Chapter 7: Countless trails

09:29 AM (Japan Time), Saturday December the 8th…

"… Shit. It's already Saturday!"

"Calm down, Shidou."

"Easy for ya to say!"

"Now, now… Shidou – chan. We're all stressed but yelling and such will do us no good."

"I knew that, hakase, but…!"

"We mustn't despair."

Akatsuki was despairing and growling aloud in a corridor of the WAXA Japan Branch building: Dr. Yoiri and Acid attempted to cool him down but they weren't having much success either.

"Now, now. Shidou – chan. Maybe we should begin the meeting and try to focus our ideas there?"

"Fine. Let's start the meeting already."

"Let's go, Acid – chan."

"… Roger." He muttered with a hint of defeat.

"Welcome to the club." Akatsuki sighed.

"I already am on it, thank you."

They followed Dr. Yoiri into the Command Room where the Operators, the Commandos, Heartless, Daigo and the Chief (plus the Wizards) had been gathered at.

"Vadous isn't taking part?"

"Dr. Lartes is trying to limit his activity to prevent him from overworking and collapsing from lack of proper sleep." Acid explained.

"Alright. Let's start."

"Our investigation of the scene yielded some scarce pieces of information that could be useful: the ground wasn't totally dry, it'd recently rained, and thus there were footprints. 44 size foot… Given the length of the strides, then our man is in top shape… Apparently hit a thin tree branch around the forehead height so we measured his height to be approximately 1' 84." Ryuusuke reported.

"Good enough. What about the protocol analysis?"

"76% done… Most of it is made up of non-finished non-released protocols made up by small companies in the last 5 years yet they all ended up bankrupting and their data stolen before they could be released: the programmers did have some backups but they didn't want to continue without being paid for their job…" Heartless explained.

"Hmmm… Sounds like the culprit did it on purpose to gain unique protocols that couldn't be easily analyzed… A complicated way to do it yet it proves again that this type didn't come up with this out of the blue: it might've been in the planning for years."

"The data cube?" Acid asked.

"Mostly junk data… A list of names… "John Wade"… "Vernay"… "Macomber"… "Calvin"… "Kendall"… "GP"… "Harley S." … "T. Square"… "Tele-what"… Then a note… "66 pages… 8 per day, 10 the last day."…"

"Hmmm… Sure sounds like junk data." Akatsuki muttered.

"Other data… "Gray Island, close to Antarctica"… But we searched and found no such island… Some bank account numbers but the accounts don't seem to have ever existed… The owner name was "Colonel Ilkor"… There's no record of who it is or was… It's surely a fake name to begin with so…"

"Guess that. Anything else?"

"No. There were no specific coordinates. We did find remains that make up about 28% of one of those Denpa Bodies."

"Did you discover anything about them?"

"They use a standard Wizard as basis but it seems to add some custom components there and there… But a lot of data's missing and we can't make an accurate analysis."

"… Huff, huff… Sorry for the delay, everyone!"

Misora rushed in, out of breath, and leant her right hand into the right wall to recover her breath.

"What happened, Misora – chan?" Daigo asked.

"Huff! A mob of fans suddenly showed up saying someone had mailed them to tell them about some "ultra-secret ultra-exclusive ultra-VIP concert for free"… I managed to use my Denpa – Henkan ability to hack into their Hunter – VGs… And I altered the mail to make it look like it instead was a prank by some jealous rival…" She explained in a rush while sighing.

"War Rock?" Akatsuki sighed.

"Oh no! I suspect sensei's handiworks."

"Somehow that doesn't surprise me."

"More data has surfaced… Some notes… "Gotta do something about that Queen Tia gal sooner or later. Else IQ – sama will have my neck for not doing anything about the competency, the copycat, the usurper… Their Grace would go on and on and on… So I'll send the invisible-model Hunters for the gal. Let's see how she fights them back. The more battle data I get the better."…"

"It must be related to the eyewitness accounts of the invisible freaks striking the district where her place is at… But I'm pretty convinced that it ended up in total failure."

"Knowing sensei… She surely didn't even sweat. Oh well."

"The sweat league! Mwah, hah, hah, hah!"

"Pororon! War Rock. Not cha again."

"Did ya call for me, Harp? My ears are burnin'!"

War Rock showed up to the exasperation of everyone in the room: there was a sudden yelp close by.

"Mouse-trap! OW!"

"Not again…!"

"Mwah, hah, hah, hah. Trap-Mouse Man was busy."

"How silly."

"Wha~t?"

"You two! Don't start another FM – AM War!" Daigo tried to stop them before they got to the hands.

"HMPF!"

"HMPF!"

"Oh come on! Harp!"

"More data… A translation algorithm… Mexican to Japanese… I don't see what use he has for this." Heartless called out.

"Hmpf! The guy gotta be a fan of Marachi Moon!"

"Marachi Moon? Oh come on." Daigo sighed.

"Wait a minute… Given the guy's random moods… Couldn't that mean that the guy likes to put pressure on Subaru by playing back all of the crap Moon Disaster comes up with?"

"The last thing needed!" Daigo cursed.

"Oh no…! Subaru – chan…!" Dr. Yoiri gasped.

"By all the…"

"But I believe on Subaru! He'll be strong enough to overcome that! I'm sure of that!" Akatsuki rallied.

"Well said!" Daigo looked animated.

"As expected of Subari~! The triangle's blessing!"

"What's that?" Daigo looked mistrusting.

"Dunno! Maybe some pendant?"

"The pendant I made isn't a triangle. And you know it." Daigo countered without being impressed.

"Maybe some-one and no-one knows?"

"Pororon! Quit it with the nonsense, bully."

"BULLY? ME!"

"Settle it outside!" Akatsuki ordered.

"FINE!"

"Pororon!"

"Really… They look like a marriage about to go for divorce!" Misora sighed in defeat.

"Don't bring it up, Misora – chan… It might bring misfortune for all we know, even…" Daigo grimly muttered.

"Now, now. Daigo – kun. Let's not be that defeatist." The Chief tried to encourage him.

"Another piece of data… "Bring over the miscarried sheep!"… It looks like he's quoting someone but we can't know the context." Heartless read aloud, frowning.

"Miscarried sheep? Odd wording. Maybe it means to say some persons who committed mistakes or did thing they shouldn't have done? It's too ambiguous, anyway." Akatsuki rubbed his chin.

"Indeed."

"Ugly! Cha! What! Eat this! Grah…! Eat this as well!"

"Someone! Go to stop those 2 already…!" Akatsuki grumbled.

I feel like we're in the trail of something… But we lack solid clues! We need more clues! And soon! I fear for the worst-case scenario, even…!

17:37 PM (Japan Time)…

"… How does this feel like? Tsukasa – kun."

"Oh…! Ah…! Good… Too good, Gino – kun…!"

"There's more."

"Oh…! Yes… Like that…!"

"Heh, heh, heh."

Kiboyama and Tsukasa were having sex in one of their rooms: Kiboyama was lying face-up on the bed and gripping Tsukasa's waist as he thrust his cock in and out of his ass: Tsukasa looked like he was enjoying the feeling and Kiboyama chuckled.

"I needed something to vent off the other day's tension…! I don't know what happened to me…"

"Forget that! Let's try to cheer up… For Subaru – kun's sake."

"I know. He wouldn't like seeing us with this down mood." Tsukasa muttered.

"Eh… The longing non-longing elephant wants to shine! "It's my turn to shine"!" Kiboyama made up a joke to brighten the mood.

"Heh, heh, heh… Wouldn't surprise me."

"But, really… I'm not surprised that Moon Disaster got kicked outta the job of watching over the prison and they placed Blood there: the guy was driving everyone mad with his silly songs and rhymes… How can something be evil and repellent yet blessed at the same time? It doesn't make sense to begin with."

"You needn't tell me. I remember having heard rumors when I was wandering the radio world after the FM Invasion… Something about a tournament of Denpa Bodies in the hidden side of the Moon… I didn't pay much attention back then but I remember Hikaru poking at me saying he wanted to beat them all… The guy… Always looking to start a brawl or to hit someone… What a guy!"

"Alright, alright. Let's calm down, Tsukasa – kun."

"Yeah… Tease my nipples, Gino – kun."

"OK."

"O~h… Yeah… This! This is what I wanted to feel!"

"Heh, heh, heh."

"… Lao Tsu once said… you must find the Shanghai Duck." A polite man's voice could be heard muttering outside, in the corridor.

"Dragon Hell – san… He surely is going to fetch something at the storage bay again…"

"Surely… Shanghai Duck, huh? Must be a 5-star meal."

"Undoubtedly…"

"Mwah, hah, hah. Yo. Dragon."

"Sigma – dono."

"Heh, heh, heh! Did ya know? The Tsu Lao followers will erect a cardboard monument!"

"… Ah. Is that so?" His voice suddenly seemed to gain a hint of anger to it, for once.

"Anger? That's a first." Tsukasa commented.

"Well… Guess he doesn't like people making fun of his admiration for Lao Tsu…"

"Uh… Well… I take it back! Ciao!"

"… Hmpf…"

"Dragon? What happened?" Vadous asked.

"Sigma – dono made fun of my admiration for Master Lao Tsu."

"The idiot…! Omega! Get the idiot to do something useful! The guy almost started a fight with Dragon!"

"Copy that."

"About time." Both guys muttered.

"Get back to work, Dragon."

"Roger."

"You two alright?" Vadous knocked on the door.

"Yes. Some games helped vent off the bad mood."

"We're having a good time."

"Alright."

"But, really… The walls are too thin. There should be sound-insulation layer inside of them to make the rooms more private."

"Maybe it's built like this in purpose. If there was an intruder or something and they made a noise it could be heard from the corridor." Kiboyama suggested.

"I hadn't thought of that. Then again, there have been times in which Denpa Bodies have managed to intrude." Tsukasa admitted while recalling something.

"And me, too… I mean, so did Kuroban, back when I was his host. But I've got no memory of that myself."

"Oh yeah. I'd heard of that."

"But well. That doesn't matter. Get ready!"

Kiboyama resumed teasing Tsukasa's nipples: Tsukasa groaned and seemed to be feeling good given how his cock hardened: Kiboyama picked Tsukasa's right hand and closed it around it so that Tsukasa would rub it on the meanwhile.

"Too good, too good!"

"To be true?"

"Hah… Not bad…!"

"There's more of more~…"

"Hah, hah… Whoa!"

Tsukasa suddenly released and groaned in pleasure: his ass inner muscles gripped Kiboyama's cock and triggered his release as well: both stopped and panted to recover.

"MALASHAHA~H!"

"WAR ROCK!" Lartes growled.

"Too bad, Dr. No! Bond says ya fired!"

"Sigma…! You talk too much…! Get out of my room! I'm analyzing the data WAXA sent! I'm busy! Do something useful!" Lartes fumed.

"I beat the gal!"

"Who, Harp? Acid had to split you! And you know it!"

"What the fuck's going on NOW?" Vadous rushed over there.

"Oho. The Sith Lord came! Hasta la vista!" War Rock snickered.

"Shit. The lil clawed rascal AGAIN! NYAGRA~H!" Vadous roared out of frustration and annoyance.

"B-Boss! Cool it down! Else we won't get anywhere!"

"I know that, Lartes! Someone give a lesson to the rascal!"

"I'll go." Omega simply announced.

"Oh boy…"

"Miles, Storm! You go give the guy a lesson too! The guy's asking for it!"

"My pleasure!" Storm muttered.

"Count with me too!" Miles fumed.

"But don't go over the edge or else the culprit will make fun of us because we're fighting each other." Lartes warned.

"I KNOW THAT!"

"Huff. Boss. You don't seem to." He calmly muttered with a hint of annoyance.

"SHEESH!"

He walked away and they heard a door slamming shut: both guys had sat on the bed and were dressing back by now.

"I don't feel in the mood anymore."

"Join the club." Tsukasa sighed.

"I know."

Tsukasa's Hunter – VG rang and he sighed as he picked it up: Luna showed up onscreen.

"Tsukasa – kun!"

"Yes, iinchou?"

"You'll be my boyfriend!"

"LUNA!" Her mother scolded in the background.

"Wha! Mom! I thought you'd gone out!"

"You can't just force people to obey your caprices! What are you, a tyrant? You aren't, right? Get back to work! Homework!" Ms. Shirogane scolded next.

"B-b-b-but!"

"And give me that!"

"Wait, mom!"

CLICK!

"Iinchou and her obsession with soap operas…!" Tsukasa sighed.

"The last thing we needed… The town's going mad again and again. Is there no end to the madness?"

21:45 PM (Japan Time)…

"… What do you hope to find here, Shidou? We did make a detailed terrain investigation."

"The well… It was picking me for some reason or another… So I looked it up… And it turns out that it leads to an abandoned coal mine…"

"Is that so?"

"It'd seem it used to be a ventilation shaft but, during work on the mine, a water pocket was breached. So they stopped using this gallery and opened new ones. But nevertheless I think that we should be able to get inside of the galleries."

"There might be some clue."

"Maybe it's the hideout. Or maybe not. But it's worth a try."

"Alright."

Acid Ace had come to the scene of the confrontation with the culprit the other day and checked out the well: he found rung ladders built into the western wall but he ignore those and dropped down into the ankle-high water: a gallery extended across the area so he headed south along it until he reached a crossroad.

"Hmmm… There's wind from the west…"

"Careful, Shidou. I can pick up a few odd signatures converging into this crossroad of galleries… They must be more freaks."

"Alright… Ugh! Gross!"

"By all the…"

The enemies that came in had no resemblance whatsoever to a human save for their white-skinned legs that support a mass that was a balloon-shaped lump of meat.

"They look like they could hold gas."

"Devil. Maybe they explode and all."

In effect: one of them shuddered and suddenly exploded, staining the surroundings with blood: its legs collapsed into the floor and got deleted so Acid Ace grumbled.

"Gotta put some distance."

"Useless!"

"Damn it. You again! Give Subaru back!"

"Not yet! The time's not ripe yet!"

"What?"

A Night Baron showed up from the eastern gallery and laughed: Acid Ace growled but got surprised by the enemy's reply.

"Che. Spoke too much…"

"So you were planning on giving him back after some time passed? How odd… Ah! But of course. It's a trap to make us feel confident." Acid Ace guessed.

"Hmpf! Got seen through. Meh. Whatever the ever… My tele-something is going to make mincemeat of you guys!"

"Tele-something? Gotten senile? Forgot the name?"

"Damn you~… Go!"

The invisible "Hunters" rushed in and Acid Ace grumbled as he tried to shake them off or delete them: he shot at another of those weird enemies to make it detonate and take out some of the "Hunters": Night Baron laughed but then a familiar purplish hand plunged through its body as the Laplace Blade began to bounce around the room and cut off all on its path: Burai could be seen behind the Denpa Body as it became stone: he snickered.

"I'm going to pull off the core and the memory storage. Since they'll be "frozen" then they can't be remotely operated."

"Good thinking!"

"I'm going to bring this to WAXA… I'll spread a rumor that it's been taken to the lab that was assaulted Sunday. I already placed a dummy there: you direct one or two defenders there… This will make it more realistic: then we only need to feign surprise, caught with the pants down and defeat: there you have it." Burai exposed.

"Good thinking!"

"Omega came up with it, actually. Anyway. Laplace! Stay here and dispatch the rubbish. Omega will use a portal to send me to WAXA quickly enough. They've already set jammers to prevent this thing from emitting any signals too."

Burai pulled off the spherical core with some cut wires plus a circular case that apparently was the memory storage: the Laplace Blade cut the Denpa Body in half and it got deleted while Burai rushed out through the same gallery: Acid Ace began to recoil and reached the well's shaft.

"Send Wolf and Cygnus there!" He radioed.

"Roger."

"Da…"

"I think it wishes something." Acid interpreted.

"No more Bratwursts for you." Burai fumed.

"Who'd said he liked Bratwursts? But does he eat?" Acid Ace seemed to frown.

"Not really. He thinks they're pencils. Some idiotic spam that reached me and that this guy took too seriously." Burai sighed.

"Pencils? Oh come on."

"I know. Huff."

"Ku…"

"It seems to be disappointed."

"Obviously enough."

Acid Ace rushed towards the road and climbed into the car parked there: he rushed away while leaving behind the annoyed "Hunters" that tried to give chase yet he opened his window and dropped a string of Count Bomb Battle Cards to take them out.

"This is Wolf… We're being attacked! G Viruses!"

"We're doomed!"

"Ya shut up and fight like a MAN! My blood's boilin'!"

"You heard him, Utagai – san!"

"Why me~?"

"You were available! I'm too tired to continue fighting!"

"It's the curse of the Nameless Emperor!"

"Don't believe the crap War Rock says." Cygnus scolded.

"It's not that easy~!"

"Mwah, hah, hah, hah! Useless! Self-destruct: on!"

An explosion rang out on the other end of the line.

"KYA~H! The core and the data storage~! It's the curse of the Nameless Pharaoh! The Millennium Curse~!"

"Squeak in far, Mc Duck!"

"Grrr! Eat these!"

SLASH! ZASH! RAZH!

"Ugrah! So the Wolverine wannabe can bite. Else you'd put your ancestor to shame!" The Night Baron grumbled.

"I dunno whaddya mean and I don't wanna know either." Wolf Forest grumbled.

"What do we do? What do we do? What do we do?"

"Pull out! We lost this round too. Shit."

"Mwah, hah, hah, hah. Too bad, Akatsuki! It's the curse of the dandy fellow! The curse of the twink!"

"Yeah, yeah. Sure, sure."

"I'm off! Struggle in despair and hopelessness!"

"… Switching to encrypted channel… Done." Acid announced.

"Good job, you two. The guy fell for it. As expected. Return to your posts: and try to be quiet, Utagai – san. Or else start a fuss about a curse and defeat and all. It'll make the culprit get cocky."

"A-alright."

"Fine. If it's for the sake of fooling the enemy…"

"This is Burai… I delivered the good safely. They're being analyzed. Omega and I scouted the whole perimeter but there's nothing odd. The culprit totally fell for it, it'd seem."

"Don't lower the guard nevertheless."

"Of course not."

"Gu… Da… Ku… Ta…"

"No, you won't become the Frenchman Graffiti Genius."

"Frenchman Graffiti Genius? Sheesh. Sigma and War Rock!"

"And Moon Disaster." Acid dully added.

"They need some lessons, alright. Oh man."

"Let us hasten. I want to analyze the goods."

"I know, Acid! Let's hope we can get an important clue this time around, something to lead us into the right track…"

"Let us hope so, yes."

"Hang on there, Subaru…! We're getting closer…! Closer…!"

Soon! Soon this madness will end! Let's hurry it up! Hang in there! Subaru!