Disclaimer: EXE is not mine, even if I wished it was, neither is the English language (they can sue you for everything these days).
I don't know from which part of my brain this came from and I think I don't even want to know. I'm not entirely sure about the Japanese school system, but as far as I know they have this system that the results are being sent to the parents the same evening their children wrote it, so yeah. If it's wrong then it works like that in the EXE universe, because nobody can correct me on that. Huzzah!
UPDATE: Netto's eye color corrected. Thanks to Vio to pointing out that stupid hell of a mistake.
Hikari Netto was nervous. And it showed.
His legs were shaking as if he was standing on the center of an earthquake with an intensity of 7 on Richter scale, and caused his whole body to shake slightly as well. Both his hands were clenched to fists, his fingernails nearly cutting into his flesh - to let them actually cut him, he didn't have the strength nor did his nails have the required length.
An unnerving noise was coming from his mouth, as he gnashed his teeth pretty loudly. His big, brown eyes were directed straight forward, staring down the wooden door a single step away from him.
On his left shoulder sat RockmanEXE's image, projected by the PET in the holster on his arm, cross-legged, resting his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands, while looking at his operator's face all the time.
"Just go in, Netto-kun," he said all of a sudden, giving Netto a bit of a shock and making him flinch. Rockman had been waiting for the entirety of the twenty minutes Netto was now standing there, and although the navi had learned to be patient with his operator, it slowly started to get on his nerves. "Sooner or later you'll have to, anyway."
"I'd rather go with later," the brunette boy replied, gulping in the process.
"The later you go in, the worse it's gonna be," Rockman mentioned for Netto to consider.
His operator blinked, thinking about the remark his navi had just dropped, and he soon realized that Rockman was once again right about something. But he just couldn't overcome his obstacles to simply grab the door handle and pull it down. Whenever he tried, something held him back.
Rockman sighed on the boy's shoulder. How Netto had managed to stand there for twenty minutes straight without moving an inch back or forth, he wasn't able to comprehend. The few times the boy had started to reach out for the handle had always ended with jerking back after the first few centimeters. It was rather ridiculous to watch, especially if you knew the reason for his behavior, much like the blue navi did.
"Come on, Netto-kun," the navi now almost pleaded. "Just go in. It certainly won't kill you."
"Can't guarantee me that, can you?" Netto countered.
"Then plug me in and I'll scout it out for you."
"Are you nuts? That would make me look like a total coward!" the boy protested, glaring at his navi daringly. He would certainly NOT do anything to make himself look as if he knew something like cowardice. Apart from continue standing there, of course.
Rockman, however, simply looked back at him, blocking Netto's glare with ease. "Then just do it yourself. It's one or the other."
At first, a few arguments that would maybe outmatch his navi occurred to him, but he soon decided it to be futile effort trying to stand a lost ground. Both of them were stubborn, but Rockman clearly had the upper hand here, if only because he was on the right side and Netto was merely acting childish.
Also, he knew he couldn't just continue standing there for the whole day, especially because it was already evening.
A last, deep sigh escaped his throat, before he got himself together and reached out for the door. On his shoulder Rockman also sighed, out of relief however, as he watched his operator grabbing the door handle.
Alright... I can do this... Do it...
He flinched a little, as he heard the quiet 'click' when the lock opened and now was able to pull the door open to the outside. Slowly, he opened it bit by bit, glancing into the house through the gap that was getting bigger every moment.
"T-Tadaima...!" he called out hesitantly and quietly. "I'm home."
Rockman simply sighed again, before he stood up and took the initiative by shouting out loudly, "Mama, we're home!"
"Rockman!" Netto started to scold his navi, which usually happened vice-versa. However, his mother's voice interrupted him before he could go on.
"Okaerinasai, Netto."
The addressed one jerked up straight at his mother's serious way of saying these words. He had known that coming home would kill him, or at least be as bad as that.
Truth was it was the last school day of fifth grade, plus exams to get into junior high. And Netto had gotten the bad feeling that he had failed the exam right after handing it in. So, as his mother was supposed to get the results by evening, he hadn't wanted to go home any earlier, as that would've meant telling her what he thought about the outcome of the exam and thus setting the bomb earlier than was utterly necessary.
Of course, dropping in after she had seen the results wouldn't do him any good if he had actually failed as well.
And judging by Hikari Haruka's voice, he had.
"Guess where you'll be going this year, my dear son."
"...summer school?" Netto guessed shyly, his arms folded behind his back and one of his feet rubbing the floor. It felt uncomfortable to be stared at like that, and he felt bad enough by himself.
Rockman however seemed to be calm. Whether it was because it didn't affect the navi directly or his ability to hide his expression was at its highest, Netto couldn't tell and didn't even pay attention to that much. All he knew was that he would end up spending his summer holidays in school and after that, going to a junior high that wouldn't be exactly the greatest.
Haruka watched her son for a few more seconds, penetrating him with her eyes only, before she started to speak up again.
"Not exactly."
For a few seconds Netto waited for her to continue, but then realized that she had intentionally created the silence to let her words sink in. What they did just a moment later.
If he really had failed, but wasn't going to summer school...
"Don't tell me you're gonna send me to boarding school!" he exclaimed. "W-What about my duties as a Net Savior? What will they do if they need me to save the world or something less dramatic, let's say, defeat a Copyroid?"
"Well, then that's not going to happen."
One part of Netto was speechless that his mother actually considered sending him to boarding school. The closest one was about 10 miles away from Akihara Town, had no bus connection at all and was an all-traditional-strictly-type of school - opposite to Densan Junior High, which had a direct train route he'd be able to take. He shivered only thinking about going there.
And the second part of him - which was stunned as well but able to wonder - asked its owner why the woman's face had changed into a big, childish grin.
"W-what do you mean, not gonna happen?" the boy asked, confused about Haruka's behavior. On his shoulder, Rockman seemed to be trying hard not to burst out with something Netto had no idea what it was. The only obvious thing was that the navi held something back with great effort. But besides that, the boy didn't know what was going on at all, so he got ready for everything that could possibly lie ahead of him now, not sure what to expect.
He didn't expect to be engulfed in a hug.
"Oh, Netto! Congratulations! You passed the exam!" She seemed to be out of herself with joy, squeezing her child as if he was a stuffed toy.
"Wait..." Netto said thoughtfully, too surprised to be able to understand right off the bat. "You mean... I did- I did what?"
The moment he realized what her words meant, Rockman began to burst out with laughter. The small navi wasn't even able to stand anymore and fell to his knees holding his stomach with his arms. Netto looked at him from the corners of his eyes, unable to move a great bunch more due to his mothers tight embrace.
"What's so funny about that, Rockman?"
"I'm so- sorry, Netto-kun," Rockman said, trying to press the words through his lips without starting to laugh again. "But I knew all along... y'know, the results are also being sent via e-mail to us navis, and your mother registered me as her navi... it was so hard keeping it a secret, the way you over exaggerated about it, but I couldn't help myself, watching you was so much fun... Gome."
An angered look was passed from operator to navi, before the joy of having worried about nothing calmed Netto down again, making him feel relieved more than anything else. His mother continued squeezing him for about ten more seconds before she finally let go and stepped back a bit, only to look at her son proudly.
"How time passes by," Haruka said, watching Netto as if he would disappear any moment. "It seems to me like it was yesterday you first attended ground school. And now look at you, having passed your Junior High qualification exam. I'm so proud of you, Netto! You've really grown up."
"Heh... well..." Netto replied shortly, rubbing his head a bit. He didn't know why exactly, but even though his mother always treated him like that, it embarrassed him the tiniest bit. "I'm... I'm in my room then. Okay, Mama?"
"Of course," Haruka said, granted him another big smile and stepped out of his way to go back to the living room. Netto looked after her for a moment then went upstairs to his room. He had only reached one third of it, when his mother seemed to remember something. "Oh, and your grandparents are going to visit tomorrow, so be sure to have your room cleaned by then, okay?"
"Dakara, sonna- oh, alright," Netto sighed before he continued his way up. Even though his grandfather's, Hikari Tadashi's situation was unknown and his father's mother had passed away, that didn't mean his mother's parents weren't there. And holy, they were.
Rockman was still very amused about the whole situation, judging by his looks. And that Haruka's parents were coming had given the navi another reason to smile.
When Netto had reached his room and banged the door shut behind him, he couldn't do anything but let himself fall onto his bed, face first. The whole afternoon he had been in stress and that had tired him out. His navi knew that, so he simply sat down next to his operator's face.
Until his PET received a call.
"Netto-kun, someone's calling," Rockman said and stood up to look up who exactly it was.
"Then tell them I'm busy," Netto mumbled into his pillow.
"It's Enzan."
"So?"
Rockman sighed. Even though he always was there when Netto and Enzan met, he couldn't describe their relationship, even if he had wanted to. Sometimes they hated each other then they were like best frie- okay, best friends was an overstatement. But they at least cared for each other good enough to call them friends. Somewhat awkward friends, yes, but nevertheless friends.
And then there were times like these, when one of them was just ignorant of the other.
"I'm answering it anyway," the navi told Netto, a moment before he did. "Hey, Blues."
On the other side of the call, Enzan's red navi nodded in return. Blues was a navi of few words, just like his operator, so Rockman had never taken it personally when he didn't receive much of an answer.
"Enzan-sama would like a word with Netto," the red navi explained then. "Is he absent or why are you answering alone?"
"I'm busy!" Netto called from his position, his voice muffled by the pillow, and made Blues frown. His head turned to where the boy's call had come from, then he looked at Rockman again, expectantly.
"Uhm, just a moment," that one answered and moved to his operator. "Netto-kun, come on, it's just a few quick words. I can imagine what he wants to talk about."
Netto mumbled something partly unintelligible, sounding a bit like 'But you can't imagine I'm tired or what', got himself together after all and reached for his PET at last. Expressing his dislike as obvious show-off, he looked at Blues. "So, what it is?"
The picture on the PET's screen changed from Blues to Enzan, sitting in his office and just putting some documents aside.
"Netto. So, how did it go, your exam, I mean," the white-haired boy asked.
"I passed it, opposite to my expectations," Netto told him, having a question to ask right after that. "How come you're so desperate to know you even call me? I could've told you the next time we met too."
Enzan's face went grim, except for the pained smile his mouth changed into.
"You've moaned about it for about an hour today and forced me to listen. It's natural that I want to know after that, isn't it? But, seeing you're about to complain about it, I've got better things to do anyway. Jana."
A moment later, the screen went back into the PET's common display. Netto stared at it for a bit, unsure of what to think about the call, but then decided to just forget about it and let himself fall back into a lying position again.
"That wasn't very nice, Netto-kun," Rockman mentioned, receiving an angered look for that.
"That was my intention. I've never been nice to that guy. What made you think I'd be now?"
The navi sighed, without giving a response though. He knew how to deal with his operator best, so he just evaded a discussion whenever that one was in such a mood.
At least he didn't have to cope with the boy being too scared to go into his own house anymore.