The trio did not speak to each other. Silence hung over them like a thin safety net that could barely contain their emotional turmoil. They didn't dare try to lighten the mood. Hat Kid was still in shock. Why did Jinx suddenly turn on them? Was it Mono? What did he do or could have done to make Jinx react like that? But Hat Kid could answer those questions another time. All they had was a name. Kyle Karen. Hat Kid had heard the name before. When completing her training course to become an officer, she heard Banhammer mention the name a few times. But other than that, Hat Kid had no idea who or what it was. But whatever it was, Jinx and Spamton knew. But now both of those sources had been compromised. Then Hat Kid came to a realization. Susie knew. The look on their face when they heard the Twitter Entity's voice was one of recognition. And when Mono told her about its multiple mouths, she knew what he was referring to. Hat Kid's first instinct would have been to go straight to Susie for answers but now... she didn't know. Was Susie under Kyle's spell just like Banhammer was? Was that why they withheld what they knew? Hat Kid decided that they would not go to Susie immediately. That would be too predictable, like a child going to its mother for consolation. Instead, Hat Kid would be going to the only person who would have an in-depth knowledge of their quarry.

Hat Kid hailed a taxi and told him whether they were going. The taxi driver didn't look so eager but accepted them anyway after Hat Kid promised to tip him. As they were being driven to their destination, Mono decided to break the silence.

"Why are we going to that place?" Mono asked.

"I need a different perspective."

"But I am a different perspective."

"I need someone who actually knows what is going on."

Hat Kid didn't mean to snap but Mono stared out the window, trying his best not to cry.

...

The place was a sprawling prison complex. The grey walls were lined with copious amounts of barbed wire. As the taxi driver drove through the gates, Hat Kid glanced at a sign,

"Horny Jail"

Once the taxi dropped the trio off, it immediately sped through the gates, not even bothering with the payment. Hat Kid understood. She wanted to grab Mono and Isaac by the arms and run away, but she had a mission. She walked up to the reception desk. The person behind the counter was a Doge. It wore a prison guard uniform and a baseball bat hung by its belt. It was reading a book and did not notice the group for twenty seconds.

"I would like to organise a prisoner visit."

The doge got out a clipboard and wrote down something.

"Do you have clearance?"

Hat Kid held up her police badge. The Doge nodded.

"Will those two be coming along with you?" inquired the doge in a suspicious tone.

"No."

The doge seemed satisfied.

"Wait," interrupted Mono, "What are we going to do?"

"I want you to wait here in the reception area," instructed Hat Kid, "I need to do this alone."

Mono seemed like he wanted to protest but he gestured for Isaac to follow him to the seats. Hat Kid looked back at the doge who held a waiver in front of him. Hat Kid grabbed a pen and signed it. Her hand was shaking.

"And who will you be visiting today?" asked the doge.

Hat Kid forcefully calmed her nerves and looked the doge in the eye.

"Ayano Aishi."

...

Hat Kid had never been in an interrogation chamber before. She heard stories from officers and detectives about how claustrophobic it was. They weren't lying. The room was separated into two sections by reinforced glass—one side for the prisoner and another for the visitor. Hat Kid had to wait for five minutes before the guards brought Ayano in. The years had not been kind to her. Ayano wore baggy orange prisoner clothes that looked too big on her. Her hair was messy and parts seemed shiny and set in. Hat Kid didn't know the guards allowed hair gel in the prison. The two of them sat in silence for a moment, observing each other. Hat Kid knew that if she screwed this up as she did with the Oncler and Jinx, she would get nothing

"How are the guards?"

Ayano squinted at Hat Kid before answering.

"I don't really know..." she said, "They barely talk with us... They just talk amongst themselves."

"Do eavesdrop often?"

"Is that an offense?" sneered Ayano. Hat Kid did not answer.

"I do try to listen," muttered Ayano, "Whenever the inmates are not trying to rail me. The guards try to stop it... But they are extremely ineffective."

"It's a self-defeating system," said Hat Kid solemnly. Ayano gave a smile but it looked soulless and creepy.

"It's awfully annoying when you're trying to listen to some gossip but then some guy saunters up to you and tries to pull your pants off."

"You can never get the full story..." murmured Hat Kid.

"I hear from the guards that you guys at the justice department are having trouble with a little something..." sneered Ayano as she inched closer to the glass panel, "Last time I heard that the justice department had trouble was with me."

"Yes, I know the story. I heard it many times," said Hat Kid. The conversation was heading toward her desired destination, "Although... Is it true that you fooled Susan Purity into believing your doomsday plot would 'bring happiness to the Internet'? I thought they were smarter than that."

Ayano gave a smug smile.

"Susan's problem is that they turn a blind eye to the atrocities of the Internet. You give them a video of a rapist fucking a schoolgirl on live TV and they'll tell you it's not real. It doesn't go well with their perception of the world."

"What of the others?" asked Hat Kid innocently, this interrogation was going well so far, "Surely they weren't as gullible."

"Banhammer wasn't as easy," said Ayano, "I had to keep it in the dark as much as possible so that he wouldn't notice. Incognito just stays in her train station while Kyle... I had to do a bit of digging to find where it holed up. But as long as I didn't disturb it, it didn't disturb me."

There was a certain uneasiness when Ayano talked about Kyle.

"What do you mean by where it holed up?"

"It always hung out in websites that had a lot of toxicity," muttered Ayano before stopping herself. Her dull eyes bore into Hat Kid. She started to laugh.

"So that's who's causing all the trouble," sneered Ayano, her face inches away from the glass panel, "Kyle Karen... And you want me to tell you everything I know about it. Don't you?"

Hat Kid gave a rueful smile. She had played her cards. She hoped she played them right.

"I am sorry Hat Kid," said Ayano, her eyes sparkled with malice, "But you made one mistake when you entered this interrogation room. You thought I would just give you the information you're looking for... That's not how it works. And I don't think you or any of your police friends would be willing to shorten my sentence in this hellhole."

Ayano leaned back on her chair.

"I think this interrogation is over..."

Hat pretended to be disappointed.

"I thought you would have wanted to hear what Kyle did to YouTube."

"So what," snapped Ayano.

"It's in absolute chaos. Kyle caused an earthquake that unleashed millions of Spambots. It killed Banhammer. And what do you think it will do when it finds out that you planned to destroy the very place it wanted to take over? What makes you think you are safe in here?"

Ayano's face began to twitch.

"Liar..." snarled Ayano but her voice betrayed her increasing panic.

"Sure you can call me that. Just don't blame me when you hear exactly what I am saying from the guards," said Hat Kid as she stood up and started walking towards the door. Ayano tried to keep her silence but she finally broke when Hat Kid reached the door.

"Fine! Fine! Fine! Fine!" yelled Ayano as she banged on the glass, "I'll tell you what I know. Just don't leave..."

Hat Kid turned around and sat back down.

"I can't believe you made me do this..."

"I knew you would come around," said Hat Kid, "You fear your death."

Ayano gave an annoyed expression.

"You don't understand. Under any circumstance, I'd be happy to let you leave," Ayano explained, "But this is Kyle Karen we are talking about. Death is better than what it can do to you."

"So then tell me," said Hat Kid. She could barely contain her excitement. Ayano sighed and began explaining.

"Kyle Karen represents everything that is awful about Internet users. Toxicity, cyberbullying, flame wars, spam, cancel culture, hate speech, hypocrisy... You get the idea."

"So it's an embodiment of online toxicity," said Hat Kid.

"You could say that."

"So what does it do? How does it think?"

"I wouldn't suggest trying to psychoanalyze Kyle Karen. It is just about as capricious as any god gets," muttered Ayano, "One article showed Kyle advocating for gay marriage. A few articles later, I found it screaming homophobic slurs.

"As for what it does, as I said before, it hides behind websites like users hide behind their keyboards. It influences the website's users, breathing dark thoughts into their minds. Like how Rule 34 feeds off sexual fantasies, this gives Kyle the sustenance it needs to survive. It usually lets loose these corrupted users but actually mobilizing its forces in systemic attacks is unheard of. Last time I checked before... I got arrested, Kyle was hiding in 4Chan. I don't know where it is now."

"Twitter."

Ayano stopped for a few seconds before giving Hat Kid a twisted smile.

"Twitter... How interesting..."

The two of them sat there in momentary silence.

"You said something about how death was a better alternative... What makes you say that..."

"Do you ever wonder what it means to be truly suffering?"

Hat Kid did not answer. How could she answer such a question?

"It doesn't take thumbscrews or nails, it requires pure mental agony," Ayano took a deep breath, "Kyle can twist the minds of users to be their worst selves from a distance. When it catches someone, how do you think they would go against its full concentrated power?"

The disturbing visage of Jinx being taken by Kyle flashes across Hat Kid's mind.

"There was an interesting thing I learned while researching Kyle... It can produce copies or doppelgangers of its prisoners. It sends them out to ruin the lives of their loved ones. All while the prisoner watches..."

The silence smothered all conversation. Hat Kid didn't want to be here anymore. She didn't want to hear anymore. She stood up and started walking towards the door.

"Before you go," called Ayano, "I'll tell you something that you should remember when dealing with Kyle. You can't kill a god if you believe in what it's saying."

Then Ayano broke down into hysterical laughter as Hat Kid closed the door.