As long as you are here (OhnoKame one shot) Part 1

[yukitsubute]

Title: As long as you are here
Rating: R
Warnings: none
Genre: Sci-Fi (inspired by: Teri Terry – Mind games)
Notes: Written for the kat_tun_library exchange. Thanks to my lovely beta sweetspicyhot and sarahgoldenfish
Summary: In a world where being offline hardly exists anymore, cyber world war IV is going to destroy humanity. Only a bunch of hackers and specialists are maybe able to stop the catastrophe.




It was half past ten when Kame heard a knock at his door. He turned on his couch and snorted. Actually he wanted to ignore it, but the knocking didn’t stop. “Yes, yes,” he grumbled as he got up to open the door.

“What do you want?” Kame looked at the other a little surprised and maybe shocked to see him there. “Did someone follow you?” he asked.

He stepped to the side to let the guy pass through his door. “No, I am alone. I made sure that no one was around when I left home.”

Kame pointed to a small, pale scar on his temple. “Did you go online, Ohno?”

Ohno snorted. “Of course not, what do you think? They weren’t able to follow my steps,” he sighed. “And I took care that none of the cyber-robots followed me.”

Kame had his arms crossed. He could feel his blood rushing through his veins. His heart beat faster. It was a risk for the other to come by like this, but he was also happy to see him. “Okay, but don’t do that often, okay?” He stepped a little closer, brushing his fingers over Ohno’s face.

“I just wanted to see you.” Ohno’s smile was sweet, but it had something desperate in it. “And not online,” he added.

Kame took the other’s hand and guided him to the couch, where they sat down. For some moments they sat there, just holding hands. Kame could feel the warmth of Ohno’s skin on his. It was nice to touch someone in real life, to really feel the other being alive.

“I was in my old home,” Ohno suddenly said.

Kame looked at him in utter surprise. He wanted to scold Ohno for going there alone, but when he saw the other’s sad eyes, he just held his hand a little tighter.

Ohno turned to face him. “There are boards on the windows and the door is locked with a padlock.”

“Did you see them?” Kame asked.

Ohno nodded. He swallowed and breathed out before he started talking again. “They sit there, but it’s only the casing. My sister…” Ohno’s voice broke. He shook his head and rubbed his face.

Kame sighed. He knew it was a bad idea to go there, but he couldn’t stop the other from doing it. He started stroking Ohno’s back, drawing small patterns with his fingers.

“…she is so thin,” Ohno ended his begun sentence.

Kame let his hand wander down Ohno’s shoulder blades. He’s also getting thin, he thought, but didn’t say out loud. “How long has she been she online?”

Ohno shrugged his shoulders. “I left home a year ago. Then she was only online once a day, but I think for the last 6 months she has only been alive virtually.”

Kame shook his head, still running his hand down Ohno’s spine absent-mindedly. “Six months. Her offline life support system will slowly stop if she doesn’t go offline from time to time.”

“I can’t let that happen,” Ohno said sadly. He tried his best to keep the tears from running down his face, but Kame knew him too long and too well not to understand the feelings inside him.

Ohno looked up at him. “This world is going to die,” he murmured.

“We aren’t defeated, Satoshi. There are still enough Quarters who want to fight.” Kame tried sounding positive.

Ohno leaned back against the backrest. He let his head rest there and for some seconds he didn’t answer. “Aren’t we?” Ohno finally started. “How many of us died in the last few months? Can we really go on with this war?”

Kame stood up and walked to his window. He pulled the curtain a little bit to the side to take a look outside. There was total silence out there, no children were laughing, no chatting, no discussions, nothing. There was no one out there. It was like the town was extinct. There was only the noise of some cyber-robots strolling down the street, making sure that no one was out there without permission. Kame looked at the building on the other side of his house. “Kindergarten” was written there, but the letters were already decomposed. For 2 years there haven’t been any children there. They all get online lessons and they don’t need to go out for real anymore.
“I won’t give up,” Kame finally said. He didn’t want the world to end like this. “And if I am going to die in this, I know I did my best to prevent the world being like this.” He clenched the curtain between his fingers.

Kame felt two hands around his waist, pressing him against the other. “Sorry,” Ohno said. “I …it’s just sometimes really hard to go on,“ he added.

Kame just leaned into the hug and nodded at the other’s words. “Of course, I know. It’s also hard for me to go on every day, but together with the others we’ll find a way.” Kame sounded aggressive and strong, even though he felt lost and insecure. It was their duty to be there for those who started doubting. And every one of them had hard times where they didn’t want to go on and just wanted to give in.

“How about going to sleep?” Ohno suggested. “We both need some rest,” he added.

Kame nodded at him. Of course it was a risk to stay together, but they weren’t online, so Cybtech couldn’t see that Ohno was with him.

~~~~

“Maru, your gay is showing, really.” Ueda laughed. He had a small cup filled with liquid on the table, and it was probably not the first one he drank this evening.

“Hey guys,” Kame said, waving to the others. Ohno next to him just stared at their drunken friends.

“Did someone follow you online?” It was Maru asking. He ignored Ueda’s statement and just rolled his eyes when the other repeated it.

“We came through the nothing. Ohno hacked the Cybtech code, so they couldn’t follow us,” Kame started. “Nice room you created this time, Maru,” he added.

They just heard Ueda somewhere repeating his words from before.

“Did I really show it?” Maru finally asked the others.

“No, pink suits you,” Ohno smiled at him. “And those flowers on the wall, really cool,” he mocked him.

“Bad liar,” Maru grumbled. “At least I am not gayer than you are,” he added, his arms crossed in front of his body.

“No, of course not,” Kame laughed.

“Guys, to stop about talking Maru’s level of gayness, let me introduce a newbie. This is Ryo. He is new in our business,” Ueda came back with a man their age. “He is one of the most promising hackers around.”

“Nice to meet you,” Ryo said, bowing in front of them.

“Where do you live?” Kame wanted to know.

“South of Osaka, and you?” Ryo answered.

Kame and Ohno sat at the table and invited Ryo to join. “Tokyo, North,” Kame answered.

“How is it there at the moment?” Ohno wanted to know.

Ryo’s eyes got a little darker. He sighed. Kame knew what he would tell them now, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to hear it. “It’s getting worse,” Ryo’s voice was husky. “Cybtech is going to control every part of Osaka. I don’t know when I last saw people walking on the streets, and not just for getting their life support systems filled up.”

“Where are you now?” Ohno wanted to know.

“I am in a wood nearby Osaka. I am trying to hide from Cybtech. Yesterday I went online and tried immediately hacking Cybtech to attack their following system. But something went wrong. I logged out, but I already heard some cyber-robots coming down the street where I live. I packed some things and started running.” Ryo paused a little before he continued. “I knew my aunt had a little house in the woods, and I had the key, so I hurried to get here.”

“Is she still there?” Maru asked.

Ryo looked down at his hands, his expression got sad. “Nishikido Yuki-san was her name. I don’t think I need to say any more?”

The others exchanged a look. Kame shook his head. That couldn’t be her nephew. “You know we tried everything to get her out?“ he finally said.

“Yes, and I know that some of you lost your lives along with her,” Ryo said angrily. “When I got here I found everything left like it was when she was still here. I knew they wouldn’t search for me here, because I deleted every connection between me and her.”

Ohno looked at him in utter surprise. “You deleted Cybtech documents?”

Ryo had a smile curling around his lips. “Shocked?” he said.

“No, not really, but surprised,” Ohno answered, his mouth slightly open. “This is higher than high-level hacking.”

“My aunt taught me,” Ryo grinned brightly. “So now I am here and I tried searching for the underground quarters. I heard that a lot of you died, but I knew that there were some left. I found the code to your hidden virtual room and through the nothing I got here.”

“You were able to hack my hack?” Maru said in disbelief. “I created the room in the nothing to meet here without getting caught by Cybtech, and I thought no one would be able to find that.”

“Don’t worry, it was also hard for me to get here. I knew that this room existed, that’s why I searched concretely for it. I don’t think Cybtech has any idea about this here,” Ryo said.

Kame listened to their talk. Of course he knew basically what they were talking about, but compared to Ohno, Maru and now Ryo, he and Ueda weren’t hackers. They had other abilities of course, that’s why the quarters needed them, like they needed the hackers.

“I know I’ve been doing this for a long time now, but can you please explain things for non-hackers too?” Ueda grumbled after some time. It made Kame smile. He said what he thought.

“We created this little meeting room in the middle of the nothing-structure. The nothing combines all codes Cybtech uses. Here are all online-chat rooms people build, all workplaces Cybtech creates and so on. It combines everything. Actually it’s not possible to make your own room that Cybtech can’t see, but there are little holes in the nothing Cybtech can’t see. But the hack of these holes is quite difficult. And this is what we made,” Ohno explained.

“I think it’s useless to ask anymore, right?” Ueda sighed with a little smile around his lips. Of course they had heard these explanations thousands of times, but it was always nice to let hackers explain their work, because mostly they were proud about what they did.

“And you found us through the code we used?” Maru asked Ryo.

“Yes, I knew that there was a hole you used. My aunt talked about it, but I wasn’t sure how to find you. Through the corridor I opened my monitoring grid and tried hacking your hack. I found the correct numbers to find your room and stepped into the nothing. There I changed the code to your code and found your room,” Ryo explained.

“I think I need something to drink. I understand nothing at all,” Ueda rolled his eyes and went to the bar where he put some more of the liquor in his glass.

“Does being drunk affect you in real life?” Ryo’s sudden question was for Ueda.

Kame started laughing out loud. “Don’t tell me you’ve never been to a virtual party?” He looked at Ryo, who just shook his head. “You’re kidding me, right?”

“I didn’t go online often, because we all got hunted by Cybtech.” Ryo had a sad tone in his voice. He stroked his right arm lazily.

Kame tilted his head a little before his eyes got wide. “You have an OMS.”

The others looked from Kame to Ryo and back. “Yes, I have.”

Kame stood up and took a closer look at the other’s arm. “It’s well made,” he stated. “From a doctor?”

Ryo shook his head. “No, I don’t think any doctor would do this today. They all give you an implant, but not an OMS.” He shifted a little to show Kame the tiny tattoo he had under his elbow.

“Your aunt did it,” Kame looked at the others. Ueda nodded at him, Ohno and Maru just sat there, not really knowing what they were talking about.

“Don’t tell me you never saw an OMS?” Ueda asked. Both shook their heads.

“Hackers with no idea about any basic stuff, great,“ Ueda grumbled. “Before Cybtech started with implants, they had so-called OMS. Offline mind systems. You were able to go online like we do now, but you needed a special equipment for this. It’s a little machine you affix to your body with two needles in your arm or leg.”

“Now that you say it,” Ohno said. “I think my grandmother had something like this. But it was before our time.”

Ryo nodded. “Yes, it’s an almost forgotten thing, but my aunt developed this machine for me and made my own OMS. It’s harder for Cybtech to find me with this. It’s easier for me to be offline.”

Ohno rubbed his chin absent-mindedly. Kame knew what he was thinking, and he was sure all of them thought the same. “You are perfect for our team.” It was Maru saying it out loud.

“Thanks,” Ryo bowed.

“We just need to get you physically to Tokyo. We can’t fight them just online,” Ueda said.

Ryo nodded at him. “Sure. But let this be my problem for now. I will come to you, just tell me a place to wait. Give me some time and I will be there.”

“Can you join the online room during the week?” Kame wanted to know.

“I will try my best to do so,” Ryo started getting nervous. Kame immediately recognized that. “What’s going on?”

„”I think there is someone here. I better go now,” was all he said and his body slowly started fading away till he was no longer visible.

The others stayed silent for a moment. Kame still stared at the place Ryo had been sitting till now. His head was spinning. He knew that their chance to break Cybtech was just a small one, but with a new member it might get easier.

“What do you think of him?” Ohno wanted to know.

„”Seems to know a lot,“ Maru shrugged his shoulders.

Ueda cleaned the glasses they had been using and talked more to them then to the others. “Can we trust him?”

“If he really is from the Nishikido-clan, I think we can trust him,” Kame answered. “They were the first ones in the underground, so if he is one of them, he has the same goal.”

The others agreed silently.

“Talking about underground. Where’s Junno?” Kame asked after a while.

Ueda smiled brightly. “He probably made progress with the security code machine. He found the mistake in the code for the blocking software.”

“Really?” Kame got a little bouncy. For weeks they had been trying to find the mistake in the code. “That’s great, Ohno, isn’t it?”

The other had a small smile curling around his lips. “Yes, even though I have no idea what you are talking about, it sounds great.”

“A hacker with no idea about constructing machines,” Ueda sighed.

“Hey, we are hackers, we hack things that already exist, we don’t construct new ones.” Ohno had his arms crossed and tried sounding annoyed, but he failed, because in the end he had to laugh. It was one of the rare times Ohno really laughed heartily. And even though Kame had no idea why the other was laughing that much at this moment, he enjoyed it. He tried to hold this picture in his mind, because he didn’t know how often he’d get the chance to see Ohno like this again.

“No alcohol for you anymore,” Maru took the glass away from Ohno and gave it to Ueda.

Ohno wiped away some tears from his cheek and breathed in deeply before he answered. “It’s okay, I don’t want to risk a headache tomorrow so I won’t drink anything.”

“He is one of the few who takes the virtual mistakes to real life,” Kame said when he saw the strange look the other’s had. He smiled at that. Ohno was really something special. Kame had never met someone like him before. He was a genius at hacking systems, but he wasn’t able to do real crazy things, because he’d take it into his real life. One time they tried jumping from a really not so high roof and it ended with Ohno’s leg broken. That’s where they got to know that Ohno couldn’t do anything online.

“So you shouldn’t die here, because it would affect your real body?” Maru sounded shocked. “So you can’t play shooter games or adventure games here, because maybe you’d die for real?” He really was shocked.

“Yes, it seems so, and I have no idea why it is,” Ohno answered. He wasn’t really sad about it, because he learned living with his disability – how doctors called it.

“It’s just a guess, but maybe Cybtech did that?” Ueda asked. He walked up to Ohno and sat on the chair Ryo was sitting on before he disappeared.

“What do you mean?” Ohno knitted his eyebrows.

„”You are one of the most talented hackers and the always had an eye on you. Especially after you let their systems break down once,” Ueda started explaining. “Maybe they changed your implant and that’s why you can’t do dangerous or crazy things in the virtual world anymore.” Ueda pointed to his own temple, where a small scar was visible.

“It could be.” Ohno shrugged his shoulders. “But they won’t stop me, even though I am going to die in this war.”

Something in Kame clenched. Of course he knew that their life was always in danger, especially since they decided to fight in this war, but it was something different to hear it from the other. Kame turned away so that no one could see his face. He knew his eyes would immediately tell Ohno that he was hurt and he really didn’t want to look weak.

The others just nodded at that. No one wanted to comment on Ohno’s words. They knew that what they did would probably mean their deaths, and the chance to get Cybtech down was pretty small, but they wouldn’t give up. Silently all of them agreed to this. And the fact that they had a new guy joining them was a little light at the end of the tunnel – because it wasn’t just anybody joining them, but someone from Nishikido-clan. And they were known as the best hackers around the world.

“Tomorrow is the date Junno should be back,” Maru broke the silence. “He visited his hometown to get a better view of how things in north are running.”

“Niigata?” Kame turned to ask.

„”Yes,“ Ueda answered. “It’s not the North of the North, but it’s good enough to get an overview.”

Kame nodded. “He wasn’t online, right?” It was their biggest fear to get caught by Cybtech. And all of them were on the Wanted-list. Every Quarter had done something to get Cybtech’s attention. No one could imagine what would happen if one of them get caught. It would mean their death. Kame brushed his wrist. He looked at the tiny tattoo there. It was a small rune they had decided to make their logo, so they would know immediately who was an underground Quarter and who was an intruder. Up till now no one outside the Quarter knew about their sign, and they hoped that wouldn’t change.

“No, he wasn’t,” Maru said. “On the one hand that’s just normal, because he hides from Cybtech, but on the other hand we’re slowly getting worried. It’s been three weeks since he went away, and he should have returned by now. So we wait, but our hopes that he will return fade.”

Kame sighed at that. “If they get him, what do you think will happen to him?”

The others just looked at each other for a moment. They didn’t talk much about “what if they get you”, but now that Kame had asked, they needed to think about it.

“I don’t want to imagine,” Ohno said honestly.

“I think they try to get information about our location and how many people we are and what we are planning to do.” Ueda twisted the glass between his hands. He didn’t look up to face the others. “And I think they use every method to get this.”

“But let’s hope the best for now. We don’t know if anything has happened to Junno. So let’s wait.” Maru wanted to cheer them up.

The others nodded absent-mindedly. Even though they tried keeping their fighting spirit on a high level, they sometimes glided into a desperate mood.

“I want to check on my family once again,” Ohno said out of the blue. “I will go now.”

Kame blinked. Something in Ohno’s eyes made him freeze. „”I will join you,“ he said without waiting for an answer from the other.

Before Ueda and Maru could say something Kame and Ohno both went offline and disappeared from the room. “Strange,” was the last word Kame could hear from Maru.

~~~

Kame felt a little dizzy when he came back to reality. He sat on his couch, shaking a little, like always when he disconnected his implant from his body. He looked around, but Ohno was already gone. The clock told hi, that they had been online 6 hours. It was already late in the afternoon. “Reality runs faster than virtuality,” Kame thought. He stood up, grasping for the lamp to find some hold. He hated the minutes after coming back. It was always like being drunk.

“Ohno?” he asked to the room, but there was no response. Kame still had the picture of Ohno’s eyes in his mind. Something happened there with him, he knew that. Kame winced. A sudden thought hit him. He knew what had happened. He took his jacket from the table and rushed outside. He looked around every corner carefully. Cyber-robots were everywhere around.

Online Kame thought. His implant reacted almost immediately. He walked down the virtual corridor and saw a door appear in front of him. Behind that door was a dark room. Some small silver lines were running on the ground, on the walls, and even on the ceiling. “Forty-four-hundred-seven-three-ten,” he thought. A window opened and Kame could reset the numbers there with the ones he needed.

He stepped out of the nothing and went back to the corridor. He hoped that in the few seconds before he hacked Cybtech they hadn’t recognized him. It was always a danger to go online, but especially because they needed to hack their code every time again. Now he should be safe, even though he was online. He blocked Cybtech.

Of course Kame was actually not a hacker, but every of them learned how to use this one special hack. Because all of them needed to go online from time to time, and they needed to be sure that Cybtech couldn’t follow them. So the hackers prepared everything for them, so they just needed a few simple steps to block them. The original hacking code was something Kame never understood, even though Ohno explained it almost a hundred times now. He still had no idea how it worked out. He smiled at this.

He walked back to the first door on his private corridor. He stepped in and looked around. There were no new messages, except one spam mail, telling him that his potential power would increase with a certain incredible implant update. He ignored that.

On the other side of the room were a little button and a monitor. He pushed the button and typed in some passwords for the monitor. His view changed. He was now half online, half in real life.

We walked down the street till something in his sight started blinking. He stepped inside a house and hid behind the door till two cyber-robots had passed him. He smiled. The program Ohno developed really was a win for them. Now he could see every robot approaching him, and was able to hide from them.

A new message blinked on Kame’s inner eye, but he ignored it. It was Ueda asking if everything was okay. He would answer afterwards. Read and marked Kame thought and the message was gone.

He waited a few minutes more before he started walking down the street again. His inner eye showed him it was free to go. But nevertheless he looked left and right to be sure that there was no one else around. He saw two points appearing on his view. The points blinked green. Humans, Kame thought. They weren’t moving at all. Kame looked around the corner of the last house on this street. The buildings were already decomposing and Kame had to cough when he smelled the scent of garbage mixed with dust and something that had once been alive. Kame didn’t want to know what had died in the house.

He ran towards the green points and peeked into the room where they must have been. He saw a guy and a woman sitting there. He now knew where the awful scent came from. Kame felt like throwing up. He looked from one to the other. They were pale and thin and the stench definitely came from this room. The points blinking in his inner eye let Kame know that they were alive, but probably not for much longer. He looked around the room. The life security system blinked. “Only 2% left,” was written there. “That means they have been online for 6 months,” Kame guessed. He looked around. There he saw the reason of the disgusting scent. He couldn’t tell if it was once a cat or a dog, but it was definitely a pet. Kame gulped. He stumbled forward to leave this place behind. In the end he couldn’t do anything for them.

He climbed over the rest of the tumbled in house. He knew right behind it he’d find Ohno. He didn’t know what made him so sure, but probably it was because he had known the other for so long and they walked the same way since the war started. And that was already four years ago. The way was free, only four green and one blue point were blinking in his inner eye. Kame smiled sadly. He was right, he’d find Ohno there.

He sneaked around the next house and opened the back door slowly. He didn’t want to attract anyone’s attention. He looked around the corner, but there was no one on this floor. He walked up to the stairs and looked at them closely. Check stair he ordered and a screen appeared. There were two stairs marked red. He knew he shouldn’t use them, because there was either a trap or the stair was already rotten. He skipped over them and reached the second floor without any trouble.

The blinking points got closer. He opened the door to the second room on this floor. He sighed when he saw Ohno kneeling on the ground, his hand tightly grasping the hand of a little girl.

“Ohno,” Kame’s voice was soft. He didn’t want to blame the other for coming here, even though he knew it wasn’t a good idea. “It’s dangerous to come here.”

Ohno was still holding the girl’s hand. He didn’t even look at Kame. “She’s as cold as ice,” was all he said.

Kame looked at the people sitting on the couch. There was a man, probably Ohno’s father, a woman, his mother, a man their age, his brother, and the much younger girl, his sister. Something in Kame clenched. There weren’t many times he was glad to be alone, without family, but when he saw scenes like this, he was. Ohno cared about them. He always came here to look after them. Something Kame didn’t need to do. But on the other hand he missed his family of course. He stepped closer and knelt next to Ohno. He stroked the other’s head and cheek, before he placed a kiss on his cheek.

“I probably have no idea what you feel now, Ohno. But I know one thing: We won’t give up, and once this is finished, you’ll have your family back,” Kame said.

Ohno looked at the life security system display . “Low, very low,” he murmured. He shook his head. Kame could only guess what he felt now, and he had no idea how to help him. In the end he couldn’t. He couldn’t promise to bring this to an end before they died and he couldn’t help him bringing them back to real life. It would have been their death to break into a virtual room Cybtech had created. Cybtech would catch them in almost no time. Kame felt helpless. He wanted to say something, do something, change something, but he had no way to do so.

“I want to help you so badly,” he finally said. He could feel Ohno’s head leaning against his shoulder. It felt warm against his body.

“You do just by being here,” Ohno answered.

~~~

Kame and Ohno sneaked down the street to get to Ohno’s apartment. “Where are they?” Kame whispered after a short time. There were no cyber-robots around. It was strange, because usually they were everywhere and there was hardly any chance to get from one street to the next without running into ten of them.

Ohno just shrugged his shoulders. They reached Ohno’s apartment with hiding from just one of the robots. Ohno opened the door and they both slipped in with a last look left and right to really make sure no one had followed them.

“Do you want to stay here?” Ohno asked when they were sitting on the couch half an hour later.

For a moment Kame just looked at him. He could feel his heart beat rising. Of course they knew it was a risk, but he longed for some normality in their life. He finally nodded at the other.

~~~

Kame closed his eyes. He tried to feel this special moment with every part of his body.  
He could feel Ohno roaming over his body, his lips leaving kisses all over his chest. It was such a different thing to feel the other one’s warmth in real life. He couldn’t imagine why people decided to only meet virtually anymore.

Kame arched his back when he felt Ohno moving in him. He couldn’t remember when it had been that kind of intense before. It was as if they hadn’t touched each other for years.

“Look at me,” Ohno said planting some kisses on Kame’s nose. “I want you to look at me.”

Kame opened his eyes and smiled a little. He could feel the heat in his body rising when Ohno moved a little faster. Ohno’s dark brown eyes were resting on him and it made something in him twist and turn in delight. Even with all the things they had to go through during these times, they still had each other. And that was what Kame was always thinking about when he felt bad.

Kame reached for Ohno’s neck and pulled him down. He wanted to feel the whole heat of Ohno’s body resting on him. He wanted no space between their bodies. He let his fingers wander down Ohno’s back. He could feel Ohno’s breath on his neck. Ohno enjoyed it as much as he did, Kame was sure about that.

They both came without making much noise. They could always get caught, that was always in Kame’s and Ohno’s mind.

~~~

Kame woke up early in the morning. For a moment he had to think about where he was. He turned to look at the other, who was still lying next to him. “I will go now,” he whispered. He knew Ohno was already awake, but he still didn’t want to get up.

Ohno wrapped his arms around Kame’s waist when he wanted to get up. “Can’t we just stay here forever?” he asked.

Kame smiled at that. It was a sad smile and something in him started hurting. „”I really want to stay, but you know it’s a risk.“

“I know, if we go separate ways, they can probably only get one of us, and not us both.” Ohno rolled on his back. He stared at the ceiling. Kame knew the look in the other’s eyes.

“You won’t give up now, okay?” Kame pointed at him.

“Yeah, yeah,” Ohno answered. “Do we meet later in the underground?” Ohno wanted to know.

Kame nodded at him. “Sure, Ueda and Maru have something new. I think they sent a mail yesterday.”

Kame let the other pull him into a last kiss before he left Ohno’s apartment. It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, but appearances are deceptive. Online Kame thought and the implant turned on immediately.

Kame looked around. He was still in Ohno’s house, and he tried finding a good place to hide to go online and check on what had happened. He sneaked down the stairs and stopped halfway between ground floor and cellar. He hoped no one would find him there.

He entered his corridor and looked around. Nothing He entered the dark room and hacked Cybtech again to be undisturbed. There was nothing special in his corridor when he walked back out there, but something was strange.

On his message list bobbed one mail on. Sex massage for free – just come by at 10am – room number 666. Five talented guys are waiting for you.

Kame had to smile about that. That was for sure Maru’s work. No one else thought of such strange mails as he did him. But till now no one had become aware of these fake mails. Five guys, Kame thought. That has to mean that Junno and Ryo were back.

Offline Kame thought and got back to the real world. He needed to meet with the others. He looked round. It was safer to go home and go online from there, but on the other hand he could get Ohno and go with him to the underground together.

Kame headed back to the apartment and knocked. Ohno was surprised to see him, but he immediately pulled him into his room. “What happened?” Ohno looked worried.

“Nothing in particular. I just got a strange mail from our underground friends. And I thought it would be easier and faster to go online here,” Kame responded. Of course that was also a reason, but in the end he didn’t want to go away from Ohno.

“Then let’s go there,” Ohno smiled at him.

~~~

They opened the door to room 666, as Maru always called it. The underground hell, he once said. It was long ago, when people were still interested in their real lives, when the world war 4 hadn’t even started. Now almost every underground fighter, or quarter, as they called themselves, was already dead. They didn’t know how long they’d be able to fight Cybtech. And they knew that with the next attack they’d either defeat them or get defeated. They wouldn’t have enough people to go for another round. It was a now or never situation.

“Amazeballs,” Maru laughed out loud. Some tears were already running down his cheeks.

“Ciao pao,” Junno waved at Ohno and Kame, also laughing out loud.

Kame looked from one to the other and back when someone from behind the bar suddenly spoke. “Great, you are here. I feared I would have to be alone with those idiots for another hour,” Ueda sounded grumpy.

“What did they drink?” Ohno wanted to know, and Kame could see that he added “give it to me, too” in his mind.

“I have no fucking idea,” Ueda growled. Yes, he was angry, Kame thought. Normally he didn’t have a problem with drinking and having fun, but those two were completely wasted.

“Unbelieveabubbles,” Junno was still laughing.

“Can you speak coherently?” Kame asked, but he didn’t get any answer. He walked up to the table and smelled the glass in front of Maru. “It’s delisharoonie,“ was he all he said.

Kame rolled his eyes. “Of course it is,” he said. “It’s absinth mixed with ADT.”

“ADT?” Ueda tilted his head.

“You don’t know what that is?” Ohno asked. Ueda just shook his head.

Kame and Ohno took their place on the small couch on the other side of the bar. “I won’t sit next to them, it’s just the beginning,” Kame answered.

“No probbles,” Junno said, and they both burst into laughter again, making the others roll their eyes.

“ADT are anti dizziness tablets. They were used by people who wanted to be online and offline at the same time. Most of them would become dizzy and sometimes they would faint,” Ohno started explaining. “But ever since the implants added the security system the anti-dizziness meds come through the implant and actually you don’t need the ADT anymore. So some junkies started using them as designer drugs. And along with with absinth it’s the most popular drug on the market.“

“Oh great,” Ueda grumbled. Kame couldn’t hide a grin when he imagined Ueda fighting with a drug-high Maru. “And how will this end?” He pointed at the other two.

Kame grinned. “Probably they’ll end up throwing up and their heads will feel like exploding, in real life, too.”

“At least they get what they deserve for ruining my nerves with this,” Ueda replied. “Sha-mazing, to speak in their new language,“ he added.
Kame looked round. Even though Junno and Maru had their little drug-high, it was still a good feeling to be there. It had something familiar, especially since they had no other family, or their families were in the same state as Ohno’s.

“Where’s Ryo? Did he contact you?” Kame asked.

Ueda nodded at him. “Yes, he sent a mail. He gets creative like Maru with sending mails, but it’s okay. He wrote that he is on his way right now. And he’ll be in Tokyo by tomorrow. We just need a real life meeting point.”

“Which is getting harder,” Ohno said. “They are almost everywhere by now. I hardly see people walking around. They are all only online anymore.”

“And those who buy new life support systems, are almost dead,” Kame added. He could feel Ohno’s hand clinch around his for a moment. He knew how hard it was for him, with his family practically alive but almost dead at the same time. Kame pressed the other’s hand as if to say that everything is going to be alright again, even though he didn’t know if it was even true.

“We decided to meet in the old 2 quarter,” Ueda said, earning a surprised glance from Kame and Ohno.

“But it’s dangerous there,” Ohno said. “When Cybtech found out about the quarter headquarters, they positioned their squads there.”

Ueda nodded at that. “Yes, but that was two years ago.”

“We observed the place during the last two weeks, and there was no one around. Probably they think we won’t go back to that place anymore,” said Maru hooking into the conversation. For a moment his mind seemed to be clear, but right afterwards he started laughing again about whatever.

“My nerves,” Ueda just grumbled. “But yes, he is right. There was no one around that time. The place is rather destroyed. It is almost nothing like it was two years ago.”

Kame nodded. He suddenly had a bad feeling in his stomach, which wasn’t because of the meeting point. He stroked Ohno’s hand, but it felt weird. He turned to look at the other one’s face and froze. “Ohno?” he whispered, but the other wasn’t really listening to him.

“Run,” Ohno just said and Kame knew what he meant.

Ueda looked at them and for one moment Maru and Junno also kept silent. Ohno’s figure started disappearing and in a few seconds he was gone. Kame looked around and mumbled a short “sorry” before he logged himself out.

He just heard Ueda’s last words, “two days and quarter headquarters” before he also disappeared.