Whoa… I've had a major hangover because of a certain somebody but I'm still not over it… I'm not going to mention any names, but the person I'm talking about knows what I'm talking about. AAAGH!! [clutches aching head] Holy crap!! Yep. Too much Wily Beer. Oh crud. [grabs a hold of protesting stomach] Excuse me. [runs off toward the bathroom]
------------------------------------
TJ and Rikumon: [laughs]
Youkai Ryuu: Who knows? Besides myself of course.
Chibiki-Wuz-Here: Well, what else am I supposed to do during the vacation? Got nothing else to do.
Song: No thanks.
maverickzero: Okay!
------------------------------------
--
Chapter III Part 1: Bushhead & Nicky-boy
"You were awake last night?!!?"
"Just answer the question!! Did you or did you not kiss Chaud?!"
"Why were you even awake last night?!"
"With all that racket you two were making, it wasn't strange. Now SPIT IT OUT!!!"
"No!!!"
--
Muramasa rolled her eyes, twirling a loose strand of hair with her finger. She looked like she didn't believe what Shine had just said.
"Then tell me what you did do!" she said, anger starting to seep into her voice.
Shine gave a sigh and said: "Okay, if it'll stop your whining."
"I DON'T WHINE!!!!" Muramasa nearly screamed.
*Flashback*
So they started an all-out pillow-fight, laughing as they got each other quite a couple of times. And it lasted for quite a while, until Chaud managed to 'unarm' Shine, and had her pinned down to her own mattress.
"Hey!!!" Shine exclaimed. "Let me go you jerk!!!!"
"No," Chaud said with a smirk. "Only if you say you're sorry."
Shine gasped, then frowned and said: "No way!! Now get off or else!!"
"Or else what?" Chaud challenged.
Shine thought fast for a moment, then smirked, much like her sister would.
"Or else, this!!" she said, and cocked her head up with lightning fast speed, their foreheads colliding with a violent thud.
Chaud instantly jumped back, shocked out of his wits, and his forehead burning like crazy. Shine sat up, smiling wickedly, which hid her expression of pain easily.
*End Flashback*
"And that's it?" Muramasa asked skeptically.
"Hai, that's it!" Shine said softly.
"Souda," Muramasa said, though her tone indicated she didn't believe it.
Shine was about to retort, when Chaud tapped her on her shoulder. The younger whitehead tipped her head back to look at Chaud. This resulted into making her see Chaud upside-down.
"Come on, we're here," Chaud said calmly, and headed for the exit.
Shine blinked and asked: "Already?" before getting up and following Chaud out of the metro.
--
Chaud and Shine entered Chaud's house, and Shine was left awestruck.
"Wow! This place is huge!!" she complimented, looking around in admiration. "You live here with just your parents?" she asked the other whitehead.
Chaud paused in taking off his jacket, then said: "Just my dad. But he's hardly around."
Shine chewed on her bottom lip.
"Your parents are divorced?"
The second the sentence left her mouth, she regretted it. Living with her sister for so long, had enabled her to read everyone like an open book, and she instantly took note of Chaud as his eyes lost a little of their sharpness.
'Oops.'
Chaud gave a sigh and hung his jacket up.
"My mother died a few weeks after I was born."
"Oh… gomen…" Shine mumbled.
"What??" Chaud asked, confused.
"Oh, that means 'sorry'," Shine explained. "Muramasa taught me bits and bites of different languages. And she---"
"Shine!! Uruse!!!" Muramasa's angry voice suddenly screamed out.
Shine instantly shut up and looked at Chaud.
"Three guesses what that meant," she said.
"'Shut up'??" Chaud offered.
--
"Smartass," Muramasa mumbled.
"Hey! Uruse already!!" Proto said angrily.
Muramasa whirled around toward the red armored Navi, looking rather pissed off.
"Same to you, bakayoro!!" Muramasa hissed.
"And what's that supposed to mean!?!" Proto screamed.
"Read my lips!!! SHUT!!! UP!!!!"
"Why you little!!"
Without a warning, Proto had run straight into Muramasa, sending her back quite some distance and making her land on the ground with a rather loud thud. You could probably imagine that Muramasa wasn't all too happy about that.
She jumped up almost instantly, and growled angrily at Proto.
"Ooooooh! You did NOT just do that!!" she hissed angrily.
"So what if I did!?" Proto screamed and ran at the still crouching Navi, fist pulled back to punch.
Muramasa screamed in anger and shot at the red-armored Navi as well. Fists connected with a large electric discharge, but neither stopped nor seemed to notice it. Proto suddenly twisted his hand to grab Muramasa's wrist, pulled her forward, and then delivered an uppercut to her jaw, which would've sent her away if Proto hadn't held onto her wrist.
Proto then kicked her square in her guts, knocking the breath out of her. With a strong roundhouse kick, Muramasa was sent away. The female-Navi rolled over a couple of time, before landing on her uninjured side. Proto snorted and turned around to walk away, when something suddenly slammed into his back.
He whirled around, only to get smacked in his face by Muramasa's tail, sending him to the ground. Muramasa was glaring daggers at the other Navi.
"I'M NOT THROUGH WITH YOU YET!!!!" she screamed, and morphed her right hand into a Buster.
Proto could just dodge the blast hurled his way, and activated his sword, racing at the girl with a scream. Muramasa screamed as well and ran at him, firing bursts of plasma as she went. Proto sent energy-waves at her, making the bolts of plasma explode on impact, before continuing on to the main goal. Muramasa however, simply jumped and flipped over them, before landing back on the ground.
With a loud whine she charged and was about to fire---
"MURAMASA/PROTOMAN!!!!! STOP IT ALREADY!!!" Chaud and Shine screamed at the same time.
Muramasa sent the burst of plasma in a different direction and Proto quickly retracted his sword. Both Navis hid their hands behind their back.
"But he/she started it!!" they said at the same time, pointing at each other.
"I don't care who started it, I'll finish it!!" Chaud said angrily.
The two Navis glared at each other, though you couldn't really tell with Proto.
Muramasa angrily mouthed the words: "One of these days I'll permanently delete you!"
Proto's glare deepened and he mouthed: "Not if I delete you first!"
--
"I get the feeling Proto and Muramasa can't stand each other," Shine said, sitting in a chair in the livingroom, drinking soda through a straw.
"What gave you that idea?" Chaud said with a restrained chuckle.
Shine smiled and shrugged, saying: "I dunno. Just a feeling I guess."
Chaud chuckled and sipped his coffee.
"How do you keep doing that?" he finally asked.
"Huh?? Do what??" Shine asked.
"Cheer people up."
"Oh!" Shine said, placing her empty cup on the table and leaning back in the chair. "I don't know. Everyone says it's some sort of gift, 'cause I somehow keep doing it without even trying. WHOA!!!"
Shine gave a yelp in surprise as she almost tumbled over, before managing to sit upright with the chair again. Chaud laughed at the spectacle, and Shine joined mighty quickly.
"See? I didn't even try!"
--
Muramasa took a careful sip from her Energy drink, not even looking at the other Navi in the room. She was sitting on the sink, not even bothering to take a chair. She was holding the cup in both hands, and drank from the cup with her eyes closed. When she opened them again, she was staring at the wall, not even speaking a word to the other Navi.
Proto didn't even bother. He just drank from his own cup. Proto was leaning against the wall, as far away from Muramasa as possible. He was not in the mood to handle another battle with the female-Navi. He already had a bruise forming on his face from where her tail had smacked him. It burned, but he didn't bother.
A sudden chuckle made him look up, and he noticed Muramasa chuckling about something, her eyes closed.
"What's so funny?" he demanded.
Muramasa shook her head and said: "Nothing. Just thinking about my first meeting with a friend."
Proto blinked behind his shades and asked: "And the fun of that is?"
"Well, he nearly got us both deleted and our Operators arrested, if we hadn't managed to escape. Kuso… that guy's a freaking daredevil!" Muramasa mumbled staring at the ceiling.
Proto looked curious and asked: "What'd he do?"
Muramasa chuckled and said: "He activated the firealarm. In the mall."
Proto couldn't stop the chuckle that came from his mouth. Muramasa also chuckled and shook her head.
"Your boyfriend sounds like a nice guy," Proto said, making Muramasa choke on her drink.
"N-n-n-nani!?!? He's NOT my boyfriend!! Get it?!" Muramasa said, a tinge of anger in her voice.
"Whoa! Excuse me!" Proto said, holding up his hands in defense.
"Whatever," Muramasa said, wiping the Energy from her face. "Next time, don't say such things when I'm drinking or the energy'll come out through my nose."
Proto chuckled at that, but Muramasa didn't bother. She was about to retort, when she heard something.
"Nani??" she mumbled softly, trying to figure out what she had heard.
"What's wrong?" Proto asked.
"I don't know. But something's amiss. I can tell," she said, looking around carefully.
--
Shine sniffed the air as something strange entered her nostrils. She quickly identified it though.
"Chaud?" she asked, making the boy look up. "Do you smell gas?"
Chaud blinked and sniffed at the air as well.
"Yeah… but how…"
Before Chaud could even finish, the gas that had been circling them for a rather long while suddenly caught flame. Both kids screamed in surprise, instantly backing away from the flames.
"The hell?!! What's going on?!?!" Chaud managed to get out between coughs.
Shine wasn't even able to speak through her violent coughs.
--
"Shimatta!!!" Murmasa cursed in anger.
"I smell a virus!!" Proto hissed.
"Then let's fix it already!!"
"Agreed!! Follow me!!"
"Right behind ya!"
--
The second the two Navis arrived at the source of the problem, they were instantly greeted by quite a few agitated fire-viruses and whatnot. Proto used his BusterSword to delete them, while Muramasa settled for her Buster.
"Who got these viruses here anyway?!" Muramasa demanded in anger.
"Well, whoever did this is going to pay!!" Proto hissed.
The two Navis continued to delete viruses as they tried to find the ventilation programs to get rid of the gas.
Proto suddenly stopped as he noticed Muramasa simply watch a very difficult virus. She didn't move, simply followed it with her eyes as it zoomed from one spot to another. Her mouth was moving and mouthing numbers by the looks of it.
Finally, she charged and when the virus vanished, she fired, but not at the spot he had been. She shot at the place he appeared! And the shot deleted him within a second.
"What'd you just do?!" Proto demanded.
Muramasa looked at him and said: "Figuring out the guy's pattern. Every virus has a certain pattern when it comes to moving or attacking, so I study that to catch them by surprise."
Proto whistled and said: "Nice."
"Thanks," Muramasa said just before---
"KYYYYYYAAAA!!" she screamed when a large bolt of plasma hit her square to her head, sending her to the ground, unconscious.
"What the?!?!" Proto shouted and looked at the source of the shot.
He stood face-to-face with AirMan and FireMan.
--
Chaud quickly grabbed the fire-extinguisher and managed to douse some of the fire, enough so that he could reach the younger girl.
"Shine!!" he exclaimed in shock as he ran toward the girl lying on the ground.
After checking her pulse, he was glad to find that she had just lost consciousness. But the only downside was that her breathing was getting shallow. He had to get her outside, and fast!!
"Sir!!! We've got trouble!!" Proto's voice suddenly called out from his PET.
Chaud pulled out his PET as he clumsily picked up the younger whitehead.
"Tell me something I don't know!!" he said, a little pissed off as he stood up with Shine slung over his shoulder.
"Well uh… I'm facing AirMan and FireMan at the moment, Sir," Proto said.
"Say WHAT?!?!"
"And Muramasa's been knocked out, so I'm on my own."
"Oh crud!! How can this get any worse?"
Everybody knows that you should never say something even remotely like that when you're facing a rather dangerous situation. But apparently, that seemed to have slipped Chaud's mind.
"Oh Christ!!" Chaud exclaimed and jumped back to avoid a falling beam. "I wish I hadn't said that!"
--
Proto lashed out at FireMan, but the fire Navi dodged the blow easily.
"Dangit!!" Proto cursed, right before getting blown aside by AirMan.
He shook his head, and looked up. It was almost impossible to see Proto's eyes widen, as the large blast of fire was thrown his way. He tried to get up, only to find himself magnetized to the ground.
"Well shit!" Proto hissed as he watched the blast heading his way.
"PROTOMAN!!! GET DOWN!!!" a voice from behind him suddenly screamed.
Without questioning the voice, he quickly ducked, just before a large bolt of plasma soared over him and crashed straight into the boll of fire. Before Proto could stand up, seeing as he was now demagnetized, Muramasa shot past him, both hands now shifted into Busters and charging like crazy.
"SURPRISE MOTHERFUCKERS!!!" Muramasa screamed as she released her charged blasts.
--
Shine coughed rather harshly, so hard that it actually hurt, as she sat outside with Chaud and a few firemen, who had managed to get the fire under control. Chaud was talking to both Proto and Muramasa, asking about the battle.
"So they got away?" Chaud asked.
"Sadly enough, yes, Sir," Proto said.
"Weren't those bakas supposed to be deleted by the way?" Muramasa asked, hands on her hips.
"Uh… bakas??" Chaud repeated.
"Tha-cough-means 'idi-cough-ots," Shine managed to say.
"Shine! You shouldn't even try to talk!!" Muramasa said.
Shine nodded, and didn't say anything more.
"Oh! Chaud, Sir!" Proto said, suddenly said. "Someone tried to reach you."
"Who?" Chaud asked.
"Not sure," Proto said.
Muramasa didn't say anything for awhile. She was a little lost in thought.
'Something's going on around here. Kami-sama… I wish bushhead were here!!'
--
"Hora! Shine! I'm going to explore the Net for awhile! Okay?" Muramasa said.
It had been around a week since Shine and Chaud had escaped from Chaud's house, when it had almost burned down, and the event hadn't been forgotten yet. Still, they all tried not to think about it too much.
"Okay. Don't make it too late!"
"Like I ever do that!!" Muramasa mumbled.
"Well, the night of the accident you weren't back 'til 5 in the morning!" Shine said.
Muramasa didn't answer. That night still bothered her. She had had the feeling like she'd been watched, but no one had been around. Or so she thought.
"Whatever. Itte kimasu!!" she said, and ran off.
"Itte rasshai!!" Shine called after her Navi.
Muramasa groaned as she left Chaud's server, and began to run across the Net, not feeling like going to any of the Squares. She kept on running, until she stopped for a moment. She gave a sigh and looked around.
She had wound up where she'd been the night after the accident.
'How the hell'd I get back here?' she wondered, but before she could ponder it any further---
BANG!!!
"WHOA!!"
"AAAH!!"
Someone crashed straight into her back, sending them both to the ground. As the person atop her tried to get off, he accidentally leaned on her hair, so when he slipped, he yanked at her hair, and quite hard.
Muramasa could just stop herself from screaming, but was enraged. NO ONE touched HER hair!!!
She whirled around and elbowed the other Navi to his jaw, sending him off and away from her. She then jumped up and fired a burst of plasma from her Buster with the speed of light. The other Navi gave a startled cry and jumped aside.
"Hey!! It was an accident!! I'm sorry!!" the dark green and blue Navi said.
Muramasa remained enraged, yet a small voice in the back of her head said: "Where have I seen this guy before??"
"Like hell!! Rule no. 1, buster!! NEVER TOUCH A WOMAN'S HAIR!!!" she screamed and fired again.
"CHRIST!!!" the Navi exclaimed and suddenly slid out a blood red blade from his glove, with which he cut the bolt in half.
Muramasa growled in anger and sent another barrage of plasma at the other Navi. The Navi gasped and hurriedly jumped up to avoid the bolts and landed just behind her. Muramasa whirled around, shifted her Buster back into her hand and caught the incoming blade between both hands. Discharges were sent every which way as the strange Navi continued to push his sword downward, while Muramasa did her best to stop it. Both Navis were growling as they tried to best each other.
Muramasa finally had enough and used the same trick she had used against Mega before, and catapulted the Navi over her, and sent him sprawling. The Navi shook his head and got back up, frowning angrily.
"Alright! I've had it with you!!!" the Navi screamed, retracted his sword and grabbed two Busters from a belt around his waist.
Muramasa easily dodged the pellets of plasma as she ran at the other Navi. Before the Navi knew what happened, Muramasa's fist was buried in his guts, making him gasp in pain and drop his Busters. She then started punching at him, but he managed to block most of her hits.
With a growl, Muramasa snapped her fists open, exposing the razor-sharp claws and started to lash out. With a yelp of surprise, the Navi jumped away, avoiding her claws by a hair. Muramasa frowned and got her Buster out again and started firing. With agile leaps and flips, the Navi managed to stay out of harm's way.
Somewhere during the fight, he managed to get a hold of one of his own Busters, and fired blindly at the female-Navi. The shot hit the girl straight against the Navi-Symbol just above her abdomen, sending her back with a cry.
She tried to sit up, but her body burned from the single shot, though she ignored it mostly.
"Shimatta," she cursed under her breath.
When she heard something clatter to the ground she looked up in slight surprise. The Navi was staring at her with wide eyes, having dropped his Buster to the ground.
"W-w-what did you say!?" he demanded.
She blinked, wondering if he had understood her but repeated what she had said nonetheless.
The Navi suddenly broke into a smile.
"Ray?! Is that you!?"
Muramasa nearly fell back down in shock.
"N-n-nani!?!? How the hell did you?!?!" she asked, standing up rather clumsily.
The Navi pulled off his helmet, and Muramasa gasped in shock.
"Bushhead?!?!" she demanded.
Dare smiled broadly.
Silence reigned for awhile, and then --
"What the hell are you--- I mean how did you---" they said at the same time, pointing at each other, causing them to fall silent again, before they burst out laughing.
--
Once the two of them could stop, Dare said: "Talk about weird! I was just talking about you and Shine with Mike this morning, and here you are!!"
Muramasa shook her head and said: "Hentai's here too??"
"Uh… yeah, he's my Operator. By the way, I'm called Razor now."
"I can see why," Muramasa said. "My name's Muramasa."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Razor asked.
"Later. Anyway, there's trouble."
"Let me guess, deleted Navis are 'revived' and causing havoc."
Muramasa blinked.
"I faced MagnetMan, you?"
"Ducky and Fire-Head."
"AirMan and FireMan, huh?" Razor said. "Bummer."
"Not really. I would've kicked their fucking asses to kingdom come, if they hadn't chickened out and ran."
Razor smiled and said: "You'll never change, huh?"
"Iie. By the way, have you met blueberry yet?"
"Wha?? Oh! Yeah, I met Mega already. Why?"
"No reason, just wondering. Anyway, I should be going. Ja ne!" she called as she ran off.
"Ja ne!!" Razor shouted right back, waving her goodbye.
--
Muramasa continued on her journey, only this time, she was feeling a little better than before. At least they'd have some extra help against whatever was reviving those Navis. For that, she was glad.
'I don't mind deleting all those Navis, but all those Navis at the same time… I don't think I'd be able to handle that.'
A sudden urge suddenly surged through the Navi's body, but she tried to fight it as she continued on. However, that wasn't really that easy.
Finally she stopped, quite angry with herself, hands on her hips and fuming. She looked around, noting that she was in some sort of desert. She had no idea that this was possible, but she finally dropped it.
The urge was growing, and it took a lot of willpower to stop it.
'Ah what the heck!!' she finally thought.
And a few seconds later, the sound of whistling could be heard across the desert.
Four tones, five notes.
She started walking, still whistling the five notes, over and over in a tune she would probably never forget.
"Nice tune," a sudden voice said, and Muramasa whirled around with a startled yelp.
Behind her, stood a rather tall Navi, adorning a ruby-red and emerald-green armor and holding a large lance. For the second time that day, Muramasa had a sense of recognition. This time, she didn't ignore the feeling and went straight to the point.
"Have we met? You look familiar," she said.
"I doubt that," the Navi said. "I haven't really been the most social person since a friend of mine left."
Muramasa looked at him oddly, tilting her head to the side.
"How come?" she asked.
Usually, Muramasa wasn't one to pry into other people's business, but maybe it could help her figuring out who it was.
"I haven't seen her in quite some years, and I'm starting to think she's not even alive."
"Oh?" she asked, starting to identify him. "What was her name?"
"Raye," the Navi said.
Muramasa smirked and said: "That's R-A-Y, Nicky-boy!"
Nick gasped in shock and looked at her like she just grew an extra head. Muramasa was still smirking and removed her helmet from her cranium, making her hair fall back on her back.
"It's been a while, eh Nicky-boy??" she said teasingly.
"R-R-Ray??! W-w-what are you doing here?!" Nick asked once he could find his voice.
Muramasa sighed and said: "No idea. How'd you get here?"
"Uh… Paul and I were just playing a game, and suddenly we were here."
"Oh, Pauly's here too?" Muramasa asked.
Nick gave a sigh and said: "Ray… we're no little kids anymore."
"Neither am I," Muramasa said, putting the helmet back on her head. "I grew up after…"
She let it hang. Nick knew what she meant.
"Anyway!" Nick said, extending his hand. "Nice to meet you! My name is Ragnarok.EXE, but everyone calls me Ragna."
Muramasa blinked, then smirked and said, shaking the Navi's hand: "Muramasa.EXE, Official NetNavi, pleasure."
"No kidding!" Ragna said.
"Chaud persuaded Shine and me," Muramasa said. "Piece of cake."
"Well duh! I mean, you're the Ultimate MegaMan Warrior! Always were, always will be!" Ragna said with a smile.
"As if," Muramasa said.
"No! I'm serious!! With all those high scores of yours!! I'm still trying to beat your high scores!!" Ragna said, placing his hands on her shoulders.
Muramasa stammered for awhile, feeling her cheeks burn. Ragna seemed to always be the only one able to do that to her.
"Kuso! How the hell do you keep doing that!?!" she demanded.
"Guess I know you too well," Ragna said, giving the girl a tap on her nose and running off.
Muramasa blinked, when she realized that Ragna was laughing.
She growled and ran after him, screaming: "RAGNA!! YOU JERK!!! GET BACK HERE!!!"
--
About an hour before the sun was due to set, Muramasa returned to Chaud's server, her face neutral, like it always was. She looked about for awhile, suddenly feeling something trickle in the back of her mind.
--
Blood…
--
Muramasa winced as the word suddenly bounced through her skull, but she shook it off.
"Tadaima!!" she called out.
A link between Shine and her was opened within a few moments.
"Youkoso, onnechan," Shine said excitedly.
"Shine! I told you a thousand times already!! Don't call me that!!!"
"Fine with me!" Shine said.
"Then stop it already!!"
Shine simply smiled with a look that said: "No way!"
"Found any new friends?" Shine asked.
Muramasa didn't respond for awhile, then smirked and said: "Iie, but I did find some old friends."
"Nani???"
"Bushhead and Nicky-boy are here."
"They are?!?!" Shine asked, shocked out of her wits.
"Hai, they are," Muramasa said with a nod.
Shine smiled brightly, and said: "Well! Looks like we're no longer alone!"
"My thoughts exactly."
--
Looks like they finally met! ^_^ ……………………AH WHAT THE HECK!! If you know what tune Muramasa was whistling, get yourself another cookie [this place's driving me insane @_@]