Arcadia watches ProtoMan help Mimic work, and wonders how long he's been a business NetNavi.
Well, okay, he isn't an actual business NetNavi - Arcadia knows he's a NetBattler first and foremost, because ProtoMan loves NetBattling almost as much as he loves Chaud, and Mimic, and Arcadia as well. He's never said he loves it, but Arcadia can feel it, and it's easy to see in the way he moves when he's battling or even just training.
ProtoMan comes alive when he's NetBattling. Arcadia thinks that's cool.
But he's also really good at business stuff, too. Arcadia isn't, so while ProtoMan - and Chaud, though only Mimic can see him - helps Mimic figure out how to do business stuff for IPC, he doesn't have much to do. Sometimes he'll chime in here and there, or quickly hide in the security camera system if Proxy decides to put in an appearance (those appearances always leave ProtoMan so afraid, and ProtoMan's fear leaves a bad taste in Arcadia's mouth because he doesn't want ProtoMan to have to feel that, and he doesn't like that Proxy makes him feel that on purpose).
ProtoMan doesn't tell him he needs to do something useful. Mimic doesn't mind him hanging around them. And Chaud, as far as he knows, doesn't mind either.
It's a nice feeling, knowing that he's actually wanted, and it's even better knowing that it's not just because he's useful for something. Even if he didn't do anything, they'd still want him around, because they like him and they're all really nice.
And the fact that ProtoMan doesn't mind hugs or cuddles is a huge plus, because Arcadia had decided that he loves hugs and cuddles soon after he started hanging around with ProtoMan and his operators - who kind of share the same body, but there's still two of them, so it's 'operators' and not 'operator'.
"IPC founded a new traditional Choinese-style restaurant, which is opening tomorrow," ProtoMan is telling Mimic, bringing up a few documents and reports relating to what he's saying. "It is primarily a sushi restaurant, though from what I understand that is not their only type of dish. Your job is to head down before it opens to the public and allow the owner to give you a tour, and sample one of their dishes."
"Don't like fish," Mimic says quietly, pulling a face.
ProtoMan's expression goes blank for a second, and then he moves his head in a way that suggests he's rolling his eyes behind his visor.
He's annoyed, but it's not the bad kind of annoyance, the kind that makes Arcadia scared and tearful and anticipating pain.
Being with these people has taught Arcadia that there's more than one kind of annoyance. The kind that ProtoMan's feeling right now is the teasing, friendly type of annoyance, the kind that you feel when someone you're close to does something dumb and you're annoyed about it but you're also kind of amused.
"As I said, it is a sushi restaurant, but they have other dishes," ProtoMan says. "You can select from one of those, if you choose. It is entirely up to you, as long as you sample at least one dish before it opens."
"Okay," Mimic agrees.
They have to get up really early the next day, to make sure that Mimic gets to the restaurant before it opens. She's looking around at DenTech's Choinatown as they're driven through its streets, and she's pretty interested in her surroundings.
The car passes by a small eatery, and Arcadia sees a short line of people outside. Mimic's interest piques even more, but she doesn't ask to get out - even though she wants to. It's pretty obvious, the same way she'd wanted to get those plushies (it had been embarrassing but Arcadia thinks it's nice that people want to buy something that looks like him, and it's even better because people apparently always buy it with the plushie that looks like ProtoMan). Mimic told him and ProtoMan that Chaud had convinced her to get them in the end.
Maybe when they're finished in the sushi restaurant, she can check out the eatery with the line of people.
The car stops outside of the restaurant, and the owner meets Mimic outside. He greets her politely and there's a flicker of surprise when she signs in response and ProtoMan translates for her. But the owner only lets his surprise show briefly, and soon he's giving Mimic a tour of the restaurant.
Arcadia thinks it looks very ornate. That's a traditional thing, maybe, for Choinese-style restaurants, and it looks similar to traditional Japanese-style restaurants that he's seen pictures of, though he sees some differences. It's really interesting, and he knows Mimic thinks it's cool too, but ProtoMan is more concerned with getting their business done like a professional, which is also cool.
Once she's been shown around, Mimic gets to sample one of the dishes in the restaurant. They don't just have fish-based dishes, though the cooks seem a little put out that Mimic doesn't want sushi, given what the restaurant is meant to be for. They try offering her swordfish at one point, but she refuses immediately.
Arcadia wonders if swordfish is even edible, then decides it has to be, if the sushi restaurant is offering it to her. It would've taken her a long time to eat that kind of food, but she just eats the sample she's ordered and gives them a brief review. ProtoMan translates her signs again and elaborates on some points that she can't because sign language isn't that good for describing things like this, and then they're done and being bowed out of the restaurant.
"Shall we head back to IPC?" ProtoMan asks.
[want to see something first] Mimic signs, heading away from the place where the car is waiting for them.
Oh, she's heading for the eatery she'd been looking at before. Arcadia perks up at that, happy that she's going to check out something that's taken her interest. She doesn't get to do that often enough, because there isn't much that does take her interest.
The eatery has less of a line than it did before, and Mimic tags on at the end, waiting patiently. ProtoMan looks completely bemused, and he glances at Arcadia.
"Do you have any idea what she is doing?" he asks, voice low.
"I know she's interested in the eatery," Arcadia offers. "Not sure what else, though. Maybe she saw something that she wants to try?"
"Perhaps," ProtoMan says. He's still wondering why Mimic is suddenly waiting in the line of a random eatery, but he's content to let her do what she wants.
That makes Arcadia smile. It's something he's seen ProtoMan do a lot. Mimic does weird things sometimes, but ProtoMan lets her do them as long as they make her happy. And Mimic does the same for him, too. And they both do the same for Arcadia.
It's nice. It makes him happy.
The lines moves quickly, and pretty soon Mimic is at the counter of the eatery, signing a request to the cashier.
"I would like six Space Steamed Meatbuns, if that is possible," ProtoMan says for her.
The cashier has that same flicker of surprise at Mimic's signing that the sushi restaurant owner had. But it's gone just as quick. A lot of people seem to react like that, when they see Mimic signing and hear ProtoMan or Arcadia translating for her, and he's not really sure why. She can talk, but she just doesn't want to, at least not to most people.
Because, well, she's scared. She's scared every hour of the day, and that never really goes away, even when she's happy or relaxed. Mimic may not feel it herself, but her fear is always there, under the surface, and it leaks through sometimes and that's why she can't talk to people the way most humans can. Arcadia's not sure if her fear will ever go away. Maybe it's just a part of her, like Arcadia's nervousness, or ProtoMan's anger.
But she doesn't feel her fear now, even though it leaks through and makes her anxious and silent. She's happy, because she gets what she asked for, though neither ProtoMan nor Arcadia know why she wants six of the Meatbun things.
"Mimic?" ProtoMan asks, when they're far enough away from people that no one'll question why he's not calling her Chaud. "Why do you want six Space Steamed Meatbuns?"
[looked interesting thought friends might like some] Mimic signs. [get six one for me five for them]
"Oh," ProtoMan says. He still doesn't sound like he understands, but this is another one of those 'as long she's happy' things. "You . . . only know where Lan lives, though."
Mimic shrugs. She settles on a bench some distance from the eatery, and takes one of the Meatbuns out of the bag. Arcadia can see steam rising from the bag, so the others will stay warm for a while.
She's waiting, Arcadia realises. Waiting for what? Her friends? Does she know they're coming? As far as Arcadia knows, they're not coming here today - at least, Lan never said anything about going to Choinatown in his last email to them. But Mimic seems to be pretty calm about it, like she's certain they're going to show up.
Arcadia glances up at ProtoMan, wondering if he's realised what Arcadia has. Since he still looks puzzled, he guesses the answer to that is 'no'.
He looks back at Mimic and sees her making a face at the Meatbun. She eats the rest of it, then flicks her tongue out like she's not enjoying the taste.
"You don't like it?" Arcadia asks.
[no tastes weird] Mimic replies, still making that face. [tastes like barbeque don't like it]
Arcadia tilts his head. "If you didn't like it, why'd you keep eating it?"
Before he'd been . . . before he'd become independent, he would have been too afraid to ask a question like that. It would've resulted in being shouted at, or getting hurt.
Now, though, it doesn't mean that. Mimic replies willingly and doesn't get angry at him for asking the question.
[didn't want to waste food] she tells him.
She doesn't eat enough to waste anything, but he kind of understands. He doesn't know much about her life before she took Chaud's body by accident, but from what ProtoMan's told him about his own thoughts on the matter, he can guess she probably wasn't ridiculously rich in her old reality. Maybe that's why she doesn't want to waste food. Or she's just like that. He doesn't know.
But despite what little they know about her old life, she's not a bad person. She likes messing with people and she has a kind of sadistic streak that's both hilarious and a little bit unsettling, but she's more than willing to help people, and she's nice and doesn't expect anything in return for either of those things.
Arcadia loves her. He loves ProtoMan, too. And Chaud, even though he's never met Chaud properly, but Mimic has mediated a lot of conversations between them often enough that he's gotten to know Chaud anyway, so Arcadia can say without lying that he loves Chaud the same way he loves Mimic and ProtoMan.
A couple of hours after Mimic has settled onto the bench, Arcadia sees Lan running around a corner. He looks frantic, and he's scared - not the same kind of scared that Mimic feels all the time, but the kind of scared where he's so worried about something that it's spilling over and cutting into him.
"Can you call him for me?" Mimic asks ProtoMan.
Arcadia's never heard her shout, and he doesn't think she wants to. Her mimicry doesn't really count even if she's mimicking someone who's shouting, because it's not her voice that she's using to shout, it's someone else's (even if Mimic is making the sounds herself). So, he's never heard her shout. Maybe it's because she doesn't like talking, but it might also be because she gets shouted a lot, and she doesn't like that so she doesn't want to do that to anyone else unless they really deserve it.
"Lan!" ProtoMan shouts for Mimic.
For a second Arcadia's sure that Lan's too busy being scared to hear ProtoMan, and ProtoMan takes a deep breath to shout again, but then Lan looks over and sees them.
Mimic stands up to meet him as he skids to a halt in front of her.
"I need help," Lan gasps breathlessly. "There was- MegaMan- I don't-"
Mimic nudges him and pats his chest. It's a wordless way to tell him to breathe.
Lan puts his hands on his knees and spends a few seconds trying to get his breath back. He doesn't lose his scared look even when he gets air in his lungs again, so when he straightens and looks at Mimic, there are tears in his eyes and his bottom lip wobbles.
"MegaMan's gone missing!" Lan cries. "I-I sent him to Choinatown's network, and he ended up somewhere really weird, and I don't know where he is anymore 'cus he got cut off from me and I don't even know how!"
[I'll help you look] Mimic offers, and ProtoMan repeats it out loud for her.
See? This is what he meant, by Mimic being nice. She helps people, she helps her friends, and doesn't expect anything in return. She hadn't even hesitated when offering her help.
She's really nice.
But he's also alarmed to hear that MegaMan's gone missing. He likes MegaMan - the blue Navi is the same size as him, and he's really nice too, and he's gentle whenever he talks to Arcadia and he's really kind to ProtoMan. And he knows ProtoMan likes MegaMan as well, for the same reasons, or something similar to those reasons anyway.
So he and ProtoMan are eager to help, as well. But the trouble is, they don't know where MegaMan is - if he's cut off from Lan, they can't even track his data signature through Lan's PET, which'll make it a lot harder to find him.
Luckily, things are made easy for them. There's a bakery shop nearby that suddenly malfunctions, and it's too sudden to be a total coincidence, so Mimic and Lan immediately head inside.
ProtoMan vanishes into the bakery's network as soon as he's jacked in. Arcadia latches onto his data signature and follows him, arriving just a split second after him.
His first thought, upon seeing their new surroundings, is that this is a really weird place.
It's night, for one thing, and Arcadia's pretty sure that night only falls in the real world, not the cyberworld. This place also doesn't look like the cyberworld, even though it definitely is the cyberworld, and he thinks it looks a lot like the real world Choinatown but . . . it's weirder, somehow. Darker, somehow, and not just because it's night for whatever reason.
"This is not the bakery's network," ProtoMan comments, looking around.
Arcadia hears an explosion in the distance, and sees a giant black shadow dragon blasting out a red beam of light from its mouth. The dragon is weirdly flat, like it's 2D, and it looks like it's made from . . . paper?
"How much do you wanna bet that's where MegaMan is?" Arcadia asks, pointing at the dragon.
"Let's go," ProtoMan immediately says.
He takes off running down the street, and jumps onto the buildings to get to the paper shadow dragon quicker. Arcadia opens his wings and takes to the air, following him, and since he's higher in the air than ProtoMan is, he sees MegaMan first.
"There!" Arcadia calls, directing ProtoMan toward their friend.
ProtoMan doesn't question him. He speeds up and then launches himself off the edge of the last building, landing in front of MegaMan with the grace of a cat, and activates a small Proto Shield just as the paper dragon fires off another red beam.
ProtoMan deflects it right back at the dragon, and the deflected beam makes a hole in the dragon's face. The hole doesn't seem to bother it beyond a rumbling roar, so Arcadia adds his own attack to the mix.
Arcadia shapes his Holy Fire quickly - he doesn't have the luxury of time like he did with MagnetMan, so the Holy Fire dragon he creates is smaller and more like a long winged snake than an actual dragon, but it's enough to give the paper dragon a reason to pause as Arcadia makes his fire dragon hiss a crackling roar of challenge.
He keeps close to his Holy Fire illusion, because it's easier to control it if he's closer to it. Over the top of his dragon's head, he sees five odd-looking NetNavis standing on the paper dragon's back, and quickly concludes that they're the ones who made the dragon.
Arcadia would be interested to talk to them, because he's never met anyone who could make things like he can, but they're the ones attacking MegaMan. So he doesn't want to talk to them, because anyone who attacks MegaMan is clearly a bad guy or they don't know how nice MegaMan is. If they did know, they probably wouldn't attack him.
Whatever the reason, they're attacking MegaMan and they've upset Lan. And Arcadia decides he doesn't like that.
He flings out his hand, directing his fire dragon forward. It can't really attack, but it looks more solid than the paper dragon, and the crackling of his Holy Fire is threatening enough that the five Navis on the paper dragon's back panic and order their dragon to get them away.
Arcadia narrows his eyes. You're not getting away.
He glances down at the street, where ProtoMan is helping MegaMan stand. Even from here, he can see the injuries on MegaMan's body. ProtoMan looks up and meets his eyes, and they share a nod.
These Navis will pay. You can't just attack someone as nice as MegaMan for no reason.
He lets his fire dragon crackle and then fizzle out. It won't last much longer anyway, given how hastily he'd made it. Then he darts down to where ProtoMan and MegaMan are, and hovers in the air beside them as the five Navis on the paper dragon come back, taking confidence from the lack of giant fire dragons.
Arcadia makes a bow out of his Holy Fire, pulls back the bowstring, and then fires Avenger's Arrow at the paper dragon's neck. ProtoMan joins his attack with a shot from his Proto Buster, and MegaMan throws a Charged Shot into the mix.
The attacks blow the dragon's head clean off, and it flops down. The five Navis on its back jump off and land on the ground easily, posing dramatically. They look pretty similar, but their bodies are different shapes - one of them is round, one's tall and thin, one's really small, another one has hair, and the last one has massive eyebrows.
"Who the heck're you two?" the Navi with the massive eyebrows demands.
"This is meant to be between us and that criminal scum, MegaMan!" the round one adds.
"Don't interrupt!" the small one squeaks.
Arcadia feels a flash of indignation at their words. They're calling MegaMan a criminal, when they're the ones who attacked him for no reason?
ProtoMan obviously thinks the same. He activates a Proto Sword and levels it at them, making the five Navis jump in fright.
"Try introducing yourself, first," he snaps. He's letting a bit of his anger leak through, but not enough that he's losing control. Arcadia hadn't been there to see it happen, but MegaMan had, and he'd said it hadn't been pretty, what ProtoMan had done to AirMan. That's what happens when ProtoMan lets his anger out all at once, instead of letting it leak out like he is now.
It's scary anger, and Arcadia is glad he wasn't there to see it. Anger scares him - it used to mean pain for him. It doesn't, now, he knows that, but it still scares him the same way that Mimic is too scared to talk, and the same way that ProtoMan freezes whenever Proxy shows up.
"We are the CutMan brothers!" the five NetNavis declare, posing again.
"I was not speaking to you," ProtoMan says, and he fires a Sonic Boom at the Navi with the massive eyebrows.
The Navi with the massive eyebrows yelps and dodges, but the Sonic Boom splits across his shadow - which grunts in pain.
Arcadia's not the only one who's surprised.
From the Navi's shadow, a NetNavi rises, clutching at his shoulder and wincing. He looks like a ninja, and he has dark skin like Arcadia, but the rest of him is purple and white, and there's a long red scarf around his neck that's as stiff as the swords on his back. He looks cool, but he's obviously their opponent, because all Arcadia can detect from him - aside from grudging respect for ProtoMan - is a sense of cold, professional maliciousness.
"Well done for detecting me," the ninja Navi says, while the five CutMan brother Navis freak out at his appearance. "You're quite perceptive."
He lifts his chin and narrows his eyes at them, considering them for a moment.
And then he jumps up onto the roof of a nearby building and takes off running.
"Arcadia!" ProtoMan says.
He knows what ProtoMan wants. He takes into the air again, beating his wings, and shoots off after the ninja Navi. He knows ProtoMan is following, leaving MegaMan to deal with the five CutMan brothers - now that Lan's with him, he'll be able to defeat them easily, so Arcadia isn't worried.
Arcadia and ProtoMan's speed is equal - except, in this case, Arcadia is a little faster, because he's flying straight through the air while ProtoMan has to jump across buildings and that means he's slowed down a little bit. But that also means the ninja Navi is the same, and though he's almost fast enough to outrun ProtoMan on foot, he's not nearly fast enough to outrun Arcadia.
He catches up to the ninja Navi within moments, and hurtles straight at him. The ninja Navi has a split second to look startled before Arcadia crashes into him, pressing his claws into him as they skid across the roof of a building. The ninja Navi struggles, but Arcadia pins him down quickly, and grips one of the ninja Navi's legs with his talons while the other digs into the roof tiles and prevents the Navi from escaping.
ProtoMan lands beside them a moment later. Mimic has sent him that Gaia Sword they got from the N1 officials, and he levels it at the ninja Navi.
"Who are you?" ProtoMan demands.
The ninja Navi scowls at him and doesn't respond. Arcadia digs in his claws a little harder, hearing a grunt of pain from the Navi he's pinning down.
"I will not ask again," ProtoMan says, crouching. He leans on his Gaia Sword pointedly.
"ShadowMan," the ninja Navi spits out.
"Who do you work for?" ProtoMan asks.
ShadowMan growls, and again doesn't respond.
"Is it Gospel?" ProtoMan presses. "Are you an agent of Gospel? Is that why you targeted MegaMan?"
"I have no obligation to answer you," ShadowMan huffs, closing his eyes. "My name is all that you'll get."
ProtoMan's annoyed by his lack of response. He gets to his feet with a low growl, and raises his Sword above his head. Arcadia, anticipating the blow, shifts back to give him room to strike down their pinned opponent.
But as soon as his claws are loosened, ShadowMan makes a move of his own. Arcadia lets out a muffled yelp as ShadowMan suddenly twists in his grip and kicks out at him. His hold on the ninja Navi is loose enough that he's ripped away and lands on the roof with an oof, while ShadowMan hastily gets to his feet and flees across the rooftops.
ProtoMan makes to chase after him, but Mimic appears on a screen in front of him, before he can take more than a couple of steps.
[don't bother] she signs. [MEGA is fine now anyway]
Arcadia perks up at that. If MegaMan's okay, that means their mission is complete - and there's no need to go after ShadowMan. He knows ProtoMan feels frustrated, but only because he didn't get to fight with ShadowMan. He probably would have, if Mimic hadn't stopped him, but maybe there's too much they don't know about ShadowMan to be sure that attacking him would be a good idea.
Mimic and Lan are making their way out of the bakery, Lan offering her his cheerful gratitude, when Arcadia spots Maylu and the others making their way over to them. They don't look very happy and Maylu is sporting an incredibly impressive glare that she levels at Lan as he cowers.
She starts tearing into him for . . . being late? Arcadia wonders what she's talking about, and then she mentions Space Steamed Meatbuns, and suddenly he remembers the bag that Mimic is still holding onto.
"You can get up extra-early and buy all of us some, as punishment," Maylu snaps.
"Okay, okay, I promise!" Lan exclaims. "I'm sorry I was late, really!"
Mimic interrupts, tapping Lan on the shoulder. When he looks at her, she holds out the bag to him. She'd probably give him one of the Meatbuns herself, but she's holding her PET with one hand so ProtoMan and Arcadia can see what's happening - and also so ProtoMan can translate for her if he needs to, but Arcadia's pretty sure that just holding out a bag is easy enough to understand without signs anyway.
Lan takes the bag, mystified, and then looks inside. His confusion quickly turns to shock, and he reaches into the bag and pulls out one of the Meatbuns inside.
"Space Steamed Meatbuns!" Lan exclaims, gaping at it. He glances at Mimic.
"You can have those," ProtoMan says, when Mimic starts signing. "I bought six. I have had mine already, the others are yours."
"Wait, seriously?" Maylu is just as shocked as Lan. "You bought these for us?"
Mimic nods.
Yai, the little girl who's the operator of that Glide Navi, looks absolutely dumbfounded. Dex and Tory, the operators of GutsMan and IceMan (who Arcadia hasn't really talked to much), seem delighted. Arcadia only knows their names and faces because ProtoMan and Mimic told him and showed him pictures of them, in case he ever needs to know that information for any reason.
"Wow!" Tory exclaims, grinning. "Thanks, Chaud!"
As Mimic's friends happily tuck into the Meatbuns, Arcadia exchanges a glance with ProtoMan.
"How did she know they came here for the Meatbuns?" Arcadia wonders quietly.
"I'm not entirely sure," ProtoMan replies, just as quiet.