A day had passed since the Chibi Rockman incident, and things had gone fairly smooth from then on out. Rockman and Roll had told everyone the story, which brought more laughter than sympathy for Rockman.
"It isn't that funny." Rockman retorted.
"S-Sorry, Rockman!" Meiru said through fleets of giggles. "It's just... cute!"
"It's really quite adorable in an abnormal, viral way." Blues added nonchalantly.
"Gutsu!"
Rockman blushed, pouting and looking at the floor.
They were feeling hungry, so the decided to go downstairs and have something to eat. They entered the kitchen and a debate began to see who would make dinner.
"I think the girls should do it."
"Hey, we've always been doing it. You guys should do it now."
"But we really like your cooking, girls!"
"Nice try, but flattery's getting you nowhere!"
The argument continued until Rockman unexpectedly interrupted. Usually Rockman was one of the few who wouldn't get involved in an argument.
"Actually guys... I think I wanna do it..."
Everyone glared at him blankly for a moment.
"WHAT???"
Rockman almost jumped out of his skin as everybody looked at him in disbelief.
"W-What? I just have the urge to cook all of a sudden."
Everyone continued to stare at him, making him feel embarrassed and blush. Netto spoke up.
"Well, I guess, if he wants to, we shouldn't stop him. Besides, I don't think anyone else wants to do it."
A murmur from the group confirmed his statement, so the gang went to the table to let Rockman prepare everything. Roll stayed behind for a moment.
"You need any help, Rock?" she said, as Rockman grabbed some cabbage and began slicing it finely.
"Nah, you just take a break. You've already helped me a lot!" Rockman smiled at her, and Roll smiled back. Rockman wasn't paying attention to the fact that he was slicing cabbage with a sharp knife, and accidentally cut his finger. "YOWCH!" Rockman proceed to wave his hand in the air, flinching as it bled waterfalls.
Roll sighed and took out a band-aid from her pocket. Meiru had advised that a human body was much more fragile than the Navi body they were used to. She took Rockman's hand and proceeded to bandage it up.
"There, all done!" Roll said as she finished, looking at a slightly flustered Rockman.
"Thanks Roll, I don't know what I'd do without you." Roll giggled and went pink. "Anyway, go take a break! I'll be careful from now on!"
Roll nodded and went to join the others, while Rockman continued to slice more cabbage, as well as grabbing some steaks and putting them on the grill.
"I wonder if Rockman's gonna cook something good." Meiru pondered.
"I wonder if it's going to be edible." Netto joked.
"I'm sure it'll be fine! Besides, he looked like he knew what he was doing." Roll informed them. Netto thought about this.
"Hey Roll, did Rockman ever say anything to you about knowing how to cook?"
Roll thought for a moment, then shook her head.
"No, not really, now that you mention it." Everyone looked at each other nervously. Soon the door to the kitchen swung open, with Rockman wearing a funky cook hat and carrying two dishes with lids on them. It smelt great.
"Here it is, guys! Enjoy!" Rockman said happily, placing the dishes on the table and removing the lid to reveal one dish full of perfectly cooked steak, and the other with a fine seafood salad. Everyone stood in awe at the amazing dish. It looked like something from a five-star restaurant.
"That's amazing, Rockman!" Yaito said, staring at the steaks. She took a bite and almost launched off her seat in pleasure. "You cook better than most of my chefs!"
"Aw, shucks." Rockman grinned, rubbing the back of his head.
"When did you learn to cook? You never said anything about it." Glyde asked, trying out the salad. After Glyde's first bite, he couldn't stop himself from draining his plate as fast as he could.
"Thah righ, che buhsu! Venn you wearn, che buhsu?" Gutsman spoke with a full mouth, throwing half-chewed steak debris all over the place.
"I dunno, I just knew somehow." Rockman shrugged. The gang didn't ask any more questions; too busy stuffing their mouths to talk. Rockman took a seat and joined them.
"Right foot, green!" Yuuichiro shouted out. After a moment of mad scrambling, they had all made it to green. Meijin spun the dial.
"Left hand, red." Another fit of movement, and everyone had reached an awkward position involving bends the human body can't really do, unless you were a master of meditation. Unsurprisingly, they crashed after a few moments.
"Aw, we almost broke our record of 123 spins that time!" one of the scientists sighed. (That's some diehard Twister)
Another scientist came out of the monitoring room and rushed over to Yuuichiro and Meijin.
"Dr Hikari! We've got a problem! It's that virus from before! We forgot something!"
"Forgot something?" Yuuichiro said worriedly. He knew this couldn't be a good thing.
The gang finished eating, laying back and feeling very much satisfied. Rockman got up and started gathering plates.
"Here, I'll help, Rock!" Roll got up and grabbed some other nearby plates, then followed Rockman back into the kitchen. They stacked the plates and decided to worry about cleaning them later. They headed back to the table where the others were thinking of something to do.
"Actually, if it's okay with Enzan, I'd like to have a battle." Blues' death glare returned as he looked at Rockman, who once again nervously smiled back.
"I'm up for it if you and Rockman are Netto." Enzan tilted his chair back and stretched.
"What do you think, Rockman?"
"I think it's time to win!" he agreed, so everyone decided that a good place for the battle would be in the woods.
"Are you ready, Rockman?" Blues summoned his sword-arm.
"Are you?" Rockman's buster came out.
"Ready?" Meiru announced. "Fight!"
Blues moved like red lightning, dashing straight for Rockman. He quickly dived out of the way, spinning around and letting loose a volley or shots, Blues narrowly dodging them.
"Not bad." Blues prepared his next strike. He dashed in again, hoping to catch Rockman off guard. Rockman had anticipated it though, and had jumped high into the air, right over Blues.
"I'm just warming up!" Rockman took aim while still in the air, flipping around and firing five shots at Blues. He managed to knock away three of them with his blade, as well as deflecting the remaining two back at Rockman.
"Woah!" he tried to defend himself, but being in mid-air made it difficult to dodge, so he shielded his body with his arms. Rockman fell to the ground with a thud.
"Hmph!" Blues watched as Rockman stumbled to get up, crouching down to regain his balance. "The effect of Navi attacks seems greatly diminished due to our human bodies. Interesting."
Blues stood once more, dusting himself off.
"You okay, Rockman?" Netto called out. Rockman raised his hand to say he was fine.
"Something's wrong Netto. I don't feel like I'm fighting normally." Rockman thought for a moment. Recently, he had felt incomplete in a way. He had also been acting strange, like when he had known to cook out of nowhere. Could it have been something about the virus?
"You wanna quit, Rockman? We shouldn't do this if you aren't feeling well." Netto loved to battle, but not at the expense of his best buddy.
"No, I'm fine." Rockman stood up. Blues prepared to strike again.
"Rockman, I know you saw what I did when he last attacked! You know where his weak point is!" Netto had been watching Blues' attacks intently, where he saw the instant that Blues would be unguarded. He knew Rockman saw it too because of their bond.
"Got it!" Rockman moved into battle position, ready to strike at the right moment. Blues began to dash towards him. Rockman had to wait until just the right moment to attack, but suddenly, he felt weak at the knees.
"What the?" he lost the feeling in his legs, and felt himself shaking. He heard something inside him screaming for him to jump out of the way. 'Why would I do that? I've gotta wait for the right time.' Rockman thought to himself, talking to the other voice. It wasn't working though, as the urge to run grew larger. Finally Rockman couldn't take it.
"Argh!" he screamed and dived out of the way, causing Blues to trip over in surprise.
"Rockman, what was that all about?" Netto was running up to him, and noticed he had remained on the ground where he dived, curling into a ball. "Rockman?"
"N-Netto, something's wrong with me..." he shook as he spoke. "I was scared! It really sucked! I've never been scared before! Ack!"
Roll, Meiru and the others were gathering around. Blues and Enzan had also gone to check on their friend.
"R-Rock! Are you okay?" Roll knelt by him, touching Rockman's shoulder, where she felt the shiver running through him.
"Message my dad, Meiru." Netto said, as he got down to help Rockman up.
"Right!" Meiru pulled out her PET, about to send a message, when suddenly Netto's PET beeped to life. Since his hands were full with Rockman, Dekao grabbed it off Netto's belt and opened the message.
"Netto, there was a problem in our calculation! We missed one of the Rockmans in the combining process!"
Yuuichiro and Meijin were furiously scanning the island for traces of the last Chibi Rockman, but had found nothing.
"How can this be? Our scanners our top quality, and it can scan the entire surface of-" he stopped, realizing what he said. "Oh no..."
"You think he'll be in the Engine, don't you?" Meijin read Yuuichiro like a book.
"But how could he have gotten down there? We had the place fitted with maximum security that only personnel would be able to get through. That, or an insanely skilled stuntman."
"Well, we are talking about one of Rockman's parts here. It could be the incredibly daring, super-skilled part of him, willing to brave the long, dark corridors of the Engine and he also has the amazing ability to bypass our high-class security using only his few if any resources and his wits."
Yuuichiro sighed at Meijin's poor attempt at humor.
"I guess I'll have to tell Netto." Yuuichiro called up Netto's PET.
"A missing part? But I thought they got him all back together!" Yaito said, recalling Roll's story. "Okay, you said the first one you saw was the sad one, that's one. Then there was the dopey one, two. Happy and angry made four, then bashful and rock made..." Yaito stopped calculating and looked up at everyone.
"Six..."
Netto's PET started to beep again. Dekao answered. Netto's dad flashed onto the screen.
"Hello?"
"Dekao? It's Netto's dad. Is he nearby?"
"I can hear you Papa. Go for it." Netto had placed Rockman on a tree to rest, then stood by Dekao.
"Netto, I'm sure you've probably worked out that Rockman's not quite complete."
"Yes, I have! And I want to know why it happened!"
"I'm sorry Netto. It seems that the scanner had counted Rockman's human body as one of the life signatures, so when the Rockmans were gathered up, we saw seven accounted Rockmans."
"Dammit! How do we fix it?" Netto was getting impatient.
"The last Rockman should still be running around the island, but we have reason to believe that you won't find him on the island."
"What? Then where?"
"In the island. The Engine."
END CHAPTER 7