Hiro was GOOD, he had to give the Kantonian that.

Duri was actually struggling to keep up with all the codes he was making to break his firewalls like paper, peeling them off like it was nothing and stressing him out over this speed. Was Hiro even HUMAN?! How could he type this fast? He was a ghoul and yet...

He knew that it was only a matter of time before he found the database, and Duri didn't want that. It had the ghoul gathering saved on it! If they knew about it...

Wynton had told him that they seemed to enjoy attacking mythical gatherings, and it had sent shivers down his spine as he watched the videos they had saved from the CCTV cameras. Screams and laughs... one from Hiro that really drove to home how scary he truly was. 

Duri couldn't let them touch his family. No freaking way! Even...

Even if they had hurt him...

Duri flinched slightly at that thought. No, it wasn't hurt. They had only tried to cope, to adapt to everything that had happened around them. It wasn't their fault he was such a sensitive kid. It wasn't their fault he snapped and killed Dr M with a single strike of his kagune, even if he had accepted himself as a ghoul by now. It wasn't their fault he was such a mess compared to the rest of them-

"DURI!" 

With a start, he jumped up and met 2 golden orbs that burned. Burned with anger, sure, but also, encouragement? 

 Fuyuhiko?

"You can't be spacing out here! We can't let them win this match, Duri!" he snapped. "Why are you hesitating now!? Team Alpha is brutal and doesn't stop for anyone! You're a member of the team, of the SRS, aren't you!? You have a stubborn streak like the rest of us! I need you to prove its existence to me RIGHT NOW! TAKE DOWN AMANOKAWA HIRO AND WIN THIS BATTLE! NOT FOR YOUR STUPID TWIN, NOT FOR YOUR YOUNGER BROTHER, NOT FOR YOUR FATHER, BUT DURI, LOOK AT YOURSELF AND DO IT TO PROVE TO YOURSELF THAT YOU ARE NOT WHAT YOUR DARKEST THOUGHTS CLAIM YOU ARE! YOU HEAR ME?! YOU MATTER AND I'LL BE DAMNED IF YOU THINK OTHERWISE!" 

Duri's eyes widened, but the power, the sheer belief in his tone made him close his eyes, before narrowing them as he focused on the screen, quickening his typing to the maximum while yelling, "Wynton, Shun, Lia! I need your help to win this battle! I'll write you the commands, so you better do them right!"

"You got it!" Wynton nodded while Shun and Lia grabbed their laptops. 

As he began running maintenance on the broken firewalls, he called out his kagune and had it write down the instructions before calling Y, Sleep, and Meramelion to give it to each of the AO members. Once that was over, he mentally prepared himself for this, taking in a deep breath, before he refocused his attention on the screen and made vaccines, temporary counterprograms to combat Hiro's own while he fixed the main defenses. Knowing what they were meant to do helped him form a basic structure of the program Hiro had used so Duri could add in better security. 

He could do this. 

Wynton was the first to be done, so Duri quickly plugged the USB into the computer and added it to the main defenses, quickening its recovery process. Shun and Lia were not far behind, so once he had the other components he ordered some new components from them, which they quickly began work on. 

The recovery was going well. The defenses were fighting, stalling. 

Now it was time to strike back. Hiro's attacks had gotten weaker, and he was not about to let this chance pass him by. 

With renewed vigour, he made a whole new program, adding in some corrupted coding into it and then the new codes the others had made into it. He didn't forget to make it recognisable to the defenses since it would have to pass through them, of course, but other than that he was done, and the main firewalls were 90% up. 

Hiro's attacks grew more ferocious, resembling that of Gulus' fighting style from what he had seen, but it was to be expected. He couldn't let this distract him. He was so so close to victory and he was not about to lose! He couldn't give up now! 

"Alright, I'm launching the counterprogram soon! Countdown from 10 please, Dan, Ajit, Fic!" he yelled. 

"Now?!" Dan gaped. 

"Do as he says!" Fuyuhiko said. 

"Alright then! Ten!" Ajit began. 

His hand hovered over the return button, ready to send it as soon as he could. Once the firewalls were done, he was going to make Team Alpha taste defeat. He was going to find them, and stop them before they hurt anyone else. 

"Nine!" Fic yelled. 

"Eight!" Dan said.

"Seven!" Lia sounded nervous, his brain offhandedly noticed. 

"Six!" Shun was definitely hopeful, though.

"Five!" Wynton added in his own two cents. 

"Four!" Peko shouted. 

"Three!" Nagito continued.

"Two!" Hajime yelled.

"Arf!" Lightning said. 

"ZERO!" He and Fuyuhiko chorused as the firewalls FINALLY finished reinforcing themselves, allowing him to press the return button. 

For a long tense moment, Duri held his breath, and so did the others. He knew it would take some time for it to work, but it had been so rushed. What if it didn't work? What if they had gotten the information they had wanted and they couldn't track them down-

TING!

He froze, and everyone crowded around him to look at the notification on his screen. 

Duri's eyes widened at it. 

Program launch success! Location found! 

As the map showed up as a new window, it hit him. It had actually worked. 

He finally exhaled out of pure surprise and excitement, and was immediately tackled to the ground by his 3 Pokemon, making him laugh, "Okay, okay, I get it you're happy, you guys! Get off me!" 

"Nekkoooo!" Sleep nuzzled him, and he couldn't help but smile as he got up, carrying both Pokemon while Meramelion rubbed his nose against his leg. 

"You did it Duri!" Fic then hugged him as well. "That was awesome!" 

He grinned slightly, but he knew the credit wasn't just for him, "If Fuyuhiko hadn't yelled at me,  I probably would have lost. So..." 

He turned to the blonde, and he was very much aware of the heat on his face. Still, he managed, "T-Thanks for that... I-It means a lot." 

Fuyuhiko seemed surprised as well, yet he looked away and mumbled, "N-No problem. S-Sorry for underestimating you in the first place, though." 

"I-It's fine!" Duri smiled slightly. "A-Anyway, we didn't get off on the right foot so... d-do you want to start over? A-As friends?" 

"S-Sure!" Fuyuhiko nodded like a bobblehead, and Duri's mind pointed out that he could have asked him out on a date and no one would be the wiser. 

His only reply was to ignore his brain and just savor how happy the other looked.