Chapter 5

In which the others try to figure out why Sigma has been given a second check.

Before the Second Nonary Game and, by extension, the fall of Cradle Pharmaceuticals, CEO Gentarou Hongou was trying strike a deal with a small, independent research firm that developed ABT — Hongou's motive behind doing so was to fully gain control of the firm so that he could ultimately monopolize ABT. It was his misfortune, however, that one of the creators is a SOIS agent who also was a participant of his Nonary Project 10 years ago, along with her sister; she had no regret in refusing him, not only because he was affiliated with Free the Soul, but because she discovered that he made the mistake to hold the woman he knew as Lotus at gunpoint a year later during the Second Nonary Game — Nona Kashiwabara would never forgive Hongou for whatever he put not only her and her twin sister through, but also their mother.

Crash Keys, catching wind of this information, immediately got in contact with this small research company, which was surprisingly easy, since the members were consisted of Nona and two other students who based the firm on her graduate research. Though Nona was elated to meet with and help Aoi Kurashiki, Co-founder and CEO of Crash Keys, after 8 years, she felt nothing but spite toward the reason they met in the first place, and the people behind it, the heads of Cradle Pharmaceutical. Aoi, upon seeing her passionate hatred, gave her an offer she could not refuse: help take those four men down through the Second Nonary Game.

Though Nona could keep her involvement with Crash Keys a secret to her mother and, now, SOIS, she begged Akane and Aoi to allow her to tell Ennea — who, soon after, became the IT girl for Akane and Aoi's small, but wealthy company.

The Kashiwabara siblings were the reason Akane and Aoi were able to kidnap Lotus — the one who probably would have been the hardest one to track down from young Akane's memory of her resonance with Junpei, as they only knew her as Lotus, the technology-savvy dancer — but Ennea's job has been to be the hacker and computer brains behind all of Crash Keys' virtual operations, while Nona's job would be to provide ABT as a particularly valuable asset for when the time comes (though, at the time, Akane only kept in the mind the timeline where Sigma lost his arms and eye, and went on to develop the AB Project 45 years into the future).

So when Sigma's questioning, steel gray eyes look up from the check to meet Akane's warm purplish-gray ones, she gives him a nod in confirmation. But suddenly, her face turns shamefaced as her cheeks flame a delicate pink. "I, um, didn't mean to be nosy, but I was worried when I saw your name appear a second time."

Sigma looks up from the check to give her a reassuring smile. "It's really alright, Akane." She really needed to stop being so uptight with him and Phi. Yes, they had come into the past as Akane's employees of sorts, and acting always under her command, but now there is no more need for this formality — at least, not until they start their new mission of stopping the religious fanatic. "At least, we now know why I was given two checks."

"H-Huh?! It's written on the check? Tell us why!"

"Or else we'll have to make you split it with us, since it's not fair at all."

"It's nothing bad, right, Sigma?" Sean pries softly from next to him.

He shakes his head. "No. And, actually, it would be unfair if we split the check." He loosens his grip on Diana's hand and kneels down so that he is almost face to face with the boy. And then a thought occurs to him. "Hey, Sean, would you mind showing me your arm?"

"Um, sure?" Sean holds out his arm, slightly bewildered.

"Hey! What are the fuck are you doing?"

"Stop avoiding the question, Sigma. What's going on with that other check?"

"Guys," Diana quietly protests.

Sigma sighs in exasperation. "Hold on a moment, please. This is important!" he insists, and then turns back to Sean. "Please let me know if I am hurting you," he requests, as he probes the soft, white skin a few times, trying to feel the robot boy's bone structure. It is definitely firm, but Sigma can't come to a decision until he can make sure his thinking is right after assembling the proper machinery — ugh, he wishes he could somehow bring his entire laboratory from Rhizome-9, since it would make this all so much easier. He rubs his chin in thought as he comes to a conclusion. "I recall in the Decision Game that you bled ABT instead of blood, but it's hard to determine if you have cybernetic arms, like I had originally thought."

"What's . . . ABT?"

Akane answers immediately, "Artificial Biological Tissue. It is an artificial skin that is very realistic to human skin. It functions almost exactly like it, too — you have the sensation of touch, and everything. And when you bleed, you bleed white liquid, which is ABT."

"Oh!" Diana exclaims in recognition. "I heard whispers here and there about ABT in the hospital, before I came to DCOM, but it was all very clandestine and hushed. It's relatively new, but its recent development can help in the creation of prosthetic limbs."

"But," Sigma adds, "it can also be worn by robots so that they can be given a more . . . human appearance." He grins widely at Sean who looks up at him hopefully. "Hmm, we would need to design the cybernetic framework for your head, and figure out how to essentially retain your internal hardware that allows you to receive radio signals from the satellite, and ultimately replace the functions of your spherical helmet. We'd also have to see if you want to keep the cable ports to connect to the Quantum Computer Dome, and determine how to keep and maintain them." The more Sigma deluges into his plans for Sean, the more he realizes that the expenses would be large. "We'd then work on integrating facial structure into the ABT for your face and order synthetic or real hair for hair, eyebrows, and eyelashes, and it would all be your choice of — "

"You'd really be able to do all of that, Sigma?" Sean's raspy voice is full of awe.

"Yes, of course," he assures, and then turns to the young woman in the sweater. "Akane?"

She smiles back. "I'll call Aoi once we have service and inform him to ask Nona to arrange for the ABT and other materials."

Sean is elated to hear this. "T-Thank you . . . thank you!" he cries out, his arms flying to encircle Sigma's waist, and momentarily turns towards his helmet towards the woman in the sweater dress. "And thank you, Akane!"

"You're very welcome, Sean." Akane beams.

Sigma, on the other hand, nods wordlessly. He can only imagine the despair and disappointment the poor, presumably-amnesic robot child must have felt upon discovering that there was no head under his strange spherical helmet, and that he was not human at all.

"Thank you so much." Sean's voice almost sounds like a sob, and it compels Sigma to place a hand on his shoulder and embrace him back tightly.

If Delta is the son Sigma wishes he never had, then Sean is the son he wishes he could have. It's upsetting enough as it is that Luna and Kyle can't be here with me, but . . . maybe Sean could . . . His thoughts trail off as he realizes that Mira and Eric would probably want him to stay with them. The only way, perhaps, for Sean to stay with Sigma for a long time is to prolong the replacement of Sean's helmet and the creation of his ABT head.

But if Sigma did this, it would be unfair to Sean — he would be robbed of both a choice of staying with Eric and Mira, and a chance to have his new head installed on his body earlier.

What I have is enough for now, Sigma thinks to himself, as he feels Diana's soft hand cover his own on Sean's shoulder, vowing to help Sean with anything and everything he needs.

.

002

Desert Research Institute
2215 Raggio Pkwy
Reno, NV 89512

12/31/2018
 Date

Pay to the order of Dr. S. Klim 500,000

Five hundred thousand dollars & 00/100 DOLLARS

ZE National Bank®

For Sean's Maintenance/ABTDK
 Authorized Signature

|:129450789|: 002-14383421 •-

On Ao3, I originally had a picture of the tenth check put up, but it got taken down. Had to work around it by putting in ill-formatted text, rip. Anyway, did anyone catch any significance of the Check, Account, and Routing Numbers on the check? Two are obvious, but the third you might have to think a little on. ;) Be sure to share them if you do figure any of them out!