Sasuke Tanaka

Sasuke Tanaka is the long-lost brother of Hideo Tanaka, and the reason why Hideo created the NeuroLink. He is one of the main antagonists turned protagonist in the Warcross series.

## Pre-Warcross

Because Sasuke had a terminal disease, his parents were desperate to find something that could cure him. So, when Mina Tanaka found out about the program that her supervisor, Dana Taylor was holding, she enlisted Sasuke in it. However, Taylor wasn't really trying to save the children's lives, and was just using the program as a cover for her real experiment: to separate the mind from the body. Due to Sasuke's negative reactions while taking the program, Mina Tanaka dropped her son out of the program; proving a huge disappointment for Taylor, as Sasuke was the highest student in the experiment, and the only one who's mind was strong enough to withstand separation from the body. We know that Taylor's backup candidate for the experiment was her own daughter: Jackson Taylor, but because her numbers were "far less consistent", Taylor and a researcher conducted a scheme to kidnap Sasuke Tanaka and moved forward with him as their candidate, despite Sasuke's parents withdrawing him from the trials much earlier on.

After Sasuke was kidnapped while playing with his brother, Hideo Tanaka, in the park, this left a strong impact on Hideo, and caused him to create the NeuroLink because of Sasuke. This also left a negative impact on the Tanaka family in whole; Hideo grew a streak of gray in his hair from grief, Mina started having problems with forgetting things, and Hideo's father developed a bad, lingering cough after Sasuke's disappearance.

Once Taylor had successfully kidnapped Sasuke, she held him in the Technology Institute against his will, and tirelessly conducted experiments against him, slowly turning his mind into data. During the remainder of his physical life, Sasuke devolved a strong bond with Dana Taylor's daughter: Jackson Taylor. Their strong bond was found on their fear and hatred of Taylor, as well as them being the only two children in the Institute. Their friendship was inferred to be romantic, as we see in one memory Jax kissing Sasuke on top of the laboratory's roof. We see truly how strong their bond is when Jax, despite her fear of her mother, works behind Taylor's back to try to help Sasuke escape back home to his family. We see Sasuke's equally strong connection to her when he gives up his one chance to escape the institute in order to ensure Jax's safety when Dr. Taylor threatens to make her the subject of the experiment instead of him. Sasuke pledges himself to the experiment, and eats Taylor's manipulative words right up, making him a loyal participant to the last of his physical days.

Finally, when Sasuke's illness eats up his life, we see the sad statement of Sasuke's real body dying on a lab gurney, his humanity stripped away, and his mind downloaded into data, fully ready to do Taylor's bidding. He is no longer the Sasuke that we know and love, but now Zero, a ruthless, emotionless, half-life of Sasuke's.

## Warcross

We first see Zero at the beginning of Warcross, when Hideo hires Emika Chen to help him sniff out a hacker that has been tampering with the Warcross worlds. At this point, little is known about Zero, other than that he is a very, very, very skillful hacker. The next time Emika encounters him, when she was following D.J. Ren's tail for his suspected involvement in the hacking, she sees Zero betting on a Warcross game, sending coordinates to his followers through the bets. Emika describes his presence as "cold and powerful", hinting that Zero is no ordinary hacker, and is rather a much more sinister threat. And indeed he is, as we see later in the book, when Zero tries to take out his own brother's life via assassination attempt, which, thankfully, was not carried out due to Emika's quick thinking skills.

Zero, now knowing that Emika is on his tail, and very well might expose him to Hideo, hacks into one of the Warcross worlds that Emika is playing in with her team, the Phoenix Riders, and tries to make her a job offer. She refuses, and leaves Zero very angry, warning her what events would soon come to pass with a vague threat. Soon after, Zero virtually appears in the Phoenix Riders' dorm and blows it up, right after stealing all of Emika's memories of her and her father. This severely wounds Emika, both physically and emotionally, with Zero promising to return her memories to her if she accepts his offer.

We see Zero next at the Warcross final, in the end of the game, after Emika Chen had used illegal power-ups to ensure that her team, the Pheonix Riders, would win. We see Zero vaguely warn Emika of Hideo's algorithm and the treat it holds, before ominously disappearing, and offering Emika another offer to stop Hideo. This ends the book on a cliffhanger, with us readers wondering what decision Emika will make, as the scene of Emika and Tremaine draws to a close.

## Wildcard

At the beginning of the book, we see Zero make another job offer to Emika, ending the cliffhanger decision that had happened in Warcross. To ensure the fact that Emika would be live and able to work for Zero, Zero warned Emika of two assassins that had paired up in order to kill Emika, as she was the top bounty on the Dark World lottery. Zero sends Jax to rescue Emika from her would-be killers, and shocks Emika on the easiness of her cold-blooded murders. She then gives Emika a strong dose of drugs, in order to protect the location of the Blackcoat's base. There at the hotel, Emika meets Zero "in person", and accepts the offer he has made in order to stop Hideo and his algorithm.

Later on in the book, when Tremaine goes down to investigate the Tokyo Institute of Technology, we see Zero yet again, as he is in the room with Dr. Taylor and Jax. In this scene, we also see the truth behind Zero's fake body, as we see that Zero can move a metal body suit with his mind, making himself a solid figure. We also see Emika thinking that Zero and Dr. Taylor will stop Jax from killing Tremaine when they discover him snooping around in the Institute. However, they do not, revealing the true cruelty behind Dr. Taylor's mind.

Even later on in the book, we see Jax show Emika the early memories of the real Sasuke Tanaka, and what his fate became. We see Jax tell Emika, who is in shock, "Zero isn't real, Emika. Sasuke Tanaka died years ago on a lab gurney."

But in the end of Wildcard, Emika managed to "steal" a blue scarf, which completely restored Sasuke's conscience in Zero.