Chapter 6

Dr Nickilopus sat in his chair, deciphering a code to hack into someone's account and when the computer beeped, his eyes widen at the achievement and he stood up, pushing his chair to the ground and shocking everyone around him. Before they could ask, he said out loud, "I've found it! Get General Husk here NOW!"

The news of Dr Nickilopus' discovery sent the main six racing for preparations. Claire had finally finished the wireless controller, which she attached to Kousuke's earpiece and they soon all met up in the main meeting hall. The tension was high as Dr Nickilopus downloaded all the files he managed to key in for their infiltration plan and he cleared his throat as the projector blinked.

"I managed to get into Henrys' email and hack into his computer. This enables me to receive many files regarding his plans to destroy mankind with his NothingBeasts. These include the security positions and main targets," he explained.

"Do these include his porn?" A worker in the back asked, causing a few laughs.

Dr Nickilopus smiled before answering, "Yes we do, Mr Hans. If you need material, you are free to-"

"That's enough of that," General Husk interrupted the dirty jokes for the sake of underage teens in the room. "What's your idea, Doc?"

"As I was saying," he dry coughed awkwardly before returning to his game-face. "I've found a small blind spot in the Southern Entrance security plan. We can send the six there to fight the NothingBeasts and disconnect Henry from the machine."

"Explain the part where Henry's um… 'Connected' with the machine, please?" Fleur asked softly, unable to understand their part in the task.

"I'll explain that," Claire smiled while hopping to Dr Nickilopus' side. "Henry connected around fifty old modals of TMS to his brain, inflicting an enormous amount of imagination sequence and displaying hundreds of NothingBeasts across the world. Your task as the main six is to head for the main office, which is surrounded by the strongest enemy forces, and cut off the connections between the TMS's and Henry."

"We have a slight problem though," Dr Nickilopus added, catching them off guard. "The old modal of TMS can only be released from the brain system by a certain knife that will cleanly separate the wires and the brain cells, thus undamaging the hosts. The new one was created for us to easily pull off another's if any incidents were to go wrong. So we only have one cutter and six of you."

"Meaning only one of us will be able to finish him off, right?" Petra asked while sitting straighter in attention. "I think the rest will be among us, right guys?"

The others nodded and they were given applause from the surrounding officers as they left the room. The six, Claire, General Husk, Erika, and Nickilopus had moved to their main training room to continue their discussion.

Claire was the first to say, "I believe Zuriana gets the knife."

"No," the Muslim in question and Hong Gil refused in unison. They shared glances before the Korean continued, "She barely trains. I don't think she's ready, no offence."

"None took," replied Zuriana before facing the confused rest. "We need someone who can do that under pressure. Among us all, the best under pressure is definitely Fleur since she's the eldest."

The girl flinched at the suggestion before saying, "But if that's the case, Kousuke should be the one in charge of that task cause he's way older than us all."

"Tadahiro shouldn't be the person for the job," General Husk growled, sending suspicions among the uninformed four.

"H-he just thinks his power is much more suitable for facing the NothingBeasts!" Erika quickly intervened to hide the suspicions. They mustn't let the four get wind of Kousuke's true background or there will be a rift among the six. "An emotion-based imagination is better off facing life forms rather than doing a small task as such."

"That's true," Lewis agreed quickly. "Than I vote for Petra!"

"Huh? Didn't you just hear what Zuri said?" Petra frowned while pointing out. "I can't work under pressure and I have got the worse control in the weather. I could kill Henry for all we know."

"Then why don't you guys just vote it out?" offered Kousuke while pulling out a pocket-sized notebook and a few pens. "Write the name of the most suitable person and place it in this box. Then we'll count and see who gets the job. Simple?"

The idea was agreed and everyone ripped out pages to write their votes. A few took a while in choosing but the adults had already sent theirs within seconds. Soon, theirs were also cast and Claire offered to count the marks.

The outcome wasn't expected. Petra, Lewis, and Fleur had zero votes, Kousuke got two and Hong Gil accepted three each but Zuriana got five. She stared at the results in shock and glanced at everyone in the room with an uncertain look.

"W-Who voted for me?" She spluttered nervously. "Didn't we establish I barely had any practice?"

"But you're the number one!" Lewis said with a crooked smile.

"I believe you can do it," Erika smiled.

"You're the best among us," the other girls stated.

Zuriana counted the four before looking at the rest. General Husk shook his head and pointed at Hong Gil. "I thought he was up for the job. I'm sure he also voted himself. But I'm not sure who voted for him though…"

"I voted for Tadahiro!" Claire said with a grin while lifting Nickilopus' arm. "With doc, right?"

"Sorry, Claire," apologized the man while lifting his own which had 'Hong Gil' written in his messy handwriting. "I voted for Hong Gil."

That left them with Zuriana and Kousuke. Zuriana stared at the Japanese boy in shock as he gave her a nod. "You're the best person for the job. There's no denying it, Zuriana."

She let those words sink in before slowly steadying herself and gave a curt nod. "Okay, I accept."

---

As the five prepped themselves without Zuriana, (who was receiving the manual regarding the TMS 1.0 knife) Lewis broke into a conversation. "S-So, this is it, right? Our final battle?"

"Yep, like how Odin chose his warriors for Ragnorak," muttered Petra while rubbing her cold nose. "Norse history, really interesting stuff."

"And if we fail, it's over," Fleur strictly said, getting their attention. "Before we do this, I want to open up everything with you all."

"Sounds nice, but we should wait for Zuri, right?" added Petra. "While she's gone through, we can finally ask, why do you think she voted you for the job, Kousuke?"

The Japanese boy was halfway through his army jacket when he frowned at the question and began racking his brain. "She did mention age against pressure and all. She's just like that."

"And why did you vote for her?" Hong Gil asked, particularly interested in that. "You and she seem to have something. Care to share?"

Kousuke kept quiet for a moment and when the door slid open by Zuriana, he said, "My real name is Tachibana Kousuke, a serial killer and Zuriana accepts me for who I am so I will do too."

Zuriana froze in the doorframe; unable to believe he was actually confessing it all here. The others froze in complete shock before he finally continued with a senile smile, "You did say to open up before the final battle, Dressler. So here; I was told to kill you all after this is all over, so nobody will discover TMS's existence."

At his very words, they activate their TMS's in unison and pointed a hand at him in fear. The colour in their faces had completely drained at the reality and Lewis was the first to ask, "Was that a joke? Cause it's not funny, Kousuke."

"It's up to you to believe it or not," he continued while buttoning his armoured jacket. "My true self is something you guys have to accept from me… Whether you kill me now or later depends on you."

They all tried to attack but a thought hit them. Zuriana had sided with him rather than against him and before they could conclude, a heavy burden hit them like a force. Their legs gave way before toppling to their knees. When they lifted their eyes, Zuriana gave them all stern looks and they caught sight of Kousuke gripping his TMS in pain. She lifted a small remote and sighed.

"I have complete control on Tachibana's TMS," she explained before turning for them all to see. "Claire made it enough to disable his TMS' until I give the green light. He isn't able to attack us no matter what. We'll eliminate General Husk if he tries to attack us afterwards. For now, let's stay as the six until this mission is accomplished, right?"

They all shared a glance knowing Zuriana wasn't going to stop her TMS attack unless they accepted. Hong Gil gave an unsatisfied nod before the Muslims released them. They let out sighs of relief and Kousuke gave her a grateful look over her shoulder.

"Don't thank me just yet, Tachibana," sighed the hijab girl while pulling on a coat. "Let's just see how things go afterwards."