COTE : Parasite in Love.

Chapter 10: Winter Wormderland II

December 24th, 4 PM. Less than an hour remained before the activation of Ayanokouji’s creation, SilentNight. It was unclear how many devices had been infected, but it couldn’t be less than a few thousand as a low estimate. Because the malware he’d created was quite distinct from the mobile malware that had been made prior.

Ayanokouji, the author, was not very aware of it himself, but SilentNight was extremely revolutionary mobile malware. There did exist prior malware that disabled the communication functions of phones.

SilentMutter and Radiocutter discovered in 2009, for example. But at any rate, of the mobile malware recognized in 2011, the majority were trojans due to technical reasons. SilentNight, meanwhile, was a mobile worm that infected the network and could self-replicate, so its ability to diffuse was incomparable to previous mobile malware. And at least currently, there were no anti-virus programs that detected this malware.

A powerful virus that struck in 1999, Melissa, was said to have caused over 80 million US dollars in damages. Furthermore, a virus that surfaced the next year, Loveletter, was said to cost over a few billion dollars. Even this malware created by individuals could deal an unheard-of blow to the world if it worked its way into the gears. If all went well, even if it didn’t shake the world, SilentNight might get a lot of people’s attention for two or three days.

But Ayanokouji didn’t much feel like watching it happen. Though creating malware had been what he lived for, now, it just felt empty. Ayanokouji himself didn’t know whether that was due to Hiyori or not.

I’ll turn myself in before the date changes, Ayanokouji silently decided. He wasn’t accounting for the fact that turning himself in might result in a lighter sentence than Tsukishiro doing it for him. He simply felt it was just right.

Upon getting outfitted and standing at the door, the intercom sounded. He knew it wasn’t Hiyori. He figured it was probably Tsukishiro, but Ayanokouji’s intuition was also wrong there.

Standing at the door was a deliveryman. The man bluntly handed him a pen and voucher. Ayanokouji signed, and the man handed him a paper bag and quickly left.

He returned to the living room to open the bag. Inside was a wine-red scarf. When he unfurled the folded-up scarf, something fell out. It was stationery with a simple design and an envelope. The contents of the envelope were sticking out slightly after the fall: a stack of bills.

He picked up the stationery and stuffed it in his coat pocket. He didn’t stop to count the bills. He knew how much it was, and the reason he had been sent it.

Hiyori probably took half the payment from Ayanokouji as a condition for becoming friends because she wanted to be on equal footing with him. She absolutely didn’t want him to feel like he was working for money. Now that their relationship had failed, there was no longer a need to maintain that equality.

Ayanokouji unplugged his smartphone from the charger it was always plugged into, stuffed the scarf in his bag, and left the room. He was headed to the police station. He didn’t know why, but he felt that to turn himself in, he should do so by going there directly instead of calling in.

He didn’t wear gloves or a mask. It was a meager punishment for himself.

On the way, Ayanokouji took the stationery out of his pocket and read it.

“I must have startled you suddenly leaving the way I did. I’m really sorry. I really would like to explain myself, but I can’t say anything. Because as many words as I tried to use, it would probably only deepen your confusion. One thing I can say for sure is that you have no responsibility, and the problem lies entirely with me. I was wrong to have a desire that was totally beyond me.”