Hachiro leaned his arm on the edge of the window and turned his gaze on the vast sea of clouds outside. He thought of drowning himself in thoughts on figuring how to defeat the hacker without involving his companions, trying to detach himself from the crowd.
"You think this will work, Ha-chan?" Shichiro muttered in his brain. "I mean, we can rely on their help and all.."
"They won't make a difference. We just have to do our part, and that's to finish this mess up." He whispered and exhaled a deep sigh. "Besides, relying on them won't solve our problems. We must act on our own..."
The captain of the airplane announced their final descent and they landed at Nippon International Airport. They went out of the plane and saw the man who came to welcome them with a limousine parked in wait for them in the runway.
"How was the flight?" the man said approaching them with open arms. He wore a gray suit in a red necktie and a 'Bruno Mars' hat and shiny leather shoes.
"It was very nice, Sir. I've never been on that classy plane before." Andi said excitingly. He looked around after telling the man how he felt. He was mesmerized by the environment he's seeing.
"That's good to hear. So, you in for the mission?" the man asked again. He stopped a few feet from them, holding his hat that is getting blown by the wind.
"Yeah, if that's what you want us to do, Mr. Reiko, then we gladly accept the offer," Jayson said. "Also, we can't back out now, can we? I mean, we're already here."
"Thanks for your help...Then, let me show the way to your hotel rooms." Reiko said. "I've brought your ride as well."
"Thanks for the bother, Reiko-sama," Louige said. "But...you don't have to do these things. I could have arranged a better convoy."
"That is the least I can do,, Louige-kun" Reiko replied. "Dou itashimashite.." he added.
They went to the Gold Star Hotel in sector 15. It is one of the 5 stars hotels in Nippon owned by GSTech's Ginsei Reiko. It was a 95-story hotel with a casino in the ground floor, a helipad in the rooftop, a basketball court, tennis court, soccer field, baseball bullpen, an indoor pool, and artificial hot springs in between the floors.
"This thing looks awesome.." Andi muttered, trying to see the top of the building from where he is standing.
"Awesome doesn't sum up this place, Andi." Andra poked her cousin.
"Thanks for the compliment," Reiko said. "You can enjoy yourselves until the convention tomorrow. Louige-kun, just ask the counter about their room assignments. I have booked it a few weeks ago." He added.
"Hai, Reiko-sama." He bowed at Reiko and turned to the Circa. "Ja, let's bring your things to your rooms. I guess you're tired from the trip, well, you can enjoy the Hot spring as much as you want for the time being." Louige said. "It's all free for you to enjoy."
"I guess being here does really have perks, huh?" Jayson said.
"Of course. All for our precious participants." Louige replied. "So enjoy the rest of the day!"
"Hai..." the Circa replied.
"I can't wait to bathe in the hot spring..." Andra muttered.
"Me too..." Tori exclaimed.
They turned their backs to the entrance bringing the little stuff they had with them.
"All the things you need were already in your rooms by the way." Louige quoted.
"Thanks for all of these, Mr. Louige." Jayson said.
"No need of thanking us. It's our way of backing our assets up." Louige replied.
"I thought so.." Alex mumbled.
As they went inside the lobby, Reiko turned his back and approached Hachiro.
"Ne, can I have a minute?" he said.
"Ahh.." Hachiro replied.
They walked away from the Circa as they went to the VIP elevator and vanished from their sight.
"Ehh, so the son had a different room than us, huh.." Alex muttered, wearing a frown, glim face.
"That just means, he's the real son, idiot," Sandra exclaimed.
"Still not convinced, haha," Andra said, taking a selfie.
"That's enough, people..." Jayson said halting them with a stop sign. "Besides, Mr. Right-hand man is here, you know.."
"Oh,,, I forgot that. My bad." Andra whispered.
Louige came to them holding the keys to their rooms and handed it to them.
"If you need anything, just give the counter a call. It's all in the house." Louige said.
"Even dinner?" Michiyo asked.
"Most especially the dinner," Louige replied.
"Yes!" Michiyo exclaimed. "Arigatou.. Louige-san."
"Don't mention it." Louige said. "I'll see you later at the Recreational room, we'll have another drill. But this time, it'll be in AR." Louige exclaimed.
"Okay.." Jayson said, "But, thanks again." He bowed to Louige and turned to his companions. "So, let's check out the hot spring?"
"That sounds great!" Andi exclaimed.
They went to their rooms and placed their things inside. They hurried to the hot springs and dipped themselves in the hot water, artificially cultured by the GS Hotel.
Unfortunately, the boys did not expect it to be a divided area.
"What?!" Andi exclaimed.
"I thought.." Alex said.
"Of course it will be like this, you know," Jayson said.
"But... it's unfair!!" Andi shouted.
"What's unfair, huh, Andi??!" Andra shouted back from the other side of the bath.
The girls are on the next room, taking their time in the hot spring.
"Nothing!!.." He shouted back in reply. "I thought I was a goner.." he whispered, only Jayson and Alex heard what he whispered.
"Then try not to complain, Idiot." Alex exclaimed.
"Yeah right.." he said and drowned himself in the water.
On the other room,
"That pervy Andi... I'll give him a pounding later; don't cha worry ladies.." Andra said, showing her fists.
"It's fine.. just forget it.. haha.. by the way, ne, Sandra..." Tori said. "What's with Alex?"
"What about him?" Sandra replied.
"I dunno. I mean, I'm new at the Circa and I don't know much about you guys. But, it seems that Alex is a bit off or something." Tori said. "You don't get along with him as well."
"You mean about how he reacted on the Hacker stuff?" Andra quoted
"That, too."
"Yeah, I wanna know about it as well.." Michiyo said.
They all turned to Sandra and stared at her. They knew she knew something since she's the earliest among them who joined Circa. She entered the Circa at the start of the School year where most of the seniors are still active. The rest came during the 2nd semester of their 1st year.
"Okay, but I don't want you ever mentioning it to anyone especially to him, okay?" Sandra replied. She brushed her hair behind her ears and took a deep breath.
"Okay..." they said.
"Ja, it happened about a year ago. You remember Flight Loki, right?" Sandra said.
"The Flight who was brought down by the hacker through remote hijacking?" Andra exclaimed. "Who could've not known about it? It was way too showy..."
"It was trending worldwide for 2 whole months. Many have died because of that damn hacker, or something and the Bureau cannot do anything about him, even ORION couldn't help it." Michiyo mentioned.
"Yeah... apparently, Alex's mom was one of the passengers there..." Sandra's voice turned dull and low. "The day after that is the first time his mom's gonna see him for a year away from her family for his birthday. She got stuff to attend to in different parts of the world being the wife of the owner of the Green industries that's why she's traveling every now and then. But I heard they got into a fight a day before that. I was in the canteen when the LCD turned on the hijacking incident."
"That was pretty dire, huh.." Tori said.
"Ahh, I was next in line with him, trying to decide which food to buy. But, in a sudden, everyone stopped moving, staring at the footage in the canteen's LCD screen. The reporter interviewing the president of the airport saying difficult stuff. Emotions flooded everywhere you look. Both in the airport and inside the canteen. Most of the students there have their parents or someone they know in that flight. We heard every mourn, every wail, every cry of the passengers suffering from the fear sent in a hacked footage. The wind gushing in the airplane when it crashed, a glimpse of fire engulfing the seats, we heard and saw the passengers' agony..." Sandra's tears fell. "Cold wind blew in our napes, blood froze from our veins...It was as if, as if the hacker wanted to show their suffering." Her fists form in both her hands squeezing the water. "He was toying with people's lives." Sandra turned red in anger. "He pisses me very much!"
"... that was difficult then.." Tori said. They fell silent for a while.
"Yeah,, and apparently, the Bureau announced it was all Mark---" Sandra continued but her voice started to tremble and turned even lower.
"Are you alright, Sandra-chan?" Michiyo asked.
"Yeah, I'm sorry. I guess the bath is just getting to my bones..." she suddenly got shills from what she was about to say. She knows she's about to say something bad against her friend. "...well, as I was saying, they blamed it on Markus, the same hacker who attacked the ORION a few years back."
"Seriously?!" Andra exclaimed, "He really got some balls, I hate him."
"Yeah, something like that happened. I believe he was held in prison because they were able to capture him immediately after the crash."
"The Bureau did their job well, then..." Tori said, "I mean, they were able to trace him and capture him fast.."
"They said they've been tracking him since the footage started to air," Andra added.
"Really? I didn't know that.." Sandra reacted shyly. She stared at the ripples in the bath.
"Yeah,, apparently they tapped on an ORION server to find his whereabouts.."
"Ohh,,, so that was it...Anyway, that is the reason why Alex gets pissed on hearing that name. He even looked forward to the celebration in honor of the fallen passengers."
"I never knew that was his ground.." Tori looked away.
"He never shows himself to anyone, you know..." Andra lowered her head.
"But, Sandra knew about it.." Michiyo said, trying to lighten up the mood.
"I just happen to be there when the shit happened, that's it. Besides, he's an upperclassman in the Circa, rumors sure come out to one's identity in the organization." Sandra replied.
"So, that was it... pretty hard on that, huh.."
"But, when you look that Markus up in the internet, even in the ORION system with a special key code, you cannot find much info about him, right? Just like that cocky son of the President..." Andra said.
"I guess that's not possible, Andra. I mean about Hachiro, I guess the president had a different reason. But the hacker's in jail, so it can't be helped.." Tori exclaimed.
"Yeah, and I guess the Bureau and the ORION deemed it confidential for that reason," Michiyo mumbled.
"That just left the public knowing only his name, never his full name..." Andra muttered.
"Ahh.." Sandra coldly replied. "I guess it's better knowing a little about this matter, though."
They went back to their rooms and changed to their workout attire. Louige asked them to gather at the recreational room for a drill in the AR.