"Shit... shit... shit..." Hagakure mumbles, frantically hitting the enter key on the keyboard over and over. "Oh shit."
"Would you stop saying that?!" Asahina cries out, grabbing at his arm. The fortune-teller tilts his head back, groaning, and glances at the fifteen screens. Another two had gone blank a little while ago. He had tried to get a hold of Naegi or Kirigiri, or hell, even Togami. But they wouldn't pick up, leaving him to have to rely on Fukawa and Asahina. Not optimal, in his opinion.
"What do you want me to do, Asahina-chi?!" Hagakure frantically glances at the swimmer.
"I don't know!" The swimmer wails, staring in horror at the remaining eleven screens. Hagakure finally decides to hit a different key on the keyboard, which lights the big screen up. He grabs the mouse, finally able to do something besides smash at keys, and clicks one of the icons on the desktop. A window pops up, and Alter Ego glances around in confusion.
"Eh?" The AI glances around, eyes coming to a rest on Hagakure and Asahina. "Oh! Hagakure-kun! Asahina-san! Hello! What did you need from me?"
"Wh... wuh..." Hagakure stops to think for a moment. "Um... wuh... what's the status on that uh... virus thing?"
"Huh?" Alter Ego tilts its head, before frowning. "Oh, you mean the virus in the New World Program. Well, it's still wreaking havoc on my servers, and it's messing up a lot of data still. I recently received two large influxes of scrambled data too... Why do you ask?"
"C-cause it happened again! Two of the kids in the program just died!" Asahina shouts, panic written all over her face. Alter Ego looks surprised.
"Oh no... Again? I'll try to get into contact with Naegi-kun..." The window minimizes itself, and the two survivors glance at each other. Fukawa scurries into the room a moment later.
"Fukawa-chi?" Hagakure looks at her in confusion. The literary girl puts her hands on her knees, panting.
"Th... The thing..." She stutters out.
"The... thing?" Asahina asks.
"Quiet! I w-wasn't done!" Fukawa shouts out, glaring at Asahina. The swimmer squeaks and hides behind Hagakure. "The satellite dish is b-broken..."
"What again?" Hagakure frowns at her curiously. "I thought we fixed it like... three days ago."
"We did, you ding dong." Fukawa glares at him. "But it broke again. The parts those technicians used w-were crap."
"Damn it... I guess this explains why we can't contact Naegi-chi..." Hagakure scratches the back of his head.
"Um... I have an idea." Alter Ego chimes in, window popping up. The three jump in surprise and spin around to face the AI. "You could use the lightning rod on the other side of the roof. The part of the satellite dish that is damaged uses similar components. Plus, the chance of storms in this area is a dismissible zero point eight four seven three percent."
"Th-that would have been helpful three days y-you know..." Fukaway rolls her eyes, crossing her arms and hugging herself.
"That's true... sorry..." Alter Ego hangs its head.
"Naw, it's fine, Alter Ego-chi. Let's go tell those technicians." The fortune-teller jogs out of the room, happy to be away from the morbid atmosphere there. Fukaway quickly dashes after him.
"...Will they be okay, Alter Ego?" Asahina looks forlornly at the eleven screens still active, showing all of the remaining students sleeping.
"I hope so, Asahina-san." Alter Ego sighs, minimizing its window and going back to doing whatever it was doing before. Asahina sighs and walks out of the room to follow Hagakure and Fukawa.
"Yeah... Okay... Thanks..." Naegi snaps his phone shut, grabbing at his head with his free hand. He stands in the hallway on the forty-seventh floor of the Future Foundation's headquarters.
"Who was that?" Togami, who leans on a wall nearby with his arms crossed, glances at Naegi.
"Hagakure-kun. He said..." Naegi feels a lump in his throat, pushing it down. "He said it happened again. Another kid died and yet another was executed." Togami just shakes his head and scoffs. "He also said the technicians took apart the lightning rod on the building and used it to repair the satellite dish so they could call us. He wants us to get a new one."
"Are you fu-" Togami cuts himself off, gritting his teeth angrily. "Does he realize how much time and money it would take to get one like that, especially with half the world still in ruins right now? That was a high-tech piece of equipment."
"Yeah, I know." Naegi sighs. They both turn as the door to the meeting room slides open, Kirigiri confidently striding out. "Kyouko-san. How did it go?"
"..." Kirigiri stares out of the nearby window before sighing. "They still want the despair kids dead."
"Well lucky for them, another two just died in the simulation." Togami rolls his eyes.
"Wh-" Kirigiri looks at Naegi in disbelief, gasping when he nods in affirmation.
"Yeah. I just got a call from Hagakure-kun."
"Oh, Makoto..." Kirigiri walks over to him, and the former luckster wraps his arms around her. Togami clears his throat.
"So if we're done here, I suggest we get going. I want to get back to Jabberwock as soon as possible, we all know what those three dolts are capable of doing, and that's just by themselves. When we're watching." The heir shakes his head, pulling himself up, and walks down towards the stairs, hands in his pockets. Naegi glances at Kirigiri, who stares back at him. They share a gentle kiss before going to follow Togami.
"Uh oh..." Monobear stares at a door on the hospital's second floor. "Ooooooh... Hmm..." It shivers and twitches with corruption, folding and melting and dissipating before reforming into the door it was before, then starting over. "This can't be good..."
"Howawawa! Wh-what did you do?!" Monomi cries out in horror, suddenly behind the bear, staring at the door.
"It wasn't me! It was like this when I found it... Hmm..." Monobear leans out to touch the door. The instant he touches it, it flares white, then dims black, then balances out, becoming a uniform grey. Some sort of dust floats around it. Monobear pokes one of the dust motes. It hits his 'fur' and immediately sprouts into a small plant. Monobear grins devilishly. "Ooh. I like that... This could work."
"W-Work for wh-what?" Monomi timidly takes a step back.
"For our next motive, of course!" Monobear throws back his head and cackles. "I know you do love a good motive, Monomi-chan!"
"N-not one of yours!" The rabbit cowers when Monobear raises a fist at her.
"Quiet, you." Monobear makes the snapping sound again, and the dust motes still in the air flow backwards, sticking to the door. They shrink. "There we go! I've just ah... added a special little touch to them. I'm sure you'll love it!"
"Wh-what did you do now?..." Monomi stares at the door.
"You'll see... Hehehe... Upupupupu..." Monobear grabs Monomi by the ears, dragging her down the hallway, making the rabbit cry out. As if harmonizing with the rabbit's wails, the timer in Jabberwock Park lets out a high-pitched squawk, steam blowing out of its sides. It wails for the murder it saw performed in front of it, and for the potential of murders to come...
16 Days Remaining...