EBO: Resume - Chapter 9

November 14th, 2026

Two weeks passed since Halloween. Hunter had been working non-stop on his Binary Specter in those two weeks. The data he obtained through the Halloween raids allowed him to finish development on his Level 20 form, and he was going to test it soon. All he needed now was to test it out in a fight, and he had the perfect target in mind.

“Guys,” Hunter approached the three military police members in his room. “After spending three months passively, developing strategies and equipment to use against Genm, it’s time. Time to employ what we’ve got against him. We’ve gotta get data for Nexus to develop a greater counter than what I’ve been able to get. And we’ll do this in public.”

“Bout time!” Hideo stretched before getting off the couch and looking to Hunter. “What’s the plan, chief?”

“Lure him out,” Hunter started as the girls paid attention to the plan. “We’ll fight him wherever we can. Knowing him, he’s most likely got the layout of every map saved somewhere he can easily access. Our goal is to get all the power we can out of him. If that Level 50 dude shows up, then we should be careful. He’s unpredictable, he could go with either us or Genm, so we need to be especially cautious of any outsiders joining the fight. Kill Genm only. Or at least… try to. The immortality hack and whatever is bullshit, but if he’s gonna cheat, might as well go all the way, I guess.”

“And what about his sniper girl?” Haruko asked, having temporarily worked with the player she mentioned.

“You’re a sniper. She’s a sniper. Why not have a sniper duel?” Hunter suggested. “In all seriousness, I’ll need you to lay down cover-fire and deal with his sniper companion if she tries to interfere. Fight fire with fire.”

“Got it. What’s our play?” Kyoka inquired.

“Hideo and I will draw his attention. Deal damage however we can and as much of it as we can. Kyoka, do what you do best: stealth attacks. Sneak around and inflict whatever damage you can get in. Haruko will snipe and provide cover-fire, as I just said. Counter the sniper with another sniper. There’s a probability that traps will set up, so be extra cautious.”

“So the plan is just… attack him and get whatever valuable data we can get out of it?” Hideo summarized.

“Pretty much. Questions?” Hunter tucked his hands into his pockets as silence filled the room. “None? Alright then. Gear up, folks. We’ve got an undead hacker to hurt.”

Preparations for combat were simple. Everyone equipped their Cartridge Drivers and activated their transformations, summoning their armor. Several health-replenishing items and armor repair items were stored in their inventories in case Hideo was incapable of reaching the others in time to use his Restoration on them. Ammo wasn’t a problem since their units would generate all they needed so long as the armor remained active. Once the quartet was ready to head out, they summoned their bikes and drove off. As they rode, Hideo opened a communications channel for all four of them.

“So, Hunter. Aside from you testing our new equipment, why are we doing this?”

“Well, we need to get the game developers data on Genm’s equipment. Figure out how his units work and such.” Hunter replied as they approached the plaza where they first fought Genm. It was abandoned, and there was no one there. Normally, it would be bustling with activity as NPCs sold their wares.

Now, it was empty. The NPC-operated booths were abandoned, papers scattered across the floor. Players were nowhere to be found, and there appeared to be ripped caution tapes around the perimeter as if to warn people to stay away.

“Well, at least we won’t have to worry about civilian casualties…” Hideo commented under his breath, readying the crossbows installed on his gauntlets.

“Better for us, right?” Kyoka created a xiphos sword from the water vapor in the air, forcing the vapor into a solid form via deposition. “Less things to get in the way.”

“Right…” Hunter summoned his Ifrit Magnum in sword form, and a Sylph Reaper in the other hand. “The problem now is drawing them out. Haruko, do you see anything?”

“Nothing so far,” Haruko replied from a nearby forested area. She peered through the scope of her rifle and looked around the plaza, unable to find any traces of their enemies.

“Well, he has a flair for dramatic entrances, so just be careful about that…”

As if on cue, a smoke cloud suddenly erupted at one of the entrances to the plaza. Satoshi strolled out of the smoke menacingly. Every step he took thudded with the weight of his armor as he approached the three. His companion Nanaha was nowhere to be seen.

“What are you doing here, Specter?” Satoshi stopped his approach right by the ill-maintained fountain. Vines and other plants had begun to grow on it as its water trickled instead of erupted.

“Who knows? Maybe I’m just lost and need help.” Hunter casually walked around, slowly approaching Satoshi.

“I’d be glad to give you directions.” Satoshi replied, holding up the other two Level 10 units he held and activating them. Once he had holstered the units, the support bots that were summoned fused to his arms and provided him his weapons. “I’ll be sure to send you straight to hell!”

“Hideo!” Hunter jumped back as Hideo dived forward, fluidly exchanging spots as the latter fired his crossbows at Satoshi.

“You brought friends? Ha, pathetic. I’ll send them to hell with you!” Satoshi fired his railgun at Hideo, who countered with a flashbang to distract while he could evade.

Hunter rushed in with his sword and slashed at Satoshi’s back. He grunted in pain, still disoriented by the flashbang, and tried to attack Hunter with his railgun. Unable to see, he blindly fired into the area around him, barely scratching Kyoka who was running towards Satoshi. She hit the ground and slid towards him, using her xiphos sword to slash him several times before creating sharp icicles and throwing them at him. After her attack, Kyoka dived forwards and initiated her cloaking mechanism to hide and find her next opening.

“A little help!?” Satoshi shouted to seemingly no one in particular. Nanaha aimed her rifle from her position on top of the clock tower and fired at Hideo.

“Nuh-uh,” Haruko muttered to herself as she fired her rifle at Nanaha’s shot, effectively cancelling both their projectiles mid-air.

“Hm? I guess their number 4 is in the same position as me. Alrighty…” She pulled back on the bolt of her rifle and allowed her rifle to cool slightly before pushing the bolt back into position and aiming at where Haruko’s shot came from.

The two snipers searched for each other while Hunter and Satoshi dueled. The heat from Hunter’s sword clashed against the surrounding water of Satoshi’s trident, creating steam as their weapons pressed against each other. Underneath the masks that their armors provided were looks of determination, gritted teeth as each man pressed all their weight against their weapons in hopes of winning the clash. Satoshi proved triumphant as he pressed forward and swung his weapon before quickly spinning around and firing his railgun. Hunter was barely able to dodge the projectile, which shattered his left shoulder pauldron. He dropped his sword in favor of his sub-machine gun, emptying its clip at Satoshi before discarding it for a new SMG with a full magazine.

Kyoka took this opportunity to stab Satoshi in the back, jumping up and delivering a powerful downward strike with two xiphos swords. He turned around to see Kyoka appear above him before being impaled by her blades through the chest. His gauge filled up just over halfway full as Kyoka used Satoshi as a platform, jumping off of him and disappearing as two bullets of different trajectories hit each other dead on in front of his eyes.

“You are such…” Haruko began as she allowed her rifle to cool down.

“... a pest!” Nanaha finished on her side as she let her rifle cool down as well. The two finished their cooldowns almost simultaneously, allowing them to continue shooting each other from afar.

“On your right!” Hideo called to Hunter as he flew in from his right, quarterstaff glowing with its illuminated poles. Following that, Hunter quickly dashed backwards to give Hideo space as he proceeded to bash Satoshi’s mask with the staff. The force of the blow knocked him off balance, leaving him dazed as Hideo continued his onslaught of attacks, smashing the hard light ends of his weapon into Satoshi’s body repeatedly.

“Enough!” Satoshi steadied himself with his railgun and fired it into the ground to produce a shockwave to knock everyone off balance. Kyoka’s next jump was thrown off as a result, with the other boys falling to the ground. “I’ll end this here and now!”

Satoshi pressed the two buttons on the face of his belt simultaneously before hitting the B button. The belt announced “Critical Reaper!!” before a swarm of zombies made of darkness rose from the ground, clawing their way out of the earth and crawling towards Satoshi’s three opponents.

“Hunter, what do we do?!” Hideo opened fire with his hard-light machine guns, blasting the zombies with light. With opposing elements making contact, the zombies dispersed easily.

“They’re swarming everywhere!” Kyoka jumped upwards and threw waves upon waves of knives at the zombies before creating an ice platform in the air to stand on. Following that, she loaded her Amphitrite Chaser unit into the slot holder on her belt and began charging her finisher.

“Dammit… I was hoping to save this for later in the fight, but I guess I don’t have a choice.” Hunter sighed as he closed his Driver. Instead of charging a finisher or cancelling his transformation, the belt and unit began to gather more energy for something else. “Dual up.”

Hunter reopened his Driver, causing the belt to envelop him in the gathered energy. His belt announced “Double up!” as the body separated in half before more energy filled up the missing halves and created two whole figures. The energy solidified and revealed two figures, both essentially the same. Both wore silver armored gauntlets, boots, knee-plates, shoulder pauldrons, a coat, and a sleek mask.

What differed were the colors. The one that stood on the right wore a dark ruby coat with its right lapel overlapping the left, darker silver for his armor and a skull design on his mask that exaggerated the right half of the skull with a flame decal. In contrast, the one on the left wore a dark emerald green coat with its left lapel overlapping the right, his armor was a brighter silver and a skull design that exaggerated the left half and melded with fire. Their eyes glowed with the colors of their coats as they held out their hands, a circular array appearing around them as two weapons floated into their open hands.

“Double up, complete.” The red one said in Hunter’s voice, inspecting the weapon he held. It was a single-edged sword with a thick blade that featured a gun barrel integrated into it, as well as a circular guard that extended into a handguard.

“Shall we fight?” The green one spoke in the voice of the Specter that Hunter had asked to help. It held a weapon similar to Hunter’s, except the blade was angled downwards and retracted so the barrel was more prominently featured.

“What the hell?!” Everyone in the area shouted. Even Haruko and Nanaha, the two snipers perched far away, took a moment to look at what had just occurred.

“This is impossible!” Satoshi roared. “There’s no possible way to divide a player into two bodies! The mind in full-dive wouldn’t be able to handle it!!”

“Who said anything about splitting my mind into two?” The red one stepped forward, then dashed at Satoshi. He disappeared and reappeared in front of the zombie in the blink of an eye, stabbing him through the chest and slicing downwards before kicking him away.

“You humans prefer to subjugate the entities you own.” The green one held up his weapon and fired at Satoshi several times before hitting the button on the guard several times, charging the next blast with more energy. The damage Satoshi sustained was enough to fill his gauge to 85%, which further increased as Hunter continued to attack while the Specter maintained a barrage of suppressive fire.

“Then that means…” Satoshi muttered as he tried to defend against Hunter’s attacks. “You summoned your Entity to fight?!”

“As a partner!” Hunter replied with a downwards slash, which he quickly charged up with the button on the guard. “Not as someone above or below me…”

“As equals!” The Specter echoed as it fired another charged attack at Satoshi. His gauge filled up completely before resetting to empty, funneling the energy it gathered into the fourth orb underneath Satoshi’s gauge. “Shall we, Hunter?”

“Let’s do it, Specter,” The two walked towards each other as Specter handed his weapon to Hunter. “If you can, find his sniper. I’ll deal with Kuroto myself…”

“Understood,” Specter walked off as Hunter combined the two weapons together into a single sword with an empty space in the center, while the hilt grew to a comfortable size to be wielded with one or both hands.

“Alright, Genm. Let’s go. Level 20 versus Level 10!” Hunter dashed at Satoshi while Kyoka snuck up behind and stabbed him in the back. Hideo concentrated fire on Genm and continued to blast him with hard light, tearing away at the additional weapons Genm wielded.

“Why is it you’re fighting me?!” Satoshi growled as his gauge steadily filled from being impaled continuously. “You may waste your time, Specter, but this is beyond your usual behavior! Why?!”

“It’s very simple,” Hunter motioned for Hideo and Kyoka to back off. They nodded, Kyoka disappearing into thin air with her cloaking while Hideo ceased fire and kept his weapons trained on Genm. Following that, Hunter stabbed him through the chest, right into the gauge. “I want to save the game you ruined.”

“How could I have ruined it?! If anything, you should be thanking me!!” Satoshi grunted as his gauge resumed filling slowly. “I’ve allowed you to live within this virtual paradise! Free from the real world! How is this ruining the game!?”

“Our bodies will rot away on the outside, don’t you see that? We can’t all live like Kayaba as a digital conscience. Some of us want to live outside the game, Kuroto.” Hunter removed the blade as the gauge reached 25%, kicking him to Hideo and turning to see Specter returning with Nanaha in hand. He held her rifle in his hand, aiming it at Nanaha’s back and urging her to move.

“Accomplice retrieved, partner.” Specter reported as he lead Nanaha to the battlefield and ordered her to get on her knees.

“I won’t give in that easily!” Satoshi pounced towards Hunter, who separated the sword into the two hybrid weapons before rotating the blades to an angle to switch them to gun form. Hunter blasted Satoshi with one of the guns and tossed the other to his Entity as Specter held out his hand to catch the weapon Hunter tossed towards him, switching it into sword mode and cutting Genm’s throat. He began coughing before Specter kicked him to Hunter.

“Good catch!” He switched to sword mode as well, slashing upwards and cutting into Genm’s mask, fracturing the red eye design on the mask as the attack connected and broke through Satoshi’s helmet. Following that, Hunter switched to gun mode and blasted him away.

“Kuroto!” Nanaha cried as she got up, only to be shot in the leg with Hideo’s hard-light arrow, knocking her off balance and making her fall.

“Can’t believe I had to shoot a girl…” Hideo sighed as he checked his crossbow, ejecting a used energy cell and replacing it.

“Didn’t know you cared about that,” Kyoka noted as she rematerialized, holding the Enchantress rifle that Specter had abandoned to help Hunter.

“Eh, you know me. Fun-loving, peaceful guy. Can’t stand hurting a girl, though. Hurts my soul, honestly.” Hideo checked his other crossbow and replaced the energy cell.

“How sweet,” Kyoka pat him on the back.

“Now isn’t really the best time for that,” Haruko joined her comrades, rifle in hand. “Keep your eyes on the opponents.”

“Well, at least you’ve got non-lethal ammo, Hideo,” Kyoka aimed the Enchantress at Nanaha, but saw a warning sign in the scope. “The hell…? Wait a minute…”

“Bite the dust,” Satoshi held up his fist, thumb up. He clicked his thumb down on his finger, causing the rifle to initiate its self-destruct sequence.

“Son of a bi-!” Hideo barely had the time to grab the rifle and toss it as far away from them as he could, but it wasn’t enough. The rifle exploded and erased parts of their equipment in the shockwave of the void-based explosion, sending them flying back with damaged equipment. In the midst of the explosion, Satoshi took off running into the forest surrounding them, abandoning Nanaha without another thought.

“Motherfucker!” Hunter fired through the smoke clouds, trying to incapacitate Satoshi. Unable to see past the smoke, he missed his shots and Satoshi escaped. Nanaha, while in slight shock, managed to get up and run away as well.

Rain began pouring down as Genm and his partner ran off into the surrounding forests. They reached a large tree with plenty of leaves to shelter them before Nanaha removed her armor and check Satoshi’s gauge.

“Four orbs full, gauge around 90%... And a lot of heavy damage…” Nanaha reported as she activated Mending Isis. The healing pistol appeared in her empty hand before she loaded the Cartridge into the implement and prepared it for healing. Following that, she removed Satoshi’s armor to reveal intense cuts, gashes, and stab wounds sustained from the fight. The slash from Hunter cutting into his mask was evident on his face, forcing Satoshi to close his right eye to prevent blood from getting into it and from the pain.

“Four orbs, with 90% in the gauge…” Satoshi took note as Nanaha removed his torn-up clothing and began applying the healing projectiles to the wounds. He grunted with each projectile, but focused his mind on other matters. “Only 10% more needed until I can proceed with the next stage.”

“Getting that Level 50, right?” Nanaha inquired as she continued to deal with first-aid.

“I need to accelerate the fabrication of the Mark 2 Driver, and the Dual-Visor Zwei…” Satoshi muttered to himself as he continued to plan ahead through the pain. The rain seemed to increase the healing effects, reducing his stab wounds to mere scars within a minute of application. When Nanaha moved to heal Satoshi’s face, he held her hand, stopping her.

“Kuroto…?” The rain continued to pelt the tree leaves as Nanaha gazed into Satoshi’s blue eye. The blood from the cut on his right eye ran down his face, though it was eerily similar to what would be seen if his eye wasn’t closed.

“Don’t heal this one completely. Leave the scar behind. This is a badge to wear…” Kuroto ordered her before letting her hand go.

“Applying absolute minimal healing factor…” Nanaha opened a menu from the healing implement and fiddled with its settings to get it down to its lowest possible healing setting, just above zero. After saving the change, Nanaha applied the healing projectile to Kuroto’s face, sealing the wound up and letting the rain heal it to where the scar was visible and stable.

“Good… now we get home. I need to work on the Mark 2 equipment.” Kuroto stood up, letting his wounds soak in the rain to heal up entirely. Only the scar over the blood red of his right eye remained; all other traces of his fight against Hunter and co. were erased.

“Y-your shirt’s drenched from the rain… You’ve got a replacement, right…?” Nanaha sheepishly questioned. Kuroto summoned another copy of his usual upper body attire and silently dressed himself in response. “R-right. You’re always prepared for every contingency… I shouldn’t have asked…”

“Don’t question the game master.” was Kuroto’s reply as he summoned his bike and drove off towards his headquarters. Nanaha sighed before following suit, having no other places to be.

Meanwhile, Hunter and the group had to deal with the aftermath of their escape. Bits and pieces from the officers’ armor and equipment had been erased from the void-based explosion. Hunter and the Specter were looking around, observing the damage their fight had dealt to the environment. The area where the void explosion had occurred was partially erased; buildings were shot up from missed projectiles from both opposing forces; and the plaza was messier than before. Hunter sighed as he closed and removed the Binary Specter unit from his Driver, causing the Specter’s Driver to close before it faded into data.

“I’ll have to recode your units to replace the erased data. Remove the Augment Units now, before the data corrupts your Change Units.” Hunter summoned his Mach Corvus and hopped on before heading back to his office. The three removed their Augment Units and returned to their Level 2 forms before getting on their bikes and returning to the office.

The remainder of the day was a mighty thunderstorm that continued on throughout the night. Both parties had returned to their base of operations, and were working on equipment for their next encounter. Hunter was busy repairing the damaged and corrupted code in each of his allies’ units. First was repairing the Restoring Apollo. The crossbows seemed to have disappeared, so they were restored. In addition, Hunter added in a sniper weapon with non-lethal ammo in for increased long-range capabilities, as well as gas grenades in addition to the flashbangs. Next was Amphitrite Chaser. Armor and knives were erased, so Hunter had to restore those. He decided to increase the activation speed of the cloaking system and the summoning rate of knives so that she could create more knives faster. Last but not least was Shining Artemis. Her weapons and armor were partially erased in the fight, so those were restored and upgraded to increase performance in the guns and durability in the armor. Then, Hunter had to organize the data he received from his first Double Up into Level 20.

“This is gonna be a long night…” Hunter sighed, getting up from his desk to brew a pot of coffee.

November 26th, 2026

While Nanaha slept comfortably, Kuroto had fabricated the frame for his Shinigami Driver upgrade, as well as the base of the Dual-Visor II. His first priority was to get his Dual-Visor II up and running, so he had to find resources capable of managing the energy output and durable enough to ensure that nothing would malfunction. The Dual-Visor II was to be a direct upgrade from the original, and needed a more efficient power source to help with that.

Once he built the micro-reactor system, he wired it up to the Dual-Visor’s internals, soldering wires together to hook the reactor up to the circuit boards and wiring those to the barrels of the energy cannon. The energy barrels were capable of much higher heat resistance and energy output than the original, in addition to automatic self-tuning to act in accordance to Kuroto’s programming. On the reverse end, the sword blade was replaced with a chainsaw, coated in energy and designed to run with a high-frequency oscillation for superior cutting power. All this was to be powered by the micro energy reactors he created just a few hours ago.

He worked non-stop for days, staying awake through caffeine and a drive to finish his new weapon. It took 5 days for him to finish his weapon. The beginning of December had come as Kuroto finished his Shinigami Dual-Visor II. Snow fell outside his window to signal the arrival of winter.

“Winter is coming… Or rather, it’s already here.” Kuroto weakly muttered, exhausted from spending days creating his weapon. Nanaha brought him a plate of pancakes and ham, a cup of coffee, and a small jar of syrup. The food was still hot, as evident by the steam wafting off the pancakes.

“I brought you breakfast… Enjoy.” She set the meal down on an empty desk and walked away, knowing she might bother him otherwise.

Meanwhile, Hunter, Haruko, Hideo, and Kyoka were enjoying a wonderful warm breakfast. Oatmeal, french toast, cinnamon rolls, bread pudding. There was lots of warm food for the group to enjoy. Coffee and tea accompanied their meal, as was their usual beverages during breakfast. The tea was a seasonal winter blend, and the coffee was made using a similar seasonal blend. For the time being, they would have to either wait for the Christmas/New-Year’s events to begin, or wait for Kuroto to make his next move...