Moving On...


Elie: " Geez! I can't believe you kept Seredy's conversation a secret!"

She exclaimed on their way to Tiny Orbit the next morning.

Jin: " like I said, I didn't want to-"

Elie: " to bother anyone! I got it! Jin, asking for help isn't bothering! We're all leaning on each other as friends! It's not fair if you're the only one to help others but doesn't get help!"

Jin: " alright, I got it. I've got enough of rebuking last night from you."

He rolled his eyes when he recalled the long lecture he got from her as he told her about his visit to Seredy while staying at his place. And she used every chance she got to tell him off for keeping that from them the whole night. Even now she is.

Beargguy: " his words are logical though, no wonder you had your doubts all this time."

Elie: " but don't let it break you down."

She said placing her hand on her chest.

Elie: " I'm alive to this moment thanks to you. If your grandfather hadn't got your mother's work, the optima would never be completed for no one would be able to do so. And if you didn't fight Innovators, not me nor Runa-san would be alive by now. And Regardless of what Eva went through, I'm sure she doesn't blame you for that as well. So stop blaming yourself."

Her words seemed to sink in.

Zenon: " what Elie is trying to say, your fights were not for nothing so far."

Elie: " even if it may seem small, but you're making a change for the better. You've saved countless of lives, and you still can do."

She said entwining their fingers.

Elie: " we will do, all of us. And I will be there, making sure you won't lose your way again."

Jin smiled at that.

Jin: " I'm depending on you then."

Elie: " well, not when Gouda gives you your lecture though. He was all out about giving you a piece of his mind yesterday."

Jin sweat dropped at that. Why Gouda of all people...


Gouda: " there you're!"

As soon as he stepped foot in the base, Gouda stormed off to him and Jin could have sworn his eardrums were punctured by his shout.

Gouda: " do you know what you've caused to all of us!? We've been running around the city for almost half a day!"

Sendou smirked.

Sendou: " Gouda especially was on for a fight with Dream Future's guards yesterday."

Asuka: " you were with him!"

Sendou: " you were with us too!"

Yuuya sweat dropped and had an awkward smile.

Yuuya: " though they got kicked away by the guards soon anyway."

Jin: " there is this one thing I don't get, why didn't you ask Mizel or Kirito to track me down via the security cameras?"

Everyone blinked as they looked at the two persons in question who couldn't care the less and they all soon face palmed.

Kirito: " finally recovering of your stupidity?"

Mirai: " and I was wondering why you didn't follow us."

Evangeline : " you knew where he was didn't you?"

Mizel nodded with a smirk.

Evangeline : " do you know what could have happened, Mi?!"

Mizel: " relax, if he had made a dangerous move we would have called you. Though it seems your minds flew out of your heads when you realized something bad may have happened to him."

Kirito: " huh, such good friends."

He said before drinking his coke. Jin looked down and sighed before he addressed them.

Jin: " everyone, I'm sorry..."

They all looked back at him slightly startled at his tone.

Jin: " I indeed planned to head out to Dream Future. Despite everything you've done, I was just about to screw it. I'm really sorry."

He bowed, much to everyone's shock.

Sendou: " oi, are you serious..."

Jin: " from now on, I shall advance without wavering or doubting our purpose. I won't give up again. So please, let me continue fighting with you."

He rose two determined eyes, a familiar couple of red eyes to the old members. The old Jin was finally back.

Sendou: " so the emperor is finally back."

He exhaled with a smirk while Gouda ruffled his hair.

Gouda: " tsk, and I had prepared a long speech for you. It doesn't matter, as long as you're back on your feet."

Hiro stepped towards him.

Hiro: " you don't have to ask us, Jin-san! We've always been fighting together!"

Jin blinked twice at him but actually his lips quivered into a small smile. Eva on the other hand approached Elie.

Evangeline : " I told you he needs you. Thanks."

Elie: " eh!"

Evangeline : " everyone were quite pissed at him, but the only one who didn't hold it back was you. If it wasn't for you, I doubt any of our feelings could have reached him."

She shrugged. Elie grinned softly as she whirled to face her.

Elie: " I should thank you."

Eva blinked.

Elie: " I was actually perplexed about my feelings. Frankly I was getting upset with myself at a certain point. But your words, they helped me a lot sort my feelings. Thanks."

Eva smiled back.

Evangeline : " anytime, Elie."

The new members breathed out in relief as everything seemed to get better and Touko smiled when she felt the excited atmosphere in the room. Now it was time to sort things out.

Touko: " then, we should think about our next step."

All Seekers' members nodded with a serious air.

Yuuta: " we have to find Ban-san."

Takuya: " Kirito, Mizel, can't you help with this?"

The man gritted his teeth.

Kirito: " we've tried."

Mizel: " but Leviathan had left no traces behind them, even the security cameras were hacked."

Kirito: " we couldn't even track his CCM."

Runa: " then, what to do now?"

" Simple..."

Jun'ichirou walked inside with a determined look.

Jun'ichirou: " we will continue searching for the Drivers."

Everyone blinked in utter shock as they stared at the brunette man. He was telling them to turn their back on thier friend and his son!

Jun'ichirou managed to read through them as he took off his glasses and ran his hand over his face. Elie could see he didn't want to take that option as well, but he was forced.

Jun'ichirou: " we don't know where they took him. For them to bring him to Dream Future isn't really the wisest choice. While we are losing our time trying to figure where on earth they're, Leviathan will move ahead of us."

Arata: " but!"

Jun'ichirou: " he will appear eventually."

Everyone were taken back by his cold affirmation.

Jun'ichirou: " the strongest LBX player. For them to have such a player, Leviathan won't hesitate to send him to face you all. "

Sendou thought about it.

Sendou: " it makes sense to send him out sooner or later, at least for a test. But, if it comes to that..."

Muraku took in a deep breath.

Muraku: " we'll have to fight Ban-san."

The silence reigned on them as that prospect sank in. They will have to fight their friend.

Mizel: " while we're standing here, that man may be in danger right now. Although saving Ban is as important, but while having no lead to his whereabout, we have no option."

Evangeline: " I'm with Mi on this."

Hiro: " Eva-san, even you!"

Kirito: " we're running out of choices and time. As the professor said, they can be anywhere on this earth. Running around the world to find him isn't wisest choice to take."

Yuuya: " Kirito-kun..."

Cobra: " but professr..."

Jun'ichirou merely looked down.

Jun'ichirou: " it's too late. Mostly by now, even if we find them, we won't be able to take Ban back without a fight."

Elie: " it can't be..."

Odin Mk2 looked at their reluctant faces, though what Jun'ichirou said was true, still they couldn't bring themselves to leave their friend.

Odin: " let's go with what the professor said."

Everyone widened their eyes as they stared at the LBX.

Odin: " that's what Ban would have wanted as well. Sooner or later we will come across him eventually. Even as enemies, it doesn't matter. We will take him back!"

Sendou pulled out a card.

Sendou : " the wheel of fate, huh? Guess we don't have any alternative for this."

Gouda messed up with his hair.

Gouda: " Man! I can't get all of you!"

He looked down at the LBX and then the professor.

Gouda: " oh come on! Do you really intend to leave him in their hands! You don't know what he may be through as of now!"

There was an air of apprehension all over the room. But none of them speak.

Gouda: " Elie!"

The girl snapped out of her thoughts when she was called.

Gouda: " Elie you can't possibly agree to this! Tell them! Tell them you want to save him!"

She bit on her bottom lip and her hands held tightly on the brim of her skirt.

Elie: " I... Do want to save him..."

Her head fell down, she tried hard not to allow tears to roll down her face.

Elie: " but... He will be angry at us if we abandon our mission... I won't be able to face him like that."

Jessica approached her and gently stroke her back in hope of offering some comfort. Gouda searched their faces again, even they were reluctant, Elie's words helped set their minds.

Yuuya: " Elie-kun is right, Gouda-kun..."

Gouda gritted his teeth in exasperation.

Gouda: " fine! Have it your way! I won't find him if it's only me!"

Touko: " so it's settled then, as much as I hate to say it, Ban's matter will be left for another time. Now we have to focus on finding both Minerva and her Creator."

Everyone hesitated but finally nodded as they got what they had to do.

Jessica: " then, professor, you said you knew where the next message is?"

The brunette man nodded as he placed back his glasses.

Jun'ichirou: " ah, it's in Brinton, exactly at Royal Billenge Observatory."

" Eh!"

Jin: " isn't it where you used to work during your time in Brinton?"

The professor nodded.

Jun'ichirou: " I still go there from time to time to work on some researches. It's the best point to observe the stars."

Mirai: " right, you're working on sending LBXs to space. Space observation technology is needed after all."

Twilight : " so that's what he meant by stargazing..."

Jun'ichirou: " though I don't ever know how he managed to sneak his device there, and for what reason..."...


By the time the head of Dream Future came to visit again, he was surprised to see the brunette sitting down on a chair quietly. All he had was a device around his wrist that was used to monitor his health.

Jinn: " how is things proceeding?"

Gichii: " very great!"

He said with a wide amazed smirk.

Gichii: " just like I expected! He had the needed potential to bring out the maximum ability of the project! His ability to fastly adapt to things is really amazing! His mind was soon able to adapt to the increasing shocks."

Jinn: " so you say his mind withstood the ECT."

Gichii: " we can move to the next phase sooner than expected."

Jinn smirked at that as he looked at the dark green eyes void of any emotions.

Jinn: " soon you will be our strongest pawn..."...


" Damn it!"

Ran cursed under her breath as she directed one more punch at the punching bag. Arata, who was holding it for her, swore her hand almost phased through. She was frustrated, that much was obvious. That's why she was venting her anger on a poor punching bag.

He couldn't blame her. Although Arata really wanted to go and find Ban, he couldn't on his own. Even Ran who seemed the most against this lowered her head and accepted the reality imposed on them.

Arata: " I can't understand? Why don't we split up, one team searches for Ban-san and the other goes to retrieve the Drive."

He suggested as he stepped from behind the bag. Ran took a deep breath, apparently trying to calm down. After all, after Hiro's incident, she couldn't believe Ban was going through the same.

Ran: " we can't. As they said we don't know where he is. The team will have to round the globe in hope of finding him. And if the professor's hunch is right, he may appear as an enemy which is why we're all to go this time."

Arata: " still I'm not convinced!"

He said and stood in front of her, looking directly at her eyes.

Arata: " come on Ran-nee! I know you want to save him too! Plus, how does Leviathan know where we're going! It's top Secret information! Then how do we expect him to send Ban-san to stop us!"

Ran wondered the same, even wondered how the AI was able to find them at the Gundam fan club. But then her eyes caught a glimpse of light all of a sudden and they widened as she looked at the source.

Ran: " the cameras..."

Minerva: " what..."

She looked directly at the device hanged on the eaves of their dojo, capturing all that's around it.

Ran: " we're being followed through Security cameras."

Minerva: " you know there is no way they could do that with Mizel with us."

Ran: " but Mizel can't control the whole city you know! His control was only restricted upon Tiny Orbit to protect its network! When we're outside it, Leviathan can know each and every one of our moves! That's how he knew where we were at Akihabara !"

Arata: " so you're saying..."

He gazed up at the device still acting as usual, nothing suspicious about it.

Dot Blastrizer : " where ever we go, he will find us..."...


Mirai: " security cameras?"

Mizel: " that's the only possibility he would have known where we go."

He told her after she stayed along with her brother in tiny orbit when everyone had taken their leave.

Hiro: " so..."

Mizel: " Leviathan is really powerful, I couldn't detect him when he hacked the security cameras to follow us to Akihbara. Managing to take over the security network over a large area without leaving any traces..."

Kirito: " maybe because he wasn't hacking..."

He spoke out as he looked up at the trio. Mirai seemed to think about it.

Mirai: " Dream Future..."

Everyone looked at her as her eyes widened in realization.

Mirai: " Dream Future already is taking control over the whole network, Leviathan doesn't need to hack, he have access to all the security cameras."

Hiro: " and with all the branches around the world..."

Evangeline: " he can know where we're heading next and still can send someone to stop us in time."

Hiro: " can't you, you know, hack the cameras and hide us?"

He shook his head.

Mizel: " Leviathan is more stronger than me, why do you think I didn't go down to him in a cyberspace fight to stop him instead of getting all of you to fight with us?"

Eva rose an eyebrow.

Evangeline : " now wait a second. Didn't you say years ago that the whole world was in your hands? How comes you can't do the same now."

Mizel: " for god's sake sis, you could have already figured it out back then. If the whole world was really in my hand and I could keep up with everything happening in every corner at the same time, NICS and Seekers should have been long gone. No matter how strong I was, my AI had a limit."

Twilight : " and you dared calling yourself perfect back then?"

She folded her arms to which he merely rolled his eyes.

Mizel: " anyway, Leviathan's ability exceeds mine back at... ' the Mizel incident', I had the back up of Omega Dain's server and a whole more lot. Now I'm only depending on Tiny Orbit and NICS' while Leviathan..."

Achilles D9: " he has access to a whole bunch of them."

Kirito: " so, what you mean is whatever you do, hacking or anything, Leviathan can beat you in it."

Mizel nodded.

Kirito: " how the hell are you keeping Tiny Orbit safe from hacking?"

Mizel: " Tiny orbit mostly work with an isolated network from others, keep secret about their own data you know. Protecting it is easy. Other than that, you can assume every place in the world is supervised by Leviathan."

Strike: " hold on a second, then how comes he can't find the Creator and all the Drivers? Surely he can see someone suddenly appearing from nowhere when it's generated by the Driver."

Mizel: " as I said, we have limits. Even Leviathan can't keep watch over the whole glob at the same time. Plus, there is a strong protection on those locations by Leviathan's only match, Minerva."

The blunette woman tapped her chin as she mulled over it.

Mirai: " makes sense, else Leviathan could have deleted her easily."

Achilles D9: " why won't Minerva cover for us as we proceed with retrieving the Drivers."

Mizel: " I have two theories. One, because Leviathan is really close to find her so she can't interfere that much. Two, she had been hiding in a place where it's hard to do so. Or possibly both."

Kirito : " doesn't make things any easier to us."

Evangeline: " no one said it will be."

Hiro and Mirai suddenly exchanged glances, something that didn't slip Mizel's notice.

Mizel: " what's the matter."

Hiro then decided to speak, looking directly at Mizel's green eyes. Since he was still in his child appearance, that required Hiro to lower his head a bit.

Hiro: " with Ban-san's kidnapping and all the fuss about Jin-san, we didn't have time to mention it. In the last battle, I've used overload."

Mizel rose and eyebrow.

Mizel: " so..."

Mirai: " the last time he used it, he was in a coma for months! But then it was quite..."

Mizel: " quite different, yeah, I know. More correctly we should say it was back to normal."

Hiro: " eh!"

Kirito took a sip of his coke before looking at Hiro.

Kirito: " most of us had realized this long ago, when you concentrate too much on a battle, your moves improve all of a sudden as well as your control speed. The only explanation so far was overload. But since you didn't develop any of the side effects, we weren't so sure. Yet once the World Savers took you, it was sooner obvious."

Hiro: " but how? I... I don't recall-"

Mizel: " because your mind is already adapted to it you don't notice it. You developed some kind of a limited overload."

Hiro: " limited..."

Kirito: " you know what that kid Arata sees when he activate his, everything around him becomes in slow motion."

Hiro: " but it never..."

Mizel: " of course it won't. I told you it's limited. Yours just helps your mind keep up with the events around it. It doesn't exerce much pressure on your mind like Arata's, which would cause a high jump in his mind functionalities, which make everything like if it stopped."

Kirito: " Apparently the World Savers knew of your case and wanted to force your overload to be the same as Arata's, such thing wasn't expected by your mind which caused it to fall apart. You didn't use it as much as Arata did but see what it caused you."

Mirai: " then, how comes he manifested a limited overload again. Shouldn't the World Savers have removed his limiter?"

Hiro: " yeah, but you brought it back, right?"

He stared at Mizel who merely smirked.

Mizel: " correct, I simply used some electric shocks to restore back the part of your mind that kept your overload under control. The same one that makes sure humans aren't allowed to use more than a certain percentage of their brains ability."

Mirai: " if you say it like that, it seems like overload cause it to ruin."

Kirito: " on the contrary. When that part of your mind fails to keep it at checked level, you develop overload. The only thing that can ruin that part of your brain is stress, that's why, overload usually is activated when you're put at great danger."

Hiro: " it's really complicated."

He said with a sweat drop as he hardly could keep up with the conversation.

Kirito: " the world is still trying to uncover the overload's secrets, but most researches are theoretical since it's considered dangerous. For one safe overload to appear, I'm sure professors of all around the world will want to experiment on you."

Hiro swallowed at the terrifying tone Kirito had just used and Mirai jumped to her feet.

Mirai: " they will have to get past me!"

Mizel: " sit down, it's not like they would know about it anyway. But I'm really curious to know how on earth did you developed it. I checked your background and nothing could have caused you a shock strong enough to activate it, so I'm betting that you've developed it through out playing games. But how, I don't know."

Mirai: " who allowed you to check his background?"

She said taking her seat again, now throwing glares at Mizel.

Mizel: " it was needed so Minerva can decide who she will be chosen to fight along side her. All of the chosen players had had their backgrounds checked. How on earth do you think she formuled specific questions for you to test your will to fight?"

Evangeline: " makes sense."

Kirito: " though I don't really appreciate skimming through my own background."

Mirai: " you're doing the same for a lot of people, aren't you?"

Kirito groaned in annoyance before throwing the rest of his drink down his throat...


Marie: " Brinton this time?"

She asked as she dropped the dishes in the washer and span around to face Elie and Lilyan, whom Elie dragged back to the house.

Elie nodded.

Elie: " mom, we had to leave looking for Onii-chan for another time. We're limited on time and options and since we don't have any leads to his whereabout-"

She tried her best to explain the situation to her mother who merely gave a small smile.

Marie: " I know, I understand, Elie."

Elie: " mom..."

Lilyan looked up from her tea cup and at the brunette woman.

Lilyan: " I promise, we will surely save Ban-kun."

One look at her hands balled tightly into fists made Marie's smile soften.

Marie: " I know you will."...


The black haired male walked out of his room on his way to the kitchen when his eyes fell on the woman standing in the hall

Yuuya: " Eva-kun, what are you doing here at this late hour?"

She wordlessly beckoned at the door in front of her and he was able to see the light from under the door, which meant the room's occupant was still awake.

Yuuya: " should we..."

With a nod of her head she knocked on the door and walked in when she was given permission to. The other male was sitting to his desk, his look fixed upon the small robot placed on the wooden surface and didn't even rise his head to look at them.

Yuuya: " still doing maintenance? In this hour?"

Jin: " ah, there is a lot to do. I want to improve Zenon as much as possible."

Eva and Yuuya smiled as they saw their old friend back to his usual spirit and gazed at all the different parts resting on both his sides on the desk as he was polishing and fixing them. Seems he still had a lot to work on.

Jin: " Eva...Yuuya..."

Their eyes flicked back at him and Jin locked eyes with them.

Jin: " I must have worried you a lot for so long. I'm really sorry."

Yuuya shook his head with a gentle smile.

Yuuya: " it doesn't matter anymore. More importantly that you're back."

Eva folded her arms in front of her.

Evangeline : " just remember we're of use and can help you whatever it's the next time. Don't keep things to yourself again. You're not alone."

She thought back to what Jin had told everyone about his conversation with Seredy that morning.

As he looked again at all the parts Jin is still to work on, the black haired man gave a smile.

Yuuya: " would you like a hand with those?"

Eva already had pulled a chair and sat by his sides, to which they both smiled softly. She was really the type to offer help even if not asked to.

Jin: " I will be grateful for that."

Yuuya also pulled a chair and they all set to work...