Meeting II

Musashi was surprised, staring fixedly at the projection of Hanako, who had been talking for 20 straight minutes, explaining with a technical and difficult-to-follow vocabulary "the reason why Oda had come to the city" to install in a safe place in Night City a technological piece that Musashi could only describe as a black coffin that, from what he had been able to understand from Hanako's extensive and difficult speech, was related to Sora's nanobots.

Although, if it hadn't been for Hanako's previous words, reminded Musashi of the conversation 14 years ago when Hanako first told him about Sora's nanotechnology, Musashi could have enjoyed the ideas related to Sora's nanobots.

But now, Musashi was worried, and seeing how Hanako was acting, prolonging the explanation as much as she could, almost as if she wanted to avoid the next conversation forever....

Musashi, sighing to calm his nerves and deciding not to hassle Hanako, got up and, while Hanako kept talking, approached a nearby tea set, giving himself time to heat the water, prepare it and serve it, while Hanako kept talking.

Without taking his eyes off his cup while he drank, Musahi spoke again when Hanako stopped and looked at him somewhat surprised. "Are you finished? I'm not in a hurry or anything to do. Sora should have already arrived home from his last day of high school, so I can wait until you're ready to tell me what's bothering you."

Musashi demonstrating his patience and experience with this type of behavior, to which he was accustomed with Sora when he went off on tangents to avoid something that didn't interest him, surprising Hanako as she finding this Musashi more relaxed and serene, able to treat her with condescension, as if she were a child, making her smile as she imagined where this change in him came from, almost seeming more like a patient monk than the upright and serious man she remembered.

Hanako "Ahmmm..." she sighed, focusing on the topic she had been avoiding, looking at Musashi seriously,"Musashi-San...do you remember what I told you about controlling Sora's nanobots?"

"Hmm, you summed it up by saying that it was Sora himself along with a few lines of code that you used as a precaution to control the abilities of the nanobots. You told me that Sora's nanobots were attached to Sora's brain, reading his nerve impulses, being something like an unconscious part of Sora himself..." said Musashi, remembering what Hanako had told him years ago.

"I lied, or rather took advantage of your lack of knowledge, to tell you that convenient nonsense," Hanako said coldly, making Musashi growl, ignoring the hidden insult in her words, worried about what Sora really had inside him.

Hanako, not caring about Musashi's expression, continued talking, "Before I tell you anything, answer me this: Have you ever seen Sora act strange?" Hanako asked with some reluctance and at the same time great curiosity.

"Act strange?...that kid? Do you know how weird Sora is, making sarcastic comments about corporations, laughing at news propaganda when he was barely 5 years old, or crying with joy when he fell instead of pain when he was only 3 years old...You're going to need to be more specific," replied Musashi, still looking seriously at Hanako.

"Have you ever seen him talking to himself, reacting to things that only he sees or as if he weren't Sora?" Hanako asked as if at the same time she wanted to know but at the same time feared to know the answer.

"Like if he was talking to someone else? Or like it wasn't Sora?" Musashi asked again while he brought a hand to his chin, thinking.

"Yes!" Hanako exclaimed with expectation and nervousness at Musashi's final answer.

That they crashed when Musashi responded with a quick and short "No," making her sigh in relief and also feel a little sad. But when she heard what Musashi added next everything changed.

"Although...I have seen him react to things that weren't happening, like nodding his head following the beat of the music, when none was playing," Musashi said, not giving much importance to Sora's strange behavior in their duel.

Hearing Musashi's words, Hanako widened her eyes and stood up from her seat to confirm, "Music!?"

Surprising Musashi with Hanako's erratic behavior, nodding his head in affirmation.

This caused Hanako's projection to explode in a laughter like Musashi had never seen before, nor anyone who knew her.

"Hanako?"

"I'm sorry, Musashi, but do you know what this means? You scared me years ago when you told me about Sora's sudden interest in engineering at such a young age, but this...hahahah," Hanako said, still laughing.

"Hanako, what are you talking about? What's going on?"

Distracted by the important implications of Musashi's words, Hanako said inadvertently, forgetting her carefully planned speech to calmly explain the situation to Musashi. "That means the old AI controlling Sora's nanobots is finishing-"

Being interrupted by Musashi's indignant shout "WHAT!". Who unable to believe what Hanako had just said, angrily slammed the table in front of him with his cybernetic arm, breaking it in half and throwing his freshly brewed tea and cup into the air.

Musashi upset and furious to learn that inside Sora was something as dangerous as an old Ai, He was relieved that Hanako wasn't actually there, as he found himself struggling to control his emotions.

This time, it was different from when he had the conversation years ago and had only just learned of Sora's existence. Now, Sora was his grandson.

"HANAKO!!!, the upgrades, the nanobots and now this.... WHY!!! why the hell did you do all that to your son!!!" he yelled and reproached Hanako's crazy actions to Sora who to Musashi seemed to treat him like a Test subject.

"I did it for a good reason and let me tell you something, Musashi-san," Hanako paused her speech to give him a cold look before continuing, "I don't care about your shouting and reproaches, what I did to Sora...I would do it again without a second thought."

Musashi's emotional state was cooled down by Hanako's cold looks and words, reminding him of who he was talking to. He controlled his tone as he asked, "Why?"

"Because Sora was dying."

"What?" Musashi was surprised once again by Hanako's quick and cold response, which she didn't hesitate to continue.

"At first, when they only planned to slow down Sora's birth...when it was time for Sora to start developing...something happened to the zygote that was Sora at that time. I don't know if it was due to a failure in the cryopreservation phase or if it was the doctor who did something wrong, but...the few cells that were Sora at that time had cellular damage.

Slowing down their cell division, as well as the half-life of Sora's cells...when I saw the results...can you imagine how I reacted, Musashi?...at that time John was already dead, and everything I had fought, planned, lied and killed for, the illusion of my life materialized in those few cells was dying."

"Hanako..." Musashi said, changing his tone and attitude with Hanako 180 degrees, upon learning about Sora's development problems and how difficult it must have been for Hanako to go through all of that alone while keeping it a secret.

"As you can imagine, I didn't react in the most sensible way, but it was also the reason why Sora is alive now, so I can't complain about the decision I made. I refused to let my child die, I became obsessed with saving him no matter what, I studied, investigated, and that's when I started buying laboratories and investing in research that could be useful in curing the cellular damage in Sora.

After all that, I managed to cure and improve the damage in Sora's cell division thanks to a research project that had been abandoned due to the collapse of the old network, based on CRISPR gene editing.

But all I achieved was that Sora started to develop slowly, his cells continued to die prematurely, even with the best treatments from his birth, he would grow up as a weak and sickly baby, with health problems throughout his short life.

After all that work and millions of Eurodollars spent on research, and I could only see my son living a life full of misfortunes and pain, with nothing to be thankful for.

That's when I started researching and studying the secret that my father loved so much, that woman's Soulkiller...because if I couldn't save my son's body, I thought of saving his mind..."

Hanako's expression even frightened Musashi, making him wonder for a moment if all the moments he spent with Sora and the Sora he and Aoi loved was really...

"But the more I understood that woman's program...the more disgusted I felt...if I used the Soulkiller on Sora...he wouldn't be Sora anymore but an AI that you've taught to act like one...I couldn't accept that and worked on something...new, but with no way to execute it. So...I came up with a crazy idea, all the advancements Sora had so far, came from remnants of research that was being developed by the old AIs before the DataKrash of Rache Bartmoss...so I decided...to jump into the source."

"Hanako, you didn't..." Muashi said without daring to finish his sentence, for what Hanako was suggesting.

"Yes, Musashi, as you may have guessed... I went after the Blackwall myself in search of a way to save my son," Growing a smile on her face, when she said "And I found it!"