tried.

"Except we both know that 'parahuman abilities' aren't something you can manufacture, don't we Director?" Ajimu tilted her head again. "They're bred."

Sam and Anna must have been sufficiently cowled by now, because neither of them dared speak to ask Rebecca what Ajimu meant.

"And speaking of breeding, there certainly seem to be plenty of pony-type 'parahumans', aren't there? And it's interesting that their powers seem to be so similar... and how 'everypony' seems to have them."

Rebecca clenched her teeth.

"How about what Idol Theory and the Third Summoning Ceremony have in common?"

At this point, Rebecca wasn't even surprised at the level of classified information Ajimu casually threw around. "Those are both powers - " and it pained her to admit this " - that can be learned."

Ajimu smiled. "I could go on, but I'm sure you understand my point." She crossed her legs. "Do you want to know what all of those powers have in common, Director?"

Rebecca was not a stupid woman. "They all run off different rules."

"Correct! Whoever's writing this crossover doesn't care about 'consistency', 'making sense', or even 'similar themes'! They're just throwing in whatever they think is cool with no regard for the consequences for those of us who have to live out this convoluted plot!" Her smile briefly twisted into a dark smirk. "There are even some people on this messed-up cast list who might be able to kill me!"

Nobody had anything to say to that outburst, and Ajimu seemed to have said her piece because she just looked at Rebecca expectedly.

After a moment, Rebecca realised she only had one question left. The question she'd wanted to ask even before meeting Ajimu. "What do you want?"

Ajimu leaned back. "I want to know whether this world is real or not. This isn't J-Stars Victory VS, and it isn't Super Robot Wars either. There's no theme to those involved in this, nothing to pin down who's writing."

The most successful Master in the world, and she thought the world was a comic book. Rebecca might be tempted to laugh, if it didn't possibly mean the end of the world. "And how do you plan to find that out?"

"You really haven't figured it out yet?" Ajimu shook her head sadly (still smiling!). "If you want to find out if the world is fake, all you have to do is try something impossible. If you succeed, the world is fake."

"And what impossible thing are you going to do?"

Ajimu laughed; a clear, crystalline sound. "Why do you think I'm filling out the PRT?"

The purple plane around them began to fade away, and Rebecca could begin to see Secure meeting room #3 fade back into existence. Ajimu and Hanten, rather than accompanying them again, were fading out as well. But before they vanished altogether, Rebecca heard Ajimu's last mocking words.

"I'm trying to keep this world from being destroyed. What impossible thing are you going to try?"

Legend, stared down at the report in his hand in slight stupification. "Um, this may be a stupid question, but why does the audio log switch from script-style to full on third-person...?"

"Because when Dragon generated the report, that came with it." Alexandria jabbed a finger at the offending text. "She insists that she didn't add that part. Apparently, it just appeared while the paper was being printed."

"I knew Not Equal was a problem, but seven hundred million...?" Eidolon breathed. "You should have told us."

"Until we found Ajimu, there was no point." Number Man crossed his arms. Alexandria hadn't planned for him to be a part of this conversation, but had no real reason to tell him to leave given that he already knew about Not Equal. "She has so many minions that there was no practical way to filter them out or treat them any differently, especially because of how heavily she'd infiltrated the PRT."

Legend clenched his fists, crumpling the print-out in the process. "This... novelisation, or whatever you want to call it. It includes your thoughts at the time. Is it accurate?"

Alexandria looked away. "...yeah, it is."

To her shock, Legend actually laughed.

"What's so funny?" Eidolon asked, looking over Legend's shoulders at the paper.

Legend pointed to one line in the print-out. "'secret identity be dammed'..." He read. "See! She does have a heart!"

Alexandria elbowed him in the ribs. "Shut up! It was two people, I could contain any damage that happened."

"Two people and the most dangerous Master we know." Eidolon pointed out.

Alexandria frowned. "Ajimu would hardly have needed to know my identity to ruin everything."

"Still." Number Man commented. "Best not to think of your Secret Identity like a disposable asset. It would be a significant problem for us if you were outed as the leader of the PRT."

"I know, I know." Alexandria huffed.

"So this is what's been bugging you?" Legend looked back down at the paper again. "Well, I guess finding out that one tenth of Earth Bet is controlled by a delusional Japanese high-school girl is a bit disconcerting..."

Eidolon raised a finger, opening his mouth to ask a question.

"Yes, we have ensured that no member of Cauldron is under the control of Not Equal." Number Man preempted.

Eidolon lowered his finger. "Then how did she know about Scion?"

Number Man shrugged. "If even one in a hundred thousand of her minions have powers, that's seven thousand parahumans under her control." He said matter-of-factly. "Basic maths. If we assume she's lying about none of her minions being parahumans, her information-gathering ability could rival ours."

Alexandria grimaced. Already, they were rearranging the facts to make them fit with how they thought the world worked...

"Look." She said. "I don't think for a moment that we're living in a comic book or a video game or whatever it is that Ajimu thinks. But she is right about one thing: what we thought we knew about how powers work can't explain many of the capes who've emerged in recent times."

"Jonathan Joestar died in the eighteen hundreds." Number Man pointed out.

"Which is how we know that he didn't have a power as we understand it." Alexandria retorted.

"Listen." She continued. "We've been muddling along, thinking we knew what the rules of the game were. Maybe we even know what more of them are then anyone else. But we don't know what all the rules are."

Legend pinched the bridge of his nose. "Look, I get why we didn't go public about Earths Mem and Pe. Mem seems to be handling parahumans far better than we ever have, and Pe is so bizarre we can barely call it an alternate of Earth. But that's no reason - "

"Espers don't have a Corona Pollentia." Alexandria snapped.

Silence pervaded throughout the room.

"I'm sorry?" For once, Number Man seemed unsure of himself.

"Heaven Canceller owed me a favour." Alexandria spat. "He wasn't willing to tell me Academy City secrets, but he was willing to confirm to me that there aren't any 'black boxes' in their brains like there are in parahumans. In fact, he started asking me about how the Pollentia worked - apparently they've still trying to figure out which part of an Esper's brain contains their powers. I haven't checked Earth Pe yet, or any of the other ones, but how much do you want to bet on me finding Pollentias in any of them? We always knew that Bet was their main testing ground, but when we found powers in such numbers in the other Earths, we just assumed - "

Eidolon's hand clamped firmly onto Alexandria's shoulder from behind. "Alexandria." He said, firmly. "Breathe."

Alexandria took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly.

"...look." Legend said. "This is big. If you're right, game-changing big. But while we refine speculation into fact, we have to be careful not to loose control of the situation. For starters, we still need to come up with a plan to deal with Ajimu somehow. If we can't break her control of Earth Bet yet, can we at least ensure that she won't interfere with our operations?"

Alexandria opened her mouth to reply when she felt the touch of wispy, only barely-tangible fingers on her back. "Custodian?" She gasped, causing everyone else in the room to react with surprise.

She felt the fingers trace letters on her back. T-R-O-U-B-L-E, the Custodian wrote, ever-so-softly. B-E-T. There was a pause. G-O.

Alexandria felt like a lead weight had been dropped in her stomach. "We have to go." She said. "There's trouble in Earth Bet."

"Thank God!" Her body double gasped as Alexandria - now Rebecca again - strode into her office. "It's been terrible, trying to manage without you!"

"What's the situation?" Rebecca snapped, already escorting the double into the same secret entrance she'd used to enter. it wouldn't do to have someone burst in to find two Directors in the office.

"It's the Thinkers!" Her double gasped. "The Think Tank precogs are all going nuts!"

"Going nuts about what? What have they seen?"

"Tiamat! The keep screaming about someone called Tiamat!"