On the promised day, in the empty, messy room of what was once the prison’s cafeteria, a boy emerged. His arms and legs were wrapped with bandages all over, almost akin to a mummy, while even his face, thought to be unblemished aside from the freckles on his cheeks, now sported another bandage over his nose. His normal glasses were gone, replaced by another pair of plastic frames with square eyes instead of circular ones. The boy had come to this facility prepared for whatever thrown at him.
Even with the new look, however, Lewis couldn’t help but feel his heart beating like a drum. His robot companion couldn’t join him for moral support, for, quoting its words, it “had to be a commentator for the games”. The thought of broadcasting such activities that he was about to partake in was an idea foreign to the boy at best, and downright made him disgusted at worst. What kind of sick bastard would be entertained with this kind of showing? That was the question he tried to ask the healthcare AI, only to be replied with a crude “You’d be surprised”.
With only the dreary silence as his audience, Lewis couldn’t help but sigh. Though the boy needed not to wait long, for soon enough, his opponent also emerged from the shadows.
Yusei came in, still as calm as he had ever been. His former red wig had been discarded completely, as well as his usual wardrobe – be it Aoba’s blazer or his officer’s uniform. The young man was equipped with a full body suit from head to toe, in the kind of fabric that was both easy to move in and breezy for best heat circulation around his body; a ninja suit optimized for his strenuous performances.
“I see you’ve been training,” said the young man, his voice cold and uncaring. “I hope that proves to be helpful, for your own good.”
Lewis didn’t say anything; he was already frozen in fear and anxiety. And his opponent had noticed the fact.
With a heavy sigh, Yusei gestured towards the once-secret elevator. “Just… get in.”
Sure, he has the skills, thought the young man. But they’d only show in a mostly stress-free situation, or at least not life-threatening ones. What were they thinking when they suggested that he’d be retested?
Of course, he wouldn’t get an answer from the cowardly boy himself, nor would he get the answer if he prompted the question to the party directly responsible for their showing here. And he wouldn’t be able to find out the answer in their match that was about to happen, either, for the simple reason that he would not be entering it in the first place.
As the two entered the game room, Yusei threw a VR headset towards Lewis and gave a simple order:
“Put it on.”
Once the boy had plunged himself deep into the virtual world, Yusei pulled away from the center beds, making his way to the computer set at the corner – the control system that he set up to link with the world.
“Cyber Ninpou: Kage Bushin,” the young man typed the command on the screen.
A flash showed on the computer, and in the center of the screen, a 3D avatar of Yusei formed. Shadow clones – a technique that originated from shinobis of old, was now adapted and transferred seamlessly into a new technology. Next, the young man plugged a flash drive into the computer, and the model on the screen instantly performed a complex series of footwork, punches, and speedy movements.
“Good,” Yusei mumbled to himself. “The data from Sensei worked well. This thing should now be able to act exactly how I would in that VR environment. Now… I have about thirty minutes. Time for the actual important thing to do.”
Yusei made his way out of the room and locked the door shut. With a sprint, the young man blitzed out of the room, going so fast that whatever unfortunate soul (read: security camera) could only vaguely detect a blurry line in their sight.
Faster, thought the young man. I can’t afford to be seen yet.
His footsteps were as light as feathers, yet his speed was approaching the sound barrier. With this much in his arsenal, Yusei purposely ignored the elevator that he came down from, and instead made his way to a dark alleyway at the end of the hall, masked to most unsuspecting staff members. Slipping through the corners of its blockade with a single step, the young man’s eyes were on his prize – a long, winding staircase shrouded in darkness.
It was a secret passage made specifically for the World President and his loyal protectors. Since Ryuuhan was directly involved in the creation and management of project R.E.X, there were undoubtedly safety precautions to prevent him from harm, one of them being this pathway in case a prison riot was imminent, and the main route to the elevator was blocked off. Naturally, as a member of his special force, Yusei was given complete knowledge and control over the pathway, a fact only shared with his shinobi partners. And this time, he fully planned to use it to his utmost advantage.
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It took less than a second for the young man to arrive at his destination – the Infinite Prison’s main control hub, also known as the room where Zain’s final showdown against Ryuuhan took place. The remnants of that battle had long been cleaned up, but the most important aspect, the mother computer, was still there and running at full force.
“View hidden folders.”
Yusei, in a stroke of coincidence, muttered the same option as Zain did a year back, but unlike the latter, he was fully aware of what he was looking for.
Or so he thought.
“It’s… not here?” The young man gasped in shock.
Yusei’s target was the research folders on the case of Zain’s breakout, specifically, any documentation on its aftermath. To convince his two partners to join his side, the young man had thought that there was no better choice than to expose the incident, which he had always doubted as having something odd surrounding it, to the girls. Following that logic, he had expected that any log files would be unearthed here in the Infinite Prison’s main database, along with all of Ryuuhan’s dirty deeds. But he had underestimated his adversary; the World President would be much more careful than to leave all of the evidence in a log file somewhere, no matter how secure it might have been.
However, just when the young man was at his wits, a glance at another hidden folder caught his attention.
It was a single word. But a single word that somehow had much more importance than any other things Yusei had seen.
Infinity?
There was a question that the young man had asked his former benefactor, as well as his professor and current employer. “Why is the Infinite Prison called that way?” It was nothing more than a dash of curiosity, born from a moment of boredom the first time it came around. However, to his surprise, neither of his conversation partners would answer him, instead dismissing the matter entirely, or purposely jumping to another topic.
Yusei, without much thought, decided to click open the folder.
Inside were two different files, or to be more specific, two images. Both were pictures taken from an old camera, easily decades, perhaps even centuries, older than what they currently had, if the blurry quality and overall stained color of the image had any indication. Both depicted an old cavern-like structure, likely taken at the same time in the same place.
The first was an ancient mural, made by carving a sharp object on the stone surface itself. On the wall were six stick figures, likely indicating six people, gathering around in a circular formation, while in the middle was a symbol of a circle with a horizontal “8” sign in the middle – the sign of infinity.
The second, meanwhile, was something like an ancient poem, written in Japanese:
A being of black
A being of white
…
The rest of the letters were smudged out too much to be legible, either due to the passage of time or the shoddy quality of the picture, or perhaps something, someone had deleted the rest of the trail.
However, Yusei doubted that this was everything in the folder. The contents were too cryptic, as if purposely laid out to be a riddle for unsuspecting intruders. There was little reason for someone like Ryuuhan to put out such an elaborate trap for just potential threats, and such, the possibility of a trap was removed. And if that was the case, then there had to be more information hidden somewhere that the young man hadn’t noticed.
View hidden files.
Yusei realized the option was somehow separated from hidden folders, and to his expectations, another slew of files appeared, each with a different date, totaling the hundreds.
The young man clutched his hands, his muscles tensed in joy. Finally, I got a lead. But his happiness wasn’t for long.
Coming from the direction of the secret path, a very light scent of wind caught Yusei’s attention. Immediately, his mind went on high alert, his hands copied the folder’s contents over to the flash drive he held as fast as possible, and in less than a second, the young man had already turned off the computer, deleted every track possible regarding his presence, and disappeared into the shadows.
However, he didn’t leave the scene just yet. In Yusei’s mind, the fact that he could only detect the intruder’s presence due to the slight changes in the wind was the undoubted indication that this uninvited guest was, firstly, someone familiar with the secret passageway, and secondly, skilled enough to enter largely unnoticed, using the same kind of techniques as he did.
When the silhouette of a girl with unmistakable red hair entered his vision, Yusei almost stopped breathing altogether.
Hanabi?
The girl, unaware of Yusei’s presence, continued to follow her own agenda. Taking various pictures of the ground around her, as well as the tubes that were supposed to be Zain’s captive place in that fight one year ago, Hanabi stood there and pondered, as if trying to put together a mental puzzle of the sort. After a few minutes, she only let out a sigh and returned where she came, without another word.
Only now did Yusei jump off from his hiding spot – the ceiling, where he had to stretch out his muscles to the best of his abilities to stay afloat – and land on the ground on his tiptoe like a wild cat.
“What was she doing?” Muttered the young man. “Investigate intruders? No, that can’t be… I’m sure she can’t detect my skills. Then… to investigate her sister’s death on her own?”
It was the only logical conclusion that Yusei could think of. But the young man knew better than to hastily come to her and declare an alliance – there was still not enough proof to conclude that she was on his side.
Yusei tried to ponder, but a light vibration in his pocket woke him up from his train of thought.
“Right, I need to act like I was playing.”
With the timer that he had prepared beforehand only having three minutes left, Yusei left the room like a whirlwind. But at that moment, because he was rushing to return, the young man had forgotten a single, very important detail.
Throughout her time in the secret chamber, Hanabi had not touched the main computer once.