Chapter 27: Negotiations
20:20 PM (Japan Time), Monday May the 25th…
"…sorry for the mess, but I got nervous and…!"
"Don't apologize. You did what had to be done."
"But now the whole point of the mission has gone ashtray, Boss!"
"Didn't I tell you that even if they looked for it, they wouldn't find anything at all? Besides! All data is encrypted using advanced protocols. Not even Search Man can decode them on the spot…"
"So… He used to be a classmate of yours?"
"Yeah… I'd forgotten his father worked there and that he had the habit of dropping by so that they then drove home together."
"What a mess."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't mind it."
"Where… am I…?"
Hikawa slowly regained consciousness; his sight was blurry and he stared at a metallic ground made of equally metallic tiles; he sluggishly tried to lift his head.
"The Waterworks… I was there and… The Government inspector… Kage – kun…! He had a gun and…! He shot me?"
His sight began to focus, he managed to distinguish pipes, and a control panel set in the steel wall in front of him about a meter across the room; he was standing upright.
"Let's go look around and… What in the…?"
When he tried to step on forward, he realized there were handcuffs on his wrists, which had a chain connected to a metallic cylindrical column.
"What!"
He then looked at his body and blushed upon noticing how his upper shirt and lower shirt were gone; his upper body was naked.
"Where's my uniform's shirts!?"
The room was a storage bay given the large steel crates piled a meter behind him; fluorescent tubes set in the ceiling produced the light and there was an armored door with a sealed porthole, which obviously was the entrance and exit; it was slightly open allowing him to hear some voices out in the corridor.
"Hey! Is there anyone there!? What's this about!? Why am I being confined here!? Release me at once! Are you listening!?"
"He's awake! What should I do, Boss?"
"Let's go in together, and try to negotiate…"
"Guess there's no other way around!"
"Just relax: all will go well."
Kage (having changed back to his usual outfit), Noir, Andy and Legato stepped in; Kage sighed and pocketed his sunglasses.
"Alright, Hikawa – kun. I'm sorry for this but I got hysterical back there and I had to get outta the mess somewhat."
"What's going on around here?"
"Look. We're an organization named Golden Star. We seek to bring stability to society. We also want to protect it! I went to the Waterworks to install a system to filter any malware trying to attack the facility as well as keep hackers at bay." He summed up.
"But then it isn't Yakuza?"
"WRONG! We despise them! We're not criminals! We're just a gathering of people whom society has abandoned or rejected… People who had their opportunities to build their own careers denied! There's nothing fanatical about it: we all come and go and have our own beliefs but the overall goal is to bring stability and security! Gotcha?"
"Calm down, Miquel – kun…" Noir whispered.
"Sorry, Boss. I just hate these misconceptions."
"You're Andy, right…?" Hikawa asked him.
"Yeah. I'm Andy."
"But how can you be in the real world…? It's gotta be a life-sized hologram, right? Hikari – kun did say you'd developed those!"
"Close. He couldn't tell you about a technology we've developed, which is way better than any hologram… Copy Roids! Robots which can copy a Navi's shape and allow for us to materialize." Andy explained.
He walked over to Hikawa and closed his right hand around his lower jaw as if to prove it; Hikawa gasped and Andy stepped back to return to the position he was at before.
"Alright, Hikawa – kun… Look! We're going to get you home right now and you can tell the police. Say that we've only built a new filtering system for their server… If they look for it, they'll find it! They'll be able to check that it's the truth…"
"Wait a minute. What happened in the summer?"
"My fucking uncle of the Bitter Party rascals tried to have me re-educated into being a Bitter Party fanatical but I ran away! I ended up in Houston… That's where I met Boss! He gave me a chance to get away from that crazy guy and return to Japan…"
"Yikes! I knew something was turning crazy in Chicago but I couldn't guess it'd come to those extremes…"
"It was like the 1930s, you know. All foreigners were frowned upon and they could suddenly forcefully bring you to police station to question why you were here, where you stayed at, who let you inside, when you were going back, if you were trying to attempt against "national hegemony" or "racial supremacy"… All of that in Chicago! What did the White House morons do? NOTHING! They were far more concerned with the Middle East that what was going on in their continent!"
"B-but that's a regression, isn't it?"
"Of course it is! Another reason I got outta there! All foreigners have left and the city's lost a lot of investment! Luckily, over 90% of local inhabitants are sick of the Mayor and the City Council! They are organizing strikes and protests! Only some crazy idiots agree with it and don't make up even a 5% of the population! Just because some idiots turned crazy we're gonna risk the whole city's economy? This has had repercussions all along Illinois' territory and the adjacent states! We're talking about the third most populous city in the whole of Ameroupe!" He exploded.
"Whoa! Cool it down, Miquel – kun!" Noir tried to calm him down.
"Sorry, Boss. I must look like an idiot." He sighed.
"No, no… Sorry for that, Hikawa – kun, you'll have to excuse him…"
"No, no… It's alright, Noir – san… Anyone would explode after going through such an ugly experience…"
"By the way, he's Legato. My secretary."
"… Good body." He teased.
Hikawa blushed and looked at the ceiling and Kage was amused by Legato's comment.
"So, Sakurai – san caught you?" Kage teased.
"Huh?! Sakurai – san!? No…!"
"I wouldn't be surprised if she set her eyes on you as a safe choice."
"No way… Are you teasing me, Kage – kun?"
"The reason I haven't joined your class again is because that asshole posted a search warrant and tried to send bounty hunters after me! Because I stole some date about their ploys… I had to remain off the radar! Golden Star was the perfect place. I've been using a cyber tutor to keep on with this year's studies too." He sighed.
"I see… But didn't you try approach Hikari – kun?"
"I didn't want to involve him. As long as I remained far from him, he wouldn't have some idiots questioning him if he was conspiring with us or something like that. He's busy enough with his studies. Unbelievably, some elements in the Net Police's Cyber CID won't accept that we're just admirers of the late Serenade and bringers of stability! They tend to come up with paranoia and conspiracy theories, which are mistaken. Don't believe everything you hear. Filter the contents."
"By the way… Where are we at?" Hikawa Jr. asked.
"This is Purgatory."
"Purgatory? A building?"
"No, no. A mobile marine fortress with cloaking capabilities and a data center… Although the data center is still under preliminary testing and some interior jobs remain to be done…" Kage explained.
"How did we get here? If we'd come by car you'd been stopped at some police control, no?" He frowned.
"To make it short… We used a machine named "Dimensional Converter" that allows to "warp" people… It leaves no traces, too!"
"Really!? Amazing!"
"One request, though. If they ask you where you were being held, tell them the place was named Purgatory but that it's a facility somewhere in Kanto. Can you do us that little favor? We don't want to have the surprise spoiled, see." Kage requested.
"Understood."
"Thanks. I owe you one."
"Why are you carrying guns, anyway?"
"Self-defense! Sometimes we stumble upon bad guys! We need to defend ourselves! We put them to sleep and leave them there for the police to pick them up." Kage explained.
"So you wanna help the police round up criminals?"
"Exactly. The full scale of our project will become clear by the summer!"
"Why'd you take off my shirt?"
"We thought that if the cuffs failed you wouldn't try to run away without the shirt…" Noir admitted.
"Guess so…" He blushed.
"Man! Relax! There's no – one else onboard except us! There's nothing to be ashamed of! Most of the other members don't know anything about this project, apart from the name! I do 'cause I'm Boss' favorite. I'm his right hand man, after all!"
"Besides… You look horny." Noir teased.
"We're all guys. Don't we always change in the changing room after swimming class?" Kage reminded him.
"I know that, but… Somehow… I felt ashamed!"
"So? Ooyama's stuff got bigger?"
"I wouldn't be able to say…" He blushed again.
"The guy's still bragging 'round?"
"Yeah… Sakurai – san and Ayanokouji – san… Both of them are fed up with his behavior of inventing things… He tried to challenge Ijuuin – kun but got defeated in barely 20 seconds." He admitted.
"I knew it. A lot of muscle and mouth but no real sense of battle strategy… One should accept that things are the way they are and not try to build another "reality" which is an illusion."
"How am I gonna get back?"
"Simple! We'll warp you at a location close to your home! Then you can walk there. We know your father filed a report of your disappearance, so probably you'll meet someone of the Net Police… Ijuuin will be there, I'm sure of it."
"Dad will be angry at me?"
"Obviously! However, he'll also be relieved you're alright. You just say that I got nervous and I wanted to bring you elsewhere to have a quieter chat and negotiate a way out." Kage summed.
"That's pretty much what happened, true…"
"By the way… Are you still using the same email address from back then?"
"Yeah. I didn't change it."
"Excellent. We'll be in contact! I'll tell you what's happened during these months! Having to receive the news second-handed must've left several gaps to fill."
"Say… Kage – kun… Will you be alright? With that bad person trying to catch you and all…" Hiwaka asked.
"Don't worry. I've got insurance. Info that'll expose their tax evasion and bribes! It's my insurance! If they try to kill me, capture me or harm me… The info goes public on all major Ameroupe media! There's nothing they can do to halt it 'cause I don't carry it on me."
"Isn't that like blackmailing?"
"I know. However, you've gotta have something to hold them at bay! It's like how you hold people at bay using fences! I use this info I hacked from their computers as my own barbed wire fence."
"I see… There's no other way around, then?"
"I'd used any other method if possible, believe me. But in the end, I had to resort to this." He sighed with a hint of sadness to him.
Kage walked up to him and pinched his right nipple; Hikawa gasped and blushed as he noticed something and tried to hide it.
"You get excited easily! Maybe I'll invite you to a party one day!"
He took out a key and unlocked the handcuffs; Hikawa lowered his arms and rubbed his wrists as Kage picked his shirts, which he handed over to him; he put them on and adjusted the buttons before nodding to signal he was ready.
"Good. Let's go to the deck."
"A-alright. Please lead the way."
"But I'll insist: you're horny." Kage whispered to him.
"Please…!" He turned red again.
"Don't worry, man. We can hold it off 'till the summer vacations kicks in and then we'll talk… If Sakurai – san doesn't beat to me, though…"
"How lovely." He grimly muttered.
"Don't be so defeatist! This is thrilling stuff, ya see."
Kage patted the back of his right shoulder.
"Here's the elevator: please step in." Noir indicated.
They stepped into a large heavy-duty elevator and it began to climb upwards; Hikawa inhaled, then exhaled; he scanned the area and saw how Kage was typing a message into his Link PET; he glanced at it over his right shoulder as he faced away from him:
"The shelter's so strong that not even the Luftwaffe's best bomb could pierce through its concrete and steel."
Maybe it's a coded manner of saying that this place is very secure and that no intruders could easily get inside of it…? If this is in the middle of the ocean, then any ships or boats in approach would be spotted kilometers away and there'd be ample time to prepare a defense…
"In case you're wondering, this babe is parked in Akihara Bay near the old port district admin office building… This way the trip is short and given how no ships come to this place to begin with then there's no real risk of collision." Noir explained.
"Oh, I remember that district. It died down years ago but it was already decaying because of its building, which was built in a rush to try to gain profit from sea access! It soon became clear that the facilities were too small for the times and such a new set of docks and such had to be built two kilometers NNE…" Hikawa recalled.
"Correct, Watson."
"Do excuse me, sir?"
"Oh please. Don't say "sir"… It makes me sound old and I'm just around your age, Hikawa – kun…"
"Then, why…?"
"The hood, you mean? A car accident… My face didn't end up well even with plastic surgery, so…" He sighed.
"Oh! Sorry, I shouldn't have asked!"
"It's alright. Everyone feels curious the first time anyway."
"We're here." Legato announced.
They exited into the large deck; the sun had almost disappeared below the horizon so Hikawa walked over to the right side railing and leant on it as if hypnotized by the vision of the sun and the colorings of the sky.
"Wow. I'd never imagined sunset could look so beautiful… I'm totally awed." He admitted.
"That's one of the bonuses of this place, yessir."
Kage loomed from behind him and placed both hands over his shoulders.
"Hey, wait. You're not intending to…"
"Relax! I'm just teasing ya~…" He whispered.
"Please… That's enough for one day… I'm a boy!"
"Doing stuff as fellow guys is cool too! Forget the prejudices! It's a very exciting thing!" Kage whispered next.
"Oh man. I'm in trouble." Hikawa rolled his eyes.
"Don't be like that! Look forward to our next encounter where I'll introduce you to our own world… You'll like it! I was skeptical at first but I was hooked into the business ever since the first day. I won't say who the lucky guy was 'cause that's a secret, see…"
"Transfer preparations completed!" Andy called out.
"Coordinates set!" Legato added.
"Good. We'll be in contact, Hikawa – kun. Tell Hikari – kun that the shield sphere is a good place to meet at. He'll know what I mean!"
"A-alright… And please don't tease me anymore!"
"Transfer!"
Hikawa was transferred through the device and it booted down once the process was complete; the four guys stared at the horizon as the sun finally sunk behind for the day.
"I'm beaten! We managed to solve it, somehow! Thank goodness!"
"See? I told you there was no need to be pessimistic." Noir encouraged.
"You're right, Boss, it's just that…"
"I must admit I improved the "horny" topic to try to remove tension from the scene. Did it work, sir?" Legato asked.
"Brilliant. As expected of my Navi. You know me well!"
"I am honored, sir! I shall strive to fulfill your orders, sir!"
"I don't doubt it, Legato. Don't worry. You'll eventually get your chance to play with Blues and bring out his full strength!"
"I am looking forward to it, sir."
"Same over here. We'll fight fair, no need for the "Ryuusei Program". That's a trump card saved for special occasions. Right, Miquel – kun?"
"Sure, Andy! We'll toy a bit with the guy and then use our CQC to remind the guy that he over-relies on swords." Kage chuckled.
"OK! Now I feel motivated to keep working on the setup. Zarashe – kun is helping us so the work load is more distributed, too."
"Great, Boss! Alright, Ijuuin… Sharpen you fountain pen, you'll need it to give your signatures to your fans… The climax is drawing closer!"