Reiji stood in front of a large gate, struggling to hold back his laughter to the point that his face was turning red.
He quickly took out his phone and opened the camera app, aiming it at the large golden statue inside the compound.
He'd come all the way to Arata's house to ask him to use his hacking skills and find the identity of the malicious poster, but was now completely distracted by what he was staring at.
The golden statue was a life-size version of Arata himself, and it was placed on top of a beautiful fountain in a pose where it depicted him holding a computer in one hand and raising the other arm to the sky.
"What the actual fuck am I looking at?" Reiji chuckled, admiring the photo he had taken.
He knew Arata was somewhat self-obsessed, but this was....something else.
*CRZHHT*
"Oho? Why is the young master of the Yagami Syndicate paying me a visit?"
Reiji turned to the intercom on the wall nearby, walking over to it after managing to restrain his amusement.
"I need to ask you for a favor. Can you let me in?" he replied into the device.
"Hmm....But I'm currently enjoying my holiday...I don't wanna work."
Reiji's eyebrows twitched at the whiny voice, and he considered just scaling the wall for a brief second.
But who knows if this weirdo had set any booby traps, which wouldn't be out of the realm of possibility.
"I promise it'll be pretty fun, you might even have a good laugh at it," he coaxed, appealing to Arata's more childish side.
"Fun? Now that's something I can get with. Come in."
*BZZZTTT*
The buzzer rang out and opened the tall gates slowly, revealing a large enclosed villa that somehow looked small in comparison to the large garden in the front.
Beyond the iconic fountain were large fields, with some parts of them specifically nurtured to grow flowers and other plants, though gardening was the last thing he could see Arata doing.
But the most impressive part was the neatly arranged row of supercars that were parked outside the garage for some reason.
Each one was extremely flashy, with loud and bold colors that made no effort to blend in, ranging from red and orange to neon green.
Reiji took all of this in with curiosity.
Arata was ultimately a very minor side-character that only showed up a couple of times, so aside from a few personality traits and basic background info, he didn't know much about him.
What he did know was that most of this money didn't come from the syndicate.
After all, he only worked for them occasionally, and just because it was, as he described it, 'fun'.
He walked up to the front door, increasing his pace because he realized he was getting distracted, which he couldn't really blame himself for.
Especially when there were things like this golden engraving of Arata's own face on the door that he was now staring at.
It was an old-fashioned door knocker that looked out of place in this modern architectural style, so Reiji assumed it was specifically requested by the egotistical hacker.
He raised his hand to use the knocker, and a loud noise echoed out.
*CLICK*
The front door also opened automatically, and Reiji stepped in to see Arata standing on a hoverboard with his hands behind his back.
'....What am I even doing right now,' Reiji muttered internally as he studied the arrogant smile on Arata's face, one that seemed ridiculous when paired with the hoverboard.
But what made him grimace even more was the two large oil paintings hanging on adjacent walls, both of which had a very specific 'model' posing semi-nude.
One guess was all someone needed to determine who the model was.
'At this point, I feel like he might be messing with people for entertainment or some shit like that.'
"Isn't it impressive? Aren't you in awe at my fabulous abode?" Arata laughed, sweeping his gelled hair back.
"....You're joking, right?"
"Huh? About what?"
".....Never mind. Maybe we can get straight to the point since the matter is quite urgent."
Arata clicked his tongue with a frown.
"So impatient. It's common courtesy to compliment the host for a few minutes at the very least when you visit someone."
"I was raised by a man who breaks bones for a living. I feel like I can be excused for not caring about something like that," Reiji shrugged.
"Uh.....F-Fair enough. What does the syndicate need me to do?" Arata asked, urging his hoverboard forward.
"Oh, you misunderstood. It's not the syndicate's business, it's something personal."
Arata froze, almost falling off his machine in surprise.
"What? Then why the hell would I listen to you?"
"Because, as I said, it'll be fun."
"...Still, I feel like there should be some compensation, right?"
"Oh, come on! Someone as rich as you surely isn't short a few yen, right? Or did you spend all your money on this house?" Reiji retorted.
Arata's face fell, as if he had just heard the biggest insult in the world.
"Of course not! I'm super rich! I just don't wanna work for free!"
"You're getting paid in enjoyment! A priceless reward in my opinion!"
"Well...." Arata mumbled, furrowing his brows in contemplation. "Wait, don't try to manipulate me, it won't work!"
Reiji sighed, but he hadn't had any expectation that his taunts would work in the first place.
"Alright, how much do you want?"
Arata smiled smugly and raised five fingers.
"5 Yen? Perfect, I'll give it to you right now," Reiji nodded, reaching into his pocket.
"Fuck off! How stupid do you think I am? I meant 5 million yen!" Arata snapped.
"Now you're the one treating me like a fool! 50,000 is the highest I can go, my request is really easy anyway!"
"...Tch, alright, I'll give in just this once."
Reiji grumbled, but took out his phone anyway to transfer the money.
But to his surprise, Arata shook his head.
"No need, I transferred 100,000 yen from your account when you were walking in. I'll return the change later," he chuckled.
Reiji pursed his lips, trying his best to contain the mix of bewilderment and frustration within.
".....So you were trying to scam me out of 5 million??"
"Obviously."
".....That's pretty fucked up."
"Deal with it. Now tell me what your request is on the way."
Arata swiveled on the spot, the hoverboard carrying him deeper into the mansion.
"What's with the hoverboard anyway?" Reiji asked.
"I don't like walking."
Reiji looked at Arata's twig-like figure and wasn't so shocked, changing the topic to why he was here instead.
"I need you to find the identity of someone who made a post online, the faster the better."
Arata stopped in his tracks, turning back to him with a twisted expression.
"You call something that basic 'fun'? How is that fun???"
"Geez, calm down! Read the post, and then you'll understand. The fun part is what happens after you find his identity."
Arata calmed down slightly when he heard that, but he still continued to grumble under his breath as they headed towards a room at the end of the corridor.
On the way, they passed by multiple rooms on either side of the passageway.
Each one had a sign on top of it.
'Super-Fun Games Room'
'Luxury Deluxe Cinema'
'Mega Swimming Pool'
Reiji read them as they walked, his eyes widening slightly.
'Wow.....he is RICH RICH.'
When they approached, Reiji read the sign hanging on the door.
'The All-Knowing Cyber Domain'
Reiji's steps faltered.
"By the way....." he spoke slowly. "How old are you?"
The orange-haired man adjusted his glasses and smirked.
"What do you think? Might be difficult to guess, since I have the handsome looks of a 20-year-old and the mature grace of a 40-year-old."
'And the brain of a 10-year-old.'
Of course, he was joking.
Internally.
He'd never say that out loud.
The door to the Cyber Domain opened, and they both entered after each other.
Inside, the room wasn't very big, but the wall directly in front of them was filled with a number of monitors on top of a wide desk that literally only had keyboard caps.
This meant that the desk itself was a keyboard, save for a small platform for the mouse.
Reiji had never seen anything like this except for in movies, so he just assumed that the same logic applied here.
But he couldn't deny that it was still really cool.
Arata guided the hoverboard all the way to the desk before disembarking, promptly sitting down on the massive massage chair in front of it.
"Alright, what's this post that I need to see?"
After shaking the awe away, Reiji told him the site and brought up the scandalous post, which Arata read carefully.
His previously irritated demeanor was replaced by a mocking grin and the occasional giggle, clearly having fun with the contents.
"Haha, this is fucking hilarious! Who did you piss off so much for them to go to this extent?"
"Could be any number of people I beat up before, but it's actually someone else. Anyway, can you find out who made it in the first place?"
"Easy-peasy, but let me read these comments for a bit. They're bashing you like crazy!!"
"You can do that later, it's not like the comments are going anywhere!" Reiji groaned in exasperation.
"5 seconds, just 5 seconds!"
But it took Reiji a minute to convince Arata to get hacking, who gave in only after mumbling a few remarks he couldn't hear.
His long fingers glided across the keyboard, the sound of clacking buttons filling the room as Arata shifted from an egotistical maniac to a focused man whose eyes wandered over the monitors at great speed.
"I gotta enter the mainframe, bypass the firewall, initiate a full-spectrum system breach, and trigger a zero-trace backdoor injection," he muttered quietly.
"What the hell? That sounds complicated!"
Arata snorted with disdain.
"Are you stupid? That's just stuff they say in movies."
"....."
'How the fuck would I know??'
In just a few minutes, he leaned back in his chair and switched his massage chair on.
The vibrating noises replaced the keyboard sounds as he turned to Reiji.
"Done. It's someone called Kato Minato."
Reiji frowned, finding the name a little familiar.
'I'm not surprised it wasn't Tadano. He's too careful to do the dirty work himself, which is how he lasted so long without getting caught in the game. He usually got other students to do it.'
"Can you get a photo of him? Like an ID or something?"
"Yep," Arata nodded, pressing a few buttons and bringing up a picture of an ID.
Reiji leaned forward and peered at the image, his eyes widening when he recognized the teenager in it.
His memory flashed back to when Greeny was cornered by some thugs in the alleyway before he saved him, and this man was one of the bullies who ran off in fear when he showed up.
Just as he was planning his next steps, he felt a nudge on his arm.
He looked down to see Arata vibrating in the chair with an eager smile.
"Hey, hey! What are you going to do next? Beat him up? Torture him? Throw him in the ocean? Can I come??"
".....Fuck no."
***
A/N
The advance chapters have increased to 35, so check it out if you're interested. You know where to find them.
( •̀ ω •́ )y