女らしいプログラム!
The Feminine Program!
Chapter Eight:
It's a Date!
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Ever since Netto's return from walking Meiru to the door, Rock noticed how 'off' the boy was on several key points that made up his character. It had been only two days since then, but she had figured out that something was wrong almost at the moment when she turned to look at him at the end of Loveless' eleventh episode. His gaze seemed to be piercing the blank screen ahead of him and his expression gave him a lifeless disposition. It frightened Rock, and she almost made a fuss when he didn't respond to her concerned calls for him. But when he turned just slightly to smile reassuringly at her, the Navi found that she couldn't shake off the shiver that slid down her spine.
'There's something very wrong with Netto-kun…'
It was Tuesday now and though Netto acted as if he was 'happy-happy, joy-joy,' Rock could easily tell the cracks in the shell he had housed himself in. Though his friends hadn't said a word about his less-talkative state, she knew that they didn't need to. She was aware of it all and she knew that this wasn't her Netto… It was as if someone had replaced him with a more complacent copy and it irritated her beyond all belief. The blue NetNavi could easily decide which traits were Hikari Netto's and which were the 'fake's.'
After all, this wanna-be wasn't her Netto.
Her Netto wouldn't do his homework without her yelling at him for hours to do it… Her Netto never held the door open for anyone… Her Netto wouldn't slowly eat his curry, taking eat bite and savoring the taste rather than gulping it down in one, noisy bite…
Where was her Operator?
She wanted to know so badly…
-
"Netto-kun?" Rock inquired timorously one day as Netto scribbled down kanji characters for his paper. He had been working without complaint for an hour now and the female Navi felt that she couldn't much more of the 'imposter's' actions. It seared her heart into pieces and she so desperately wanted to know why he was acting this way.
"You… haven't really… been yourself ever since Sunday… is something wrong?" nervously attempted the flustered girl with her gaze to the floor as she fidgeted her gloved hands about. She was so tense that she flinched when the clack of the pen being set on the desk resounded and she mentally berated herself for being so anxious. Never had she felt such an echoing fear scream in her head and heart, but she knew that if her worry had gone unsaid, then she would have kicked herself harder.
Though she couldn't quite place why she was so nervous…
Glancing up, verdant eyes caught sight of a boy smiling leisurely at her as his hand rested on his fists that were tucked under his chin. It seemed as if he thought it was some type of joke when she picked up the chuckle and Rock immediately felt anger and hurt swell in her throat. Choking on her words, her mouth opened and closed futilely as she searched her programming for the words she wanted to say.
But her programming wasn't functioning right and she cursed it for no cooperating.
Another hearty chuckle reached her ears, and abruptly, the stuttering female found the syllables she needed. "Netto-kun, stop laughing! It's not-!"
"Stop being so cute…"
"H-huh?!" Rock blurted out as the blush on her cheeks reddened profusely. What had Netto just say to her?! Was she dreaming?! "Net-Netto-kun!" stammered the Navi shyly before her widened eyes sought as his playful ones. Her mind taunted her with the fact that his gaze was somewhat mocking also… "Dōshita no?!" she cried out questioningly as her fists trembled in front of her chest and tears brushed against her eyelids. It hurt so much inside… he was messing with her feelings as though they were a toy that was meant naught and soon he would discard her to the side to take up another. Netto was the puppeteer that pulled at her strings to cause a stir of movement in her heart and all he could do was stare with that stupid smile on his face!
"Nothing's wrong, Rock-chan; I've been fine this whole time," Netto answered off-handedly as he saw her distress, "Gomen nasai… I didn't mean to make you worry…" But his apology sounded so wrong in her ears and she found herself shaking her head.
Rock felt a heated ache begin to form behind her eyes and she pleaded for her systems to not allow her to cry… but the pain was becoming unbearable and she despised how vulnerable she was because of the program…
'Haven't I cried enough?' Her throat answered with its constricting symptom of the onslaught of tears and she fell another fathom into her misery.
She held such abhorrence in her heart. This program that was supposed to teach did nothing but harm… and though it may not harm Netto, it harmed his Navi…
Dark blue and purple swirled in her tightly closed vision.
She truly had a pitiful existence… All she could muster were mood-swings and tears, and everyone looked at her with strange stares. 'Look at her,' they must say in their minds or to friends, 'Pitiful little thing, isn't she? Absolutely pathetic…' Regardless of their kindness and supposed 'understanding,' the blue NetNavi knew better; everyone thought of her as weak and strange with her new appearance… but she couldn't help it…
Could she?
"Rock-chan?!" Netto inquired suddenly after he saw his Navi fall to her knees and sob. What had he done now? "What's wrong?"
"Stop! Just…" she panted heavily, wanting to scream at him to create a reprieve in her tempestuous soul. But all that she could gather together as an attack was hyperventilation. "…Please… stop…"
"Rock-chan-?" prodded the boy again.
"STOP IT!" returned Rock desperately. Tears and sobs escaped her fully now; her barricades were smashed to pieces and she couldn't build them back up… at all. The azure Navi only had one tactic left, and with that in mind, she called up a screen in front of her. Enduring the convulses that came with her emotional breakdown, she raised her hand from her chest and pressed a part of the screen.
"Leave me alone…"
"Rock-!"
The computer screen turned black.
-
"Oi, Netto!" Dekao loudly called as the smaller boy approached the group in front of school. "Where's your girlfriend?" The large boy ended his taunt with a boisterous cackle after he noticed the absence of the PET and its holder and Netto felt a malicious desire to sock his friend one right in that fat cheek...
He refrained, however, telling himself that Rock would be even more in a tizzy if he came home suspended from school… 'But like she's going to talk to me anyway…' he thought sarcastically with a tinge of remorse laced about the words.
"I didn't bring her today, Dekao," the Operator replied plainly as he stopped next to Meiru. His visage was so downcast that it wasn't hard for his friends to figure out something was wrong, even though they saw the change in him ever since the past weekend. But they hadn't really poked him about it, figuring that it may have something to do with the 'lesson' he was supposed to learn.
"Hey… You know I was just joking, right?" Dekao said hurriedly, thinking that maybe he had made things worse with his jeers. Though they were expecting something in retaliation, the teen group wasn't surprised by Netto's shoulders shrugging carelessly. "I know…" Netto said plainly with a sigh, his hand reaching up to the strap of his book bag so that the strap wouldn't fall.
'Or maybe I just need to hold on to something…'
Meiru watched her down-trodden friend with concerned eyes, wondering what had happened between Rock and him. It must have been very upsetting, since Netto hadn't even brought the PET to school… But though she wanted to ask and figure out what it was that was troubling the Operator and Navi's relationship, she knew that if she waited a day or so, the two would resolve their problems and everything would be normal.
"We'll be late for class if we don't head on in…" Yaito jutted in calmly after watching the scene before her with keen eyes. But then she grinned humorously at Netto, who reacted with a bit of shock. "You don't wanna mess up your record, do you? Three days in a row on time… that is, if you go now!"
And Netto found that he could smile back, knowing that in her own way, Yaito was trying to cheer him up. In fact, all day his friends attempted to alleviate his bad mood. Meiru offered half of her homemade lunch while Yaito spoke about how well her day went yesterday. Dekao didn't jeer him for the rest of the day and even Tohru helped by offering to help him with his math during Study Hall since Rock wasn't there to do it. And then, to top things off, they walked with him after school to his house, cracking jokes and laughing all the way there.
By the end of the day, there was a smile on the brunet's face, and even though the guilt was still there, his friends saw that they had helped him out, if only it was just a little bit.
'After all,' Netto told himself as he waved to the departing group, 'what are friends for?'
-
'He's at school now…' noted the blue NetNavi sadly as she pulled her knees to her chest.
Rock had yet to turn on the screen and she was just fine with that. All she wanted to do was lay there, curled up in a tight ball in the dim blue light of the flooring, and hide from the world. She had no desire to see anyone… not Roll, not Glyde, not Gutsman… and especially not Netto.
Right then, all she wanted to feel was solitude. The female found it to be quite comforting, laying in the silence of it all. No one was there to break the blessed quiet and she found that it was rejuvenating to a point…
But then a familiar beeping tore up the calm and she screamed. Why would someone e-mail her now?! Netto was at school! Didn't people think that she was there with him?!
But then she pondered a bit more upon as she reluctantly stood up. Maybe it was Roll e-mailing her to ask what was wrong… Sighing gloomily, she called up the e-mail and scanned the name of the sender before her eyes widened when she realized who had sent it.
'Searchman?'
Blinking in shock several times, Rock wondered why it wasn't anyone Densan. She thought that surely someone would e-mail her about why she hadn't gone to school, but she never expected an e-mail asking her to meet him at Internet City's park area and if he would give her a time, since he had completed Laika's training routines and was allowed the rest of the day off.
Bringing a hand up to tap at her cheek, Rock wondered how Netto would take it if she met the Sharo Navi without his consent. But then a chime in her head reminded her that her Operator didn't have to know, as long as she deleted the trail of e-mails.
Grinning, Rock responded to the camouflaged Navi, stating that she could meet him in five minutes. He replied back almost instantly, agreeing to the time.
'But hadn't I just told myself that I didn't want to see anyone?' the girl mused to herself. But then she threw it all out the window, not really caring as to what her distraught mind had thought of prior to her morning mood-swing.
Rock blushed at a sudden thought before pulling up another translucent screen and pressing a button. A waned light shined on her body before it dimmed and she excitedly glanced down towards her new attire. Bringing up a mirror, she twirled about before her reflection, gigging, and then noticed her helmet. It clashed horribly with her white dress and she did want to look her best… But then she couldn't explain as to why she had the sudden need to 'dress up' for just a little meeting between comrades… but, regardless, she ridded herself of the blue and yellow helmet and accessed the link for Internet City.
-
Rock had arrived a little early, just as she intended to, and she sat down on the bench next to a digital tree with red and yellows mottling its top. Recently, after Internet City was restored from the Forte incident, the programmers of Internet City decided to create seasons for the Navis to enjoy and Rock found that autumn was her favorite so far. The leaves turned into the prettiest of colors and when a zephyr randomly came along, the colors would scatter about, creating a scene similar to that of winter and yet it had a style all its own. Tipping her head skyward to stare at the everlasting sunset through the breaks in the leaves, euphoria slipped over her senses and a smile painted her lips.
She wouldn't mind if they kept it this way forever…
The crunching of leaves alerted her and she jerked her head back down to find the familiar green NetNavi before her, noticing the dress she had on. Tilting her head, she giggled sweetly at the blush on his face as a gentle gust whispered across the golden-painted park, twirling with her bluish-black tresses and causing the leaves to cascade about them to create a romantic scene that Rock had only seen in the movies.
'I wouldn't mind if this never ended either…'
"Konnichiwa… Searchman…" greeted the female adorably, her own blush flushing her cheeks as he approached slowly. He was awestruck, she noted, since he couldn't get the stunned look and blush off of his face. 'And here he's supposed to be able to control his emotions; the ultimate soldier,' Rock thought as he stopped right before her… 'But I like him this way…'
"He-hello, Rock-chan…" he muttered softly, blush reddening. Rock giggled as poor Searchman acted like a nervous schoolboy about to ask the most popular girl in school out on a date. She giggled at the thought before patting the seat next to her, inviting him to sit down. He did so without complaint—he actually seemed to be excited about it—and then he turned to her with a curious gaze. "Where's Netto-san?" he asked, not seeing the wrinkle form between his companion's brows. "Isn't he supposed to be school? I was surprised that you were able to be able to meet with me so quickly."
Rock sighed, placing her elbows on top of her thighs and resting her head between her loose fists. "He's at school… he just didn't take me with him…" answered the dress-clad girl as another wind ruffled her locks and her dress. Her comment intrigued Searchman to query as to why Netto-san had not taken his NetNavi to school with him, but he bit his tongue, figuring that it was none of his business.
"Anō… why did you e-mail me?" Rock perked in cheerfully; a complete 180 from her prior mood. Twisting his head, the Sharo soldier returned the smile that graced her pink lips. He had almost forgotten as to what he needed to see Rock for and he was thankful that she had reminded him. "I wanted to thank you," he began as another ruby tint painted across his flat cheeks, "for staying with me when Forte was destroying the City… You could have bypassed me completely, but instead you came…"
"But you know I wouldn't have… right?" Rock laughed tenderly before trailing off yet she never let the smile fade from her jubilant façade. "I'd never do that to you… Nor would I have done it to Blues! You two are my friends… the last thing I would do is leave you two without checking to see if you'll be all right! That's a bit heartless, don't you think?"
"In the line of duty, it's necessary to look over the victims and go straight for the initiate battle with the enemy," Searchman solemnly argued, producing an expression of shock on his comrade's countenance. "I've done it many times; going past my comrades in need to destroy the ones that had harmed them. I never even gave them a second glance… I just went…" He then gazed ahead of him, a small, sad smile formed on his face. "Does that make me heartless… Rock-chan?"
The blue Navi had thought over Searchman's training several times before in the past, and never once questioned that in battle, he would divert his attention away from the wounds of his friends in order to gain an advantage over his enemies. But now he had brought an interesting idea in her mind and she found that she couldn't glance away from its fascinating pros and cons…
"When you are taught that in battle, destroying the enemy comes first and second comes the welfare of your team… are you considered heartless, or are you enacting upon something that has been drilled into your head?"
"You're far from heartless…" she whispered, her hands rising to place themselves on each side of his head to turn his attention to serious disposition. "You're far from being that… believe me. You're kind and compassionate, though just a bit too uptight on your emotions." At this, she giggled, though he remained silent. "Remember the fight against Desertman?" she began again encouragingly, "A heartless person would have attacked that bag of sand without even thinking about me or anyone else that might have been in danger! But you… you froze the lava… and that's what sets you apart from someone with no heart. All because you haven't been… compassionate to your comrades' needs in the past… it doesn't mean that you weren't cold or hateful; it's just how you were trained!
"…But you have a heart… I know you do. And before you say anything about being weak-!"
"I wasn't going to…" Searchman interjected under his breath, his own hands coming up to lay against her smaller ones. He couldn't help but grimace mentally at how small she was compared to him… but then agreed with the little voice passionately arguing that her littleness didn't matter. After all, she fit comfortably in his arms the way she was.
"Well, regardless, Searchman…" she sympathetically voiced, "Don't ever believe that you're weak. Having a heart doesn't make you weak… It makes you…" She was at a loss, he observed, as she narrowed her eyes. "It makes you…"
"Human?"
…
"Searchman…" Rock mumbled in surprise. His ruby irises peered into her emerald ones and he couldn't but smile forlornly at the glimmer he saw in swirls of verdant.
"I hate to change the subject, but… I… have another reason as to why I e-mailed you… I'd like to ask you something…"
And after a few moments, in the colorful leaves' lazy hover, which was similar to that of crimson and amber blossoms in the spring, a girl joyfully squeaked her answer to the male's inquiry and he accepted her sudden embrace without a word.
-
Netto returned home from school just an hour after Rock had linked back to her PET in a blissful mess. She was so happy that she had forgotten her frustrations towards her brunet Operator and soon he found the screen back on while she hummed away, flipping through one of the catalogues Roll had lent her. She was searching for something, that was obvious, but why was she so happy all of a sudden?
"Nē, Rock-chan… why are you-?"
"Searchman asked me on a date this Sunday!" she screamed suddenly, making the teen jump in shock from her abrupt shrill. "We're going to the digital amusement park that was set up in Yokohama's Network! Can you believe it? Oh, I have to tell Roll, Netto-kun! I just have to! Oh, and I need a new dress! Can I get another one?!"
"Uh, well, um…" he tried, shaking slightly as his mind was trying to convert his partner's ecstatic squeaks into coherent words.
"Oh, thank you, Netto-kun!" Rock answered for him as she twirled about and then Netto noticed that she was wearing the dress he had bought for her. "Huh…" he muttered flabbergasted. "Well, you're welcome, I guess…" the male said with a few scratches to the back of his head before he pulled up a chair to begin on his homework. He was surprised; his teachers hadn't given… him… a… lot?
Blinking, he felt the knocks of reality against his hard head before a figurative lightning bolt of realization came crashing into his skull.
"WHO ASKED YOU OUT ON A DATE?!" he bellowed angrily as he pushed his face against the screen, eyes narrowed and breath seething against his teeth.
"Um… Search… man?" Rock said slowly before laughing nervously at the maddened countenance Netto had. "S-say, Netto-kun, why don't you do your homework? Or maybe go get a snack?"
"… You're not getting out of this one, Rock."
"… I figured that I wouldn't…" Rock replied with a bittersweet sigh.
'At least he's back to being Netto-kun… and who knows? Maybe he'll let me go Sunday!'
-
End of Chapter Eight!
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Japanese Lesson 101
- Dōshita no? (What's wrong?)
- Gomen nasai (I'm sorry)
- Anō (Well)
- Nē (Hey)
A/N: Japanese might not be correct. If not, please tell me! It's a change, but expect more Japanese from now on. I've always wanted to put more of the language in here… :issohopeless:
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Aw, angst and OOC-ish, huh? Sorry for that. I didn't exactly make this chapter very… precise. O.o
But I do come bearing a gift! It's not much and I'm not a very good artist, but... Merry Belated Christmas! (For some reason, I'm not able to put the URL on here. But if you go to my Profile page, I'll put it there for everyone to see!)