"Hey, you! Stop right there!" The Cobalt Knight shouted.

Uh oh… Reki quickly thought of an excuse, but it seems he didn't need to.

"Shugo Kunisaki, were you and your party responsible for setting the program free?" The Cobalt Knight asked.

"Huh?" Shugo was confused.

"Program?" Ouka asked.

Hotaru seemed to stare off into space… or she was staring at Reki with a faraway look, but no one seemed to notice.

"We know that your bracelet has the power to hack Chaos Gates. Reki here just sent us a letter of confirmation that the lock was fine. Yet moments later, you gate into Mac Anu and the program appears with you. Reki has also followed. Why is that?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about!"

"Why is Balmung's little flunky following us anyway? How do you know he isn't the one who set it free?" Mireille asked.

"I have a name, you know!" Reki snapped.

"I trust Reki. He would not give us false information. Now, we have no proof that you were the ones who did this, so we're going to leave you alone for now. But, we will be keeping a sharp eye on you." The Cobalt Knight turned and walked off to patrol the streets.

Reki shuffled nervously. The Cobalt Knight turned and stared at him. "Something the matter?"

"Uhh no! No, sir. Carry on." Reki answered nervously. What have I done now?

Shugo and his party left, but for some reason, Hotaru kept looking back at Reki, until Rena pulled her ahead and asked her how her life was.

Reki wondered how he was going to get out of this mess when a voice shouted, "Hey mister! Watch out!"

A rock hit him in the head. He stumbled and fell into the river again. Apparently, a group of very STRONG little kids were playing catch with a rock.

"Ugh…" Fujio Satoshi groaned. Mental note: Stay away from the river.

When Reki climbed out, he heard a mysterious voice.

"You will face many hardships to come."

Reki looked around, but he only saw a fortune teller shop. "Balmung-san, is that you?"

"No." the fortune teller answered. "My name is Mystique."

"Are you an NPC?"

"No. I am a PC, just like you."

"Regular PCs like you are not allowed to open shops."

She gated out without another word. That was weird. Well, she is right about the hardships. I'm going to be in big trouble if someone finds out. How did that spark start anyway?

An email marked 'Urgent!' appeared above his head:

Reki, please report to the System Administration Team headquarters immediately.

"Reki! There you are! I need you to finish this report for me!" Balmung greeted him.

"Ya mean DO the project for you?"

"I, along with some other administrators, have been chosen to scan the system for the program. The rest of the team- including you- must stay here and make sure everything runs smoothly. Can you handle that?"

"Of course, Balmung-san."

"Good, I'll be going now. I expect that report finished by the end of this week." Balmung placed the report on Reki's work pile, which was almost twice as tall as the poor Wavemaster.

Reki sighed and decided to get to work.

"Kamui-san, are you sure you'll be alright?"

"Yes, I'll be fine, Magi. I'm counting on you to keep things in order. Farewell."

"Ma'am."

Kamui, leader of the Cobalt Knights, gated out, along with some of her fellow knights.

Reki groaned and rested his head against the desk.

Magi walked over and sat in the desk next to his. "Are you alright?"

"No… hey, can you help me with this?" he motioned towards the work pile.

"Sorry, I have my own work to do." She pointed to a pile as big as his.

"When did Kamui start doing that?"

"It's just for this time, while she goes and searches for… the program."

"Well, lucky you. I have to do all this work all the time. I have to put up with Balmung-san."

Magi smiled.

"Hey, do you know if there is a type of PC that can run shops? I met one today." Reki asked her.

"A PC? I don't think so; what was their name? Maybe they have some special power."

"All she told me was that her name was Mystique. She had a fortune teller type shop."

"Mystique the Fortune Teller. Huh." Magi flipped through the PC book to see if there was anyone. "What class?"

"Wavemaster."

She flipped more, and when she got to the end, she went back and double checked it.

"What's wrong?" Reki asked her.

"That's funny… there is no Mystique Wavemaster. Oh, well, she probably didn't give you her real name. Hey, I just remembered! There's this new program; you can figure out who is who by inputting their appearance." She quickly set up the program.

"She was a Wavemaster; her avatar is similar to… BT's; she didn't have a staff with her, but she probably hid it."

Magi and Reki scrolled through the pictures and descriptions, but no one matched perfectly.

"Wait a minute… was this before or after the program got out?"

"After. Why?"

"Maybe she's a virus from the program."

"In that case, you should send out an alert to the Cobalt Knights and tell them to keep an eye out for her."

"That's a good idea. Thanks. You know, we should probably get back to work now, since our piles aren't getting smaller."

"Uhh... right."

Edit: The first two chapters have been slightly altered, taking the Hotaru side plot out of it entirely. Althought Hotaru x Reki is pretty cute, I can't seem to pull off a love triangle in this one. Maybe next time.