Nathan and Brad were in some place so very new and strange...
It was unlike any place on the internet. It was dark- but there were small lights, like a city... with all the lights dimmed. There was the sound of something occasionally moving, scuttling, or whirling... strange notes and intonations as if something was slowly being roused from slumber, but still so very asleep.
"Where are we?" Asked Nathan.
You are currently within server address: Hiro Hibiki.
Both digital fairies turned and gasped. It was... Hikari. Or rather- her daemon form. Hiro's daemon... the strange oriental girl, with the lost eyes of someone who had... no self-awareness. Her very mind had no sentience at all. A living doll.
"Hikari?" Asked Nathan staring at her with a lump in his throat. "Do... you recognise me?" he had a lump in his throat as he looked at the girl he... he loved. Even if she was just a lie. A lie made up by some... guy.
The strange girl looked at Nathan, her expression... almost... just almost sad? Or was it his imagination? "Yes. You are Nathan. A playstation three digital fairy. I like you," replied the girl in a monotone voice.
Brad shook her head. "She's just a ghost dude. Vague memories in her wrapped in some program emulating the living... eh, Come on," she said maybe with a little sympathy in her voice. They had come all the way into Hiro's body... they were very close to the real world! "let's see if we can actualise ourselves. Hiro is able to change his form in the real world if other digital entities enter him. So I heard."
"You are correct," said the daemon. It was almost like it was trying to be helpful...
Brad looked at her. "Can you... explain how it's done?"
"Of course. When Hikari is on the internet, Hiro's body is a shell system. It can emulate perfectly any digital fairy by replacing itself within the system" replied the daemon in a crisp clean voice.
"Can you take us to the system?" said Brad excited.
"This way."
Nathan and Brad were taken by the daemon who wordlessly took them about 'the world' of her real body. The strange inner space and perfectly ordered mass of systems that all worked to move a humanoid body in the real world. It was awe-inspiring, if a little surreal. Wires and wetware, that wired up to biological systems in perfect harmony, that would run legs, arms, everything. This was the equivalent of what a human must do by their subconscious... and they were going to run this?
There were taken to a door, but it had a strange seal on it. The daemon didn't even have an expression for confusion as it simply turned to them. "I am sorry I am unable to access the program. Systems are being repaired."
"What is that symbol?" asked Brad.
Nathan stared at the symbol with a brow of sweat. It... it couldn't be. Could it?
The daemon however, had access to all of Hiro's memories and had a clear idea of what it was. "It is called the Seal of Lucas. The first Angel spoken of by the Church of Selene."
The PS3 fairy looked at it tensely. "We... we really shouldn't go past this door," whispered Nathan almost deathly afraid.
"What? Oh come on you don't believe in a moon goddess or something do you?"
Nathan stared at the seal, almost awed and yet... quite terrified of what it might mean. "You were not around when the world nearly ended. Lucas is said to be the Angel of Time. She can be anywhere and everywhere all at once. Her transformation is one of the most powerful of any human. She even knows what will happen in the future! The church says that this seal is placed whenever the universe could be in danger of a paradox. If we go in there, we could be doing anything from undoing the universe to bringing back the Enemy..."
"All the more reason for us to break in," said Brad. "We could undo our transformations!"
"You can't do that! If we did that the Earth would cease to be. Lucas is involved with Hiro's treatment somehow. If he's that important..." The first angel of Selene was protecting Hiro? How was this even happening!
"I don't believe in that. That door has the real world in it, and I'm going in it!" The strange famiclone fairy broke the seal with an audiable 'zap' as she pressed onto the door.
The door opened to a bright light... the seat of consciousness...
If a man could exist in a body, where levers existed to move a body, it was here. Who knew if it existed for a biological entity, but for Hiro who was both man and machine, this seemed to be an aspect of his form to two digital creations that wondered cyber-innerspace.
It was also, suspiciously empty.
"I think we're here," said Brad with some excitement. The real world was so tantalisingly close! Finally she can be rid of this body and form... free of the limitations of just existing as a digital ghost. "Okay... what next?"
Daemon-Hikari gestured to the raised platform. "If you step onto that platform, you will actualise in the real world. You will take control of the body, and the body will imprint itself upon you while you reside here."
Nathan looked around. He was... worried. The church of Selene was very powerful, and Hiro was under their protection... There were also curiously different machines here. "What's that Hikari?" He asked.
"A paradox wave generator," explained Hikari. "Hiro's body is currently interfaced with technology from the future, brought by Lucas. It is being used to heal his consciousness. A process that will take approximately 10 years at current predictions. My systems are naturally compatable with any technology, no matter the era as the human mind is capable of working it out."
"..can we access this stuff?" Asked Brad.
"Yes." said Hikari.
Brad quickly went over to the system to have a look at it. "Whoa... Time Travel? Brad, Hiro's body can time travel!" The possibilities... They were enormous! "What.. are the limitations of time travel?" She couldn't believe she was asking that question! No wonder the church was so preoccupied with Hiro...
Daemon-Hikari paused for a while, as if thinking. "The technology has the following limitations. You can not go back to a point where you already exist... but if your body is different in that time, you can exist. Travelling to a point in the past requires you to wait a certain amount of time before you can travel again. This is based on fundamental equations beyond your understanding. Certain places do not have any limitations due to the fabric of space and time being thinned out with constant travel."
"So me a list of destinations..."
"What are you doing!" demanded Nathan.
"Going back to the day the sun changed. I'm going to warn myself to avoid the sunlight!"
Hikari looked blankly between them. "Time travel program initiated..."
At the hospital, there were two people watching over Hiro. A curious white furred cat-girl, and a little fairy girl. The cat-girl, Maxine was bringing in some flowers, as she looked at the curious contraption next to Hiro. It looked... unlike any machine she had seen before.
Hitomi was the fairy, though she was certainly 'human sized'... though it looked like she was always going to be on the small side.
"Big brother," sighed Hitomi. "Please get better soon... I really miss you."
Max watched her quite guilty. "He... looks so different, to how I remembered him." his first transformation state was an absolute mess. A wrapped up mix of man and machine, in an almost zombie fahion. Now there was a .. seemless beauty to it. Surreal, even when he was sleeping and breathing... drawing in air, to make the machinery all work.
"I remember you used to date," smiled the young teenager. "I thought you could be great together."
Max smiled a little. "Well... I was still... we were still adjusting to certain things" Goodness it has been a long time, the six breasted cat girl thought. Now she was... well... mostly allright with things. She had to go through a lot of home schooling because of her shyness in this body. Eventually she got over it but... she wasn't 'anti social' exactly, but certainly quite introverted. Mind you Max had been that way before... some thought it a little odd. Cat girls were supposed to be 'playful' but Max didn't feel that way. She was just... 'okay'.
When she heard of what happened to Hiro, she took the train back to her old home town to see him. "I often wondered what... world he lives in," she said. "It always seemed like he was distracted."
Hitomi nodded. "Big brother was very important on the internet. He also felt really guilty and wanted to help as many people as he could."
"Because he used to be involved with Julian," sighed Max again. Still it was... nice that Hiro could turn his life around so much. He heard that he saved all digital life on the Earth, when the internet suddely glitched itself into some weird... world that was incompatible to their very life force. How was Hiro capable of such-
Suddenly, Hiro's eyes opened.
"Big brother?" asked Hitomi tensing.
There was a surge of blue energy... Hiro latched a cybernetic hand onto the strange contraption from the fuutre, as it 'merged' with him. He stared lifelessly at the two friends, without any hint of recognition as he just... vanished.
