Chapter 7
Saito sat on the table while his grandfather looked over the monitors and sometimes came up and put his hand on his chest.
"Yes. The Rockman shell program my son used for your frame is locked away," he mused as he worked.
"Is there a way to get it back?" Saito asked. He was starting to get worried. Tadashi had pretty much confirmed that, if nothing was done, he would still look like this outside of this world. There were very few navis and net battlers who would be okay with battling against a navi who looked like a kid.
"Perhaps. It looks like it is set to unlock under certain conditions." There was a banging on the wall. "Ah, that must be your friends now."
"Okay, what do we do?" Saito asked, looking at the wall. Tadashi picked up a chair.
"Care to help me?" he asked, motioning towards the other chair. Saito picked it up and flinched as his grandfather slammed the chair into the wall.
"What was that?" Enzan demanded to know, after composing himself. Netto was holding back his laughter from seeing Enzan jump in fright.
Tadashi demonstrated by doing it again. "Get your navis to shoot from the other side. Saito get over here and help!"
Saito swallowed and stepped towards the wall. He slammed the other chair into it right when he heard Enzan order Blues to fire.
The wall rippled and exploded into bits of data. On one side of the wall was their vaguely physical lab. On the other, the bright colours of the net.
Saito felt his mouth drop.
Blues and Enzan cried out each other's names before Enzan demanded a report. Roll and Meiru ran to hug each other. Dekao and Gutsman shared a fist bump. Glide knelt before Yaito. Searchman and Laika saluted each other.
Netto and Saito shared a look before smiling. It was nice to see their friends in the same world.
"What do we do about Saito?" Netto asked their grandfather.
"It is possible that the person who did this could undo it," Tadashi said. He extended a hand out of the wall and watched as it rippled and began to break apart. He quickly pulled it back and it reformed. "However, I cannot exit this area. It contains the code and memory which keeps me going."
"What?" Saito said, feeling something pierce his heart. He hadn't realised until now that he had been entertaining the idea of bringing this piece of their grandfather back with them.
It would be nice to have another family member on the net with him.
Tadashi placed a hand on his grandson's head. "It's okay, my boy. You'll do just fine without me." He pulled Netto in close and hugged them both. "You boys are stronger than you know."
"Grandpa," they said in unison.
"I'm sure you can get Saito back to normal. And I know that you can keep Dr Wily's plan from being a reality."
"Dr Wily?" Netto said in shock. The twins shared a look. Dr Wily was behind this?
"Why would he do this?" Saito questioned.
"I am not certain," Tadashi responded. "I can only make conjecture based on my memories. I know that, in my time, it would be quite an upset if it was revealed that a scientist not only uploaded a human to the net but used a child, his own child, to complete his experiment."
"That's not how it went!" Saito bellowed, pushing himself away. He flushed a little and lowered his voice. "Papa's not like that."
"I know," Tadashi responded sadly. "But different people see things in different ways. Where one man sees a success, another can see failure. It takes many kinds to fill this world, don't ever forget that."
The boys were slightly confused but their friends weren't going to let them ponder for long.
"Netto, come on! Let's leave this place and go home!" Dekao called.
"Home, guts!" Gutsman echoed.
Netto looked over at their grandfather and, with one last hug, stepped out of the programmed world and onto the net. Saito looked at the net, his stomach sinking. What if he was nothing more than a fabrication like their grandfather? What if this was the last time he saw his brother?
"Come on you slowpoke!" Netto said, walking back over and grabbing his arm. Before Saito could tell him to wait, he had been pulled out into the net.
Instantly, everything felt different. The air was filled with data, a slight tingle in the area around him. Saito looked down at himself and was disappointed to see a blue shirt sporting his symbol and not the jumpsuit he was used to. His hand went up and brushed through his hair as he sighed.
"I guess it couldn't be that easy," he said.
"Hey, at least we're out. Maybe if we find our way to Papa, he can fix it!" Netto said.
The rest of the group was staring at them.
"What?" the twins questioned.
"Netto, why is Saito here?" Meiru asked gently.
The twins shared a look.
"Um..." Saito hummed, raising his hand a little since they seemed to be focused on Netto. "Can I ask what you mean?"
Enzan cleared the gap between them and stood right before Saito, frowning.
"Enzan," Blues said, a step behind his operator. "Perhaps it would be best to not get too close."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Netto demanded to know, glaring at Blues.
Saito, the object of the apparent suspicion, just frowned.
"Tadashi Hikari wasn't able to leave the radius of the created world. However, you, Saito Hikari, could. Why is that?"
"I... I don't know?" Saito lied. He knew exactly why. Because he was a navi like Blues and the rest of them.
Or because he was human like Netto.
It had been a while since Saito had felt torn between his human and navi selves. He wasn't a complete navi like Blues but he wasn't a complete human like Netto either.
"Leave Saito alone," Netto said firmly and without yelling. "He'll explain if he wants to."
"You know why?" Laika asked Netto. Netto held the young soldier's gaze and nodded. "Fine. I assume you want Saito to come along with us?"
"Yes," Netto said.
"Do I get a say in this?" Saito asked his brother.
"No. Now be quiet, big brother, we netsaviors are talking." Netto grinned at him and Saito shook his head.
He was going to get Netto back for this.
The group seemed content to let Saito tag along as they walked the path which would hopefully bring them to an exit point. Saito noticed that they kept their distance from him as if not quite sure what to make of him.
Roll slowed her steps and ended up next to him. "Are you alright?" she asked.
He hummed in response, not quite sure what she was getting at. In the distance, he noticed Gutsman shooting him looks of the 'don't touch Roll' variety.
"I mean, you're leaving everything behind," she asked, "it wouldn't be surprising if you were feeling sad."
"It wasn't everything," Saito said, "only a short look at what could have been." He smiled at her. "As long as I'm with Netto, I'm good."
He paused then, something pricking at his dulls senses. Perhaps it was a sense that this was going too smoothly. "Netto-!" he started to say before the ground shook.
"Viruses!" Searchman informed them.
"Eliminate them!" Laika ordered. Searchman levelled his gun at some of the green kite-like Kiorushin viruses skimming through the air, right towards them, and fired.
Blues was already moving, slashing through waves of the knight-like Suwōdin, skillfully dodging the flaming swords being swung at him. Roll jumped into action to protect Meiru as a couple of cannon-like Kyanōdamu viruses fired at the girl. Roll's antenna took surprisingly quick action against them. Gutsman helped her out, beating on any of them when they locked onto her. Glide provided support from the back, firing cannons at any viruses that got past the flank of navis.
"This sucks!" Saito moaned to Netto a couple of moments into the fight as he itched to join them. He ran his hands through his hair, tossing it into disarray in his frustration. It kept its part through the middle as he almost pulled strands in each direction.
"I know. We can't do a thing," Netto sighed as Meiru fed a couple of chips to Roll.
"This sucks," both twins sighed again, this time in unison.