"I am Ginsei Hachiro, nice to meet you.."
the new kid looked at the Circa with a smirk. He glared at them as if asking for a fight as they stared back at him.
"Ginsei, huh?" Paul said with a shaky voice. "Isn't that the president's..."
"Hai?" Hachiro said.
"Are you..." Tori asked.
Louige stepped forward with his finger adjusting his glasses and introduced the kid by saying, "This is Ginsei Hachiro, son of Mr. Ginsei Reiko. The next heir of GS Technologies Inc. and all of its assets. As of now, he is a student here at the GSSTI and an honorary member of Circa. I hope you get along."
"What?!" They all exclaimed.
The room was filled with confusion and much suspicion. They don't know what words to say after hearing what Louige had had explained. They were shocked to know that the president have a son, contrary to what was announced in the media and what was written in the GI system. They all thought that the son Ginsei Reiko is referring to during the ORION's press conference was Louige Rosenwald, his adopted son.
Alex's eyes, though knowing he's the president's son now, glared at him with a piercing look telling Hachiro that they still have to settle the fight.
"Why were you late? Where have you been, idiot?" Louige turned facing the kid and asked. He pointed his pen on Hachiro with a slice of piercing dead look.
"There was a cat who can't get off from a tree and I helped it to get down." Hachiro replied, looking away.
"What a lame excuse!" Louige exclaimed.
"But I did arrive at the right time, right?" He rolled his eyes and faced the Circa. "Right when they were almost defeated."
He wore a black plain shirt and a tattered denim pants in gray sneakers. His white cap has a logo of GS Tech in its front center. He took a seat to the nearest chair near him at the end of the table, removed his cap, and sighed deeply.
"Osukunatta Gomenasai!" He bowed his head but raised it immediately. He stared at Louige with a playful grin. "I'm sorry I got lost going up here. I went to the bathroom as well." He answered. He looked around the table and eyed the cake near him. "Who's cake is this? Can I have it?" he said looking at Tori's way.
"Go on, you can have it.." Tori hesitantly replied turning her gaze away from his sight.
"Arigato!!"
The dead air was broken by the two's conversation and the Circa came to realize what they have just heard the boy in black said.
"I thought he hadn't had a son..." Jayson said. He slowly sat on his seat.
"Well, unfortunately, he had one," Hachiro replied, sipping the tea near him as well. "He sometimes gives him troubles."
"Hey." Louige frowned.
"As what is indicated in the mail I've sent you, we have to send the 8 members from the GSSTI to represent the school to the Cipher-text Convention in Argon in the far shores of Nihon," Louige said.
"But, why do we only have 7 names here?" Jayson showed his smartphone to Louige "Didn't you say you're sending 8 members?" he added.
"Ahh, there will be 8 of you who will go to the convention. We'll prepare the equipment a day before you leave for Argon island. The list of members from the Circa are: Jayson Smart, Alex Green, Sandra Grey, Andra Diana, Andi Ybarra, Ogawara Michiyo, Tori Romonov and the last one is---"
"And who's the last member?" Alex murmured.
"Is no other than me.." Hachiro said boastfully, pointing the teaspoon to Alex's way. "I'm looking forward to be working with you, dumbass..."
Alex grinned at him, provoked on what Hachiro is doing. He wasn't used to being provoked by others because they know he is strong and prideful. Other underclassmen even avoid his sight and direction whenever they come close to him. Jayson was the only one who can control him somehow because they were childhood friends and Jayson is much smarter than him. He's the brawl and Jayson is the brain; that is how they used to be. But now, he had someone going up against him for the first time. He was about to stand and hit Hachiro when Jayson stopped him by pulling the hem of his shirt while giving him a piercing look.
Louige glared at Hachiro as if telepathically saying that he should stop provoking the members.
Hachiro looked away as he drank the tea.
"So, all the members for the convention are here and I have sent the manuals on your emails so feel free to review it." Louige continued. He stood from his seat and turned the LCD off. "Let's see each other at the Stello International Airport in 3 days. Bring only light stuffs especially the most important stuffs you needed." He took a step forward going to the door. "The equipment you'll use will be handed to you when you will arrive at Nihon." He added.
"Okay..." Hachiro said, finishing the last drop of tea.
The other members in Circa stood and said "Hai.." in reply.
.....
The meeting was dismissed but they stayed inside the room. Louige went out immediately, rushing to the exit because he still have a flight to catch. Hachiro followed him but went on the other way and Sandra tried to catch on to him.
"Hey Marky, wait up..." She reached his arm to make him stop but he did not turn his back "How did you get here, Markus?" Sandra asked, grasping her breath. She stood a few step away from Hachiro. "You're supposed to be at the---."
Hachiro pulled his arm from his grip that shocked his friend.
Cassandra made him stop on the stairway in its turning point, that can be considered the floor in between the floors, going down to the exit in the west side of the building overlooking the field of the school. Shouts of students practicing in the field echo on where they stand. It was an unexpectedly purple afternoon where the sun is approaching its descent.
"At the where?" Hachiro said. "Oh, well, you know I have my connections." He answered, turning his gaze away from Sandra. "And I have my own reasons." He looked outside the glass window watching over the baseball team practice.
"What are you doing?" she said, taking a step forward to see his face clearer.
"What do you mean?" said Hachiro.
"I mean this..." she stared at him with eyes full of concern, still taking a step forward. She tried on to reach his shoulder and said, "I don't know where to start...I want to know how are you, or what happened to you?! Or---"
"You seriously wanna know what happened to me?" his eyes turned from blank to rage and that triggered a flashback to came passing in his mind. Sandra was shocked on the immediate change of his attitude. He suddenly remembered the horrible things that happened to him in the past year inside that prison.
.....
On the occasion that he was brought to the inner part of the Bureau, the same evening that the Flight Loki crashed in the middle of the sea, three officers held him cuffed and got him inside a dark cell with no windows and an automatic metal door.
"Get inside, you criminal.." said the officer, pushing him towards the cell.
"You deserve that from being a cocky brat." Said the other, giving him an evil laugh.
Hachiro didn't say any word. He was stuck in that moment when the plane crashed, Edson and Kevin's voices kept ringing on his mind. He can't do anything, the trauma of him being cuffed when he was young came back in an instant and made him numb.
"You've just killed a lot of lives." The officer slapped him and made him stumble. "How heartless. You should rot in jail."
His eyes turned blank hearing the words of truth and insult. The officers turned off the light.
"I didn't do it.." he said in a coarse voice trying to defend himself but he was hit by the officers and he fell on the floor curling in pain. "I didn't do it!!!!"
"No, kid. You did it.." the officer said in reply, laughing at his suffering. "You killed all those innocent people. You made them drown to death!"
"I didn't..." he said again, hugging his knees "Mom,, please save me.."
"No one can save you kid. You've just dug your own grave..." and they hit him again, leaving him on the cold floor.
....
"You wanna know the pain?! The hatred?! The hell I've suffered in that damn prison?! The dark?!" The purple afternoon sky lusters on his face making his expression more malicious.
"Mark—" she tried to say but she covered her mouth in shock when Hachiro suddenly speak in a raging coarse voice.
"Shut up!" he shouted in anger.
Sandra heard silence. It was as if all the noise she was hearing was shun in the instant Hachiro shouted. She stared at him, unable to move because of what she had heard. She knew his friend needed help but she didn't know where to start and was unable to do so. She remembered how her friend relied on her before, how did he called her "Oka-san" and laughing under their breaths, how they used to play on that rundown hut in the forest hill which they call their secret base, how he asked for help when he's in a dire situation and how did they fight the hacker during the Aurum incident; but now, Hachiro had closed himself to others, even to her. All those memories she's remembering became a mere flashbacks of no use. She felt responsible of what happened to him.
"Ahh,,, you all know what I have been up to..." he replied, his eyes turned wild "It was all flooding in the internet, right?... I was dying from everyday torture due to that DAMN—" he took a deep sigh and he continued, "...while all of you fucking enjoying your free life with happiness and glee. You'll never know how it feels. You'll never know how sour it gets." He laughed maniacally "Isn't it fun not knowing about me, huh? I bet it is. I don't think YOU wanna know what happened to me there."
He's becoming hysterical. His eyes engulfed with rage and darkness and contempt looked at her. The air around them became colder and heavy, cold sweat dripped on his face. He held his head between his hands and started pulling his hair. His hands are shaking cold and turning pale, she tried to reach to them but he slapped it away.
Shichiro kept talking in his head saying, "Calm down, Ha-chan...Calm down.." but he's not getting any better. A few moments later, he saw his purple glim face reflected on the glass window and started to come to his senses. He saw Sandra's face about to cry.
"Markus..." she said in a rash voice, tears forming in her eyes.
"Damn that name, I'm not him anymore." He dragged Sandra and brought her back against the wall, with eyes full of contempt. His breathing is still fast. "Markus Lockwood is long dead, I am Ginsei Hachiro and I want you to call me that!"
The sun kept descending. She saw the sky slowly turning darker and darker reflecting Hachiro's emotion and she can't help it.
"I'm sorry... I know how you feel" her tears fell like raindrops.
"I don't think you know how I feel...Sandra." He glared at her, his eyes full of darkness and hatred.
"Are you trying to hurt yourself again?" she whispered in a low voice "I mean, we're going to corner the hacker and all.." her expression turned into pity. She doesn't know what words to say; her friend had gone deeper that she can't even reach him. She doesn't know what to do.
"I don't have a choice," he held his head low that the cap almost covered his face. "...I have to take care of the business we have yet to finish." She felt his cold hands lying on her arms.
"But, that's too dangerous." She whispered trying to win her friend back. Trying to give light to his dark and helpless world.
Yet Hachiro laughed under his breath, "I guess that's none of your business..." and turned his back.
"That is why we, the Circa... I...I will lend a hand and help you corner the hacker. We're all on this, Marky, we have your back. We're a team now."
"We? I don't think so." He gave a playful grin "I can't leave my back to weaklings like you. You can't even stand a chance against a mere level 5 bed of scorpions."
"But,,," she tried to reason out but found no words to give. "You've changed.."
"And so did you..." he let go of her.
"I don't understand. I... don't know you anymore." She said, tears kept falling.
"Yeah,,, it's better to know a little about me, about Ginsei Hachiro, than be the infamous Markus the hacker and tangle yourself with that criminal...I'm sorry Cas, but I have to do this alone..." he replied. "I have to be the one to stop this unfinished business, for my own sake as well."
He went his way to the exit of the building leaving Sandra standing, still crying, where he left her watching him walking away.