Good And Bad...
Hikaru: " ok, I knew it was a Kamui Daimon student we're visiting but..."
Arata: " Gendou! It has been a while!"
Gendou had a look not less surprised than theirs before he realized he was keeping them outside for so long so he led them in. The boy was actually living in a large traditional Japanese house. It wasn't really a surprise for they knew he was a hier to a very rich family.
Gendou led them to a large room where they used to welcome visitors, the maids there brought them some tea and sweets.
Arata was observing in awe the amazing decorations in the room and the samurai swords hanged just behind Gendou.
The green head took a sip of his tea and cleared his throat, getting Arata's attention.
Gendou: " may I ask why the sudden visit? Is everything ok in Kamui Daimon?"
Everyone then nodded before their LBXs jumped out of their pockets. Seeing Gendou wasn't the least bit startled confirmed it to them.
Muraku: " Gendou, you have one right? A talking LBX."
Gendou narrowed his eyes as his partner jumped of his pocked. The LBX was a new type no one had seen before.
Gendou: " I have one. So what?"
Arata: " we need your help."...
Tiny Orbit...
Takuya sweat dropped at the faces Ban's team were giving.
Takuya: " I want to ask and I don't want at the same time."
Ami began as she found an explanation was extremely needed there and then.
Ami: " we've found the device and we've played the record but we couldn't understand the lead, and Mizel destroyed it as soon as it was finished."
" Destroyed it!"
Everyone looked at him.
Gouda: " I knew we shouldn't trust him."
Sendou pulled out a card.
Sendou: " Hermit... There is a secret about that device, right?"
Mizel: " it's important that it doesn't fall in the wrong hands so I had no choice but to destroy it. That were the orders. As for the message."
With a move of his finger a hologramme screen appeared replaying it all.
Mizel: " I've actually memorized it. I knew he would use something that complicated to figure out."
They all watched the video record till the end, yet, had no answer about the lead.
Takuya: " how are we supposed to find him. We have no clue."
Mirai: " nope, we have."
Everyone looked at her and she looked at Hiro.
Mirai: " I've certainly heard the angel colony and UEs somewhere, but I can't remember... Hiro, I'm sure you've heard it as well..."
Hiro racked his mind as he tried to remember and his eyes shot wide, hitting his fist on his palm.
Hiro: " right, in Gundam Age! The Angel Colony was the first one that got destroyed by the UEs!"
Ran: " an anime thing..."
She sweat dropped.
Ban: " but what does that mean?"
Hiro: " most likely he means the next lead is Akihabara."
" Eh?"
Evangeline : " how did you..."
Hiro: " there is actually a whole Gundam fandom club there. Maybe he means it's there."
Cobra: " what about the UE thing?"
Hiro: " I think he was identifying which season of the anime he actually meant. Seeing the idea of colonies is present in all of them. And since the whole building is divided with a floor for each season, maybe he meant we should go to the Gundam Age's floor."
Ran: " seriously, a whole building for a mere fans' club?"
Hiro: " I've went there before. I can show you around!"
He said excitedly before Mirai whacked him on the back of the head.
Mirai: " you're forgetting the important thing here."
Ban: " but why in such place?"
Ran: " maybe because no one goes there."
She couldn't stop herself from shivering as she imagined a whole building full of people wearing cosplays and talking about things she couldn't understand.
Lilyan: " but we have to go there to retrieve the device."
Takuya: " then, Ran, Hiro, Mirai, Ban, Lilyan and Kirito, you will be heading out tomorrow."
Ran: " eh! Why us!"
Takuya: " considering this situation, the most familiar with Akihabara should go."
Jessica sighed while Ran complained. It took Takuya all he had to not go back on his decision.
Ran: " what about Arata and the others?"
She blinked when she realized her cousin was taking too long.
Takuya: " they went to talk to the other LBX player to join us, hopefully they will succeed."...
Night...
Arata: " I'm home!"
He said as he entered the old traditional house of his grandfather. Ran peeked her head out of the kitchen.
Ran: " finally you're back! I started to worry!"
Arata: " sorry, it took me a while cause we've been catching on a lot of things with Gendou. Long story short he agreed to join us."
Minerva: " so he was a friend of yours. Good to hear that."
Dot Blastriser nodded.
Dot Blastriser: " it will be bad if he stayed on his own in case they targeted him."
Ran's face shifted to serious abruptly. She took off her apron and sat on the other side of the table, confronting Arata.
Ran: " Arata, you never said how things went on with your father."
The boy looked away.
Arata: " I don't want to talk about that."
She sighed.
Ran: " then I take it that it didn't go well."
Arata: " that old man won't change no matter what."
Ran: " Arata!"
She chided him with a stern voice.
Ran: " no matter what, your father believes that he is doing the best thing for you. Even if his ways are wrong, still he cares for you."
Arata: " he should try and listen if he does so, not to dictate what I should and shouldn't do."
He clenched his fists tightly on the table.
Arata: " I won't ever go back to him."
Ran sighed as she stood up.
Ran: " I can't force you to go back yet I can't encourage you to keep running. But, just remembered, to the very end, I will be there for you."
Arata let a smile at her.
Arata: " thanks Ran-nee. So, what are you making for dinner?"
Ran: " Curry."
Arata: " ha! My favourite!"
Ran: " I knew that!"
Arata: " Ran-nee you're the best!"...
The green head snapped his eyes back when the blunette woman entered the room.
Mizel: " what's that you need?"
Mirai: " is that how you talk to your older sister? I wonder how you managed to get close to Eva with such attitude."
She said with her hand down on her waist.
Mizel: " I will be surprised if any of you even considered me an ally, let alone siblings. But anyway, how can I help you , Nee-san?"
Mirai : " not everyone is aware of this, only a few of us know that you helped Hiro."
Mizel: " my mission was to make sure the program reaches its owner safely and answered to with honesty. If he was to activate the program while not remembering anything about himself he may regret it later. That's all."
Mirai: " even if..."
He looked at her and his eyes slightly widened when he realized she was smiling at him.
Mirai: " even if you say that. Still I'm thankful for you."
She took a step forward, which made Mizel take a step back. He wasn't used to physical approches. But before he realized it, she had tackled him into a tight hug. She had to bend down a bit seeing that he was still in his child form.
Mirai: " thanks for bringing my little brother back."
Mizel was startled. That was something new to him, he may have knew about the hug, but never once received one. He couldn't imagine it could be so warm.
She let go of him.
Mirai: " that won't make me totally trust you though, you've helped Hiro but you was about to kill him once."
Again, still his past will come haunt him. Why did he do all of that again? Right, to optimize the world. Should he do that again after all? The humans aren't exactly that friendly creatures as they may seem. It takes only one mistake for them to hate you to eternity. Eva being an exception of course. Maybe after he helps saving the world he should continue what he had started.
A pat on the head snapped him out of his thoughts.
Mirai: " if you're willing to prove you're no more harm to the humans, I think I can forgive you."
She said with a bright warm smile.
' Deleting world optimization project.'
Mizel: " at least until we defeat Leviathan, protecting humans is a priority."
Mirai: " nice, good boy."
She patted his head again and left. Mizel moved his hands up on his head as a taint of red appeared on his face.
Mizel: " what's this... Why I'm suddenly heating up... Is this what they call happiness? Damn it's bad for my circuits."
But he couldn't resist the small smile that formed on his lips. First Eva and now Mirai... Is he going to experience what's truly like having a family.
Meanwhile...
Mirai: " I owe you."
Kirito: " Coke's payment only."
Mirai rolled her eyes .
Mirai: " fine, I will buy you one on the way back here tomorrow."
Kirito: " deal."
He said as he deleted the video of Mirai talking to Mizel.
Kirito: " even if they may do nothing about him now, the government may charge everyone who came to contact with him with betrayal after everything is over. It's better to be careful."
Mirai: " can we assume he really changed?"
Kirito: " it's so early to say so. Though Eva seems to trust him."
Mirai: " what may happen to him after everything is over?"
Kirito: " locked away in the best case scenario."
Mirai: " and in the worst case scenario?"
He narrowed his eyes.
Kirito: " disassembled and deleted. The world can't turn a blind eye on all the things that he had done, that's how law works."
Mirai: " but..."
Kirito pulled two files on the screen. He had done some researches about the new members that were added to them for he couldn't bring himself to trust them. He even still can't trust Ban and the others fully let alone those ones that just happened to have the same program as them.
Mirai ran her eyes over the two files that belonged to Ken and Ruri and sighed as she sat back.
Kirito: " can you bring yourself to forgive him if you were in their place? It's all they can do to work alongside him for now since we don't have another choice."
Mirai: " would you blame a kid for burning his parents' house by accident when he was playing with candles for no one told him they were dangerous?"
Kirito nearly spat his drink.
Kirito: " what's are you talking about?"
Mirai : " how old do you think Mizel is?"
Kirito rose an eyebrow as he didn't get where she wanted to reach.
Mirai: " maybe he was born with such great knowledge, but Mizel is actually four or five years old by now. He is the same as a kid. Mizel never had someone to teach him the difference between good and bad. So he never understood what the humans are."
Kirito: " can an AI even understand such thing?"
Mirai: " well, our LBXs did."
Kirito stopped as he thought about her words.
Mirai: " our LBXs had been with us for so long, so they took on the good and bad from watching over us. Mizel had nothing to learn from but mere algorithms. If we strip of all kind of feelings and humanity that dedicate what's good and what's bad, wouldn't we come to the same conclusion as Mizel's years ago."
Kirito: " those are some dangerous matters you're saying right now."
Mirai: " don't tell me that you didn't think of it as well, that logically speaking, Mizel's plan could be the humanity's salvation. A perfect system where no one will have to suffer."
Kirito : " these words may cause a lot of troubles, you know."
Mirai: " I'm just speaking the truth. But from a human's point of view, I have no intention of following such system. What I just wanted to say is, if only Mizel learned more things about humans, if only he made contact with them and understood them, he could also see the good and bad we can see. So to punish him for he was just following some algorithms, it doesn't feel right."
Kirito narrowed his eyes as he looked at screen that was shown the boy in his isolated room.
Kirito: " in other words, it's bad..."...
Kazama Jinn was tapping rhythmically on his table with a hand on his chin. For all he could say, he was sure the chosen players will go searching for the only one who can stop Leviathan. While they move secretly, there was little they can do to track them down.
" Worried?"
The artificial voice asked. It sounded like if it can speak more fluently than before and with a steadier voice.
Jinn: " right. Because I don't know how to stop those kids. We can't launch an all out attack like back at NICS. We can't afford such thing again. The resources must be used for more important things."
Leviathan : " agree."
Jinn: " do you have any better ideas?"
Leviathan : " we will have to use our chosen players as well."
Jinn: " eh? But those are our test subjects?"
Leviathan : " whoever outstand the other will be the best test subject for us."
Jinn : " the problem is that if you ever want to track them down, you will have to travel all around the infinity net and supervise them via the cameras, won't that make you targeted by Minerva?"
Leviathan : " it's worth the risk. Plus, with all the updates I've got, I'm sure my powers are to exceed Minerva's."
Jinn: " as you wish, you're the boss after all."
He complied.
Leviathan : " one other thing, I've managed to get an upgrade for Gichii's project."
Some data appeared on the screen and Jinn's lips pulled back to a sinister smirk.
Jinn: " how did you get this?"
Leviathan : " I may have actually travelled to the Grand Master myself. After all, I found a few traces of Minerva's hacking in the data we got from there and I had to check it out."
Jinn: " to think you would come across the very technology they're trying so hard to protect."
Leviathan : " it's not enough yet. This one can only amplify the size of the hosting container. It can't shape shift or creat new things."
Jinn: " but it's a start anyway. Minerva made the biggest mistake ever."...
That evening, when Sakuya realized his computer was hacked and the precious data that the mysterious person sent to him were stolen, he realized he made the biggest mistake of not listening to the warnings in the letter.
' please delete them once you're done.'
but he couldn't do that, as a mechanic, he couldn't delete such amazing and genius system. What could go wrong, he thought.
Now he was sure he had caused something bad to happen...
As the darkness of night fell upon Tokio City, Ran's neighborhood fell quiet as everyone prepared themselves to drift away to a world of dreams.
But suddenly the sound of footsteps echoed through the silence of the night. It wasn't loud enough to wake anyone up though. The owner of those footsteps continued his walk forward until he was in front of a certain dojo.
The boy's eyes reflected nothing but rage as he thought back to the many times he had lost to the red head. Just upon realizing who exactly he was, he couldn't stop himself from seeking him as soon as he reached Japan.
Blame Leviathan for flaming his anger for her send the red head's full identity and his whereabout to Itan.
Itan: " na Gruxeon..."
The black LBX turned back to his partner who's face had a terrifying expression.
Itan: " as I thought, I hate that Sena Arata. To the point that I want to ruin this house on his head!"
If his footsteps didn't weak anyone, his terrifying scream did. Gruxeon flew off, destroying the door to the dojo.
Upon hearing the racket outside, Ran and Arata along with their LBXs and their grandfather rushed out. Much to their surprise, they found Itan Kyouji standing in front of them.
Itan: " Sena Arata! Battle me!"
He roared and Gruxeon attacked. Dot Blastriser quickly blocked him with his shield, but their quick impact caused a strong air wave that broke the glasses around them.
Arata ducked down while Ran hurried to protect her grandfather.
Ran: " Arata!"
Arata bit his lip as he knew it wasn't the best place for two extra powerful LBXs to fight. The windows of neighbor houses were shinning as their occupants were waken up by the impact.
Arata: " Dot Blastriser! Get him away!"
The LBXs visors glimmered as he grabbed Gruxeon's arm and span around before throwing him away.
Itan was confused while Arata hurried to catch up with his LBX that flew after Gruxeon.
Dot Blastriser pulled back his arm as he speeded up, ready to punch Gruxeon and thrust his energy claws in him.
The black LBX quickly regained balance after he was thrown and blocked off Dot Blastriser.
The white and red aircraft pulled back and brought out his shield and dual blades. Spinning the blades around with a high speed, he neutralized Gruxeon's shots as he had changed his scythe to a rifle. Still pushing him further of the neighborhood.
Arata: " Dot Blastrizer!"
He yelled as he reached a clearing behind the dojo where Dot Blastrizer had pushed his opponent.
" Set up: Blast Magnum!"
Arata: " finish him off!"
Itan: " don't lose! Gruxeon!"
Both LBXs exchanged fires. Each trying to dodge the other's attack and aim his own. Dot Blastrizer was flying through Gruxeon's shots as he tried to get close for a better shot, but the LBX kept backing, making it even harder.
In a split of second, Gruxeon changed back to the scythe and dived towards Dot Blastrizer, slashing at his arm and causing him to let go of one of his guns.
Arata: " Dot Blastrizer!"
As he made an attempt to reach to his partner, Gruxeon changed back his weapon to the rifle and shot at him, causing the dust to rise up all around him while he was still shooting, clearly affected by his partner's anger as he kept ordering him to shoot.
Dot Blastrizer was frightened when Gruxeon stopped and Arata didn't make a single move.
Dot Blastrizer: " Arata!"...
