after all. But it wasn’t coming from the Toe-Fetish Killer. It was the students badmouthing Mika Sonoi.
The day after Kenji advised him not to try fixing the problem himself, Kotaro asked for permission to run Kumar’s web-spider software on his laptop. Seigo didn’t ask him why. He just walked him through the procedure for using the software outside the office and approved his request. He probably thought Kotaro wanted to put in extra time patrolling for clues to the Toe-Fetish case.
Kotaro had a different goal. He didn’t exactly plan to ignore Kenji’s advice, but he wanted to help Mika.
The attacks had started at the beginning of summer break, with an update to a personal page on a mobile-access deep net site for students at Aoba Middle School. The owner of the page was a girl with the handle Glitter Kitty.
“I love it that Gaku is nice enough to come to practice, but the way Mika throws herself at him really ticks me off.”
It looked like Gaku was a third-year student, a former star member of the soft tennis club and general heartthrob. He was “nice enough to come to practice” because he was taking time to coach the first- and second-year students during summer break, though as a third-year student he’d already ended his extracurricular activities and was focused on high school entrance exams.
Glitter Kitty had erupted sporadically throughout the break. “Everyone else is so devoted to Gaku.” “Mika’s so phony-cute.”
Aoba’s soft tennis team had its own clearnet social networking page. Glitter Kitty didn’t post comments like that to the team page, nor did anyone else. The posts were always wholesome and pure, maybe awkwardly so. “Let’s work hard and make the top four in the fall nationals!” “Today’s practice was great! Everyone worked so hard!” “Our doubles are totally in sync. We’re in the zone for the nationals!”
Glitter Kitty was making her jealous comments outside official channels. No one on the team posted reactions to her comments during the summer. Maybe they weren’t even aware of them at that point. Had Glitter Kitty deliberately kept her page secret?
She wrote that Gaku had also taken part in the team’s summer camp. He’d paid a lot of attention to coaching Mika, Glitter Kitty fumed. “She totally drives me crazy. I’m so ticked I might actually barf.”
Still, the comments were Glitter Kitty’s personal vendetta. She was still at it when the second term began in September.
Things changed completely at the end of October. Other members of the club—most of them girls—started posting frequently to Glitter Kitty’s page, and most had something negative to say about Mika. She was stuck-up. She was a showoff. Veiled references to the Mika thread even popped up on the team’s clearnet site. “Recently one of our members is violating team etiquette. She should reflect on her behavior carefully.” “People who join for reasons other than tennis are bad for the club.”
What had happened? The darknet thread didn’t point to anything definite. One of the comments was “It’s not Gaku’s fault.” That meant he was involved, but since “how” was common knowledge, there was no need to say it. Why don’t they set up a wiki or something , thought Kotaro. Just to keep the details straight. But these girls didn’t know anything about the web. They were just following the herd and yapping away at each other.
The end of October was also when they started referring to Mika Sonoi as “Mikarin.” Nicknames for girls that ended in -rin were common enough, but in this case the nickname was spiteful; rinrin was the sound a tiny bell made, and Mika was “like a tiny bell screaming for attention.”
Kotaro in his wildest dreams couldn’t imagine Mika trying to get attention from anyone. If she had, she would’ve been very bad at it.
I wouldn’t be surprised if someone—their advisor or senior members—warned them about the comments on the team
The day after Kenji advised him not to try fixing the problem himself, Kotaro asked for permission to run Kumar’s web-spider software on his laptop. Seigo didn’t ask him why. He just walked him through the procedure for using the software outside the office and approved his request. He probably thought Kotaro wanted to put in extra time patrolling for clues to the Toe-Fetish case.
Kotaro had a different goal. He didn’t exactly plan to ignore Kenji’s advice, but he wanted to help Mika.
The attacks had started at the beginning of summer break, with an update to a personal page on a mobile-access deep net site for students at Aoba Middle School. The owner of the page was a girl with the handle Glitter Kitty.
“I love it that Gaku is nice enough to come to practice, but the way Mika throws herself at him really ticks me off.”
It looked like Gaku was a third-year student, a former star member of the soft tennis club and general heartthrob. He was “nice enough to come to practice” because he was taking time to coach the first- and second-year students during summer break, though as a third-year student he’d already ended his extracurricular activities and was focused on high school entrance exams.
Glitter Kitty had erupted sporadically throughout the break. “Everyone else is so devoted to Gaku.” “Mika’s so phony-cute.”
Aoba’s soft tennis team had its own clearnet social networking page. Glitter Kitty didn’t post comments like that to the team page, nor did anyone else. The posts were always wholesome and pure, maybe awkwardly so. “Let’s work hard and make the top four in the fall nationals!” “Today’s practice was great! Everyone worked so hard!” “Our doubles are totally in sync. We’re in the zone for the nationals!”
Glitter Kitty was making her jealous comments outside official channels. No one on the team posted reactions to her comments during the summer. Maybe they weren’t even aware of them at that point. Had Glitter Kitty deliberately kept her page secret?
She wrote that Gaku had also taken part in the team’s summer camp. He’d paid a lot of attention to coaching Mika, Glitter Kitty fumed. “She totally drives me crazy. I’m so ticked I might actually barf.”
Still, the comments were Glitter Kitty’s personal vendetta. She was still at it when the second term began in September.
Things changed completely at the end of October. Other members of the club—most of them girls—started posting frequently to Glitter Kitty’s page, and most had something negative to say about Mika. She was stuck-up. She was a showoff. Veiled references to the Mika thread even popped up on the team’s clearnet site. “Recently one of our members is violating team etiquette. She should reflect on her behavior carefully.” “People who join for reasons other than tennis are bad for the club.”
What had happened? The darknet thread didn’t point to anything definite. One of the comments was “It’s not Gaku’s fault.” That meant he was involved, but since “how” was common knowledge, there was no need to say it. Why don’t they set up a wiki or something , thought Kotaro. Just to keep the details straight. But these girls didn’t know anything about the web. They were just following the herd and yapping away at each other.
The end of October was also when they started referring to Mika Sonoi as “Mikarin.” Nicknames for girls that ended in -rin were common enough, but in this case the nickname was spiteful; rinrin was the sound a tiny bell made, and Mika was “like a tiny bell screaming for attention.”
Kotaro in his wildest dreams couldn’t imagine Mika trying to get attention from anyone. If she had, she would’ve been very bad at it.
I wouldn’t be surprised if someone—their advisor or senior members—warned them about the comments on the team
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