Welcome to Partner Times Two.
I don't own Rockman EXE.
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"So this is Akihara Town…" A teenage girl muttered to herself as she stepped out of the train station.
The girl had short brown hair and brown eyes. She wore a dark purple t-shirt, along with black shorts and shoes. On her head was a blue baseball cap. In one hand she clutched a ragged blue cloth with a black and red symbol stitched at the center.
'Do you really think that you can find out who your parents are here?' Her best friend (though he insists otherwise) asked.
'Hey, I won't know unless I try.' She responded.
She never knew how they can mentally communicate with each other like this, along with other things. Her best friend always tries to change the subject or remain silent until the girl stopped talking about it. And Grandpa, the one who had raised her for about ten years of her life, was really reluctant in talking about it, so she can only guess at the reasons.
'Besides,' she added, 'the voice is a little louder here than in Amerope or Creamland.'
The voice was a bit different than her best friend. Whenever the girl tried to talk to them, they never answer. It was a bit like a radio station, only a lot quieter and they only seem to be able to say one thing; her name. It was really weird.
The girl walked along the streets, not really paying attention to where she was going. It wasn't dangerous, because her best friend would tell her if she was going to walk into something.
'Do you really think that voice is a clue to find your birth parents? To your right.'
She stepped to the right and continued wandering around. Ah, she was about to walk off the sidewalk.
'I don't know, but it's all I have. That, and…' She held up the blue cloth she was holding, raising it to eye level and watching the ends flap around.
The blue cloth was an old bandana that was probably more than five years old. Her best friend had warned her multiple times that she shouldn't show it to Grandpa, so it belonged to someone Grandpa didn't like. That didn't really help, since Grandpa disliked most people, but it was a hint anyways.
The voice was there again. The girl focused on the voice that was calling her name and tried asking them who they are again, briefly 'setting aside' the mental link with her best friend.
'Who are you? How do you know me?' It was the same questions that she asked the voice whenever it shows up. Only this time the voice fell silent when she asked this time.
'You can hear me?' The voice seemed surprised, as if they didn't know that repeatedly calling the girl's name would get results.
The girl frowned. 'I was always able to hear you. And you haven't answered my questions yet.' She could 'feel' her best friend in the back of her mind, wondering what she was doing, standing in the middle of the sidewalk. She ignored him.
The voice didn't seem to hear her last sentence. 'You can hear me…that means…! I need to tell Mama right away!'
'Wait, what's going on?' The voice had already left.
'What had happened?' Oops, her best friend sounded a bit mad.
'Sorry Forte. The voice came back.' She explained as she started walking again, stopping occasionally to ask people if they know the symbol on her bandana. 'I could actually talk to them now.'
Forte made a small noise that she interpreted as 'interesting'. 'I suppose that the voice may be living in this town, then.'
The girl agreed, then refocused on the conversation she was having with a lady that was managing a café. She smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, can you repeat that?"
The lady gave a small smile, "The emblem on that bandana is the same as Hikari Yuuichirou's."
The girl blinked, surprised. Two clues discovered in Akihara Town? "Really? Can you tell me where he lives? I'd like to give it back to him."
The nice lady nodded. "Sure!" The nice lady not only gave the girl directions, but also gave her a drawn map with an arrow that started from the café and ended at a house marked with an 'x'.
The girl beamed at the lady. "Thank you so much!"
"Oh, no problem!"
The girl left the café and, following the directions on the map while drinking the mocha she bought from the café, was soon standing in front of a house that was, according to the map, Hikari Yuuichiro's house. The mocha was discarded into a trash can a few blocks back.
'Hikari…' Forte was in a weird mood ever since hearing that name.
'Is something wrong?' Forte didn't reply. Oh, well. Hopefully he'll lighten up a bit later.
'Um, if you don't mind me asking, where are you?' The girl jumped in surprise. She didn't think that the voice would be back so soon.
'I'm, uh, in front of Hikari Yuuichiro's house.' Why would the voice want to know where she was?
'In front of-Papa's house!?' The voice fell silent. Or left the girl standing awkwardly in front of the house. Probably the latter.
Seconds later, the front door slammed open, startling the girl and breaking Forte out of his weird mood.
The one who had opened the door in such a way was a woman with brown hair and eyes. Brown hair and eyes, the girl realized, were similar to her own hair and eye color.
The woman stared at the girl with an expression of surprise, disbelief, relief, as well as other emotions. The woman opened her mouth and said the girl's name.
"Netto?"
There may or may not be slightly different personalities for the characters, which could be attributed to the reason being that this is a slight AU in which Netto and Forte had known each other for most of their lives.
For Forte, having someone that helped support him after shit that happened when Netto was five could be a factor into him not being as power-hungry and/or antisocial as he was in his anime/game/manga incarnations.
For Netto, having Forte (As well as not having Hikari Family support, and having a certain grandpa that raised her) around may or may not cause her to develop certain views on power and whatever else I manage to think up.
Kudos for people who can guess who the voice is.
