Raika bent forward at his desk to take some notes for his class. At the front of the room, the instructor was with the projector, explaining about something that was currently in summarized form on the white screen.
He was quite glad to be in his own civilized school again, after inconspicuously being in a rowdy civilian one for a small mission where he (and another cadet that was to report any odd "merge" effects) was to watch for a suspected data thief. Raika had accepted the task, but had slightly wished that one of his peers, many of who were also strong net battlers, had been asked instead.
Even his classmates were not under the restrictions that he currently was- it was lucky that he was even still able to perform missions, and that was only with his chief uncle's reluctant help.
Sometimes, he wondered how he was still able to attend the prestigious military school in the first place. No other student had to wonder about sudden feeling weakened and needing to cross fuse with his navi to restore his regular strength, or suddenly disappearing into the cyber world and having to be chased by another navi and ordered to the proper human realm again. Once, he had embarrassingly had attempted to aid an advanced, talking virus in a mere commissary before he had been caught.
He sighed inwardly as he looked upward again at the instructor, who had changed the screen to another slide. He would be trusted more at some point, when the effects of the merge were much more manageable, but that was definitely not now.
The bell soon rang, and Raika stood with everyone else for the instructor to release them. The teacher looked at his students, searching for anyone not paying strict attention. He then nodded slightly.
"Dismissed!" he said firmly, the order echoing throughout the small, but uncrowded room.
There was no talking as the uniformed students left in single file, starting from the front row. Every single teacher had made it very clear that chatter was for other places than the classrooms, which were only for learning and studying, unless there was a necessary comment or question, or they were placed in group discussions. Even for the latter, they were not supposed to speak louder than necessary. Raika was quite glad that there were no new students currently- the rules he had been following for years would have to be repeated, and more than once.
He went with the students in the center of the room out the door, where the volume was already noticeably louder with some hushed talking of other students, including in a few other grades. It was thankfully much less than the seemingly tumultuous noise that had been present at the civilian school.
Raika did not stop to chat with anyone as he passed one of the guards that carefully scrutinized the hallways while the students were going to class, and then even after for any would-be late attendees or rare strange ones (mostly newer students) that attempted to skip class altogether. Mostly he avoided talking to others, as was his habit, unless he needed to.
He participated in his other classes, including language, self-defense, and net navi care and battling techniques with others in the net navi division (which, perhaps surprising to civilians, did not just include straight net battling). The familiar outside drills also passed without queer events, as well as a meal in the mess hall.
It was not until he was completing some homework in a study room with several other students that something different than his usual routine occurred, starting with an order relayed by his navi.
"Raika," he heard Searchman speak up.
Raika quickly put down his pencil where he had been filling out a worksheet for his Science class, and took out his PET to see his stoic navi. He ignored a few glances in his direction from other students.
"Yes?" he asked swiftly.
His navi responded promptly. "You are to meet with Chief Malenkov in his office in half an hour."
Raika frowned slightly. Despite being in the net police division, he did not always see the area chief. There were many others with higher ranks, even if just slightly, that could give him a task for him to fulfill.
However, he had to obey orders, no matter how small. He sent an affirmative response, as the net navis of junior cadets in the school were not expected to do everything PET-related for their net ops.
Raika quickly put up his school items, glad that he was mostly finished with his work already. He then passed the others students, mostly attempting to tactfully ignore him as he passed by with his school items before he stowed them away in his dorm room he shared with several other cadets.
Raika went outward the office at the proper time, saluting his superior once inside the room. He chose to ignore the obvious agent that stood in the corner, obviously waiting to act if he attempted another cyber escape. If the net police chief was worried about that, though, his usual stern face did not how it. Instead, he immediately started to speak.
"So, Raika, you recall your most previous mission," he began.
Raika nodded. "It was a success," he quickly stated.
He then inwardly cringed, knowing that he sounded quite defensive. However, the chief merely continued, without any complaint of the outburst.
"It was, though there was an unexpected outcome of the task," he said. "All of the data was retrieved from the minor who had abducted it. However, it was missed that there was a copy of part of it."
Raika managed to hide a wince at yet another failure. "It's still in the building?" Raika questioned.
Chief Malenkov frowned, and Raika hoped that it was not due to something else he had overlooked in his most previous mission, and not just the copied data.
"Somewhat," he replied. "One of the civilian students has acquired it. Thankfully, it had not been discovered that they had used it yet, but if they do, the effects may be too much for them to handle."
Raika nodded. He had known about the civilian thief that had advanced coding and hacking skills, and who had somehow been able to use the stolen data, but thankfully just for practical jokes. If it was used for something else, the data, generally used to boost navi's defense and healing stats, could very easily get out of their control.
He briefly wondered why another student had not been summoned instead with his obvious problems lately, but also knew that yet again, he would not be working alone. The latter was proved correct as the chief named another net saver cadet to accompany him, who had already been told of the mission.
Raika frowned. Perhaps the chief was waiting to see if Raika would make it through the briefing first without incident before being officially on the mission. He was just glad that the student named was also one that was serious minded and would not be as chatty as several particular others he knew, including about unsubtle comments about his merge.
"There is also something else, which is another factor in choosing you specifically for this mission," the chief continued.
He turned toward the computer near the wall, and pressed a button. Raika eye's widened briefly at the youth on the screen. The person looked to be around his age, but also, most likely by sheer chance, shared more than a slight resemblance to himself. The youth's hair was much darker in hue, and his eyes were brown, but they could easily pass as perhaps a cousin or other such relation.
He did not recognize the youth, though, even with the many cousins from just his younger uncle alone. (The chief- his oldest uncle- was not related to him by birth, but that did not lessen that there were many others that he was biologically related to in the first place.)
Chief Malenkov nodded as Raika stared at the screen. "You can see the resemblance," he stated evenly. "It was thought by a few others that you would be more likely to convince the youth to surrender the copied data than a few others. Somehow," –the chief's face looked disapproving for a few seconds- "the others that had been assigned the same mission have been unsuccessful."
Raika then inwardly winced. Even if the chief did not mean it, to him, it seemed that he was just another resort to use with the other failures, and if he too, failed (which was more likely than usual with the strange effects of the merge), then another agent would be easily summoned to replace him. It was obvious now that the task was yet another one that was not too important, though, or the student would have already been arrested.
However, like the other recent previous missions, he would have to accept the task if he wanted to keep what credibility he still had.
"The student's name is Dimitri Nao," Chief Malenkov stated. "His navi has not shown many skills, but it has been seen enough to know to not slack in any efforts to subdue him if necessary."
His voice carried a warning in it. Raika nodded, knowing that he should never "play" with any net battle, especially ones on missions. There could be many risks involved, including unnecessarily draining his navi's stats while another more powerful foe waited to emerge.
The chief gave him some more information and instructions, including the net navi's appearance if he chanced to see him.
"I will say this also," Chief Malenkov then added. "The youth is currently living in a foster home. Do not apprehend them if unnecessary about their current situation, or other such conditions. Is this clear?"
Raika nodded. "Yes, sir," he responded.
He had briefly lived in a foster home himself for a short while due to a bizarre mix-up, and had not been particularly fond of the situation, to say the least. He was quite glad that such an occurrence was not likely to happen again.
The next day, he was released to go on the mission shortly before his last class. Raika sat in the front seat of the vehicle waiting outside the building, while the other cadet slid into the seat behind him. Another agent was at the steering wheel, and they quickly made their way off the base to the school approximately two hours away.
Raika glanced down at the odd "civilian" coat that he had been ordered to wear. Unlike the agent driving the vehicle, he and the cadet were in civilian clothes, and would attempt to inconspicuously roam the school until the student in question was discovered. By then, the school would have let out, but apparently the student liked to stay in school for a while, even with the previous attempts to convince him to hand over the copied data.
Once again, he would be pretending to be a civilian, but at least he had been trusted to complete another mission, and one from his chief superior, at that. He then wondered a bit about some chatty fellow cadets at the school, who he had overheard supposing that several officers had tried to keep him from being assigned any net police related tasks due to the merge. They did not know that they were actually correct. The chief had told him that his basic support in a council after the rather disastrous "Channel Zero" incident where he and Searchman had been trapped within a strange cyber realm was the only reason why he had still allowed to perform any missions.
Raika then attempted to force the thoughts away. Even an area chief in Netopia and a few other countries nearby Sharo still wanted him for missions, as he had been summoned a few times since the merge (still with backup wherever he went). He was still one of a very few that could cross fuse with his navi, but he still had completed other missions in those places and in his own country where other tactics had been requested. He could complete the current mission also.
Simply, like his chief uncle, he could not worry all the time about the merge, where odd happenings might or might not happen. Of course, he should not slacken any effort to dispel any of the effects, but he also should not let any misgivings stop him from at least attempting to fulfill any tasks given.
A while later, the vehicle stopped inside the mostly clear parking lot, where a tractor was busy clearing away a few inches of snow that had obviously recently fallen. The area had apparently had more precipitation than he had witnessed during the drive.
He and the other cadet then were released to their task by the agent, and they wordlessly slipped outside the vehicle toward their destination. Once inside the building, smaller than the military academy, but much less organized than the precise hallways and orderly students, they quickly presented themselves to the principal, who already knew of their mission.
The man nodded at their net saver badges illuminating from their PETs. "I hope that you both will be more successful with Dimitri," he said, stroking his chin slightly. "But really, other than this data he refuses to give up, he really has not been too much trouble while attending this school."
Raika wondered at the statement, but did not comment. He was glad, though, that the man did not relate his chance physical similarities with the student in question. The principal then allowed them to leave his office to start their mission in his school.
The cadet with him, Darren, the spoke up just after the principal closed the office door behind them. "It was mentioned that Dimitri likes to be in the computer room, right?" he stated seriously.
Raika nodded, though he did not like that the other cadet seemed to be attempting to control the mission, even though he had been thinking the same.
"Of course," he said briskly.
He then stepped ahead of the other cadet, who quickly came to his left side. Darren was thankfully silent as they made their way to the destination, unobtrusively passing a few other students and a teacher in the hallway.
Raika opened the door to the room, which had a window that was slightly obscured by colored green paper with small version of a computer keyboard. He opened it, seeing a few students from various grade levels typing on computers, with a few more quietly chatting at a table that held a large poster board. Raika frowned briefly at the cartoonish drawing of a computer virus on the poster- surely it had nothing to do with his current mission.
He soon discovered the student he was looking for- his somewhat look-a-like was typing away on a computer on the far left side of the room. For all appearances, the student seemed as if he had done nothing illegal. He stopped Darren from approaching the student directly, staying near the front computers in the room. The cadet looked a bit confused, but nodded.
Raika quickly opened his PET. "Put a direct, but not too intimidating message on Dimitri's computer screen," he ordered his navi, purposely not using his ancestral language so that Darren could understand.
Searchman nodded, and after a minute, aimed his rifle. Soon, he saw Dimitri frown intensely, then angrily reached for the off switch on the computer. Raika frowned at the act that could potentially damage a computer, but said nothing. He watched as Dimitri stood, then purposely strode toward him and Darren, perhaps since they certain were not commonly in the room, to say the least.
Dimitri frowned at Darren, then blinked at Raika, his face slightly baffled. The student then rolled his eyes.
"I'm not going to give up that program," he muttered angrily- but in ancient Sharian.
"You should," Raika responded in the same language, attempting to not show his surprise. The chief had not mentioned any other spoken languages. "It could potentially harm your navi- not to mention, the entire school's cyber system."
Unfortunately, Dimitri did not seem appeased. Perhaps he had heard a version of the command several times before and had decided to ignore any of them.
"Of course they would send someone that knows the language, or at least pretends to," he stated, his voice sour. "How many times have you practiced that?"
"Not at all," Raika responded. "But it does not matter how I know the language, but more of that you are harboring something dangerous."
He still was speaking quietly, but saw from the corners of his eyes that some of the students were looking curiously at them. He hoped that none of them (including their navis) knew ancient Sharian. Raika then berated himself slightly. Of course, he could not always depend solely on the fact that he was able to speak a minority language that someone nearby him in a mission might or might not know. What was much more important was that he completed the mission, which he certainly had not done so far.
Dimitri scowled, then began to walk away. Raika was about to head after him, when he felt his PET in his pocket heat up at a disturbing rate. Alarmed, he quickly took out the device, wincing a bit at the searing heat even through his gloves. Searchman also seemed affected by the unusual temperature as he was wincing, and to Raika's left he saw Darren also holding his PET by a few gloved fingers.
Raika then heard running footsteps down the hallway that was surely his target escaping, but knew that his navi's safety was currently more important. Quite a lot of net saver work depended on a capable navi, after all.
He looked back at his small PET screen, where there was no change, including the obtrusive "Error" wording behind his navi. Clearly, the student had been able to even somewhat control the data he was hoarding since the later net saver agent had failed the task to retrieve it.
"Searchman, what happened?" he quickly asked while stepping into the hallway away from curious gazes.
"I felt the data shift, but not where from," his navi replied, grimacing. "Unfortunately I could not stop it from affecting the PET's main system."
"Scan for the source," he ordered.
Searchman nodded, and activated his eyepiece. A few seconds later, though, before the scan was finished, Raika felt the hot device in his hand quickly regulate to more comfortable temperature. The eyepiece on his navi's helmet retracted after about half a minute.
"I apologize, Raika," Searchman said. "I nearly had something, but was stopped before the effects of the data interference began to retreat."
Raika frowned- it almost seemed like the "Channel Zero" program that he and Searchman had been in somewhat recently, where himself in his "navi" form could not scan past the visible walls of the chamber. "Did you get a good enough reading to be able to find the virus again?" he asked.
Unfortunately, he saw Searchman shake his head. "It was data that was practically hidden," he replied. "I would have to be closer to it for a much more prolonged amount of time."
Raika scowled slightly. Yet again, he had failed at something. Of course, Dimitri still could be persuaded to hand the data over, but he still had not used his chance wisely enough to succeed. Perhaps even Darren's more direct approach would have worked better. Of course, with different civilians, various methods would work, as was with his past experience.
Fortunately, when he looked at the other cadet, he did not see accusation, but merely thoughtfulness. "If he lives in the foster home and really does have a good reputation, then he should be there at some point," Darren pointed out. "Maybe even the head master of the home could be asked to help with something."
Raika nodded. "Yes, but I would prefer to convince him to cooperate within school limits."
"How many times would he have seen the effects of viruses before?" Darren mused. "Maybe he really just doesn't know about that, even with schools that would teach about it. Not all civilians have really seen how damaging even small viruses or unsolicited data can be. The data also wasn't reported to have done something to his navi. Maybe he even has a specific reason for keeping it."
"Yes, those could be valid points," Raika responded, a bit miffed that he had not proved the most helpful yet in the mission. "We could also check the computer he was on."
"That seems reasonable," Darren stated candidly.
Raika wondered if the cadet was hiding some resentfulness they could not split up due to the order that Raika had to be accompanied at all times, but did not comment as they walked over to the computer that Dimitri had abruptly switched off. He waited for the machine to briefly scan for any damage, then fade to the main screen.
"So he was typing in a word processing program," Darren stated quietly. "But nothing else."
Raika nodded, briefly reading what seemed to be the start of a story about two brothers battling a large wolf in a forest. He was briefly surprised that the language was not ancient Sharian, but knew that it was quite possible that the school computer did not have that language available. He then quickly jacked in his navi.
"Scan the computer for the data, then send a copy of the document to my PET, and Darren's," he ordered.
Searchman nodded, and soon, Raika had jacked his navi out with unfortunately no results, but soon had the file saved safely on his PET screen. He then closed the document on the computer, and correctly turned off the machine.
He looked to his left to see Darren looking over the words in the document on his own PET. "Huh, so these brothers seem quite a bit younger than Dimitri," he said aloud. "It says here that the main character turned ten a month before. And what's this about a wooden staff and song about growing trees?"
Raika did not blame the cadet for being confused. "From what I can tell, it relates to an ancient Sharian song that is commonly performed using a performing staff," he replied. "The song is mainly about theoretically creating a tree so large that the victory can be seen, even with many obstacles."
He was not used to basically telling other classmates in his school that he himself was related to the minority heritage, but at least Darren did not seem to mind, from what he could tell.
"Ancient Sharian, then," Darren mused. "He sure knows some about the culture, and it seems that it would not be just from being curious about it."
Raika nodded- he also had wondered about the target's family history. From what little he knew, Dimitri had gone into the foster system at six years of age, but nothing had been stated about his family.
"We should check the other places in the school where he was listed as being commonly seen," he then stated.
He wished that he knew other possible variants of the data, but he knew that if he was able to distract the wayward student enough, Searchman should at least be able to scan it for more information. Hopefully it did not actually contain a virus of some sort.
Raika then headed toward the school's Orchestra room, which he had seen on a map, across the hallway from the Band room. He did not know why the student went there, but if he could see the student without him looking at him . . .
He stopped nearby the room, in a small enclosure next to a storage room. Taking out his PET, he called for his navi to search in the security system. Darren nodded at the idea, and went to look at Raika's PET.
Less than a minute later, he was looking at the room, filled with a few people. Two student age people were practicing with their violins, and another musician was busy putting rosin on the end of their bow. Near the lockers in the back of the room, he spotted dark green hair.
"Zoom in on the camera nearest him," he said quietly.
Searchman followed the order without hesitation, and the student was soon in full view. Raika frowned at the view of a wooden tenor recorder in the student's hands. He was not playing the instrument, but frowning as he held it close to his face, then turned it vertically to peer at the back of the mouth piece.
The violinist that had not been playing then came into view. Dimitri turned toward the student, but did not seem to be caught unawares with the instrument.
"Is that the one you're looking for?" the student asked. "There are a few more in the room, including that tiny storage room in the back."
Dimitri shrugged. "Maybe," he said stoically.
"It doesn't look like it," a voice spoke up, which Raika presumed was Dimitri's navi. "It's not as dark as it should be, and the company name's not the right one. It's close, but not quite."
Dimitri frowned slightly, a bit put out. "I guess," he responded, his voice only showing slight disappointment.
"What's the company's name?" the student asked. "I know some, and the conductor would know a whole lot more."
Dimitri then scowled. "I'll be fine on my own," he spat, separating the pieces of the recorder and quickly placing them into a case on a chair near him.
He then plopped the case onto a shelf with a few other instruments and disappeared into a small back room that presumably held more instruments, closing the door behind him. The musician blinked at the door, then shrugged and walked out of the camera's view, presumably toward his violin again.
"There is no working camera in the room the suspect went into," Searchman reported.
Raika acknowledged the words with a single nod. Unlike his own school, though, public schools were not always consistent in keeping all of their technology working properly, small space or not.
"Is he looking for an ancient Sharian recorder?" Darren wondered. Raika frowned, but had already known that it was a possibility. "Are there only specific companies that make those types?"
He sighed inwardly. Discussing his own heritage with outsiders was a bit odd with most anyone, in a way. Most did not quite understand why he would want to speak a minority language in the first place, including that it supposedly had no use.
"There are several authentic ones, and not just in Sharo," he stated. "However, there are also a few that make cheaper copies that do not work as well."
Darren frowned. "Sounds like generic brands, then," he mused. "I would guess that those non-Sharian companies come at least mostly from areas that have a large population of ancient Sharian immigrants?"
"Of course, as well as few larger cities with a large base in the music industry, especially those with rarer types."
Raika turned back toward his PET. "How many ports are in the room?" he asked his navi.
Searchman answered after a brief scan. "Thirteen, with five of them in current use. None were recently used to jack in a navi."
He supposed that the area contained a few electronic devices that were used frequently, even just for charging, as he doubted that the miscreant was using all of them (unless he was stealing devices like another foster student he had known briefly, but it seemed rather unlikely with the information that he had been given).
Raika frowned at another idea, not saying anything but an order to his navi. Searchman complied, activating his scanner yet again.
The scan was finished within a few minutes. "The coding in the data copy has been altered from the original, though I am not sure who had done it," Searchman reported.
Darren spoke up from where he was interestedly looking at his current teammate, but thankfully stayed silent.
"Is there a way to subdue it from here, or would it need a more direct approach?" Raika questioned.
His faithful navi responded. "The second is true. Anything that I do from a distance would only be repelled by several firewalls that would be too difficult to destroy from afar."
Raika frowned slightly again. Here was not a net navi this time, such as the one that had helped initiate the merge in the first place, but something else that would be able to resist Searchman's "secret" weapon. Of course, he could not always depend on it. Such a practice would only cause not only sheer disappointment on his end if it did not work, but also possibly the whole mission- or his navi.
He then widened his eyes slightly. Of course, the firewall might have a password- with the clues in the story that the student had been writing, whether wanting to leave them or not. He doubted that the story would have been a false hint at the point, and not just since the student had been surprised that Raika had also known ancient Sharian. Plus, he also had the few clues he had been given about the previous thief of the data.
He gave a brief order in the ancestral language as the probable password in itself would not be able to be translated very well, and it was not critical that his current teammate understand it. Watching the screen on his PET, Raika watched Searchman type not one password , but two at the same time, both in the same language that Raika had spoken. The keycodes were accepted.
"We only have three minutes before another code is automatically generated," Searchman warned.
Raika nodded, having slightly expected a time limit. "Don't fire at the data," he said. "Most likely would be futile to do so. Instead, ask the data to be granted permission to be an administrator."
He heard Darren gasp from beside him. "That's a weird strategy," he commented, his voice surprise. "But it makes sense since the last person that had the actual data and who had made the copy was a prankster. I guess that the others who failed in this mission just kept on trying to force their way in if they ever got past the password part somehow in the first place."
"Administration access has been granted," Searchman reported after about a minute. "Now, though, it wants to know the purpose of the change in status."
"Send a blank response," Raika responded.
"Sent. It was approved. Not only that, but the time limit also was removed indefinitely."
Darren nodded, his face surprised and approving at the same time. "Is there a way to remove the administrator abilities from the student?"
Raika spoke while looking at his PET. "Searchman is already working on that."
He watched Searchman quickly type on a vertical screen next to the surprisingly difficult data. His navi typed a few final words, then pressed the enter button- then was met with a red screen, with the large word "Access Denied."
"He's fighting us?"
Raika shook his head slightly, a bit frustrated. "No, it seems like too much of a simple response for him or his navi to be fully working on that. There would be something else."
He looked briefly at the hallway nearby, glad to see the rounds cover for two emergency jacks in ports on the wall for devices, including PETs, mostly hidden as they were the same color as the painted bricks surrounding them.
Less than five seconds later, a siren sounded, resonating in the small hallway. Raika huffed slightly. As he had expected, the student had been more focused on creating a distraction than fighting them, wanting to escape with the data (and possibly get them "fired" from the mission, as a few others before them had).
Raika clenched the PET. Hopefully it would not be too futile to fight whatever the student had in store for them- or that it was not a trap. However, Raika heard heavy footsteps in the hallway behind him, and he turned to see a hassled-looking teacher eyeing them.
"You're net savers?" he asked. He then continued without a response. "The whole network in the school is about to overheat. Fight it, quickly!"
"The administrator abilities have been reversed, with another code in place," Searchman reported.
Raika sighed. Fighting blindly into a trap was not quite what he wanted to do. "It might be better if we fight nearer the subject in question," he decided.
Darren nodded, and the teacher let them pass him to allow them access into the Orchestra room. As they went closer to the wayward student, he heard the teacher order the students in the room into the hallway. Raika was grateful, even though there was not much of a chance that he would not be remembered by the students in the first place, as he doubted that he would frequent the school often for missions.
He quickly entered a code into his own PET, warning Darren to do the same. As he had expected, the door to the storage room was locked. Quickly, Raika picked the lock, and pocketed the thin wire before opening the door. Inside the dim room, the student was scowling, but was saying nothing. Perhaps he had seen even all of the other ones assigned to the mission fail right beside him.
Raika frowned slightly from his position right in front of the door. He had failed several times- and somewhat recently, also. The brief phone call from his parents a few weeks previous had not been pleasant, to say the least. Their only son had managed to cause severe procedures and time to be taken after idiotically attacking a defensive program, and here he was again, attempting to retrieve data. It was in a different form, yes, but still somewhat the same.
Raika briefly glanced at the foster student, whose eyes were moldering in a silent rage. He did not know the student's abilities fighting-wise, but he hoped that he at least did not think that he could easily overpower two trained military cadets.
He was a foster child, like Raika had been for a little bit with the mix-up in data. He could hold a bit of sympathy for that, somewhat. Many foster children did not have the say in where they lived, or were transferred to- or which siblings, if they had any, that they lived with, if they were to be with any at all.
Frowning a bit, he jacked in his navi, Darren doing the same from beside him. There were several viruses there that had the basic appearance of generic net navis, but Raika was not fooled by the obvious trap.
"Don't attack them, right?" Darren asked, his voice low.
Raika nodded. With what he had seen so far, of course the action would be futile.
"What?" he heard Dimitri gasp the other side of the small room.
Raika ignored him- for now- and looked at his PET. He placed a chip inside, but not for attacking. Instead, he brought up a code on his PET screen, the ancient Sharian song that the story had been based on in his mind, as well as a few others.
The code was an odd one- it was not used too often with the chip, but he had learned it, along with several others. He pressed the enter key on the small screen.
A ring appeared next to the "navis" in the green-hued cyber world, similar to the ones that were used to contain navis for scans- or to be healed. Of course, the programs near his navi most likely could not be healed, as they were probably at full health already.
Searchman held out a single arm, and the rings duplicated, surrounding the copies. They then glowed, using their healing power, which was only meant to restore a few energy points for a battle. However, it would also work in this instance.
The "navis" then simply faded from view, and in their place, he saw a single data cube. Raika did not have to ask Searchman to know that it was the copied data in its entirety, without any password on it anymore.
"Reverse psychology," Darren muttered, his voice again impressed.
Raika nodded, as Searchman activated another part of the code that Raika had sent him, which would "heal" the data itself. From his right, he saw the foster student desperately jack in his own navi, but Raika knew that it would not be in time-
-He should be in the cyber world.
Raika blinked at his PET's screen. Of course, his PET's data was closest for him to enter, but Searchman could be easily jacked inside and the small device be toted by the human youth nearby. Why had he even been worried about a small program, anyway? He was supposed to be in the cyber world as data, and utterly nothing else.
Dropping the human device to the floor- it would fall anyway, once he transferred worlds- he stared the cyber world beyond the screen- and concentrated.
He ignored the gasp from the human youth as he saw the data around him again. Raika rolled his eyes slightly at the non-impressive cube nearby. The humans could deal with it all they wanted. He just needed to focus on getting away from Searchman and the human's navi that was staring at him in shock. Raika was glad that he knew from past experience that Searchman could not be able to order him back into the human world where he had never belonged in the first place. Surely the other navi or his net op could not either, as even his human self had never thought them as any sort of superior in the first place.
Raika fell to his hands, debating on how to get past the tall green navi. Surely, Searchman was largest threat at the moment, despite him knowing that the taller cyber being was his friend. It was a paradox, in a way, but he could not convince him that he should be a human- right?
He saw a faint glimmer of light from the corner of his vision, and he saw that the rings around the cube, then the cube itself, disappear. Apparently the human youth that had the copied data had claimed it back- not that it bothered him, anyway.
He could at least talk to Searchman, though. Raika raised his head, seeing the tall navi could toward him. He could try something convincing enough . . .
"I know that you wouldn't like this, but it would be better if you were-"
"-A human?" Searchman asked, his voice sad as he knelt down by his net op.
Raika scowled. He had expected the navi to be instantly angry, insisting that that the very idea was ludicrous. He then heard Searchman speak again, and not what he had expected.
"Of course I should be a human right now, Raika."
Raika blinked, hearing a slight emphasis on the name that the humans had called him. He still did not understand what the taller navi meant, nor his unusually soft demeanor.
Strong, but gentle arms them came around him. Raika instantly squirmed in the embrace, futile with his current weakness and that even at his full strength, Searchman would be strong than him in the first place-
Raika blinked, as suddenly, the cyber world became a small room with a cold tiled floor. He gasped as his strength was instantly far reduced by more than half of what he had had as a navi in the storage room's netspace. He fell to the floor, his cheek against the bare tile, nearly spent. There were still arms around him- thin ones that were much weakened, but still as firm as they apparently could be at the moment.
He turned his eyes upward as the arms let go to see familiar red eyes. Searchman was also weakened- he could see that plainly in his exhausted face- but at least his navi- currently a human- was not as bad off as he was at the moment.
"You . . ." he started, not sure of how to finish the sentence (nor what the foster student would think of the bizarre situation. People, including net savers, usually did not transfer into the cyber world at will. Of course, he was more worried currently about his navi's human state, and his possible insane mind- except that he did not know why his navi had transferred him out of the cyber world in the first place.
His navi smiled slightly. "Raika, of course I should be a human- but only for the purpose of returning you to your proper form. I am your navi, and you are my net op."
Even with his exhaustion- certainly he was not going to get out of even the small room by himself, and that he had definitely failed another mission- Raika nodded. His navi had done what he could not have done for himself, even choosing to lose his own energy and ability to fight even the foster child's navi, as he easily could have. Searchman had chosen to fail the mission to help his net op . . .
"Raika!"
He heard Darren from beside him- clearly his teammate had been waiting to see if Searchman's mind was sane or not before any reports.
"I'm fine," he muttered, attempting slightly to lift himself from the ground.
To his surprise, Searchman gently pressed his shoulder. "You should stay there," he said, his voice firm.
Darren's face came into view. "Yeah, that would be better," he stated. Darren then looked at his PET. "Is there anything there?" he asked his navi.
His navi's voice answered. "Nothing. The entirety of the data was removed from the network."
Raika grimaced. Surely, with him practically unable to move, and Searchman weakened and Darren more worried about him, the foster student would simply escape with the data.
He waited a few seconds, but did not heard rapid footsteps from the other side of the room after a small click that denoted that the other navi had been jacked out. Raika blinked, wondering how Darren would be able to convince the student to surrender the data, even with some of the "tricks" known. He would create multiple passwords, and possibly even more firewalls and other blockages that might even be much more difficult to get passed. Searchman certainly could not help in his current human form.
At least another minute passed in queer silence. Raika attempted to move again, with both Darren and Searchman pushing on him to stay put. He scowled slightly, and not just at the failed mission. Hopefully he would at least be allowed even small missions in the future . . .
He was surprised when the foster student spoke up. "So you went into the cyber world, but your navi brought you back." The tone was confused, but interestedly, not angry as Raika had expected as someone that had attempted to defeat him.
"No telling about this to anyone," Raika intoned as fiercely as he could, even though he knew that he juts plainly seemed quite pathetic at the moment.
"Yeah, yeah," the student replied. "But I didn't get why he brought you back. He actually cared enough to get you . . . where you should be? He actually cared enough to do that, even though he's weak right now after doing it? He even just cared in the first place? I thought all military navis and their net ops were crazy, and would do anything to get their way to get what they need."
Raika blinked slightly, not knowing the reasoning behind the student's words. However, Darren was quicker.
"So you're going to give up the data, then?" Darren asked.
Raika strained to see upward, despite Searchman's gentle hand attempting to push him downward again. Surprisingly, he saw the foster student nod.
"Yeah," Dimitri replied softly. "I thought that the data . . . well, it was similar to something that my dad's work had used once, in cooperation with a Brightland company. I thought it might hold clues to where he was. I don't think he's dead, no matter what the reports said. I just thought . . . well, there might be something, but I didn't find anything even closely related. Neither did Sharpman."
"I don't know about your situation, but I know that in some cases, it might be that the whole situation might not be looked at thoroughly, or that the authorities might not always act as they should," Raika said, remembering his own strange brief "imprisonment" in a foster home with the bizarre claim that he was not even related to his own parents.
He then laid down on the floor again, letting Searchman win for the moment. His navi's bare hand still stayed on his shoulder, obviously ready to push him downward again.
Surprisingly, the foster student, Dimitri, then chuckled. "You are the most convincing of all of the crazy heads that went after me and my navi," he stated. "That and your own navi. I still don't get why he's a human right now, or how you went into the cyber world, but that's your own business."
"I guess net savers reported your father's death?" Raika stated quietly.
"No kidding. They didn't even do anything to show any evidence of it, either." Dimitri's voice was bitter, but he sighed heavily afterword.
"The copied data?" Darren pressed.
"Yeah, on it," Dimitri muttered. Raika heard typing on a screen, then a click from a button on his PET. "There, now Sharpman's now holding it in the network, and no, it's not a trap. It's not going to burn that navi still in there, and, no, I don't still have the data in my PET or any other form of it, copied or not."
"I guess I'll have to trust you then," Darren responded. His voice was gentler than Raika had expected.
"Yeah, whatever."
He heard Darren jack his navi own, and the navi state that the data in its entirety was secured in the PET.
Raika heard Darren walk a few paces. "Do you have a brother?" he asked.
The footsteps instantly stopped. "How did you-" Dimitri started, then stopped. "Never mind; I get why you would ask that. Yeah, I have . . . more than one sibling, but the one I really want to see is somewhere else in Sharo, and no, I don't know where. After my father's supposed death, I was instantly forbidden from contacting any of my siblings or their navis, PETs included. There's even a tracer in my PET if anyone that uses it attempts to contact any previously known emails or other stuff related to any of them. That was really stupid, of course, but foster homes have their rules, and I guess that's one of them."
Raika frowned. "That's not a rule in all Sharian foster homes."
Dimitri laughed, a bit bitterly. "Since when would anyone in the military be an expert in this sort of thing?"
"I'm not," he said, frowning slightly at the admittance. He ignored some tapping from Darren's PET, probably about not only the hopefully fulfilled mission, but also his excursion to the cyber world and Searchman's current human form. "I merely have seen some siblings together in a few foster homes before."
"Where did you see that?" Dimitri asked. "Every foster kid that I've seen was never allowed that sort of thing."
Raika sighed. "Up near the town Joeshin," he replied, naming a fairly well-known large town, "as well as a few others just north of Kanjion. There were a few others in smaller areas."
"Not anywhere around here, then," Dimitri mumbled bitterly. He then changed the topic. "How do you know ancient Sharian? It can't be since you learned it for your little task."
Raika wanted to shake his head, but the motion would have been much harder on the hard floor and just spoke instead. "Family ancestry," he stated firmly, not caring much if Darren heard the answer. He had been taunted for many other things, after all.
"Really?"
"Of course."
Dimitri laughed a bit again. "I guess we're not actually related, though?"
Raika rolled his eyes slightly. "I would doubt it. It's as good as a guess as mine for the reason for any resemblance between us. Also, no, I don't know anything about your family, including your father or brother. However, if you could tell me their names, I could look up some information as my opportunity allows."
He hoped that Darren would not protest, or tell any of their superiors about the very much unneeded offer. Of course, he could not even expect to immediately be able to fulfill the suggestion, since even though the merge effects had strangely helped the mission- this time- they had happened again.
Raika was a bit hopeful that he would be able at least attempt Dimitri in the first place, though, as his teammate did not immediately respond with disapproval.
"You would actually do that?" Dimitri asked, his voice confused.
"For a little while," Raika muttered, hoping that nothing would be interpreted as an ongoing a personal source of information.
"What for?"
Raika sighed inwardly, remembering briefly of his parent's severe disapproval of his last failed mission. "Never mind that."
He quickly gave him an email address that was not used much- certainly he would not give out his main military one. Dimitri gave a verbal response after he had typed in the information.
"My father's name is Yvinji Nao, and my brother's name is Benji Nao," Dimitri then stated. His voice then softened with sadness with his next words. "He's my twin, actually- my older twin. Benji's two minutes older than me."
The names meant nothing to Raika, but surely there could be something somewhere, especially if the authorities had done nothing to conceal the information.
Raika then heard the door to the small room open. He forced his head upward again for a few seconds, and unsurprisingly, he saw a few military personnel, their faces stern.
"You have what you came for?" one of them asked, obviously to Darren.
"Yes, sir," Darren swiftly responded.
"Good," the same voice replied firmly. "Now, you come with us, and the miscreant foster child and cadet will be dealt with accordingly, as well as the navi."
Raika then flinched as Dimitri spoke out a protest. "But he didn't really do anything wrong," the student argued. "He's back in the human realm now, and if his navi can get into it, then he could definitely get back inside of the cyber world-"
"Enough!" the other officer barked. "No more arguing, or your punishment will be more severe."
Thankfully, Dimitri was silent as he was led away by a police officer that had been behind the officers. Darren was ordered to return to the base with the data, and he himself- and Searchman- were placed onto stretchers, ready to be scanned after being sent to another military medical room.
He briefly wondered about the musical instrument that Dimitri had been after, but knew that he could ask- if needed, and if he would be allowed- later. Raika sighed slightly as his stretcher was wheeled past several curious students that were chattering nearby, who were no doubt gaping at not only the two possibly injured "students", but two other military officers that accompanied them. If Dimitri actually did stay silent about the day's strange events, though, most likely the students would never know the reason for the oddities.
Raika was taken outside, and shut inside an emergency vehicle, even though he and Searchman were merely weakened again. He closed his eyes briefly, hoping that at least with the mission being fully fulfilled this time, he would be allowed to go on others in the near future after he and Searchman were recovered.