I’m different. I’m not like them. I’m nothing like those average, run-of-the-mill nobodies.
It took some time for Rukana to even notice that she was talking to herself. She wasn’t saying the words out loud—they were running through her mind like an unconscious mantra. She told herself that she wasn’t like the normal people who surrounded her. That she was special.
Those silent words weren’t just the truth, they were an incantation. She didn’t need to tell anyone else. Even if she did, there was no chance the masses would understand what made her so special—so valuable. That was why she said it to herself, and with each repetition, power welled up within her. The words were a spell that made her stronger. And she could become stronger still.
Rukana could no longer access Χ-lum. Its administrators had figured out the method Cipher used to hack its security systems and patched the hole it was exploiting. Cipher had tried a few other potential methods to break in, but nothing had worked so far, and one wrong step could expose Rukana’s identity. And so, she had decided that until Cipher came up with a master plan that was sure to work, it would be best to give Χ-lum a wide berth.
Χ-fes, on the other hand, was still accessible, and Rukana checked it regularly. But there hadn’t been any posts in the S thread that had caught her attention recently. Someone had showed up in the thread claiming to be S at one point, but Rukana had instantly determined it was an impostor.
At school, Shiratama Dango had started coming to see Rukana in the nurse’s office from time to time. She never stayed for long, and all they did was engage in small talk, so Rukana wasn’t especially bothered by her visits. Rukana had nearly asked her about Itoha on a few occasions, which would have been a disaster, but fortunately she always caught herself before it was too late.
From what Rukana could tell, Itoha’s circumstances remained unchanged. Every time she caught a glimpse of Rukana she would instantly look away, then she’d scurry off so quickly you’d think she was a fugitive evading the police.
What drove her to act that way? Did she feel guilty? Even if she did, there was no need for her to run. To be honest, it grated on Rukana’s nerves. She could at least apologize—not that an apology would be enough to make Rukana forgive her, of course.
I’m different. I’m not like them. I’m nothing like those nobodies. I’m special.
In the end, Itoha had turned out to be just another nobody. It was inevitable that someone as different and special as Rukana would wind up all alone. That was simply the price she had to pay if she wanted to remain as special as she was. Solitude was something she just had to endure. That said, Rukana wasn’t completely alone. She still had Cipher.
Rukana pulled the curtains shut around one of the beds in the nurse’s office. Then she sat down and opened up her laptop, balancing it on her knees. As she absentmindedly browsed through Χ-fes, a thought struck her.
“I want money.”
“Hmm?” said Kirinuma from beyond the curtain. “Did you say something, Rukana?”
“Nope! Not a peep,” Rukana replied.
“All right, then.” The school nurse let the matter drop.
Rukana was incredibly special, yes—but she was still a teenager and had all the worldly desires you’d expect. And to meet those desires, she needed money. She’d given the matter a considerable amount of thought and had eventually reached a conclusion: What she really needed was a stockpile of capital she could spend freely. She had a savings account, but it was managed by her mother. She would need a bankbook, and possibly a personal seal for stamping documents. That or an ATM card, though she didn’t know her account’s PIN.
She could earn the money herself. At her direction, Cipher used her laptop to pull up the source code for a certain program.
“I can work with this,” she muttered.
The code in question would serve as the perfect template to create a particular sort of program: ransomware. Ransomware was, just like it sounded, a kind of computer virus that used blackmail. The program slipped into a computer’s systems and encrypted its user’s files, rendering them impossible to open. The program’s creator could then hold a computer’s most important files hostage and require their victims to pay a ransom in order to decrypt them.
Needless to say, that sort of hacking was against the law. She could also be liable for other crimes such as fraud or extortion. All illegal activity carried an element of risk. If things went south, Rukana could wind up prosecuted as a criminal… But what did that matter?
Rukana wasn’t scared in the slightest. If anything, the element of risk excited her. She remembered seeing someone on Χ-fes selling lists of companies and individuals with weak security. Maybe stealing those lists would be a good place to start. Or was she getting ahead of herself? Her first move should probably be researching how other hackers operated and gathering all the relevant information she could get her hands on. With Cipher’s help, that would be child’s play.
Rukana wasn’t about to get caught. She’d take every measure in the book to ensure that, and Cipher would help her.
“Oooh, teacher?” Rukana said, doing her best to feign affection for the school nurse.
“Hmm? What is it?”
“I was thinking I might go home for today.”
“Oh? Got it. Go ahead and rest up at home.”
“Okaaay!”
Rukana packed up her things, then left the nurse’s office with Cipher by her side. It was about twenty minutes after the start of afternoon lessons, so the school’s hallways were deathly silent. Before leaving, Rukana stopped by the shoe cubbies and flipped Itoha’s outdoor shoes upside down. It was just a petty prank, with no particular meaning to it.
Rukana’s mother was out when she got home. She headed straight to her room and climbed into bed. Then, just as she had Cipher start booting up her computer, she heard a notification from her home’s intercom.
The Shizukudanis lived in a two-bedroom condo in a high-rise building, on the sixth floor out of nine. Rukana’s father had taken out a mortgage to buy the place immediately after she was born. The intercom, which allowed visitors to contact the apartment from the building’s entryway, rang six times before Rukana finally gave up on ignoring it. She went into the living room to check the intercom’s display, which showed a video feed of whoever was outside. Her visitor, it seemed, was a hat-wearing man in a strange mask.
The man in the display could hardly have been more suspicious. Was he some sort of salesperson? Whoever he was, he’d put her family’s unit number into the intercom at the building’s entrance and called up six times now.
Just then, he called again, making seven. Cipher crawled its way up Rukana’s body and turned its four eyes upon the intercom’s display. Meanwhile, Rukana had finally worked up the resolve to answer the man’s call.
“…Yes?”
The man didn’t say a word. There was something off about his mask. It had some kind of pattern on it. Or was it a drawing? It almost looked like a mouth—like the mask he wore over his mouth had another mouth drawn on it.
The man remained silent the whole time and, eventually, the video feed cut out.
“What the hell?” Rukana muttered. “Freaky…” She shivered slightly, then returned to her room.
The next day, an hour before school ended, Rukana left the nurse’s office, went over to the shoe cubbies, and flipped Itoha’s shoes upside down again. Then she returned to the nurse’s office, spent the afternoon there, and left school in the evening after most of the other students had already gone. She didn’t head straight home, though. Instead, she stopped by the park where Itoha used to catch bugs. It was a windy, slightly chilly day, and as she crunched her way through the fallen leaves, the streets grew gradually darker.
Then, off in the distance, Rukana saw someone. He was crouched down beside a big zelkova tree—the same place Itoha used to search for grubs.
It was the man with the hat and the strange mask who had visited her the day before. He was looking in Rukana’s direction. Staring straight at her and making no effort to hide it.