TW: Mentions of Abuse

Chapter 72: Another Hack?!

September 30th.

It's been about a week since anything has happened after we changed Crimson's heart.

Me and my friends were on The Phantom Phan-site through Astrid's computer as we were showing Arthur the site.

"This site was created by Boris's brother?" He said,

"Yeah." Boris replied, "My brother loves drama. Internet, theater, you name it. Same goes for his friends online."

"What's all of these comments?"

"Those are comments asking us to change the hearts of someone, which is what we've been doing for a while now." Lars replied,

"And that poll?"

"Shows who's the next big target The Phantom Thieves should change the heart of." Cattleya replied, "Right now, Lucifer is still at 1 while Mammon is now at 2."

"Huh, Mammon is at 2 recently… Wonder why…"

Then, the website started to glitch.

"What the hell?!" Astrid shouted, "What's going on here?!"

"Did the website just get hacked?!" Boris said,

"Hey, don't look at me, I'm not hacking anything major anymore!"

"We know it wasn't you this time!" Cattleya said,

Then, the website appeared with a blank green screen with the caption: "This website has been hacked by a Secret Anonymous."

"This website has been hacked by a secret anonymous?!" Boris said, "Who the fuck is hacking my brother's website?!"

We were confused.

"Guess my brother's website is hacked!" Boris said, "Shit, what do we do now?!"

"I think I can help your brother out if he coded the website." Astrid said,

"And blow our cover as Phantom Thieves?! Hell no! This whole thing should be kept a secret, right?!"

"Boris is right…" Cattleya said, "We need to think of another solution…"

"Or I can just say that I'm a friend of Boris and can hell fix his website, huh?" Astrid wondered,

Boris raised an eyebrow.

"You know what? I like that idea." They said,

"Me too…" Cattleya said, "Ok, you two go do that."

Later, Boris and Astrid were in Boris's room as they were in Lindsey's room.

"So you're a friend of Boris's?" Lindsey wondered,

"Yeah." Astrid replied, "He and I have been friends for about a few months."

"And you can also help me get the website back in order?"

"Of course."

"Ok, show me."

Astrid then looked at the hacked website through Lindsey's computer.

"Hmmm… Interesting…" Astrid said, "I think this is simple. All I need to do is boot up my laptop to your site."

"Will it kill the website?" Boris wondered,

"No, it won't."

"I mean, even if you do, I can always make a new one." Lindsey said,

"You sound so accepting."

"That's what Boris would say."

"Indeed I do." Boris said as he chuckled a bit,

Astrid then hooked up her laptop to try and get into Lindsey's website.

"Let's see… If I can try and do this…" Astrid said as she tried to get into the website through some coding, but unfortunately, it didn't do any trick, "What? Access denied? Oh, I need a password. Well, too bad because I can crack it down real easily."

Astrid then installed something to bypass the password system. There, she has full control of the website and removed anything that has hacked the site in the first place.

"And there we go!" She said, "Website secured!"

"Thank you!" Lindsey said,

"Hey, next time, use a better and stronger password."

"I'll try and do that."

"Appreciate it." Boris said to Astrid,

"No problem." Astrid said,

Meanwhile, Darnell was shocked as he noticed that The Phantom Phan-site was no longer hacked.

"Huh, it's no longer hacked." He said, "It only lasted for about 2 hours…"

Darnell then received a call from someone he knows. He answered the call.

"What is it now?" He asked,

"That website…" The caller replied, "It's back to normal…"

"Of course, not even our best hired hacker can help us…"

"I know Ren has someone on his team that bypassed the hacking…"

"Well they are Phantom Thieves after all…"

"And you should infiltrate them as one."

"I'm still working on a way to do so…"

"There is a way… You know about the Goetia family?"

"What about them?"

"Listen up closely, ok?"

"Ok, I'm listening. Proceed."

Fast forwarding to a month or two later. Bernie was still interrogating me.

"So, you managed to change Crimson's heart." He said to me, "Which means another report of someone experiencing a mental shutdown and psychotic breakdown who would also have a change of heart from you."

Bernie looked down.

"However, Crimson would be the only one you would change the heart of that's from a different ring other than Pride." He continued, "This next one takes you right back to Pride."

Bernie then got out another file.

"Before I show you who's heart you have changed next, I must tell you something." He said to me, "Did you know anything about how the results of this one didn't go as planned?"

I was silent, but confused.

"Didn't go as planned?" I wondered,

"Well, you probably don't know who I'm talking about." Bernie said, "Here, maybe this picture of your next target should ring any bells."

Bernie then opened up the folder to reveal a picture of a middle-aged goetia woman in a dress and tiara.

"This is Stella of Ars Goetia." He said to me,

"Her…" I said,

"Yes, her."

Bernie then looked at me with a serious look.

"Now, the reason for your next target to be Stella is because of some… Controversies in the Goetia family." He said to me, "Many Goetia demons from many different rings decided to rebel against the one in Pride because of Stella's behavior."

Bernie crossed his arms.

"More notoriously, she was abusing her daughter and now ex-husband." He said, "Emotionally and mentally, but recently, physically to her only daughter."

I was still silent.

"Would you mind explaining to me why you went after Stella and what has happened after you "changed her heart" I put in quotations?" Bernie said, "Because we all know how that didn't go on that following day…"