It turns out there are far more rural towns in Japan's countryside than either Raika or SearchMan thought there would be. Six towns in, and they still haven't found the old Blaze mansion, nor have they come across anyone who knows the name 'Keiko Blaze'.
Six towns, and four mansions - one of which turned out to be the summer home of a completely different wealthy family who still uses it, so that definitely wasn't the old Blaze mansion, though they still got permission to look around the grounds anyway on the off-chance that it was simply repurposed into a summer home. It wasn't, unfortunately, but as Raika told SearchMan, it doesn't hurt to check. The other three mansions were all abandoned (what is it with rich people and just abandoning their old homes? It's a complete waste, really), but none of them were the old Blaze mansion, and one didn't even have a cemetery on the grounds.
Right now, they're on their seventh town. According to the locals, there are no less than two mansions nearby, and only one of them is abandoned. Getting permission to check the grounds of the mansion that isn't abandoned is easy - once Raika explains what they're looking for, the owners are more than happy to let them look around.
Honestly, Raika had been expecting to get turned away at the gates. He never held that high of an opinion of rich people, and for the longest time, he thought that Chaud would be the only exception to that. Shuseki Blaze's horrific abuse and terrible personality in general only served to further Raika's dislike of rich people.
But it's starting to look like Shuseki Blaze is the exception rather than the rule. Aside from that monster of a man, every single rich person Raika and SearchMan have met have been . . . well, friendly, for lack of better terms. A lot of them seem like normal people who just happen to have a lot of money, just like Chaud used to be. Yai is probably the one exception to that, but while she's mildly unpleasant from what little Raika knows about her, she's nowhere near as bad as Shuseki Blaze.
Once he and SearchMan are done checking the grounds of the mansion that isn't abandoned - this one isn't the old Blaze mansion, and the owners seem genuinely sad on his behalf that he didn't find what he's looking for - they head for the abandoned mansion.
This one seems a little more promising. It's surrounded by a forest, and doesn't appear to have been abandoned for very long - a few years at most, definitely less than a decade. Much of the ground here is quite hilly, too. The half-open rusted gates lead out onto a path that steadily slopes upwards, and the mansion sits at the top of the hill in full view.
He heads up and around the back of the mansion. A huge wide-open space greets him, what was once a large meadow of sorts but is now little more than a wildly-overgrown field. The border to this field are the trees of the forest, thick enough that a wall isn't even necessary, or maybe the wall just crumbled away over time and can no longer be seen from this distance.
"What do you think?" Raika asks, glancing at his shoulder.
SearchMan frowns across the overgrown field. "It certainly fits Chaud's description. But I don't see any signs of a cemetery nearby."
"It could be hidden by the grass," Raika points out.
"True," his Navi admits. "I suppose you'd better get walking, then."
Raika blinks at the tall grass, and heaves a sigh. He's more used to walking on thick sheets of snow rather than through grass nearly as tall as he is - and he knows which he prefers.
He's no stranger to grass, despite being from a country almost perpetually covered in snow. He knows what grass looks like, and he knows what it feels like - and he even knows what it tastes like, because his curiosity got the better of him once when he was younger, which was a mistake since he got slightly sick afterwards. Not one of his best ideas, he can admit that much.
Raika keeps one arm held out in front of him, shielding his face from the grass and pushing it aside at the same time. Even so, he still feels the skin on his face being brushed and nicked by the oddly-sharp blades of grass (well, at least the description is fitting), and at one point he ends up trampling half the grass around him because a bug drops down into the back of his shirt.
SearchMan does nothing to help him, and Raika swears he can hear sniggering, along with the faint clicking of the camera function on his PET. Dammit. He'll have to delete those pictures later, if SearchMan doesn't send them to their friends immediately, of course.
I'll never live it down if anyone sees me freaking out over a bug in my shirt, Raika thinks to himself.
Mimic and Chaud already tease him about his 'crush' on Princess Pride. He does not have a crush on her, thank you very much, and he finds it absolutely ridiculous that the twins seem to think otherwise, and hates that they delight in taking every opportunity to tease him about it. They certainly don't need even more ammo to shoot at him.
Though they haven't really teased him as much as they usually do, lately. The last time he remembers either of them teasing him was before Mimic's . . . fit, so before Shuseki Blaze tried beat Chaud half to death.
That's quite a sobering thought. And it serves very well to remind Raika why he's out here in the first place, why he's getting bugs down his shirt and being scratched in the face by blades of grass nearly as tall as he is.
He's not entirely sure how much time passes while he's forcing his way through the grass, but he can see where he walked - the grass is sort of flattened in his wake - and he thinks he's checked most of the grounds by now. The sun is starting to get low, but that's not really a good indication of time, since the days are generally shorter in winter, and he has no idea what time it was when he came through the gates of this abandoned place.
"No cemetery that I can see," Raika mutters, shooing away another bug before it can drop down his shirt and give SearchMan another photo-opportunity.
"Perhaps we couldn't find it because we're too close to the ground," SearchMan suggests. His hologram fades out of sight for a moment, and then reappears just above the grass. He looks around for a moment. "There." SearchMan points off in the direction Raika just came from. "Try going back to the mansion and climb onto the roof. You might be able to spot a cemetery from there."
It's a solid plan, so Raika turns and heads back to the mansion. Since he's going straight back rather than looping around randomly as he's been doing for the past . . . however-long-it's-been, it doesn't take much time, and he finds himself walking along the back wall of the mansion, searching for a way to climb up onto the roof. Or anywhere high enough to see the entire field.
He can see some balconies - most likely from bedrooms or something - but there's no visible way to get up there from where he's standing. And the balconies don't look at all safe to stand on.
"What I wouldn't give for Mimic or Chaud's abilities right now," Raika half-jokes.
"It would certainly make this a lot easier," SearchMan agrees. "And they'd be able to stand on those balconies easily since they don't weigh as much as you do."
"Did you just call me fat?"
SearchMan gives him an odd look. "No. They're half your size and half your weight, probably."
"Yeah," Raika says, a little sheepishly. He's gotten too used to SearchMan muttering those kind of insults under his breath, maybe. But SearchMan really does spend too much time around ProtoMan, who cheerfully insults his operators and anyone else who won't try and delete him for doing so.
Not lately, though. Like the twins, ProtoMan hasn't been doing too much teasing, though in his case it's because he's too busy being a nervous wreck.
Honestly, the only one out of the odd foursome of animalistic humanoids who isn't more or less traumatised at the moment is Arcadia, and he's been through some horrors himself thanks to his first operator, Hatsuko Amano. Mimic is only marginally better than Chaud is right now, but she's almost entirely focused on looking after her twin brother, so any lingering trauma in her is a little more difficult to spot.
"Maybe there's a growth of ivy or something up the side I can use," Raika muses.
"Why not just go through the entrance and find some way up onto the roof from the inside?" SearchMan asks, as Raika starts making his way around the side of the mansion.
"I wouldn't want to risk it," Raika replies. "Given the state those balconies were in, it's highly likely that I'd end up falling through the floor or something."
SearchMan winces. "Ah. That . . . that's a valid point. But how sure are you that ivy will be able to hold your weight? What if the ivy gives way or something?"
"Pipes, then," Raika says.
"And if those fall while you're climbing?"
Raika sighs. "You're a ray of sunshine today, aren't you?"
"I don't want you to get injured," SearchMan retorts. "Or even killed, if the fall damages you enough."
"Don't worry, I know what I-"
Raika stops short and looks up at the wall. SearchMan blinks at him, puzzled, and then follows his gaze.
" . . . Oh," SearchMan says. "That'll do quite nicely, I suppose."
Raika snorts with laughter. 'Nicely' is an understatement - the stroke of sheer luck he's just discovered is absurd, but he's been through far too much random stuff to be able to truly define 'absurd' anymore. He spoke to what the Poltergeist Program referred to as the god of time, and fought a madman trying to take over the world (and kidnap a girl who knows the future) multiple times, not to mention everything else he's been through.
Finding a ladder leading straight up to the roof of this abandoned mansion doesn't seem so strange in comparison to that, honestly.
After a quick check to make sure the ladder isn't a bit of extra weight away from collapsing, Raika begins to climb up. SearchMan keeps an eye on the half-rusted metal as he goes, warning him when one of the rungs looks to be loose so Raika can avoid it. He may not be as good at climbing as the twins, but he's quick enough, and within less than a minute, he's hauling himself over the edge of the roof.
The roof itself is flat enough that Raika can stand up easily. It's still somewhat steep, though, so he walks along the edge carefully, since it's flattest here. Around the back where he can look at the grounds as a whole, and he sees the flattened path he made when searching through the overgrown field.
"SearchMan, analyse the field and see if you can find anything resembling a cemetery," Raika orders. His Navi's eyesight is better than his at this kind of distance - Raika can't tell if there are any stone-coloured smudges out there. He can just barely see his own path.
"Roger that," SearchMan says.
He materialises his Scope Gun on his arm and peers through the lens for several moments. Raika keeps as still as possible to let him work, and then raises his eyebrows expectantly when SearchMan eventually lowers his Scope Gun.
"It's just grass, mostly," SearchMan informs him, and Raika slumps a little. "I couldn't detect any traces of large stones, much less graves, and the only dead things around here are half-rotted plants, as far as I can tell. The odd animal corpse or two, of course, but aside from that . . ."
"Dammit," Raika mutters, carefully turning back the way he'd come and heading toward the ladder. "I was sure this would be it . . ."
"It seems we're getting closer, though," SearchMan points out. He waits for Raika to climb over the edge and start heading down the ladder before continuing. "Have you noticed? The areas around the mansions we've been checking are all beginning to match Chaud's description to some extent."
Raika pauses for a moment. "Good point," he admits. "So we might come across the old Blaze mansion sooner or later. Hopefully it'll be sooner, becau-"
The rung he's holding onto gives way suddenly, and he drops down with a sharp yelp. He hears SearchMan shouting his name a split second before he crashes to the ground, and the wind is knocked out of him.
Raika lays there for several moments, groaning. His back is killing him - but he can't feel any pain aside from that, so he assumes he hasn't broken any bones.
"Raika! Raika!"
He winces and opens his eyes to see SearchMan's half-panicked face just barely inches from his own.
"I'm alright," Raika wheezes, slowly pushing himself up so he's sitting instead of just lying there. "Ow . . . Okay, that hurt more than I thought it would."
"You're lucky you were over halfway down," SearchMan tells him, in a high and almost breathless voice. "O-otherwise . . ."
"I said I'm alright," Raika says, holding out his hand. SearchMan steps onto it and allows Raika to bring him up so they're face-to-face again. "Look, no serious injuries. I'm fine, see?"
"I'll be the judge of that." SearchMan scans him for a few moments, making absolutely sure, and Raika lets him. No sense in upsetting his Navi any further, after all, and he can see the barest hint of a tremble in SearchMan's body. " . . . No, you're fine. Aside from your back, anyway. You need to get back to town and find a hotel for the night, and you are not moving from the bed until morning, understand?"
Raika suppresses a smile. He remembers a time when SearchMan would never have dared to give him any orders, and yet now look at him. Raika can say, without any dishonesty, that he prefers this to how their relationship used to be. It certainly makes conversations more interesting, at least.
"I understand," he says. "Am I allowed to at least get up and walk back on my own?"
"Absolutely not." No matter how amusing Raika finds SearchMan's reaction to this, SearchMan himself is deadly serious. "Stay right here. I'll go for help myself. If you move at all-"
"Go," Raika interrupts, waving his hand. "I won't move, I promise." He shifts so he's leaning against the wall of the mansion, and winces a little when the ache in his back flares up. "See? Not moving."
"You just moved," SearchMan points out testily. He sighs heavily. "Whatever. Just . . . don't move anymore, okay? I'll be back as soon as I can." And with that, he vanishes.
Raika sighs, and then chuckles. Yes, he definitely prefers this over how they used to be.
The sun has properly set by the time SearchMan comes back with some of the locals from the town - one of them is even a doctor, who gives Raika's back a quick check before declaring that he's more or less fit to move, though he should rest until tomorrow morning, which is exactly what SearchMan said, so Raika doesn't protest.
He's helped down the hill slowly, and the owner of the hotel - more of a small inn, really, though the locals insist on calling it a hotel for some reason - refuses to allow Raika to pay for a room since he's injured. Arguing that he's not that injured and should still pay for his room does absolutely nothing to sway the stubborn owner, so Raika ends up lying in a room in the hotel-that's-really-an-inn, and for free at that.
So this latest town and the mansions near it didn't work out, but at least he's discovered that people are a lot nicer than he gives them credit for. Maybe this quest is doing more than just helping he and SearchMan find Chaud's mother's grave.
"Brothers?" ProtoMan repeats, staring at her incredulously. "Are you serious?"
"Yep," Mimic replies, nodding. "In the classic series, anyway. An' MegaMan and Roll were twins."
"Roll was my twin?" MegaMan looks like someone's just slapped him with a wet fish and then told him to dig its eyeballs out with his tongue. "But- that- what?"
"Your names were Rock and Roll," Mimic tells him. MegaMan's mouth drops open. "And ProtoMan's name was Blues."
"Blues?" ProtoMan repeats. "That's the fake name I used when you were 'pretending' to be Mimic Lostie."
"Yup." She nods again. "Blues Light, the older brother of Rock and Roll Light, also known as Proto Man - with a space in the middle."
"My name doesn't have a space," ProtoMan says faintly. He looks like he's having some kind of existential crisis.
"I think it's 'cus you're a computer program rather than a robot," Mimic says thoughtfully.
"Our classic selves were robots?" MegaMan's voice rises into a squeak out of shock.
Mimic is enjoying this far more than she should be, honestly.
"Rock called himself Mega Man - again, space in the middle - when he started fightin' Dr. Wily's robots, but Roll never got converted into a fightin' robot, so she stayed as Roll," Mimic says. "They were the robot kids of Dr. Light."
"Light?" MegaMan blinks. "That . . . that's what 'Hikari' means. So, this Dr. Light person is this classic world's version of our grandfather?"
"Think his name was . . ." Mimic narrows her eyes, staring up at the ceiling of the living room as she tries to remember. Then she blinks and looks back down at the two Navis standing on thin air in front of her. "Ah! His name was Thomas Light, I think. Not Tadashi Hikari."
" . . . This is way too confusing," MegaMan mutters.
"You're telling me," ProtoMan agrees. Dark Shadow nods its own agreement from where it's crouching beside him. "I mean, technically we are brothers now, since Chaud and Mimic're adopted, but . . . there's actually a reality out there where we're literal brothers? And we're robots, too? Like, robots-in-the-real-world robots?"
"Don't think there's really any other kind," Mimic says.
ProtoMan makes a small noise, almost like a breathless squeak. "By the fucking maker."
"Language, ProtoMan," Dad says, coming into the room just in time to hear ProtoMan's words.
"Mimic's said worse," ProtoMan grumbles under his breath.
So much worse, Mimic agrees mentally, grinning.
"I don't know what you're thinking, Mimic, but I'm almost certain it's nothing good judging by that grin, so stop thinking it right now," Dad tells her.
"Bleh," Mimic says, sticking her tongue out.
Dad's shoulders shake as he laughs a little. "Enough with the disrespect, young lady. Where's your brother?"
"Which one?"
"Lan."
Mimic blinks and tilts her head, half-closing her eyes so she can concentrate better. She pinpoints Lan's location in the house by sound within moments.
"Bathroom," she tells her dad. "On the toilet."
Dad looks at her for a moment. "You . . . you can hear him using the toilet?"
"Plops like rabbits," Mimic giggles. ProtoMan makes a strangled noise that sounds almost like a laugh, and MegaMan just looks very disturbed.
"That's . . . mildly disgusting," Dad says, blinking.
Mimic shrugs. "Not t'me," she says. "I don't give a fu-"
"Mimic."
"-frick," she quickly corrects herself. "Don't give a frick. F'I did, I never would'a been able to do that kinda sh- stuff when I was in Chaud's body."
"That's a good point," Dad admits, though he still looks just as disturbed as MegaMan. "But maybe we should consider getting sound-proofing for some of the walls in this house . . ."
"It wouldn't work," ProtoMan speaks up. "They can still hear through soundproof walls like normal walls. Me too."
Dad's face goes blank for a few moments. " . . . Superhuman cat-children," he mutters eventually, burying his face in his hands. "My wife and I adopted superhuman cat-children."
"Can't complain," Mimic points out. "You literally signed up for this."
Dad sighs and lifts his head from his hands. "I suppose we did." He huffs another laugh and smiles. "And we don't regret it, however crazy you kids drive us."
"Ayy!" Mimic grins and throws out her arms cheerfully.
"What'd you need Lan for, Dad?" MegaMan asks suddenly. Dad blinks at him. "You asked where he is specifically, so I assume you need him for something, right?"
"Oh, right!" Dad clears his throat, looking faintly embarrassed. "There's a new feature for the Link PETs that I need to test out, and Lan is the only Net Saver available who it could be applied to at the moment. I need someone who can use Cross Fusion."
Mimic stares at him.
" . . . I haven't forgotten that you can do Cross Fusion, too," Dad says, after a few moments of awkward silence. "It's just that Arcadia can already fly, and no one's really sure how a cat would react to a jet."
"How a cat would react to a what-now?" ProtoMan asks.
"Jet Vernier!" Mimic grins excitedly. "Right?"
"What?" Poor ProtoMan looks even more confused.
Dad chuckles, sounding a little startled. "I suppose it was in your anime, then."
"Yep!" Mimic agrees, bouncing on her seat on the sofa. "Made Chaud, Lan, and Raika fly. Lan got a jetpack, Raika got . . . thrusters, or somethin', and Chaud got rocket-boots."
"Rocket-boots?" Dad glances at ProtoMan, or more specifically, at his long and messy hair. "Hm. I suppose it makes sense - that hair would definitely get in the way of a jetpack or thrusters. Most likely it'd end up getting burnt every time Jet Vernier was used."
ProtoMan looks horrified, now. "My hair's gonna get burnt!?"
"No, no-no-no-no!" Dad quickly rushes to reassure him. "You're not getting the Jet Vernier program!"
"Oh, thank the maker," ProtoMan sighs, slumping in sheer relief.
"Um," MegaMan says, "what is the Jet Vernier program? I-I don't think that's actually been explained, though . . . it sounds like it's some kind of flight ability? Judging by how you've excluded Arcadia from it?"
Dad gives MegaMan a proud nod. "That's right! It's a program we designed with IPC's assistance - it allows operators to fly during Cross Fusion. Since Arcadia can already fly, there's no point in installing it into- wait, who has Arcadia right now?"
"Me, but Arcadia's upstairs with Chaud," Mimic says. "ProtoMan wanted to come downstairs for a bit, though."
"I'll go back up later," ProtoMan murmurs, glancing up toward Mimic and Chaud's bedroom, for all that he can't see through the ceiling or anything. "I just . . . I got kinda . . . restless? I-is that the right word?"
"I think so," MegaMan says.
"That's alright," Dad tells ProtoMan gently. "You have to think about your own recovery, not just Chaud's."
"R-right," ProtoMan mumbles, shrinking in on himself a little.
Mimic reaches out and takes him into her hands, and he curls up and lets her hug him to her chest. Dark Shadow follows and half-lies across his back as soon as Mimic opens her hands enough for both of them to comfortably fit.
Dad watches for a moment, looking a little sad, and then he blinks and turns back to MegaMan. It's clear he's trying to lighten the mood again. The effort is appreciated, even if it doesn't entirely work.
"There's no point in installing Jet Vernier into Mimic's PET since Arcadia can already fly," Dad gets back to explaining. "And like I said, no one wants to give a cat a jet, since we don't know how ProtoMan or whoever's Cross Fused with him would react. That leaves Lan and Raika, but since Raika's not here at the moment, it's just Lan."
"I'm not really sure ProtoMan would need something like that, anyway," MegaMan says, glancing over at ProtoMan. "He's agile enough that he can probably keep up with anyone who can fly and even overtake them, maybe."
"Faster'n Arcadia 'cus he's a cat," Mimic agrees. "Used to be the same, I think? But ProtoMan was a bit slower when there was obstacles or somethin'. Now he's a lot faster."
"I don't think the Jet Vernier could ever reach ProtoMan or Arcadia's natural speeds," Dad muses. "But it's definitely fast, and the flight abilities it'll give Lan and Raika during Cross Fusion will be useful, I can guarantee that much."
They're definitely gonna need the Jet Vernier, Mimic knows. Introduced in the first episode of Beast and a very useful tool with multiple ways to be used - though she did wonder why it was never given to the NetNavis themselves and instead could only be used during Cross Fusion. Compatibility issues? Who knows, she's not Chaud and she'll never be able to figure this kinda shit out.
Just don't question it, then. It doesn't matter much for her or Chaud anyway - as Dad's pointed out, Arcadia can already fly, and ProtoMan is fast and agile enough that he doesn't even need the Jet Vernier.
Sure, he got in the anime, but he was also a full human-Navi then, not a cat-Navi. Plus, the thought of having to listen to that kinda noise constantly does not sound at all appealing, regardless of how useful it is.
"Maybe you could help Lan figure out how to fly?" Dad asks her, breaking her out of her thoughts. "I know using a jetpack isn't the same as wings, but it's still a form of flight."
"Sure!" Mimic agrees, with an eager nod. "Chaud could help too, if you want. He knows flyin' and stuff just like I do."
"The wonders of Switch Fusion and primary-secondary operations," Dad laughs.
"Even if that wasn't a thing for them," MegaMan says, "I think ProtoMan's agility would give Chaud a decent understanding of flight anyway, or at least the kind of manoeuvrability that comes with it. And I might be able to give Lan some input as well, since Arcadia Soul gives me Arcadia's wings, and Gyro Soul lets me fly, too!"
"Excellent!" Dad claps his hands together, grinning. "Then I want all of you to come by SciLab after school tomorrow. I'll install Jet Vernier into Lan's PET, and we'll see how it goes! If it works out well enough, we'll install it into Raika's PET when he comes back, and we can start testing it out properly."
Mimic had always wondered what the training process of figuring out how to use Jet Vernier was like. Now she gets to see it with her own eyes, and help out as well. This is gonna be so fucking cool.
The fact that she'll probably get to see Lan falling flat on his face constantly is a huge bonus, too.