Black was a man on a mission as he strode down the streets of Densan. "So it's this way?" he asked, turning the corner to his right.

"Yep, straight ahead," Punk told his Operator. Just ahead was a movie theater, neon lights adding excitement to its facade. "Not that I mind the break, but shouldn't we be minding our area?"

"I have to see it in person," Black said. "Otherwise, it's not true." Outside the movie theater, plenty of posters and banners featured characters from the Starpotter films. "Wow... It really is true!" Noticing the young man pictured holding a wand, Black sighed, "But he looks all grown up now... I feel old..." He made a beeline for the nearest poster. "It comes out tomorrow! This is awesome."

"I didn't think you'd know about 'em," Punk said skeptically.

"Of course I do. The Starpotter trilogy was going to be a modern classic! Good thing they..." Black's attention dropped to the tagline. "There are seven movies?!"

"That's why I was askin'..."

"That's impossible..." Black's eye narrowed in concentration as he began counting off years on his fingers. "No, seriously, that really is impossible. Assuming I'm right about how long it's been and assuming a movie a year, where'd the seventh come from?"

"Pretty sure it came out a couple months before we met," Punk said.

"Ah." Black took a moment to reorganize his mental approximations. "Yes, that would make sense." He crossed his arms as he wondered, "But what am I gonna do? Those movies are ancient history by now. Where would I—of course! The rental stores!"

"Huh?" asked Punk, who had been expecting a more sensical answer.

"They're bound to have it! I've gotta hurry!" Black left the movie theater behind, taking his bewildered Navi along for the ride.

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"Man, I can't wait for the Starpotter movie!" Kaita said, passing the movie theater in its Starpotter regalia.

"Me either!" Turboman agreed. "But I always figured there would be another one. After that Chaka guy showed up after the credits... oh, man, it needs to be tomorrow like, now!"

Suddenly, a loud popping noise sounded from the theater. Kaita turned to see pink goo oozing out the windows—from the laughter echoing from inside, the boy had to guess that Narcy had finally found a use for their pink paintbomb. The dastardly director burst out the door seconds later, scarf trailing behind them and a hard disk drive clutched in their hands, and dashed in the opposite direction of Kaita. When the boy ran toward the chaos, he heard one of the pink-covered staff exclaiming, "That person's got Starpotter!"

Kaita needed no further reason to give chase. From his experience, adults were rarely as fast as kids, and Narcy was no exception. Once the gap between them had narrowed some, Kaita yelled, "Hey! Get back here!"

"Not a chance, little boy!" Narcy shouted back. "Everyone loves Starpotter, right? Including the Net Saviors. I'll get all of you together, and then—!" He turned onto one of Densan's main streets.

"Not if I can help it!" But Narcy was starting to gain a second wind, and there were now a few people to dodge; the gap was still narrowing, but slowly.

"Go faster!" commanded a voice from behind. Kaita turned to see a much larger problem trailing far behind the chase.

"Black!" Kaita came to a halt.

The older Netbattler nearly ran into him. "No! Don't stop now!"

"Where's your absorption program?!"

Black tried to run around Kaita, but the boy just scooted to the side. "Look, can we just forget all that for a moment?" the hacker asked, resting his hands on his knees. "There're more important things happening right now."

Kaita crossed his arms. "Uh, not really."

"Yeah, really! Or did you miss Narcy giggling and running off that way?"

"Narcy wouldn't attack the Ministry. I don't think they're that dangerous." Kaita stepped toward Black. "If you really care that much, then tell me where you hid the absorption program!"

Kaita had never been able to impress Black with his attempts at heroism, and true to form, the only response he got was a raised eyebrow and an unconcerned, "Well, I won't. What are you going to do about it, kiddo?"

Kaita didn't bother warning him.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

As he inhaled again, he heard Black say, "What the hell—"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA—" Black clamped a hand over Kaita's mouth. "mmmmmm—"

Black squeezed his thumb and index finger together on Kaita's nose, cutting off both his screaming and his air. "We're really sorry about this!" he told everyone staring at them. "Come on, we're going home! I can't take you anywhere!" he scolded, dragging Kaita into a side street. His grip was surprisingly tight; Kaita tried to pry off his hand, but it barely budged. His mother had trimmed his nails the other day, so there wasn't much else he could do. He hated having his nails trimmed. Not getting air wasn't helping him focus. Black stopped in the middle of a nearby alley. "Don't scream, you sound like a siren and I'd just suffocate you for real. We clear?"

Hurriedly, Kaita nodded. Black immediately released him. "They didn't do anything," he gasped. "Why didn't they do anything?"

"Come on, this is Densan. Stuff like this happens all the time. The most anyone ever does is stare." He grabbed Kaita's wrist and walked over to a ladder nearby. "You first."

"Where are you taking me?" Kaita asked as Black got on behind him.

"We are going to the top of this building, since you lost Narcy for us."

Kaita glared up at the next rung. "What are you talking about?"

Black was silent for a moment. "I'm after the same thing you are."

Kaita stopped. "You want the Starpotter movie back?" he laughed. "But that's—" He nearly fell off when Black punched his leg. "Ow!"

"Climb," the hacker ordered stonily. "I'm allowed to like whatever the hell I want. You weren't even old enough to see the first one, anyway, so why do you like them so much?"

"I have them all at my house," Kaita bragged. "I've seen every one four times! I bet you haven't seen them that much!"

That seemed to take the wind out of Black's sails. "Well... I've seen the first two twelve times..."

Kaita grinned. "Don't tell me... You haven't even seen them all?" He laughed, "Wow, you're gonna be so lost if you try to watch this one. They've introduced all these new characters, like the Startroop and Captain Pine—"

"Shut up! Don't spoil me!" Black said, "I'm going to rent them before the movie comes out."

"But nearly all the rental stores got closed up, and the one that's left always has a run on Starpotter movies before the new ones get released..." Kaita explained, "I don't know which town you're thinking of, but around here, pretty much nobody rents physical copies of stuff anymore."

"I've seen that." Kaita pulled himself onto the roof, Black following suit. There seemed to be nothing special about it. It was high up, but so was almost any other building on the street they were on.

"So, why are we up here?" he asked, looking around for anything he'd missed.

"To see where Narcy is," Black replied, scanning the Densan skyline.

Kaita felt a gust of wind tug at him and shivered. It may have been average on its street, but it was still a really tall building. "We can't pick out one person from up here. We'd be better off looking in the street," he said.

"Narcy loves attention," Black said at Kaita's side. "Whatever they do will be show-stopping and pink. Trust me, we'll see it. And then Captain Evil and Siren Boy shall swoop down from the rooftops and get their movie back."

"Siren Boy?!"

"It's your only special power, Siren Boy."

Kaita sighed. "I miss 'kiddo.'"

"Awww." They surveyed the city in silence for a moment. Now that Kaita was a little more used to it, he thought the view was incredible. The people and cars below were like dollhouse toys; he could almost imagine reaching down and grabbing one out of the street. "So, who are these Startroop people, anyway?"

Kaita couldn't help but beam. "They're my favorite part of the last movie! They're so cool when they show up in the final battle, blasting Caesar's troops out of the sky like 'pwa-pwa-pwa-pwa-pwa—'"

Black held up a hand and said, "Yes, but what do they do? Like, Starpotter was a magic student, and Serenity and Advent were refugees from the virtual world, Hans Duo had the Centurion Raptor and Lucas Spacetrotter had the cool sword..."

"Startroop's totally different," Kaita said. "See, a bunch of humans and some of the aliens signed this peace pact in The Order of Revelations, when everybody banded together—"

"Banded together?!" Black looked horrified. "Don't tell me Hans believes in magic or something."

"Well, yeah, they figured out that Lucas's powers—"

"You're kidding me. That's missing the whole point—"

"Just see it, okay? It works, it really works!"

"Geez." Black crossed his arms. "I finally get to see another Starpotter after all these years, and they ruin everything."

"They haven't, honest!" Black still seemed unconvinced. "Give it a try! Please?"

"Okay, okay." He tapped Kaita's shoulder and pointed forward. "You're missing a great show."

Kaita felt his jaw go slack as he turned around. Rising into the air was a huge inflatable castle, and standing at its bouncy peak was a tiny, purple-haired figure. "Well, don't just sit there!" urged Turboman. "After him!"

"Right!" Before he could give too much chase, Kaita wondered, "But how are we supposed to catch up to them if we need to cross the street?"

"The wind is in our favor. They'll come to us." Slowly but surely, Black's word became truth; the pink castle wafted closer and closer. "Hello up there!" Black called, waving with his PET arm. "You run a taxi service out of that thing?"

"No! Of course not!" Narcy replied. "This is my revenge vehicle! I'll crush the Net Saviors underneath it!"

"Man, I'm sorry, but that's completely nuts," Black told Narcy. "You really should consider the taxi idea. You'd get better pay!"

"Yeah, like that's less crazy," muttered Turboman. Kaita nodded in agreement.

"And accept defeat? Especially after your little friend there tried to tackle me, which would've ruined my clothes and ended my scheme? I don't think so!" Up above them, Narcy made the castle rise higher with a wave of their hand. "Lens Flare of Artistry! Fire!" A concentrated beam of light shone from the corner of the castle, too bright for Kaita to stand.

But while he was turning away, Black pointed to his optic lens and shouted, "Polarized, bitch! I'm impervious to lens flares, solar flares, and every other flare you can think of!" After a second, he seemed to remember Kaita. With a nervous grin, he said, "You didn't hear anything."

"What's a—" Before Kaita could ask, the cotton-candy pink blight on the sky spun wildly.

"Right on, Punk!" Kaita looked over Black's shoulder to see Punk beating the stuffing out of Jewelman, the white-armored Navi only getting some relief after one of Punk's kicks sent him flying away. Narcy shrieked as their castle began to plummet.

"Um, Black?" Kaita asked as the castle caught on an antenna and rapidly flew toward them.

Black looked up from watching Punk slam Jewelman into the digital floor head-first. "Oh," he managed before the castle slammed into them. For one terrifying moment, Kaita was airborne; then, one of the deflating castle walls caught him, and he rode it to ground level.

"Phew," he said, rolling onto his stomach and getting to his knees. "Wait, where'd Black go?" After a quick look around, Kaita spotted him on the other side of the castle, not moving. "Black?" Kaita asked, climbing over the deflating castle to reach him. He looked like he was unconscious, but otherwise not badly hurt. "How do you wake someone up from this?" Kaita wondered.

"Got me," Turboman said. Suddenly, he exclaimed, "Kaita-kun, behind you—!" But it was too late; Narcy held a sweet-smelling and frilly handkerchief to Kaita's face, and soon he was deep asleep.

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Kaita knew that wherever this was that he'd come to, Narcy had to be nearby; he was lying in a small cage. When he peered out of the bars and upward, he saw that a steel cord tied it to a crane, though it was sitting on the ground for now. It was some kind of industrial plant; the whole place was warm, and huge vats were sitting throughout the room. More importantly, the lock on his cage wasn't even hidden. "Turboman, break the lock!"

"No can do," Turboman said. "I'm not picking up any kind of lock system around here..."

"But it's right there," Kaita said. He lined his screen up with the lock to show Turboman what he was talking about.

"Kaita-kun, that's an old-fashioned lock," Turboman explained. "There's nothing electronic about it. Hate to say it, but we're in a jam until Narcy shows up with the key..."

"Interesting." Black was also coming to a few feet away. Instead of a cage, he was bound around his ankles and so his arms were pinned next to his chest. Kaita had to stifle a giggle at the older Netbattler's hair. "It's pink, isn't it?"

"Mm-hm," Kaita was happy to inform him. "A really bright shade, too. I'd almost say it's neon!"

Black looked devastated. "Kaita, don't say that..."

"Well, it's okay. You looked kind of girly to begin with."

"What?! I'm not even wearing makeup!" complained Black. Kaita was about to retort, but the cage suddenly jerked and began to rise. The crane was elevating it and moving it to sit over the hot pot. Now that he was above it, he could see that it was full of something that was pink and bubbling.

A sharp gasp came from his wrist. "Wax," Turboman said, horrified. Even Black looked a little shocked below.

"Like it?" asked a familiar voice. Narcy descended the staircase on the far side of the room with their usual flair. Kaita didn't find it so harmlessly quirky now that he was at Narcy's mercy. "I did it all just for you, Black-chan!" The pink-haired man didn't seem to appreciate the suffix. "I've seen what you've gotten up to since we met. You're good enough to wipe those Net Saviors off the map with the proper incentive, and that's just what I've got! Now, when you're ready, we'll take a little trip to their head offices!" Silence was the only answer they got. "Cooperate, or the boy gets it!" Narcy crowed. Their gleeful smile fell off their face when they bothered to look down at their pink-haired captive. Black didn't even seem to be paying attention. Kaita felt the slight nervousness of before escalate into true panic. "Jewelman's going to slide the bottom off that cage! The boy will fall into the boiling wax!"

Black gave Narcy the most apathetic look Kaita had ever seen on a person's face. "Why do you think I care? It's not like he's on my side. He's a pain in the ass." Kaita could tell Black meant it. He was really on his own and hoisted up to the ceiling, where the heat of the pink wax far below was making him break into a sweat. "Always in my way, saying annoying things. I only hope you make a mold of him once he's dry, so I can have a wax punching bag, too."

Narcy froze. They clearly hadn't expected this. "But—but you were outside! Working together! Against me!"

"He said I looked like a girl. All truces are off."

Kaita wiped the droplets of sweat off his forehead before they could get into his eyes, but new ones were already starting to form. "I was just teasing you!" he called down. "If I didn't think we could get along, I wouldn't..."

Black didn't even look at him. "You're only saying that so Narcy won't make a nice, quiet waxwork that wouldn't always be spluttering and kissing up to people."

"Kissing up? I don't, I swear I don't!"

"Why do we even exchange words, then?" Black asked. "You fear me. You want me to be sympathetic to you so I won't massacre your pathetic Navi. So you try to win me over by kissing up."

"That's not it, honest." Kaita felt his eyes starting to water, either from frustration or how he could barely breathe because of how hot it was or how high he was or the wax under him or his worries that Black was right or all of it, and hated himself for it. "I think—I think there's more to you than you think, okay? And you probably think that sounds really dumb, but that's the only way I can explain it. I think you're better than you think you are, you're better than everyone else in Nova, and you're stupid to do bad things and follow anyone's orders because you..." Kaita realized, "You're afraid of them, aren't you?"

There was a long moment of silence afterwards, broken by Narcy. "Well, you've got a minute to change your mind," they told Black. "And then, the cute little menace goes plop..."

Kaita looked down at Black, still playing the part of unhelpful, emotionless villain. Appealing to him wouldn't get him anywhere, and yet... Kaita remembered a night in the forest, a discussion that was almost like a strange dream in hindsight. Sometimes it's complicated, sometimes it's simple. Narcy could just want a new pink waxwork of Kaita for his house. But if there was something else at work, some reason that had fueled all of his crimes... Kaita moved up against the bars and called down to Narcy, "Why are you doing this?"

"H–Hmph!" Narcy turned away, nose in the air.

"There's no harm in telling me. I'm about to be covered in wax anyways." Narcy seemed to shudder, but it was hard to tell. They were all the way down on the ground. Kaita's cage was almost touching the ceiling of the factory. It was a long, long fall down to the vat. Kaita swallowed back his fear and continued, "It's hard to say anything when your mouth is all stopped up. I won't tell."

Narcy whirled around. "Stop saying that!"

"Why? Don't you want to—"

"No! I... I have to, I have to show them all..." Narcy trailed off, clenching their hand into a fist. "What they've done to me..."

Kaita knew not to ignore Narcy's feelings. He let himself feel sorry for them, let it show in his face and voice. "What's happened to you?"

"I... They sent me to jail. Your idiot Net Savior friends locked me up, and I don't even know why!"

"Did they let you out?" Even as he said it, the boy remembered his father learning that Teruo had been set free: Kaita-kun, never go to jail, even for something you didn't do. Your reputation will never recover. Down below, Narcy scowled. "But it didn't matter, did it," Kaita said. "Nobody would hire you or trust you for anything. And even if they knew why you were taken to jail in the first place, they wouldn't tell you. You had to get your revenge on the Net Saviors for ruining your career." Narcy took out a lacy handkerchief and blew their nose. Kaita looked over and saw Black give him the tiniest of nods: keep going! "But this isn't the way to show them they were wrong," Kaita pressed on. "I know Meiru-san and Enzan-san, and they'll listen to the two of us, I know they will. We'll get a big announcement made about how you didn't do anything before and that you won't do anything any longer. And then you can make movies and TV shows about pink things, and not try to cause trouble with them."

"They won't listen," Narcy wailed. "You're just a little boy! You're too young to make a difference or be turned into a pink statue, aren't you? You have to grow up first..."

"I can make a difference," Kaita said. "But I can't up here, and I can't if I'm in the wax. Can you get me down from here, so I can help you?"

Narcy sniffled loudly and started to raise their PET arm, but withdrew it. "You won't just run off on me, will you?" they asked quickly. "That's what that Netto or those other Net Saviors would do..."

"I promise I won't," Kaita said. "Besides, I bet the Net Saviors I know are different. I mean, the only time I've heard of a Netto is in ghost stories!"

"Just as long as they don't try anything crazy again," Narcy said. Finally, they lifted their arm. "Jewelman, set that boy down next to the vat." Kaita felt his heart leap into his throat as the hook lurched forward and the cage rocked. But as he came closer and closer to the ground, he saw that Narcy had kept their word. Kaita stumbled out of the cage, exhausted after being so tense for so long.

He slumped over for a moment, hands on his knees. As he straightened, he saw Black and his ridiculous new dye job. "Could you let Black go, too?" Kaita asked. "I think he'd like to dye his hair back."

"I guess I should," Narcy said. Black stood, and the director gasped, "You got out of the rope?"

"You meant all that, didn't you?" he asked Kaita. "About him, about me..."

"Of course," Kaita replied.

His laugh was shaky. "You're just full of creepy insights today, aren't you?" To Narcy, he said, "But don't worry. You couldn't be in safer hands." With that, he took his leave.

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"Narcy? Narcy Hide?" Meiru burst out laughing. "And he's out there in the lobby?"

"It's not funny!" As Kaita explained everything, Meiru's expression grew more concerned.

Once she'd heard it all, she said, "I don't think anyone thought about that when we let them all go..."

"Them all?!" Kaita asked. "There are others like them?"

"Yes. They were all members of a criminal organization, Neo WWW. But after they were all arrested, something strange happened... Their memories of their time in the Neo WWW were erased. They seemed harmless enough, so we wound up letting them go—no point making them stand trial for something they didn't remember, right?"

"But nobody forgave them," Kaita said. "I can't imagine what that must feel like..."

"I'm not entirely sure why they weren't told about what happened—I wasn't officially part of the Net Saviors then. But I'm sure Commissioner Kifune and the rest just didn't want them to revert back to being criminals again. Some of the stuff they got up to was pretty scary."

Kaita nodded slowly. "But that didn't work for Narcy. And what about the others who forgot? What if one of them turned out like Narcy did? We have to find them before it's too late—"

"Roll, could you get Meijin-san? I want someone who was actually there when all this began." Once her Navi was on her way, Meiru put a hand on Kaita's shoulder. "I don't know how much I can do, Kaita. But I will talk to Commissioner Kifune about this. We'll see if we can track down the other Neo WWW members. It gets trickier when it comes to reputations... they're pretty hard to shake. Maybe we can get a news story out there about all this."

"We'll be able to get something done," Meijin said from the back door. "Don't worry, Kaita-kun, we'll hear Narcy out. There won't be any more angry Neo WWW members causing trouble!"

Meiru said, "You can leave if you want. We're going to talk to them about what happened."

"Thanks!" Meiru and Meijin returned the smile, then walked through the double doors.

"You ready to go home, Kaita-kun?" asked Turboman.

"In a little bit," Kaita said. "There's just one more thing I need to do..."

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Kaita sighed as he looked around. He wasn't fearful for his life, even in a more run-down part of Densan like this—there was plenty around for Turboman to plug into if it came down to that—but the later it got, the less likely it was that he'd find Black again. "Hello?" he called. "Black?"

"Maybe he's still trying the store," Turboman suggested. "Or maybe he's just on another street."

"I guess so," Kaita said. He turned to try the next street over, but stopped. Coming up the road was Black, his hands shoved in his pockets.

"Why not just pirate 'em?" Punk was asking as they came up the road. "Better than nothin', right?"

"I guess," Black said despondently. "But it's a tradition! Or it was a tradition in the making. And the quality might not be as good, and it's just not the same..."

Kaita ran over to him. "Black!"

"What are you doing here?" Black asked, looking a little weirded out.

Kaita didn't have time for any weirded-out-ness, simply grabbing Black's hand and starting to pull. "Come on! We're going to my house to watch the Starpotters!"

"Kaita..." Black's smile was sincere, almost a little sad. "I appreciate it, but I can't go to your house. I mean, I'm one of the bad guys, and... just look at me."

Kaita glanced over at the dark clothes and pale complexion. The look had become so familiar to him that he couldn't imagine anything wrong with it. "You're my friend from the arcade," he said, completely unconcerned. "You've been giving me Netbattling tips. And you're into those creepy bands, so you have the clothes to match."

"Okay, so that's sort of true... But I'm not some emo kid, let's get that straight right now."

"Anyway, as long as you don't do anything too bad, one look at you, and Mama'll want you to stay and eat something. You do always look kind of hungry," Kaita explained. "And we have popcorn."

"Popcorn?" Black asked, failing to not sound excited. "But..."

"And we can make nachos," Kaita said, grinning at the enraptured look on Black's face.

"Suddenly, I'm starved," Black sighed. "It's been years since I had those..."

"And if we get going right now, we can grab some candy on the way, too!"

"Well..." Black sighed.

"I won't tell anyone," Kaita said. "You can pretend it never happened, and I will, too! It'll be our secret."

"Okay, fine," Black said. "As long as you promise it'll stay our secret."

"I promise!" Kaita said, taking Black's hand and pulling him along. "Come on, let's go!"