New Leaf

"I can't help myself but get worried, Louige…we can't get a hold of Ned since 20:30 and Ha-chan's not answering the call too… I wonder if they're all right.." Reiko muttered as he stared at the big screen waiting for something to pop up. Codes flicker of all sorts and black tabs popping on the sides of the monitor. 

The ship lies in wait for the moment they'll get to rescue the participants from the death game happening on the island right in front of them. Reiko and Louige stayed in the captain's cabin, monitoring the activities from their end. The other ship was used to transport the participants from port to port while the other ship, where Reiko's in, came afterward. Numbers and Bureau agents are on standby.

Monitors and servers are installed around the dim room and the atmosphere is similar to the storm brewing around the area. A dark and heavy atmosphere clouded with humidity is striking the whole team as the death game comes to its climax.

"Reiko-sama.." Louige replied. He walked towards the glass door and took a binoculars. "Hachiro can do it. Let's have faith in him." He raised his sight and stared at the flickering lights of the island. "I'm sure they're alright."

"The moment they've entered the island, I've always gotten this eerie feeling. I'm too worried about my son, Louige. I mean, I just can't help it…" Reiko said. "He's just got out of that prison and now he's gotten himself in another hell." He changed his position on his seat and leaned on it, head up, staring at the ceiling. "He always tried to do things on his own, accept things for himself, and he didn't even know how to complain. He's just that kind of an idiot like his mother…"

"Charlie will get mad if she hears that.." Louige managed a silent laugh under his breath. He knew he needed to lighten the burden his father was carrying.

"I know… I just can't help it.." Reiko smiled. "I thought it would be just a battle between my son and that bastard…the others will safely exit the island."

"I thought so as well…but things turned out like this."

"I did anticipate this coming but not immediately... that demon is hitting us very hard."

"What do you mean, Sir?" he lowered his binoculars and stared at Reiko with wary eyes.

"When I came to visit the island last week to sign the team up, I noticed a massive upgrade on the venue which was not in the initial plan of the event. They've installed several servers and routers all around the city more than needed for a regular Convention. Even if it's Scorpio we're talking about, that's just beyond everything.." Reiko said. "That made me think twice.."

"So, they have planned this for a long time now.." he dropped the binoculars. "I can't believe we're being played just under our noses.."

"That's what I guess so.." Reiko bit his lip. "No," he straightened his back and placed his hands together in front of his lips. "I'm sure about it. Anyway, my son managed to avoid a massive number of casualties. That's more than we can thank of."

"Ahh… that's not impossible, Sir.." he picked up the binoculars and placed them on top of the table. He walked towards his desk. "When he provoked that hacker when he showed himself, he cast a wide-ranged firewall to lessen the effect of the apathy."

"All of them could've been knocked out if not because of my son…"

"Though he's just buying them time.. they still need to get there out sooner.. or else" Louige replied. "This is what I sent to him a while ago, Reiko-sama" He showed his tablet to Reiko where codes are imbedded.

EFUM AWRLZ DA BGF IT BWD SIM

"We're ready as soon as you are, huh? This is a new one." Reiko mentioned.

"Hai…we've used another cipher text to encrypt this message"

"It's Vigenere Cypher this time…" Reiko muttered. "Why the change though?"

"It is significantly more secure than a regular Caesar Cipher, sir. In history, it was regularly used for protecting sensitive political and military information. Now, it was referred to as the unbreakable cipher due to the difficulty it posed to the cryptanalysis… though I had a hard time reaching him at that moment. We were able to communicate without bugs."

"He knew the key?"

"Of course, sir. He knew it beforehand...It was his name encoded in numbers 8-1-3-8-9-18-15…"

"Hachiro, huh?" Reiko sighed. "Ja, what did he reply?"

Q LQWF

"He said, I know…"

"Sou desu ka…" Reiko nodded. "De, what's next?"

APXZLW RB TFWAHF

"I told him, Source at Scorpio…"

"Ahh…I'm sure that damn freak is there.."

XPUB VSBM HOQCUY EBLBRFX

"Port make glitch, we're waiting…" Louige muttered. "That's the last thing I've sent him before the game was updated, Sir.."

"I hope he's fine…"

"He replied,

ISLOJLFC

…Arigatou, Sir…" Louige said.

"If only I've got the power to control that place, these things couldn't have happened…" Reiko's face turned gloomy.

"It's not that you wanted this Reiko-sama.."

"I know. But I've got others caught in this problem. It's because my power is not enough to rule over Scorpio that my son has to sacrifice himself again.."

"You know he'd do this to redeem himself as well, Sir…"

"But that's a parent's job…" he stared at his watch. "I know, all of them managed to hold on a pinch." With trouble in his heart, he hit the keys on his keyboard and reviewed the earlier footage. "We've got to see them fight for their lives. From down under.." he showed the footage where Andra and the others escape from a bed of scorpions. "Behind the mountains.." footage from Sandra and the others fight against the baboons. "In the middle of the city…" is another video where Brent and the others fight against the death building with wolves as guards and Hachiro running away from a monster chicken. "But all we did was to watch these things happen."

"Reiko-sama…"

"All I can do is to believe in them, to believe in my son…"

...…

Ned left Dave and Sandra with Hachiro in the tent to watch over their wounded friend as he took Ken and Brent to meet the other participants and talk about things.

"He's pretty asleep now, huh.." Dave sighed and sat nearer to Sandra. "Guess he's not changed a bit since we were kids.."

"Don't mention it." Sandra managed to draw a smile on her face, though her heart felt heavy. "He's been through a lot for this day…and here we are…" Sandra placed a warm towel on his forehead. "I'm glad you don't have to get mad at him now.."

"Of course.." Dave looked away, blushing. "But I have to admit I tried to hate him though I knew he's got reasons for that.."

"Ya right…" She hit the back of his head.

"What was that for??" Dave complained.

"It's just because you're an idiot for not noticing it," Sandra said.

"I doubt you thought of that as well.." Dave threw a chill, rubbing the back of his head.

Sandra froze for a second, she felt guilty. Dave was right, she doubted her friend as well as the others. She almost lost all faith in him when surrounded by people who hated her friend. "At least we knew what was happening. By that, we can think of what we can do now." She managed to say in almost a whispered voice. "We're finally at the same stage."

"But I guess we still have roles to play and—"

"I know it'll be different from him, but the point is, we're here to help him out," Sandra explained.

"Yeah, even if he refuses, we'll have to fight with him."

"If he'll push us away—"

"We'll pull him back.."

"If he'll say terrible things—"

"We won't listen to him."

"If he goes ahead without telling us?"

"We follow him to the ends of the earth."

"No more excuses.." Sandra said.

"No more excuses.." Dave replied.

They met each other's eyes and smiled.

"Brings back memories, huh?" Dave murmured. "Anyway, I don't see any upgrade on this guy yet.." Dave said.

"I didn't notice until you mentioned it.." Sandra removed the towel from his head. "He's not affected by the update yet…"

"He's not changed. Not to mention he's still wearing your school's uniform…" Dave said.

"Ya right…I wonder if that's good or bad…" Sandra squeezed the towel and placed it again on Hachiro's forehead. "Maybe it's got to do with Shichiro on his head."

"I think so, too, Cassy. Anyway, I know he'll be fine."

They unwaveringly waited for their friend to wake up. With the storm outside their tent, and with the wind blowing strong, they patiently waited.

It's been a year since they last saw their friend, he's also in that condition though: worn out and traumatized. All they could do was give him company to lighten the burden on their friend's shoulders.

Sandra's tears kept on falling as she nursed her friend. Dave fell silent as he kept his tears down.

"I wonder when he'll wake up…" Sandra whispered. "It's been 4 hours since he's lost consciousness. I'm starting to get worried."

As if hearing Sandra's words, his eyes twitched. A moment of relief hit Sandra and Dave. A spark of hope came crossing their midst like a candle lit in the dark.

"Did you see that, Dave?" Sandra exclaimed.

"Ahh.." Dave replied, with shock on his face.

Hachiro slowly opened his eyes and breathed deeply until he choked himself and coughed.

Sandra raised his shoulders and made him lean on Dave's leg who was kneeling behind him.

"Are you alright?" she said with a coarse voice. "Marky?" Her eyes were covered with tears.

He coughed again and tried to settle his breathing. His eyes seemed tired and blank.

"Marky?" Dave asked. "Are you with us?" his hands felt cold.

Ehh? I thought I'd heard Dave's voice. Sandra, too. Hachiro thought.

The guy raised his head and saw the faces of his worried fellow. Then, he smiled. I can see them here. Is this real?

"I'm glad you're alright, Marky!" Sandra wrapped her arms around him. "You made us worried, you idiot."

Hearing those words, he realized he'd done something wrong. They don't know it yet. He thought again. His chest tightens.

"I—" he tried to speak but a weak voice came out.

"You don't have to say a word, idiot!" Sandra exclaimed. Her face was buried in his neck. "It was hard right? I know it must have been difficult to shoulder everything alone…"

He felt warm on his shoulder, Tears falling.

"You didn't say anything about it.. how could we possibly know if you won't say a thing?"

"We're not psychics or espers or mind readers, you know…" Dave murmured. "We're your friends, right?"

"What do you mean??" Hachiro felt nervous, confusion piled up on his spine.

"We know the truth.."

The truth? What truth? How? From whom? Did Shi-chan spilled everything? This sounds bad.

"We knew but we didn't do a thing to reach out to you. I'm sorry, Marky, I'm so sorry.." Sandra tightened her hug. "That's all we can say after all this time…I'm so sorry for being a useless friend…"

"We promised not to leave you yet we turned our backs when you needed it the most, I'm sorry Marky…for leaving you all alone all this time. I was not that strong to stand up for you." Dave said.

Hachiro felt the tremble on Dave's leg. He's confused and wary.

"We are not much of use as a friend…" Sandra continued. "We didn't even realize that you needed this much help until we saw you half-alive."

"You guys…" Hachiro whispered. He lowered his head, dropping it on Sandra's shoulder. "I just don't want you to get involved." He said almost in a whisper.

"That's still your pathetic reason," Sandra muttered, her tone seemed nagging him. "Didn't we tell you We're friends."

Hachiro felt a gentle wind on his face, his eyes started to gain back their life.

"No matter what we'll face, as long as we face it together. I'm sure—" Sandra said.

"I'm sure we'll get it all done, right?" Dave continued. "As long as you lean on us. We'll always lend a hand, Marky.."

"But—"

"No more buts and and no more ifs." Sandra faced her friend; her expression was full of care. "From this moment forward, we'll do this together, right?"

"Sometimes you need to trust the people around you, Markus…" Dave said. "You have friends to take care of your back…." He took his right hand and brought it in the middle. Sandra placed her hand on top of the two. "…so you can just look forward. We're here to help you out."

He stared at his friends with blank eyes. But slowly, it's gaining its light. Tears form on his eyelids and his voice returns to being the kid he used to be. He sobbed.

"It's fine to cry, idiot. It's very you-like. The cry-baby kid we grow up with." Sandra took his head on her chest. "We've seen you cry more than a million times."

"Though I cry more than you do.." Dave muttered.

"What was that?" Sandra exclaimed.

"It's nothing!!" Dave looked away.

The three of them burst into laughter.

It's fine Hachiro. Things will settle down. Deep down, he said to himself.

"But, where did you know the truth?" Hachiro asked.

"Shichiro told us."

"Shi-chan?! I told him not to, that bastard!"

"He's just trying to save you. And besides, that's the only reason Jayson and the others will let us go." Dave said. "It's the ace in the table."

"So, everyone knew?"

"Yeah.." the two sighed.

"Almost all the participants gather around the tent to apprehend you," Sandra said.

"That's not a secret now…"

"Of course…so don't act as the lone hero, idiot…" Sandra pouted. "You're not the only character in this story.."

"Hhh…Anyway, what's with that get-up?" Hachiro asked.

"Oh, so you haven't noticed. The game has been updated."

"Updated? When?"

"Yeah, the game changed at 20:30. Everything's different from what we used to have."

"What time is it now?" Hachiro asked.

"It's about 1 in the morning.."

"That's bad…"

"That's what Uncle Ned said as well."

"Uncle Ned?"

"Ahh.. he's here with his ex-wife."

"Aunt Nica?"

"You know her?"

"We used to play tag on my grandfather's field."

"Oh.."

"Why are they here?"

"I thought you knew? They said something about destroying the routers and servers…"

"I haven't heard of that… I mean, I was not notified by the Bureau."

"You're basically their enemy, right?"

Hachiro was stand corrected. He didn't expect Dave would say such a thing but he didn't get offended. "That might be the reason. So, they're here to destroy servers and stuff, huh.." he smiled.

"Stop with that smile idiot. We're talking about people who wanted to kill you." Sandra muttered "Anyway, Uncle Ned is asking the groups for back-up now. They're having a meeting with the others at Jay's tent."

"How many people do we have?"

"We've got at least a half of the total number from the start. So that's around 30 people. Uncle Ned said that if we stay here any longer, that number will be cut in half again."

"About the time, we don't know. You're basically asleep for 4 hours so..."

"4 hours? That's too long.."

"It's not even an 8-hour sleep, idiot. With your condition and all, that's not even close to long."

"She's right, Marky." Dave agreed. "If, by any chance, we would like you to rest a little more."

Hachiro doesn't have words to argue. He's accepted his friends' help now and was bound to listen to what they say.

"That's why I don't want you to come along.." Hachiro pouted.

"What's that about?" Sandra laughed and Dave was caught with it as well.

"Anyway, I guess we have to cooperate with the others. They should at least create the way out as planned..."

"So you knew about that?"

"Louige told me in his message... Port make glitch." Hachiro said.

"But when? How?"

"He sent codes. That's why I knew the plan."

"Ehh??"

"Hai. But now, I don't think they'll be able to contact us from their end." He touched his watch and a holographic monitor came out. "I've done a scan and the crack's not working anymore. I guess they've strengthened the firewall and our only choice is to go where the barrier is weakest."

"Where?"

"I guess that's what the others are discussing, right?"

"How did you know that?"

"Shi-chan's with them."