Chapter 31

“See the way I dance my feet.”

Val said as Denzo watched her beat his best lap time at the modded “Attack 8” game machine underneath Little Edgar’s. Every day for the past week this was how Denzo spends most of his school breaks, whether it be recess or lunch time he goes straight to the basement of the student council offices just to drive, with the exception of today as for some reason Val was there hanging about during this particular lunch break.

‘Why are you here again?’ He asked, annoyed that she was taking away his precious “play time” as he only had thirty minutes left of his lunch break.

‘Oh yeah I almost forgot.’ She replied as she stood up from the machine. ‘We’re not opening this week so don’t bother coming to champworld for now.’

‘Oh yeah, it kinda wasn’t ready yet right?’

‘Wrong.’

Val replied swiftly, startling Denzo.

‘Some stupid kids broke in and thrashed the place.’ She said whilst gritting her teeth. ‘It was a good thing J2 kept his wits about and locked the garage or else we could be set back even further than what we are now.’

‘What?!’ He exclaimed, shocked by her revelation. ‘What did they do?!’

‘The asphalt was still loose, which was why I wanted an early opening so that the track could get “run-in” to compact the stuff but since it wasn’t, they easily tore apart the asphalt with a bunch of hammers and crowbars.’

‘Fuck…’

‘So now we’re left with no track.’ She said with a sigh. ‘But it’s not the end of the world. It’s a minor setback at worst, since it’s easy to repave the asphalt but it would still set us back a week or two.’

‘So I can come back next week then?’ He asked.

‘Not sure, but that doesn’t mean your employment get’s delayed as well.’

‘What? But what can I do?’ He asked, confused.

‘One more reason why I’m here....’ Val said while pulling a piece of paper from her pocket.

‘What’s this?’ Denzo asked as he curiously opened the piece of paper that was given to him.

‘Instructions on how to install a twin turbo charger. I want you to study it. “Thoroughly”

Val sternly advised.

Denzo looked at the diagrams and graphs that are printed on the paper. At first the instructions seemed confusing, but the more he stared at it the more it made sense. Before long he was immersed at how the various parts worked that he didn’t notice the bell ring, startling him when it finally did.

As he broke out of his trance to shift his eyes away from the paper, he noticed that Val had left.

For the last few minutes of lunchtime. He was alone, and he had lost the chance to get a single play session in. Which made him angry for some reason, as he stomped his feet out of the room and begrudgingly made his way back to his next class.

…

…

‘Neil!’

‘Oh hey…’

Pai had jumped from his seat as Neil appeared from the bottom of the bleachers overlooking the swimming pool. The class was already halfway in and for Neil this was his first class of the day. For the past month Neil had been going to school for only half a day. It turns out that he got a special permission from the school’s principal to allow him to attend only half of the school’s regular hours for some unknown reason. There was some gossip that Yukino had some influence in this deal but for Pai none of those mattered, as this was one of the few rare times in the week where he got to hang out with him.

As per the new usual Neil sits besides Pai and takes out his smartphone as they both talk about the new character that came out that week in the “gatcha” game he was playing.

This game was purely out of Pai’s suggestion and he was reluctant at first when Pai suggested it to him while they discussed their cultured tastes in shows and waifu preferences. It was a game where you are incentivised to pay a set sum of cash to grant you privileges in the daily character roulette, with the game releasing a new character per week. Of course the game has some good quality gameplay and a well made open world map but Neil couldn’t shake the signs that the game was primarily designed for you to spend on it’s “roulette” or “gatcha” system as they tailor make the characters designs to target the “cultured” crowd.

It was a disgusting scam for extorting money from desperate otaku virgins as Neil had put it.

But after Pai’s desperate pleas and the continuous flow of curvy 2D catgirls, Neil eventually gave in. And so far he had sunk a total of ($200) ten thousand pesos in it.

‘I’ve been whaling last night, so I've finally gotten the full set of beastgirls in my roster.’ Neil said as Pai drools in envy seeing his full roster of Catgirls and Dogladies on his account as Pai felt infinitely inferior to share his single character gain in his phone.

‘Come on Pai, you’re becoming a recluse again. Show me what you got!’ Neil demands as he leans over to try and steal Pai’s phone from his grasp. ‘Come on Pai! You’re such a fucking pee boy!’

‘What?’

Pai froze and lost all strength in his body as Neil snatched his phone from his cold dead hand. All of a sudden he felt his body shiver as cold sweat trickled from his forehead as he looked at Neil with great fear in his eyes.

‘Neil?’

‘What?’ He said as he looked at Pai, seeing him looking paler than usual. ‘You looked like you’ve seen a ghost Pai. What the fuck?’

‘How’d you know?’ Pai whispered.

‘Know what?!’ Neil replied with an annoyed tone making Pai cower in shock. ‘Oohhh so you invested in the Mage girls huh? Nice choice. How much did you spent on--’

Neil stopped as he looked at Pai. For some odd reason he was shivering and his expression looked like he was on the verge of tears. His eyes had a thousand yard stare that looked straight at Neil and beyond, which deeply disturbed him.

‘Pai? What’s wrong?’ Neil calmly asked as he reached out his hand to him. Pai slaps it away.

‘How did you know?...’ He repeats the question again.

‘Know what?’

‘What you called me…’

‘What?’

‘You… you called me…’

‘What? Simpy Boy? Why? You hate that word?’ Neil said with a confused look.

‘Wait… Simpy boy?’ Pai asked as his nerves started to calm down.

‘Well if you don’t like being called a simp then you better stop acting like one.’ Neil said with a raised eyebrow as he hands out Pai’s phone back to him, to which Pai takes, slowly, looking dazed and confused as he tries to comprehend the situation.

It took him a second before he could snap back into the reality that he was in.

‘Oh… yeah.. Simp… hah… sorry…’

‘You’re weird again… in a bad way kinda weird…’ Neil said as he went back to playing the game on his phone. ‘You know ever since I started my half day sched you’ve been spending time with the girls more often.’ He added. Pai felt a faint irritation in his voice.

‘You should hang out with other guys more… do guy things… those girls are making you act weird around me…’

‘Hey! No. I’m not acting weird! Okay?’ Pai quickly replies as he just realized what Neil meant. ‘You’re my friend Neil okay? Nothing’s gonna change that! No amount of girls would change that! Okay?’

Neil sighs and makes a tiny smiling crease with his lips as he looks back at Pai with a testing stare.

‘You sure about that?’

‘I’m sure!’

‘Cool…’

…

‘You owe me lunch for the next month.’

‘What?’

Pai’s face had turned from one of conviction to one of doubt after hearing what Neil had to say.

‘But… I can’t afford lunch for the both of us…’

‘I thought you’d be my friend no matter what?’ Neil said wearing the look of someone betrayed.

‘Y-yes you are… but… I… I’ll.’

‘If you can’t promise me something small as free lunch, how can we be friends when hard times come by?’

Pai suddenly had thrown himself in a frenzy of guilt and anxiety. Just before he had put both feet into the black hole of depression, Neil hung his arm on his shoulders and sucker punched him.

‘Kidding!’

And at that moment a momentous cloud of air exhaled from Pai’s lungs as he breathed a huge sigh of relief. Deep in his thoughts, he was really feeling anxious trying to find a way to feed Neil for the next month.

‘Seriously Pai you gotta stop overthinking man.’ Neil chuckled. ‘Did you forget already that I came to school past lunch time?’

‘Oh… Yeahh…’ Pai replied, realizing how dumb his thoughts were as Neil just laughs at his inability to not overthink things. Neil was letting Pai wallow in embarrassment when a high pitch screech was overheard from the changing area, followed by all of the girls in the swimming class running out in panic as the female teachers rushed to assess what had happened.

…

…

The doorbell rings.

‘Oh…’

‘Whaddya mean oh?’ A blonde haired woman raised her brow at the unsuspecting detective as she glanced down to see him clutching a bottle of whisky and some snacks which lightened up her mood. ‘Aww you didn’t have to, Bert how sweet.’

‘It’s not for you Miles...’ Bert said

‘No? Shame…’ Miles said as she crossed her arms, staring intently at Bert who was starting to look impatient at the door.

‘So… are you gonna let me in?’

‘Are you gonna share the booze?’ She replies back with a sly smile. Bert just rolls his eyes and sighs.

‘Fine… where’s Lando by the way?’

‘Out… groceries.’

Bert was surprised. ‘Really? You got him to do chores?’ He asked.

‘Why? Doesn’t he do it usually?’

‘Him? Nah--’

‘I’m back!’ Lando butts in, shoving Bert who was standing just beyond the doorway, cutting off his answer and startling him at the same time. Miles on the other hand just chuckles at the sight of two old men tripping each other in front of her.

For the first time in their whole history, this was the first time Bert had seen Lando bring home full groceries. Usually it would be solely alcohol or junk food but now he can see that he went all out shopping with the items he had brought back. It is almost the same as the ones he and his wife would buy for their home.

‘Wow…’ Bert said. It was all he could utter while he tried to get his mind around what was happening.

‘What? She’s cooking. Ya know how long it’s been since I ate a home cooked meal?’

‘Two days ago…’ Miles shot back.

‘Exactly!’ He answered, then paused before the words registered in his mind. ‘Hey!’

Miles just shrugged as she took out the groceries from the bag.

The strange woman known as Miles Kadena had been staying with Lando for a week now and ever since she had shown up, the investigation on the raids had slowed down a notch, and Bert was beginning to see her as a bad influence on Lando. Although she declared she had some clues about the raids that might help them, they still are awaiting the fruits of her intel.

‘Why are you even here again?’ Lando asked Bert.

‘What? I should be asking your new girlfriend that!’ Bert replied with a stingy tone.

‘Jealous?’

‘Miles…’ Lando cuts in, after seeing Bert’s mood change.

‘Just so you know I’m here cuz I got the results on the torn exo suit Miles confiscated.’

‘Where did you get the results?’ Miles asked suspiciously.

‘I have a contact outside of the bureau so don’t worry. We all know we can’t trust even the authorities now…’ Bert replies as he pulls out his tablet and plugs it into the projector.

‘Project Skin, the latest and greatest military weapon ever created is a goddamn shield.’ He said as the projected hologram is projected mid air in the middle of the room.

‘Carbon nanotubes, muscular structure, blah blah blah… ah there it is.’

‘Whatcha lookin for Miles?’ Lando asked.

‘The CTAP of the suit…’

‘See what?’

‘Cyberware - Technician’s - Authorized - Paperlog. Basically a log book on who made what on the suit. You can’t just open this without dismantling the OS and getting into the bios of the suit.’ Miles said as she scrolls through the names and dates on the hologram. ‘You know some talented people Bert. I’m impressed.’ Miles continues as Bert just shrugs and pours himself a glass of whiskey.

‘Well fuck me…’ She gasps as she zooms in on a name and date log on the file.

-YNI CRBN- 081054-

‘Why what does it mean?’ Lando asked while he curiously looked at the data in front of him.

‘The code spells itself, Yuni Carbine had touched this suit a little over two weeks ago.’

The two men fell silent, they knew very well how big the case had just gone after hearing the name. Miles had reported that she had caught an old training batchmate guarding one of the warehouses down at Batangas port. Her old batchmate of hers was in the middle of a fiery fistfight with two other people who happened to be Lando’s accomplices and she bought the both of them time to escape safely by holding the man and exosuit with her until his implants would lose track of them. She was curious that he was having difficulty with the fight as he was usually the better fighter between them two and two unarmed women were effectively slowing him down. That’s when she noticed his suit.

‘I knew something was off when I saw him that night.’ She said as she sat back on the sofa, crossed arms and deep in thought.

‘Why whatchu saw?’ Bert asked.

‘Those girl’s should’ve been dead that day but the moment I got there, the two of them were holding their own against him. So I decided to sit back a bit and observe.’

‘They could’ve died?!’ Bert exclaims. ‘And you just sat back?!’

‘As I said, they were doing well… too well… anywho he was slow and that only meant one thing. His suit was having correlation issues. So I took it back, hoping one of you might get me an answer and voila, big puzzle piece right here.’

‘So you’re saying that this whole raid thing and the cyborg’s in the police locker were all masterminded by the head of Carbine himself?’Lando asked as he reached for the bottle of whiskey.

‘Not just, it’s weird actually if you think about it.’ Miles said, still deep in thought.

‘Why weird?’ Asked Bert.

‘Well the company itself is not run with a single figurehead. Yuni just appears on TV more often since his company is the one producing more stuff each year.

I mean just to spell it out to both of you, Carbine is ruled by four figureheads in four company sectors:

First : Unilateral Life Carbine ‘Yuni’ The eldest of the four is the CEO of CAMDev.

CArbine Micro Devices, third largest manufacturer of computer hardware and softwares. Direct competitors of Intel and AMD when it comes to computers.

Second: Bilateral Life Carbine ‘Villa’ The 2nd child and is the CEO of Carbine Robotics

Third: Trilateral Life Carbine ‘Trig’ The 3rd child and the CEO of Carbine Automotive, Direct competition of Tesla and Audi when it comes to battery powered vehicles.

Fourth: Polylateral Life Carbine ‘Poly’ The 4th child and is the CEO of Carbine Atlantic an Advertising firm for the whole company.

Can you guess which of the four you’re actually up against?’

Lando and Bert both paused for a moment as they tried to digest the plethora of information Miles had just given them, which made her roll her eyes as she saw an imaginary loading screen appear on top of their foreheads.

‘Villa and Trig?’ Lando answers.

‘Yes!’ Miles claps in joy after finally hearing his answer after an eternity of waiting. Grabbing his head and kissing him on his cheek, which made Bert wince in disgust.

‘So the big question here is why is Yuni involved?’ Bert said, loudly, breaking up the lovey dovey mood between the two.

‘I believe so.’ Answered Miles. ‘Though one can say that Yuni also provides the silicon for the robotics program but the final say would always be on Villa. And none of them can tell each other what to do with their respective sectors. All one can do is to assist and that is all.’

‘But what if Villa asked Yuni to tamper with the suit?’ Asked Bert.

‘No can do. Agents from the eight - two program have strict hiring conditions. If it’s not for the direct benefit of the buyer then there is no contract. It is done for accountability if said contract had led into a large scale accident or worse, war.’

‘Wait let’s roll back here for a moment.’ Lando interjects. ‘What does this have to do with our first lead? Kawabata Aisha? Remember? It’s what got you running here in the first place.’

Bert just stares on as Lando asks Miles an interesting question. Miles on the other hand looked stumped for a moment, before her eyes lit up like a child on christmas morning.

‘I’m not really sure but I suggest you call your contacts again Lando. You’d be surprised at what secrets they hold.’ Miles replies with a flirty smile and a wink. ‘And while you’re at it I also suggest you find out when the next race is gonna be.’ She adds, as she gets up from her seat and into the pantry.

‘The bulls are about to butt heads anytime soon boys. So… Lasagna or Katsudon?’ Miles asked while holding a pack of lasagna noodles on one hand and frozen pork chops on another as the two detectives looked at each other before firing their answers simultaneously, sadly no consensus was achieved.

…

…

‘Good afternoon.

This is professor Johann Arcillia, your school Principal, speaking.

Today at 1:45pm I am declaring a suspension of classes due to a safety concern at the school swimming pool area.

I advise all students to assemble at the main atrium and await further instructions.

Please follow your class representatives or your current class teacher to the assembly area.

Anyone caught outside of the assembly area during this period will be charged with gallivanting during school hours and will be punished accordingly.

Once again this is your Principal speaking and I hope everyone, students and teachers alike, will comply.

This is not a drill.

Thank you and be safe.’

The message repeats over and over on the P.A system as the lines of students march from their classrooms towards the main atrium at the middle of the school. The class affected by the incident were already formed up in the middle of the atrium a mere half hour before the declaration was aired.

It was the swimming class that Pai was attending.

Around him were Neil, Casper, Julian and the rest of the boys who were with him on the bleachers. In a separate line were the girls of the class.

The teachers who were guiding them were adamant on the fact that the genders must be divided as the incident had called for it. The all girls line was a clear two feet away from the boys, as Nica, Aida and their other female classmates huddled together looking nervously at their surroundings.

One of their classmates, a girl, was missing.

She was taken to the principal’s office, looking distraught and afraid.

It took the female teachers quite some time to calm her down as she was hysterical back at the pool’s changing area where she caused a scene.

At first the boys were clueless about what was happening but they quickly found out afterwards as Aida came running out cursing at the boys bleachers, telling them it was their fault that it was happening again. And with those words, everybody understood.

The videotaping pervert had returned once more.

‘You just can’t fucking trust those fucking boys!’ Aida shouted from her spot in the line as one of the teachers shushed her from afar. Nica tried to calm her down but Aida was fuming.

‘Aida we didn’t know… calm down…’ Casper said, afraid that Aida might come lunging at them and beat them up. But his plea only fed the flames.

‘This? You don’t fucking know this?!’ She shouts as she raises her phone showing a hidden camera footage of their female classmate, changing into her school swimming attire.

‘One of you assholes sent this to us! Only to the girls! Right after we have changed!

This is a fucking message!

Somebody in your disgusting gender is out to cause harm! And fuck you all for that!’

‘Quiet Miss Murai! Or you’ll be sent to detention!’ One of the female teachers shouts while glaring at Aida. Defusing her temper.

‘Pai I’m scared…’ Casper whispers. ‘She’s gonna come find me after school and tear my balls away…’

‘Nobody’s tearing anyone’s balls away Casper…’ Julian interrupts while his eyes are still glued to his phone, playing the same gatcha game that Pai was playing. ‘Just look at the bright side. We might be looking at another week without school.’

Aida quickly hears this as she quickly scours her bag for something sharp. She found a small box cutter inside her pencil case and winds her arm back for a throw, aiming the object at Julian’s face.

‘Aida…’ Nica quickly grabs her wrist before she could launch the blade at him. ‘Calm down…’

She quickly pivots to face Nica, grabbing her uniform by the collar, contemplating whether or not to slap her or stab her with the blade.

‘What would Denzo think?’ Nica whispered.

After hearing those words she swiftly looks around as another class parks their line beside them. In it were Pete and Denzo, looking confused and clueless at what was happening.

Seeing Denzo appear made her stop resisting Nica’s grip, as she calms down and takes a deep breath. A few moments later she sees Yukino approaching, she was in the same class as Denzo and Pete and she was making her way straight towards Aida.

‘So it happened again.’ Yukino said with a heavy tone in her voice.

‘Yes… and it’s worse.’ Aida replied.

‘Worse? How?’ Nica asked after hearing Aida’s alarming revelation.

‘Nica, this has happened before.’ Yukino replied. ‘But unlike before where the incident was discovered by accident, this was purely intentional.

Whoever is the perpetrator of this “clearly” wanted to be noticed.’

Those words sent a bolt of fear deep into Nica’s mind. When everything was going haywire inside the changing room, Nica didn’t feel a sense of danger or urgency as she just followed the teacher’s instructions to evacuate, calmly and level headed. Her being a direct victim of the raids, made her think that the incident had numbed her nerves, but hearing that someone was intentionally going out of their way to cause them harm had put things into perspective for her. This has exactly the same kind of intention as the one who caused the raids to happen.

The mindset of watching the world burn.

‘Has anybody seen Tisha?’ Aida asked.

‘Tisha has chemistry today, so they’re probably cleaning up first before getting down here.’ Yukino said.

It would be about another half hour of waiting until all of the student body had been gathered in the assembly area. Once all of the classes have been confirmed, the Principal is summoned as he steps up to the stage with his face being projected on the canvass behind him so that the classes standing in the back row can see and hear him clearly.

‘Good afternoon once again, students and teachers of Saint Rita.

Once again I have heard, and confirmed, of the news that this incident has happened once again.

And although we had reinforced our efforts in preventing this from repeating.

It seems that it was not enough.

As we prepare ourselves in securing this school. I am declaring a--’

The loud gasps of the whole student body had halted the principal’s announcement as behind him, on the canvass where he was being projected at, had changed its video feed.

It was a video feed of a certain student changing into her school swim attire.

The video feed was shut down, just before anything explicit had been shown, but the attention had already been bought.

The student in the video was not the same student that went hysterical inside the swimming pool changing room.

It was a different student.

As a hundred thousand pairs of curious and concerned eyes turned their attention to Nica Robbie.