December 24th, 2025
Kaito "Kato" Sato
They say that the person who's closest to you will be the one who'll stab you in the back. Never have I thought that this would happen... but it did. The Death Gun incident has finally come to a close. I logged into the VR area and saw Kikuoka's ALO avatar standing there. Kureha, Zeliska, and I were in casual clothing and facing him.
"It's good that you all decided to come today," he told us, "Makes scheduling easier for me."
He motioned for a booth nearby. Kureha and Zeliska sat together on one side while Kikuoka and I sat on the other side. He raised his hand and ordered a virtual meal for everyone. This meeting was about Itsuki or rather the future of him.
"Sai Yukitsugu, or Itsuki as you might know him by, is now a wanted criminal for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department," he stated, "Now this meeting is to see if you know any possible information about him."
I glanced over his shoulder and noticed the recorder on the table. Kikuoka opened a menu and brought out a folder with papers inside of it. Inside of it were the case files and all of the gathered evidence of interrogations.
"The only thing that we know about him is nothing at all," he started, "He intentionally scrambled his digital footprint."
"What do you mean by that?" Kureha asked.
"We've asked every person that Itsuki has met. Each person had differing takes on what he does for a living and where he lives. So now we don't have anything solid to go after."
"What about Death Gun?" Zeliska asked, "The one that threatened us to go to this death game."
"Death Gun was an account fabricated by Taipan," Kikuoka explained, "The actual Death Gun avatar's name was Sterben. They have been taken care of."
You actually took care of it? That's a first.
"If that's the case, then was it Taipan who made the death game arena as well?" Zeliska asked.
"Affirmative," Kikuoka confirmed.
Zeliska placed her head on her hand. She filled us in about her relationship with Taipan. Taipan was Zeliska's boss in Zaskar. He earned the reputation of being one of the most strict and disrespectful employees in the office building.
"I still can't believe he'd misuse the Seed to build another death game," Zeliska said in disbelief.
"Taipan didn't only help Itsuki with making the death arena," Kikuoka continued, "He also caused the server shutdown on November 28th."
"So that's what happened at our party. Publicly, it was a problem with the server," Kureha said.
"Supposedly, he did it so he can copy all of Glocken's assets to build the death game arena," Kikuoka stated.
I took a drink from the water cup and thought about what Itsuki said, 'I'll see you again. Maybe in the virtual world, or maybe in the real world, who knows?' I shifted my glance to the side and saw someone with silver hair and red eyes staring at me through a reflection.
"Kato!" Kureha said while kicking my leg.
I felt the dull pain of the kick and was brought back into the conversation. I checked the spot once again and saw that the person disappeared. As for Taipan, he was arrested for the aiding of murder. During his interrogation, he too had no clue where Itsuki was or who he was in real life.
"What about his access history?" I asked, "Can't you guys at least start there?"
"That's what we did, but he was smart enough to log into different locations every time. There was no common address we could find," Kikuoka said.
