Chapter 32: Zero

09:45 AM (Japan Time), Tuesday July the 2nd…

"Fua~h! July already! Nothing big is happening. I know I'm busy with this debugging job and all, but… Man. I'd wish something crazy actually happened."

"You wanna stir crazy?"

"Huh? Hikari – kun! Been a while! You came for the monthly meeting about Golden Star?"

"Yeah. Why don't you try playing some games to kill the boredom on your free time? I can give you several recommendations."

"Good idea, yeah… But let's go to the meeting."

"Lead the way, Hacker – sama."

"When did you turn so sarcastic?"

"Dunno! Guess it's a trend I've picked up."

Obihiro had been yawning as he drank some orange juice from a bottle using a straw; Netto showed up and pulled a joke on him; they then headed upstairs, and Rock Man joined them coming from one of the labs along with Yuuichirou.

"This "Copy Roid" feels so great! Too bad it has to be kept a secret…"

"It's for everyone's safety. We don't want these to end up in the hands of criminals, do we, Rock Man?" Yuuichirou reminded him.

"I know, Dad! Never mind. I experienced the real world back when the "Dark Power" crisis anyway." He shrugged.

"Those Golden Star guys gotta be lucky, having access to them!"

"They built them so they have all the right to."

"Hey! Rock Man. Did Uncle Merton come along with Count Sylvius and the Mazarin Stone plus Holmes' wax statue?"

"Excuse me, sir?"

"Gotcha. They got cha."

"HUH? Is that a code-message, sir?"

"Nope! Uncle Merton's old-school humor."

"Oh come on."

Oda showed up from the restrooms while having some new jokes ready to fire; Rock Man, Netto, Yuuichirou and Obihiro sighed while Oda adjusted his hat.

"Let's whack – a – mole!"

"Stop that already, Superintendent!"

Meijin came out of the elevator while sipping some coffee.

"Yeah! Store 'em on the closet!" Punk grumbled.

"On the closet of Baron Gruner?" Oda suggested.

"Oh fuck. I'm fed up with this." Punk cursed.

"Join the club." Enzan sarcastically added as he showed up behind Rock Man.

"Oh, Enzan – kun. Been a while. Hey! Blues. Is everything alright down in the Reverse Internet?" He asked.

"Yeah. Shadow Man contacted us to tell us how the place has become quieter and quieter with every passing day! Criminals are starting to realize the ground and walls have ears so they pick other spots. Viruses are starting to claim back the place but they're pretty much small fry which is easily handled." Blues explained.

"Whoa. That's some success. Cleansing the Reverse Internet of criminal presence… It really proves they are strong!"

"Leave it to Ninja Man to scare them too." Netto joked.

"Jeez. You know he's named Shadow Man."

The group stepped into the meeting room; a bottle of water and some plastic cups were placed there.

"Good. July meeting: start. Here's the summary of any noticeable events which have happened during June. Have a look, Hikari – kun."

Oda turned serious and handed it over to him.

"Signs of internal jealousy… The secretary turning stricter like a schoolteacher… Letting out the location of some hoax-sellers… Pulling some weird joke on Enzan too… Not much of a deal! Talks of moving to a new location… Purgatory… Zero… Some kind of new-gen super-computer…? Why do they want that?"

"Obviously, to process all data caught by their sensors and filter it to try to locate terrorists and criminals given some filtering parameters… They've made a recent public announcement yesterday that it was still on testing stage and that it couldn't run at 100% yet. They expect it to be able to by sometime next month. The best it can do right now is about 45%..."

"No wonder. You don't make a super-computer run at 100% capacity in just two days. They must be taking notes and comparing how much data it can process while debugging." Rock Man guessed.

"Debugging?" Netto asked.

"Removing bugs or errors which may pop out or have been left behind during the production… And ensure it runs as much error-free as possible…" Rock Man explained.

"Oh yeah… I seem to recall some games' credits add a "debugging" department into them too…" He recalled.

"Maybe Debugging Man will visit us?"

"No." Everyone quickly sentenced.

"Alright, alright. Then I guess a femme fatale like the "Veiled Lodger" will show up to tell us about Abbas Parvas…"

"Isn't that a short Holmes story?" Meijin recalled.

"By the way, Hikari… You've met with Kage. Haven't you?"

"How could you know that? You've been spying on me?"

"No. However, Kage sent you two messages. The first it was via Agoras and the second via Hikawa… We did tell you last month he'd had a contact with them given how he'd stumbled upon Kage in the Waterworks… Meijin here ran some searches and figured out that both messages meant for you to search a safe place to meet." Enzan explained.

"But you won't accuse me of plotting something against everyone or something like that, right?" His eyes narrowed.

Oda made a gesture directed at Enzan, so he cleared his throat and calmly showed him his open palms.

"Of course not! You two were good classmates. It was obvious you'd want to meet him after not seeing him in person for over a year." He calmly replied, trying to sound welcoming.

"He didn't tell me anything vital or secret, mind you, apart from some details about that uncle of his."

"You can keep them."

"I just asked of him how did he get along with his buddies… He told me he really had no trouble with any of them but one could get easily exasperated when dealing with that Qong guy given how he takes about five minutes to acknowledge your presence and finally ask "so?" as if you wanted something outta him instead of just trying to be civilized and say "morning"…" Netto explained.

"No wonder. Our informer also reports that behavior."

"He also says that that Tozukana – san person has been behaving as of late because the secretary seems to have set her icy presence into her to cool her off! She spends a lot of time customizing VRs to make them more realistic taking into account wind speed and her own slight shaking while holding the rifle…" He added.

"I see. What about the other women?"

"He says he respects Suzuki – san because she is a nice person and is also very devoted to her main job. Ikada – san tends to be the kind to tease him around but he knows how to keep his distance and settle a limitation to her teasing acts, which never go beyond words."

"We'd known of that behavior already, so… What does he think of the secretary?" Enzan asked next.

"He actually told me he feels like the air turned into the North Pole every time she shows up and she is annoyed! When she does, it's better to bow to her and say everything she says or else you then get into trouble! She begins to impose timetables and schedules to keep you busy into doing something useful…"

"This will allow us to make better profiles… He obviously didn't tell you any methods of contacting him, right?"

"No. He just said he'd use a proxy to send me messages but he didn't recommend meeting too much in case someone tried to make up some tale and discredit me…" He began to form a grimace.

"You could go have some Merton ice-cream."

"HUH? Merton ice-cream?" Netto snapped out of it.

"Chocolate & vanilla!"

"Huh! Yummy!" He began to daydream.

I guess this is related to what the Superintedent told me the other day, about some morons actually blaming Hikari – kun for what Golden Star did even though he's wholly unrelated… Ijuuin – kun can tend to be too blunt so he needed a warning to not to overdo it… This joke about the ice-cream is actually to avoid his anger building up…

"And next time bring Count Sylvius' good friend Mr. Garrideb."

"Who was that again? The fellow who never came out of his house?"

"Good memory, my dear Meijin – kun. You should run a blog!"

"No, thank you! If you'll excuse me, sir, I'll resume the training! Sheesh!"

11:53 AM (Japan Time)…

"What is this? A big portion of system data has gone missing and seems to have gathered in the "lobby" of the system… How odd. A bug or a system error…? I shall go investigate…"

Slur had been hovering inside of a tall "room" in the Cyber World containing several folders and vertical tubes from which raw data poured to then go through some filters, each having a tag; the data sorted out and then flew into each folder.

"At least the sorting system works…"

The whole "room" had the feeling of being very tall and that she was hovering close to the very top where a round stone platform made of gray basaltic rock had been set at as a control post from where to oversee the whole system's functions; she had been reading some data in a holographic screen which made her frown, for once.

"It would seem the missing data has picked one of the data input lanes around Lane 7… Let us go."

She jumped down from the platform while opening her arms wide; she aimed for the SSE and finally landed on the ground close to a large shaft about two meters wide, and which extended downwards for an untold length; she looked around and began to catch some kind of "breathing" sound which made her draw her sword.

"Who goes there?" She demanded.

"I am not hostile. Are you the owner of this system? The one that everyone refers to as "mighty Slur"?"

"I am Slur, indeed. Who goes there?"

"If you mean my name I don't have one."

"What are you?" She tried another approach.

"Guess I'm a Net Navi."

"…"Guess"…? Cannot tell it yourself?" She frowned.

"I formed on my own."

"Then…! You must be the missing system data…!"

"Guess I should show myself before you delete me thinking I'm an intruder…"

A Net Navi became visible as they dropped down from a ledge about thirty meters upwards and calmly landed on the ground.

"Indeed. Talk about a curious phenomenon!"

The Net Navi's main body color was crimson red and his height was about a meter and eighty, close if not identical to Slur's own height.

His head had a large sapphire-colored dome encompassing it as seen from above, and a partial facial protection was built on the front, made up of two equally reddish "wings" extending NW and NE, followed by two thin parallel fang-like ends running down the sides of the face; where the ear-pads would be at, a gray "∅" symbol over a black background was drawn.

His eyes didn't have pupils to them and their irises were a threatening yellowish color; his face's "skin" was metallic, and he did have a small nose yet his mouth was but a line drawn across it forming a trapeze in the center of the face; it didn't look like it could open and the "breathing" sound was emitted from inside of it.

His upper body had partial chest armor colored red over his blackened "skin", and looked more like a vest than armor; there was an inverted trapeze-shaped opening exposing the base of the neck and the center of the upper chest, followed by two round openings in the middle of the chest; the armor ended by drawing a trapeze on its lower edge exposing the "skin" of the waistline, which formed a curve to protect the sides and read parts of the neck; three small horizontal slits were set in a column on the front parts of the neck protection.

The armor over his shoulders looked like knives when seen from the front; they had a thin metallic outer edge and the main color on them was red.

His arms' skin was black; his hands had the usual white "latex" skin.

Two armlets were attached over the section of his arms, extending from the elbows to the top of his hands; each one had a cylindrical form with red and black armor; the black armor was built as a stripped cylinder with the red armor over it; two circular bands kept it on place, looping around the elbow and the wrist; the upper part had a diamond-shaped piece over the elbow plus a small sapphire over his hands.

There was a gap around the stomach area, which was unshielded, in the form of a cross; white "pants" began on the lower part of that gap and extended until the knees; these "pants" didn't cover the outwards-facing sides of his legs.

His knees had diamond-shaped pieces of armor with a thin vertical stripe across their center, protecting them before the boots began; they were rather plain except for a set of three black bands slightly over the ankles of each foot; the thin soils of the boots were also colored black.

He also had a mass of blonde hair spreading from behind his helmet and stopping inches from his ground; this hair spread open as a cape and ended in six pyramidal gaps between each end.

"So. When did you gain life?" Slur asked.

"About 12 hours ago…" He admitted.

"And yet… You have not chosen a name for yourself?"

"No. I've been busy training myself to get a basic understanding of what am I and what surrounds me. I've more or less understood who you are and who built this machine as well as for why yet… There are still many things pending explanation. All files describe you as the strongest of this band, so… Why aren't you the owner of this machine?"

"I did not build it. It does not have an "owner" per se unless you mean the organization itself. By the way… I have thought of a name for you."

"Yeah? What name?"

"Zero EXE…"

"Zero EXE… Because this machine is named Zero, too?"

"Correct. You shall be the administrator of it. Maybe it is the will of the system itself, after all… To have a part of itself which can behave on its own and independently…"

"Why not… I don't think of myself as competent enough to go for subtle things or fighting in all-out battle…"

"I shall introduce you to some of the highest members… I am sure they will back up my decision… For the time being, your existence will be kept a tight secret until preparations for the rest of the members to move here are completed…"

"Sounds fair enough. Sorry if I sound rude to you but that's the way I seem to be… Boss."

He scratched the back of his head before shrugging and improving the title.

"I do not care. You do not have the same views other have. It is good to have someone blunt, yet intelligent. Follow me… We shall go speak with a group of persons currently onboard… That reminds me… The machine has already overcome the 50% power mark… It can analyze five terabytes of data in about 20 minutes… It shall reduce to about 10 minutes' time once it reaches full power… Not bad…"

"Lead the way, Boss."

Slur "flew" upwards and Zero followed her; they reached a huge sealed gateway which Slur unlocked and locked behind them; they climbed up a set of stairs and crossed another massive armored gateway which also locked; ahead of them there was a wide corridor with Security Cubes blocking the way to several "War Points", save for two set next to each other and having the names "KAGE & ANDY" plus "VP NOIR & LEGATO" written on the ground next to them; Slur headed for the second one and motioned for Zero to follow her: he looked around, interested.

"Slur – sama. What a surprise, ma'am. May we ask who is that gentlemen thou have brought along?" Kuroshiro asked through a holographic screen; Legato was standing behind him.

"Zero EXE. He formed inside of the super-computer. I thought he could be the perfect Navi to take care of it given how he is part of it."

"Formed inside of the super-computer…!" Both gasped.

"Well? What do you think of it?"

"Excellent idea." Kuroshiro made a courteous bow.

"I approve." Legato saluted.

"They do seem to recognize your power, Boss." Zero muttered.

"Obviously. Everyone does. Only one man insofar has been able to scratch me, and that is because I allowed it for them to do it. I wanted to have a taste of their "mighty" power…"

"Sounds cool, yeah… So you're VP Noir and Legato…"

"Yeah. When I'm not disguised you can just call me Kuroshiro Oriol as well… There's a motive behind this double identity game, but all will become clear in due time… Welcome aboard Purgatory."

"Purgatory… What's a purgatory?"

"It is an abstract concept… Look it up later. Yet we have picked this name because it has an "aura" and a "feel" to it…"

"It looks like I've got a lot to learn. There's no rush, really. I shouldn't worry about that." Zero shrugged.

"Then we should begin… If Golden Star is to become the protector of society's stability it intends to be, there is still a lot of job to do! By combining our capabilities, we shall soon have improved the super-computer to levels never seen before… Let us get to work!"

"O. K., Boss. Let's rumble."

"Why not… I am in a good mood today. By the way, Legato. Do not neglect your training, either. Even if you do have a fight with Blues, you must prove the others what it means to be strong!"

"But of course, Slur – sama! I shall prove Golden Star's power, indeed!"