First off, I would like to apologize to kaffinee because I lied to her. I had said that she does not know the speakers of the dialogue-only section. That is not true. She knows one of them, and that's Woodman's operator. She still doesn't know who the other speaker is, but that's fine.
Ai Star: It's alright! You did your best! And the mystery wasn't really supposed to be a mystery; I guess I had accidentally made it too vague. As stated in the paragraph above, one of the speakers is Woodman's operator. The other one was the one who 'saw' scattered data and red eyes. Add in the mention of a commander and some foreshadowing in the Pet chapter, and you'll be able to guess who they are!
Aquila Aqua: Netto's past will be explained, I promise! The date for the visit to Netto's grandpa is set on the day after the Mahajarama and Enzan intro episode, so look forward to that! Enzan will indeed be appearing soon—in a couple chapters, in fact. And for his attitude towards Netto… I'm still trying to work on that. The Forte/Grandpa reveal definitely won't be happening anytime soon, so you're going to have to wait patiently for that.
XxBlueacidxX: Yeah, probably. Something like that. You can't help but guess what someone's saying in another language. Yaito might be trilingual with Japanese, Ameropian and Kinglish. Most of the others are learning Ameropian in school.
Editor: kaffinee
I don't own Rockman EXE.
Substitute
Netto yawned loudly, setting down her pencil in order to rub at her eyes. She blinked slowly, trying to refocus on her current work.
'Netto, you need to go to bed,' Forte spoke up as she picked up her pencil, about to throw herself back into her work: a new set of blueprints for a robot cat.
'I'll…' She yawned again. '… be fine. Just… need to finish this… 'm almost done, so…'
'You said that an hour ago. You've been awake for more than twenty-four hours.' It was a miracle that her sleeping habit hadn't kicked in yet, though that might've been because of her determination in finishing the blueprints.
Netto shook her head fiercely, and moved her arm to continue on.
At least, she tried. Her arm refused to move. '… Lemme finish.'
'No way. You can't even form coherent thoughts. Bed. Now.'
Netto remained stubbornly at her desk.
'… If you keep on going, you're going to make a mess and have to start over.'
'… Fine.' She stood up, sluggishly made her way over to her bed, and collapsed ungracefully onto it. She sighed in pleasure. 'Ahh… so nice…' Closing her eyes, her breath slowed as her consciousness began to fade…
"Netto-kun! Time to get up!" The too-loud voice of Rockman suddenly invaded her brain, and Netto jolted up in surprise, yelping as she slipped and fell off the bed. Rockman stared in bewilderment. "Are you alright?"
Netto groaned, rubbing the shoulder that she had landed on. She felt like she only had five seconds of sleep. "Yeah. Fine. I'm up."
Meiru pulled the edge of her green hat lower, hoping that it fully covered the complete mess that was her ruined hair. She carefully made her way across the classroom, biting her lip as she headed toward her seat. How could something like this happen to her? She was having such a good day yesterday too!
"Oh! Meiru-chan, good morning!"
Meiru squeaked in surprise, pulling her hat down so it nearly covered her eyes. She looked up.
"What's with the hat?" Dekao asked. "Not that it doesn't look good on you, but you don't usually wear hats…"
"A-ah, i-it does look nice, doesn't it?" Meiru forced a smile, clasping her hands together in an effort to act normal. "It's the latest fashion!"
"Oh, is that it?" Dekao blinked, nodding in acceptance. It was just like Meiru to follow popular fashion, after all. "But isn't it strange to wear a hat in school?"
"Well, there's no rule against wearing hats in school," Meiru answered, backing away to her desk. "It's fine as long as it isn't breaking any rules." With her back turned, she did not notice an approaching classmate until it was too late.
The two bumped into each other and fell to the floor. Meiru spun around, an apology about to spill out, then paused as she caught sight of the one she had collided with. "Netto-kun? What were you doing last night?"
Said girl sat up, one hand rubbing at her left eye. She blinked drowsily up at Meiru, unaware that Meiru's question was caused by the redhead spotting the incredibly dark circles under Netto's eyes.
"Mmh? Oh, good morning, Meiru," Netto mumbled, yawning.
It was a good thing that Netto had slipped into Ameropian instead of another language, since that was the only language that Meiru learned in Foreign Language class. At least she could understand some of what Netto was saying.
"I was…" Netto continued, yawning again, "… working."
By working, did she mean her robots? Whatever it was, had she worked all night? Maybe even the night before, as well?
"By the way…" Netto paused, gazing at Meiru with unfocused eyes. "Did you cut your hair? It wasn't as long as… when I last saw it."
"Eh?" Meiru's hands flew up to her head, and she felt her stomach drop when she touched her hair instead of the fabric of the hat. "Eehh!?" Meiru looked around wildly for her hat, covering her curled-up hair with her hands. Stupid hair salon with the broken set dryer.
Spotting the hat dangling limply in a flabbergasted Dekao's hands, she snatched it back, glaring at Dekao and blushing fiercely. "What are you looking at!?" Meiru snapped when Dekao's cheeks puffed up in an effort not to laugh.
"Calm down, Meiru-chan," Netto said with a lopsided smile. She gently tugged the green hat away, setting it on Meiru's head. "There. All fixed, right?" She paused, slowly blinking. "Oh, it's upside-down?" she asked no one, taking the hat and placing it back properly. "Like that?" She waited for an unheard reply, then beamed. "Great!" she cheered, skipping to her desk.
And tripped over a chair, crashing loudly onto the floor.
"Is she gonna be alright?" Dekao snickered as Netto got back up, the boy having found the sight hilarious.
Meiru merely went back to her seat, reminding herself that, childhood friend or not, she shouldn't delete Dekao's homework out of spite.
Meiru sighed, glancing at Netto from the corner of her eyes, thoughtlessly scribbling down some notes about the current lesson.
For almost the entirety of the school day, Meiru had noticed that Netto was mumbling to herself. Most of the words, Meiru couldn't understand due to Netto constantly switching languages. What Meiru could understand only left her more confused. Netto had said once that she didn't play any musical instruments, and that she only had a vague understanding of music terms.
So why was she talking about fortes?
Meanwhile, in the cyber world, Roll had decided to ask Rockman some questions about the state of his operator.
"So you really don't know what Netto-kun was up to?" Roll questioned.
Rockman shook his head dejectedly: "We said goodnight at 10:24, and then I went into sleep mode. She must have gotten back up again after that. But she was in bed this morning when I woke up."
Roll hummed in thought. "Did you ask her?"
"I did, but…" Rockman sighed. "It could have been a result of sleep deprivation, but she didn't seem to hear me."
"Oh." Roll winced, then turned to Glyde. "Glyde, could you ask Yaito-chan if she could get Netto-kun home after school? If Netto-kun wasn't able to hear Rockman, I'm not sure if she could get to her house safely by herself.
Glyde nodded. "I will ask Yaito-sama immediately." He then disappeared in a flash of blue light to his PET.
"So…" Rockman began, glad that they managed to somewhat resolve one problem. "… What happened with Meiru-chan?"
Roll lightly bit her lip, glancing at the screen in front of her—the one that showed Meiru and Netto in the real world. Meiru was studiously taking notes and answering questions, while Netto was staring blankly in front of her, eyes half-lidded and looking like she was about to fall asleep any second.
"… The set dryer in the salon that Meiru visited was broken," she finally said, "The temperature rose and… Meiru's hair became like that."
"The set dryer went out of control, huh?" Rockman murmured, "Maybe it was attacked by viruses? Roll-chan, did you notice anything strange while you were there?"
"No," Roll shook her head, "I was in my PET at the time."
"I see…" If Roll wasn't in the salon's network, then she wouldn't know what the cause was.
Glyde teleported in with a small smile. "Yaito-sama had already noticed Netto-kun's state, and previously made arrangements. As expected of Yaito-sama!"
Rockman suddenly got a chill up his spine. Maybe it was because of how Glyde worded it, or his memories of the methods Yaito usually used to get her way.
Well, he was going to find out after school no matter what.
As soon as the final bell rang, Yaito dashed over to Netto's desk.
"Hey, Netto-kun. Let's walk home together!" she suggested.
Netto stared blankly through the blonde, seemingly not having noticed her.
"Oi, Netto-kun!" Yaito snapped her fingers in front of Netto's face, catching the brunette's attention this time. "We're going to your house together!"
Netto's brows drew together in confusion. "… Why?"
Yaito rolled her eyes in exasperation. "Because you clearly need sleep, and someone's going to have to make sure you get that, duhh!" She grabbed Netto's hand, tugging the girl out of her seat. "Let's go, let's go!"
Netto barely managed to grab her backpack before she was dragged out of the classroom, her weak protests ignored.
Meiru stared after them, then looked down at Roll's PET. "Is this Yaito-chan's plan?"
Roll shrugged, picking up the sound of tire screeching away from the school. "I guess." Her attention was drawn to Gutsman, who had just arrived. "What is it, Gutsman?"
"Dekao wants to go to Game Soul with Meiru and play some arcade games together, guts!" Gutsman answered excitedly.
Meiru considered it, mind flashing back to when she saw Dekao's poorly hidden laugh when she had lost her hat. "Sure, but Dekao-kun has to pay, since I didn't bring any money." She smirked, remembering a certain game that was perfect as a stress reliever. "And the first game we're playing is Whack-A-Mole."
Rockman fidgeted, staring at the screen before him.
Yep, Netto was asleep.
Relieved that his operator was able to rest, he began organizing the files in the computer system to make himself useful. Homework stays on the screen, family and friend photos go in separate folders and organized by date, scheduled events are saved onto his calendar…
Rockman skimmed over his calendar, stopping at the date that said 'Visit to Grandpa.' It was supposed to be about two weeks from today, and dangerously close to the N1 Grand Prix that was set to take place in a month. He really wanted to enter the tournament, and he was pretty sure that he met the requirements for entry. He was also certain the Netto would want to participate too.
The problem was how long Netto was going to be away.
Rockman couldn't go with Netto, since her grandpa disliked navis. It was why she didn't have a navi of her own until Rockman. Instead, Rockman would be staying at home and would train for the Grand Prix with Roll and the others.
Dismissing the calendar, Rockman decided to open up a news link.
"About the repeating fire incidents plaguing Akihara Town, the police suspect that WWW is behind this and are continuing their investigation."
"Nope," Rockman said forcefully, immediately closing out the link, then cast a quick glance at Netto.
She shifted a bit, but did not stir.
Breathing out a relieved sigh, Rockman turned away from the screen.
Repeating fire incidents in Akihara Town, huh? He didn't recall anything like that recently, other than…
"I sure hope Meiru-chan doesn't find out," Rockman muttered. "I'm sure the police can deal with it this time, anyway."
"You mean it was all Fireman's doing?!" Meiru growled, one hand holding Roll's PET while the other tightened around a wooden hammer.
"Yes, without a doubt!" Roll nodded vigorously, remembering the exact words that Fireman had said to her.
"And so he left that message for you to give to Rockman?" Meiru glared at the pale green text box that took up part of the screen, which detailed the location of where Rockman should go in order to prevent the fire-related incidents that Fireman was causing.
"Yes!"
"I'll never forgive him!" Meiru declared, trembling in anger. Why did she have to be a victim of both of Fireman's schemes? First it was the oven fires—one of which had happened in her own home and could have caused her serious harm—and now this?!
"About Rockman's challenge," Roll interrupted her thoughts, "what should we do, Meiru-chan?"
Meiru smashed the hammer down on one of the pop-up targets of the Whack-A-Mole game, having easily earned a victory against her unlucky opponent, Dekao. "We're going, of course!" She had a few Aqua Towers on her; they would surely be able to defeat Fireman, a fire-type navi.
"Great idea!" Roll cheered, extremely supportive at the thought of revenge against the one who had done her operator wrong.
"What he did was unforgivable!" Meiru yelled, hitting every target that popped up with lightning-fast strikes, achieving a new high score in no time at all.
She was too furious at Fireman to hear Dekao nervously inviting himself along, nor did she see Dekao holding up his PET, the navi inside vanishing to find a certain someone for help.
"Netto-kun, bad news!"
Netto groaned, blearily opening her eyes to stare at Rockman. She was so warm and sleepy…
"Netto-kun!" Rockman repeated. "Roll-chan went to go face Fireman by herself!"
"… And?" Netto mumbled. "Meiru-chan's there, right? They'll be fine."
"We should go just in case!" Rockman protested. "Gutsman's worried and so am I!"
From the corner of the screen, Gutsman nodded in agreement.
'Go get some exercise,' Forte suggested.
'You're the one who wanted me to sleep earlier.' Netto could hardly remember anything that happened today, but she was pretty sure that was one of them.
'Yes, because you were practically dead on your feet. Now that you've had a nap, you might as well do some workouts.'
'Fine.'
As Netto searched for the strength to get out of bed, Rockman and Gutsman explained the encounter between Gutsman, Roll, and Fireman.
"Well, I don't blame her for taking Rockman's challenge," Netto commented. "If it was me, I definitely would have tried to delete him."
Rockman blanched. "Netto-kun, do you really mean that?"
"Well, yeah. Fireman's an interesting navi, but if it comes down to it, I wouldn't hesitate." Noticing the blue navi's complexion, Netto blinked. "Did I say something wrong?"
'It could have been the deletion part.'
'But it was true? I don't really understand.'
'I don't, either.'
Rockman opened his mouth, about to say something, but then changed his mind. "Anyway, Netto-kun, I'll meet you there."
Netto nodded, taking the PET from the charger. "Plug in, Rockman, transmission!"
"I got my battle chips!" Meiru confirmed, arriving at the garbage dump where Fireman said he would be. Nearing a console, she took out her PET. "Plug in, Roll, transmission!"
"You're finally here, Rockman!" was the first thing Roll heard when she entered the burning and torn-up area that was supposed to be the Densan Town Garbage Dump's network. She gritted her teeth in anger, determined to make Fireman and his operator pay for their crimes. She walked forward, stopping a few feet away from Fireman.
"You're the one from earlier…" Fireman gasped, stunned and clearly not expecting her to show up.
"I'll be your opponent!" Roll said in determination.
"You want to fight me?" he asked disbelievingly.
"That's right!"
Fireman laughed. "That's ridiculous!"
Roll didn't respond to the comment, choosing instead to attack. "Roll Flash!" Her antennae extended and whipped at Fireman, knocking him down.
"That's it, Roll-chan!" Dekao cheered.
"It's not over yet!" Meiru's hands clenched around her PET. "For a girl, her hair is her life! You won't get away with what you've done!"
Dekao inched away from the furious redhead, frightened.
"Heart Slash!" Roll threw the hearts at Fireman, but his form split and disappeared before the attack hit. "Wha…?" Sensing a presence behind her, she slowed turned to see Fireman, who kicked her in the side and knocked her down.
"Logging out and back in?! That's cheating!" Dekao yelled.
Fireman scoffed. "Where's your fighting spirit? Is that really all you have?" he asked, standing over Roll. "Rockman, that fool… sending a shrimp like you to fight me." He pointed his arm at Roll, and she could see an orange glow within the buster. "You'll feel my anger when I take your life!"
"No, Roll-chan!" Meiru cried out. She fumbled with her battle chips and accidentally dropped them to the floor.
A buster shot disrupted Fireman's attack, and both navis looked up to the source in surprise.
"Battle chip, Area Steal, slot in!" Roll disappeared, reappearing behind Rockman and Gutsman, who certainly weren't there before. Rockman had his buster arm up, being the one who shot Fireman.
"Rockman…?" Roll whispered in disbelief. Wasn't he supposed to be watching over Netto?
"So you finally came, Rockman!" Fireman crowed. Lowering his arm, he ran forward.
Rockman charged at him, dodging the attacks that Fireman threw at him. He jumped, aiming his buster at the navi. "Rockbuster!"
Fireman neatly avoided each shot, landing back onto the ground with a malicious joy in his eyes. "This fires me up! Let's go!" He slammed his arm to the ground, summoning a pillar of fire that headed for the three navis. "Flame Tower!"
The first Flame Tower was avoided. Meiru took this chance to insert a chip. "Battle chip, Aqua Tower, slot in!"
Roll gracefully spun in a circle, water dancing at her fingertips, and slammed her hand down. "Go!" Water flowed out from under her hand, forming into a pillar. It crashed into the next Flame Tower, and both of them dissolved into harmless data particles. "I did it!"
"If you put it out, all I have to do is fire it up again!" Fireman proceeded to do exactly that, forcing his opponents to dodge the attacks.
"There's no end!" Meiru didn't have many battle chips, and she only had two Aqua Towers—one of which she had already used.
Roll avoided one Flame Tower, then looked up in horror at the second one already heading toward her. Fear locked her limbs in place, rendering her unable to move.
"Roll-chan!" Rockman shoved the pink navi out of the way, causing him to get caught in the attack himself. He fell to the ground limply, his hit points dangerously low.
"Rockman!" Roll cried out in concern, yet she felt relieved that she wasn't the one who took the hit. She wasn't a full fighter-class navi like Rockman and Gutsman, so she had less hit points than them. Though she still had more hit points than Glyde, a hit from a Flame Tower would have put her very close to deletion, if not actually deleted.
"What's wrong?" Fireman sneered. "Is that all you've got?"
Rockman struggled to get up. "The winner… hasn't been determined yet!" He shakily stood up, then collapsed again.
Fireman laughed at the worried shouts of Gutsman and Roll as they ran over to Rockman. "You will all burn!" He slammed both of his arms to the ground this time, and a wave of fire rose up high, threatening to consume his enemies.
"It's coming!" Gutsman panicked, stepping back.
Roll tensed, somewhat regretting her impulsive decision to fight Fireman alone. After all, that had led to the current situation. However, there might still be a way to fix it. "Meiru-chan, transmit the Aqua Tower chip!"
"But… earlier, it didn't…" Not to mention that Fireman could just do the same thing again, and they would no longer have an Aqua Tower to negate the next one.
"Just do it, hurry!" Roll urged. Maybe her plan would work, maybe it wouldn't. Either way, they had to try or be deleted.
"Alright," Meiru said, trusting her navi. She held up her last water-element chip. "Battle chip, Aqua Tower, slot in!"
"What?" Fireman laughed again, knowing that the Aqua Tower was only a short-term solution. "It's too late for you, now burn!"
"Here it comes!" Gutsman screamed as the wall of fire neared.
Roll took a deep breath. "Gutsman, lend me your power!"
He turned around to look at her in confusion.
"Please!" She slammed her hand on the ground, water rising up—rushing straight at Gutsman. "Go, Aqua Tower!"
The stream of water slammed into Gutsman, and he screamed as he was propelled toward the wall of fire. He crashed into and through it, the brief contact only making little impact on his hit points, and smashed right into Fireman.
"Impossible!" Fireman choked out, his emblem damaged from the hit, forcing his operator to plug him out before he was deleted.
"Meiru?" Netto opened the door that led to a console, spotting the person she was looking for. "There you are!"
The redhead turned to look at her in surprise. "Netto-kun? What are you doing here?"
"I was looking for you," Netto answered, logging Rockman out of the console. "Where did Fireman go?"
"He was defeated, thanks to Roll-chan," Rockman said, wincing at his injuries.
"See, Rockman?" Netto grinned. "I told you Meiru would be fine. Meiru-chan, I mean," she corrected herself after realizing that she forgot to add the honorific.
Meiru giggled. "It's fine if you just call me Meiru."
"Really?" Netto beamed. "Does that mean we're allies now?"
"Allies?" Dekao walked over to the two. "Don't you mean friends?"
Netto blinked. "Friends…? Are we?"
Meiru pursed her lips. "How many people have you called your allies?"
"A bunch," she immediately answered.
"They're your friends."
Netto tilted her head slightly in thought. "Ohh…"
"Now that we settled that, Netto—it's okay if I just call you Netto, right?" Meiru asked, and received a nod as a response. "Let's go play at the arcade!"
"Eh?"
Emblems are like hearts. If the emblem is destroyed, the navi will be deleted.
Netto was mumbling to Forte when Meiru was eavesdropping, in case you didn't know.
After this chapter, I will probably drop some of the honorifics.
Yes, Netto has friends who are not Meiru and the group. Who are they? Not telling yet.
It didn't really make sense to me why Gutsman had to be used as a target. It might be because the water needed a shield to get past the fire wall without the two canceling each other out. It might be because he did practically nothing in previous episodes. Who knows.
Trying out Meiru's POV, because she feels like the easier one to write. And if I kept this all solely Netto's POV, it would have been way too short. Please tell me what you guys think about that.
Some highlights during the editing process:
("And tripped over a chair, crashing loudly onto the floor.")
kaffinee: um is she high
Me: No, some effects of sleep deprivation include affected hormones or emotional increase, and loss of motor control. Netto's just suffering from sleep deprivation, that's all.
kaffinee: wtf did you google that
Me: Yes.
…
("The set dryer went out of control, huh?" Rockman murmured, "Maybe it was attacked by viruses…)
kaffinee: maybe it was a fucking accident
Me: Maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. Who knows.
kaffinee: smfh
…
("He [Rockman] shakily stood up, then collapsed again.")
kaffinee: lol he ded
Me: Well not yet.
...
("Netto blinked. "Friends…? Are we?"")
kaffinee: tf aren't they already friends
Me: Well Meiru and the others consider Netto their friends, but Netto didn't really get the memo
kaffinee: dicks
Me: Rude