Kaidou Jin:

It's around 4 pm and I'm at the hospital. In Haibara Yuuya's room to be exact.

Flashback~

"There's no way to treat it?!" I asked my butler.

"Yes. The doctor said he doesn't understand how this boy came to being in this condition. Other than that, he breached his capacity and put a large amount of stress on himself. He says they can only continue monitoring his condition." He explained.

Flashback End~

"Yuuya..."

~~~~~

Once home, I knocked on Evangeline's door. No one replied so I went in. Evangeline was sitting on her bed, staring at her data-pad.

I snapped my fingers in front of her face but she still won't respond. Then i noticed something.

Her hair pin is blinking? It's not supposed to do that... Right? I grabbed the data-pad and placed it on a table. I faced Evangeline again, who had just stood up.

She glared at me and i returned the gaze. I reached up and managed to take off the hair pin before she does anything. It stopped blinking and I sighed. When i looked up again, Evangeline fell and i just barely caught her.

I laid her down on the bed and then went to my own room. I noticed a slot on the hair pin and when i opened it, there was a small computer chip in it.

I plugged it into the computer and looked through the data. Grandfather...

~~~~~

At night, the butler came in. "Young Master Jin, your grandfather has returned."

I instantly turned around and head for his office.

"I have something to ask you." I said to my grandfather. "Did you set a device for Emperor M2 to self-destruct?" He didn't reply, but i knew the answer anyway. "I see. Then I have one more thing to ask. Are you responsible for what happened to both the Virus Program in Evangeline's hair-pin that connected to her AI and Haibara Yuuya?" I explained to him the situation. "Haibara Yuuya went through an extreme amount of stress and has fallen into a coma. What are you after, Grandfather? Why do you have to go through all this? Are you willing to do anything just to get the Eternal Cycler?! Don't you care if people are loosing their lives?!"

When he didn't reply, I growled. "My grandfather isn't supposed to be like this... Nine years ago, during the fall of Tokio Bridge..."

Flashback~

"Papa! . . . Mama! . . .Where are you?!" A firefighter was holding a boy to keep him away from the fallen bridge.

"That kid!" The people around began taking pictures.

"Stop it!" Shouted a man. "Move, make way!" That man showed up infront of the child.

"When Tokio Bridge fell, I was a child who had just lost his parents. The media only thought it would make a big scoop. But back then..."

"It's Kaidou!" "Cabinet Minister Kaidou!"

"Don't you understand what this child is hoing through? He got no one else in his family!" Kaidou Yoshimitsu faced the public media. "I'll take this child to the hospital."

"Grandfather, you saved me from the media when they tried to swarm me."

Kaidou Yoshimitsu lifted the boy up in his arms and carried him to a car. Inside, the boy was crying while holding a glass of milk.

"How sad." Yoshimitsu patted the boy's head. "You're not the only one who's suffered. I'll be your family, so don't cry anymore."

"Yes, you said you'd become my family."

Flashback End~

"What happened to the man I knew back then?!" I said. "Or was it all a lie?! . . . Grandfather!"

I was lossing my patience, so when he didn't reply, I stormed out.

I went into the battle hall but stopped when i reached my room. I sighed, turned around and head for Evangeline's room instead. When i did, i saw her trying to get up. Is it her or is she still being controlled?

"E-eh?! Jin! Don't come in without knocking!" She scolded with a pout. It's her.

"Sorry." I sat down beside her. "So how're you doing?"

"Dizzy... But fine." She said smiling.

"Do you remember anything?"

"Um... Well... The last thing I remember is that... You lost in the finals of Artemis... And then... Blank." She said shrugging. "I hope I didn't miss much. How long was I out?"

"Not that long. A few hours at most."

"Oh ok. What time is it now?"

"10 pm."

"Eh?! That long?!"

". . . At least it wasn't 24 hours..."

"True. . ."

"Anyway, do you know about the Virus Program in your hair pin?"

"Virus... Program?"

"It took over your AI and by doing so, you took over my CCM, making Emperor M2 self-destruct, destroying Achilles as well."

"Eh?! I did that?!"

"Yeah, somehow. Looks like there's more to your AI then just keeping you alive."

"I guess so... But forget me. What about you? You don't have an LBX anymore!"

Well, she's right about that. I thought about it for a moment and then remembered something. I pulled out a card from my pocket.

'Cyber Lance'

~~~~~

The next day, we went to Cyber Lance corp. and waited in the lobby.

"Whoa... Awesome!" Evangeline kept looking back and forth at all the equipment. "I've never seen so much tech in my whole life! Other than the lab of course... But this is way cooler!"

I can't help but smile at her behavior. Still a techno geek huh? I shook my head and looked at the card.

Flashback~

After destroying the LBXs underneath Blue Cat's Café, a man was waiting for us through the back exit. He claped his hands as we stopped walking and faced him.

"As expected of Kaidou Jin." The man said. "A splendid battle as they all say. You've got everything calculated."

We stared at him for a moment before he speaked again. "Oh, I'm sorry. I'm the head for Cyber Lance's reaserch department, Saibara Seiji." He handed me a card. "You already know, Cyber Lance is in line with Tiny Orbit and Prometeus as the leading LBX makers. Unfortunately, we started late into this field so the majority of the share have already gone to Tiby Orbit. However, our LBX capabilities are in no way inferior to the others. Our company was originally an IT enterprise, and our CPU programming is already regarded well-"

"What's your business here?" I asked, getting impatient of his long explaination.

"No need for small talk, huh?" He said, in a slight mocking tone. "We'd like to invite you to become a test player for Cyber Lance."

"Test player?" I asked.

"For Cyber Lance?" Evangeline asked as well.

"We're currently developing a new generation of LBXs with a new style of CPUs." Saibara explained. "Once completed, it will surely change the LBX world greatly. We'd like to invite you to become one of the LBX test players for it."

I handed back his card. "Sorry, but not interested."

"I'm sure you'll change your mind once you've seen our new LBX model." He said. "We'll meet again soon." Then he left.

Flashback End~

"I thought you'd come." I turned around and saw Saibara. "You constantly search for the best LBX. That's what it takes to be an LBX player."

I followed Saibara through a corridor, literally towing Evangeline along.

"What happened at Artemis was unfortunate." He said. "With the technique you possess, losing should be impossible. Perhaps it was only due to bad luck. If you had been using our company's LBX then luck wouldn't have had any influence on that match in the first place."

"Enough talk. Just show me the LBX." I said. Honestly, I want to get out of here quickly so Evangeline would stop squirmming around, but I was also curious to see what kind of LBXs they make here.

"This is the R&D room." He opened the door and showed us a whole room filled with LBX printed computers. "The R&D are split into multiple teams. High speed operation, new material R&D, design intergration. Naturally, everyone in the staff is top level in the world."

I went to the LBX model in the center of the room... While keeping a firm grip around Evangeline's collar so she won't go anywhere. "That's our prototype for the new generation of LBXs we are developing, Proto Zenon. It uses a Beetle H2 for its CPU, Devil Tail V3 and Devil Horn X. Its processing speed is 7 times faster than normal LBXs."

"Seven times?!" I asked in surprised.

"Of course, it's not meant for just any player to use." He said. "And it's not compatible with the traditional CCM. We've also been developing a new CCM in line with Proto Zenon. This highly efficient CCM being develop not only extends the operation distance from 100 m to 1 km, but through the use of reversible resistance, players can control their LBXs with practically perfect precision. It's the most ideal CCM for you."

"Awesome..." Evangeline kept saying.

"Naturally, if you become our test player, any data you recieve during battles when you use Proto Zenon will be sent to us." Saibara said. He hand the LBX over to me. "We will use that data to complete the ultimate version of the new generation on LBXs, Zenon. How about it? Will you be Proto Zenon's test player?"

I felt a tap on my shoulder, and when i look back, i saw Evangeline facing me with shining eyes. I sighed. "I see no reason to refuse."

"Then that settles the contract." Saibara said.

~~~~~

"Did we have to leave that quickly?" Evangeline has been complaining ever since we left.

"If we didn't, you might destroy the whole building with your excitement." I replied.

"Your statement is debatable."

"Your enthusiasm is debatable."

She shut up after that and we were able to finally walk in silence.

Once home, Evangeline went straight to her room. I decided to go off for the night and find out more about what my grandfather's planning. And i plan to do it and get back before dawn.