CHAPTER 26

"This is the school you go to?" Sota had just set foot inside of Sawai Academy with Hana and narrowly missed a flying dodgeball.

"Yes indeed!" Hana replied. "Pretty wild, isn't it?"

"Too wild, if you ask m-" Kari's comment was interrupted by another dodgeball, this time a direct hit to her shoulder.

"OKAY, WHO THREW THAT? YOU'RE DEAD, BITCH!" An enraged Kari grabbed a chair and swung it around wildly at the other students.

"Whoa whoa whoa!" Uchiro grabbed Kari's arms from the back and tried to restrain her.

"Let go of me!" a struggling Kari shouted.

"Onee-chan! STOP!" Sota yelled.

"Young lady, please don't endanger my students!" Hiro ran up and yanked the chair out of Kari's hands. Uchiro released Kari and instantly ducked to avoid a swinging fist.

Hiro turned to face the others."Okay, people, let's all cool off for a bit. Touring party coming through!"

"For someone who wants to go back to being a kid, you sure rant like an adult!" Uchiro remarked.

"That's not the best thing to say to her right now," Hana whispered as Kari shot a death glare at them.

"This way, please, let's not lose sight of why the two of you are with us!" Hiro led them to the janitor's closet with the secret elevator.

"Wait for me!" Yuka came running up to join them. "Wow, did I miss something?"

"I think I wanna start going here now!" Sota beamed while Kari rolled her eyes.

"So... new members?" Yuka asked Hiro as the group emerged from the elevator.

"Nah, we're just helping out Hiro-sensei with some sort of multi-world project," Hana replied. "This is my family, by the way... sister Kari and brother Sota."

"Hi... sorry about the outburst earlier..." Kari stammered. "I don't know if you caught it..."

"I heard something in the hall, but I was just leaving the cafeteria when it happened," Yuka stated.

"You're better off not knowing," Uchiro interjected. "No sense making things more awkward around here."

"May I have everyone's attention, please!" Hiro called out. "Okay, folks, we got ourselves a mission now."

Just then the elevator doors opened and Saki strolled out. "Sorry I'm late, some Daredevil Club stunt tied up traffic. And wow, Kari-san, was that you with the chair?"

Kari gaped. "Saki-chan? YOU'RE a part of this?"

"Yeah, sorry for not mentioning it. This club IS supposed to be secret. Carry on, Hiro-sensei!"

Hiro continued. "You're just in time for the big announcement... our club will be helping His Lordship, the big guy himself, and the Master Programmers from the other worlds in getting the new interworld network up and running!"

Some gasps and quiet cheers could be heard from the students.

"To minimize interference from our radio and cell transmitters, we plan to set up a networking station at Mount Keystone. It's the second tallest peak in this world. Mount Maeda is the tallest, but it's also popular with mountain climbers and I don't want them getting in the way. And I don't think the climbers would be too happy about a big new transmitter tower on that peak ruining the scenery. So Mount Keystone is the better choice for our project.

"There's only one problem, though... most of Mount Keystone has been sealed off to the public for many years now, even before I took control. One of the previous MPs had some sort of top secret operation going on there, and whatever it was, they didn't want any trespassers at all, because they fortified the mountain with a huge arsenal of automated gun turrets... and nobody, myself included, has been able to penetrate the restricted zone far enough to get to the peak, not to mention the reason why all this was set up. Those guns shoot missiles so powerful, they can blow up someone bad enough for them to be relocated off the mountain.

"Unfortunately, I was never given the security clearance for this area, but some of the Electronics Club members have been working diligently to hack their core system — which is separate from the system that controls this world — and disable all the weapons. And all that is locked down tight. We've got six days to try and crack their codes, so we can set up the station in time for the network to go online. In the meantime I have secured some top-floor suites for a week at the Peakview Resort for us to conduct some tests with our equipment."

"Field trip!" Yuka called out.

"See, I knew someone would be thinking that!" Hiro replied, pointing at Yuka. "But we're not taking everyone on the equipment-testing trip. I still need the hacker group to continue working on the mountain's defense system. When we're ready to set up the station on Mount Keystone, everyone gets to come along, and the expedition will take place, guns active or not. But I prefer to NOT get this done the hard way.

"There's a little bit of bad news with this, however. If any of you are familiar with the Mind Recorder project, I talked with president Kamado and Journalism Club president Naoi, and we have decided to put that on hold for now and reconfigure the machine to fit our new objective. I have placed Saki in charge of that... and these two girls who have joined us will be the test subjects for the machine's new purpose... to make contact with a sibling in a different BLW using a familial connection they have."

"Wait... I'm not a part of this?" Sota chimed in.

"The experiment will involve the two of them sleeping overnight with sensors hooked up to their heads," Saki replied. "So it needs to be an all-girls thing, which is one reason why I'm working the machine."

"We still want you there to verify that the three of you all had the same dream," Hiro chimed in. "You can stay with us in the other suite... or if you wish, you can get your own room and bring your own friends. But you just have to remember to report to us each morning. Ask Hana for my contact info."

"Hmmm... okay. In that case I'll get a room of my own."

"Very well." Hiro turned to Saki and Sota's sisters. "Tomorrow at 2:30, be at the front lobby of the Peakview Resort. It's on the Green Line, same train that goes to Eternal Festival. Bring a few days' worth of clothes. Got all that?"

A chorus of "Yes" followed.

"Good. Kari and Sota, we'll see you then!"

Sota left Sawai Academy and walked over to the Sho-Bizzy Pizza Palace. The arcade was fairly crowded as he made his way to the manager's office.

"Sota! How's it going?" Kento said as he shuffled some papers.

"I'm doing good. I'll be here for a few hours to help out."

"Excellent! We sure could use the help right now. Is there something you needed?"

"Um... I'm staying at the Peakview for a few days and I was wondering if I could get paid in cash today."

"Sure, no problem! Planning to tip some cute hostesses?"

Sota chuckled. "Heh, probably."

"I get ya, man!" Kento reached into his desk drawer, pulled out a small stack of bills and placed it in Sota's hand. "There you go, don't spend it all in one place, bud!"

"Thanks!" Sota slipped on his orange vest and rejoined the arcade fray.

As he walked past the fighting games he could see the high score displays on some of them. He could also see "AHO" — Akiho's initials — at or near the top of many of those high scores.

Sota stopped at the King of Fighters game. It was the last game Akiho played with him, the game where she beat him with an impressive 15-hit combo on his character. And once she finished, she kissed him on the lips and left the arcade, never to be seen again.

He looked down at the game controls and breathed a heavy sigh.

Seconds later he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"You miss her, huh..."

He looked up and saw Caleb holding a carpet sweeper.

"Yeah. She was so much fun to run around the arcades with. And I thought... she'd stick around longer."

"Same here. Playing Killer Instinct just isn't the same now." Caleb pushed the carpet sweeper back and forth in front of the skee-ball games. "So are you clocked in now? You gonna be okay to work?"

"Yeah. I'll be here for a few hours."

"When we're done here, how about we go check out some dance clubs with Noah? Maybe we'll meet some cute girls there and we can all have a fun time!"

"Okay, that sounds cool!" Sota replied as he picked up a paper cup off the floor. He stopped for a few seconds. "Hey... you want to go to the Peakview Resort, we can bring a few of our friends and hang out there for a few days?"

"Dude, that sounds awesome! What's the occasion?"

"Well, my sister's doing some kind of project for her school, and I gotta be part of that project for like a few minutes each day... and I'll have nothing else to do the rest of the day. So yeah, we could all hang out, play games, ski maybe, I think there's a nightclub there as well."

"Sounds like a plan! Okay, let's go refill some token dispensers."