Netto never really noticed the quiet until its repercussions had caught up with him.

It wasn't that he didn't appreciate the lull in action. It meant that plenty of public works officials had been seen around Densan, finally safe to clear away rubble from Cache's rampage (and Grezar's, and the Asteroids', and Laserman's...) which was good. But it also meant that he finally had no excuse keeping him from catching up on schoolwork, which was a bummer.

"I hope you're going to go right back to it after this," Rockman said as Netto stepped on board the subway. There were a lot of businessmen aboard, and they were taking up most of the seats in the first and second cars. As Netto walked past them and through the door to the third, Rockman admonished, "You haven't even touched algebra yet, and there's a test next week!"

Netto rolled his eyes. "Don't hang that stuff over me!" he complained, flopping into the first open seat he could find and crossing his arms. "If Meiru-chan wants to do something else after the arcade, then we will. If she doesn't, then sure, I'll go straight home."

"You mean if you don't want to prolong the trip," laughed Rockman as the subway started on its way.

Netto's long-suffering sigh was cut off by a deafening blast of noise as the car rocked violently, throwing him forward and making the last of his breath catch uncomfortably in his throat. For a moment, he was too dazed to figure out what had happened; it was only a few seconds later that he realized that he'd hit his head hard on the seat in front of him on his trip to the ground.

"Netto-kun!"

But Rockman's shout was nearly completely overtaken by another explosion that threw Netto sideways. He scrambled to his knees-he had to get away, but-

"Netto-kun!"

Class 5-A at Akihara Elementary was generally a well-behaved group of students. There was the occasional note, prank, or mid-class video game, but they mostly kept out of their teacher's hair. So when a black-haired boy burst into the room like the yellow jumpsuit he wore was on fire, everyone stared. From the PET on his wrist came a steady commentary: "There are mere feet between him and the finish line! Ten seconds left on the clock, and-He's done it, folks! In a record four minutes, Todoroki Kaita has made it on time! Any comments from our victor?"

"My siiiiiiiide..." groaned Kaita, as he collapsed into his chair.

"Very fitting after that final dash, folks," commented a younger, brown-haired boy from Kaita's left. "Perfectly sums up how our racing hero feels at this moment." Dressed in her purple and teal dress and boots, Oozono Mariko was a familiar figure to all of the students. As she walked in, she raised her eyebrow at the sight of Kaita slumped over in his seat, his cheek against the desk. Kaita's brunette friend whispered to Turboman, "This has been Oyama Chisao, reporting from the winners' circle."

"Thank you, Chisao," whispered the Navi in response. "Spelling bee coverage up next." To Kaita's surprise, the planned spelling test was not the first thing that Mariko-sensei brought up after roll call. Instead, a blonde-haired girl stood up. She wore purple capris and a light pink shirt that could almost be considered a short dress due to its length. Long, darker pink sleeves poked out of the armholes. Near her chest was a ribbon that hung from what was undoubtedly her family's Navi symbol, a white circle with a diagonal green ring inside.

"Um... Hi. I'm Mary Towa," she began, her green eyes fixed on the ground. Mariko-sensei looked at her, puzzled; Mary caught her glimpse and flushed red. "-I mean, Towa Mary."

"Towa-chan has come here all the way from Kingland with her mother," said Mariko. "She will be in your class for at least this year. Please make sure that she feels at home!"

"We will!" everyone said, and Mary quickly walked back to her seat.

The uninformed people of the city never let him rest.

Sometimes, he felt it was a wonder he could keep them all under his surveillance. He slowly typed on the keyboard on his lap with one hand and sipped from his wineglass with the other. There were the idiots he sent to distract the Net Police, their movements ultimately pointless and their impatience extremely annoying. There were the Net Police themselves, annoying as ever. If he made it too clear that the preparations for his ultimate move were being made, or that said move could be just months away, the Net Police would come running. If he sent his stronger men to deal with this new attention, he ran the risk of getting them arrested before they'd served their true purpose. So he was stuck with sending the idiots scurrying. They gave him an excuse to order people around, though, and he could never refuse one of those.

He set his wineglass down and began to type with both hands. He knew that it could always be worse. There had been a time when none of this was possible. Now, he could properly lead, and be obtuse in a chair to his heart's content. The men who served him now had power, and he had his men. A little wait was nothing.

One of his most trusted men-or women, in this case-walked toward the chair he sat in, her heeled boots clicking on the floor. She couldn't see him, of course. The back of the black chair he sat in was decorated with fiber-optic lights, swirling in rainbow colors around its eight feet of height. He had to be sure that he was careful with his identity this time around, even with someone as loyal as she was. He'd been naive and stupid before, but now, he would finally be able to cause the sort of terror that had seemed out of reach not long ago.

"I've given Nikumu your instruction. She'll be carrying it out at around four 'o clock this afternoon." As if somehow sensing her boss's annoyance at how late that was, she continued, "You can't expect anything more from her. She is Nikumu, after all... Be thankful that we're not staying up until three in the morning just to see if she won't screw up."

He sighed, taking another sip. "You're right. Besides, it's not like this is that important. Whatever happens, she's still staying out of my hair..." He smirked. "And, hopefully, confusing the Net Police."

"And out of my hair as well," said the woman with a grin. "I'm going to check on a couple of things that are actually useful... Later, Boss."

The school day progressed much like most others. Unlike all of the other students, who usually contributed something to classes, it was very easy to forget that Mary was even there, sitting by herself in the back row. By the time recess came, she had slipped Kaita's mind entirely; he pulled the portable Netbattle projector he'd been working on from his backpack and his pliers after it. He set the projector down on the benches lined against the building, then sat down next to it, considering which piece would be best to wire up next.

"Anyone want to Netbattle?" asked Chisao from his position next to the water fountain, which had two plug-in ports. "I just got a Navi from my brother yesterday! He's really strong, and I haven't been able to battle with anyone."

"Well, okay," responded one of the girls from class. Kaita watched with interest, since Chisao had been talking about his new Navi for hours on end when they'd last seen each other.

Chisao grinned. "All right! Plug-in, Gutsman! Transmission!" An ape-like Navi flew into the battlefield with a burst of light and began to beat his fists against his red, armor-plated chest.

"You too, Sweetman!" A black-haired Navi dressed in a white jumpsuit that was adorned with fringe, hearts, and an enormous cape flew down with a burst of pink-tinted light. He took out a mirror and comb and checked his pompadour for anything out of place before assuming a ready position.

Gutsman sniggered, "I've more than got you beat in guts, de gutsu!" and beat his chest again.

"Hmph," huffed Sweetman. "See how well you do in a fight before you talk."

Chisao pulled out a battlechip. "Let's see how fast our foe is! Go get him with a Mega Guts Punch!"

"Right!" replied Gutsman. His fist ballooned to three times its size as he charged forward. "Mega Guts Punch!" Sweetman stepped backward, catching his cape with his foot, and fell to the floor, where Gutsman's gigantic fist clobbered him. "Gutsman's the greatest, de gutsu!" said the bulky Navi happily.

"Eeek!" squealed Sweetman's operator. "Get him with this! Ratton!"

"We won't let that hit us!" shouted Chisao. "Cannon, slot-in, and Minibomb, triple slot-in!" A green cannon appeared to Gutsman's left, and it made short work of the mouse-like homing bomb as the red-and-yellow Navi hurled a trio of bombs at Sweetman, who shrieked as he was hit again. "Time to finish this! Battlechip: Mega Guts Punch! Slot in!"

"Raaaaaaah!" yelled Gutsman as he charged toward his ridiculous-looking foe. With one last yell, he drove his massive fist home. Sweetman was sent flying backward, skidding along the ground before logging out.

"Aw, come on!" wailed the girl. "I just can't win at this..."

"Wow!" exclaimed Kaita. "Gutsman's amazing!"

"You bet Gutsman is, de gutsu!" called the Navi from Chisao's PET. "And Gutsman is taking all comers today, de gutsu. There'll be a huge line of people waiting here to get beaten before long, de gutsu!"

Not even a second later, the bell rang. As they gathered their things to return to class, Chisao laughed, "Maybe some other time, Gutsman!"

The rest of the day progressed quietly. Before long, the bell rang for the last time that day, and everyone was released into the streets of Akihara.

Kaita had almost made it out of the gate before Chisao caught up to him. "Want to come over to my place, Kaita-kun?"

"Huh?" Kaita shook his head. "I'm helping my dad out in the garage. Maybe this weekend..."

"He won't mind it if you're a little late, Kaita-kun," Turboman reassured his Operator.

"Hmm..." The black-haired boy thought for a moment, then decided. "Okay, I'll come along."

"Great!" Chisao grinned. "So, do you know what your end-of-year project's going to be on?"

"Aww, don't start on that now..."

The Oyama house was empty when Chisao let himself and his friend in. Both of his parents were still at work, it seemed. That didn't trouble either of the boys as they made their way through the wide, twisting hallway to the younger of the pair's room. Chisao set his backpack down next to his bed, while Kaita's landed on its side with a thunk near the door.

"I don't really want to do homework yet..." Kaita sighed, with a wistful glance at Chisao's gaming console. It was sitting opposite the bed, which had a thick, knitted, green-and-yellow blanket draped over it. Taking a nap on it was also preferable to homework.

Chisao's eyes followed his friend's before he forced them away. "Me either, but Mama won't be happy if she comes home and I've got nothing done."

Before his friend could reach for his backpack, Kaita desperately searched for something to talk about and hit upon, "Has Akira-kun told you the Netto story yet?"

Chisao seemed to freeze for a second before he asked, "The... Netto story?"

"Yeah! He's telling it to everyone, and he got me twice by mistake-" Kaita stopped. Thinking Chisao's discomfort stemmed from unfamiliarity, he asked, "You've never heard it?"

"Well, I've heard of it." Chisao fiddled with a patch of the carpet. "I don't really like ghost stories, especially when-"

Kaita shook his head. "You have to hear it! Ready?"

"Kaita-kun, it's the middle of the afternoon, and..."

"Sssh!" Kaita ran to dim the lights. Chisao sighed as his friend went to adjust the blinds as well. Once that was done, Kaita used the flashlight function on his PET to provide the necessary creepy shadows on his face. "A long, long time ago, before we were even walking or anything, there was this Netbattler called Netto, and his Navi, Rockman. Netto and Rockman were the best Netbattlers ever. They fought all sorts of bad guys and other Navis and won every time. Nobody dared set foot in Akihara, 'cause it was Netto's house! ...Or something. That's how Akira-kun does it, but I-"

"They were really good," Turboman cut in before Kaita could get any further off track. "Undefeatable. They say that he's the Rockman that set all of those records down at the arcade-but that's not in the story until later."

"Geez, Turboman, that's the surprise part! You totally ruined it!" Turboman made a face at his Operator, who seized the opportunity to narrate the story again. "So, like he said, they were invincible... or at least, everyone thought he was! But just when he'd saved the world for the nineteenth time..."

In the dramatic pause, Gutsman wondered, "I don't remember anything like that, de gutsu. Maybe you're exaggerating a little, de gutsu?"

Kaita rolled his eyes. "It doesn't really matter. Maybe it was just his ninth time. Minako-chan says nineteen." He continued on, "...the subway train he was on exploded!"

"BOOM!" yelled Turboman, producing a yelp from Chisao.

"That was great!" Kaita said brightly. With relish, he continued, "Anyway, they burned to death, the flesh sizzling on Netto's bones..."

Chisao looked more disgusted than Kaita had been expecting. "That isn't funny," he said. "Hikari Netto was a real person. I used to follow him around town when I was little."

"Wait... really?" Comprehension dawned in Kaita's mind. "Oh my gosh, I didn't mean anything like that..."

"It's okay," Chisao said, a lopsided smile appearing on his face. "I was really young when he died, anyway. For a while, I didn't even understand what had happened."

"Did he really die... like that?" Kaita had never thought much of the story; it was just a ghost story, with no real danger in it at all. But knowing that it was real frightened Kaita somehow, like a safety net had been yanked out from under him. "With the-the burning to death, and everything?"

"Yeah," Chisao said, a bit more melancholy. "My parents almost moved us out of town after that. See, Dekao knew him, too, and-well, anyone could've been in the wrong place, with an incident like that... But like I said, I was really little-I must've been four or five or something," he said with a laugh. "It's still really weird to me, but it's not super-upsetting. I barely even remember it anymore." More quietly, he added after a pause, "He must've saved the whole city tons of times, but I barely even remember him..."

The two friends sat in silence for a while. Chisao seemed to be reflecting on something, but Kaita was incredibly uncomfortable being left with his own thoughts after learning how closely the story paralleled the truth. He felt certain he wasn't going to look at the subway in quite the same way again. "Say, how well did you understand that stuff in Math?" Kaita asked, bringing his friend out of his reverie.

"Huh? Oh, here, I'll show you! It's just a matter of remembering this one thing..."

A little while later, a black-haired woman wearing an equally dark dress took her place in front of a traffic light. "Connection established, virus programs loaded... Now, here comes my favorite part." The woman laughed, raising her green and purple PET to her computer's port. "Do your thing, Arrow," she said as a red laser transmitted her Navi to the Internet.

"Bye, Chisao!" yelled Kaita as he left the Oyama family's front yard behind. "Okay, now we really have to get going." They continued on until they reached an intersection, where a huge crowd stopped them. "Aw, man...!" Kaita quickly shoved his way through the many people to where the sidewalk met the road, where a strange sight met his eyes.

"All of the traffic lights are out? But none of the power lines seem to be down... this is really weird." Kaita was pretty certain nobody was sure of what to do. If someone took the initiative and moved at the wrong time, it would result in an accident.

Turboman's voice interrupted Kaita's thoughts. "I just checked, and the Internet connection's still up. We should probably report this to the power plant."

"Sounds good!" Making as dramatic a scene as possible while doing so, Kaita yelled, "Plug-in, Turboman EXE! Transmission!"

"Vrooooom!" Turboman entered the Internet in a burst of crimson light, his visor-covered eyes scanning the infected server. To his surprise, there were viruses of all kinds of elements attacking what looked like large light bulbs. They were the programs in charge of the traffic light's power, and they didn't look like they would hold out for much longer. Turboman was determined to ensure that they wouldn't have to.

"Turbo Wheel!" The wheels on Turboman's shoulders detached themselves and moved down his arms to his hands. The car-like Navi hurled them at his opponents, watching with satisfaction as the tires mowed down most of the viruses.

It was then that things got much worse. From above came a shout of, "You're ruining my fun! Roulette Shaft!" An arrow that flashed in red, green, blue and yellow sped toward Turboman. Kaita was sure they corresponded with the four elements that Navis could possess: Heat, Wood, Aqua, and Elec. The arrow hit its mark; Kaita winced as his Navi's hit points took a slight drop. The projectile's multicolored flashing stopped on red. As Kaita had expected, the arrow and the Navi attached to it burst into flame, causing the hit points of Kaita's Navi partner to go down even more.

Wincing at the damage, Turboman shakily got to his feet. "I think I know where this guy is, Kaita-kun. Send me a Spread Gun, hurry!"

"Got it! Battlechip: Spread Gun! Slot-in!" High above Turboman's head was a quartet of catwalks, forming a square around him. He took aim at the side to his left and fired. Almost instantly, his enemy's cry of pain was heard. A female Navi that resembled a teenage girl fell to the floor, landing with a loud crack; her green eyes flashed with anger as she snatched up the silver bow beside her. Instead of a full helmet, she wore a headband that squashed down some of her short, light green hair. A green dress extended from a silver ring below her purple-clad chest and shoulders, and similar rings on her upper arms hemmed equally green gloves. Above the rings around her ankles was dark coloring like that on her chest area, and below were a pair of green, heeled boots.

"She's a girl? Well... Um... Stop this, or we'll have to hurt you!" exclaimed Kaita, glaring at the Navi from a screen above the fighters' heads.

Turboman sighed, embarrassed by his Operator's naiveté. "You don't really think she'll just give up, do you?"

"Well, it was worth a shot..."

As Turboman had expected, her only reaction to this was to roll her eyes. "Don't rush me, short stuff. It's hazardous to your Navi's health!" She pulled back the string of her bow; a trio of arrows, glowing white with energy, formed on it. "Lightspeed Arrow!" Though Turboman was a relatively fast Navi, he barely managed to leap away in time to let the arrows shoot through empty space instead of his data.

Below Turboman, the green-clad Navi was readying her bow for another shot. Seconds before his Navi's trajectory took him above her, Kaita said, "Let's finish this fast! Battlechip: Minibomb! Double slot-in!" A pair of blue bombs with green stripes around their centers materialized in the red Navi's hands, and he quickly hurled them straight down. The resulting smoke blinded his foe, and he landed without having a shot taken at him. "Flame Tower! Slot-in!"

"Take this! Flame Tower!" yelled Turboman, slamming his fist into the ground. A huge pillar of fire erupted from the spot he'd punched, hurtling toward the green-clad Navi before him. The Minibomb smoke had barely cleared when she found herself staring up at the massive attack.

"We've given the viruses time to do some damage, Arrow!" called a woman's voice. "Retreat!" The green-haired Navi's body morphed into the word ' PLUGOUT' and vanished.

"That sure showed those creeps who's boss!" laughed Turboman. "Let's plug-out!"

"Damn it!" howled the black-clad woman as she stormed into the dilapidated building. "Stupid Arrow, always screwing things up!" She nearly broke the worn-out PET charger when slamming the old Progress PET that she'd never had the money to upgrade from into it. The Navi inside supposed that she should be cowering, but had heard this tirade far too often for it to have much of an effect. Knowing that an excruciatingly long rant was to come, Arrow went into sleep mode, her face disappearing from the screen as the PET shut most of its programs down.

The woman's scowl grew even more pinched as she thought of what her peers and superiors would say. Hands on her hips, she mocked, "Oh, Nikumu, you're such an idiot, even if compared to me you're the next Einstein! Nikumu, why do you screw up more than me? Nikumu this, Nikumu that..." She turned to face the charger in order to give Arrow a look that told her exactly how her Operator felt, but the green-haired Navi had vanished from the screen. "And now my Navi won't even LISTEN to me! I'll get that little brat if it's the last thing I do..."