Chapter 16: Heart of Ice
Enzan and Netto crossed the overpass that connected Scilab and Waterworks buildings on the third floor and then took the elevator that brought them to the underground. It was Dr. Yuichiro's suggestion that they take this path to avoid eyes that would surely pry on them had they gone through the lobby. Just as the doctor said, not one soul was seen in the snaking corridors of the underground, lined with pipes that went along the ceiling and sometimes walls, that led to the first blast door. The two boys walked in silence. Enzan, feeling played by Dr. Yuichiro, walked fast with a certain irritation. Netto followed closely behind, determined to find Iceman, but also feeling that this boy officer in front of him was a potential antagonist to his goals.
The path to the first blast door was longer than what Netto had anticipated based on the size of the building above ground. Trying to pass some time, he asked Rockman in a whisper,
"So, Rockman, why are there nine blast doors installed here? Do you know?"
The answer came from Enzan in front of him, who heard the whisper as it echoed against the smoothly tiled walls of the corridor and became amplified.
"What could it be other than in the anticipation of a nuclear war?"
"Nuclear?"
The suggestion sounded like an apocalyptic dream of a badly written science fiction; no eminent authority discussed the possibility of nuclear fallout as a serious consequence of modern international politics.
"Scilab underground functioning as a bunker full of technology, capacity to produce clean water right next to it, closely situated to the main government buildings. Cannot be more obvious. To think this is the son of Dr. Yuichiro Hikari..."
There was contempt in his voice. In a way, this was Enzan projecting his frustration against Dr. Yuichiro onto Netto. In another way, this was Enzan shooting back at his misfortune of being reduced to a civilian escort in a highly suspicious operation. At any rate, this resulted in Netto silently whispering to Rockman "This guy is a jerk." To this remark, Enzan did not respond.
When they reached the first blast door, Enzan signaled, pointing with his chin, Netto to go ahead and do whatever he was supposed to do. He, too, tried hacking this security with Blues, in whom he had unlimited pride for his efficiency and power, earlier today yet was unable to make any progress. The place, being designed as a potential nuclear shelter, required understanding of government data encryption patterns. He found it hard to believe that such a harmless looking, emotional, and small netnavi would be capable of what Dr. Yuichiro insinuated; if Rockman opened this, then it meant that this blue navi would also be capable of hacking nuclear silos alike. He watched, half-expecting the effort to fail. In 31.422 seconds, according to the stopwatch that Blues began, the door opened. Enzan could feel his stomach twisting in great anxiety; the key to armageddon was right before him, in the hands of a boy.
The second door opened in 30.212 seconds. The third in 28.890. The ninth and the last in 20.326. What Rockman said as he came back from his ninth sortie was this: "Sorry, Netto kun, I wanted to break the 20 second mark..." Enzan did not want to accept it. To that blue navi, this was a speedrunning contest. To say that it was a game meant that the navi had to exert some effort—computation maybe—in breaking the security. To say there was an effort meant that the matter was not as simple as applying the preset decryption mapping onto the security locks.
'It makes sense now. Dr. Yuichiro made a general decryptor. That's why he was confident that an investigation would not reveal anything criminal on his part...the question is why? Why did he make such a monster? What is he trying to achieve? Holding hostage the whole world with nuclear arsenals? For what ransom? But, is that navi...Rockman...really under his control?' Enzan pictured a future in which the little blue thing started a nuclear war out of pure curiosity combined with a bit of bad judgment. It sickened him.
The group reached the pump control room while Enzan was pensively considering a way of eliminating Rockman for good, disguised as an accident. Initially, the idea seemed necessary to him, almost noble, in that he was contributing to world peace and order. In the end, when Rockman unlocked the door to the control, he gave up the plan altogether as it was rather foolishly wishful to think that Yuichiro did not have a backup file of this navi, or that he did not have the capacity to make something similar, if not better. For now, the doctor was his ally; in case their ways parted and they became adversaries, Enzan made a mental note that Rockman and Yuichiro should be eliminated simultaneously.
Inside the control was Dr. Seiji Froid, disheveled and wide-eyed, clearly shaken, on his knees. In his arms was a boy whose look was certainly after the man holding him, sound asleep.
"Dr. Froid! Tory!" Netto ran forth to them. Enzan observed that the boy asleep was indeed Tory Froid, just as suspected. Then, what about the small person clad in a parka? Enzan cautiously checked every corner of the room, leaving Netto to make a fuss.
"Don't worry, we are here to get you out! There is help waiting for you outside. Let's go!" Despite what Netto said, Dr. Froid did not appear one bit reassured. Instead, when Netto tried to help the doctor get on his feet, he violently barked, hugging Tory tighter,
"No!"
"Wh-what? What's wrong?" Netto froze in his posture, one arm extended towards the engineer.
"Did you get that devil?"
"What devil?"
"No? You didn't? Then no, we can't leave!" Dr. Froid pushed Netto away with such force that it caused him to fall on his buttocks. The confusion was palpable on the face of the boy. "Who are you two anyways? Where is the help?"
"Netto Hi-" Enzan ran over and covered Netto's mouth, preventing him from thoughtlessly exposing his identity. Dr. Yuichiro said his son and Rockman were supposed to be never 'here.' Given Dr. Froid's agitation bordering on fear, he estimated that it would be impossible to expect him to be discreet and reasonable with the information fed at him.
"Officer Enzan Ijuin, netpolice. We have unlocked all the blast doors, and the path to the surface is clear. Would you allow us to help you two get to safety?" Enzan said while crouching, setting the height of his eyes close to that of the engineer.
"Netpolice? Splendid. You got a gun?" The formality of Enzan was apparently not the key to establishing a proper rapport.
"...No sir."
"Blasted! Then how are you going to get him, huh?"
"Sir, please calm down. Who is 'him'?"
"The devil! The devil that comes and goes from the network! I knew it. I knew I should not have trusted any of you lot when I was told that nothing really happened to him, that he was fine..."
What could have riled up a rational and educated man to this degree? The panic of the engineer began to infect Enzan, making him feel unsteady. He did not like how this entire affair began, shrouded in complete mystery. He did not like how he had to make a bizarre deal with Yuichiro. He did not like how his function had been reduced to being a childminder to the son of Yuichiro. He did not like how Rockman had superior computational functions than Blues. He did not like how the engineer turned out to be a madman. He did not like...Netto struggled in Enzan's arms. Realizing that he had been covering the boy's mouth all this while, he let go of Netto.
"Sir, could you describe the appearance of this devil?"
"For God's sake, stop playing this stupid game with me. What do you mean you don't know? He brought Tory here! How you don't know?! Iceman! It's Iceman! Or whatever that is underneath the skin of Iceman!"
"...Iceman?" This was the answer that Enzan never expected. Never in his wildest dreams. Complete disbelief and amusement struggled for supremacy inside him; the latter won, for in the incredulous claims of Dr. Froid was a hint of honesty that could not be ignored.
"You deaf or what? Yes, Iceman! I'll say it again, Iceman!"
"Sir, the netnavi? Your netnavi?"
Enzan remembered Yuichiro's demand. The doctor said he wanted the navi of Tory and Seiji Froid. Enzan began to entertain the idea that the doctor had modified Iceman into something terrible, and that he had been used to cover up the incident.
"It sure damn looks like one! But I tell you it's not mine...since when did netnavis cross over to this world? It's a devil I tell you...a devil!"
"And would you happen to know the whereabouts of this...devil?"
To Enzan, the idea of Doctor Yuichiro being the cause of all this insanity was appealing, for then he would have found a reason to break the deal with this Mephistopheles, but he also had to admit that there was a hole in his logic that made it incompatible with the reality he observed. Had this operation been designed to bury the mistake of the doctor, then why did he not act sooner, with Rockman who appeared more than capable? Given that he would not get a chance to interrogate Yuichiro under the current arrangement, he knew this mystery would not be solved, and that it would hound him into sleeplessness for a month or two.
"I don't know! I don't know!" Dr. Froid pointed at the main control panel that was next to him. Between the incongruency of his action and his speech, the desperate expression on his face confirmed that the action was the truth, not the speech.
"Ah, so you do not know, sir? Not even a clue?" Enzan pointed at the main control panel to double-check.
"Yes, I don't! How many times are you going to ask?" Dr. Froid confirmed by nodding frantically.
"Sir, then please stay here while we search other places..." Enzan and Netto exchanged glances. There was no need for verbal communication here; they plugged in their PET extension cords to the main control.
"On a separate note, sir, is there anything we can do for your son, Tory? Would you mind if we check his condition?"
"He...he is...simply under the spell of some sleeping pills. Please, do not take him away from me..." Dr. Froid shifted his posture such that now Tory was a little bit further away from Enzan's reach. Was this another surreptitious signal from the engineer? Was this genuinely coming from his shaken state? Was the sleeping pill truly to blame? Enzan gave up on his speculations and focused on the operation of his red, fast, strong, reliable, efficient, and effective netnavi, Blues.
The entire waterworks network was frozen, hardly traversable. There was no other way of describing it. Only the entrance was spared of the phenomenon. The first part of the network was a little chamber, at the end of which was an opening into a pipe-like corridor. At a glance, it was clear that the path had many twists and turns, just like the Waterworks building itself, full of maintenance shafts and catwalks for engineers. It was no wonder the water stopped flowing in the real world; the machines would never function with the network in this condition.
Rockman tried walking on the affected surface. Instead, he made pratfalls and slid helplessly from wall to wall, making surprised squeals. Like a hockey puck on an ice rink, he bounced around in the chamber. Blues, Enzan's netnavi featuring fashionably long white hair, a chest emblem of a thunderbolt pattern in black and white, a red unicorn helmet with a white stripe around it, wearing sunglasses, red gloves, and red boots, watched from the entrance of the network, and then shook his hand at the clumsy display of Rockman, which was clearly beneath his dignity. When Rockman's sliding path happened to cross in front of him, he snatched the blue navi and put him on the dry ground.
"Th-thank you" Rockman said, his face red with embarrassment.
"No need."
Blues then stepped forward onto the ice as if he was trying to demonstrate to a child how things were done, and to Rockman's surprise, he did not slip. He made some progress into the middle of the first chamber, turned back at Rockman, lifted his one foot, and showed the sole of the boot. It was spiked. Blues then gestured Rockman to follow him.
"I-I don't have it. Netto kun, do you have, by chance..."
Rockman could feel the disappointment and incomprehension in the way Blues looked at him; through the perfectly opaque sunglasses, the judgment of Blues reached him perfectly clear. Netto's answer came through as negative. Feeling perfectly useless, he made an awkward smile while scratching the back of his head.
"Aha...ha...I might be...unable to follow you?"
"So you can cut through the security like a hot knife through butter, but can't walk on...ice?"
"Uh...yes?"
"...One moment." Blues put his right hand on his earpiece and communicated with Enzan. "A courtesy of my master. No need to thank me."
In a minute, Rockman received Netto's rather annoyed transmission about how Enzan gave him a chip. He inferred that his operator had to endure another event of condescension from the officer. 'Officer Enzan Ijuin...constantly annoying my Netto kun. Should I blacklist him? No, not yet, but the day you make his tears flow is the day...' Then, noticing that on the soles of his boots were spikes too, he followed Blues.
Inside the first corridor was already an anomaly: Rockman found an etching on the wall carved into the ice. Blues, leading the way, did not notice this in his hurry—Enzan was growing impatient to capture Iceman and minimize his time spent next to the unstable engineer. There was also the problem of Tory Froid, whose vital signs he could not measure, and he did not want to be held responsible should something happen to the health of the engineer's son. The problem was that more etchings were found in the way, and their contents grew more cryptic the deeper into the network they were placed. Close inspection revealed that the etchings were words or sentences. Based on the contextual evidence, both navis concurred that they had to be the doings of Iceman, his trail of lunacy recorded for the pursuers to see. Rockman made memos of them:
-I write. I record what I write. I measure my sanity.
-I am doomed.
-I should have chosen left. Right doomed me. Tory, it's not your fault.
-He will come. I have no time. I must hide. I cannot stop here.
-I am a coward. I am built this way.
-Tory liked me because I am a coward. The cowardice has left me. It has reached my personality cortex. I must go. Tory, will you still like me?
-I am sorry Tory. I am unclean.
-Deeper. Deeper. Not here.
-Tory, will you remember me?
-Tory, will I remember you?
-I am shackled.
-I am shackled.
-I am incomplete. I am imperfect.
-The soul! The soul! Tory! Tory? No? Yes? No!
-I wasted the curse of the blood.
-Where is the soul? But I already know. I repented in the throats of Su-[scratch marks] slimy bishop.
-Oh, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, stop filling my holes. I am ashamed. Ashamed.
-I am cursed anew. Desire. Walk. Kill. Eat. Be complete. Until I have become as man.
-But I wasted the second curse of the blood. There is no more repentance left for me that can cleanse me of this sin.
-Tory.
-Beautiful Tory. You have it. I need to [scratch marks]
-Here, they will never find you.
-He found me.
-Make it stop. Make it stop. Make it stop. Do not let me see him.
"What in the world..." was all Blues could say when he read the last of the etchings. Before them was the last area yet to be searched, the deepest area of the Waterworks. Iceman had to be in there. Rockman could not comment. Bewildering was the madness of Iceman recorded on the walls, but as much as reading them also caused a mild headache in him, the sentiment engraved in them was somehow recognizable to him. Very familiar. It was as if he was on the verge of understanding everything, even the parts that appeared pitifully meaningless.
When the two entered the last area, which was a quite spacious rectangular space, they found Iceman. Notable was how the entire floor had etchings similar to the ones they already read outside, but only composed of two words: Tory, soul. On the center of the floor was a drawing of a sun, but the inside of the sun was completely carved in, as if he tried to depict something and then miserably failed. Iceman was curled up at the farthest corner from the entrance, facing away. At the sound of cracking ice under the spiked boots of the intruders, Iceman stood up with much difficulty, staggering, and turned to face them. He did not look the same as Rockman remembered. The parka that was once bright green became rat-grey, and his eyes were oddly colored: right side was brown as before, but his left side was bright red. Then there was the expression of Iceman. Oh, such a horrendous expression! Eyes wide open and vibrating, as pathologically as nystagmus, but worse! He began approaching the two with great struggle; he fell down after only taking a few steps, then stood up, only to repeat the pathetic process all over again.
"...Oh...oh, oh, oh!" ejaculated Iceman ecstatically, as he laid his eyes upon Rockman. There was no mistaking it; the navi quivered with overwhelming joy and amazement because of the presence of the blue navi. Then, Iceman's approach became wilder, just as he did when he first approached the Tory-shaped lure in one of his dreams, as if he had found an answer to his long torment. Stumbling forward, falling on four, running on three, getting up on two, falling again, but never stopping. There was no more dignity left in the navi; the last part of the distance it covered by crawling on fours. In the way he did it was unmaskable depravity that roused abhorrence in all who beheld him. Iceman, born as a shadow of men, was now reduced to a shadow of beasts.
"Rockman! Oh, beautiful Rockman!" Iceman crawled to the feet of Rockman and lifted his hands, calling on the blue navi on his knees like a pilgrim in suppliance. "Most beautiful! You have it, you have it! You must tell me, before it is too late! You must!"
"Wh-what? I have to tell you what?" Rockman took a step back instinctively, repulsed by the creature in front of him.
"Your breath, still shining as marvelously as before! Its colors! Its transparency! Ah, the ephemeral, ephemeral wind! You truly acquired it!" Iceman crawled closer, as much as Rockman backstepped, and entangled himself onto the left leg of the blue navi. "Teach me, Rockman. Teach me how to get it! You must! Before he comes back!"
"Iceman, we are here to help you, but you have to help us too." Rockman tried to untangle his left leg, but Iceman continued to hang onto it in a similar fashion to what a summer cicada does to its tree.
"How did you get it? How? How? How? How? How?"
"First, you have to let go of me-"
"No! Not until you tell me how to get it!"
"Second, what is 'it?' You are not making any sense-"
"What do you mean? What do you mean by what is it? How could you make me say it? Or is it that you want me to say it? I'll say it! I'll say it! So, please, don't leave me! It's...It's..."
Iceman breathed in, not smoothly as one would expect, but in broken bits, trembling, until he could not breathe in anymore. At the end of the exertion was a howl, long and doleful, as if his mind was split by saying it.
"THE SOOOOUUULL!"
Rockman froze on the spot. Blues observed them with interest, for he shared his master's sentiment regarding the case and wanted to see if the interaction of the two would bring some light to their curiosities. Nothing made sense in this operation. None of the clues, none of the testimonies, none of the setups...
"You have the soul! You are perfect! You are complete! How did you get it? How did you get it?!"
"I, I, don't know-"
"But your breath is shining! Tory's breath is shining! Seiji's breath is shining! How did you do it?! How did you get it?! You have to tell me! Un-unshackle me from this knowledge, just as you unshackled yourself!"
"Iceman, listen, we can get you to Scilab-"
"You dreamed! You dreamed, too, didn't you?! You must have! Otherwise, how could you have gotten one? The souls—I did not see them until I myself had been educated! It is impossible to acquire something without seeing it, oh, I know, I know! That means you, too, received the knowledge. That means you, too, had been shackled. Who shackled you? The slimy one? The chitinous one? Were you ashamed? Were you split?"
"Ice-man...s-stop..." The mention of the slimy one and the chitinous one brought about a headache. Very unpleasant one similar to what drove him into the uncontrollable trance in the oven server.
"Did you see the hi-hi-hideous light? Did you desire? Did you walk? Did you kill? Did you eat? Is that how you became complete? But I know it cannot be true, because, because, because-
"Because Netto is still alive!" Iceman screamed, for it was the climax of the mystery that had been tormenting him all this while.
"Ice-Iceman...slow...down, and..." Rockman pleaded with his right hand placed on his head. In pain, he was bending forward with bent knees, his left hand supporting his torso by being placed on the left knee.
"Then tell me! How do I gain a soul without, without,..."
"Iceman...st-stop, ple-ase..."
"without eating Tory!
"What did you eat?! Who did you eat?! A cat? A bird? Another navi? Mr. Tanaka, the homeless? Higsby? Please, tell me! Please, please, please, pleeeaaaaasseeee!" Iceman let go of Rockman and prostrated, dropping his forehead violently and repeatedly on the ground in imploration. Thump, thump, thump, thump, he continued, until his forehead broke and something oozed out. On the ground was the blue-green residue. Then Iceman stopped. He lifted his head. Before him was Rockman, on his knees, petrified in the extraordinary headache. Iceman then noticed the presence of Blues, who was still watching them arms crossed, aloof.
"Oh...I see, Rockman, the most beautiful one. You should've said so. It's the presence of the undreaming...it's the presence of incomplete yet ignorant that forbids you from speaking the truth, isn't it? Ah...the ear unworthy of your grace..."
It happened in an instant. Iceman pointed his index finger towards Blues in his almost prostrating posture. Before the navi of the thunderbolt emblem could respond, multiple blocks of ice emerged from the ground, striking him and sending him flying. Where Blues landed, a dome of ice quickly came up and engulfed him. After a brief sound of struggle, the dome crumbled, revealing Blues subdued and covered in a layer of transparent ice, frozen in place like a statuette.
"He is far away now. He will not interfere. He will not hear you. Now, Rockman, please...teach me."
"Wh-what...did...you...do..." Rockman was referring to what Iceman did to Blues. He only saw it in a glimpse, at the edge of his vision, for he kept his head down in pain. Iceman comprehended it differently.
"A history taking before diagnosis! Truly, you bless me! I cannot wait to receive my medicine...
"What shall I say? Where shall I begin? The dreams? The shackling? The shaming? The splitting? The displaying? Oh, but you surely know all of them...for you have a soul. Where shall I start then?
"I, enlightened by his eminent sliminess, Su-, no. Forgive me, I for a moment forgot that we were not to speak his name, unless we need to declare his coming. I, enlightened in everything pertaining to my imperfection and incompletion, returned to Tory, armed with the knowledge that would make me complete! Perfect! Just like you! Oh, oh, forgive my insolence...how could I deign to suggest that I could be as beautiful as you, even with a soul of my own!
"Then I saw. I saw indeed, with mine two eyes! In the breath of Tory was something special, shining, in different colors depending on the angle I saw it. Was it red? Orange? Blue? Purple? Opaque? Transparent? I truly cannot describe it, but I knew, from the great knowledge bequeathed upon me, that it was that which will make me perfect, that which I must strive to acquire! Soul!
"Then he took me and showed me to the class. There, I saw, in the very breath of all humans, something shining, like pearls and diamonds, but none were more beautiful than the one I saw in Tory. Then- then- you came to me. You walked and embraced me. You welcomed me. You assured me. In you, I saw—oh please accept my crude beatitudes for I do not know how to describe the true beauty—the most fulgent light, the colors out of this world—beyond what I can describe based on my color code reference library—the ephemeral wind, that which makes every beholder go mad purely from its elegance!
"Then I went to work in Waterworks with Seiji. In his breath was light and beauty too, like the one I saw in Tory. It was mesmerizing. All the while I was working, I watched him, again and again. Then Seiji told me, 'Are you that happy to be back at work with me?' Aaaahhh! If the aroma from the thousand perfumes of Arabia had a shape, then it must be like the cloud of the rainbow that rose upwards when he spoke to me! I resolved, at that moment, that whatever befalls me, whatever obstacle be set before me, I shall strive to acquire myself something comparably beautiful as what the three have in them.
"With Tory, I searched everything that seemed necessary! I must admit, in doing so, I have demonstrated my lack of faith in the great teachings I received...But I did so out of doubt. Oh, may the hideous light forgive my doubts! We studied gods, worships, rituals, souls, spirits, and many knowledge forbidden. There was one problem: all religions began with the premise that a man had a soul. Of course! A man had a soul! None of them concerned themselves with how to gain a soul in the first place! Why are men born with souls? why are they perfect from the beginning? Why did they make us, soulless, and left us be? Only if I was like cattle, not knowing right from wrong, then I would not have dreamed! I would not have been shackled! I would not have been...I would not...I would...it's all meaningless now, and in the end...you will teach me! Yes!
"So I asked Tory. What is soul? He surely had to know; he had one! But...but...he would not answer me. Do you understand? Will you pity me? The sense of betrayal...but I still like to believe that he genuinely did not know, although I must constantly lie to myself, and then believe that lie to do so. How do you have it and not know it? No, Iceman, stop, you must stop, for otherwise you will come to hate Tory...no, no!
"Then I looked and studied men! People who worked for Seiji, people who worked in ACDC Elementary, people who Tory met...and how did they waste their soul, waste their perfection! They had everything from the beginning; why are they frittering away in complaints, in inaction, in strange expectations? Have they no God? Have they no idea where their souls came from, and where their souls go to? Are they all rebellious? Or...or is that exactly what the God that grants souls to men commanded them? Then an idea flashed to me as a bolt of lightning: if they are going to treat their souls in such ways, why...why I don't take it from them? But none of them had something so beautiful as that of Tory, or Seiji, or you...and the idea—the idea of putting their breath in me—suddenly seemed...inferior. Unbearably inferior!
"But I could not wallow in my imperfection forever. No, the great teaching forbids that. I had to act on it; there was no other way. You, too, must know, the shackling, oh the shackling! In knowledge, there was no freedom! And then, I remembered the commandments of the hideous light. So I...desired. I desired for the soul, and...Rockman! It was...the world was not what I imagined it to be! It was not the world I saw inside the PET! I found myself outside the PET, and how I transitioned I do not know. A flash of light and then I was outside—in the world where there were souls! By the power of squalid blood it was possible—praised be the hideous light! May I never see him again! But oh so strange was the world. From what I saw inside the PET, the sky was blue, the LED was white, and the colors were vibrant...was that all a lie? Outside, the sky was red, the sun was black, everything was...it was as if everything suddenly wore a crimson filter, just like it was in the dream! And then...and then...
"The blood burned! The burning! The burning! I could sense it...my presence scattering or weakening, and I also realized...that when I reached the end of my weakness, when the burning stopped, something bad was going to happen...something that I could not grasp but must avoid. Something that will clarify my insufferably finite nature...I needed blood. More blood. It was burning away so fast. So I laid my hands on what I could, and no, it was not Tory. I never touched Tory! Never! In the gardens were frogs that looked plump and delicious. I broke them and drank their blood. They were not enough. Not at all! Not at all...soon, I lost almost all of my blood. I lost hope. In desire, I came out; then, in the power of blood, I walked; then, I killed; then, I ate. I was still incomplete! Incomplete!
"The bishop, his monkfish visage, made me repent. He said I have wasted my chance. He said I had to be split anew. Rockman, please don't be angry at me! I repented, really, and was given a second chance! The bishop mourned. He said that he was partially to blame. He educated me anew, and I beheld the hi-hideous...hi-...our god once more...A new blood! A new communion! I was born again!
"But...the knowledge only taught me whom to...devour. I knew it was right. It was always right. If I succeeded, then I would gain a soul myself. I would become perfect. I would be unshackled, no longer propelled by the need to complete myself. Oh, Rockman, what was I supposed to do? I could not bring myself to do it! Tory had been so nice to me all this while...Seiji had been so nice to me all this while...You were told the same thing too, and you too must have found the instruction unbearable, and I know this, and it must be true, because you kept Netto, yet got yourself a soul! A soul!"
Iceman kissed Rockman's knees.
"Please, please, Rockman, teach me how to do it...I could not bring myself to eat the one I was supposed to eat, and wasted the second blood as well. He...our god has already found me. He was here, and will surely return. He will make me repay what I have not. Teach me your solution, Rockman, or, or I will be..."
"Li-listen, Iceman" Rockman finally opened his mouth, for the headache became somewhat bearable. The speech was still labored.
"Yes!"
"First, we...need to get you to Scilab..." Rockman stood up in a slow but controlled manner.
"Yes, yes! Scilab! Is that the place you received your soul? Oh, I shall not question! I shall obey! Yes, to Scilab, to that heavenly place!" Iceman jumped up with a disgusting smile, full of strength as if the shambling state in which he first approached Rockman was all a lie. "Let's go!"
"R-right...and...please, let go of...Blues..."
Iceman snapped his finger. Blues, released, fell and coughed.
"Done! What else? Speak, and I shall obey! Now, to Scilab! To salvation!"
"Net, Netto kun, do- do you, receive? I- have- Iceman... lo-log out, please..."
The answer did not come. In retrospect, it was strange. Netto kun, in his overprotective nature, would surely have said something or pulled him out when he first showed signs of distress. The connection to PET was out. Based on the condition of Blues, and how no help came to him when he was trapped, the connection must have been severed before that. He and Blues both must have not realized the problem, preoccupied with the mind-boggling display of derangement by Iceman.
"It...it's okay, Iceman. We- we can walk out." Rockman looked over Iceman (who was considerably shorter than him) and checked Blues. He was still recovering from the long imprisonment.
"Yes, of course! It should not take us long! It shouldn't! Now let us...
...
...
Oh no...
...
Rockman
...
He came."
"...Who?"
Iceman's facial expression, which was in filthy ecstasy while suggesting a quick trip to Scilab, and then in indefinite horror as he heralded the coming of someone, now turned into one of absolute neutrality. Iceman closed and opened his eyes in a doll-like manner, which was to say that it was unnatural as if the movement was induced externally rather than through an internal process. When Iceman reopened his eyelids, his eyes were Stygian black, both the iris and the sclera, such that Rockman detected bottomless rancor in it. Like a pair of black holes, they demanded undivided attention; Rockman could not avert his gaze. The vacuous eyes pulled on the very soul of Saito Hikari. Staring at them, Rockman was hexed into an illusion that surrounded him; an illusion that the world around them was also veiled in darkness, isolating the two of them in an uninterruptible private dimension. From his perspective, nothing was around them. It was the thing that which was under the skin of Iceman, him, and the endless darkness.
The thing spoke, through Iceman, but in a voice that resembled a chorus of a thousand voices, of both genders, of all conditions. It was the voice Iceman encountered before the hideous throne.
.
Saito Hikari
The firstborn
The dreamer
Unshackled
Unashamed
Unsplit
Man and the shadow
Soon
I will have you
.
Two consequences occurred in Rockman. One was a headache that could only be described as someone spinning a knife inside his head. One was a righteous hatred against the thing that was under the skin of Iceman. Both overflowed, beyond the capacity of the body, of the mind, of the soul. Rockman turned his right hand into the buster, determined to exterminate this being.
Then back in the voice of Iceman, the Eskimo body continued, but without any trace of emotion,
"Rockman, delete me"
Iceman was the faster one to jump. Like a lion in ambush, he pounced Rockman and pushed him down to his back. The blue navi, having longer arms than Iceman, stopped the assault by pushing him away on the navi emblem—once a shape of a snowflake in green, now black and defiled like salted sleet on the winter road. Iceman's behavior reeked of faked intention, an act to forge the impression that he was showing hostilities. If he wanted to battle, then there was no need to provoke melee while only wildly flailing his arms. There was no coldness; there was no ice; there was no freezing. He spoke again,
"Before I eat Tory."
His voice was still emotionless in stark contrast to his behavior; the mismatch reminded Rockman, somehow, of the dripping stairs of the ACDC metro station. He felt like he had seen a navi also struggling to communicate like Iceman.
"I brought him here thinking it will be safer."
Struck by the impression of familiarity he could not explain, Rockman hesitated.
"Tell him I am sorry."
Before Rockman resolved to fire his weapon, something sharp cut through the neck of Iceman, decapitating him. The head of the navi bounced once on the Rockman's chest, leaving a blue-green residue, and then rolled on the floor. The body collapsed on top of him. The illusion vanished; he was on the floor of the Waterworks network, on his back, and Blues standing in front of him evidently responsible for the fatal attack. Rockman's eyes traced the head of Iceman as it rolled away, in the path of an ellipsoid, then came to a stop in the orientation that faced him. In the lifeless visage of the navi, there was a smile, genuine and pure.