The Sharan Net Police base had changed from the last time Enzan had seen it; there were more people there and less dust. It actually seemed somewhat active now, merely a shadow of its former self rather than a ghost manned by one scientist. Laika seemed to be doing well; his hair was back to its old cut, and there was no sign that his body had ever been possessed by a rogue Navi. Even the act of sitting down for a brief meeting with him and Pride seemed familiar, though the subject was strange and unpleasant.
"I don't think you grasp how deeply uncertainty runs through this region," Laika sighed once Enzan had finished explaining their current conjecture as to who Netto could be working under. "The Sharan Army has a cyberwarfare unit like that. So does the army of every Northern nation."
"But why?" Meiru asked worriedly.
"Because we live next to one another," Pride said sadly. "Intelligence and counterintelligence are what our countries live and breathe. None of us are truly blameless here."
Pride seemed to feel guilt enough for every one of the nations at hand. "I–I don't think he's working for Creamland!" Meiru said, clearly uncomfortable in turn.
"But our situation is self-reinforcing," Laika explained. "Each unit has plans for dealing with the others if they show even a momentary weakness. Exposing one special unit for bad behavior would merely cause us all to turn on one another, one by one, with no one actually stopping until our nations are all destroyed."
"I'm sorry," Pride said. "Each one of us caused the actions of the other."
Laika concluded, "There is no one with the authority to follow this hypothesis any further."
For a moment, there was silence. "…But we have to," Meiru said, quietly determined.
"Do you have airtight evidence?" Pride asked gently. "Or merely a feeling?"
"As Net Saviors, we have neither the jurisdiction nor the pretense to go after another nation's military units," Laika said sternly. "Especially not the two of you, as representatives of Japan."
Would Netto have turned back here? Enzan pressed on, "Are any of those units called the Silvers?"
Pride was taken aback. "How do you know that name?"
"We've only heard it a few times before, in passing," Meiru explained. "It's tied to the Irregular incidents, but we can't find any record of it."
"Of course you can't–the Silver Division is only a rumor," Laika explained. "It's said to be primarily a think tank for technology and cyberwarfare that Darkland keeps inside the Central Citadel of the Royal Forces, the base of its special operations and cyberwarfare units. Occasionally, its members are also said to carry out covert operations related to bleeding-edge technology."
Worriedly, Pride continued, "It's a secret said to be protected by blood. Any sources simply disappear. I don't think anyone in this room should be trying to find out if it exists."
"But what about Netto?" Meiru asked, alarmed.
"What about him?" Laika crossed his arms, his face hard.
"We can't just leave him somewhere like that, even if it looks impossible," Meiru said, unshaken.
Pride and Laika exchanged glances. Pride, her face pained, looked away from him. "We may have to," she said mournfully, unable to meet anyone's eyes.
Laika, meanwhile, seemed to harden himself. "If he does not come forward on his own, there is nothing any of us can do."
"But he doesn't think he can!" protested Meiru.
"Is that all, or does he just not want to? What was the last action he took, Sakurai?" Laika showed no sign of compassion. "Does he not have blood on his hands? Is he not plotting to take you down at this very moment?"
This was a bit too far for Enzan. "Laika–"
"This is not your homeland. And I am not about to let you two start a war here on feelings and conjectures alone," Laika said grimly. "We have told you everything we can. I don't want to hear of you pursuing this any further."
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After their meeting had ended, Meiru and Enzan had both excused themselves, supposedly in order to prepare themselves for the surfacing of the vein program's command module. Unlike the first one they'd run into, it seemed this one was mobile—and once it set down in one place, it took no time at all for the area to be sucked dry of data. But it hardly seemed to matter to either Net Savior. They sat in silence for some time before Meiru finally spoke. "It's worse than I thought. There's nothing we can do this time, is there?"
"We've got to keep fighting," Enzan told her. "That's what we can do."
"Even if it feels like everyone's hands are tied?"
Enzan looked away. "I've known for some time that Netto was in much bigger trouble than it appeared. I'm disappointed, but I can't say I'm surprised."
"What are you two doing so far from the command center?" Meiru and Enzan turned to see Chief Malenkov approaching them.
"It's nothing, sir," Meiru said, forcing herself to look up at him with a calmer expression.
"Then you'd better get back to your positions; we're predicting the command module will appear within minutes." Malenkov studied them for a moment. "You know, Laika is just as upset as you are about your comrade. His presumed death feels much more recent to him, because of his sleep in Sigma's chambers."
"Then why does he have to be so cold?" Meiru asked sourly, before remembering who she was talking to. "I didn't mean that, sorry, sir—"
"Because it's often better to plan for the worst and hope for the best," Malenkov said. "You can assume nothing about Hikari Netto's fate, as the situation is now. You can certainly hope he has an explanation for his actions good enough to qualify as duress. But if he doesn't, you cannot save him from the consequences he deserves."
"This isn't fair," Meiru complained quietly. "We can't go after the cause at all."
"It's a complicated world," Malenkov said noncommittally. "What is right and what is lawful are sometimes two entirely different things, and as Net Saviors, you are bound by the latter. I do regret that you've had to learn that lesson this way."
Meiru and Enzan looked into each other's eyes. Meiru knew what she was thinking, and she suspected what Enzan was thinking was quite similar. But it was a deceptively simple idea with complex ramifications, and there was an upright, respectable adult in the form of Malenkov right beside them. For now, it was only a defiant thought. "I guess it's like you said. Keep fighting," Meiru said.
"And hope for an answer," finished Enzan.
They looked back at Malenkov. "Let's go."
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"I'm glad you're feeling better," Pride said upon their re-entering the central command room. Laika said nothing, but didn't press on his previous point.
"It's approaching our position," one of the staff reported. The four Netbattlers readied their PETs.
"Plug-in, Searchman! Transmission!"
"Plug-in, Knightman! Transmission!"
"Plug-in, Blues! Transmission!"
"Plug-in, Roll! Transmission!"
The four Navis spaced themselves around the egg-like object floating toward them. Searchman fired first; electricity coursed through the command pod, slowing it down as it listed in Roll's direction. She took the opportunity to leap inside via one of the many holes dotted on its sides and top, sending a storm of hearts ahead of her to cut down the veins that were stretching toward her.
"Oh-ho, it's you two!" Montaile's face appeared behind his Navi. Enzan felt a little relieved despite himself that he wasn't staring down Netto. "Now I'll get to show you how foolish you were to let me go!"
"It's not like you could exactly stay after you held almost everyone who worked at the Ministry hostage!" Meiru pointed out as Roll fired an opening Heart Slash. Typhoon ducked under, to which Meiru countered, "AkaTsunami, slot-in!" With Typhoon in no position to evade, the wave swallowed her. She managed to siphon off some of the AkaTsunami into one of her Water Spout attacks, making for a larger swirl of water that contained rocks as the lava cooled. But as she tossed it at Roll, Meiru called, "Reflector, slot-in!" and caused the rocks to bounce right back.
"I'll see how you like a taste of your own medicine! Kanketsusen, slot-in!" There was no space to evade; Roll was blasted out the top of the pod.
"Warp away before she comes back, Typhoon!" commanded Montaile. The petite Navi ran to the panel at the back and began to put in coordinates. Enzan doubted either of them could see what the four Operators in the command center could; that Roll was hanging onto the top of the pod, slicing away with Heart Slash attacks at the vine-like veins trying to feed.
Over a private connection, Laika ordered, "Searchman, plant a tracker on the pod." The green-armored Navi shot at the pod just as it disappeared. Its new location appeared on the display floating in front of Laika. "She's still in the network. Who wants a shot next?"
"I'll take care of it," Enzan said, plugging out Blues and sending him into the computer Searchman's tracker indicated.
Blues leapt aboard as the pod approached the ground, Z-Saber in hand to cleave away any veins that tried to intercept him. "Mind taking on another passenger?" Below him, Knightman and Searchman were in position, their Operators having plugged out and back in as well.
"Great Typhoon!" This time, Typhoon was ready with a storm that took up the entire inside of the pod.
"There's no room for you to evade!" gloated Montaile as Blues was hurled back out the way he came. "You're about to find out exactly how wrong you were! And once Nova has taken over, I'll use my position to complete my research. The entire world will discover what a massive mistake they made…" Montaile kept ranting, and though Typhoon was keeping her attack going, she seemed to be getting tired. Before long, she let her attack disperse and turned to pilot the pod—right in time for Roll to drop in holding a Kusamura Seed. The vines that grew from the chip covered the small Navi entirely, keeping her from crying out loud enough to pull Montaile out of his tirade.
"Let's get this over with while he's distracted," Meiru said, starting to send in object chips. Enzan didn't have many chips to add to the pile—just an Earthquake and a Stone Cube—but Pride soon realized what they were up to and handed over more chips for Enzan to send in.
"—And when the program's finished absorbing every molecule of important data it can find, I'll take over the destruction! I'll show you to call me incompetent after—" He looked back at the Net Saviors and saw them absorbed in their PETs' holographic displays. "—Will you pay attention?!"
"No offense, but when you've heard one speech like this, you've heard them all," Meiru said.
"Are you done now?" Enzan asked.
"Typhoon, make them pay!" Montaile snarled.
"That's all I needed to know," Meiru said, closing her holographic display and sending in a chip she'd been holding. "Let's go, Roll!"
No sooner had Typhoon taken a step than she was dogpiled by a massive amount of items. "Your Operator ought to pay more attention when he's gloating," Roll told the mountain Typhoon was buried under once the effects of Poltergeist had ended. "Meiru-chan and Enzan-kun have been sending in objects this whole time!"
"Wow, he's just as bad at this as he looks," Meiru noticed.
With considerable amusement, Enzan sent in, "Neo Variable, slot-in!"
Blues drew back his arm and waited. There was a faint scraping sound; then, Typhoon struggled to the top of the item pile. "Sonic Boom!" The tiny Navi was struck by the energy blast and sailed away toward the pod wall.
Hurriedly, Montaile cried, "Panel Out, slot-in!" Typhoon's trajectory took her straight into the hole that opened up behind her.
"All you're doing is prolonging the fight! We're still going to win!" Meiru complained.
"Is it really prolonging it if Knightman and Searchman are waiting for her?" Enzan pointed out.
"Hey, you're right!" Meiru realized. "And you know what else?"
"What?!" Montaile asked desperately.
"It looks like you forgot about protecting the generator."
Before Montaile could do much more than gasp and begin to plead, Enzan sent in, "Magma Cannon, slot-in!" Blues wasted no time liquefying the generator with the Magma Cannon's heat.
"Plug out, Typhoon!" Montaile cried. The pod was beginning to shake now that the vines wrapping around it had disappeared. As pieces of it began to fall off and dissolve into pixels, Roll and Blues plugged out.
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On their flight back to Japan, where they now knew Netto had to be waiting, Enzan got some rest in and Meiru tried to. She tried to convince herself that there was no point in thinking about what had happened to Netto or what the mysterious organization who'd trained him was; either it would be a satisfying answer or it wouldn't, and the law would follow through in either case. She couldn't imagine Netto rotting away in prison or worse, but she could certainly imagine Black doing so.
Plan for the worst and hope for the best.
And next to it, the mutinous idea they'd shared without words: If these are the limits of Net Saviors, then to hell with them.
She leaned back in her seat and shut her eyes, though her heart still pounded.