Young Lord

Zain hesitated. It was the perfect chance for him to continue his tailing with the bug he planted. His target was showing his back to him, completely defenseless and unaware. He knew that it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

However, at the same time, within Zain’s mind was another thought. The anxiety of being tailed back, that all of it was just an elaborate trap to force him to show himself. The young man had an uneasiness lingering in his mind, that if he took this chance, the one that would be put into a corner would only be himself.

Zain clenched his fist and gritted his teeth.

I’ve always gambled with my life on the line!

Even if it was dangerous, even if it was life-threatening, he would never back down.

The bug, lightly, silently, made its way onto Yusei. However, because of that brief moment of hesitation, it couldn’t stick itself onto the target’s back like its owner wanted to. Instead, the bug was dangling on the tail end of its target’s ponytail, just light enough for the owner to not notice its presence.

Of course, Zain could control the bug to leave for a better place to hide itself. But the way it’s been positioned, the young man decided that the best course of action was to just leave it alone.

Meanwhile, his body also moved – towards the window of his dorm room.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Behind him, a robotic voice sounded.

“Tailing that guy directly, what else?” Zain replied.

“It’s still in the afternoon, let me remind you,” AISLE 4 answered. “Sure, if the situation calls for it, I can help you bypass the school’s security cameras, since you’re fulfilling my creator’s orders, but what about the crowd still down there?”

“I have a camouflage. It’ll be fine.”

“And why are you tailing him directly? Wouldn’t it be safer to just continue watching the bug?”

“Sure. But going after him also means that if he’s indeed the culprit behind the missing data, I can just steal it back right away without wasting any more time.”

“… Why are you risking such a big gamble? Even if it’s for my creator, there’s no need to…”

“The sooner I solve this case, the sooner I get to meet him,” Zain tightened his grip on the window’s side. “And the sooner I can get to stopping that guy.”

“… I’ll keep you undetected here. Go.”

“Thanks.”

With a single word, Zain equipped his nanobot armor, turned invisible thanks to its Camo Mode, jumped out the window, and spread his Wing Mode, all at a moment’s notice.

“Sorry to burst your bubble,” as the young man took to the sky, however, AISLE's voice was transferred to him the same way Mike contacted him through the suit. Naturally, this caused Zain’s eyes to widen in shock:

“What? How are you here?”

“I took the liberty to rig part of myself to your communication system,” the AI continued. “But more importantly, did you confirm that your target moved outside?”

Only at this point did Zain remember that he didn’t bother to see where Yusei was going, but now was too late of a time to admit it. And so, the young man pretended to be offended and raised his voice to hide his embarrassment:

“Of course I did! Look!”

Once again, the young man proved himself to have the blessing of the gods as a small red dot – signaling Yusei – appeared moving outside the school on his tracker. Judging by the speed he was moving, Zain could vaguely guess that his target was moving on a vehicle.

AISLE confirmed this as well with its follow-up question:

“Looks like he’s going by car, doesn’t it?”

“Seems so,” Zain nodded. With his naturally faster movement from Wing Mode, there was little chance that he could lose sight of Yusei, and the tracker meant that he didn’t have to identify and follow the vehicle too quickly to avoid the risk of being found out.

The young man flew for a while, turning left and right in the sky on multiple occasions. Wherever Yusei was going, it was certainly not an easy path to follow on land, so much so that even AISLE started to wonder:

“Where is he going?”

“Want me to lower the altitude a bit?” Zain asked.

“Yes, please.”

As the young man slowly descended, the scenery of the streets below grew clearer by the second. A slew of colorful neon signs of all kinds growing from all sides of the multitudes of skyscrapers made the otherwise dark and narrow alleyway a photon bomb that would sucker-punch anyone unprepared. And the bloody red of the setting sun only added to the space’s mysterious and dangerous feel.

“Where is this place?” This time, it was Zain who uttered.

“Looks like a red-light district,” replied AIDE.

“What’s that?”

“Best for you not to know.”

As the AI finished its answer, from inside the various buildings, passionate sounds of male and female voices echoed in the air.

“So much for that, I guess,” letting out a sigh, Zain landed. The wings on his back quickly retracted into the suit also, but his camouflage remained intact.

The young man turned on his tracker once more. Yusei’s red dot soon appeared nearby, in one of the various routes in the alleyway. However, his blistering speed suggested anything but normal, as Zain knew that this route was too small for any cars or even bikes to maneuver around.

What gives? He thought, running as fast as he could to follow the path laid out. How is he so fast in this dump?

In the end, he still couldn’t catch up with Yusei, but he didn’t need to. The target finally stopped at one of the buildings near the end of an alleyway – a run-down, small three-storage house with a neon red sign of a revealing lady with bat-like wings.

In the middle of the sign were the letters “Demon Wind”.

Though in front of him stood two tall, muscular men wearing all black, each also with a pair of sunglasses, Zain took a step forward. Believing that his invisibility was more than enough to sneak in, the young man showed no fear. However, his confidence was soon shut down by AISLE’s timely warning:

“Stop. They have metal detectors.”

True to the AI’s words, on the bouncers’ hips was a small, cylindrical device with a metallic exterior and a small “eye” at one end. And as the nanobots were still metal, no matter how good the camouflage was, Zain would have still been stopped had he just waltzed in without a care. And so, the young man thought of another idea.

“We circle to the back.”

As Zain was about to move, however, another voice sounded from the inside that caught his attention:

“It’s the Young Lord! Care for some fun with us tonight?”

Replying to him was none other than the familiar voice of Aoba’s Student Council President. “Good evening, everyone. Unfortunately, I’m rather unwell tonight, so I shall take my leave and rest in my office. Feel free to continue your leisure activities.”

Young Lord? Thought Zain. At this point, he had figured out what exactly the other girl from the student council was trying to say, but an important piece still eluded him. What a strange way to address a superior.

Nonetheless, the young man sneaked out to the back and opened his tracker. On the map, Yusei’s dot now resided on the third and topmost floor.

“I have you now,” Zain quickly flew up, trying to break in through the window.

However, upon his arrival, no one was inside. The room was completely void of people, with only a closed cupboard and a single bed occupying its space.

“What the…” Zain opened his tracker again, this time turning on the bug’s eye camera.

To his surprise, it only showed a dark scenery and an indistinguishable space.

Curious, Zain went into the room, nonetheless. There were only two places that could be a dark scenery – under the bed, or in the cupboard, and it wasn’t hard to deduce which the right one was.

As he opened the cupboard, inside was only a long, red wig and a student uniform.

“… I’ve been had?” The young man clenched his fist. “Impossible!”

“So, what now?” Asked his partner AI.

“… I don’t know. We tail him again another time, I guess.”