There had been many times in his life when Shuuseki had felt the desire to swear. Most of those times, he resisted the urge. Today was not one of those days.

"Damn it!" he swore in frustration. Two words, and yet they somehow encompassed the entire situation.

Things were still rocky with Enzan at home, and honestly, Shuuseki was at something of a loss as to what to do. He had toyed with the idea of asking the denizens of the Nexus for advice, had even gone so far as to make the trip to the other world, when some hyperactive, high-speed brat had literally run into him. His teleporter had flown out of his hands and he had been knocked into one of the many portals that littered the Nexus like so much garbage.

And then it had promptly disappeared after depositing him in an unfamiliar world.

"Damn it!" he swore again, softly, but with no less feeling. Still, the practical part of his mind insisted that there was nothing to be gained from standing there and cursing. With a deep grimace of distaste, he straightened his shirt and strode briskly out of the alley he had appeared in. He needed to investigate. Perhaps someone in this city would know how to get to the Nexus. If not...

His expression firmed with resolve. If not, then he would find his own way to get back home.

Today was the fourth day. Enzan had been missing for four days now. The first day, Shuuseki had been irritated to find that Enzan had apparently skipped school again. He had waited for Enzan to come home, a stern lecture on his lips should the boy's excuse not prove as solid as the last one.

He'd waited. And waited. Sometime in the middle of the night, he had fallen asleep while waiting, and still Enzan did not come home.

By the end of the second day, the Reality Vanish police had been notified. They promised to look for him.

A third day passed.

And now it was the fourth. There was no longer any doubt in Shuuseki's mind that this was no simple teenage lark. Enzan was not just hanging out at some friend's house or off on one of his (to Shuuseki's knowledge) infrequent adventures. Something had obviously gone wrong and the police were having no luck finding his son.

Shuuseki sat at his desk, moodily contemplating the two objects in front of him, the only tangible evidence he had of the "friends" that Enzan had outside of Reality Vanish. Perhaps it is time I took things into my own hands.

The decision, once made, was swiftly acted upon. Shuuseki stood up and, taking the odd boomerang and disc weapons with him, teleported himself to the Nexus. If Enzan could not be found in Reality Vanish, then the next step was to look for him there.

The repairman set an object down on Shuuseki's desk, carefully, as though it might cut him. Then another. Then another. Shuuseki frowned and reached out to pick up one of the unfamiliar things.

"Careful, sir," the repairman hastened to warn him. "They're sharp."

Indeed they were. Shuuseki hissed as he nicked his finger on the edge of the oddly shaped boomerang, or whatever it was. It wasn't a bad cut, barely a drop of blood, but it was an inconvenience all the same. "What are they?"

The repairman shrugged. "Don't know. We found 'em stuck in your walls. Didn't know if you wanted to keep them or toss them out."

"Hnn." He set the boomerang down in favor of picking up the other type of weapon the repairman had brought him. Unlike the boomerang, there was only one of its kind there, a small, golden disc with a stylized emblem on it. Its edge was equally razor sharp.

"Thank you. I'll decide what to do with these later."

The repairman just nodded and turned to leave. He expected Shuuseki to file a report with the police and turn the weapons in as evidence.

Shuuseki, however, had other plans entirely. It was time to do some research.

Shuuseki had been much better prepared for the cold weather when he left for work this morning. A trip to a clothing store had solved his lack of sufficiently warm clothing and his car had been serviced and repaired. He had even purchased chains to go on the tires.

That did not mean, however, that he was not chilled by the time he got home. Snow and cold air were annoyingly difficult to ward off completely. Once inside the house, Shuuseki removed his coat and went immediately to the kitchen for a hot drink. He did not check to see if anyone else was home.

It snowed while I was in a meeting the other day. A thoroughly unpleasant experience, both because I was caught unprepared and because of a child robot that did not know how to mind his own business.

I'll be wearing warmer, more winter-appropriate clothing from now until whenever spring comes. I'm not inclined to experience a repeat of today.

Enzan brought another friend of his over the other day. Something didn't ring right when I spoke with the boy, Bruce, but it could just be the way he was raised. I did not remain near them for long.

I will need to keep a closer eye on Enzan. I found him in the bathroom earlier after he'd deliberately burned himself to test his regeneration. I can hardly believe he was so foolish. If he tries a stunt like that again, the consequences will be more severe.

Enzan is home from camp, or wherever it is that he's been. I am still not sure I believe him, but nothing more can be gained by pursuing the issue at the moment.

He was LOLed when he came home, allowing him to heal far more quickly than he normally would. Not exactly a terrible LOL, as such things go, but I still do not like when the Nexus has us under its influence. You never know when its LOLs will backfire on you.

Unfortunately, Enzan was placed under another LOL shortly thereafter. He was regressed in mind and body to when he was eleven. At least I was able to convince him to come home with me.

I encountered a young man in the Nexus who claimed to be called Robin. However, I strongly believe that he is my son, or some alternate version of him. He mentioned working for a man named Batman.

Naturally, I want to know more about what sort of man my son is associating with. Granted, this might not be my son, but I can't discount the possibility that he is, either. Asking around the Nexus produced a variety of answers, many of which I do not like one bit.

My next step will be speaking to Enzan himself. I am hoping that he will be home from his "summer camp" soon.

Enzan came home for a week. It was good to have him here. We discussed some of my plans and ambitions. He doesn't approve, but I think it is because he worries needlessly.

The walk afterwards was pleasant.

After an e-mail exchange with Blaze, the navi code that was taken from him has been returned. I am keeping my opinions about this to myself.

I saw Enzan in the Nexus the other day. We ended up going to Seaside for a walk. It was... nice to spend some time with him.

Another recent encounter was with a reploid named Dynamo. At first, I took him to be yet another mindless ranter, someone looking to stir up trouble. However, after speaking with him for a time, I am convinced that his ideas have some merit. They also present an opportunity for me, one which I am inclined to take. I will be providing financial backing for him to pursue his goals. It remains to be seen if things will pan out.

Shuuseki sipped at a mug of hot coffee as he sat at the kitchen table, the morning paper spread out before him. His eyes weren't reading the words, though. His gaze had settled onto a blank spot between columns of text and hadn't moved for several minutes, his mind far away from the reports of bodies and murders that had made the headlines of the paper that day.

Zero...

He took another sip.

It had been a long time since their last date. Their schedules had been changing over the past few months, and now they very rarely overlapped at all. While he was definitely interested in her, and he was fairly certain the feeling was at least somewhat mutual, it was hard to build and maintain a relationship with someone when you hardly saw them.

They'd both realized what was happening, of course. Neither of them were blind or stupid. However, there didn't seem to be any stopping the process now that it was begun, especially since it was happening to early in the potential relationship. This on top of the other problems they knew they would run into, such as the issues of their different "species" and of their very different life spans...

They had agreed. Sometimes things just didn't work out, and it looked like this was one of those times. They could fight it and drag it out, creating a very big emotional mess for something that may not even succeed anyway, or they could let it end now, with dignity, and with a minimum of pain. Perhaps if their schedules changed again, they could try again in the future - assuming they still held any feelings for each other. For now...

For now, they were single and going their separate ways.

Another sip.

Perhaps the murders were interesting after all.

Life had been relatively quite of late, at least for Shuuseki. Even when Enzan had been LOLed into a seventeen year old, things had gone relatively smoothly. Shuuseki's forty-ninth birthday had come and passed quietly, with small gifts from Enzan and Dark Blues and a family dinner at the Mother of Pearl restaurant over in the seaside area of Reality Vanish.

As far as he was concerned, this was exactly the way things should be.

Shuuseki frowned as he hung up the phone. He wasn't quite scowling, but he was definitely Not Pleased by what he had just heard. He didn't have enough information to make any judgements, though, nor did he know exactly how he should react. What he needed to do, he decided, was go to the source and find out just what was going on.

He went upstairs and knocked on Enzan's door.

I have nothing but pity for the were-spawn of that navi I met in the park. I can only hope there will be no more litters, whether by self-restraint, enforced restraint, or neutering the navi responsible for all this.

I met another of Enzan's friends, Jubilee. Keeping in mind what happened with Isamu, I chose not to say anything then, but I believe Enzan and I need to discuss what rules to have in place when female visitors come to visit.

People like this young man make me extremely grateful that my son has a modicum of intelligence and common sense as well as a basic grasp of law and manners.

Speaking of children, V2 has been turned into a child. I have found a baby sitter who will be watching over during the week if Dark Blues is unwilling.

It had been a slow day at AI Tech - so slow, in fact, that things had come to a complete halt around two o' clock when one of the departments had run into computer problems. Normally, that wouldn't have had any impact on what Shuuseki did, but his current project involved working closely with that other department. With their computers down, there wasn't anything he could do.

So, with nothing else demanding his attention, Shuuseki decided to come home a couple hours early. It was odd coming home to an empty house, but not entirely unpleasant. After retrieving the mail from the mail box, Shuuseki went into the kitchen to get something to drink. He left the mail on the table as he made himself some tea, then sat down to peruse it as he sipped from his cup.

Bill. Bill. Junk mail. 'Hardcore Sex and Bondage, Yaoi editi- WHAT?! Shuuseki nearly choked on his tea as he read the title of the magazine in his hand and he quickly put his cup down. As if the title wasn't bad enough, the picture on the cover was more than explicit as to what kind of magazine this was. This is- I did not order this! Shuuseki was about to shove some of the other mail on top of the offending thing, or better yet, pick it up and burn it in the fire place, when something on the magazine cover caught his eye.

He had assumed this either one of his coworkers' idea of a joke or that the mail carrier had delivered someone else's magazine to his house by mistake, but no, there on the cover was the name of the subscriber.

Ijuuin Enzan. Not him. Not his neighbor. Enzan. Shuuseki's eyes narrowed and he rolled up the magazine. Enzan was going to have a lot of explaining to do when he came home.

When Shuuseki finally came home, there was a spring to his steps and a smile on his lips. A vacation with Zero had been just the thing he needed to get away from both the stresses of his life and the chill of the dreary weather. As promised, he had taken her to a remote beach in his world where the weather was warm and no one was around.

Zero had looked much better in a bathing suit than he had, but she hadn't seemed to mind either his pale skin or the few extra pounds he had not yet gotten rid of with his training. Shuuseki licked his lips, remembering the taste of her kisses. No, she hadn't minded at all.

I'm going to have to take her there more often.

With this silent promise in mind, he headed up to his room to get ready for bed. He was looking forward to dreams filled with warm sun, soft sand, and even softer skin and kisses.

Enzan is grounded for getting in a fight with his alternate.

While it is good to know that Enzan is making friends with people who have clear goals in life, there are still things Nitta Isamu could improve upon.

Speaking of Enzan, he has managed to get himself hurt again. Fortunately, it does not seem to be serious, but I should probably take him to a clinic and make sure. A man named Orpheu looked after him until I could pick him up myself.

Enzan needs to work on his manners.

Enzan has a girlfriend. I found this out when the boy accidentally let it after he saw me kissing Zero. I have not decided yet what to do with this revelation.

Zero tells me that he is being promoted soon. I hope he benefits from his new position and coworkers.

Speaking of Zero, I plan on taking her to my world for a day at the beach. I think we would both appreciate being someplace warm and far away.