"I'm so late!...Again!"
Netto Hikari dashed down the sidewalk as fast as his roller blades would carry him. "Why didn't you warn me that today was that day Rockman!"
A sigh came from the blue PET on his belt. "Netto-kun, I told you about that last night, but you were too busy arranging our battle chips that you didn't hear me."
"Oh, well about that...what if this new kid is a Net-Battler like we are? I gotta be prepared to see what they're made of."
"Is that all you worried about? You should be more concerned about that homework you got yesterday."
Netto grumbled and hopped over a curb. "Come on, not this pep-talk again."
Rockman simply laughed and went on. "Well, I've personally lost track of how many times I've told you do it. Still, I'm surprised you've made it this far without failing once."
"Heh, guess I have a knack for pulling through even with the slimmest chances of success."
"Yeah, don't get too reliant on your luck though Netto-kun."
A chilly autumn breeze stirred leaves in the street as Netto came grinding the wheels in a tight turn. He shot through the school gates and grabbed on to the handrail for support as he jogged up the stairs to the main door.
Class had already started by the time he arrived. The teacher, Ms. Mariko, normally use to Netto's tardiness, was nonetheless impatient for him to sit down.
"Now that we're all here, I can get down to today's lesson plan. But before we begin that, I'm sure you're all anxious to met out new student."
The class murmured with voices and whispers as Netto glanced about. "Wait, where is the new student anyway?"
Someone to his right Giggled. Meiru, sitting at the desk next to him, pointed over his shoulder. "They've been sitting behind you this whole time, didn't you notice them when you came in?"
"That's enough chitchat for now, you can talk about it during lunch or recess." Miss Mariko said tapping the podium."Now then, won't you introduce yourself the class?"
A chair scraped as the student rose from their seat. Netto craned his neck to look back. He saw a kid about two years younger than him dressed in a yellow and black fleece coat, trimmed in white. An equally colorful cap topped their head, hiding almost all their blonde hair underneath. Staring straight forward with cobalt blue eyes, they stood at attention.
"Um..I am Emery Watz, your new transfer student. I hope we can all become good friends, thank you."
She bowed and quickly sat back down with her hands folded. She glanced over at Netto for a moment before she realized he was staring at her, where she flinched and waved nervously before averting her gave to an empty window.
"What does that goofball think he's doing, gawking at me? It's like he's never seen a new student before." She thought irritably. "Why did I have to open my big mouth and give everyone an open invitation to jump all over me when class gets out?"
Emery decided not to dwell on things, and began rummaging through her white messenger bag serving as a backpack. After pulling out a note book, she fished around for a pencil when her hand brushed against cold plastic and metal. She paused and opened the bag further to look at the black and yellow PET sitting at the bottom. She didn't dare to turn it on though, fearing that her Navi would act up and draw attention. Besides, playing with your Navi on school grounds for anything other than a lecture was strictly prohibited, and Emery wasn't one to take such a foolish risk.
She hastily pulled out her writing utensils and folded the flap back over the top, lest someone catch her off guard. The rest of the lecture passed fairly quickly, and the moment the bell rang, everyone was out of their seats milling about. Emery tried to keep her composition as she was bombarded with questions, most of which came from Netto.
"So hey, do you like to Net-Battle? Not to brag on myself or anything but I'm pretty good."
Emery flinched, she should have figured a boy would ask that sort of question, but it still made her nervous. "N-no, I don't really. The sport is ok, but other than that it doesn't catch my interest."
Netto frowned. "Aww you're kidding me right? What, are just not any good at it?"
"No, It's because I can't."
That surprised Netto. "You can't? What does that mean?"
Emery cringed. "Because I don't have a Navi, that's why." She lied
Everyone around Emery laughed.
"W-what's so funny?"
Netto chuckled. "You don't have one, that's a good joke, every one has a Net-Navi these days."
Emery simply glared back at him, daring him to keep laughing. Eventually he did stop, and his expression became one of confusion. "Eh! You mean you're serious?"
Emery nodded.
"How can that be?" Meiru asked, " I thought the Watz family was fairly wealthy?"
"Well, it is true that I have some money in my name to spend. But, like I said before, Net-Battling doesn't interest me. Anyway, how did you know that my family was wealthy? We just moved to Desan City about three months ago..."
"Yeah, but I heard a new power company had opened up recently and the owner's last name was the same as yours."
"Uuuh, that's right... My dad did start managing the Watz Solar-Electric power plant just last month."
Netto scooted closer. "Well anyway, back on the topic of Net-Navis. If you don't have one, you should definitely go out and buy one. I'm not saying you have to use them for tournaments or virus-busting, they're pretty handy for other stuff too. Not to mention they can be really great friends once you get to know them."
That last statement made Emery snort.
"What? Did I say something wrong?" Netto asked.
"No" she said.
"You don't know the half of it boy, my Navi is defiantly no best friend of mine." Emery thought.
The bell rang again, and everyone filed out excitedly for lunch, Meiru stopped outside just for a moment.
"Emery! Why don't you sit over at our table? I'll try to save you a seat! Hey Netto! you're not getting past me again today!" She forced her way out between two other students while Emery hurried to get her stationary back in the bag.
It wasn't hard for Emery to find the cafeteria, since she simply had to follow the other kids rushing to get a decent spot in line. Unfortunately for her, near the end of the line is where she ended up at, and that meant there wouldn't be many tables to choose from. She wasn't looking forward to hanging out with Meiru anyway, seeing as she was friend with Netto. She pouted, Netto was already annoying to her, with his constant stream of questions and happy go lucky attitude. She mentally labeled him as the class clown for now, seeing as he was probably late on a regular basis and a source of random events.
"Meh, guess it can't be helped, I'll be sure to steer clear of everyone at recess."
After grabbing a tray of assorted snacks, she spotted Meiru. Seeing no other suitable spots, sat down with a sigh and began munching sullenly, hoping a full mouth would excuse her from having to talk.
She observed quietly while Netto and a larger kid next to him argued.
"Me and Gutsman are gonna smoke you after school Netto, just you watch!"
"Don't count on it Dekao! You'd just be wasting your time! Why don't you give up already, there's no way you can beat Rockman!"
Emery swallowed and nudged Meiru in the side. "What are they fighting over?"
Meiru giggled. "Oh those two? It's kind of a rivalry thing. Dekao was the top Net-Battler here at school until Netto and Rockman beat him on a bunch of different occasions. Since then, Dekao has never stopped trying to best them in a fight."
Emery nodded, though she hardly understood what the big deal was. Truth be told, she had a common shelf-bought Navi not too long ago, and had tried her hand at Net-Battling with it. However, each attempt usually ended in failure and a hefty use of recovery chips. She hadn't been exaggerating at least when she said she had no interest in the sport either. She stuffed a piece of carrot in her mouth as she recalled the day she had first received her rebellious Navi. Her uncle had said he was going to move someplace far away from Densan to start anew, and he felt his days using Net-Navis were long over.
Emery recalled how proud she felt to get a custom Navi, much less one that belonged to part of her family. However, once he realized he had been given away, the Navi had gone awol in a fit of anger and refused to obey her commands. Distressed, Emery had no choice to use a data-lock code to keep him under control, which seemed to make his mood even worse. Already he had a heavy grudge against Emery.
She sighed loudly, and Meiru looked over at her in concern.
"Is there something wrong Emery?"
Not realizing she had made so much noise, she stammered. "N-no nothing really. I'm just not used to everything that's going on so far, since it's my first day here. Everything is just going kind of fast for me, ha ha ha."
"Oh, well in that case I'll be sure to give you a show around the school grounds after lunch. How does that sound?"
Emery nearly gagged on her next mouthful. After gulping down some soda, she regained her composure. "Oh... well that's thoughtful of you, but-"
"Alright! That sounds like fun!" Netto shouted suddenly. "I'll come with you too Meiru."
"Really there's no need for you to-"
"Hey you're not going without me either!" Dekao said hastily.
"Moe~ Don't just decide things for me like that..." Emery grumbled to herself as she swallowed another bite of food.
She had just barely finished another part of her meal when the bell rang out for recess.
"Woah wait a second! It's already time to gout side? B-but I've just barely touched my lunch!" Netto whined.
Meiru sat up with a sigh of satisfaction and stuck her tongue out. "If you hadn't wasted so much time fighting with Dekao over who was the better Net-Battler then you might have been able to eat. Come on, you agreed to help me show Emery around the school, so let's get moving." She said before grabbing him by his shirt collar.
Emery sat up next, quickly stuffing a left over packet of potato chips into her bag. She followed Meiru out the door, but Emery not excited at all.
Their first stop was the school courtyard, where everyone was playing and running around chaotically.
"Of course, here we have the playground. It's where everyone goes right after lunch. You already know where our class and cafeteria is, so we'll skip that and go back indoors."
Emery nodded and kept going, while Netto groaned in protest from being dragged around on an empty stomach. They re-entered the school from the front and passed the restrooms. Obviously no explanation was needed for that, so they continued down the hall. Meiru stopped near another room and chewed her lip.
"Umm, I know you're probably not going to be interested, but this room..."
Emery shrugged and waved her hand. "It's fine, might as well tell me."
Netto perked up for a moment. "Let me tell her about this room Meiru!"
"Alright, since you seem so excited about it, go ahead."
Netto nodded and cleared his throat, probably to make his speech seem more formal. "This room here is where we plug our Navis into the machine for lessons on virus-busting. Although sometimes..." He lowered his voice a bit. "We sneak in during recess to Net-Battle with each other."
Meiru shook her head. "But not today, after all, we're forbidden to use it for games any way."
Netto sighed. "Yeah, that is true. So Dekao, where do you wanna meet at to have my next victory mach?"
Dekao growled. "Meet me at the gaming plaza at the mall and I'll show you how strong me and Gutsman have gotten. Meiru and Emery should come along so they can watch me finally beat you. Also Emery could challenge me, I'd go easy on her since she's not that good. "
Meiru nudged him as Emery crossed her arms and looked annoyed.
"Oh right sorry, I forgot you don't even have a Navi. Well that's ok, at least you don't have to worry about losing to me right? Ha ha!"
Emery flinched and glared daggers at Dekao before turning hastily and storming off.
"Nice going mister big shot." Netto said, "I don't think she likes people rubbing it in. Hey Emery! Wait up!"
Netto looked about, but Emery had already gone outside, sulking at Dekao's remark.