CHAPTER 28

The next few days at the Peakview Resort were uneventful, though the Sawai students and the Sho-Bizzy employees did have a wonderful time throughout.

Saki and Yuka climbed Mount Maeda, taking a radio wave measuring device with them, and conducted some tests at the peak.

The Nakamuras went as a group to learn how to ski at the nearby slopes. Kari was the first to tumble and break a leg, but it instantly healed. She also tried snowboarding, which she liked better.

Sota was otherwise occupied with video games, and he along with Caleb and Noah made constant use of the suite's gaming systems. They were also frequent visitors to the resort's arcade, along with Ikuro.

The students also paid several visits to the resort's nightclub and karaoke lounge.

But Yuri Nakamura remained elusive at night. Hana even tried napping during one day in the afternoon, to no avail.

The morning after the fourth night in the suite, Kari shot up in bed. She shook a sleeping Saki, who was in the recliner by the balcony. "Saki-chan, get up! I had a Yuri-san dream!"

"You did?" Saki asked wearily. She downed a can of Key Coffee and lumbered over to the console.

"Yes... but I'm a little worried. Last night I dreamed that she was saying something like they were ready to fight against God."

"Heh. I don't think they'd really have a chance against God."

"That's what I'm worried about! I don't want Yuri-san to be destroyed or turned into a barnacle or some other bad thing!"

Kari turned to Hana, whose eyes were just opening. "Did you have the same dream?"

Hana rubbed her eyes and propped herself up by her elbows. "The fighting God thing?... yeah."

"Don't rip any sensors off yet," Saki told the two sisters. "I need to confirm that the target coordinates were secured and make sure everything's calibrated. I also need to get in touch with Hiro-sensei if he's up. When I'm done, go ahead and get dressed because he may want to see the results for himself right away."

A few minutes later, the sensors were off and Kari and Hana retreated to the bathroom.

"Did Sota text you?" Hana asked as she checked her phone.

"I'm looking... yeah. 'Dreamed that Yuri was ready to fight, u get that too?' Looks like that was a genuine vision." Kari put her phone down and finished dressing herself.

"I can hardly believe that we may get to talk to her again. For real. What am I gonna say to her?"

"I've got so many things I want to say but I know I'll mess it up."

"I think Hiro-sensei wants to give her some instructions or something."

"At the very least I just want to tell her to stop with the 'war on God' talk."

Kari and Hana walked out of the bathroom to find Hiro crouched down by the console.

"This looks promising," Hiro noted. "Good, we'll take this back to our club room and fine-tune the system some more. And hopefully our code-breaking team will have some good news for us soon."

He turned around to face the Nakamura sisters. "I'll send a notice out to all parties involved whenever we're ready to start up the mountain. Your brother can come as well. In the meantime, I'm going to scout out possible alternate entry points for us should the need arise."

He looked over at Yuka, who was standing in the doorway. "I'd like for you to come with me as well... I'll need some assistance."

"Sure thing, Hiro-sensei! Ready when you are!" said Yuka.

"Hiro-sensei?" Hana asked with a tinge of trepidation. "Is... Yuri gonna be okay?"

"I'm a little unclear on your question, what exactly do you mean?"

"You said... you had a connection to God, right?"

"It's a bit complicated, but yes. The actual form of His Lordship is exponentially bigger than us, to the millionth degree, thus communication with him without some kind of mitigating element would be extremely difficult... so the Chairman Liaison is that mitigating element. He is God's middleman — his eyes and ears, basically — whenever the MPs are virtually assembled for our regular meetings. In those meetings anything that is witnessed by the Chairman Liaison is instantly relayed to His Lordship, and if he has anything to say to us, he will speak through that person."

"So do you think God... His Lordship... would do anything bad to Yuri-san?" Kari interjected.

"She was saying some really angry things, like getting revenge on God, declaring war on God, wanting to hurt him... it just got me really scared," Hana added.

"Girls..." Hiro put his hands on both the Nakamuras' shoulders. "If I know anything about His Lordship, it's that he has a very loving heart, and is infinitely forgiving. I mean, if he didn't really care about us, these BLWs probably wouldn't even exist. He can see into anyone's heart and mind, and know their true intentions. He would know the unfathomable agony that your sister may have experienced, and would be able to see through that misguided rage."

He took out a handkerchief and wiped their teary eyes. "I can honestly say the two of you have nothing to worry about."

It was later in the day when Hiro and Yuka set out for the base of Mount Keystone in Hiro's car.

"You said this other world was called Sector B?" Yuka asked.

"Well, that's what it's referred to when the MPs gather in His Lordship's chamber for our meetings. The souls of Sector B may have their own name for it."

"So does that make us... Sector A?"

"Not really. While our world is the oldest and largest BLW, before the modernized system of world management was implemented, the engineers needed to test it somewhere... so a new, smaller world was created similar to ours, and back then it was just referred to as 'Alpha'. Then a second and third world was created, 'Beta' and 'Gamma', to go through some different tests, including the group summoning by His Lordship. Eventually they came to be known as the different 'Sectors', A, B and C."

"And we're... Sector D then?"

"Yes. Once the infrastructure was perfected, the system was initiated on this world, which became Sector D. The other BLWs were then given their own specialties... Sector A was for middle school kids, Sector B was for high school kids, and Sector C was a special world for fallen soldiers or military veterans who maybe fought in pointless, futile wars, or had some kind of battle-related regrets, and wanted to experience the thrill of victory in combat for once. It's kinda like one big 'Call of Duty' game."

"That last one sounds like fun!"

"Which is why we don't want to let everyone in on what these other worlds are like. It would cause a lot of envious feelings to develop, causing considerable damage to general morale and increasing the negative energy. Not to mention it's not as fun when you can feel the pain of being shot or blown up. Anyway, at some point, the Sector B system got corrupted and became inaccessible to us, even though souls were still showing up there. So Sector A expanded and started taking in more of the high-schoolers, and some time after that, Sector E debuted. Best way I can describe that one in a sanitized manner would be... a 'virgin's paradise', so to speak."

"Let me guess... for all the broken-hearted souls who just wanted to experience love, romance and all that."

"Exactly! As the centuries went on, and more people developed more romantic feelings, and as some of them died with their romantic feelings crushed, there was a spike in negative energy... so Sector E was developed, for adults only, so those urges could be satisfied before the soul passes on. Don't ask me for any more details."

"Wow... God's got all that down to a science!"

"Yep... the afterlife is more sophisticated than you think."

The two emerged from Hiro's car and stood at the gate marked with a weathered sign saying No Entry, Trespassers Will Be Obliterated.

Hiro walked up to the heavily fortified lock on the gate and let out a small sigh. "If only that MP would've remembered to tell someone how to gain access to the Mount Keystone arsenal before he jumped off the Cliff of Rebirth."

"Just that would have prevented this whole mess?" Yuka asked.

"Indeed. One of these days we'll get to the bottom of why all this is in place. But for now we gotta pin our hopes on the code-cracking team."

"Just how powerful IS this arsenal?" Yuka wondered aloud as he walked along the fence. Finding a spot to climb, he jumped and grappled his way up and over.

"Yuka? I hope you know what you're doing!" Hiro called out.

"I'm just gonna see if there's any reaction, and if so, how fast it is!" Yuka ran back to the other side of the gate and started up the main road.

He turned around to face Hiro. "Hey, so far so good! Maybe this won't be so hard as we..."

An explosion from a missile violently interrupted Yuka's last statement.

Hiro stared disdainfully at the remains of his student, shook his head and returned to his car. Now, where's the closest clinic...