Lesson 2 B

20th of July, 2006


I don’t like this.

On top of being Kristy’s pawn, even though it is I who is supposed to be the leader, I am the one who runs her and Mike the easy errands. Kristy always decides everything. Not to mention how Kristy always already has everything already planned as if she were the actual author of this twisted little story.

All the evening after Mike’s arrival, him and Kristy were busy searching Blizzard’s database about new clans and their logos. Kristy had borrowed the Seagulls’ new laptop, even though the recent turn of events had made them rather hostile. They lent it to her in exchange for 100 bucks.

And here I am now, walking with a pack of doughnuts and 2 tall plastic cups of Coke—Kristy insisted to buy them from the local coffee shop rather than from the bottle we have at home. And even worse is that I’m doing this for people who are supposed to do that for me while I’m there laying on a couch watching violent TV shows with a bag of chips and popcorn.

I kick the closed door to my office, presumably to let myself get noticed. “Hey, anybody in here?”

“Here! Wait a minute, I’m busy.” That was coming from Kristy. If she truly was being busy, that meant that she was either stuck under a heavy pile of books (unlikely to happen), conspiring some evil plan with Mike (somewhat unreasonable), or she had found leads and was studying them (again, unlikely to happen). Well, to be blunt, Kristy wasn’t actually busy.

As I was going to knock the door again, Kristy slid it inwards with a rather ruthless violence, her head turned sideways as if she was making a hasty remark to Mike. “Ah, finally.” I walk inside and set the box of doughnuts and cokes on the desk.

“Great news, Fire, we have leads.” Now why do I feel like this is somewhat unlikely, still?

Mike nodded as he was typing at nerd-speed in MS-DOS and GUI at the same time. In truth, even though Mike was the “tough guy” that always goes to Saikan and smokes a lot, he is also a true nerd. “Actually, I finally hacked into Blizzard’s archives and dug up some pretty precious information.”

“Hacked in?”

“Yep… it’s what most people do. Blizzard is trying their best to stop ‘em, though.” He chuckled maliciously and asked Kristy, “Have a light?”

“Light, light, right…” She dug into her pockets, and, as she seemed to not have a lighter, she searched in her bag. A few seconds later, she planted her hand on her forehead. “I think I threw it in the fire.” She laughed. For from what she had told me she used a cigarette—lighters can prove a little too much.

“Wait, I thought you—“

“I got rid of it right afterwards, actually.” She looked around nervously. “So, have a light?” Both of them eyed me questioningly. Now, there were a few things that were characteristic about the two and that are their eyes. Even though Mike’s eyes seem considerably darker if you get close enough, from a few meters’ distance they looked identical. The shape, the glare, the colour itself, everything.

“No, I-I don’t think I do.” Both of them rolled their eyes instantaneously. “What? Unlike you two I’m looking forward to having a healthy liver, goddamn it!”

After a few minutes of silence and Mike’s constant typing on a keyboard, Kristy broke the awkward silence first, “We need to go somewhere. And how’s that information coming up? Oh, by the way Fire, I found them in December 2005’s handbook. They’re called RPG and apparently, no, they’re not Rocket Propelled Grenades or Role Playing Game. In fact, they’re ‘Rocking Protectors of Goldvalley’.” She yawned after her monologue and continued, “They reside in East Gateway, in the Goldvalley neighborhood—that’s where all the large clans stay at.” She passed me the handbook.

“Kristy, I thought you were the first person to say there’s no possible way they could be in Eastern or Central Gateway. That they should be in Western because they can have no possible relation with us.”

“That’s because… I’m popular. You know that everybody wants my head.”

“Not everybody.” Mike brusquely turned 360 degrees, making me, who was leaning on his chair and examining how he works, stumble. “I accessed their site!”

“Who? Which?”

“Eh, RPG’s site. Look, it’s so blank and un-professional… Ohh, their leader is…blank. They have no leader. What? There hadn’t been a clan like that since the old Confederation. And they changed. Their leader’s just sittin’ there on the highest floor of their skyscraper that once belonged to the Legend. Oh, just try to hit me, Kristy, but it’s true.”

“I will have to strangle that guy with my own hands—which, em, what’s his name, anyway?”

“Oh, he’s the guy with the red hair, right?” I asked just to start some real conversation. Kristy shrugged and walked over to us, all the while drinking from the coke I had gotten for her.

“Still, what’s his name?”

All three of us just said, “I have no idea!” and continued doing what we were doing as if that was of no interest whatsoever. As if this (exceptionally boring) search was more entertaining that hanging out and wondering what that Confed fag’s name is.

Kristy put her head over Mike’s shoulder, scanning everything as fast as Mike (who, by the way, could read the whole site for less than 5 minutes and repeat that orally in front of the whole world). “Uh, that’s weird. Last date this site was edited what the date it was created. Is it possible that—“ She was interrupted by Mike.

“I frankly think that they’re unprofessional idiots. Even if you compare the Seagulls’ site to this, it’s… brilliant. Seagulls, that is.”

“No, but maybe this is their old site. Why don’t we go searching in Goldvalley?” Kristy’s suggestion left us baffled.

“Are you insane, woman?”

“Yeah, really!”

“What’s so wrong with that?” She sat down on the table, cross-legged. Her frown showed utter distaste in what we men had to say. In truth, I had nothing to say, but what about Mike? He also helped Kristy make her ultimate decision in which I obviously had no part. “I mean, that’s the place of their clan… and where I can find some answers. I know that the Confederation have something to do with them.”

“What if the Confeds just got drunk and decided to attack a random girl who they happened to like?”

“Then why did it have to be me, Fire?” Mike laughed at Kristy, and that made her snap. ”And what do you have to tell, nerd? All you’ve ever done is hang around in the background and act like you know it all, while I had to work my ass off and evade being butchered… twice!”

“I mean, you can always go to Café east and search there.” Mike shrugged and slurped his coke while I watched them debate from the corner of the room, only half there. “They didn’t give you a specific date, right? Maybe if it were today?” He chuckled and ate another doughnut. “And Kristy… Twice? No, Confeds count like 0.5.”

“It’s 3 o’ clock, Mike. If it were today then I’d have to have been gone 20 minutes ago.”

“Then go, now!” Mike pointed his hand at me. “You too, Fire! Move your fat asses and go over there before Kristy does something stupid again.”

“Wait-wait-wait!” I babble and point an accusing finger at Kristy. “She’s the one who got us in this mess. So why am I coming with her?” Truly, this was not the thing going around at my mind. But decency wanted that I do not go overboard. I’m worried about my sanity, you know, so heaving a table with a pissed-off Kristy on it while shooting Mike with an Uzi was not the idea thing to do.

“Because Kristy wouldn’t have had to do this if you were to return to the two immediately.”

“Heck.”

“You lose, boy…” Kristy sighed. “We go today.” She jumped off the table and ran into her room upstairs.

The water—from the invasion a couple of days ago—was gone and the house was cleaned, and it did end up being a random theft. We lost 20$ in cash and Kristy said she couldn’t find her small pocket pen that gives out a sparkly light when in darkness. It was weird. I expected them to have gone a much more major theft, and may be even kidnapping someone, but all they did was… steal a glow stick and 20 bucks.

“Ho boy… you’re a tough case, Kristy. Have you ever considered dying? It’s a good way to evade having to be laughed at by your clan mates because the Confeds owned you and having to get owned by the Confeds. I mean, what’s more humiliating than that?”

Kristy stopped halfway, turned around and said in a conversational tone, with no trace of sarcasm or dull ignorance in it, “At first I disapproved of a suicide more than anything but now that I think about it, it doesn’t seem so bad.” Mike had an outburst of laughter when she continued, “Say, I’ll commit hara-kiri tomorrow. Know where to buy a katana? Well, if you do, then tell me. Oh, wait, where do you buy a katana nowadays?” She continued blabbering uselessly as she walked up the stairs until slamming the door to her room shut.

Then Mike looked at me and said, “You’re screwed.”


A/N: Yeah, Chapter 2. I’m falling a bit out of schedule, but heck. Hara-kiri is the action of cutting your stomach with a blade, usually a katana. If I'm lucky enough Chapter 3 will be out in 3 weeks... or more.