#im obsessed w/ desu2 again expect more of this

[hyper-juice]

Futaba tries and fails (for once) to hack a shady totally occult "meteorological" agency.

Fumi Kanno sees a hacker who could conceivably match her skill one day.

Both of them get a friend.

Once upon a time, when Futaba was but a fledgeling genius hacker chasing leads on her mother‘s coworkers, she tried to hack into an organization called JP‘s. The name apparently stood for “Japan Meteorological Agency, Geomagnetism Research Departemnt” (which made no sense! What sort of acronym is JP’s?) but if they were actually studying geomagnetism and nothing else, Futaba would eat her black hat.

Why would a meteorological agency end up as a sponsor for cognitive psience? What was JP’s hiding?

Back then, when she hadn’t hit the bottom of the barrel just yet, being Medjed, Hacker of Justice, might’ve gone to her head. Because of this, she failed to realize that hacking a shady totally occult organization was a bad idea, and even worse, she failed. Full stop. Her first (and so far last) failure. Even worse-er, JP’s was packing big guns and actually hacked her in return. She hit that High Counter and it punched back hard.

As she looked in despair upon her rig, pulling back as far as she could to cut her losses, she received a message.

‘Aww, cute. Little Medjed thinks they can get through me?’

Futaba, in an epic gamer moment, replied swiftly.

<Screw you.>

<I know you’re hiding something>

‘Nothing litte kids need to concern themselves with.’

She wanted to punch that patronizing text so bad.

<How’d you get my number?>

‘You might have skill, but I have experience.’

‘Now hurry along before my boss catches me slacking. Try again in a couple of years.’

‘Who knows? Maybe you can actually beat my firewalls by then?’

Three dots, still typing. A pause specially designed to aggravate Futaba further. Taunting her was just slacking for this JP’s hacker?

‘Provided I happen to drop dead.’

‘Bye now.’

And with that, all her curses were met with a cheerful rejection, a trick that would infuriate and inspire Futaba in equal measure, until she would eventually apply it to the Phantom Thieves.

However, this would scarcely be the last encounter Futaba had with the JP’s IT department.

‘I almost had to use my actual PC! Someone’s getting better.’

‘Just kidding, that was nothing.’

Far from it.

‘How’d you like that experimental code? Just for you.’

Futaba tried again,

‘Thanks for helping me patch out all my backdoors, you’re a great tester.’

and again,

<One day!>

‘Sure thing.’

and again.

‘Did you seriously think a new moniker would help, Medjed?’

<It’s Alibaba now.>

‘Scared of the fame?’

<Copycats, more like.>

‘As if they’re as good as you. Just doxx them or something’

<Why bother.>

Wait a second!

<Was that a compliment?>

ERROR: Recipient not found

“Dang it. I can’t believe they’re a tsundere.”

At some point, it devolved from actually trying to hack JP’s to just.. talking to someone with the same interests. Even if their method of contact was a tad eccentric. After the first time, the other hacker could’ve had her in jail, but they simply didn’t want to. Even if it’s all some sort of game to the other, even if it’s just a bit of entertainment on the job.. chatting with an equal was fun.

<I GOT THRU SUCK IT>

‘Check again’

<Oh come on.>

<WAIT I GOT SOMETHING>

<It sayyysssss…...>

<haveanicewhee.wav?’

Audio wasn’t exactly what she’s shooting for, but she pulled her headphones over her ears nontheless and pressed play, only to promptly drop them as a high pitched voice yelled “Have a nice wheee!!!”

<You did that on purpose>

‘Guilty as charged.’

Eventually though, as Futaba passed from relative to relative, she shut herself in further and further, even from these brief encounters.

Sitting still in her chair, Futaba didn’t even bother. A half-hearted attempt for a half-hearted person. What did it matter? She would never get through, she didn’t even know their name. Her mother killed herself and it was all Futaba’s fault. What truth was there to find?

‘Alibaba?’

‘Medjed?’

‘Kid?’

‘You haven’t tried anything in months.’

‘Are you still alive?’

Now that’s a first. The other hacker initated contact instead of waiting on Futaba to steal secrets, Too bad they probably just mourned an opportunity to mess around on company time.

<What do you care?>

‘People have been telling me to use this thing called “empathy”’

‘I’m suspicious but it might exist?’

‘I’ve grown to expect you, is all,’

<You don’t care.>

‘I didn’t.’

‘At first.’

‘I thought you were an idiot.’

<Thanks>

‘Do not interrupt me.’

‘You see, a lot of people are idiots. A lot of my coworkers are idiots, and explaining the concept of concepts to idiot teens is incredibly annoying.’

‘What sort of idiot tries to hack JP’s? If they know of us, they should know not to mess with us. So, what sort of idiot indeed?’

‘The answer is you. You did.’

<No shit.>

‘And people call me rude.’

‘No interruptions, I’m being genuine for once in my entire life.’

‘You were an idiot, except you kept coming back.’

‘And you kept getting better.’

<Point being?>

‘I can see you’re smart. Your efforts remind me of myself a bit. I started out like you.’

<Hacking shady government agencies?>

‘Punching upwards.’

‘So this tiny little hacker girl made insignificant chemical reactions fire off in my synapses, and then she disappears from sight for months, Alibaba’s activities grind to a halt, and I find a large quantity of searches implying a rather.. questionable mental state in your browser history.’

‘Honestly, you might as well just ping me. That last attempt was pathetic.’

‘So, in layman’s terms, because all of my coworkers always complain my vocabulary is simply to broad for their uneducated minds, I’m worried about you.’

<You shouldn’t be.>

Something swelled up in Futaba as she read these words. This, this stranger, this weird person missed Futaba? Wanted her to take another crack at their roadblocks? How could they? She didn’t understand. How could anyone care about Futaba?

<Why?>

<Why bother with others?>

‘My test subject almost died.’

 What?  First the other hacker actually expressed sincerity for the first time, and now they’re offering personal information?

‘I was so absorbed in my work, the electric shock from an equipment malfunction would have fried his brain if someone else hadn’t been present.’

‘He wasn’t even mad at me.’

‘I’m not letting people die when I can prevent it anymore, not for my own hubris.’

‘My name is Fumi. Are you alright, Futaba?’

 Her tear ducts burst and she leapt off her chair. She couldn’t deal with this, somebody,  Fumi  , showed concern for disgusting horrible monstrous  murderous-

 Before she knew it, she ripped her computer’s plug out of its socket and her room went dark.