Black Swan Wonderland

Celty

VII: Pride

Halo Nineteen: Celty:

Izaya managed to track down Mari at the hotel she was staying at. He pounded on her door. The programmer froze when she opened the door. Izaya shoved the screenshot of his conversation that he had with not-Tsukumoya just moments before.

"Did you do this?" he asked. At first, Mari looked confused.

"What are you talking about?" she asked. Izaya pointed to the last line he circled in red. Mari narrowed her eyes and read the last line.

"I am not Tsukumoya."

Her face filled with alarm. Mari backed up, shaking her head.

"I didn't do that!" she said. Izaya didn't say anything.

"I'm not lying!" Mari said. "I swear! I'll prove it to you!" She led him into her hotel room. Izaya followed behind but he already had a guess of where this was going. Mari pulled out her laptop from her bag and booted it up. She opened up the Dis Program file. Both found themselves in for a nasty little shock.

"You did do something," Izaya said with a cold tone in his voice.

"I did not add that, I swear," Mari insisted. "I haven't touched my laptop since I fled."

"She right," a voice said. The friends with benefits looked at the screen.

"Did it just talk?" Izaya asked.

"Hello again, Izaya," Mari's laptop said.

"And who are you?" the information broker.

"Aw, Izaya, you know who I am," the voice in the machine said with a whimper.

"No, I don't," Izaya said, shaking his head.

"You should," the laptop said.

"I don't," Izaya said. The waves on the screen bunched up and bounced as the laptop sighed.

"Here's a hint. Look through the obituaries. Oh say back in about April," the voice said. Izaya pulled out his phone. He began typing up the information on his phone. Mari looked with him on the screen. Izaya scrolled up through the list of dead people. He stopped when he caught a familiar name.

"Yoemon Kenji-sensei?" Izaya asked.

"Ding-ding!" the laptop said. A video player popped up on the screen. Izaya and Mari jumped back when they saw the professor's face.

"Good evening," the consciousness greeted them. Izaya and Mari looked at each other.

"What did you do to Tsukumoya?" the information broker asked.

"He's here," Kenji said. "What's left of him that is. He's now part of me." The screen glitched out for a second before resuming.

"Oh, do forgive me," Kenji said. "It looks like he's trying to get away from me still but we won't be having any of that." There was another glitch before the screen became normal.

"Stop doing that. You and I are one now. You can get mad at me all you want but you are a part of me now," the consciousness said. The screen went still. Computer Kenji cleared his throat.

"My apologizes," he said.

"Did you tell on me to Asato-sensei?" Mari asked.

"I had no choice," Kenji said. "We have to keep up in the game."

"Game?" Izaya asked.

"Why yes," the consciousness said. "Tandeki is in the lead. The last thing we all went is to fall behind." The screen glitched again but returned to normal.