00010: Confrontation

“Surprise! You don’t lose the ability to operate a fucking keyboard when you grow a pair of tits. And now let go of me!” she yelled. Her face had gone bright red. She looked really pissed and struggled against my grip with all her strength. Her short black hair laid scattered all across her face.

“You seem to have forgotten the reason why I captured you in the first place.”

“Uhh … this is sexual harassment!”

I halted for a moment. Was it really? Well, it was obvious that she was not comfortable with me pushing her to the ground. But I also could not let go of her or she would run off. “Then stop … struggling and don’t give me a reason to restrain you to the ground.”

“Sorry, but I won’t escape if I’d stop struggling.” She tried shifting her legs.

I pinned them down under my knees as well.

“This is not fair!”

“You should have thought about that before you tried breaking into Ando-sensei’s laptop.”

She gritted her teeth, screaming. “You know nothing! And how should I have suspected that some psycho would jump me the millisecond I started accessing anything? How did you even find me so quickly?”

I smiled. “You shouldn’t attack someone that knows how to track down devices inside his network.”

She exhaled. “Fuck!”

Finally, she gave up on pushing against my grip and closed her eyes. Even the most contentious ones must somehow admit when a fight was lost. She opened them again and just death-glared into mine. The black fringes of her bangs covered them partly. There were no words, just our heavy breathing from the running and fighting. We were close enough so that I could feel the humid air from her lungs on my lips. She tasted … kind of sweet?

I shuddered the moment my focus shifted from the narrow tunnel vision of the chase to the whole picture. It sunk in as fast as a lightning strike and was only then that I actually recognized how beautiful she was. She looked about my age, probably a bit older. The big hoodie did cover up most of her curves, but I could certainly feel very shapes around her hips and chest. The pitch black hair was cut angled at the height of her shoulders and shined at the artificial light she sat under. Oh … this was really bad! I should immediately start putting some distance between us and give her the free space. It was wrong to have those kinds of thoughts in a proximity like this and above all towards a complete stranger. She was not even struggling anymore, so there was no inherent danger of her escaping.

She must have noticed my face slowly turning red and started blushing herself, looking a little embarrassed to the side.

“You calmed down now?” I asked.

She nodded; her face flushed even more.

“Then I’ll get off you, okay? But don’t think about running again or you’ll meet with the ground a second time.”

“I can go well without that,” she grumbled.

“Great, then we agree.” I heaved my body upwards while maintaining steady view contact. I did not want to risk, her using the favor of the hour and punching me where it hurts the most. She as well kept on staring into my eyes as if she was a wild animal that just prepared a lethal attack.

But nothing like that happened. We both came to sit on the floor next to each other, our eyes still locked to one another. The air was tensed up as the both of us moved. “And now?”, she asked and shoved the black hair out of her face.

“Why did you try to break into Ando-sensei’s Laptop?” I asked.

“I don’t think that any of this is of your business. What are you even? His henchman?”

“He is my teacher! And a very good one to be frank,” I exclaimed.

She narrowed her eyes a bit. “If you are a regular student, then why aren’t you at your club activities right now?”

I shook my head. “I am not in any club. We just talked a bit after class, and I was with him, when he traced your requests back to the school cafeteria. And when we located you, I … somehow found myself running.”

“You seem to be more of the short-tempered kind of guy.” She gave me a mocking smile. “But this could have ended quite bad for you if it wasn’t for a single girl but rather a whole squad of buff guys twice your size.”

“My mind hasn’t thought that far,” I admitted with a slight laugh.

She could not hide a smile herself, that made her look even prettier. “Did he also teach you about programming? Or even hacking?”

“Yeah, he did. He nudged me into the right direction, reviewed my programming and showed me where I would find the right sources. He taught me a lot. I just cracked his …” I stopped in place, when I noticed how the tone of the whole situation had drifted away. She was a criminal, someone who tried breaking into someone else’s computer and I was just casually chatting with her as if none of that had happened.

She tilted her head, blinked and looked at me with interest glowing in her eyes. “What did you crack? One of his programs?” she asked. So, she knew about Ando-sensei’s security software. “Let’s see, there are quite a few that have been exploited in the last years: Zuijin? Yamabiko? Uwan?”

“That’s the first time I’ve heard of those. The program I cracked is called Yamata no Orochi.”

Her eyes widened, she let out a gasp. “What? You actually cracked Yamata no Orochi? Really? How did you …?”

I was not really sure if this was a big deal. But at least she seemed to know his programs … well, she tried hacking his computer. Of course, she did. “As if I would tell you,” I blurted out.

She sat up straight, now eyeing me with large puppy eyes. “Pretty please! I just know that the NSA was able to exploit it two years ago and some insiders say the british GCHQ did it as well, but that could never be proved, to be honest. Oh, and then there was this one guy from … I don’t remember the country exactly, but somewhere in South America. He however didn’t deliver any evidence. Do you want to be like him?”

NSA? GCHQ? Those were intelligence agencies. What did they have to do with Ando-sensei’s software? I gulped. Whatever it was, I had to play along for now and not show her how little I actually knew. I crossed my arms. “I am not telling some criminal.”

Her until now so happy face froze for a moment in time. Something deep seemed to have broken behind her façade as a sudden realization flashed into her expression. Her smile slowly faded, making space for something darker. Suddenly there was a grim shadow hanging over her. She did not talk back, which made her silence seem like a guilty plea. Her eyes just slowly faded to the ground. She clenched her hands.

“What … kind of reaction is this?” I asked.

“I’m … sorry,” she mumbled, evading my view. “You’re completely right. I forfeited my right for that knowledge. If I know, the wrong people get to know as well, and they do terrible things with it.”

Well, that really came unexpected. I eyed her with an open mouth, unable to form senseful words. “Uh … I … uhm.”

“What are you doing with me now?” she asked in a submissive tone and looked up at me again with a scared smile. Seeing her this way made me almost feel like I was the bad guy here. Why did I suddenly start to feel sorry for her? Was she manipulating me into this? I guess it is the same as with cute animal babies: You can’t shake the feeling of adoring and protecting them. I was a guy after all, and she was a pretty girl. I may be stronger than her, but she had me in her hands emotionally. We were like two people at rope pulling – two opposing forces fighting against each other.

But could I blame her? This situation had turned out critical for her. I didn’t know the exact details, but if I called the police, it could completely ruin her further life. I guess this is what you must deal with if you start into this kind of business. I could easily help her and say that she ran off before I could catch her. In other words: It was nothing but my judgement, that separated her from legal consequences. An uneasy feeling grew inside my stomach from the mere thought of the huge power imbalance between us. I could take a personal advantage out of this and the mere possibility of that clouded my judgement.

As my mind raced to find my answer, she let her gaze slide through the hallways into the direction of her backpack, moving her hands on the ground between her legs as to stand up.

“Didn’t I make myself clear?” I shouted.

She flinched at my sudden outburst. “Jeez, chill! I am just making myself comfortable since you seem to enjoy interrogating your victims on the ground.”

“I am not that stupid. Do you really think I don’t recognize you plotting your escape?”

She growled. “Sorry … but then tell me what you want from me!”

I looked at her for a while. “I … don’t know yet,” I said.

Another unexpected but seemingly honest smile wandered across her lips but this time it stayed, even though it still had a hint of bitterness mixed in. Her eyes scanned me from head to toe. She had really kind eyes in a gentle, deep blue. My own words from before echoed into my mind.

She is a criminal! A criminal. A … is she really?

Do bad people have such kind eyes? Her guilty reaction seemed humble and honest. Maybe she was pulled into something that she could not get out herself. Maybe I could help her.

“May I know your name?” I asked.

She flinched a bit back, giving me a distraught look. “Sure, and I’ll take the warrant for attempted data theft right with me.” But then she exhaled and leaned back towards me again, still looking away from me. “You won’t get my real name – it’s not like I’m keen on getting imprisoned, but … my handle … is ArcticLynx,” she murmured.

“Kanaoka-kun!” Ando-sensei stood in the corridor, rushing towards us. He caught me by surprise and the moment I looked at him, I instantly felt a knee in my stomach. The girl pushed me away with seemingly all the force her body could muster. I fell back under pain as she jumped up, away from me. I reached out for her but only caught the tip from the sleeve of her hoodie, holding it tight. She tried to pull it back, but the sleeve was just ripping at her like a rubber band. I lay on the ground but would not let go of the sleeve. I would NOT let go! She tried to drag me with her like a wet sack but soon realized that she wouldn’t be able to run away like that. I heard a zipper and felt the resistance on the sleeve disappearing.

A plain white T-shirt appeared underneath it. One step and she grabbed her bag pack. I was lying somehow twisted on the floor, her stripped hoodie in my hand, my eyes focused on it while she disappeared in the blurred distance. The pain took me a moment to get back on my feet.

“Kanaoka-kun, are you mad?” Ando-sensei reached me. “You can’t run after people like that. What if she had a weapon?”

“Then watch closely how I can!” I gripped her hoodie tight, clenching my mouth to withstand the pain in my stomach and sprinted after her again. However, this time it was not anger, it was something deeper. I wanted to talk to her about how she did it, about why she did it. Where she learned about hacking, when she started learning about it. There were so many questions in my head. She was further off, and I only saw her turning the corner at the exit.

She ran to the back of the parking lot - a bike was parked on the sidewalk. She quickly, threw her leg over the saddle and set a foot onto the pedal. I stopped in place, far enough away to not reach her until she could drive off, showing my hands to not threaten her. “Hey! Please wait!”

She did not turn to me right away, looked a bit down and only after that to me. Her eyes had this strange glare inside them. Shame … or guilt? “Kanaoka-kun, huh? Sorry! I didn’t mean to kick you so hard, but you kinda scared me a bit.”

“I – didn’t mean to.” My hand dug into the hurting spot at my stomach. “I mean … sorry.”

“Uh … No! I must be sorry!” She evaded my view.

I slowly held out my hand. “Your hoodie.”

“Nice try.”

“No! I mean it.”

She looked me up and down. “You’re letting me escape?”

I took a deep breath. There was this feeling inside me. Maybe her beauty had just blurred my mind, but I somehow felt that she was not inherently bad. I just could not see the whole picture. My cheeks grew warm. “For now. Yes!”

“Well, then …” She nodded, took a deep breath. “Keep it – as a reminder that you should stay as far away from me as possible, or the vortex will suck you in as well.”

Before I could even say another thing, she pushed down the pedal full force and was off. I only saw her driving away in the distance, and it was only then that I realized, whatever we shared for these brief moments of our lives, would soon be nothing more than a memory.