Chapter 11: The fighting spirit
16:26 PM (Japan Time), Thursday September the 23rd…
"… Heart Slash!"
"Sun Disc!"
The two attacks clashed against each other, causing an explosion.
"Rock Man is my friend! You have no right to claim him! You boyfriend thief!" Roll yelled.
"Oh! But I adore him! He must be mine!" Riva replied.
"Battle Chip, Aqua Tower! Slot In!"
"Battle Chip, Cannon! Slot In!"
The two attacks clashed and canceled each other again.
"Why, you…! I've exposed you: a serial boyfriend thief!" Meiru told Levé.
"Hah! Who's gonna believe you? Those foolish men who are engrossed by my beauty, you mean to say?" Levé taunted.
"Sheesh!"
"Hah!"
"Meiru – chan! Let's go for the big guns! We'll settle it in one blow! They won't see it coming!" Roll called out.
"Yeah! Get ready!" Meiru put up a smug smile.
"Big guns…? What… Cha are gonna brink a tank?"
"Program Advance!"
"Program Advance!"
"Cannon, Hi Cannon, Mega Cannon! Slot In!"
"Zeta Cannon!"
"What!" Riva gasped.
The multiple blasts hit her fully and she screamed as her emergency "Log-Out" was triggered.
"Hah! I win." Meiru exclaimed.
"Hah! I win!" Roll added.
"WHY, YOU…!" Both exclaimed.
"Ahem, ahem."
They both stopped and turned to see a teacher standing in the classroom's entrance: he didn't look in a good mood.
"Classes finished 15 minutes ago. You should leave." The teacher pointed out.
"Eh… Roger, sensei!"
They both ran out of the building while the teacher sighed and rolled his eyes.
"These girls…"
Both girls went separate ways after directing murderous glares at each other.
"Sheesh! Pesky girl. I'm so gonna bring out some rope and strangle her to death!" She cursed.
"I'm so gonna plunge a sword into that old-fashioned pink Navi and delete her!" Riva cursed.
The Link PET rang and she picked it up without bothering to look at the screen.
"… I'LL FUCKING KILL YA!" She roared.
"… Is that so?" An icy voice asked.
"… Huh…? Eh…? A~h! Janus – sama…! A thousand apologies! I thought it was Sakurai!" She apologized.
"Sakurai…? You two have quarreled or what?" Janus sounded surprised.
"She saw through my disguise!" She cursed.
"Something tells me she must think you're a serial "boyfriend thief" or something like that…" Janus sounded liked he'd been expecting that.
"Yeah! Please! Allow me to fucking kill that foolish one!" She requested of him.
"No. And that's definitive. Your role doesn't involve killing." Janus firmly replied.
"Sheesh."
"Wanna quit? Go ahead." Janus challenged.
"N-no! Who'd quit when you've come so far? I shall soon have pulled him into the reach of that agent you spoke of…"
"Agent…? Oh. You mean that sadist: Salome's Operator." Janus seemed to have just recalled it.
"Anyway… Things may heat up on this front." She warned.
"I prefer heating up to cooling down." Janus shrugged.
"Roger."
"Goodbye."
Levé sighed in defeat and placed the Link PET back on its place while grumbling.
"Sheesh. Riva! We need intensive training this afternoon. I'm so gonna master a Program Advance!" Patricia told her.
"Yeah! Then we'll be able to stand on the same ground! Tee, heh, heh, heh, heh! The Reverse Cyber World is waiting for cha!" Riva giggled and looked evil.
"Okay! Operation: Payback… Start! Target: the Game Center in the station… Soul Game!" Patricia announced.
"Tee, heh, heh, heh, heh!" Riva giggled.
07:55 AM (Japan Time), Friday September the 24th…
"… Morning, Meiru – chan."
"Good morning!"
Meiru folded her arms and looked ill-humored as she sat down on her desk chair.
"Uh… Did something happen?" He asked.
"Yeah! That serial boyfriend thief tried to challenge me!" Meiru snapped at him.
"Serial boyfriend thief…?" Netto looked baffled.
"What… Don't you get it? She wanted to steal you!" Meiru sounded annoyed.
"Steal me…? Oi, oi… Eh… Have you checked that she didn't have any weird manias?" Netto asked in a hushed tone.
"If you mean to say if she's a sadist, then she ain't: she's just a spy wannabe who believes her own hide to be beautiful when coated with makeup. She's not even a middle school student! She surely already ended it and is showing up here with a fake ID to try to steal you off with some witchery or another!" Meiru told him in a rush.
"O-okay… As long as it ain't a sadist, I can live with it…" Netto quickly replied.
"I won't argue that you had that incident back in May. But I won't let that leech get close to you! She's the personification of the Yggdrasil Orbital Elevator's men's toilet curse!" She announced.
"Not again with the Yggdrasil Orbital Elevator… Look! The one to blame is the genius who though electronically-activated doors would look "futuristic" but didn't account for a power failure! Are you heating up like a volcano or what? Be serious, Meiru – chan!" Netto argued.
"A VOLCANO, YOU SAY! HIKARI NETTO! YOU'VE GONE TOO FAR BY INSULTING MY DIGNITY AND…!"
RRRRIIINNNGGGG!
The school's bell rang at that moment: Meiru scoffed and shat on her chair again.
"SHEESH!"
Levé entered and sat down behind her desk: Netto gulped and looked nervous.
Riva – chan and Roll – chan are quarreling over here as well. Saito sounded exasperated.
Great… Netto rolled his eyes.
"… Stop right there!"
Search Man pointed his scope gun at Armored Man.
"What do you want? I'm working." He replied without bothering to turn around.
Armored Man was dismantling a firewall: he was taking out each piece and storing it within a data cube he carried.
"That firewall is from a Sharo Nation Net Police system. You have no permission to dismantle it." Search Man stated.
"I care not to whom it belongs. If I'm paid to build a firewall, I do so. If I'm paid to dismantle a firewall, I do so. I'm a firewall specialist." Armored Man shrugged.
"I'll delete you, then." Search Man threatened.
"Wrong. I'll be the one to delete you. Beam Rain!"
A bunch of steel beam fell from the sky and Search Man rolled across the ground while dodging all of them.
"Scope Gun!"
He shot several shots at his enemy, but they didn't even leave a dent and they merely bounced off.
"I'm called Armored Man for something, fool."
"Stop calling me fool. You're the fool for trying to stand up to the Net Police." Search Man countered.
"Bah." Armored Man scoffed.
"Program Advance!"
"Program Advance!"
"Vulcan, Triple Slot In!"
"Mugen Vulcan!"
"What the…!"
The shots left various dents on Armored Arm's body and he made a grimace.
"Careful, Search Man. Sergei is about to show his hide around this area. Coming." Laika warned.
"Roger."
"… Heh… Heh…! Until I complete the building…! Until I bring about the New Age…! Don't let that green guy get close!" A voice rang out.
Sergei appeared next to Armored Man with a smug smile on his face and chuckling under his breath.
"You herd of grunts! Don't mind it if not a single bit or byte of you grunts remains! Just stall for time to go with! Get it!" Sergei called out.
"Hyu~h! Roger, Boss!" A familiar voice announced.
"Damn. I know who that guy is." Search Man cursed.
Cold Man dropped in from above while chuckling.
"… Hyu~h! I'm so gonna turn ya into ice candy this time around, Search Man! And Rock Man will be next!" He announced.
"Hold nothing back." Sergei commanded.
He snapped his fingers and vanished along with Armored Man.
"Hyu~h! I'll show ya my new terrific Special Ability! Ice Clone!" Cold Man announced.
"What!" Search Man gasped.
Several Ice Cubes materialized and formed a circle: they then became Cold Man copies and they jumped around to exchange places and make it harder to spot the original.
"WHITE BREATH!"
Search Man gasped and barely jumped out of the way as the attacks turned the floor into ice and formed an ice column: Search Man tried to scan them.
"Damn. Their data signatures are identical. I can't pick the correct one like this!" He cursed.
"… We'll have to take them out in one hit, then… Battle Chip, Magma Seed! Slot In!"Laika muttered before announcing his move.
Search Man threw the Magma Seed at the center of the circle and the area became a magma pool: the Cold Man copies were all deleted but no one remained.
"What?" Search Man gasped.
"Ice Cube!"
The Ice Cube hit him from behind and he was kicked into the right in a hard manner: he grumbled and managed to stand up.
"Hyu~h! How was that?" He laughed.
"Damn. They've made this guy the diehard type too!" Laika grumbled.
"Thunderbolt!"
"What!"
"The arrival of reinforcements!"
A thunderbolt rained down and electrocuted Cold Man, who uttered something and then smoked as Thunder Man dropped into the area from a higher level.
"Thunder Man!" Search Man exclaimed.
"I come to say "hi" and I find a mess again… Bothersome Sergei." Thunder Man grumbled.
"Yeah. He makes sure to bring unnecessary trouble everywhere." Raoul grumbled.
"Heh. I owe you one, Raoul."
"Don't mind it, Laika. I want to show these guys that I won't allow them to do their liking." Raoul smiled.
"Hyu~h! You're that guy who was along with Search Man back when the four-in-two battle! You deleted Bright Man!" Cold Man told him.
"Oh… Then this guy has his "Darkloid" memories." Raoul grinned.
"Hyu~h! Iceberg Press!"
Cold Man compacted and jumped into the air to dive towards Thunder Man.
"Elec Grip, Probe!" Raoul announced.
"Elec Beam!"
The powered-up attack impacted Cold Man and electrocuted him: he fell into the ground and reverted out of his transformation.
"Hyu~h! What the heck was that?" Cold Man demanded.
"Ask Star Man." Raoul shot back.
"Star Man! The guy began to throw meteors around me! I'm so gonna turn him into ice candy, too!" Cold Man grumbled.
"Thunderbolt!"
The attack hit Cold Man again and was deleted: both Navis sighed in relief.
"Phew! We solved this mess." Laika sighed in relief.
"Heh! I like provoking 'em." Raoul grinned.
"Good job, Thunder Man." Search Man told him.
"Yeah! The Elec Grip Blues gave us is very effective."
"Anyway… We've managed to round up the whole of the thugs on Heaven's Town and they're gonna be judged soon."
"Good. Miyabi told me he's been working on it, too."
"Okay! I see you're as energetic as always. I'll be going back." Raoul told him with a smile.
"It was nice to drop by."
"Oho! Before that…" Raoul grinned.
"What?"
Raoul put on the samurai head and brought the right hand to his chin while grinning.
"Doesn't this fit me perfectly? Hah, hah, hah, hah!" Raoul asked before he began to laugh.
"Enzan and Netto gave that to him." Thunder Man told Search Man with a hint of defeatism.
"And he got obsessed with it." Search Man guessed with a smile.
"Huh… You really look like a samurai…" Laika ventured.
"Heh, heh, heh! Okay. See ya around. Thunder Man!"
"Yeah! Bye."
"Take care, Raoul."
"See you again, Thunder Man."
Both Navis parted ways but failed to spot another "possessed" Navi who had seemingly witnessed what had happened.
"Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh…"
The black mass detached and escaped while the Navi collapsed into the ground.
"… Hum… Is it me or does my Meiru – chan look angry, Yaito – chan? Have I done something bad?"
"You moron."
"What!"
Dekao was talking with Yaito after the break and she looked rather annoyed by Dekao's question.
"Sheesh! To begin with: Meiru – chan ain't "yours". Second: you're not to blame. Third: the one to blame is P. Gotcha?" Yaito listed.
"P…? Patricia – chan?" Dekao asked.
"Chut! It's a taboo!" Yaito scolded.
"Why? Is Meiru – chan jealous?" Dekao asked.
"Yeah. That gal's a serial boyfriend thief!" Yaito told him in a hushed tone.
"Uh-oh… Meiru – chan looks like she could destroy something today, even…" Hikawa grimly muttered.
"… Netto! Stay away from that leech! That's an order!"
"Oi, oi… People aren't leeches!" Netto argued.
"Baka~! It's a way of speaking!" Meiru snapped at him.
"Man." Netto grumbled.
He stood up and headed off the classroom while Meiru looked about to explode, making the other three students recoil and look panicked.
"… I gotta buy a manual to exorcise omens away. I'll use that and the omen will vanish. Piece of a cake, even! Tee, heh, heh, heh!"
"Yeah! Time to do that! Go away, omens! Roll tells you that!"
