Summer Songs

Ch.3 Code.

The next morning, Kazuma woke early to start his morning training. As he exited his room he heard the sound of someone singing. Curious, he followed the sound around the back to the yard outside the room that Kisa was currently occupying. There in the yard, dressed in a baggy lilac hoody and dark jeans, was Kisa. She had the CD player on and it was playing the instrumental part of one of her band's songs. Kisa herself, was barefoot on the yard singing the words of the song and dancing gracefully. Kazuma sat down on the porch and watched Kisa sing and dance for a good five minutes before something happened.

"Ouch!" Kisa exclaimed as she put her foot down. She quickly lifted her foot up again, and lost her balance.

Kazuma rushed over to her, catching her before she hit the ground. "You alright?" he asked.

"Y-yeah..." Kisa said looking at her foot. "I think I stepped on a thorn."

Kazuma helped her over to the porch and set her down on the porch. Kisa lifted her foot up to get a better look. Sure enough There was a long, thin thorn imbedded in her skin. Carefully, she pulled the thorn out of her foot and rubbed the prick.

"That's what happens when you decide to dance in the yard barefoot." Kazuma chided.

Hearing this, Kisa blushed. "H-how long were you watching?"

Kazuma thought for a moment. "A few minutes. Why were you dancing, anyway?"

"I was practising." Kisa said, as she reached over to turn the CD player off. "For the concert later this week."

They sat there talking for a good long while, until The other members of the family called them to breakfast. During which, Kisa got a text from Saito that they were going to be having practise tomorrow. Natsuki, who had leaned over to peak over Kisa's shoulder, 'aww'ed at Kisa's new avatar.

"Is that your avatar? She's so cute." Natsuki cooed. "I love the rollerblades."

Kisa quickly flipped her phone shut, blushing a light pink. Kazuma grinned. "It suits her a lot better than the squirrel, doesn't it?"

Kazuma and Natsuki continued to talk about how cute Kisa's new avatar was and how it looked so much like her. Then a sudden thought came to Natsuki.

"Though I find it interesting that she choose white as her avatar's hair colour. Could there be any particular reason for that?" Natsuki said in a teasing voice. "Hmmm."

By this point the other members of the family had started to join in. Kisa was steadily growing redder and redder. Only this time Kazuma was not joining in. Looking around at everyone confused.

"Oh, white hair, huh? Wonder why that is." Naomi grinned.

"Isn't there another, certain white haired avatar, that she's been spending a lot of time with?" Rika chuckled.

This continued right through the meal. Kisa was so glad that Kazuma seemed to be completely oblivious to what they were insinuating. They had no idea how close they were hitting to home.

 

Kisa sat with Kazuma in comfortable silence. Kazuma was competing in another sport on OZ, while Kisa was working on a new song for her band. Suddenly Kisa frowned at her notebook and tore out the page she'd been writing on. Scrunching the page into a ball she threw that page into the waste bin in the room.

"No luck?" Kazuma asked without looking up.

Kisa sighed. "Nope. I just can't get it to flow."

Kisa yawned and closed her notebook. It was late, so she figured she'd better hit the sack, she could go back to her song in the morning. Saying goodnight to Kazuma, Kisa went to bed. Only to be woken in the middle of the night by her phone alerting her that she had a message.

Still half asleep, Kisa answered it. When she opened the message, the first this she noticed was the lines upon lines of numbers. Kisa was starting to get a sense of déjà vu. After a quick scan it became clear that this wasn't the OZ security code. In fact it seemed to be the one code repeated over and over. Curious, Kisa pulled out a note pad and pen and began to work it out. Being a short code, it didn't take her long to solve it, and she was instantly wishing she hadn't. There on the paper in front of her was a name: 'Love Machine'. That was all the message was, just 'Love Machine' over and over. Kisa swallowed thickly. It had to be a prank. Just someone's bad idea of a joke. She closed her phone and went back to bed, not noticing the 'downloading...' sign on her phone.

 

Kisa woke suddenly to a pair of tiny beings jumping on her.

"Kenji, wake up." That sounded like Kyohei.

"Kenji, up." And that was definitely Kana.

"Guys, get off." Kisa groaned. "You're not as light as you used to be, ya know."

The two children crawled off her and she sat up, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

"Now what is it?" She asked.

"Something's going on in OZ." Kana said.

"What?"

The two kids led Kisa to the living room, where the rest of the family were all sitting in front of the T.V, watching the news. Kisa sat down next to Kazuma, trembling slightly as the news continued.

"...OZ is advicing against the use of accounts until this matter can be dealt with. Due to its frighteningly similar aspects to the 'Love Machine' incident five years ago, many of the major companies and government bodies are pulling out of OZ, until it is determined whether or not this is a prank."

Kazuma reached over to grip the trembling Kisa's hand gently, not looking away from the news. Kisa smiled, feeling a bit better for her friend's comfort.

"Turns out someone posted a code all over OZ. Someone solved it and alerted the police." Kazuma explained. "It read 'Love Machine'. Someone has one sick sense of humour."

Kisa was now really glad that she'd come back to the Jinnouchi house. She really wouldn't have wanted to be at her apartment alone right now. Kazuma suggested that Kisa go and check her OZ account just in case.

As Kisa picked up her phone, she noticed the message on the front screen reading, 'download complete'. Now she was really worried. She knew for a fact that she hadn't been downloading anything. She opened the phone carefully and looked. Kisa blinked. What on earth was this? On the screen was the image of a large locked door, her avatar looking the door up and down before turning to her to shake it's head and shrug. She tried to select it but only got a fail tone. Then her avatar pulled something that looked like a note off of the door. She was about to select it, when Kazuma came in. She showed him the strange door on her phone.

"Let's check it out on my computer." He said. "If it's a virus, it'll get deleted faster."

 

Kazuma plugged Kisa's phone into his computer, the mysterious door now showing on the screen. Kazuma set his computer to scan the door.

"That's odd..." He said.

"What is it?" Kisa asked.

"According to the scanner. This door is some kind of program from the OZ mainframe, if the IP address is any hint. But, I don't remember anything about a large locked door on any of the message boards." Kazuma explained.

They decided that they'd post some messages on some popular message boards and see what turned up.

Kisa rang up the other members of her band to see what would be happening regarding practice and the concert. They all agreed that, with the chance that Love Machine was back, they should play it safe and stay put. There was also a chance that the concert would have to be postponed or cancelled if OZ wasn't fixed soon. Kisa slumped against the wall of Kazuma's room and sighed. Then she suddenly remembered something.

"Oh, right. The note." She said aloud.

Kazuma looked over at her questioningly. "'Note'?"

"When I clicked on the door earlier," Kisa explained, getting her avatar to get the note out again. "There was this note that my avatar picked up."

Her avatar brought out the note and she opened it. It was another code message. Kazuma handed her a notepad and pen before she asked. Kisa began scribbling out the equation, trying to figure out the message. After ten minutes, Natsuki came in and Kazuma explained what had happened. Another ten minutes and the whole family was crowding around Kazuma's door, waiting to see what the message was. As Kisa finally solved it and read over it, she blinked in confusion.

'Come on Dorothy. Time to see the wizard. I hope you have your ruby slippers, because it's going to be a long walk, down the yellow brick road.'

"What has a large door got to do with The Wizard of Oz?" She asked aloud.

"'The Wizard of Oz'?" Natsuki asked.

"Originally it was a children's novel, but in the 1930s it was made into a movie." Kisa blushed a little. "It was my favourite when I was little."

Kisa explained about Dorothy being a farmer that became stuck in the land of Oz after a tornado hit her home in Kansas, the yellow brick road, the three companions, the Scarecrow, Tinman and Lion, and the ruby slippers. Just as she finished there was a beeping from Kazuma's computer, meaning that he had an incoming call. He answered to come face to face with someone that all knew well.

"Yo, Kazuma." Sakuma said.

"Sakuma?" Kisa said in surprise.

"Huh? Kenji? What are you doing over there?"

"It's a long story." Kazuma said simply. "What's up Sakuma?"

"I saw your post on 'Internet Oddities', did that 'door' of yours look anything like this?" Sketches and schematics appeared on the screen. It was roughly drawn, but it was obviously the door that had shown up on Kisa's phone.

"Yeah, that's it." Kazuma confirmed. "What is it?"

"It's apparently called the Emerald Gate." Sakuma explained. "It's some kind of Easter egg put into the programming by the original developer. It's supposedly meant to have the developer's 'greatest treasure' inside."

"Why on earth would something like that be on my phone?" Kisa voiced aloud.

Just then, another message popped up on Kazuma's computer. Then Kisa's phone, and everyone else's rang. They looked at Sakuma, who nodded, indicating that he'd gotten it too. Kazuma opened the message on his computer. Unlike last time, this wasn't coded. A cold chill ran up Kisa's spin as she read the message.

"'Time for a rematch. Love Machine'." Kazuma muttered under his breath.

"Looks like he's still mad about you punching him in the face." Wabisuke said.

"It would appear so." Kazuma muttered.

"What are you gonna do?" Natsuki asked.

"Fight him of course."