Chapter 18: Bonds of friendship
12:49 PM (Japan Time), Wednesday June the 17th…
"… Amazing! You beat the "Death Club"!"
"It was close, though!"
"But at least we needn't worry about more freaks running loose!"
"Truly! Those were so gross!"
"Sheesh! I wanted a chance to beat them up!"
The group was sitting atop a stretched picnic blanket, forming a circle, laughing and talking.
"Guts. That'd been dangerous!" Guts Man argued back.
"Agreed. Did you want Guts Man to end up like the others?"
"Of course not! It's just that… I wanted a chance to prove myself!"
"Life isn't about that… There are many more things to enjoy!"
"When did you become a sage, Akashi?" Dekao grumbled.
"That's what Mr. Zataki told me!" He shrugged.
"Sheesh. Alright, alright!"
"You must forget cliches, Ooyama… They aren't life lessons! They're fun, they're cool, but they're but entertainment!"
"Not Delta too!"
"I'm just repeating what Mr. Zataki told us!"
"Is he that wise?"
"More like he's had a lot of hardships to overcome! Such as having to figure out how to defeat an evil org from the inside!"
"Yikes! I won't complain then!"
"See? I did warn you about that!" Meiru sighed.
"Why don't we have some online races together?" Hikawa suggested.
"That'd be fun!" Ice Man giggled.
"Excuse me for interrupting, gentlemen…"
"Chief Lezareno! Did something happen, sir?"
Lezareno walked into the area and the twins looked up, surprised.
"No. It's nothing major. It's just that someone wants to meet you…"
"Someone?" Netto frowned.
"You may come now…"
A teen walked up to the group.
He had jet-black hair which reached until the base of his neck.
His eyes were green.
He was averting his sight and looked depressed.
He wore a white sleeveless T-shirt with a drawing of the Osaka castle, jeans, a black leather belt, white socks and sneakers.
"Sarashe!?" Netto gasped.
He stood up and walked up to him, but the teen gasped and stepped back.
"Finally! I've been trying to contact you for the last half a year!"
"… I needed time to come up with the courage…" He muttered.
"Look. I won't blame you for what happened. It wasn't your will…"
"But nevertheless… I am the one who did it!" He argued back.
"I'm not denying that, but… It's pointless to hate you for that because, once again, that wasn't your true self! It was mind control!"
"To me it feels like an excuse to run away from my actions… Mere words to try to soften the harsh reality…"
"That's why you didn't dare to come talk to me?"
"Let's be blunt. You have all the right in the world to hate me for that! That's why I came to say farewell. Let's pretend we never knew each other, forget each other… We both end up winning from that…"
"I don't agree, Sarashe. That shouldn't be a reason to break up…"
"How can you be so calm about it? It almost cost you your life!"
"I know! I admit I couldn't believe that you were the one who did that…"
"See? That's why…"
"We're not getting anywhere! You're not to blame! That madman is!"
"But they're outside your reach, right? If you want to hate someone that's at reach, the executor of that madman's plans, you can hate me!"
"Hating hardly solves anything! I did once hate whomever was hidden inside of the character known as the "Gospel boss"… But they were also a victim of mind control! Just like you! When I met them, I did feel how that had left deep scars on them… They were just like you…"
"You pity me instead?"
"What's wrong with that? Life isn't about pride or stances!"
"When did you become that wise?"
"An acquaintance told us that. Someone who's had many hardships…"
"What about Beta X? Can you tolerate how he tried to delete your Navi?"
"While your Navi's behavior spooked me, it was also due to the programming by that madman to make of them a ruthless assassin!"
"But the enmity remains, right? One more reason we can't reconcile!"
"If I had to spend the whole time hating all hostile Navis I've met, now that would eat up my life!" Netto sighed.
"You must accept that not all in life is about black and white…"
"Are you trying to say that you must find a point of balance between either of those stances, then?"
"That's it! I can't say I can wholly forget or accept what happened, however I must accept that hating you will only worsen things…"
"I apologize for bursting in, gentlemen, but Mr. Hikari has a point…"
"Guess Uncle was right when he argued the same thing… Fine. For now, we'll settle it at this…" Sarashe sighed.
He stretched out his right hand.
"I'm not saying to go back to being "best friends", but at least I promise I'll make efforts to try to rebuild our previous relationship… Deal?"
"Deal. Let's take it slowly. No need to rush it…"
Netto shook hands with Sarashe and he sighed in relief.
"I really thought we'd end up having a fist fight…"
"I must admit it did feel like that…" Saito muttered.
"Hmmm? You were Hikari's big bro, right? Saito, was it?"
"Sure. While we did interact sometimes during 6th year, I spent years undergoing therapies and surgeries to try to overcome a rare heat disease. That's why we haven't had much of a relationship…"
"True. Sorry. There are still some detailed things I'm trying to recall because that mind control tried to wipe out those memories…"
"No wonder. But at least you were able to revert to your true self…"
"I know. Compared to worse outcomes, missing some details is nothing…"
"What about Beta X? You're keeping him?"
"It was the only partner I had, even if a distorted one…"
"Maybe you could show us his design?"
"Why not… I've got a pic here. I told him to stay at Uncle's…"
"Maybe it was for the best. It'll take efforts to try to get along with him…"
"He is willing to accept any anger for his actions, though…"
Sarashe interacted with his pet, colored red and green, and which had a golden "X" as emblem.
He sent a message to the PETs of the others, and they checked it out.
The message included a picture of a Navi.
Beta X was a Net Navi who was about a meter and seventy tall.
His eyes' irises were blood red, and he was serious.
His helmet's main color was black, and he had blue pieces of armor built around and spanning through the middle of the helmet.
A red pyramidal jewel was set directly above his nose.
The helmet included five white, short wings.
There were two on the lower edge of the helmet, another two over the eyes and the last one aimed upwards from the center of his helmet.
His main body was black.
He had white armor set over the chest, and a hexagonal ruby on its center.
The symbol of his PET was drawn right above it.
His shoulders had white armor with wings drawn on their surface.
White armor covered his forearms and hands.
Similarly, armor also protected his upper legs and lower legs.
The parts without armor were plain black.
"Man! That's cool!" Dekao whistled in surprise.
"Guess it's meant to be a "fallen angel"…" Meiru guessed.
"You know what? Let's go buy ice-creams and chat together!"
"That might be a good way to make a first step forward, gentlemen!"
"Thank you, sir. Alright, Sarashe… Let's work to rebuild our friendship!"
"Alright, Hikari. Let's start anew…!"
13:02 PM (Japan Time)…
"… I'm leaving tomorrow…"
"Alright. I readied the device. You input the data. It'll self-delete…"
"Wise move. We don't need to make things overly complicated…"
"The temptation would be too great…"
Kanou and Zataki were having a meeting on the living room.
"I ended up my contract with Mr. Keitai. I claimed that Mr. Izono was satisfied with the information provided and we'd handle it ourselves…"
"Alright. Did he let out any hints of what he wanted to do?"
"He admitted that he'd tracked down a money launderer of that org…"
"And iced him to steal his money, I take it?"
"In effect. Guess is greedy in nature…"
"Maybe money will be enough to deal with him… Thanks for the help…"
"It's nothing. I'm glad I could finally interact with you. While the person I'm going to meet will probably behave differently given the different backgrounds, we might find points in common…"
"At least I got the consolation to know that I did have a "brother" and that I'm not alone… Although I'd prefer to consider that other man to be something else, I don't want to admit it's "family" too…"
"Same over here. Hence why I name them "cousin", as irony…"
"Naturally… As for that fake policewoman, she did vanish into the air as we'd predicted… It turned out that she impersonated the real one and had kept her prisoner somewhere… Just like in the previous occasion…"
"Devil. What a frightening witch!"
"You needn't tell me! Reminds me too much of Anaya…"
"Maybe she was in the org as well and was influenced by Anaya…"
"There are sone names in the database that we couldn't track down because they were aliases… She could be one of them!"
"Make sure to keep a close eye on both her and Izono…"
"Naturally. They've tried escapes several times, but they all failed…"
"Devil. As tenacious as ever…"
"I know. Types like those are always trying to come up with a new ploy!"
"Switching topics… That ability was impressive…"
"For a thing that had been stuck in development hell and didn't complete until a few days ago after intense work, it worked better than expected…"
"That thing was spookier than the adversary I'm chasing, even…"
"I know. Your adversary is a fiend, but they were once a human, at least… Yet this foe was an ominous warning… Of dangers lying out there…"
"We can't hope to understand things beyond human scope…"
"I know. Nor like I pretend to… I simply want to hunt down any other nefarious assets that those two might have hidden… And hope we won't bump into something similar again!"
"Next time you might need to come up with a weapon to annihilate it!"
"Truly. Lesson learned! Never come close to odd creatures!"
"I know I'm switching topics again, but… Glad to see that the gentlemen were able to make peace after that tragic incident…"
"I just read the Chief's report. It was surprising, indeed…"
"We must try to prevent more victims of Izono and Anaya's abuse of technology from appearing, if possible…"
"Agreed. Alright, Kanou… Hope you achieve your goal over there…"
"Thank you. The pleasure was mine, Cousin Vadous…"
Both shook hands and nodded in agreement to each other…
13:35 PM (Japan Time)…
"I feel so depressed! Man! Death is gone and it's back to us two again! Things were way more interesting with him!"
"And I lack energies to go and do club stuff, too! I dunno what we can do. Maybe after we return, we could try to come up with a new strategy like taking over a club or something!"
"Or rather… Becoming regular customers, I'd say. Taking over would mean a lot of useless paperwork. I'm not the type for that. We could bide out time by trying to build something! I know! Omicron! We could go back! The planet is already stained with "Omicron Factor"! We can continue research there by using Viruses! We improve and refine further!"
"Brilliant! Let's go search for the device and warp there! We can use that old spacecraft's remains somehow, too, and the facility's equipment!"
Kurayami and Kanaya had been sitting inside of a room.
There were tall and wide capsule-like devices with several pipes connected to then, as well as deposits with the "radioactive" and "poisonous" labels stuck into them.
"I know the place. Let's use alternative routes to avoid detection by them! Nothing major will change in this era, but our deeds will be recorded and stored somewhere by the time we return to our era!"
"They might try to cover it up, but there's too many witnesses!"
"And maybe someone will find the data about it and try to recreate it!"
"Hmpf. Maybe humans will wipe out fighting over control of it!"
"Now that'd be ironic and fitting! It'd make Death's words come true!"
"Foolish mortals deserve to struggle and despair!"
"And once we're ready, we'll settle the score with our "originals"!"
"Delighted. I've got juicy ideas in mind…"
"Same over here… Feel the dread of the "Ancient Darkness"!"
14:58 PM (Japan Time)…
"… Hmpf. So there have been hacking attempts, then? Iris?"
"Correct, Brother. They used VPN to disguise but they were from Japan!"
"We expected it. That spy is trying to retrieve those two…"
Colonel, Iris and Barrel were talking amongst them as the sibling operated two capsules containing Needle Man and Star Man.
"She must be afraid that she left some clue to her identity in them…"
"We did loose the firewall to some extent to lure them in…"
"I know, Colonel. And they've bitten the bait insofar…"
"Although I don't think she's that desperate to risk exposing herself…"
"Naturally… But we can put pressure on them…" Colonel argued.
"As for that Virus or what his name is… I don't think he'll be feeling overly confident for much longer… I spread rumors about a bounty…"
"Hmpf. He'll struggle to make it out of the trap you laid out, Barrel…"
"Exactly. Brought it into himself for trying to send roughnecks to kill me…"
"He must fear that you'll see through his ploys!" Iris giggled.
"But let's not become overconfident either… Sudden, bigger threats like that freakish thing might eventually show up, too…" He warned.
"Indeed. Nobody can account for everything…"
"However! I won't let that hold me back. I'll fight with all I have on me!"
"I expected no less from my sibling. I'm counting on your backup, Iris!"
"Leave it up to me, Brother. No ants will make it past my radar!"
"Maybe I should ask my old friend Mahha to come and train together…"
"Good idea. We must always be ready for the next battle!"
"Just you wait, spies! We'll expose your true colors!"
18:13 PM (Japan Time)…
"… I'm home! Finally!"
"Dear! You look like you haven't slept in days, Mr. Yuuichirou!"
"Can't be helped. It was nerve-wracking!"
"The bath is ready. Take your time there and relax!"
Yuuichirou made it home and Haruka greeted him.
"Thanks. But at least this crisis is over. Time to disconnect!"
"Netto and Saito told me how they were able to redo their relationship with their old friend, too. I'm sure it's a sign of good things to come!"
"Hopefully!"
"Guess tomorrow I'll have to ready spaghetti with meatballs!"
"Great! Been surviving on instant food, missed your excellent cooking!"
"You praise me too much!" She giggled.
"Maybe I do!" He nervously laughed.
"By the way. Our old friends suggested that we meet up…"
"Delighted! Some sport like in the old times will do wonders!"
"And some nature to disconnect from the job…"
"I know… I'm behaving like a salary man instead of a scientist!"
"There will be hardships, but we'll overcome them together. Right?"
"I was about to say that! You read my mind!"
"It's all written on your face!"
"Crap! I'll need to look at the mirror more often!"
Both laughed at their exchange of remarks…
THE END