I saw Illumi standing outside of the classroom instead of already in the seat. I reached up to wave when I noticed he was actually on the phone. I didn't want to interrupt, so I simply slipped past him, but I was still able to hear a good portion on his side of the conversation.
"– you not able to get more information?"
"…"
"What about your information friend? Did you not ask for their assistance?"
"…"
"Ah, so that was all they had been able to find as well. Keep searching Millu. There must be more information on XX somewhere." Illumi snapped his phone shut and took his seat.
I, meanwhile, was nearly a living statue in my own seat. Illumi had just mentioned the place Mr. Mystery had wanted info on. He had also said 'Millu' that was an m name.
Oh my god! Did Illumi know Mr. Mystery!? How?
My fingers gripped the edge of the desk until they turned white. Risking a glance, I saw Illumi doing nothing out of the ordinary. He was sitting in his desk staring at nothing.
Could I ask Illumi? What would I say? There was no way to confirm if this 'Millu' was Mr. Mystery a.k.a. M. This could all be a coincidence couldn't it?
"Good morning Illu-chan!" I watched with still shock-widened eyes as Hisoka skipped into the room. He stopped before he reached his desk, turned to me and blew me a kiss. "Good morning Tamika-chan."
"Hi." I automatically replied, my brain was functioning on autopilot.
If you asked me what we had talked about, I couldn't tell you.
If you asked how many people were there today, I couldn't tell you.
If you asked how many times Hisoka touched Illumi's hair – 64 times.
If you asked how many times Illumi told Hisoka not to touch his hair – 41 times.
My attention had been solely focused on the two of them. I wanted to ask. Was Millu, M, and Mr. Mystery all the same person? Someone whom Illumi seemed to know?
Robotically I packed everything away and simply left once class was finished. There was no way I could ask him directly. However, he seemed quite familiar with this Millu person… So let's start by snooping into his school file shall we?
As soon as I turned on my desktop a message from M appeared.
Shall we play again?
-M
Can't.
-Kitsune
Why?
-M
I need to work. Don't distract me.
-Kitsune
When will you be finished work?
-M
Depends on whether you keep talking to me or not.
-Kitsune
Alright, alright. Another day.
-M
I sighed in relief. Hopefully M would keep off my back, I did not want to try hacking the school while he was trying to hack me.
Glancing at the chat I saw Hitode was on. Awesomeness!
"Hey Hito – you bored?"
"Not for long by the sound of it. What you got in mind Kit?" I heard her chuckle and pictured her cracking her knuckled like I was.
"I need to hack my school's secured server. Wanna help?"
"Game on!"
Not even thirty minutes later I was browsing through Illumi's personnel file the college kept. And it was getting strange.
"You seeing what I'm seeing Hito?"
"If that's a whole lot of nadda, sí."
"How could this be? Did you pull that file on Hisoka too?"
'It's showing the same thing Kit. It's only listing his name and class schedule. Nothing more." I tilted my chair back and laced my fingers behind my neck.
"Weird." Muttering to myself I tried to think of what this could mean. I came up with nothing.
"Hey Kit?"
"Yeah?"
"Why don't you ask Mr. Mystery? I'm sure he could help."
"Maybe…" He probably could but would he do it for free? No. And that was the issue – what would he ask for in payment?
Somehow, I didn't think he would be asking for money.
"The other option is to ask everyone else for their help." Hitode broke into my thoughts.
"And what? Ask them to look into every Illumi on the planet?" I sneered. "We don't even know his surname. How do you expect them to know which is the right one?"
"Sorry." Hitode's voice sounded choked and my quilt level multiplied.
"No, I'm sorry Hito. I took my frustration out on you. It's just… I'm not used to hitting such a thick wall at full force."
"Hehe. I don't think any of us are. I'm going to go get something to eat, be on later."
"Bye." Raking my fingers through my hair I continued to feel bad. There was no way I could work efficiently in this state so I sent a message to M, curious if he was still online.
Done with work already?
-M
Hit a brick wall.
-Kitsune
Haha. Skills not as par as you had believed?
-M
*snort* Hardly. There was no info to find it seemed.
-Kitsune
On what?
-M
You offering to help?
-Kitsune
If it sounds interesting, I think I can spare you my services.
-M
Idk… I don't like making deals where I don't know the price.
-Kitsune
Hahaha… How about this then?
-M
I'm listening.
-Kitsune
You tell me what you're looking for and in exchange you get info on XX free of charge.
-M
And what if you don't know anything about what I want?
-Kitsune
I'll pay you double.
-M
The offer was enticing, and pretty low risk. The only question left was…
Is this a fair deal?
-Kitsune
If you want your info as much as I think you do.
-M
Damn bastard was playing me. He was acting all cocky, thinking I would jump at this. And god dammit… I would have to bite if I wanted to get to the bottom of this.
All I know is a name.
-Kitsune
So we have a deal?
-M
You deliver first. Then I decide what happens next.
-Kitsune
What's the name?
-M
You going to tell me /everything/?
-Kitsune
Fine, fine. Now tell me.
-M
Illumi
-Kitsune
Surname?
-M
Don't know.
-Kitsune
Male. Long black hair w/ black eyes. Looks in his twenties. Most likely seen with a red haired male the same age.
-M
Those weren't questions.
-Kitsune
That's Aniki.
-M
It's a good thing I was sitting down because that was not the answer I was expecting. Illumi had a little brother? A brother who could hack better than me…
"What about your information friend?"
Millu?
-Kitsune
He logged off without answering. That was answer enough. So Illumi had a brother named Millu. Millu was a hacker who gave information to Illumi. Info that was highly secretive.
Illumi…
Millu…
Now that I was thinking about it, the names were sounding familiar. I had come across them hadn't I? Not recently… No, I had to go farther back. How far back was the question.
I hit a few keys and opened a search box. It would take days to go through all my files, but this little bad boy would get it done in less than six hours since I was looking for something specific.
I typed in both names and sent it on its way.
Minimizing that, I pulled up my design program and started to painstakingly plot the layout of the human body. Over two hundred bones and I wanted everything to be to scale.
I was a perfectionist.