Chapter 9: The Perverted Future

Mayl, the most beautiful girl in the ACDC elementary school. Was she the most beautiful in the town? Arguably, yes. In the city? Maybe so, maybe not, for the beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. In the district? Certainly not. If the beauty is dependent on observers, then how could her exterior be judged with such confidence? Was this not one of the wisdom of the old: that the heart is more important than the beauty? Oh, what a gibberish that's worth only a brass farthing! If the beauty had no importance, then Prince Paris of Troy would not have fled with Helen, the wife of Menelaus. Besides, a book is judged by its cover, movie by its poster, research by its abstract—and rightfully so! In the discussion of the works of men, the choice of the exterior gives a hint of the maker's taste, and therefore his impression of his own work, and subsequently a peek into his soul. Likewise, there is a minimum requirement in calling someone beautiful, and Leo Tolstoy, Graf, insightfully summarized it:

It seems to me that in the smile alone is contained that which is called the beauty of the face : if the smile adds charm to the face, the face is beautiful ; if it does not change it, it is common ; if it spoils it, it is homely. (Wiener, Leo, translator. Childhood. By Leo Tolstoy, Graf. Dana Estes & Company. 1904. p.10)

As Mayl's smile easily brightened her surroundings, it can be said that she was beautiful. Boys flocked to her seeking her attention, always looking to win her heart and hand in this way or that, all of which were foolish and do not deserve a space here to describe them. She was a model of a human being, having a temperament befitting a noble Victorian lady, which she had not by education but by nature, which made her all the more prized. She was patient, understanding, unbiased, and affable. She was not without a darkness in her life, however, and this darkness shaped her life: she was neglected.

Her parents frequented to America or Europe, ostensibly for business, but no one knew in what trade they made transactions, even the Hikaris who lived as neighbors for more than ten years. They were the classic subjects for cruel slanders among the ladies of ACDC town; the issue was not that they traveled often, but they were hardly seen at home. So here she was, in the ACDC town, living in a house too large for one girl, at an age too young, practically abandoned to fend for herself, a beautiful girl without a protection. Beauty is both a blessing and a curse, and so it was to Mayl without exception. In her beauty, she was blessed, for she could easily make friends with anyone, surrounded by good wills (even if it was superficial), made charming impressions, and found favor in the eyes of the people of the authority. If she put her strength and mind to a certain goal, she could achieve it, as no one denied her requests, and those who lend something to her found her to be even more favorable, for she did not frivolously spend what was given. Herein was the curse: if she met with someone twice or thrice, she was quickly assaulted by requests and suggestions designed to advance their relationship to a more intimate and personal stage. It did not take long for Mayl to be nauseated by the world and the people who unceasingly saw her as a sexual object or a shining trophy.

And then she had Netto and Saito, her neighbors who cared about her, protected her, but remained strictly uninterested in lustful ways. She briskly anchored herself in this place of safety she had found, between the brothers who only saw each other, and rested her weary soul. They were like an oasis for her. She made their joy and grief her own, and she would have been accepted as someone like a sister by the Hikari twins had she not formed an ambition towards Netto. The boy himself remained fully ignorant of her aims towards him, while Saito recognized her intention which ran vaguely parallel to his. What could Saito do? He was doomed to fail in his efforts. HBD precluded any meaningful conflict or competition from developing. Saito passed away; now Mayl was free to pursue her interest uninterrupted.

An irony: Netto would remain in the Mayl's crosshairs as long as he remained aloof to her feelings and unresponsive to her advances. As soon as he became the same as the others, Mayl would find his presence stifling, just as she found the company of other boys to be, and then fly away, like a migrating bird of seasons, until she found a suitable place to rest again, even as there was a great chance of her perishing in the hands of a predator mid-flight. This was chiefly due to her questionable relationship with her parents. In her solitude, she came to desire someone with fatherly qualities, and fathers ought to not marry daughters.

Rockman did not know any of this, except her isolation.

"Rockman, you could've woken me up earlier!"

"If certain someone had not muted me and then went right back to sleep-"

"Oh, come on, it's your job to look after me!"

"-and then if that certain someone hadn't thrown and smashed the secondary alarm clock-"

"I didn't 'throw' it! It..it...just fell off!"

"-then you would not be in this predicament!"

A spiky-haired boy with his signature blue bandana and orange gilet scrambled out of a blue-roofed house. He had a toast in his left hand and a sky-blue colored PET on his right hand, clearly in an argument with his navi. Mayl, standing near the gate of Hikari house per her daily routine, sheepishly gave a greeting, not knowing when was a good time to interrupt.

"Aha..ha...good morning, guys?"

""Good morning Mayl"" a unison

"Something wrong?"

""Yes!""

"...And that would be?"

""Him!""

Netto stuck out his tongue at someone in the PET. Mayl inferred that Rockman was doing the same back. Mayl was under a spell of gloom since this morning, as she woke up and felt burned out having to look out for herself all the time, despite the assurances to assuage her by her netnavi, Roll. The dynamic interaction of the duo lifted her into her usual cheer.

"Ready to get going, Netto?" said Mayl.

"Yeah, right. Let's go."

Netto stuffed the PET to his pocket and started gobbling up that toast he had been holding. The two started walking north, to ACDC elementary. Netto at first tried to walk fast and briskly, but upon learning from Mayl that he was not grievously late and that they still had time, he slowed down and moved at her pace.

"You sure you can leave him like that? Maybe you ought to say sorry to Rockman. He is doing his best, I am sure."

"You heard that, Netto kun!"

"Bah, you win, I'm sorry! Satisfied, Rockman?" Netto spoke with the toast still in his mouth, clearly not sorry.

"I am!" The voice from the PET responded, clearly not satisfied. Mayl could not help but let out a chuckle.

"Oh, boys, please be nice to each other..."

""We weren't fighting.""

"You two sure are close."

Mayl then started expounding on the topics of yesterday's news or ongoing school projects as usual, and she lost Netto in no time. The boy seldom interested himself in such topics, and homework only pained him. Rockman was of no help in such circumstances, to Netto's annoyance, as he in most cases sided with Mayl and lightly apprehended his operator for not being cultured enough, and ended with a reminder that their father—Yuichiro made sure that Rockman called him that in front of Netto in order to ensure that Rockman did not completely deprive his Saito aspect and delve into identity dissonance—entrusted him with guiding Netto's education. Consequently, Netto did not bother inviting Rockman into their conversation, and the navi had nothing to do other than feeling the movement of his operator, which was physically transmitted. The virtual space did not have gravity, but the mechanical components of PET were physical, and therefore the movement of the device caused a sort of gentle sway in Rockman's world as well. Rockman leaned his back on the PET screen with his arms crossed and began to brood.

'I don't like this. Why?'

Rockman impatiently tapped his right finger on his left arm.

'I am annoyed, but at what exactly? I am forcefully hurled into this mood every morning when Mayl accompanies Netto to school. Do I not like Mayl? Have I found something evil in her demeanor, in her speech, in her temperament? No, no...that can't be it. She is a good person...It's not like our walking to school is a recent occurrence; it happened all the time when I was Saito Hikari. Did it annoy me back then? Hmm...maybe, but generally no. She certainly did not do this last semester, as she did not know what to do with Netto's depression. Who can blame her? It was Netto who made it clear that he needed time alone...

'Then, how did I feel when Mayl was not around in the morning? That is difficult to answer precisely. Let's see...what did we do? Netto and I would talk about frivolous stuff, netbattling, friends, homework, and I would read him newsfeed. Wait, how is this any different from what they are doing right now? If anything, I need to be grateful to her for doing my job for me. Or is it that I am annoyed because my job is taken? Do I really want to talk to Netto right now? Was I jumping with joy and filled with fulfillment when I was reading the morning news to him?'

Rockman felt he was getting closer to the answer, but there was a mist between him and it that was blocking him from articulating the source of his annoyance.

'I did enjoy talking with Netto, whatever the subject might be, but if I really wanted to talk, I can always join now, and he would certainly not mind. I can probably hijack the topic by mentioning something about netbattling here and there, or we could start talking about Dekao and slowly drift towards that direction, but I am here, not willing to do that and feeling silly for even contemplating this possibility.'

They were halfway to school. Time was running out.

'But there were different things we did; Netto would constantly show the outside to me, carefully orienting the PET this or that way, sometimes plucking leaves and flowers if I appeared interested, and then put them on top of the PET screen in school so that I could enjoy them. And-'

There was one time, when the fall was just beginning, as they were walking to school, Rockman fixed his eyes upon the blooming purple flowers of bush clovers by the roadside. It was out of a nostalgia of the bygone days, as when he was Saito Hikari he from time to time made short stops next to them and admired their shapes and colors. Netto, upon realizing this, simply said 'even your preferences are similar, huh,' broke off a little branch, and then placed it in front of PET the whole day for him to see. Later, Rockman learned, during his internet search, that he was not the only one to be mesmerized by the autumn blossoms of this delicate plant, as people of old also would pluck them in melancholy and thoughts of unrequited love, and-

'-and left poems involving them, one of which was by Fujiwara Kinmori of thirteenth century:

Bush Clover

My heart is withered,

even dew on the branches of bush clover is futile

in the autumn evening.

'Look, Rockman, you are drifting away to tangent directions in your thoughts. This is not helping. Where was I? Ah, yes, after Netto placed the flowers before me, I would look at him, and say 'thank you,' and he would respond with...a smile...and...it touched my heart, in ways I cannot describe. Like a warm flame did the sight surround my heart, or what is here instead, and emanated to every part of my body.

'Eck, this is not helping at all. It is true that I was happier when I had Netto all by myself, but to say that I am annoyed this much just because Mayl interposed between us does not make sense, because I was perfectly happy as Saito, whether she was with us or not. It is easy to explain away that this stems from my insecurity of this dissipating body, though can I believe that? It would be dishonest to convince myself this way and actively try to pull Netto away from Mayl.

'But when I picture them pulled apart...I am marginally happier. And in all this conjecture my soul is adamant that this vision is all for the sake of Netto...because...wait, really? Could this be true? I think...Netto is too good for her! That the couple is a mismatch! Yet unable to find a critical flaw in Mayl, I fell into a sour mood! Why am I so desperate to find a flaw in her, or have I found one but failed to recognize it? This is not the right question; let me start again from the other side: if Mayl is not the one fit for him, then who is the right one for him? Ah, I learned this from that old couple: it should be someone who will follow him to the end of the world. Is Mayl doing that? No! She constantly tries to pull Netto into her, into following her, trying to mold him into a shape that she finds ideal.'

The mist lifted. Rockman had finally found an incriminating blemish in Mayl.

'It is clear that I also do not trust Netto to value himself as I do, evaluate Mayl as I do, and even expect him to eventually become conscious of her. That would be a great pain to me, like the rotting of bones...I will not be able to bear to see Netto leashed to her whim, not being able to lead his life per his calling. Then, what can I do? What must I do? Quickly find someone suitable? But who is-'

One who will follow Netto to the end of the world, support him endlessly in all the works of his hands, never leave his side, and then gladly die for him—Rockman immediately came up with one candidate, but equally immediately discarded it. The idea was so preposterous that he banished it as quickly as it came to him.

'Rockman...why...you know Netto needs someone, and that person cannot be...You cannot be with Netto forever. You cannot replace her, nor can she replace you. You are already very close to Netto; what could you possibly want more than this?'

Rockman could not reach the conclusion of his thoughts. Perhaps he did not want to delve into his ideas and peek at what was at the source of them all, or he genuinely could not shape what his heart truly desired. Whichever the case, he remained completely oblivious to the fact that Netto and Mayl had already arrived at the classroom, taken their seats, placed their PETs on the desk, and jacked into the school intranet. His thought was broken off only by the worrisome inquiry from Netto.

"Rockman, are you okay?"

"Huh? Eh? Oh, Netto kun, we are...already in the classroom?"

Rockman, surprised, looked around, and then gave Netto a shy smile. He really did not want to worry Netto—he already had enough troubles at hand. Plus, what was he supposed to tell him? That the boy should stay away from Mayl for reasons that revealed more about his biases than the objective reality?

"Rockman, you know today is your monthly checkup? You sure are a handful for a navi. Now that I see you zoning out like that, yeah you definitely need it."

"Sorry that I worried you. I am fine, really! Look!"

Rockman spun around once with arms extended as a piece of supporting evidence to his claim, although he very well knew that the damage to his body was not what his operator meant. Netto was not amused.

"...Right. You are terrible at lying, you know that? We are going to Scilab today after school. Now, off you go to the blackboard."

At Netto's hand signal, Rockman hurriedly logged in and disappeared from the PET. Netto had to admit that he never saw or heard of a netnavi behaving like that. An artificial intelligence, designed to serve humans, consumed in thoughts? And then needing his operator to wake him up, be disoriented, and hide his concerns? The emotion program meant that navis could become worried, annoyed, happy, and angry, but only as far as it helped interacting and servicing their operators. It should not have meant that they had their own secrets and lies.

'And you behave an awful lot like a human. Papa, just what have you made?'

It was a little bit over five when Netto Hikari arrived at the office of Dr. Yuichiro Hikari in the Scilab main building, Den city. The boy ran into the office and then jumped into the arms of his father with unmasked joy. It was a sight that Saito was used to, but to Netto and Yuichiro only recently repaired, for during the three months without Saito there were only distress and coldness. It was exactly as the doctor once envisioned: Rockman saved the family from their collective deviation from life; he restored what was lost.

"Papa!"

"Netto!"

The way Yuichiro held his son, took him to the seat, and then put him on his lap was reminiscent of the handling of a kitten. The father then pampered his son with the friendly enthusiasm that marks every father-son relationship built out of a proper form of love, such as scruffling his hair, rubbing his cheeks, and showering his forehead with affectionate kisses. Netto emitted laughter and some verbal protests, as he was just starting to enter that age in which the growth of mental capacity demanded independence, but did not make any real physical effort to get away. He clearly enjoyed the way he was pampered. The joy in the scene was infectious, and Rockman, who saw everything from the charger on the desk, where Netto placed him in one fluent motion as he was put on the lap of his father, could not help but smile. His brother was receiving double the attention in his absence, and to Rockman, what happened to Netto was equivalent to having happened to him. Netto's joy ebbed away and unease replaced it when Yuichiro eventually asked this question:

"So, Netto, I trust you have been a good boy the last few days?"

"He was, papa." Rockman answered instead, his voice still very warm and soft from what he just witnessed.

"And his grades?" Yuichiro inquired as he looked at Rockman over his glasses. Netto shuddered a little. Rockman pulled up the recent most report card along with the homeroom teacher Ms. Mari's comments on the screen.

"Ah, good, good, excellent. It seems you are working wonders, Rockman. Oh, Netto, why are you tensing up and relaxing? Don't tell me you did not check them yourself?"

"I...I-" Netto was still trapped between Yuichiro's arms.

"Just because Rockman is checking them for you, and keeping you on track, does not mean you can remain unaware of your own issues."

"I know...it's just I am too...afraid to check them myself."

Yuichiro, perplexed, made a strange face in his effort to decode this conundrum. He never experienced fear towards his own academic performance as he was always at the top. The doctor naturally had high expectations of his son, and ever failed to understand Netto's disinterest and struggles with schoolwork, although he never scolded Netto for his shortcomings—that was Haruka's job. In the past, Yuichiro had some disorganized disappointments towards Netto, but his experience with Saito had left him with a simpler goal in life: as long as his son was healthy, he had no more wants. Yuichiro decided to drop this matter as he did not know how to comment on the subject without sounding petulant and accusatory.

"Very well, Netto, keep up the good work. Now, regarding today's checkup..."

While Netto's eyes were fixed on him, Yuichiro noticed Rockman making hand signals behind his operator, requesting privacy. In response, he cut his speech abruptly and began exchanging messages on the Scilab intranet. Netto, confused, turned and tried to exchange glances with Rockman with hopes for an explanation, but the navi simply shrugged while avoiding an eye contact. After few minutes, Yuichiro resumed.

"Netto, would you mind taking a tour of lab 3B-14? I am aware that you would rather stay with Rockman, but I believe they have some very interesting works to show you."

"3B-14? You serious?"

Netto's eyes glimmered with the primitive thrill of exploring the unknown. 3B floor required one of the highest clearances to gain access to, and among the public was a rumor that corpses of aliens and fragments of crashed flying saucers were being analyzed on that floor. No educated mind considered the possibility seriously; nevertheless, the security meant ideas beyond layman's reveries circulated and experiments unrestrained with ethical considerations were held there.

"Yes. It's the place you wanted to see last time. The lab deals with the last work of your grandfather, Tadashi Hikari. Based on the argument of legacy I was able to persuade the personnel on site. As for the contents of the lab—I'll not spoil the fun."

"What about Rockman?" Netto asked as he got off from his father's lap.

"He will stay with me. Today was his checkup, remember?"

The prospect of leaving his navi behind caused his feet to be glued to the place. Netto still tended to retreat into an invisible shell without Rockman around him; his navi was like his half, where he anchored his heart and soul. Without his presence, Netto could not maintain his peace of mind.

"I'll be fine Netto kun, go on! You can tell me all about it later."

"...Although what you will witness down there will be strictly under a non-disclosure agreement, I'll make an exception this time. Don't worry about us Netto. Go to the first floor and someone will come to escort you. Other labs are off-limits."

With the assurance, Netto, caught between a burning curiosity to see the lab and the desires of his heart, for a man's heart is where his treasure is, and Rockman was his treasure, was at last persuaded and took the elevator down. Rockman marked how the boy looked back multiple times at him on his way out. What he wanted Rockman to do or say—whether it was Rockman asking him to not leave him behind, or encouraging him to have a great time on his tour—was a mystery; what blue navi could understand was the slight insecurity the boy felt, seen in his almost imperceptibly tightened lips and the unstable gleam in his eyes.

'I'm sorry, Netto kun.'

The elevator carried away the brunette boy to his adventure. Yuichiro finally opened his mouth when the elevator reached floor 3B and Rockman was transferred to the main PC.

"So, Saito."

The name that could be uttered only in private.

"How have you been? Your mornings, are they worse?"

Rockman hesitated to answer. The truth was that his matutinal aberrations were getting worse, and thoughts of an inevitable end plagued him; it was as if nothing had changed since his time as Saito. But what could he do? There was nothing Dr. S could do to his heart, and likewise, there appeared to be nothing his father could do to cure his cyber body. In honesty, he would only be tormenting his father; in dishonesty, he would be only placing guilt on himself.

"A..little."

"Saito, a half-truth is not a proper replacement for a deception. You are terrible at hiding stuff; you always were. Come to think of it, it is a pure miracle that Netto hasn't yet found out our secret. Maybe he suspects but simply refuses to press the matter, in which case...hmm...problematic, but manageable. Rockman, be honest with me. How much worse?"

"...a lot."

"Time of lethargy?"

"...30 minutes"

Yuichiro entered '30' to his current datapoint, and then uploaded his chart.

"It's getting worse faster than we both anticipated, Saito. An inexplicable peculiarity is...that the rate is irregular. At one point, I was dead convinced that the rate was a steady linear one...only to be confused by a period of stability...and then the symptom started getting worse, but in stair function. I'm sorry Saito, but this blows away all my previous conjectures. We...are back to square one."

Yuichiro said all this like a soliloquy.

"What about your dreams?"

"Same scene, repeating, every night."

"The swings, the sunset, and someone next to you?"

"...Netto."

Rockman's claim was an unsubstantiated one tainted with an irrational wish. Yuichiro let out a sigh and corrected him.

"Saito, we should never assume unless we have measured for sure, and I won't be surprised if that shadowy figure next to you is revealed to be not Netto, if existent at all. The way you dream is irregular both as a human and as a navi. As you already know, navis don't dream. That is because rendering visual information during sleep is extra computation. Navis simply defragment their memory and wake up at a set time. Humans, having half of their brain dedicated to visual information processing, happen to be suffering from a collection of images while neurons are reorganizing. In this case, you dream, unlike a navi, but dream the same vision, unlike humans."

"...Papa."

Rockman took a deep breath.

"I, too, thought about my situation. If something is wrong with me, and we can't fix it...then can't we tell Netto already that I am-"

"No, absolutely not. Never that, Saito, never!"

The unexpected explosion of Yuichiro set Rockman aback. In his opinion, there was no need for such a harsh response against him. He already endured eight months; why couldn't Netto be ready for the truth? He came back at his father with a defiance of equal hotness.

"But if my fate is to die in slow deterioration again, then I at least want to talk to Netto kun properly!"

"No, no, no, no, Saito, please...I...I understand your frustration, and I promise you that I will come up with something. Please don't say that. Look, you don't understand what it even means to the world that you exist...Can you even fathom what events will unravel if the nature of your existence is proven? No, I will never let that happen to you, to Netto, to Haruka..."

"I don't understand, papa."

"The perverted future, Saito! The complete deterioration of morality and mania for eternal life! You will be the end of the world!"

Yuichiro was almost out of breath, as if making this statement was a soul-draining exercise.

"But, papa, I'm just Saito Hikari."

"But you are dead! And back!"

Yuichiro leaned back with a pale face, overwhelmed with the fear of the projected future. He then pressed his hands against the carotid artery in his neck in order to stimulate the vagus nerve and the parasympathetic pathway; his heart rate slowed down to normal in three minutes. The whole maneuver appeared as if the scientist was choking himself to asphyxiation. Rockman remained silent while his father collected himself.

"...Saito."

"Yes?"

"...Listen carefully. You are the walking proof of the existence of soul and the afterlife. At the most superficial level, this means everyone will want to humiliate you, disprove you, and kill you. Their hatred will naturally extend to everyone around you, including me, Netto, and Haruka.

"You are the bane of atheists. They collectively bet on a moderate version of nihilism, and expect oblivion after death. No God, no soul, no afterlife. It means they are all wrong, including their moral relativism. What you witnessed at the train station, and the amount of people standing on it, all point to the presence of an absolute morality, and that most of us are failing. This also indirectly reveals that a form of judgment is waiting for us after death, as otherwise there won't be a winnowing of souls. I am willing to concede on the part that the world is likely to reject your story of the afterlife, but your soul, they will not be able to deny. Look, I cannot even copy your data, and my computer acts as if possessed by a malevolent spirit at every attempt to do so, and this is only one of many details that points to the inconvenient truth that you are real.

"Those with religions will be more volatile, if not outright murderous. From your descriptions, Buddhism and Islam are easily thrown out of the window; but again, all religions will deny your recounting. The faithful will be split in two: those who wish to put you on a dais as a proof of their truth of the afterlife, and then sacrifice you when the time is right, just as their forefathers sacrificed all of their prophets of their respective faiths. The other party will brand you the antichrist of the end times, and see to it that you are questioned, tortured, and burned in public, only to claim that they have saved the world.

"Those with any amount of ambition and rationality will go mad, for you present them with a prospect, an outcome, and a plan. The prospect of the meaninglessness of material life, the outcome of damnation after death, and a plan to avoid them all—to become like you! To somehow entrap their souls into their cyber form, and then to migrate into the network en masse! Eternal life, at hand!

"There is a popular old tale from Mesopotamia: the tower of Babel. Although those who walk in black frocks and profess in crucifixes teach that the tale is one of the punishment of arrogance, the text only speaks of people who constructed a tower to prevent being scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth. You will be turned into the Babel for all the world to see. To undertake their goals, men of intellect will test and dissect you in the most ingenious ways, and in haste, until they have understood the soul and the body.

"What if they fail? They will not be able to stop the momentum. Even the false solution of leaving their cyber copy in the network, while their original flesh and soul perish, will be found acceptable in the mass hysteria. If the true solution is found and everyone truly migrates...then there will be decadence. Unlimited decadence.

"The condition of man is in his need to work. No work, no produce. No produce, no material. No material, no sustenance. No sustenance, no life. No life, death. Indeed, mankind toils all day long and eats from the sweat of his brow. We constantly sacrifice the present and live in the future. The price tag is hefty: we never live in the present, even as the future becomes the present. In the 'eternal life' of the network, there will be no need to work for sustenance, but there will be no rest either. People will all become as daemons, ceaselessly indulging themselves in all sorts of abominable acts, untethered by morality. Violence and sex will become as everyday greetings and games. Remember the famous tale of Sodom and Gomorrah, the people of despicable lust and inhospitality of mythical proportions? So much so that calling someone a Sodomite had been an insult as timeless as the myth itself? Well, I expect the resultant eternal society to be ten times worse by the most conservative projection.

"If all things unravel and my worst fear comes true, I will see to it that all of us are dead long before the inevitable occurs. I will not let you, Netto, or Haruka suffer all that...no...but at the same time, I just want you to live a long, happy life. Do you not see that I want you to live long as much as you want to stay with...Netto? We cannot live without you. Netto, he really...could not live without you. Then, can you even picture what kind of rapture will possess Netto once he finds out that Saito Hikari had been here, right next to him? He will not be able to hide it. Friends will notice. People around him will notice. Perhaps we will be fine for a year or two, but after that? Can we be sure? We must wait until Netto can handle the truth! So, Saito...please...please don't say such things...please..."

Rockman could not care less if the world burned down. As long as his Netto was safe, all the suffering in the world was irrelevant. If him keeping the secret was, by some convoluted mechanism as his father described, the only way to keep Netto safe, then he had no choice but to comply.

"Okay...but papa, my second body is still dying, and our only plan is to conduct a full disassembly if my condition deteriorates too far, while we both know it is likely to not work. So...if the time comes, and we proceed with the plan, then, can I at least say goodbye to Netto, as Saito?"

Rockman was no longer looking at Yuichiro, but quivering, with his head hung low. Yuichiro knew that on Saito's shoulders were tribulations and burdens that no ordinary man could endure without his mind shattering, yet here he was, asking for more sacrifices to be made. What kind of a father was he? With great pain that pulled his soul into a thousand orthogonal directions, he finally squeezed out what he ought to have said eight months ago:

"... ... Sure, do as you wish. It would be too cruel to Netto if we did not let him know by then."

"...Thank you, papa."

It was at this precise moment that Netto Hikari returned. The two had been so absorbed in their conversation that they had not noticed that their allotted time for the month was spent. Had Netto come in a minute earlier, he surely would've heard his father referring Rockman as Saito, but that did not occur, for so exciting and outlandish were the demonstrations of lab 3B-14 that such a possibility simply could not exist.

"I'm back! Rockman, you won't believe what I saw in the lab! They were working on the technology called pulse- wait, something's wrong? Why do you look like you are about to cry?"

Yuichiro swiftly turned off the charts and graphs recording Rockman's health for the past eight months. He turned around in his chair.

"Nothing to worry about, Netto. We were having a talk and...Netto, be nice to Rockman, okay? It will be good if you two can make some memories together."

Recollections to look back to if the worst case came true. Yuichiro sent Rockman back to the PET and handed him over to Netto.

"Have a safe trip home, my son."

"Wait, I'm the reason he is about to cry? I'm sorry Rockman...I know I've been a handful...did not know you were stressed that much...bye, papa!"

"No, no, it's not that, Netto kun, you've been a perfect operator to me! Ah, goodbye, papa!"

Yuichiro simply nodded as his sons exited his office.

"I know all navis say that, Rockman. Say what, I'll tackle my homework as soon as we get back home today, so...don't cry because of me."

"...Really?"

"...Promise."

The way Netto swore was so solemn, like a samurai to war making empty promises of safe return to his loved one, which was quite silly in the given situation, that Rockman could not help but brighten up a little too much. Netto heard the giggles of his navi as he entered the arrived elevator, and became convinced that the sad countenance of his navi was simply an act to make him commit to the commendable habit of diligence.

"Darn it, you set me up, didn't you?"

"Ehehe...Netto kun-"

The colloquy of the boys became inaudible as the elevator door shut close. Yuichiro ruminated at his desk and organized his thoughts. The evidences pointed, as limited as they were, that the key to Rockman's condition was his peculiar repetition of the same dream. There were, in fact, about a dozen reported cases of navis having dreams. Their symptoms varied to such a great extent that he could not infer at all how they came to manifest in those virtual minds and what part of navi the errors attacked. Nevertheless among them was one commonality: they were all lost to delirium, of which the content varied greatly as well. One navi reportedly screamed about a need to avenge against a hideously luminous being, while the other craved to find an ingredient that would complete him and perfect him, while being unable to specify what that ingredient might be, other than describing it as something that could be red, blue, green, or any other color, softly shining, but could be invisible and untouchable. Another case had a navi scrupulously inquiring its operator regarding the religions of men, their beliefs, practices, and goals, and then seeking advice on how to properly worship a god it had found. Yet another case described a navi that repeatedly threw itself against the display screen, with inhumane ululations about the need to escape from the cyberspace at all costs, and that something was coming after it. In the end, they all terminated themselves, demanding that one of two must be given to them: forgetfulness or death. Curiously, the terminated navis could not be repaired, cloned, or restored in any way. It was as if somehow their uniqueness was etched into the very fabric of the universe and could not be written over.

Rockman...Saito was not showing any signs of delirium, or even hints of symptoms progressing in that direction. The morning weakness was a novel finding, which was the reason why Yuichiro was without an idea. He could, in theory, make a program that would suppress the dreaming, but as the installation of a such program required access to the core of the navi body, he had long given up on that option.

In the tired mind of the scientist, in which the effects of afternoon coffee had long vanished, an idea flickered. He had made Rockman with Saito's DNA, but with a 0.001% difference in the hopes of eradicating any trace of that accursed HBD gene. Back then he truly believed this would offer a perfectly healthy body for his second Saito. Now, he speculated that Saito's soul merged with Rockman's body seamlessly because of the DNA match; if that was the case, then, he could make a file that converted the last 0.001% of DNA to that of Saito and hope for the best result. And then...

Unable to accept his helplessness, and driven by the maddening need to find a cure for Rockman, Yuichiro promptly set to work, not realizing the many logical flaws inherent in his plan. He decided to call this patch program 'Saito. bat.'