Friends

Familiar sounds of creaking floors and purring electricity appeared as I pushed the door to my apartment open. Up on the tenth floor where the hustle and bustle of the streets was nowhere within earshot, but still not high enough to feel the building swaying back and forth from the neverending hazy wind that Tokyo refused to let go.

My room was barren as ever, with a bed held up by its rusty frame in one corner and a black dresser in the other. The only other piece of furniture in my room was an old brown wooden desk, given to me by Kono a few years ago.

On the desk was a black pair of glasses, which I quickly snatched up and put on. Colorful screens exploded into thin air as the computer lenz activated. Most computer lenz’s were contacts these days, but these old glasses still did the trick, and more importantly were way cheaper.

I swiped the news to the side and walked over to the window, looking over the dreary streets below. The rain had only slightly let up, but at least the lightning disappeared beyond the city.

Kono’s repair shop sat directly across the street, the neon lights lighting the dark streets with most the streetlights broken beyond repair. Hovercars drove along the road from time to time, but mostly only the pitter patter of rain echoed on the streets below.

A red dot appeared in the corner of my eye, the sign someone was calling me. I pulled up the call screen to see Rei, a good friend of mine from back when I was a kid, giving me a call.

The second I hit accept, a hologram of Rei appeared in my room, or more accurately his avatar appeared in my room, what looked to be a ninja with two guns at his waist.

“How’s it been Makoto?” Rei unwrapped the shroud around his face to reveal a face with sharp features and spiky hair.

“Interesting to say the least. A rebel decided to make a little speech at Utagai Market earlier today and got detained.”

“Damn, little rebel factions getting brave. Only a matter of time before one of them crosses a line faster than they aught.

“Not with the Lex Credendi you told me about.”

Rei shrugged his shoulders. “Fair point. It’s a race now. A few little mice trying to wage war against an army of mousetraps.”

“Uhhh sure. Where are you these days anyway? Still in Hokkaido?

“Tokyo called me back, and I couldn’t ignore that feeling something big’s gonna shake the city soon.”

“Something big?”

“All i'll say is I feel things are in motion, in fact, I feel gears are already starting to turn.” Rei pulled up a screen and sent it floating towards me. “They’re on a private server so there's no chance of anything leaking or a way for anyone to tell you're seeing this.”

“If you say so.” With Rei, the only thing I could verifiably say about him was that his sources were top notch. I had no idea where he lived, what he did, and his opinions of Fides were anyone’s guess.

I looked down towards the screen he passed towards me, split into two parts. What looked to be a news report lined the right side of the screen with a giant play button in the center.

“Good evening, and welcome back to MHK news. Starting out with a sombering report, for the first time this year a murder has taken place within the Ebisu district. Tekashi Onoe, age thirty seven, was found murdered less than an hour ago by a local squal of Coruption Checkers. Not much is known about the perpetrator at the moment, however they did leave a calling card consisting of seemingly nonsensical words written in the victim's blood. Remember, if you see anything dangerous alert the authorities immediately at…”

I paused the video and turned towards the second part, a photo gallery by the looks of it. “Ack!”

Nausea piled up in my stomach the second I looked at the first picture. “What the fuck Rei?”

“My bad, I'm so used to seeing shit now that I forget how weak a stomach people like you can have.”

“Thaaaanks.” I rolled my eyes at his backhanded response and forced my eyes back towards the screen. A bloody corpse was front and center, multiple stab wounds on its stomach. Written on the concrete wall in deep crimson was what looked to be a message in Japanese, though from the picture's angle it was impossible to make it out.

“Go to the next image.” Rei said, looking over my shoulder.

I slid my finger on the page, dragging the image until it was out of view. Replacing it was a close up of the wall, just enough so the text was easily legible.

“There is the truth, and nothing but the truth. But what is truth, and who decides the truth? Is it God? Is it man? But if man fails at his own truth, is there any truth created by man?”

“What the hell is this?” I muttered under my breath.

“A message. Fuckers at Fides dont want anyone seeing this, hence why they called it gibberish.”

“But they're not wrong, it's gibberish, Nonsensical! It feels like something you would see on the internet by some idiot trying to be deep.”

Rei just smiled. “ If you say so, it doesn't change the fact that Fides is doing everything in their power to make sure that message never sees the light of day. Things are moving behind the scenes, and someone who takes the time to make a scene such as this isn’t going to stop after one attempt to get their message out.”

“At least it's all the way in Ebisu.”

“Speaking of that, don’t be surprised if the next one of these pops up around you. Call it a hunch, but I got a reason or two to bet Taito is looking like a prime location.”

“Around here?” Crap, why did Rei have to be right about these things most of the time.

He snickered. “You look terrified out of your mind. As much as you love Fides, I severely doubt you're ever going to be their target.” He suddenly lost his smile and stared me dead in the eye. “Makoto, if you hear anything, call me immediately. I'll send you an encrypted line later tonight.”

“N-No problem.” Dang, I’d known Rei forever but he still caught me off guard when he suddenly went all serious.

“Beep Beep.” Rei looked down and pulled out a screen from thin air. “Fuck.”

“You ok?”

“Yeah, something came up. Remember, the second you hear something, call me.” And just like that he was gone.

My bed squeaked as I collapsed on top of the hard mattress. With a flick of the wrist several screens popped into view.

“News… News… Here we go.” The screen flashed a bright orange before transforming to a list of websites.

Articles about everything under the sun fought for room on the non existent screen inches from my eyes. Cooking, politics, drama, it all somehow forced its way in my field of vision.

Murder, the one word my eyes scowered the enless articles for, appear in view. Considering the amount of murders Tokyo had, this was probabilly the same case.

I clicked on the article, sending the screen into oblivion before the article popped into view. I trusted Rei and all, but I couldn't believe Fides would put in as much effort as he believed to hide that wall of gibberish. Surely it had to be in one of these articles.

I scanned it, detales, unknown culprit, local here… None of it even mentioned the text on the wall. And when it came to photos of the crime scene, nada.

The next article turned out to be more of the same, only difference being it mentioned that the murder left the giberish calling card like the news Rei showed me.

It didn't make sense. Article after article and nothing, and while I couldn't believe Fides would go to the effort to delete it, those pictures were certainly not edited, Rei wouldn't fall for that.

I swiped the screen away and set my glasses off to the side. Truthfully I loved my computer lenz, but dang it was hard to get used to it mentally, and with Kono having a vendetta against them for who knows why there wasn't exactly a ton of opportunities for me to wear them. It wasn't like I could afford them back before Kono took me and Nari in anyway.

Warmth covered my body as I laid down for the night, yet that rebel’s words still tugged at my mind. He clearly needed help before anything else, but as much as I hated it his questions still lingered. Obviously there were answers for there somewhere, Fides was more than smart enough to answer his poor attempts at discrediting them, full of straw man I was sure.

The sound of blankets ruffling broke the constant electrical hum as I turned over in bed. I could always head to the library tomorrow anyway. Letting that lunatic eat away at me like this would only be giving him exactly what he wanted.

With the passing of cars and white electrical noise teaming up, my eyes slowly closed for the night.