Union of the Two Colors

Kaita's mother was not as easy to fool as Yuuichirou had hoped. At least he had managed to intercept her outside the Ministry buildings.

"Did you know that there are people knocked out in the woods past your security gate?" Todoroki Asuna asked. Before Yuuichirou could answer, she pointed to Beat next to her and continued, "And I've been wanting to ask, is this thing legal? I thought substantiation was banned here after what you people did with it."

It was really hard to see where Kaita got his more trusting nature from. And if looking properly concerned had ever been Yuuichirou's strong suit, perhaps the hearings would've gone better and he would still have access to Dimensional Areas and their associated technology. He would have felt more in his element with Haruka or Rockman by his side, but he had no choice; he had to go it alone.

"Todoroki-san, we're having a bit of renovation done right now, so you'll have to excuse our mess," Yuuichirou began, smiling his best friendly smile. It wasn't too much of a reach to do; he had been a father once. He completely understood where Asuna was coming from.

Asuna sighed, clearly not believing a word of it. "I don't want to make this more difficult than it has to be, so I'll get to the point. Where is Kaita?"

"Kaita-kun is safe here with us in the Main Building," Yuuichirou reassured her. Unable to resist the inside joke, he added, "He slept in a bit late this morning, but he's having a lot of fun at the Super-Science Camp."

"Firstly, that's not what Kaita called it in his email. Secondly, that sounds like it's for six-year-olds!" Asuna scolded. "You're a terrible liar."

It was hard to come back from the truth. "That is true, but it's also true that Kaita-kun is all right and having a nice time with his friends," Yuuichirou explained.

"I am going in there, I'm taking my son, and then I'm filing a complaint against your Ministry—"

"Mama!" Sprinting down the driveway was Kaita. "Mama, wait!"

"Oh, thank goodness, Kaita!" Asuna ran just as quickly to meet her son in a tight embrace. For a woman of her size, she was in shockingly good shape; or maybe Yuuichirou just wasn't used to running full speed like that after a child anymore. "Kaita, I'm so happy you're okay," Asuna sighed. Then, as Yuuichirou caught up, she took a few steps back and snapped right back into Stern Mother Mode: "We are going straight home!"

Frantically, Kaita protested, "No, no, Mama, you don't get it! We're doing this to rescue Hiroki-san!"

For a moment, Yuuichirou was thrown for a loop. But then he remembered: Black Hiroki, the Nova member. And, he suspected, the 'Seven' agent that the leak had mentioned.

Then Asuna's hands flew to her mouth, and Yuuichirou realized that there was something the kids were not quite communicating about their erstwhile enemy. "Hiroki? Your friend who came over?"

"Yeah," Kaita said earnestly. "He's in real trouble right now, and we're gonna save him!"

Asuna closed the gap between herself and Kaita again to give her son a reassuring hug. "Oh, sweetie, of course you're worried! That poor dear." She explained, "But this is what we're meant to have Net Police for. I understand feeling the need to check in on them, but I never get the sense that's actually what you and Mary do."

"Well, that's… It's gotten really complicated," Kaita said, in what had to be the understatement of the year. "They don't see everything that's happening, so they need all the help they can get. And Hiroki-san doesn't know everyone, and he's really scared, so he'd feel better if I was there to tell him what's going on."

"A matter of trust, then…" Asuna looked back over at Yuuichirou; he felt like he was being deeply, thoughtfully studied. "You meant well, didn't you? When you started on that substantiation tech."

The truth had not served Yuuichirou well all those years ago, but Asuna seemed like she actually wanted to hear it. "I made Dimensional Areas and Synchro Chips to help advance the worlds of both Navis and humans, not merely so they could fight," he explained. "I still regret never being able to use the technology for a better purpose."

"You sent out those Dimensional Areas for combat later on, though," Asuna pointed out, though the judgmental tone remained gone from her voice. "And those two children… By the end, they handled themselves like they were part of the Self-Defense Forces, not just some flavor of Net Agents."

"By then, our enemies could substantiate through other means," Yuuichirou explained. "We were on the back foot up until the end. Our methods of stopping them caused a lot of damage, but we never had any time to reevaluate our approach." Yuuichirou sighed. One of those children who had seen too much too quickly had been his own son, and he would never have the chance to apologize for it. "We kept doing what seemed to be best for the country and for the world, and those two kids were the only ones with the capability to fulfill their duties. But we failed to take care of them. If I could do it again differently, I would, but all I can do now is make the best of where we are."

Hand resting on Kaita's head, Asuna nodded to herself. "So this is the truth, eh? The mad scientist Hikari Yuuichirou is actually a decent person," she concluded.

"Yeah!" Kaita agreed eagerly, clearly relieved his gambit had worked. "Hikari-hakase and Meijin-san are just doing the best they can. I don't think they could stop Meiru-san or Enzan-san from being Net Saviors if they wanted to, so they support them."

Asuna sighed. "It still doesn't sit right with me for Meiru and Enzan to feel the need to be Net Saviors. Or for you to feel like you need to help them. But… I think everyone here knows that feeling." She looked at Yuuichirou a second time. "…Are you Hiroki's uncle?"

"I've never met him," Yuuichirou said half-truthfully. He had a voice and some actions to go with them, but not a face.

"Ah," Asuna said, a bit puzzled. "You have such similar eyes, that's all. Kind and brown." She ruffled Kaita's hair, then let him go. "Well, I'll have Iwao pack me an overnight bag. I'm still not about to let all of you go unsupervised, you know."

Yuuichirou wasn't sure which part was more surprising–'Hiroki's' kind eyes that were so similar to his own, or how they had suddenly gained a new ally.

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Netto's Kinglish writing was neater than his Japanese had ever been. Rockman hated it.

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"You're that Navi from the Ministry of Science. Rockhead," Punk had growled when Beat had first led Rockman to his rightful place in Netto's PET, only one night ago. To Beat, he said, "You'd better have a damn good explanation for this," and to Rockman, he said, "An' you'd better keep quiet while I'm kicking your ass."

Rockman had been half-expecting a welcome like this, with how aloof the Navi had seemed at the Ministry. In hindsight, he'd been far too judgmental. This was, after all, Netto's Navi. At least he had chosen to take the high road when explaining, "My name is Rockman. I was Netto-kun's Navi when he was younger, and I want to join him again."

It had taken Rockman a second to identify the sound coming out of Punk as a snort. "Okay. Let's say I accept this story. And you'll do what, exactly."

"I…" Rockman had not really thought to quantify why he needed to be there, at that point. He had just known.

"Netto and I are about to pull off somethin' truly wild, and then we're bookin' it outta here as fast as we can. So I'll tell ya right now: go home, Rockhead. Stay out of our way."

"I'm not going anywhere without Netto-kun!" Rockman shot back, not having had the proper context for what Punk was saying then. "He can't really want to stay here and do this, can he?!"

"This is the first thing I've ever seen him really want to do," Punk countered.

Furiously, Rockman argued, "Attack his friends and family?!"

"I told you to pipe down!" Punk sent his mace arm hurtling toward Rockman.

"Pipipi!" Beat inserted himself between the two Navis before Rockman could retaliate with a buster shot. "Pi pi!"

"Shut up and get outta the way," Punk growled at the tiny bird. "An'… hang on, what did you just say?" he asked Rockman, confused.

"Uh… the Ministry?" Rockman asked in response. "You're planning to attack the Ministry again, a–"

"Oh my God," Punk cut him off with in loud Kinglish, exasperated. "We ain't even fightin' over the same shit here. Netto and I're taking down Darkland, and we're leavin' your Ministry out of it. Nothin' to do with you or your friends or your whatever. Just go home, already."

"Darkland?" Rockman asked, baffled.

"Where Netto's from. The guys pullin' Nova's strings, they're from Darkland," Punk explained as if Rockman was a five-year-old. To be fair, this final piece of the puzzle being revealed had thrown Rockman for quite a loop.

"Darkland was behind the subway accident that took Netto-kun away, weren't they," Rockman realized. It was a memory heavily corrupted by the damage that had been done to his Link PET in the chaos. So much so that everyone had believed it to be a glitch. Even now that he knew it had to be real, a part of him still wanted to say, That's not true, it's not real, Papa just can't figure out how to excise it from your memories without taking the rest away too. You're just trying to make a mundane accident into a grand conspiracy to cope, and that's pathetic.

So not only had they taken Netto away and made the world think he was dead, but they had also made Rockman believe he was unstable. All those years of second-guessing whatever memories came back to him, even as many of them had gained details and solidified into things that made sense, had been over lies.

"Do I need to pull up the map, so I can show you just how little you have to do with 'em?" Punk continued on, oblivious to Rockman's thoughts. "I can talk even slower, if that'll help."

"This has everything to do with me," Rockman told Punk, adamant.

The rust-red Navi had raised an eyebrow, but quickly recovered. "Then I'll ask again. What are you going to do? Besides get in the way. You have no idea how the real world outside your cozy government facility works, I can tell that just from lookin' at ya."

Rockman drew himself straighter. With a bravado he probably should not have tried to affect against the far more experienced Punk, he said, "Okay. Try me."

Punk had simply nodded. Rockman had thought he was going to attack rather than say anything, but that would have been a lot simpler than what came next. "The guy who programmed me was also my first Operator. Just a college student, but he went by the pseudonym 'Meijin'. Cart before the horse kinda guy, don't you think?"

"Meijin-san?" Rockman repeated, amazed by the coincidence. He'd heard this story before, years ago, but not from this perspective.

"Absolutely not Meijin-san! Just Meijin! He was supposed to be a cool famous guy, not stodgy, got it?" Punk turned slightly away. "Dunno why I'm even defendin' his nickname for him, that musta been well over a decade ago. Bet he settled down after…"

"After…?"

"In case you couldn't tell, Meijin and I were… cocky. We were the best Netbattling team in the region, so we had a damn good reason to be, but… We kinda pissed off the other CS majors, and back then, people were supposed to leave their PETs turned off in their bags in class. There's a big vulnerability there, as Netto'd put it." Punk shrugged. "I was lucky, really. Someone coulda just smashed my PET in and left it at that, but one of his failing classmates swiped me on the way out instead."

Rockman was stunned. He'd known Punk had been stolen from Meijin, but the casual way Punk described it was horrible. Like it didn't stand out to him at all next to everything else in his experience.

"He used me for a few small-time robberies, then the next thing I knew, I booted up an' I'd been sold on to someone else. Went around enforcin' for some two-bit crime syndicate in Hokkaido, then that folded and I booted up with the next guy. And that's been my whole life, bouncin' from place to place." Punk glanced back at Rockman. "You're provin' my point for me, y'know."

"What do you mean?" Rockman hadn't understood what point there could possibly be back then, of course. He had just felt profoundly sorry for this Navi who had never gotten a chance at anything resembling normalcy. Meijin wasn't too far behind Punk in Rockman's thoughts.

"If that kinda story shocks you, you've got no chance in hell of understanding Netto. He's had it worse than me," Punk explained. "I don't even know the worst of it, but what I do know sounds real bad."

"Then… then that means you don't fully understand either, do you?" Rockman realized. "So why are you so convinced you can help?"

"I don't know everything, but at least I know more about how shit works than you. And even if I can't help with all of it, somebody oughta be there for him when shit hits the fan." Punk laughed, "I must be goin' crazy. Gotta be some kinda head disease, right, wantin' to stick with a sadder sack than you?"

That had been when Rockman had fully realized that they both had the same goal, and arguing was totally pointless.

"I won't get in your way or in Netto-kun's. I promise," Rockman said. "Whatever Netto-kun needs of me, even if it's illegal, I'll do it."

"I'll believe that when I see it," Punk replied, completely unconvinced.

"Netto-kun and I were Net Saviors," Rockman explained, equal parts relieved that he had an ally and determined to make that ally see he was an ally. "We've seen and done a whole lot of crazy things, and I can adapt to this, too."

"But you don't know people, Rocky," Punk pointed out, for once almost subdued. "You seem like a good kid. Someone who shouldn't be down in the muck with the two of us."

"Netto-kun was a good kid, too," Rockman retorted. "And so were you, I bet, even if you were really proud of yourself."

Punk seemed taken aback. "Wha–oh, that's fightin' dirty, tryin' to bring me into it!"

"Just give me a chance," Rockman requested. "Give me the time to prove myself."

"You sure are stubborn, I'll give y'that," Punk sighed. "I'm gonna wear myself out just arguin' with you before Netto even wakes up, at this rate."

"We don't have to go around in circles all morning. We can just… y'know, wait!" Rockman suggested.

The waiting lasted for all of thirty seconds, Punk's interest clearly warring with his urge to make the PET as inhospitable as possible. "…So, Netto was a Net Savior?" Punk finally asked.

"He was!" Rockman confirmed, beaming. "We fought off a giant chimera from another dimension once."

"No way." Rather than continue to appear impressed, Punk retorted, "But I bet you two never made any giant chimeras."

From there, the hours until Netto woke up had flown by, Punk and Rockman updating each other on their Operator's escapades. By the time Netto's alarm went off and their first day began, Rockman was convinced that under the surface, Netto was still Netto. Very little had happened since then to persuade him otherwise.

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And now they were both sitting in Netto's gray PET, Rockman wishing fervently he were human so he could just wail and have this horrid feeling clear itself away through exhaustion.

The General had done that to Netto's face.

The General had beaten Netto so badly it had left scars on his body.

And Netto had hidden it all from both his Navis, for over a year in Punk's case, so they wouldn't get upset. At what he had to live with every moment for the rest of his life. For all he knew, he was still hiding it. He probably hadn't thought the two would piece it together from what he'd said in his talk with Shun.

He was just sitting on his bed, writing out code on a yellow notepad in an infuriatingly neat script.

Did he even remember his handwriting being messy?

How were they going to get him out of this, with three more agents of his caliber on hand?

"Hey, Rocky." Something was gently tapping his helmet. "Ground control to Rocky." Rockman turned to see the flat end of Punk's mace arm. "Wanna spar? You might feel better."

"That… sounds like a great idea." This was the Navi equivalent of letting off some tension. The offer reminded Rockman that setting everything right, while difficult, was not impossible.

Even here, he had a like-minded friend.