Chapter Text
Shortly after the resolution of the Cache incident, Hikari Netto disappeared in a subway bombing. In the wake of the accident, while Meiru joined Enzan as a Net Savior, Laika seemed to disappear as well. And while Rockman was recovered from the wreckage, his memories were scrambled. Rockman settled into a new life at the side of his creator, Hikari Yuuichirou, who taught him the ropes of being a researcher’s Navi. From then on, he supports his girlfriend, Roll, and his best friend, Blues, with everything he’s got; though he never stops wishing he could fight by their side once again...
Four years pass, and the group of friends Netto had assembled naturally goes their separate ways with time. The latest incarnation of the crime syndicate Nova begins to operate in the Densan area. Two younger Netbattlers, Kaita and Mary, are quickly swept up in stopping its activities. But they’re no match for its more serious force, a mysterious hacker named Black who is also a dangerously competent Netbattler—and Black’s strangely powerful and unhinged associate, Atsuki. After meeting Enzan and Meiru and finding that the situation with Black isn’t quite what it seems on the surface, Kaita and Mary vow to become strong enough to help uncover the whole truth.
In the meantime, the Net Saviors have been dealing with a rash of disappearances among their ranks. After deciding to lure out the perpetrator at a conference, Enzan and Meiru are shocked when their trap catches an extremely changed Laika. While Meiru is kidnapped from the conference and investigates Laika’s base from the inside, Enzan is forced to travel to Sharo alone with his disillusionment—and to accept help from Black. Enzan has discovered Black is actually the long-missing Netto, but he refuses to tell Enzan anything about what’s happened to him. With no answers for himself and no way to explain the situation to his partner, Enzan decides to keep quiet about what he’s discovered until he can make sense of it.
Inside Laika’s base, though, it becomes clear that Netto is acting on behalf of a force far more insidious than Nova, carrying out his mysterious superiors’ orders but fighting to keep the full extent of their power from coming down on the outside world. And Laika himself is not at fault for the actions of the Irregulars, the force he appears to command—Meiru discovers that the true Laika has been in a forced slumber in data form within the Irregular base’s servers for all this time, and that a Navi, Sigma, has been puppeteering his body to destabilize the human world. Netto, Enzan, and Meiru restore Laika to his body and delete Sigma; but the question of what to do about Netto is still at the forefront of Enzan’s mind…
It’s been a year since Kaita and Mary’s adventures began—now, alongside Enzan and Meiru, they’re closer than ever to the answers they seek…