Chapter 52: Ruined mood
13:33 PM (Japan Time), Monday July the 30th…
"… Yum! Today's Maha Special was good, Maha!"
"Thank you."
"Netto – kun… You eat too much."
"Heh, heh, heh!"
Heh… Feel cocky while you can…
Netto and Saito were having lunch in Maha Ichiban's: Netto finished the Maha Special and grinned while Saito looked slightly resigned: someone seemed to be watching them and feeling amused close by.
"But, in the end… Vadous – san did get to blow that thing up: that'll put a dent on the ambitions of those jerks." Netto sighed.
"Oriol and the others said they needed to reunite with Mr. Shade and he had to start working on purging those programs… Vadous – san did offer him a helping hand but he wants to prove he's worth it and try to solve his own problems on his own in a mature manner…"
"The main problem is that we've proven that "KO" exists and even though "Octopus – han" began to search around: they didn't manage to find anything worth it save some silly forum posts about the "deadly Pandora" myth…"
"I know. Pandora's Box… The box which shouldn't be opened or else it'll bring calamity to humanity…" Saito rolled his eyes.
"Oi, Netto!"
"What, Hinoken?"
"Is Freeze Man still around?"
Hinoken suddenly leant over the counter to face Netto while looking impatient or annoyed: Netto merely lifted his eyebrows and didn't seem to be too surprised to begin with.
"Sure. Even thought they kicked him around a bit yesterday they all escaped and they're not in the manned satellite…"
"Sheesh! Where are they, then?"
"Dunno. They must be very busy trying to repair their Boss to 100% and keep him from going out in a suicide sortie."
"Hinoken – sama… Rushing into battle without a…"
"Shaddup! I gotta have my revenge!"
"But Heat Man…" Saito argued.
"Heat Man was another tale! They only wounded the guy and they didn't get to die to begin with!"
"Where's Dr. Wily - sama to cool him off?" Maha sighed.
"Tee, heh, heh. In Genius Land, ya see~!" Colored Man joked.
"Don't say nonsense!" Magic Man scolded.
"Hmpf. How stupid. I'd like to have my payback on Magnet Man myself but Count Elec seems to have forgotten the duel we had two years ago in this same restaurant… It didn't feel satisfactory enough."
"Oh yeah! Rockin' Elec Show!"
"Oi! Elec! Save the guitar for later!" Hinoken called out.
"Hmmm… I wonder if the big guy looks like Clint Eastwood with the helmet off or not…" Madoi was reading something in a gaming magazine and muttering aloud.
"Who?" Hinoken asked.
"John."
"John?"
"SPARTAN-117, Master Chief, AKA John… Halo…"
"I'd heard of those games, yeah." Hinoken frowned.
"Yo~!"
"Ah! Charles! Been a while!"
"Welcome!"
"Welcome to Maha Ichiban's, sir."
Heh. So that's the justice ally chap… Hmpf…
Charles came in and sat right to Saito: he picked a menu and read it before grinning.
"A Maha Special!"
"Right away!"
"So! Davis. Any news?" Netto asked.
"We managed to round up and return the loose 5,000 Viruses Swallow Man had let out… We had to work a lot but luckily we came up with huge cages capable of compressing their data into boxes to be able to store about 250 per cage… So we only needed 20 of them… And Vadous decided to rip-off that vacuum cleaner thing from Luigi's Mansion…"
"No wonder!" Saito whistled.
Hmpf… So you rounded up 5,000 out of about 20,000… A fourth: what a pity I didn't think of that back then… Heh, heh, heh.
"Heh, heh, heh… Heh, heh, heh…"
"Shadow Man?" Davis frowned and looked behind him.
"The Sengoku Demon is stirring us up!"
"Hah, hah. How original."
"The campaign is about to begin!"
"Go settle that with Yamato Man."
"Bring forth the Hauptmann!"
"It's a pun. You mean "Captain"…"Davis was unimpressed.
"So! Did the Bulgarian oni herd get seized?"
"What oni herd? Captain Sommerston was investigating stolen vehicle smuggling from Sweden to there." Davis frowned.
"Good memory, yes…"
"Net Navis can't have "bad memory" unless their memories are purposely deleted. Now show your hide already and let's end the show."
"Sure. Wait a min."
"OH MY GOD! A GHOST BLADE! GRA~H!"
Count Elec rushed out of the back-store as if he was gonna be slaughtered alive and through the door into the street: Davis rolled his eyes and the other three sighed.
"What was that?" Hinoken wondered.
"Dunno."
"Some prank?"
Hmpf. So the ninja got degraded… How ironic!
"Did that Dr. Wily do that do you?" Charles asked with a sigh.
"No. It was my step-brother Miyabi."
"When did I become your step-brother, anyway?"
Dark Miyabi came into the restaurant looking pretty annoyed and Shadow Man projected out of his Link PET while shrugging.
"Who knows? Maybe when Dragon Hell told me "the fighting spirit will always lodge in those with passion and resolve"?"
"Huh? You know Dragon Hell? How?" Charles frowned.
"Easy. I followed Sigma into his turf and head the guy mumbling aloud in the kitchen in Chinese but since I'm a Navi I can translate on the spot as if I was an interpreter. I've seen that new banner: it was good stuff to think about, really… Confucius was very wise indeed. Heh, heh, heh."
"Oh come on! That of "the soul is material and can be tamed" was some parody he printed without looking at it twice and maybe reading it as "the soul is immortal and cannot be tamed" instead." Netto groaned.
"Trouble. With capital T." Saito sighed.
Hmpf! The soul can be tamed? That's what I was trying to do through those tools… Tame the souls of those fools…
"Oi! You! What did you to Elec?"
"I formed a gigantic katana hologram and swung it around."
"By all the…!"
"And maybe you'd like to know I was the one who delivered the finishing blow to Freeze Man when he made it back to the base? My contract had finished by then and I guessed there'd soon be new contractors so that was my way of putting the guy out of his misery. Heh, heh, heh! Heh, heh, heh… Heh, heh, heh…"
"You talk too much. A Maha Special!" Miyabi fumed.
"Right away!"
"So! Magic Man. Will you use "Crucio" on that Twilight jerk?"
"No way!"
"So! Colored Man! Will you paint Twilight to be pink?"
"No way!"
"So! Elec Man! Will you unleash 1 million volts on the Twilight guy?"
"No way!"
"So! Fire Man! Will you bathe Twilight in Hellish flames?"
"No way!"
"So! Hauptmann! Will you have your horse run the jerk over?"
"I don't have a horse to begin with!" Davis protested.
"You need something to keep you busy or else you go weird." Miyabi grumbled and rolled his eyes.
"Good deduction, Miyabi. I'll praise you yet."
"Here: the Maha Specials!"
"Hum! This looks good, by my right eyebrow!"
"Oh come on, Charles." Davis didn't find it funny.
"Hum. Thanks."
"Devour Miyabi came."
"Hah, hah. How brilliant, really."
"Go do something useful."
"Such as, Hauptmann?"
"Grftjx! Try to hunt down any hints on that "KO" guy!"
"Should we guess it's a man?"
"Yeah! I'm sure of it and Vadous was too. It's gotta be someone important: maybe some club manager or something like that. Try checking up with Colonel Talos or Colonel Thunderbolt."
"Good… The T Duet… The Sharo Duet… Heh, heh, heh. They should teach Search Man how real wars are waged like."
"Sure, sure. Now move it, Takeda – shogun."
"General Takeda, eh? Heh, heh, heh. I say yo and behold! The Ninja Arts are going to visit you! Heh, heh, heh!"
Shadow Man finally broke down into data to warp away and Davis sighed in relief along with the rest of the restaurant.
"About time!" Hinoken cursed.
"I'd send Master Chief to kick him out with his gun."
"I'd rather tell him to defeat a "Hunter"…" Charles sighed.
"Yeah. And Tartarus too."
"They gotta be hard to beat bosses, I guess."
"Sure they are. The Hunter is the worst thing the Covenant can throw at you in any game. Speaking of games, Halo 3 is coming out this September, about two months from now… We'll finally get to see the conclusion to the main storyline… It'll be worth it." Davis trailed off.
"Man! What a year. Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, that Halo 3 game, the last Harry Potter book a while ago, the 5th Harry Potter movie… Those Mystery Dungeons games… 2007 will be a year to be remembered at this rate!" Saito whistled in surprise.
"No wonder." Charles wasn't surprised.
"Mwah, hah, hah… Hah, hah, hah…"
"Sigma. If you came to troll go troll your scarecrow." Davis fumed as he heard his typical chuckle.
"Oho! Good idea, Capt'n Ameroupe's disciple!"
"Grfhtx! Huff! Don't mix me with Marvel Comics!"
"Maybe we need Spider-Man to use his webs on the jerk and trap them inside of a gigantic ball?"
"Yeah, yeah. Go do that. And tell Bubble Man he's fired too."
"Mwah, hah, hah… Delighted!"
"Phew."
"Ah! I now remember… By the way, Charles, I wanted to ask ya… Can you do "Cross Fusion" too?" Netto asked.
"What? Oh yeah! I've done it ever since last summer."
"Heh! I keep on being the very first user, right?"
"Sure. No one questioned that." Davis shrugged.
"Don't get cocky, Netto – kun. I can see it coming miles away."
"Yeah? With a telescope~?" Netto grinned.
"Hah, hah. How funny."
Hmpf… So you've gotten skeptical too… Guess it's a symptom that you're turning serious… Amusing… Heh, heh, heh…
"… Hmmm… Huh?"
"What's wrong, Miyabi?"
Miyabi had been looking around and seemed to spot something suspicious given his small gasp and his serious face.
"Someone suspicious…" He whispered to Charles.
"Oh yeah? Who are they?"
"I'm not sure. But them picking the last table makes them be in an angle slightly hard to see…"
"Hum." Charles looked suspicious too.
"…what happened in the Waterworks right after the Internet City deletion day…?" Saito had started to argue with Netto.
"Man. That was a trial and error thing."
"You got impatient there. You should've listened to me."
"But at least we figured out about a "Cross Fusion" flaw…"
"Sorry to butt in, but… Did you call for me, Saito?" Blues suddenly showed up on Netto's Link PET.
"Did you need something, Blues?" Search Man opened a communications window at the same time.
"What, me? No. I thought Saito wanted something from me."
"Huh? What? No. I was discussing with Netto – kun."
"… Shadow Man. He pulled another joke." Miyabi grumbled.
"Or Sigma." Davis fumed.
"Oh come on. We're not in the mood for those knowing the guy's loose and there's an accomplice of another party." Blues growled.
"Really…" Search Man fumed.
"Look: they're paying." Miyabi whispered.
"Cash…" Charles muttered.
"Hum. It's a human, alright, given the IR signature…"
"… Heh, heh, heh… Heh, heh, heh…"
"Huh? That voice… I think I've heard it before…" Netto stopped speaking with Blues and Search Man and frowned.
"Yeah. I've got that feeling too." Saito muttered.
"… For the prosperity of our ideal future… Cheers."
"Do excuse me?" Maha could be heard asking.
"Don't mind me."
"Hum… Well. I'll bring the change…"
"Heh, heh, heh… Heh, heh, heh… Let the world be covered in fear and terror: it's too early to feel relieved… Heh, heh, heh… Heh, heh, heh…"
"The more they mutter the more it rings a bell." Netto muttered.
"Yeah. And I get a bad vibe from that voice too. But it ain't the jerk." Saito continued.
"The change, Mr. Customer…"
"Good…"
The customer stood up and they walked towards the counter to reveal it was Dr. Regal: he stopped about a meter from them and folded his arms while forming a smug smile.
"Well?"
"You're…?" Miyabi frowned.
"… Dr. Regal!" Blues growled.
"WHAT?" The twins gasped.
"Hmpf."
He merely walked out in long strides: Netto suddenly seemed to feel a shiver go down his spine and began to shudder and tremble: he brought his hands to his neck in a sudden manner and he looked panicked.
"… I know it…! This is a hallucination…! I'm dead…! I died…! Video Man strangled me to death…!"
SLAP!
"SNAP OUT OF IT, HIKARI NETTO!"
"W-whoa!"
Saito suddenly slapped Netto's right cheek and made him fall from the stool into the ground while looking annoyed or anger: all of the other presents gasped.
"If you think on that then the smug guy wins! Do you want them to get away with it despite it's been two and a something years? Wake up, Hikari Netto! This is reality and you're very alive!" He scolded.
"I'm…! I'm…!" His eyes began to water.
"… Maha. The bill." He icily called out.
"Huh! Y-yes." He gasped.
He placed it on the counter and Saito aimed Netto's PET at there to do the automatic payment: he then picked Netto from behind and lifted him before picking his right hand and guiding him out of the restaurant without even bothering to say "good-bye": the six remaining presents remained silent as if the scene had shocked them.
"By all the… Regal! The jackass! They had to try to shatter all attempts to bury that trauma and try to drive Netto to despair…!" Charles growled.
"As if the other jerk wasn't enough…! They shouldn't have let them out!"
