I don't own Angel Beats or any related parties in anyway.

Forgive me for any grammar or spelling mistakes, it's hard to catch them all.

The Computer Lab

"Alright! It's time for the day where you lose your shyness!" Ayaka shouted. Without a moment waste, she jumped right at the helpless Mariko who was standing in the room. Embracing Mariko in a hug, Ayaka cooed, "I love you, Mariko!"

Mariko quickly cried, "A-Ayaka! Get off of me!"

"No, no, no," Ayaka explained, "you have to hug me back! That's the first step to curing shyness!"

Shyness can be cured by laid out steps and instruction? Or by confessing love? Mariko thought to herself. "Ah! I'm sorry, Ayaka! I should have known better!"

"No!" Ayaka reinforced, "you can't say sorry to everything! That promotes shyness!"

Then what am I supposed to do?! Mariko cried in her mind.

"Ah, never mind. Say Mariko, how about we go to a karaoke bar?"

There are karaoke bars in this world?! Ayaka, what have you been hiding from us! Mariko frustratingly shouted in her mind. With her normal shy voice, she asked, "Are there actually karaoke bars in this world, Ayaka?"

Without pondering for a second, Ayaka gleefully shouted, "Of course there are! Just follow me!"

Mariko was dragged along by Ayaka. Mariko was wondering why this school would possibly offer something as strange as a karaoke bar, but she reasoned that it may have been necessary for someone to move on. Ayaka's grip was tightening on Mariko's, so Mariko murmured, "Ayaka, my hand hurts."

"Yes! You're talking on your own freewill for your own interests! That's the first step to defeating shyness!" rejoiced Ayaka.

I thought the first step was hugging you when you hugged me. Do you actually have anything planned out at all? You're the SSS's strategist, yet this is what you have planned? Dummy. Mariko just smiled innocently as she thought of the cruel thoughts.

"Mariko! You're smile is really cute!"

Giggling, Mariko thought, If only you knew what I was thinking. "Thanks Ayaka." She whispered. After thanking Ayaka, Mariko averted her eyes.

"Mariko! You have to have direct eye contact with me when we speak!" reprimanded Ayaka as she tapped Mariko's head solidly.

"I'm sorry!"

"Don't apologize with everything!"

"I'm sorry, I won't apologize again!"

"You're still doing it!"

"THEN WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?!" snapped Mariko.

"That's exactly it," Ayaka gently cooed as she gently smiled at Mariko, "just let yourself say what you want every once in a while."

"I see. I'm sorry for taking so long to figure that out."

Sighing, Ayaka muttered, "I told you to stop apologizing."

"Are you sure it was a good idea to leave Mariko alone with Ayaka?"

"Are you sure it's safe to eat mapo dofu, Kouhei?"

"That's a really interesting way to avoid my questions. It's safe, but it's a little painful."

"Only a little? I guess that's how dangerous it is to leave Mariko with Ayaka. Don't worry, I, Ito Riku, will correct any strange habits Ayaka gives Mariko!"

"Good luck with that." Kouhei looked down at his platter of mapo dofu, and then he looked back up at Riku. "Are you sure you don't want some?"

"I enjoy having fully functioning taste buds, thank you very much."

"Alright, but won't you eat anything?"

"I'm not all that hungry. If you haven't realized, you're actually the only kid in the cafeteria who's even eating."

After Riku proclaimed something that ridiculous, Kouhei decided to look around. Although there were other kids eating in the cafeteria, the amount was strangely small. Estimating ten kids, Kouhei was trying to think of a reason for such an oddity. The world is comprised of mainly NPC's, so the normal thing to do would be to eat during breakfast. It is a Sunday, so there will be fewer kids than usual, but there should be more than this.

"So Kouhei, why do you think there's a lack of students at breakfast?"

"It's Sunday, so it's completely possible that there will be less kids, but there has to be some event going on right now that reduces the number further. If it was a beneficial thing, like an early morning concert, Otonashi would have promoted it to everybody over the school's broadcasting system. Thus, we probably can conclude that something negative is happening to NPC's. No NPC's are freaking out, so it's not a natural disaster like a fire in a dorm, so it must be some strange behavior of a human. Of the SSS members who are powerful enough to start an operation that would cause this, we have us, Daiki, Ayaka, Mariko, Jordan, Ryouta, and Nanami. We're here, Ayaka and Mariko are on their own operation, and Ryouta's swimming. We can move this down to Jordan, Daiki, and Nanami."

"So you're putting the blame on one of them?"

"Daiki's philosophy would hold him from murdering random NPC's."

"So let's assume it's not Daiki."

"Nanami's too unmotivated to start this type of operation."

"It's a strange though, but she could be killing as many NPC's as possible to kill the time."

"She'll run out sooner or later, and then she'll be bored again, so I doubt she'd do that."

"That's a terrible thing to say, Kouhei! How about Jordan?"

"I hate to actually accuse him of anything, but he's the last person I could think of. Although I doubt that he would start this type of operation, it is a possibility."

Riku, watching Kouhei finish his mapo dofu, suggested, "Shall we go look for Jordan then?"

"Eh, we've got nothing better to do at the moment."

"So there really was a karaoke bar in this world. When did you find it?"

"Alright, Mariko! A great way to encourage talking is to practice with NPC's!"

She just ignored my question? Slightly whimpering, Mariko asked, "Do I have to do this?"

"You're mine today! My wishes are your commands!"

Inaudibly, Mariko whispered, "I thought you were just accompanying me today."

Ayaka blurted out, "Did you say something Mariko! Speak up! We're getting rid of your shyness today! Be loud!"

"Ayaka, I have four more people waiting in line to help. You don't have to do it all yourself."

"I'm the leader! I should be the biggest contributor!"

"What about Daiki?"

"Shut up, Mariko."

"That's mean."

Walking down the hallway, Mariko and Ayaka were strolling and talking. Mariko was starting to grow a little impatient of Ayaka's straightforwardness, but the morning had already gone by, so Mariko thought that she could survive the rest of the day.

Interrupting Mariko's thoughts, Ayaka asked, "So are we going to look for a NPC to have a good conversation with?"

"I don't know, aren't you supposed to tell me?"

"Be more assertive! That's a great way to cure shyness! "

"Al-alright Ayaka. Tell me what I'm supposed to do."

Putting her palm to her face, Ayaka monotonously stated, "You were supposed to be assertive and say what you wanted to do, not assertive in making me assertive. Is that even being assertive?"

"Just tell me. Are we going to go NPC hunting?"

"Eh, it's right after breakfast, so there are usually a bunch of NPC's scurrying around, but there don't seem to be any in the hall today. Whatever, let's do something else!"

Mariko followed Ayaka, but Mariko started to think. Why is there such a lack of NPC's? I can't go investigate myself, because I'll be with Ayaka for today; I doubt she'd let me do anything that won't help my shyness. Maybe one of the boys will help me. Why aren't there any NPC's though?

"Mariko, are you alright? You seem to be thinking about something."

"Ah! Sorry! Were you saying something?"

"No, but I decided what our next event should be!"

I guess Ayaka won't even give me enough time to think about it. "So these are events now? What's next?"

Ayaka pointed a building out to Mariko. It was the boy's dormitory. Picking up a stone, Ayaka winked and started to aim top left corner window.

Jordan was changing in his room when he heard a loud bang from his window. He looked towards the direction to see shattered glass and a stone. Walking over and looking outside, Jordan saw Mariko alone. He asked himself, "Is Mariko crying?"

From below, Jordan heard Mariko's voice faintly shouting, "Forgive us!" She then proceeded to run away."

He tried to figure out what just happened. "A stone was thrown threw my window, and Mariko was standing outside. She wasn't trying to get my attention, because she ran away. She also said 'forgive us'. That means there's more than one person. Ayaka should have been with Mariko. Ayaka would definitely throw a rock into my window and run. Damn it, Ayaka."

"Ayaka! Why did you do that? Did you know that was Jordan's room?!"

"Of course I did! It's exactly why I chose that window."

"Then why?!"

"To make you less shy, of course!"

Calming down from the random event, Mariko politely asked, "Ayaka, I have a question. Are you trying to make me less shy or are you trying to make me a trouble maker?"

"I'm obviously trying to make you less shy! That's the point of this operation, right?"

"I see. How does breaking Riku's window make me less shy, but not a trouble maker."

"Oh, if becoming a trouble maker is a side effect of curing your shyness, then so be it!"

"You're terrible Ayaka."

"I love you, Mariko!"

Mariko just sighed and started to follow Ayaka to her next random antic.

"Yo, Jordan. What happened to this place?"

"Ryouta, I didn't realize you entered my room. You also did so without permission. Could you not knock?"

"I'm in here since swimming ended early, so let's forget the details. But really, what happened to your window?"

"I think Ayaka threw a stone at it."

"Why? That's a little strange, even for that little trouble maker."

"It doesn't mean anything to you. Did you come here to get me for something?"

"Have you noticed that there seems to be a lack of NPC's?"

"I just woke up, has there been?"

"So you aren't the cause either."

"The cause?"

"There's a huge deficient of NPC's today. Riku, Kouhei, and I have met up and thought that either you, Daiki, Nanami, or some person we don't know caused it. Although I didn't want to suspect a fellow SSS member, I couldn't ignore the possibility. Apparently you aren't the problem. Do you know where Daiki or Nanami might be?"

"Shut up and get out of my room."

Laughing, Ryouta assured, "Alright, alright! I'll take that as a no; see ya later."

After Ryouta closed the door, Jordan threw on a dress shirt. He wasn't planning on bringing his blades with him that day, but Jordan started to think. Looking outside, he asked himself, "I doubt Nanami or Daiki would cause a NPC deficiency. Could this be the unknown that we're supposed to fear?" Walking out of the room, Jordan grabbed both his kodachis and slung them on his back.

In a pitch black room, one computer screen was lit. A voice came from the darkness saying, "By now, people should be noticing that people are dying. It's only a matter of time before someone finds a way to escape this hellish world. I just have to sit back, watch, and wait. I can go back to my world. Patience. Patience is virtue."

"Hey! Wassup Daiki! Yo, a bunch of hotties from the swim team are getting really for practice. You want to make sure their locker room is clean? If you know what I mean."

"No." With a single word, Daiki started to walk away. Sakune was staring at him with confused eyes and an open mouth. Turning around Daiki asked, "That's all you have to ask, Sakune? Good. Goodbye."

"Yo, are you ok? You just denied me!"

"Did you expect me to go with you?"

"There's the normal Daiki. You usually mess me up with some huge string of unanswerable questions. How come you just said, 'no' today? It's weird, dude." Daiki just stared at Sakune for a while, and then he looked at his own hands. "Did you write the answer on your hand, Daiki? What are you looking at yourself for? It won't help answer the question."

"I was just looking at myself to search for a physical change."

"Oh lord! What's wrong? Where are your questions?!"

"Not here."

Sakune lunged at Daiki, so Daiki sidestepped and punched Sakune in the stomach. After recovering from the punch, Sakune lunged at Daiki again, but he stopped short this time. Daiki lost his balance due to the opponents sudden movement change, so Sakune slapped his hand onto Daiki's forehead. "Nope, you don't have a fever."

"You had to go through all of that to check my temperature? Could you not have just asked?"

"I'm scared right now!" Sakune looked left and right in distress, and luckily, Otonashi rounded the corner. "Yo! Prez! Get over here, a.s.a.p.!"

Starting to run, Otonashi shouted, "Is something actually wrong Sakune?"

"Yeah, Daiki's broken!"

Stopping in his tracks, Otonashi asked, "Broken?"

"Yeah! Daiki's completely broken!"

Turning to Daiki, Otonashi skeptically asked, "Umm, are you broken?"

"No."

Jumping back in surprise, Otonashi suddenly faced Sakune and screamed, "Oh God! Why didn't Daiki ask a question?! What's wrong with him?!"

"I don't know, Prez! I thought you could help him!"

Otonashi put his head down in thought and started to think aloud. "Alright, calm down Yuzuru. Let's bring Daiki to the infirmary. There, we can…what can I do? I don't know!" looking up, Otonashi commanded, "Alright! Sakune, let's bring him to the infirmary! We can think of the next step there!"

"Gotcha, Prez! I got the legs!"

Daiki was about to ask what 'I got the legs!' meant, but Otonashi suddenly grabbed his wrists. Without any time for Daiki to react, his legs were grabbed by Sakune and Daiki got heaved into the air. Sakune and Otonashi ran down the hall at full speed, kicked open the infirmary door, and threw Daiki into a bed.

"Was that necessary?"

Sakune immediately reacted, "Why are you not asking everything in questions?!"

"That was a question."

Otonashi franticly retorted, "That wasn't though! What's wrong, Daiki?!"

"This is going to be a long day."

"Hey, Riku, do you know where Daiki is?"

"No idea; we found Ryouta. He said he would try to contact Jordan, so they must have met by now. Besides Daiki, don't we also have to find Nanami?"

"It's a Sunday, so she could be lounging in the room. We can't go in the girls dormitory, so what do we do?"

"That's alright, Kouhei. Just call an operation that sounds remotely fun or has to do with hurting Angel. She'll come running at either of those."

"Eh, I'll call her. Random question: what do you think of Otonashi?"

"Otonashi?"

"Ah, sorry. What do you think of Angel?"

"Since when did we have a member who called Angel by his name? Ahh, I hate Angel. It's not that I really have anything against the person, but being Angel, he helps God. I," stopping in the middle of the sentence, Riku suddenly lost his vitality and closed his eyes. "God pisses me off." Pulling out his sword, Riku swung it around then chucked it at a wall.

"You're regret?"

"You know, most regrets happen because the person fails or makes a bad choice. Me though? I couldn't do a damn thing. Why did God have to make me helplessly watch my life fall apart?" Pulling his sword out of the wall, Riku tensed up. He suddenly spun around and slammed the wall with his sword. It broke apart, but Riku just stood there holding the hilt.

"Umm, Riku. Isn't breaking your sword a problem?"

Obviously pissed, Riku tried to calm himself down and explained, "Sorry. You didn't need to see that. I have another one in the SSS room. What were we doing before all of this?"

"Ryouta, Jordan, Daiki, and Nanami."

"Ahh, so we can trust Jordan to Ryouta. We can't do much about Daiki or Nanami though."

"So Ryouta didn't cause the NPC disappearance, nor did we. Who did it then?"

"We wouldn't be doing this if we knew."

"Hey, Ayaka, what time is it?"

"It is thirteen o' clock. Why?"

Thirteen o'clock. That is synonymous with one PM. I can survive the rest of the day. "No reason, just curious. What shall we do next?"

"Well, it's a good thing you asked, Mariko! We're gonna go play on computers!"

"I see. What for?"

"To have fun!"

Aren't you supposed to help me lost my shyness? This is just a game to you now? Alright then, Ayaka. "Alright, lead me there, Ayaka!"

"OK! To the computer lab!"

Ayaka started to march down the hall, and Mariko slowly strolled after her. The halls had a few NPC's, but the amount was strangely small. Even Ayaka had started to take notice of the problem, but neither she nor Mariko said anything about it. Silently, the two opened the doors to the computer lab. Walking in, Ayaka immediately took out her gun, but as Mariko realized the scene, she grabbed Ayaka and pulled her out of the room.

"Did you see what was wrong, Mariko?"

"It was suspicious, but bringing out your gun probably wouldn't do much."

"Should we call the operation off and talk to the rest of the SSS?"

"There's no reason to call off our operation, but we should meet with the others."

"You know, you're interesting. You're normally shy, but whenever something serious pops up, you're pretty confident. Maybe you just need to take things too seriously starting now!"

"That's ridiculous. Anyways, let's meet up with everyone else."

"Alright everybody, so that's the situation!"

"Let me clear this up, Ayaka. You and Mariko were walking around doing your stuff, when you two decided to walk into the computer lab. You two open the door, and Mariko walked in. You noticed something wrong, so you pulled her out and started this operation. Right?"

Mariko softly corrected, "We-well actually. Ayaka was the who walked in and I had to pu-"

"Shut up, Mariko!"

"I'm sorry!"

Ryouta, off to the side, joked, "Yo, Ayaka. Weren't you supposed to be curing her shyness instead of promoting it?"

Before Ayaka could retort, Riku calmly asked, "The details are unimportant. Why were we collected here?"

Ayaka explained, "I decided that we should have an operation to investigate this. It's called Find the Computers!"

Kouhei remarked, "That's a much less dramatic name than 'Death of the Devil'."

"If it's less dramatic, it'll be less corny, right?"

Kouhei pondered for a second before responding, "I don't' know, Ayaka. That's still a pretty corny name. I really don't care all that much. So what's gonna happen?"

"Alrighty! We're going to have an operation where everyone will work together, but we'll actually be operating in pairs. It should have consisted of me, Mariko, Riku, Kouhei, Daiki, and Jordan, but Daiki's in the infirmary and Angel won't let him leave for some strange reason. Also Daiki just told me to go, so I assumed it was something important. Thus, we brought Ryouta here!"

Ryouta, slightly disturbed, inquired "So I'm just a replacement now?"

Jokingly, Kouhei responded, "Harsh world, isn't it, Ryouta?"

"And so come the tides of change, right Kouhei?"

"You really relate so many things to the water. It's 'winds of change'. But continue on Ayaka. What are we actually doing?"

"If you guys would stop joking around," started Ayaka.

"Hey, aren't you the one who's always joking?" interrupted Riku.

"If you guys would stop joking around!" Ayaka shouted before a few laughs echoed throughout the room. She let out a very elongated sigh before continuing, "Then I will explain the operation. It'll be a two part, find and retrieve mission. First, we find the missing computers. Once one pair has located some or all the computers, they will stand guard and wait for the rest of the operation members to arrive. Then we'll go in and take back or destroy the computers."

Jordan, previously quiet, began to speak up. "And what does this achieve? Ayaka, you ignorantly started this operation without thinking about the cause and conclusion. This scenario is obviously happening because of a human who isn't part of the SSS. Succeeding in this operation would mean that we would lose our main path to this human. Shouldn't we try to recruit him? Or do you not care about that?"

Defending Ayaka, Riku explained, "You're being quite harsh, Jordan. What if it's a student council member?"

"They promote the peace of this world. I can't imagine that stealing computers would uphold peace."

"There is no reason that they can't start something against us! Although Angel might not want to attack us, the vice-president and secretary are both humans to our knowledge! There's nothing stopping them!"

"Except that they're loyal to Angel. That's not even what I'm criticizing this. I'm criticizing the fact that Ayaka's planning has been terrible lately."

"Jordan! Do you ev-"

Cutting Riku off, Ayaka somberly said, "Riku, I can accept a little criticism. It's all about the situation" Kouhei looked up into Ayaka's eyes. There was a single, unshed tear. He began to deduce the situation, but Ayaka kept talking, so he decided to listen up first. "The pairs will be as follows: Riku and Jordan, Ryouta and Kouhei, me and Mariko. Anyone have any problems with that?" There was a pause. "I'll take that as a no. If we all know what's happening, then this operation has officially started. It will last until completion or this time tomorrow, whichever comes first."

Jordan sneered, "And what happens if five hours goes by. We just let it go and let shit happen?"

"We'll gather and think of the next best option."

"Fine then. Don't get in my way though."

"Ayaka. Are you ok?" Mariko kept on looking at Ayaka after asking the question, but Ayaka didn't seem to notice that anyone was even talking to her. "Ayaka" Mariko asked before tapping Ayaka's shoulder.

"Ah! I'm sorry. Do you need something?"

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Ayaka, it's not like you to just say 'nothing'. There's obviously something wrong!" Suddenly, Mariko became flustered and shouted, "Bu-but I'm not making you say anything! You don't have to if you don't want to!"

"I'll do that."

What's wrong with Ayaka? She's always talking. I can't find anything out like this.

"Yo, Ryouta, did you feel like something was off with Ayaka?"

"Of course I did. She seemed so somber. As annoying as she can be, she's not the Ayaka that we love when she's not all peppy and such."

"We love Ayaka? That's a terrible thought."

"That's harsh, Kouhei. Where are we heading though?"

"Just kidding, man. Ayaka's important to me too. To answer your question, they said that something was wrong with the computer lab, but I wanted to actually see what's actually wrong."

Kouhei led Ryouta to the hallway where the computer lab was, but when they rounded the corner, they saw Otonashi observing the computer lab. Ryouta immediately jumped out of Otonashi's line of sight and pulled Kouhei along with him.

"So what are we going to do about this, Kouhei?"

"If we walk casually, he has no reason to suspect us."

"We're skipping class, so we'd get in trouble."

"We're going to the computer lab; we could say it's for some project."

"Do you think he'll believe that? I can't believe it'd be that easy to trick an angel, much less Angel."

Well, Otonashi is only a human, so he is trick-able. But apparently you aren't supposed to know that. "It's better to give it a try."

"I'd have to disagree, but I won't stop you. I'll cover you if he attacks."

"I can't imagine Otonashi attacking me because I'm skipping class, although a new thought popped into my head."

"And that thought is?"

"Why is he here in the first place? Maybe he can help us in this operation."

"That's more insane than your last idea."

"There's a method to my madness."

"Usually."

At that cue, Kouhei rounded the corner and casually walked up to Otonashi.

"Kouhei? Why aren't you in class?"

"I had to go to the computer lab for a class project."

"What project?"

"I need to do research for my World History paper."

"Why are you the only one?"

"I finished the classwork early, so the teacher let me come."

"I see. And you're lying. There's someone ready to shoot me if I do anything to you. You're working for me, am I wrong?"

"And what am I supposed to do?"

"Tell me the story."

"I may be working for you, but they're my friends too. I feel like I shouldn't betray them like that."

"So helping your friends in their shenanigans is more important than helping them move on to a better life?"

"Maybe this is the better life."

"I see that there's no reason in arguing that. Random question, has the SSS gotten any messages saying something like 'fear the unknown'?"

"Not that I know of, but it's completely possible."

"Could you find out for me, Kouhei? Think of it as my first mission for you."

"Possible, but you'll have to first let me check out the lab."

Otonashi nodded and headed in the opposite direction. Kouhei waved Ryouta over, so they entered the computer lab together. Before completely leaving, Otonashi turned around and warned, "Kouhei. Remember this phrase: the shadows may be back." He then turned around again and left.

"So, Kouhei. What did you say to Angel to make him go away? And what did that phrase mean?"

"I bargained with him, but that shadow thing was a mystery to me too."

"So Mariko, we can work on our personal operation while the other two pairs work on Find the Computers"

"So negating my shyness is more important than this huge problem?"

"It's not a huge problem! It's a short-term goal. Destroying your shyness is a long-term goal! It'll be more important when we all grow up and become old!"

"Become old?" Suddenly, Mariko's eyes lost the normal glint, and her body lost its usual calmness to a gloomy feeling.

"Is something wrong, Mariko? You're usually a little quiet, but this is different."

Looking at Ayaka with dead eyes, Mariko questioned, "Can we grow old anymore? What's the point of settling down here if we can't grow?"

"Why can't we grow here?"

"We're dead. Our bodies don't age."

"So bodily age is what determines if we grow? I'm just as old as everyone else here, but I'm always seen as the kid sister. Why?"

"Maybe because you're a little bit, umm, small?"

"That's true, but it's also because I'm not as mature. Thus, I'm less 'aged' than the others here."

"Really? Is that how it works here?"

"That's what I like to think. You know, this feels like I'm talking to Daiki. It's so boring! We're supposed to be curing your shyness!

"And that other, more important mission. What's the time?"

"Umm, it's twenty."

"8:00 PM, eh. I'm feeling strangely tired. It's not that late at all."

"You're gonna sleep early today, Mariko?! Are you cured of your shyness?"

"It's better, but not cured. Why?"

"Darn! I wanted to cure it all by myself! I lost!"

"Don't worry about that, Ayaka," embracing her, Mariko continued, "you did a fine job. You're part of my operation has ended."

Letting go of each other, Ayaka looked up into Mariko's eyes and genuinely smiled. "Darn. But I guess I should let my comrades take their share of responsibilities. We can be excited for how Riku does tomorrow! Right?"

Chuckling, Mariko cooed, "Yeah. Now that that operation is done for us, why don't we concentrate on the other operation?"

"Aww! Do I have to?"

"Of course you do, Ayaka."

"Hey, Ryouta. Could you turn the lights on? You're closer to the switch.

"Yeah, sure, whatever." Ryouta stepped outside the room and flicked the switch up. He rubbed his eyes because he was a little tired, but opened them to the newly lit room. Immediately, he grabbed at his weapon, but Kouhei had already taken out his sword and gun. "Question to Kouhei! Why did we take out weapons out?"

"It's become one of our instincts when we feel that something's amiss."

"I can't see anything too bad happening. You think it's safe to put the weapons away?"

"If you're insisting on it." Putting the blade back into his sheath, Kouhei started to analyze the room. It was the computer lab, but there was a disturbing lack of computers. Although there shouldn't have been any immediate danger, Kouhei kept his gun out, just in case.

"For some strange reason, there's not one computer in this room. That's a fair reason to believe that something's off."

"Thus, we're on this operation. Ayaka and Mariko have already seen it. I'd imagine that Jordan and Riku are thinking about checking the place out."

"So what are we going to do here? We found out what's wrong, but nothing that can help us find the computers."

"There may be some clues."

"It's a blank room with chairs and tables. I can't imagine anything."

"Let me think, Ryouta." Kouhei started to deduce the scenario. This room had almost one hundred computers. Somehow, all of them were taken. The NPC's aren't over-reacting, so it was obviously the work of a human or group of humans. NPC's aren't completely oblivious though; if a NPC saw someone carrying around desktops, they'd say something and spread rumors. So why are there no rumors? No one has been spotted with a computer. Despite that, someone has managed to sneak almost a hundred computers out of this room into some hiding place. How can someone possibly do that? Invisibility would be the first thing that pops into mind, but even in this world, supernatural happenings aren't very common. "Ryouta, how could somebody get from point A to point B without ever being caught?"

"I'm not the smartest dude, shouldn't you figure out?"

"I just want your opinion."

"I mean, if you just want any answer, I would say this: just have point A really, really close to point B. If there's no space between the points, you probably won't get caught. I don't know how that will help you though."

Kouhei thought about Ryouta's response. Have the destination right next to the start. We're looking for the computers. Thus, we don't know where the end point is. We do know that it's easy to get between the two without getting caught. That requirement is easily fulfilled if the end and start are next to each other. Is there some sort of secret passage in this room?

"Oi, Kouhei, you got any answers?"

"I think there's some sort of a secret passage in this room."

"Secret passage? Where would it start?"

"The ceiling isn't sturdy enough to hold a person and a desktop. The walls would leave an obvious crack if there was some sort of secret passage in it. The floor leads underground, and there can't possibly be rooms underground without some sort of disruption."

"Isn't Guild some huge underground factory?"

"My point has been proven wrong, but wouldn't there be some obvious marking in the floor too?"

"Not if the floor is tiled."

They looked down, and Kouhei noticed that the floor was indeed tiled. "Alright, so the passage could probably be in the floor. So what do we do?"

"Simple, Kouhei. We blow the place up."

"What the hell?"

"Everything auto-regenerates after a while and NPC's don't react to human strangeness. Thus, nothing will really happen if we blow the place up. Shall we start now?"

"I feel like we should gather the rest of the operation first. Do you have a radio?"

"Yeah, let me get everyone else here first then."

"Jordan, where are we going?"

"Dorm"

"Why?"

"Reasons"

Riku sighed and continued to follow Jordan. Riku couldn't come up with any plan, but he sensed an aura of knowledge coming from Jordan, so Riku just followed for the time. Walking down the path, they reached a fork. Walking left would lead to the boy's dorm, and walking right would lead to the girl's dorm. As Jordan and Riku turned towards the boy's dorm, they heard a shout.

"Jordan, did you hear anything?"

"Obviously." They both turned around to see Nanami blankly staring at them. Jordan asked, "What do you want?"

"I was a little bored, but I heard a radio message from Ryouta and Kouhei to go to the computer lab. It seemed interesting."

Turning towards Jordan, Riku asked, "Did you get anything from your radio?"

"I was too concerned with my own thoughts to listen."

"We probably got one then, but we didn't realize. Nanami, what did the message say?"

"Go to the computer lab and bring explosives."

"Explosives?" Jordan asked.

"Let's just put some trust in everyone else," Riku responded. Together, the three turned around and started to walk back to the main building. Before they made it far though, Jordan turned his head around and stared at the boy's dormitory. He found his room's window and saw that it was still broken. So it hasn't regenerated yet. Why though?

That's that. This chapter was cut much shorter than I wanted for one reason. I completely lost my motivation. I wouldn't expect an update for a while. There's just too much work at the end of the school year. Sorry. Not much to say. Still looking for ideas for anything. Reviews and such are always wanted. Thank you.

Oh look, I hit a thousand views. I guess I should say thank you for that then ^.^