Notes: Just a fun little chapter I felt like adding in.


Chapter 8


Switching places for the day. It sounded like a fun idea but what if someone realised? At least Saito was off to a good start at pretending to be Netto. Because of how long it took for his brother to convince him to try it, Saito was late. When he opened the door, he felt every set of eyes turn to look at him. Was it over? Had he already blown it?

"Netto," Mariko Sensei started to say. She drew out his brother's name in a frustrated sigh.

Saito grinned. So he hadn't blow it!

"I'm late, I know!" he said. "Sorry!"

Mariko just pointed to Netto's desk and told him to take his seat so she could continue.

With a sheepish grin, Saito slumped into his brother's seat and started looking through his bag for the PET. And looking. And looking.

He knew Megaman was lounging around in the homepage at home but Saito was sure he had packed his PET so that he could call his twin if needed! He dug around in the bag.

"Netto!" Mariko Sensei called out.

Saito jumped. "Y-Yes?"

"What is wrong?"

"I... I seem to have forgotten my PET," he stammered.

A couple of the students laughed, including Dekao. Saito slumped a little in his seat. How did Netto make it through the day here? It had barely been ten minutes and already Saito's nerves were frayed and he was ready for to shutdown for the night.

"Rockman's going to be so mad at you," Meiru whispered over at him, passing him a some paper to work on.

Saito thought about Megaman, probably watching the latest idol videos or something.

"He might not have noticed," he said.

Meiru was unimpressed. "He'll notice. How could you forget him?"

"It was a tough morning. We were fighting," Saito responded.

"About what?"

About whether it was a good idea to try trading places just once. "Nothing really."


The bell rang and Saito sighed and dropped his head into his arms. He was going to nap for a while and then never wake up.

"Netto!" Meiru hissed. "Netto!"

Someone was shoving him. Oh great. Since Netto wasn't waking up, Saito would have to wake him.

It was about then that Saito realised Meiru was talking to him. He was Netto for today. He opened his eyes.

"It's time for class," Meiru said.

Saito looked at the front of the room, where Mariko Sensei was getting ready for the next lesson.

"Seriously?" he whined in Meiru's direction. It felt like he had gotten zero sleep. His stomach growled too.

The battery was running low. Which was strange, the copyroid should have been fully charged. Saito didn't use it enough for the battery to be drained.

Meiru shook her head with a fond smile. "Of course you're hungry."

Saito sighed. "Do you think that Mariko Sensei will notice if I eat in class?"

Meiru nodded. After all, Netto had tried that before and gotten caught.

Saito wondered if he could fake sick to get out of this. He figured something must have gone wrong with the charger and they didn't realise because his copyroid didn't see much use. Maybe he should spend more time in the physical world? But it was such a chore. The physical world didn't have links for quick travel and time just seemed to drag on.

Saito pulled the battery information multiple times during class. He felt increasingly uncomfortable as time passed and the percentage dropped more and more. Would it last? He wondered what would happen if he ran out. Papa hadn't let them use the copyroids when the battery was low, in case they ran out of power while Saito or Netto were using them.

"Netto, are you okay?" Meiru asked.

"Huh? I-I'm fine!" Saito responded, a little too loudly.

"You're breathing quite shallowly."

"Netto, are you sick?" Mariko Sensei asked, suddenly appearing between the two teenagers.

"I-" This was his chance to get out of here and charge! "I don't know. Maybe?"

Mariko placed the back of her hand on his head. "It does feel a little warm but that could be normal."

His body temperature was displaying as being within the normal range. It was only the battery causing alarm bells to go off in his head.

"I-I might just leave," Saito said. "Better safe than sorry."

Mariko Sensei eyed him suspiciously but let him go. Perhaps Saito wasn't as good as playing Netto as he thought, if people thought he was sick. She sent him to the nurse's office.

Saito picked the bed with a power point underneath it. The moment the nurse stopped checking him over, he plugged in the portable charger he never left home without. Thank goodness for old habits from back when he was Hub.

Curling up with his back to the wall, he blindly opened the panel just below the base of his neck, and plugged in the cords. He curled on his side and pulled the bed sheet up to his chin, hopefully hiding the cords coming out of his back.

He sat there, drifting in thought as he charged and keeping an eye on the nurse in the room. If she came over, he would pull out the cords before she could see them.


Charging felt painstakingly slow. However, it only took an hour or so to get the battery up to a point where he would be comfortable until the end of the school day. Unplugging himself, he excused himself back to class. He was feeling fine now.

"Are you alright?" Meiru asked in concern.

Saito nodded and grinned. "I'm fine!"

"It was probably just a stomach ache from eating too much in the morning," Yaito said in a huff.

"Hey!" Saito countered. He wondered what she thought of his brother since she was saying things like that. Sure, Netto had a big appetite but he had an appreciation for good food.

Mariko Sensei called them to attention and work started again. Saito focused on work, glad to be out of the spotlight for a little bit.


After school, there was a familiar white haired figure standing by the gate.

"Enzan?" Saito questioned.

"Netto," Enzan greeted before grabbing his arm in a tight grip. "I need to go to SciLab and you're my ticket in."

"Seriously?" Saito said dryly. "I need to go home. I forgot my PET this morning."

"Call Rockman when we get to SciLab."

"Can I come?" Meiru asked.

Enzan agreed as it made it easier to keep Saito from running away.

Saito sat between them in the car and led them up to his father's office with a sinking heart. The person behind the desk didn't question him and gladly let 'Netto' and his friends up into the lab.

This had been a terrible idea. A horrible idea. Saito couldn't possibly fool their father, could he? But... he had fooled everyone else so far.

"Is there a problem Netto?" Enzan asked and Saito realised he had been hovering by the door.

"Netto?" His father must have heard them and decided to poke his head out the door. "And Enzan and Meiru as well. What brings you all to my office today?"

Saito breathed a sigh of relief. Somehow, their father had been fooled as well.

"Netto?" Dr Hikari called to Saito. "Could you bring Rockman here? I have something I want to try."

"Sorry, can't. I left my PET at home," Saito responded with a laugh.

"That's okay. I can call and get your mother to bring it," Dr Hikari said with a self satisfied nod to himself. He picked up the phone and made the call. There was silence as Haruka went up to the boys' room to get the PET. Saito could guess that she would see Megaman in the computer, slacking off or something.

Dr Hikari's eyes widened. He looked at Saito and didn't look away as he asked, "are you sure?"

Meiru could sense something was wrong.

"What's going on?" she asked. "Has something happened to Rockman?"

Dr Hikari silently hung up. "Meiru, Enzan would you mind leaving for a moment? There's something I need to talk to my son about."

Busted. Saito grinned and tried to make himself small.

"What's happened?" Meiru questioned.

"My wife happened to find… Netto in his room. Saito, care to explain?"

"Ah, not really." Saito laughed nervously.

"Wait. Wait. What?" Meiru gasped, stepping away from Saito.

Saito pulled the bandanna from his hair and ran his hand through to neaten it up. "To be fair, you didn't notice Papa."

"Maybe because I didn't expect you two to think of something like this," Dr Hikari sighed.

"Really? They are troublemakers," Blues commented.

"You're Rockman?" Meiru questioned.

Saito nodded. "Saito Hub Hikari is what I'm going by," he said, recalling that she might not have heard his name before. "Also known as Rockman."

Meiru glared at her PET as Roll giggled.

"You agree with Blues, don't you?"

"Well, they do look uncannily alike. We really should have expected this!" she giggled.

Meiru was silent for a moment before sighing. "True. I bet this was Netto's idea."

"It was," Saito confirmed.

"I can't believe you agreed to it," Enzan said.

"Saito can be a little bit of a troublemaker. Remind me to tell you some of the things he did when Rockman was first created," Dr Hikari said.

Roll threw her hand up. "Oh! I want to hear!"

"Papa, no!"