Invisible Mind

[ACSRT: Factions and Plots]

GV paced around the outside of the hospital. Dr Kiyama had left already for the facility but she had given Heaven Canceller her remaining notes on figuring out the level-upper.

All that he was waiting for was for the doctor to tell him his target. Then he would be able to get Joule back.

As he turned a corner he felt his phone vibrate and he quickly checked it. It was the doctor as he had hoped but the message didn't look good.

"Return to my office, there is mixed news."

"I was able to find the master brainwave pattern as expected." Heaven Canceller began to explain the problem when GV had sat down.

"The fact is, the new network is focused on someone with quite a lot of authority that won't be easy for you to find."

GV frowned at that before asking "By that do you mean it's someone on the Academy City Board of Directors?"

"No but you are on the right track," Heaven Canceller gave a slow sigh before he continued "We have actually spoken of the man before. The man this network is linked to is Kihara Gensei"

GV's eyes went wide. Indeed as the doctor said, they had talked about him before.

"The man behind the ability crystals?" GV asked.

Heaven Canceller nodded "Not just that, he is behind many incidents that you have had to deal with in this city. It seems he was the one who first gave the idea of the network to Ms Kiyama, he was also part of the team behind the Level 6 project that brought Miss Misaka so much pain."

GV was quiet for a moment before quietly asking "How can I find him?"

The doctor turned away to face the window without answering so GV was forced to ask again.

"Where is Kihara Gensei?"

"I don't know." Admitted the doctor.

Silence stretched for a moment as Heaven Canceller took a sip of water before finally he spoke again.

"He owns laboratories throughout the city. He teams up with other groups who are doing the kind of research that pushes boundaries and uses their labs. He has family that he can call on, most of them part of the dark side of this city. He makes use of mercenaries, both mundane and those who have Espers. He could be in any of these places or one I know nothing about. The same can be said of the locations he would hide Joule. There are just too many possabilities."

GV sunk into his seat "So there's no lead I can use now? If I tried to raid all of those locations they would just hide Joule better."

His mind sank through facts as he laid out what he knew, trying to look for any scrap he could follow.

"Kihara Gensei is building a new level-upper network. Someone, who is currently unknown and could even be Gensei himself, sent me a message about an auction that turned out to be a trap. While that was happening he, or another group that knew that I was out, organised Joule's kidnapping using a Teleporter and someone who can paralyse a person's limbs."

Heaven Canceller raised an eyebrow as he finished talking.

Finally he gave a small smile and reassured GV "There is actually a lead there. I can identify the group that took Miss Joule."

[ASG2: Zonda]

"You can?" GV jumped up of the chair in a quick motion "I didn't think that anything about them were unique."

The doctor frowned as he opened a window on his computer "You should have mentioned their abilities before, the ability to directly control a person's nerves is a rare ability derived from Telepathy and Psychokinesis. I heard that an Esper who joined the underworld had the power to cut and re-tie the nerves in a person. Give me a moment."

He opened another window and nodded "Ishino Kane, level 4 with the ability Signal Break. Recently joined the team known as Ars-" he paused for a moment and sighed "They really picked an awful name for a group on our side."

GV tilted his head "What do you mean 'Our side'?"

"Not important," The doctor quickly changed the subject "regardless Ars does likely have a base that you'll be able to find."

GV nodded and walked over to the door.

"One more thing." Heaven Canceller called after him.

He turned as the doctor threw something to him. He caught it before turning it round to see it was a memory stick.

"That's all the information I have on Ars. Good luck."

GV nodded his thanks and turned away.

[ASG2: Stage Select (Gunvolt)]

His laptop had been smashed when the apartment was raided so he went to buy a little computer before starting his hunt. He plugged the memory stick in and read it's contents while sitting in at home. After that he accessed Academy City's dark web and began looking up Ars there.

He found their name in a few places on the web and made notes of a couple places that might be bases for them. Like most members of the dark side they moved around a lot so pinpointing their current base was not going to be easy.

He decided to try the reverse approach and looked for data about them being hired in the first place. As a fairly small time group they used the web for most of their contracts and so it was easy to find their digital address after a few minutes of digging. He ran that through an old tool he had thrown together that would watch the web for that address and throw up an alert when it was used.

Only four minutes later he got a hit. He traced it to a laptop in district 7.

With a smile he set off to find Joule.

End of chapter.

Moving from the opening of this arc to the mid-section.

I wish I knew enough Japanese to make names with multiple readings, both for characters and abilities.