Chapter IV: The Rabbit Hole of Conspiracy
The school computers helped a little.
But not a lot.
Not nearly enough.
Issei sat in a chair and stared at the screen, then dropped his head into his hands and let out a long sigh.
His phone vibrated and he glanced down at the screen.
[Is there something wrong?]
"...There's a lot more than I thought there was."
His worst suspicions hadn't even come close to scratching the surface of what any of this was about and that was just the first page of one guy. Apparently there were so many of them that it was measured in the dozens.
Dozens.
With pages and pages of info about them and not all of it was covered on Wikipedia, instead it was leading him to more books that were filled with even more stuff and half of it sounded like it wouldn't be out of place pulled from an anime or a manga.
At least he realised why so many of them referenced these guys.
Because apparently it wasn't half as crazy as what was actually written down.
And yikes.
Did Jason really strike out on every bad end possible until he died.
The dude really bottled it hard.
[There is?]
Issei sighed again.
This was something else.
"Yeah." Issei said out loud, though he wasn't sure where to begin. "There's so much here…pages and pages of this stuff and all of it is crazy. Like this guy who gave birth to someone out of his leg? What the hell is up with that? That's actually so freaky."
[They created another life form by using parts from themselves? Is that strange?]
Issei happened to look down just as the message came through, then double taked at the sight of it.
Looking at the words, he opened and closed his mouth several times before responding.
"Yeah. Little bit."
[Oh. I understand.]
He wasn't sure they did but okay.
Back to the matter at hand and the litany of information that he had at his fingertips without knowing where to start, he wasn't entirely sure if he was actually going to get all that much done at the moment. Especially not within school because this felt as though it would eat up hours and hours of time by himself.
He leaned back and tilted his head, then glanced down at the phone for a couple seconds before a thought occurred to him.
"Can you…like…download stuff from the internet?"
[It is a network database, so it would be simple for me to access it.]
Highwire said, Issei felt his mood rise rather swiftly.
Only for the next sentence to send it plummeting back down.
[But the history and mythology of earth is not known to me, so I would be unable to refine my downloads and would simply intake everything with the related keywords. As you have said, they are referenced in other works which are fictional. It would be really troublesome.]
With a groan, he rubbed his brows and spied the next message coming through.
[Sorry.]
"Not your fault." Issei replied. "Guess we're both sort of in the dark with this at the moment…"
[Are there any researchers that could be consulted?]
Issei laughed, then remembered he was in the library and quickly muffled his voice, glancing about to make sure no one was watching him before he ducked back down and whispered to the phone.
"Researchers? Yeah, crazy people who talk about crop circles. Most of the guys who talk about aliens are going on about how they built pyramids and stuff…or abduct people and run experiments on them, sticking probes where probes don't belong."
[So that would also be a no-go?]
Issei was going to answer that, then stopped and thought about it for a couple of seconds.
Immediately dismissing it wasn't actually the only option and while he did not think there were many people who actually knew about what he was looking for, there was a chance that some people actually had met some of Highwire's people, if not in the present than definitely in the past.
That was the sort of thing that would stick out.
Arms folded, he narrowed his eyes and hummed.
[Hyoudou? Is everything alright?]
"Yeah." He murmured. "Just thinking…"
If he could narrow down what he was looking for then it would help and the sort of thing that was really distinct was the plate he had found which had Highwire in it. The weird garden looking decoration.
Leaning forwards, he whispered again.
"Do all you guys hatch from those weird glass tablets?"
[Our Hibernation panels? Only those of us who required immediate storage. Myself and my comrades were among the last to enter hibernation after putting the ship on autopilot. Are you going to use that as a method of refining the search?]
He nodded his head.
Then realised it was a phone.
"Yeah." He said, "If anyone found those panels, even if the guys in them didn't spring out, then someone would probably keep them? They'd look pretty valuable and some rich guy from a thousand years ago might have it as some sort of ornament for their house…did they all have those big symbols?"
[The emblem of the Minicons.]
Minicons?
"Is that what you guys are called?"
[Did I not say? I apologise, yes. My people are called Minicons.]
They didn't seem that small to him.
…
"...Are there bigcons too?"
[There are, yes. They are much larger than myself and my comrades.]
Well.
Apparently there were also giant alien robots too.
That was somehow less absurd to him.
But it wasn't the big guys he was looking for right now, it was the little but not really little guys.
"Anyway, the minicons…they all had that symbol? It might crop up in some different places then."
[I believe that you are right!]
It was easy to imagine Highwire's excited chirping, especially as it hummed through the phone and forced him to turn the volume right the way down as it suddenly spilled through. He winced and raised his head once more, glancing around and leaning off to the side, biting his lower lip at the lack of anyone nearby.
Alright, he was still in the clear.
[We have our first lead, Hyoudou!]
"You can just call me Issei."
[Very well, Issei.]
He felt a smile spill over his lips.
Not just because he was sure their brainstorming session had just cut down a massive workload, but also because it felt as though he'd actually made some pretty solid progress here too.
That being said…
Well, he'd see how it worked out.
The moment the bell rang for home time, Issei was quick to his feet with his mind already aflutter with the ideas which had been brewing in his head.
Now that he and Highwire had a lead, he could get home and on his computer.
With the little symbol still on Highwire's side, he could probably search it up and see if it appeared in anything else and then from there track back other stuff. Though perhaps it might also be worth going back to that hill where he had found Highwire in the first place.
Then again, apparently Highwire thought his pals were under the hill as well.
That sounded like the sort of thing that would definitely take some time.
Halfway down the steps, his phone vibrated ever so slightly with the distinct hum of Highwire's voice, Issei furrowed his brows and quickly fished it out. They were probably curious how long he had left in school, he figured. So they would definitely be relieved to hear about how he was getting ready to-
Issei's thoughts trailed off as he stared at the screen and the bewildering text.
[There is an individual examining me.]
"...What?" He muttered under his breath, then kept on walking straight ahead and held the phone up closer to him. Conscious of the rows of other students who were walking beside him as everyone started to make their way back home.
He moved off to the side for a short moment and spoke again.
"Someone is what?"
[There is another organic in close proximity to me. They are examining me with a strange intensity…I believe they are performing some manner of pheromone analysis upon me.]
Phere-what?
"They're doing what?"
[They are smelling me.]
Issei lowered the phone down and stared straight ahead.
Then he looked back at the screen for a couple seconds before lowering it again and rubbing his brows.
Someone was smelling his bike?
…
"...A boy or girl?"
[I believe they are female.]
A girl was sniffing his bike.
Well, they were sniffing Highwire, but as far as everyone else knew, it was his bike.
Did Highwire smell nice or something?
Issei pinched his brows and quickly shook that thought away from his head as he walked away from the side of the halls and back into the flow of students.
Though the second a couple caught sight of who was walking beside them, the gap between them all quickly opened up rather clearly.
He slumped a bit at that.
He was fairly certain most of those girls were in his class too, but nevermind that.
A girl was sniffing his bike for some reason.
…
"Damn. I didn't know we had people like that in school."
[Is this a normal custom among humans?]
"Eh, depends." Issei replied and moved the phone to his ear, pretending as though he was having a conversation just to avoid being looked at strangely. He hurried his steps along a fair bit until he was moving into a jog.
It helped that the phone hummed as though Highwire was talking through it.
So it sort of was like a phone call, in a way.
"Some people are big on smells. Not the weirdest fetish out there, to be honest, and some of the girls in school have this nice shampoo."
Naturally that comment didn't pass without someone overhearing it.
Or rather, a lot of someones.
"He smells me!?"
"Oh no!"
"I'm changing my shampoo immediately and burning it!"
Issei tuned out the sudden voices and focused more on the conversation.
Even if he felt the stab of each word.
Highwire hummed through the phone, a distinct sense of bemused understanding.
"What do they look like?"
A faster chirping, followed by a pause.
Issei stopped walking then and there.
That description was without a doubt one of the juniors.
Probably one of the more famous juniors at that, but he was left at a loss as to why, exactly, she was doing that.
Not that he was going to complain.
But still, he needed to see this with his own eyes.
Hurrying along at a near sprint, Issei pushed through the crowds of students one after another - avoiding them as best he could - and throwing himself down the steps two or three at a time, sliding to a halt and whirling around to finish the final descent as he crashed to the ground and took off in a sprint as fast as his legs could carry him.
"I'm on my way now!"
Highwire gave a sudden alarmed chirp.
"Huh? No, no danger. I just need to see this!"
Throwing himself out of the doors, he immediately ran off towards the bike sheds.
He could not be this lucky, surely.
Surely it was not possible.
But then how could Highwire make such a mistake as this?
It didn't make sense to him.
Highwire chirped some more.
It sounded like she was aware the other students were coming, rather he was speaking as though she had suddenly become more alert. Issei pushed himself all the harder until his legs were burning…
…He hadn't even run that far.
A final stretch.
He rounded the corner and whipped his head around to face the bikes.
Sure enough, it was her without a doubt.
Koneko Toujou.
His white haired junior.
Standing right next to his bike and staring at it with narrowed eyes, and yet the second he had rounded the corner, she took a large step away from it and turned her head around to stare right at him.
The two of them were engaged in a silent contest with one another.
Then Issei quickly straightened himself out and took in a breath, opening his mouth to speak.
"Huhfhg."
And managed little more than a gasping wheeze as he staggered forwards, dropping a hand onto his knee and keeping himself up.
Wow.
This was embarrassing.
"Were…" another wheeze, he sucked in a lungful of breath and stood up straight. "Were you just sniffing my bike?"
Koneko looked at him for a few moments.
Then her face curled in a new found sense of disgust, represented by a downward tilt of her lips and a slight narrowing of her eyes.
It was actually the most emotion he had ever seen on her face.
"Pervert."
She said, as if she hadn't been the one sniffing his bike.
Issei folded his arms and stared at her for a couple of seconds.
"You can admit it, you know." He said and shrugged, "Not like I'm one to judge. Perfectly normal."
Koneko took another step away from his bike, sending a fleeting look at it before back to him.
"Yours?"
She asked for a moment, he nodded his head.
"...Thought it smelled like pervert."
Issei snapped his finger and pointed, grinning.
"Ah-ha! So you were sniffing it!"
Koneko blinked very slowly at him, then looked at him in a way he was familiar with.
Mild disgust.
Taking another step away, she turned her back on him and then walked off without saying anything.
Issei raised his voice as she walked off.
"You're allowed to have a fetish for smells! It's perfectly fine! I'd be fine with smelling you!"
Koneko sent another long look over her shoulder at him.
Her eyes broke away from his and then to something behind him, Issei blinked at that and turned around very slowly and looked over his shoulder.
"Ah."
Right.
There were other people who took bikes to school.
A dozen faces stared back at him with a wide variety of reactions.
Most were disgusted.
One or two were revolted.
And he was pretty sure that girl in the back was angry-
"Hey, aren't you in the Kendo club-?"
Getting punched in the face a half second later with the cry of pervert was the answer to his question.
Followed by further warnings to never go near the juniors again.
They didn't want to listen to his defence of the fact Koneko had definitely sniffed Highwire.
Or they didn't believe him.
Which was really unfair.
Highwire had been quiet on the ride home.
But Issei could tell they wanted to talk a bit.
That hadn't been the best display in the world, he supposed, but it wasn't the worst it had ever been.
The lone punch to the face had been it, though it was mostly a lot of shouting.
The second he was back home, he was off Highwire and walking to the front door-
A grinding of gears caught his hearing and he turned just in time to see Highwire shift back into his robot mode, his immediate thoughts of them being spotted were cut short when the bot all but bundled him into the house faster than he thought possible and then he was being dragged up the stairs towards his room.
Without even the chance to take off his shoes.
Pushed through into his bedroom, Issei blinked and turned about as Highwire closed the door and turned back to face him, stepping forwards and then looking him in the eye, or rather briefly doing that.
It was clear where their attention shifted.
A saddened beep escaped them.
Issei waved his hand. "This? It's fine. Come tomorrow and it'll be gone."
Further beeps followed, Highwire shook his head.
"You can't do that." Issei hastily added in, then sighed and rubbed his hand over his unbruised part of his face. "Look, it's fine. It happens most days and is normally worse than this. It's not like I don't get why they get mad at me…most of the time I'd probably deserve it as well."
Highwire looked at him for a moment, head tilted.
Issei furrowed his brows at the following inquisitive and alarmed beeps that followed.
"Uhm…human thing."
Sad beeps.
"Violent? Well, I guess? To be honest, I've never really thought about it all that much once things kick off. I normally just wait until they get tired and then go about their business. They get satisfied really easily."
Highwire pointed at him and beeped some more.
"...I don't think anyone would have believed me."
The beeping got louder, Issei held up his hands.
"It's not like my word is worth all that much and-look…it's done, alright? Don't worry about it."
Highwire slumped their shoulders, slower and more somber beepings came next which had Issei wincing.
Yeesh, they were really making it hard to explain all this.
"Thanks for worrying." Issei said slowly, dropping his hands back down. "But really, it's fine."
Still looking at him, the minicon reached out and then poked his bruised cheek very gently and earned a wince from him. Highwire drew back their hand like it had been burned and was now staring at him rather intensely.
Issei was rather put off by the sudden intensity, followed only by a single beep.
"Fragile? Well…I guess?" He replied to the statement. "It's not like I have metal skin like some people."
They were still staring at him.
Well, it was just how it was.
But saying that felt like they were going to get the wrong idea about what his school life was like.
It wasn't as though he didn't have friends and was particularly unhappy about anything.
He didn't really mind it.
"Nevermind all that."
Issei moved for his computer, putting his shoes off and setting them off to the side for the time being. He'd deal with all of that later.
"We can finally go looking for that symbol of yours and seeing if anything crops up."
Highwire was a bit slow on the uptake, then eventually gave an affirming series of beeps as they walked up behind him and stared down at the computer.
Though, the fact of the matter was, that the second Issei opened up his browser, he suddenly stopped and leaned back ever so slightly. Turning around and glancing at at the side of Highwire's body for a couple seconds and eyeing the symbol, then turning back and tapping away at the keys.
Hitting the search and leaning back.
Switching across to images, the pair of them stared at the litany of pictures that now flashed up.
And absolutely none of them were what he was after in the least.
A lot of them just looked like weird squiggles.
He drummed his upper arms and tilted his head ever so slightly to the side, then started to scroll through row after row of pictures.
Highwire chirped behind him.
"Yeah, more than I thought as well." He murmured in agreement. "...That has got to be a made up word, surely. Lemurian-what have monkeys got to do with any of this? Weird…whatever, so this looks like it's just going to throw literally every damn symbol that has ever existed at my face here."
Further chirps from behind as Highwire offered up his own thoughts.
Issei turned and tilted his head as he mulled over the suggestion.
"...I guess that could work? But it might take a while and some of these guys online can be real weirdos but…sure, I guess."
He glanced back and turned on the paint program.
It was a rough line drawn image of the minicon symbol, but it was fast to draw up because of how easy it was.
The process was relatively quick, but it was the matter of finding multiple history forums where this sort of thing was discussed.
And it wasn't like he could just come out and say 'Hey? Has this symbol ever been linked with robot men before?' because that would be crazy.
But through the ease of the internet, he was able to find and upload the image with the simple question.
Has this symbol ever appeared before?
And with that, he just leaned back and stared at the screen.
And stared.
Then stared some more.
Then spun in his chair and glanced at his clock, then up to Highwire.
Chirping a few times and gesturing to the screen, Issei shrugged his shoulders.
"This is online stuff, so who can say? They might just ignore me to be honest…"
Highwire slumped a little at that.
"Hey, not like we're out of options." Pointing out, Issei waved his hand. "There is still the hill where I found you. You said it might be where your ship is, right? So we can go back and at least have a quick look to see if any of your other friends fell out like you did."
With a more upbeat chirping, Highwire perked up and nodded their head.
Issei smiled at the enthusiasm.
"And while we're waiting for that…"
Standing up, he walked across his room and towards the vast collection of items he had available, fingers dancing across them and eyes narrowed.
"...We can find some way to pass the time."
Highwire let out an inquisitive beeping.
Issei only smiled. "It's fine. This is essential stuff for you, pal. Basically the very best that humans have ever made. Trust me. This is the greatest culture."
Further beeps of bewilderment and now some deeper intrigue.
A glance in the direction of the minicon revealed they had taken a couple steps towards him, all while their eyes were fixed on the shelves of games.
Issei stopped, took one, and then whipped it out.
For a beginner, it was perfect.
Holding forth his prize and grinning.
"Games."
Holding up the first game, he grinned.
"A pretty new one that came out, but the characters are solid and the gameplay is pretty addicting. Also it hits up on pretty much all the best character designs including Milf-kitsune woman."
Highwire tilted their head and beeped perplexed.
"You'll figure out as you play."
Issei reassured as he strode back to his computer and minimized the old window.
"The entire premise is that you're a…well? I guess you're some sort of inventor? Well, the official title of your job is being an alchemist, so you make potions to sell to people or use yourself when you go dungeon diving."
He stopped for a moment, then grinned.
"But the real kicker is the girls."
Highwire beeped some more.
"Wha-? They are super important!" Issei defended, then shook his head and felt a great swell of pity. "I guess you wouldn't know and…well…because of being a robot and all but there is a lot of value in these types of games. They are super popular and let you live out the best fantasies! Hot elf lady or Tsundere warrior type!"
Highwire only shrugged their shoulders.
"Meh, you'll see as we play."
Issei was certain this was the best thing he was ever going to do.
Period.
