I was the same, so I knew.
I was pretty sure that Haru Koyama wanted to talk about anime with us.
Just then, the atmosphere of the classroom changed completely.
A lukewarm presence descended. Like a shadow.
Before whatever it was could get me, I kicked off the ground and flew to the ceiling. A crack ran through the blackboard behind me, and it broke into pieces at almost the same time.
What had manifested itself in the slight space between the board and the wall was a jet-black creature reminiscent of a giant salamander, but about the size of a small car.
No, it wasn’t right to call it a creature. This was a spam mail from another world. The worm, an autonomous enemy intel-collector colony whose goal was the eradication of humanity, was only mimicking a living thing.
But wow, it was huge. Had the filter malfunctioned? What were the Firewall officials doing?
The classroom and desks were in shambles. People who had been my classmates until a moment ago vanished in one gulp. Having kicked off the ceiling lights and landed behind the worm, I drew my Avastgun (ver. Halting Roar) from my belt and took aim. At the same time, I made sure the app was loading on my phone.
It was an app with no name that my partner created. Based on the reaction of the Avastgun, it would search the Firewall database, identify the worm, and refine the vaccine program for me.
But though my partner was a notorious brainy cracking expert babe wanted around the globe, the only information she could lift from the Worldwide United Defense Organization servers with this single app was the previous generation’s backup. If this was an entirely new kind of worm, we were screwed.
The worm turned its big head to look at me. I recognized the glasses dangling from its mouth.
No way... The smile of my dirty-minded best friend who was always beside me jabbering about anime crossed my mind.
It felt like the world was being dyed the color of blood. But I managed to hang on to my reason by a thread. Don’t go berserk. You’ll destroy another whole district. You don’t need that kind of pain a third time in your life.
But the bad news didn’t stop there. The DB check turned up nothing. In other words, this worm was a new variety—a joker.
I clicked my tongue in my head and fired. Just kept pulling the trigger. All I could do was keep pumping bullets into the thing until the Avastgun and the app did enough random inspections to refine the vaccine. Fire, fire, fire until I killed the thing.
The other students finally grasped what was going on and fled screaming. Your reaction time is garbage! Stick your tails between your legs and run while I keep it busy!
The worm spat multiple spear-like tentacles at me. This was an attack pattern I’d never seen. Leaping between floor and desk, I evaded while shooting the thing for all I was worth, collecting data.
All the app came up with was a log of errors. Was it a completely new type that bucked all our assumptions? No, it couldn’t be. We destroyed the data necessary to create major mutations three years ago. But there was one other possible evolution that we missed: αDam. Maybe it—
“S-Save me...” A frail, pitiful voice called for help. The baseball mob bastard was crawling spinelessly around under his desk.
Tch, the hell are you doing?
I shoved my phone into my back pocket and took Blastgun (ver. Silent Frenzy) from my back. Both of my weapons were second-generation Beretta models, but I had rooted them so I could customize them to my liking. If I made too big of a scene here, the guys from Firewall would find me, but this was no time to worry about that.
Shooting with both guns, I jumped off a desk, dodged the tentacles by spinning in midair, and then kicked Baseball Mob’s butt to get him going.
“Run, mob boy!”
“Th-Thanks, Chiba!”
I fired shot after shot, shielding the boy as he slowly crawled out from under the desk. But I didn’t have the vaccine yet. The battery warning light started flashing.
Hey, whoa. I pulled out all the stops, but I’m gonna be the one to cry uncle and get eaten by this janky bastard? You call that a punchline?
Not today. I grabbed the spare battery I had hidden up in the broken ceiling light I kicked earlier and—
A silver blade ran straight down the middle of the worm. The hulking black thing stopped moving and its body split neatly in half, the data inside spilling out.
Standing atop the collapsed body was a girl wearing the uniform of my school. In her right hand she held a katana replica. The flame and five-pointed star motif on the handle was proof it was official Firewall issue.
Her short skirt fluttered as she hopped down. Then she—Haru Koyama—drew the latest Avastgun model and shot the puddle of tar-like remains on the floor.
No, they weren’t remains. A mosaic pattern rippled through them, and they disappeared along with the body’s operation response.
So that was the actual body? In other words, this was the newest variety of Trojan. What I had been attacking, thinking it was the body, was only an external shell for the data body capable of physical attacks. Yeah, yeah, sorry for being so uninformed. I mean, what could I do? That stupid thing.
The cleansed data for this world was there. In other words, Sekiguchi and the others who had been eaten were restored. If we left them alone, they would wake up eventually. I’m not the kind of jerk who would write the story so they stayed dead.
I lowered my guns, but Haru Koyama thrust the point of her katana toward my eyes.
“Now then. You’re some kind of white hat hacker? But the gear and app you’re using are totally illegal. Sorry, but it’s our job to crack down on your type, too.” Then she added in exasperation, “I never expected there to be a pesky high-school hacker in my own class.”
I was likewise stunned to find a “pro” in the same class as me. And how tacky to disguise herself as a high-school student.
“Come with me. We’ll talk at HQ.”
“Doesn’t sound like you want to talk.”
“That’ll depend on your attitude.”
Then I decline your invitation.
With all the data invasions from the other world, everyone seemed to think that regulating data completely was “the safest” thing to do, so of course state employees wouldn’t understand why rogue hackers like me were necessary.
Well, I haven’t thought up why that is either, but anyhow.
“Sorry, but I’m blowing this joint. Tell the teacher I left early.”
“Huh? What kind of bullshit—?!”
I opened an app and released one of my stock of small worms. I generated it in a sticker that I posted to our class’s chat group—a farewell.
“What?” Haru Koyama must have had her phone in the pocket of her skirt. Poor thing. That worm’s favorite food is synthetic fiber. “Wait a—ugh! What the hell?!”
With a “Sorry!” to Haru Koyama, whose bright red underwear was revealed for all to see, I jumped out the window.
A jeep skidded to a stop below. At the wheel was my partner, the cracker babe “Invader Mira,” dressed as usual in her incomprehensible style—goth loli with goggles.
“Wait! I’ll never forgive you, Seiji Chiba! Don’t you forget it!”
Sheesh. Playing around as a high-schooler was fun, but I guess all good things come to an end—
And that’s when the bell rang.
Immediately the classroom erupted in noise. I put my head down on my desk and reviewed the story of my interrupted fantasy.
Hmm, maybe her underwear should be white. She may not look it, but she is a virgin.
{T minus 02:11 to the truck accident}
“Sekiguchi and Chiba are in charge of shopping today. I’m coming with, so I’m counting on you guys.”
Baseball Mob started talking to me so suddenly, I panicked and smiled. I guess he took it as a yes. Well, whatever.
It seemed we were having a school festival, or rather a traditional festival of the school region would be held. I wasn’t interested in it at all but ended up in charge of shopping and set pieces.
It happened before I knew it. I guess because everyone had to do something, or something. The school is so behind the times in that sense. Make a place for someone with lofty ideals like me! I hate working in groups.
“And of the girls, it’ll be Hamazawa, Airi, and Moka. See you after school.”
Huh, girls are coming, too? Hamazawa I knew because she had been in the same junior high as Sekiguchi; we had talked about cards once. I had no idea who the other two were. So it’s three boys and three girls?
What’s up with that? Guys and girls going shopping together after school? Are you nuts? Are you even high-schoolers?
They’re getting a little too excited about this festival. Why should I have to walk outside with a girl and be forced to carry everything?
And I’m sure someone will suggest we go to an arcade or something along the way. Like that baseball mob.
What’s with that? Why should I have to play my card battle game in front of girls from our class? They’ll find out I’m a ranked player. This is why I always say I don’t want to brag.
“Seriouslyyyy?”
The girls who had been named were wincing and saying “This sucks” and whatnot.
“What’s with this group? Are you for real?”
“I don’t get it. How’d you pick these people?”
“Hey, we decided we would take turns shopping, right? That’s all it is.”
“But why does that mean we have to go with them? What a joke.”