Sorry mina for the long update! This chapter has turned out to be a lot harder to write than I thought--it just kept coming out wrong. I think I've got it this time though. And of course, when I did FINALLY did get it done, the internet just HAD to be down. But now it's here for you all to read, enjoy and review!!!

We are sticking with Netto's timeline, since the whole secret-from-Meiru has been drug out long enough. -

And yet again: I do not own Rockman. Isn't this really a given already?

And one last note: For those of you who have reviewed THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU! I've never gotten this far in a story and it's because of you! (If you've notice, all my other stories are one-shots. I'm Serenade, Lord of the One-shots! Okay, not really, but it certainly seems that way sometimes).

Chapter 12: Meiru's Discovery

"Don't worry, Meiru-chan. I'm sure he's fine." Yaito looked sympathetically at her friend across the table. Her frown deepened when Meiru did not answer but instead continued to stare blankly down at her ice cream. She had been in a depressed mood ever since Netto's name had been called in class that morning and again there had been no response for the fourth day in a row. "Meiru-chan?" Yairo addressed again, hoping for any response. She wanted so much to help her friend, but when it came to Netto, not even ice cream could raise her spirits.

"Yaito is right, Meiru-chan," Roll said as she attempted to pick up on the efforts to comfort her netop. "Netto should be fine."

Meiru sighed. "I…just feel that something is terribly wrong. I can't…I can't put my finger on it."

"Meiru-chan…" Roll whispered.

"Hey, guys," a familiar voice said. Meiru continued to stare at her desert as Yaito looked up and saw Tohru, Dekao, and Dingo.

"What's wrong, Meiru-chan?" Dekao asked worriedly.

"I'm worried about Netto," she answered quietly without looking up.

"Oh," Dekao and Tohru frowned.

"What's wrong with Netto?" Dingo asked.

"He fainted a few days ago at school and hasn't come back to school since. We visited him and he seemed fine—the doctors had said he was just dehydrated—but…" Yaito's voice trailed off as she saw Meiru's eyes begin to water.

"Don't cry, Meiru-chan!" Dekao cried as he moved to comfort his crush.

Meiru wiped the tears from her eyes and gave a weak smile. "Thanks mina for trying to comfort me."

"Are you okay, Sakurai?" someone else asked.

Everyone turned around in surprise to see the familiar white-haired net battler. "Enzan!"

"What do you want!?" Yaito demanded angrily.

"I was just on my way to the…" Enzan began before stoppings himself, realizing that maybe this may not be the best way a certain fact that a certain brunette had apparently still not told should be revealed. "…to take care of some business," he finished.

Yaito eyed him suspiciously.

"Are you sure you are okay, Sakurai?" he asked again, ignoring the nosey blonde.

Meiru shook her head sadly. "Netto…I can't get a hold of him. I…I think something happened…" Her voice was barely audible and tears threatened to spill again. Suddenly her head snapped up to look at the familiar cerulean eyes. Why hadn't she thought of it before!? Enzan might know! She grabbed his hands, startling the teen. "Do you know where he is?!" she sobbed.

Enzan had known it was coming. Furthermore, he knew he could keep secrets, even if he did not agree to their keeping, but lying…well, lying was something he could not do.

"Yes," he slowly answered.

"Where is he!?" everyone burst out.

Enzan sighed. "I don't want any of you to worry. Especially you, Sakurai. The only reason he hasn't told any of you is because he doesn't want any of you to worry about him."

"Some good that did!" Yaito said angrily. "Meiru-chan has been worried sick!"

Tohru was slightly calmer in his address to the net savior: "Is Netto-kun alright?" he asked.

Enzan was quiet: he had no idea how to answer. After all, Netto was not okay. But then again, he didn't believe it himself, so he said "I think so" without the guilt of saying a lie.

"Is…he in the hospital?" Meiru asked, tears streaming down her face.

Enzan nodded regrettfully. "I'm going to see him now. You guys can come if you promise not to overreact. I think he's more worried about you than he is about himself." Everyone nodded, indicating their promise. Meiru even wiped away her tears and set a determined look on her face.

"So what's wrong, Enzan? And how come you know about Netto?" Dingo asked.

"The doctors say he has a heart disease. And I know because I was there when he collapsed again. Meijinn and I were the ones who took him to the hospital," Enzan informed the group. Meiru bit her lips to keep from crying again. Heart disease? That was not good—at all.

"Enzan? How is Rockman taking it?" Roll asked.

Enzan looked at the projected pink navi. "Surprisingly well," he responded. "He's been trained to be Netto's nurse navi. The way Hikari-hakase put it, the nurses didn't think Netto would let anyone else take care of him," Enzan added. "Speaking of which, Blues," Enzan called to his navi, "try and call Netto and tell him we're coming and that his friends are with me."

"Hai, Enzan-sama," Blues answered. "But what if he doesn't answer?"

"Then I'll kill him when we get there," Enzan answered.

Blues slightly sweat-dropped before giving another "hai" and disappeared into the PET to make the call. A few moments later he reappeared. "Enzan-sama, I was able to get a hold of Netto-san and Rockman. They know we're coming."

"Arigato, Blues. By the way, how is he?" Enzan asked.

"He seemed fine to me. At any rate, I think he's well enough to be driving Rockman up the wall; Rockman seemed rather frustrated," Blues responded.

Enzan smiled. "Thanks, Blues."

----------------

The bed was empty when they reached Netto's room, causing everyone's heart to tighten and speed up. Where was Netto!? Did something happen? Was he okay?

"Wow, you guys got here faster than I thought."

Everyone spun around and breathed a sigh of relief. "Netto!"

Netto smiled. "What? Did you think I died?" he asked jokingly.

"No, we just…we didn't know what happened," Dekao stated defensively.

Netto rolled his eyes. "I'm just fine, guys. Yeesh. It's a hospital bed, not a death bed." He choose to ignore the "not funny" glare Enzan was giving him as well as the annoying feeling that his brother was also directing a similar expression his way. "Just fi…" he started to repeat before he was cut off.

"HIKARI NETTO!" Netto flinched as a nurse came up menacingly behind him.

"Um…hi, Junko-san," Netto greeted sheepishly.

"Don't 'hi' me, young man! Where were you!? You know you are not to leave your room!" the nurse scolded.

"Told you," Rockman whispered, but unfortunately, the angry nurse heard and turned on the poor blue navi.

"Rockman! If your charge EVER disobeys his schedule, you are to tell us IMMEDIATELY!" the nurse raged.

Rockman bowed his head. "Gomennasai, Junko-sa..."

"It's not his fault!" Netto interjected defensively.

"Netto-kun, it…"

"Quit, Rock. It's not your fault. I'm the one who snuck out, despite your nagging," Netto told his navi. Rockman had to roll his eyes at Netto's word choice: "nagging" wasn't really quiet the right term here.

The nurse glared back at the patient in question. "Stay here, Hikari-kun. We don't want anything happening." Now it was Netto's turn to roll his eyes, but he agreed nevertheless and the nurse left after giving one more look of disapproval.

"Netto! Are you trying to kill yourself?" Enzan raised his voice angrily.

"What's wrong with you guys!? I just went for a walk around the hospital. With the way you guys are acting, you'd think I had gone to fight WWW, Gospel, Nebula, Duo, Neo WWW, Nebula Grey, and the Gregzar all at once!" He paused, and then added as a side note, "though that'd probably be more entertaining."

"NETTO!" everyone scolded at once.

"What!? It would be!" Netto retorted. "Besides, if it truly was dangerous, Rockman would have called the nurses."

"Not if your PET was turned off," Enzan pointed out.

"Actually, not true. Rockman has a direct link to the nurse station that is not affected by the status of my PET. And not only that, I turned on my PET first thing this morning," Netto informed his very upset friends.

"So why didn't you call?" Tohru asked Rockman.

The small navi crossed his arms. "Even though I prefer he'd stay here, I don't think a walk would hurt him. Even I think the nurses are slightly overreacting."

"The nurses know what they are doing, Rockman," Roll pointed out.

"But they don't know Netto-kun like I do," Rockman returned. Everyone sighed knowing they could not argue with that. Rockman smiled and added, "Don't worry. I'll take good care of him!" Everyone returned the smile. Of course he would—when had he not? "Speaking of which," the navi said as he turned to his netop, "I think we upset the nurses enough, so get back in bed."

"Oh yea," Netto sighed sarcastically, but did as he was told.

"Well, at least you're feeling better," Enzan said as Netto climbed into the bed.

"Yeup!" Netto smiled. "I had a good nights rest! And how are you guys?" Netto asked as he turned to his other friends.

"After you nearly worried Meiru-chan to death, why would you care?" Yaito charged angrily.

Netto frowned. "I just didn't want you to worry…" he said.

For awhile, Meiru looked like she was about to explode and, inevitably, she did as she burst out angrily, "BY TURNING OFF YOUR PET, HIKARI NETTO! DON'T YOU KNOW ME BETTER THAN THAT!?" Now that she knew Netto was "okay", she could stop worrying and start yelling. Netto shrunk back in fear as Enzan attempted to hold the angry girl back.

"I'm sorry, Meiru-chan. I just…I didn't…" the helpless brunette stuttered, unable to utter out an excuse. She claimed he didn't know her, but he knew her well enough that he knew there was no reasoning with her like this.

Rockman also noted the same thing as he turned to Roll and whispered, "Actually, it's because he knows her that he turned off his PET."

Roll nodded, but said, "But he still shouldn't have done that to her."

"I know that," Rockman said, but added in his brother's defense, "but Netto-kun was really sick up until today, which would have worried Meiru-chan even more."

Roll looked at Rockman curiously as he turned back to watch his netop to make sure a certain redhead didn't kill him. As she did, a thought struck her that caused her fear for her netop: Was everything really okay? Or was this all an illusion? Was Netto really sick? I mean, really sick? A heart disease was never good, but was it really that bad? Roll studied Rockman. Yes, it was. Rockman was appearing to be happy and optimistic, but inside, she could tell he was worried and hurting—really hurting. Much more then when Netto had been in any other previous danger, even those dangers that had been life threatening. Much more. This illusion of well-being was just that: an illusion.

And if Meiru had had a link like Netto and Rockman, then maybe she would have stopped trying to strangle his best friend out of supposed relief.