Rockman EXE
Guardians of the Light Circle
Episode 15: Netto the Spy
In the mist of confusion, a boy, dressed in tender-blue nightwear, sat crossed-legged, thinking. Arms embraced shivering legs, while hair nodded within the winds' offering blows. Cold, alone, hopeless – these emotions would afflict anybody known to fear. Yet heroes are known to not feel this... fear. And that was and still is how any book, film, or any existing feature stated.
But, it has been proved otherwise.
Hikari Netto and Rockman, both heroes to the world, had felt it. Fear. Of course, normal it is to be afraid. Afraid of tempting creatures under the bed, a nod from your reflection, darkness... all is fear. But there are also certain fears that occur as abnormal coincidences. These contribute to a hero's sensitivity. A secret identity discovered, victory no longer at your advantage... surely these characteristics are heard from, but are these all?
Not in a million years.
For these two had revealed a word that became their neighbour and a fiend. Never did they experience such destructive impacts with it, before the world messed up.
Losing.
Losing your pride, losing a honourable fighting spirit, losing your trust and worst of all... losing your heart's true reason to be. Feelings as such were clearer from time to time, yet Netto and Rockman both knew they were lost. Weeks before, everything under control and it just took one confession to lose it all.
"I have a sister."
Those four words changed their lives the moment they'd been written in stone. Meiru and Roll, best friends to the heroes, had brought a storm to them. And metaphorical words are not what you've seen. Because every night, a storm would burst into a peaceful dream and settle in, not budging an inch.
And what seemed to have been the hundredth time, the boy, dressed in tender-blue nightwear, sat crossed-legged, thinking. Thinking of what awaited.
Opening Song:
Ikutsu namida o nagashitara
Every Heart sunao ni nareru darou
Dare ni omoi wo tsutaetara
Every Heart kokoro mitasareru no darou
Nagai nagai yoru ni obieteita
Tooi hoshi ni inotteta
Meguru meguru toki no naka de
Bokutachi wa ai o sagashiteiru
Tsuyoku tsuyoku naritai kara
Kyou mo takai sora miageteiru
(All official RockmanEXE characters are owned Capcom)
~Notice~
GN2012: Hello Everyone! Here's the next chapter and many thanks to the wonderful reviews that all of you left for me! I truly am grateful for all your support. I just wanted to say that if you haven't voted for the name and catchy phrase, this is your last chance. The next episode will be uploaded in 5 days! Although I've gotten votes, nobody has voted for both the name AND phrase. Please do so! Now for some guest review answers... oh and if you have doubts about what's going on with Subaru, you can read this answer too (second paragraph)...
MWSeraph – Thank you for your review. I'm surprised at how much you got from the previous episode. About Meiru-chan and Roll-chan, what you said left me shocked. Seriously, how can you go through what I'm thinking? I actually made them weaker on purpose. You see... I wanted the previous episode to highlight Hanarin's character. I needed to show how she could go from a playful, tempered and egocentric class president-like girl, to a sinister, manipulating violent killer. I couldn't have done that unless I would've put someone under her cruelty. Unfortunately, the only character available was Hatto. Congratulations on catching that! ^-^
Okay, so you seem to have misunderstood a little bit about Subaru and Misora. Subaru is the one tha's being controlled by darkness, not Misora. She's just there, because he is her protector. That is part of her role. Of course, there will be episodes where you will truly look at her in depth. And in Subaru's case, darkness has already taken over him. I'll make it simpler for you. Imagine a person with only one hand, controlling a marionette. And all of a sudden, two hands (of a different person) take over. Now we have three hands behind the strings. Let's replace those hands with characters; the one hand is Subaru, while the pair of hands is darkness. Which character will have more control? The darkness. Subaru may have the chance to move his body (the marionette) but darkness will have a higher chance of control. War Rock is part of this situation and Empress (Misora and Harp) has her own. But because I don't want to spill out everything, you'll just have to be patient. Besides, the more that there is to tell, the more episodes will be uploaded! :-)
I hope this helped MWSeraph and also to those who had doubts about Subaru. And now... Episode 15 – Netto the Spy
"Oi Netto! Are you listening?"
The brown-haired boy raised his face, believing that his sore eyes would meet the tedious scenery once more. But surprisingly, it wasn't so. Surrounded by his friends and well known others, his nose embraced the exquisite scents of glorious curry, a picnic offering it all. He blinked twice, thinking – Was that all a dream?
"Hello? Earth to Netto?" Enzan knocked on the brunette's head, surprised of not receiving the usual 'Stop it!' request.
Netto's gaze seemed to drift in circles, welcoming hypnotising dizziness. "Oh... gomen! Guess I didn't sleep too well last night..." He laughed nervously, scratching the back of his head.
Yuuichirou then stood up, holding a glass of freshly poured wine. "Everyone, welcome to our summer picnic! I know that we've never done this before and might feel a surprise to some of us. Regardless of that, evil has been defeated. And it was all thanks to all our continuous effort."
All present nodded and watched as he raised his glass, them following. "To Peace!"
"To Peace!" they all repeated.
Each drank a sip (only adults had wine), letting a relieving sigh out. From that point on, conversations bloomed within those sitting on the 10-meter table. Netto studied every face with a careful eye. His father, Mejin, Manabe, Chief and all of the crossfusion members were there. Even his friends with no capability to crossfuse enjoyed the pleasant reunion.
"Netto-kun, Dekao-kun and I decided to have a match with you, want to give it a try?" questioned Tohru, in a polite tone.
The brown-haired boy blinked twice, snapping back from his dreamland, "Oh... Sure! I guess there's nothing else I've got plan-"
"Oh Netto~! Aren't you forgetting something?" Jasmine leaned towards him, her glare forcing the boy to shiver a little. Well, her smile did go from one ear to the other, so nobody could blame him.
"Am I?" Netto didn't recall any planned activities. From what he knew, the word 'freedom' had been imprinted on his bland schedule since his last memory check.
A cold stream shot into his back, when a hand shoved his head to the side. "Even I wouldn't forget something like that, Netto."
The brunette frowned at the boy, rubbing his forehead, "What was that for!"
"For being an idiot!" laughed Dekao, crossing his arms.
Netto's childish side yelled, "But what did I do!?"
Enzan leaned back, replying instead, "You've got a date with Jasmine."
...
...
...
"WHAAAT!?"
"B-But Netto, y-you asked me if I'd want to go to that new restaurant with you..." stuttered the blue-haired girl. She rubbed her left elbow, signifying that she was beginning to feel slightly uncomfortable.
Tohru nodded in agreement, "That's right, Netto-kun. You even asked me for some advice beforehand."
"I... don't remember..." The brown-eyed boy tilted his head down, staring at the table's rough edge. The thought had never popped into his mind. Eating, sleeping and netbattling were his three main interests, within this current time. Thus having any certain feelings for anyone was out of the question to him. "And besides... I'm only thirteen... I really can't imagine myself dating anyone right now..."
He shifted his gaze to Jasmine. He almost chocked whilst breathing, for what he saw were twinkling tears, bouncing off the girls eyes, as she turned around. He also heard the sudden gasp from his friends. This immediately caused him to go so red, it would put a tomato to shame.
Dekao grabbed Netto's shirt, lifting him from his seat. "How could you do that to her!? It took me a long time to agree on it! We even netbattled to see who'd stay with Jasmine and you won!" the curry chef loosed his grip on him, as he continued, "... And it took me a while to completely give up..."
Netto shoved the boy's hands back, now angry, "Well I don't remember any of that! And if that really happened, then I take it all back! Now you can go back to liking Jasmine and Meiru-chan!"
...
...
...
No reply.
Instead, a gust of wind seemed to have swept any noises, leaving the boy confused. Why was the silence so, unwelcoming?
"Wha... what's going on?" the boy stood there, not liking the sight.
"Netto..."
He looked at his father, whose face resembled the darkened faces of everyone around him. Yuuichirou stared at his son, taking a deep breath. "Son, please don't joke about..." His face tensed.
"I'm not joking! Would you just spit it out!?" Netto barked at the scientist.
Yuuichirou stood up from his seat. He looked at the boy straight in the eye and spoke. "Two days after you and Rockman defeated Cache, there was an accident. A train hit a person at night. The operator got out of the train to find her on the track... but it was too late."
The boy stepped back, "No..."
He pierced through the boy, as he looked at him with serious eyes. "It was discovered that the girl was the daughter of Sakurai Haruhi and Sakurai Magari, both mysteriously found dead three days after," The scientist sighed, "I'm sorry Netto, but Meiru-chan is gone."
"That... That's not possible!" he covered his face with his hands.
"We were all there for her funeral," reminded Yaito, who was about to be crushed by sadness. "You were the first one to come and last one to leave..."
Netto roared. "Papa! Which graveyard!?"
"H-Haru Reien," the scientist stammered, watching as his son raced down on his roller-skates. "Ah! Netto come back!"
...
...
...
...
You can't be gone. The brunette glided down the road, ignoring the continuous alarms from every car he passed. He took a right, a left and reached the graveyard. Netto took off his roller-skates and approached the bundle of blessed gravestones. His legs guided him to the centre. There stood out three gravestones.
The boy's eyes shrunk, as they met with those beautifully marked letters.
Sakurai Meiru
Friend, Daughter and a precious gift to all whom had ever met her
He fell on his knees. He couldn't remember. He couldn't remember seeing himself there, standing with flowers, ready to say farewell. Netto clenched his teeth, squeezing his fists. But tears did not fall, for he was too horrified to do so. It didn't make sense. If there had been a funeral, he imagined himself still inside his room, not believing it.
And then his friends would've tried to convince him to forget her. But again, if it had happened, forgetting wouldn't have been possible.
Netto murmured, "Meiru-chan, what's going on? Oh... right... you can't tell me... I guess I'm still shocked... well... just so you know... there's no way that I'm forgetting about you."
His shocked face turned into a frustrated smiling face, "I'm gonna wait for you, no matter how many weeks, months, years – I don't care! I'll never forget about you... never..."
...
...
...
"Really?"
He gasped. He heard a voice, an extremely familiar voice. Netto looked behind and froze. There stood, at the entrance of the Haru Reien, a girl. The boy climbed onto his feet and stared at her.
"You won't ever forget about me?"
Netto swallowed hard. He was still amazed at the sight, "Of course."
The girl swung her arms behind her back. She innocently smiled at him, cheerfully closing her eyes, "I'm so glad"
Then, a rushing train glared at the girl, as it got closer and closer. Netto shuddered, feeling as the snickering sound of passed through tracks shot into his ears. Suddenly, time stopped. The train stood right next to her left arm, just a few centimetres between. One chuckle escaped her lips and...
CRASH!
The rusty vehicle ran through with high-speed as if the girl had never existed. Netto, whose face had gone paler than edelweiss, was left breathless. His eyes shook and called to her, as high as his lungs would allow him to.
"MEIRU-CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!"
He gasped.
Netto awoke to find himself halfway across the floor, sweat dripping from his face. He placed a hand on his cheek, feeling a bit of pain. Then, he heaved a sigh of relief, closing his eyes.
A dream.
It was all a dream and he was glad. He did think that it was quite irrational how the world had somehow twisted into the forgotten. But at the moment, all that he wanted was to get up. The boy lifted himself from the ground and heavily walked towards his computer. He switched it on to check the time. 3:53am. Very bizarre time compared to the usual number that he'd see on a normal day. But unfortunately, this wasn't going to be a normal day, at all.
Rockman was still in bed, so Netto had nobody to talk to. Yet it wasn't long before a sudden movement from the house next door caught his attention. He peeked out the window and exhaled once more. It was Meiru – safe and sound. The brunette watched as she heavily landed on a nearby pink beanbag chair, a loud yawn echoing inside her room.
Netto rose an eyebrow, murmuring to himself, "Weird... how come Meiru-chan's awake at this hour? Unless she had a nightmare and screamed while I was asleep... no... that doesn't make sense..."
The boy scratched his head; too tired to think and almost fell onto his bed, once close enough to its edge. He stared at the ceiling, feeling as tiredness spread throughout his body.
"I'll ask her later..." Netto turned to the side, pinning his right arm under his upper body. He breathed out a soft yawn and slowly closed his eyes. It wasn't too long before he lied there, letting that pneumatic drill startle a peaceful night.
...
...
...
~9:00am~
Rockman was sitting on his double sized bed. He lifted himself from the edge and stretched. Nights and nightmares had come in one package every time he'd go to sleep for the past weeks. For the first time, he had survived through the night without a single fright. Though it did make him feel relieved, he couldn't stop thinking about it even more.
That girl stood there, all elegant, looking at the blue-haired navi. She cried, she said those three unknown words and then killed by a rain of daggers. That was how it would go and nothing would change. The process simply repeated itself, every night.
But he didn't have time to worry about it. Thus he took a deep breath and smiled. He wasn't going to let some dream ruin a bright summer day.
"I'll just have to wait for the interrogation to find out what's going on," But he still could ask Roll about it. "... Maybe I should go to Roll-chan today."
Then, flashes in his memory caused his eyes to widen. The sequence of events throughout the day before had been awfully frightening. An explosion in the Sakurai Tower, Dark Rockman taking Meiru and Roll as hostages, Flora getting shot, them disappearing and worst of all, almost losing his best friend. That did it. He needed to find out if she was okay. But there was a slight problem... Netto still lied on his bed, sleeping.
Rockman sighed heavily. Waking up a couch potato like Netto was like fighting ten Blues with your hands tied behind your back – quite impossible, especially in summer. However, if he planned to use this day to find answers to his questions, he needed Netto. The green-eyed navi drew a view screen that expanded into a much larger screen, once he'd been done.
Then, he grinned. No matter how many times he did it, the growing laughter would burst out of him every time. Rockman swiftly moved his finger, creating a second window. This one, however, was a narrower rectangle. Inside, a horizontal bar stood out – red on one corner, yellow on the other and orange in the middle. The volume bar, just what the blue-haired navi needed to wake up Netto, the nap-lover. Rockman pressed his finger on the red side, increasing the PET's sound level to its peak. He took a deep breath and...
"WAAAAAAAAAKE UUUUUUUUUP! NETTO-KUUUUUUUUUUUN!"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Netto immediately shot back up, falling off his bed in the process. He whined in pain, rebelling the rule of crying, for it would 'hurt his pride.' He shook his fist, sending a choleric glare at his netnavi.
"Mou, Rockman! Why'd you do that!?" he pouted.
Rockman clutched his stomach, trying to hold the urge of laughter – unfortunately unsuccessful. The navi hurled himself back, cheeks erupting into a wave of red madness. Hilarious, or not, his guffawing provoked a certain brunette, whose glare had turned from piqued to mischievous. He cautiously grabbed a battle chip from his desk, grinning at the green-eyed navi.
Luckily Rockman noticed the bizarre situation. Normally, the boy would complain for hours, until satisfied. However the silence signified that something was wrong. The navi peeked from the visual screen's corner and winced back.
"You've got 10 seconds before I humiliate you for the rest of your life," Netto taunted, causing a cold chill to slither up the netnavi's spine. Rockman knew what his operator was holding... and he hated it, no he loathed it.
'Easter Chip' – a chip that in Rockman's opinion, should have never existed. Once inserted, a creamy white bunny costume would materialize over his plug-suit – ears, nose, paws, tail – you name it! But the brown-haired boy's reasons to own the product were to threaten Rockman. And boy did it work.
"Okay, okay I get it!" he desperately waved his hands in a 'no' motion, "Just put the chip down!"
Netto crossed his arms, still holding his trump card. "Then speak! Why did you wake me up at..." he quickly took a glimpse at his computer, "... 9 o'clock in the morning! It's summer for crying out loud!"
"Well I-" He paused, relieved after stopping himself from almost blurting out how worried he was about Roll's condition. Thus he decided to calmly explain the situation, without causing any more humiliation to his side of the table.
Rockman placed his hands on his waist and raised his chin, hoping that this would help in showing a more confident posture.
He cleared his throat, replying, "Actually, Mama told me to do that. She wants you to be more..." he smiled nervously, whilst thinking of something convincing, "... active! Anyway, I was thinking that instead of staying here... we could go ask Ro- I mean go to Meiru-chan's house!"
...
...
Now it was Netto's turn to laugh, like a hyena. This left Rockman clearly puzzled. "What's so funny?"
The brunette answered, midst his gales of laughter. "'More active?' I'm already a Net Saver, so... unless she wants me to join a fitness club for eating too much... there's no way she'd say that," Netto leaned towards the PET, grinning. "I know you're lying."
"What!? Me!? Why in the world would I do something that ridiculous?" Rockman pretended to be the victim, still aware that his operator was right. He faked a grin, rolling his eyes, still keeping his 'confident' posture in place.
"Oh I don't know... maybe because I know you're worried about Roll?" The blue-haired navi was left speechless. Discussing about how much the boy needed to improve his grades – victory for Rockman all the way. But it was during these kinds of situations where the navi's sensitive side would be easily defeated by whatever tricks Netto kept under his sleeve.
Rockman heavily dropped his shoulders, feeling humiliated for even trying to act comfortable. "Alright, you win. I want to ask Roll-chan how she feels."
Netto blinked twice and his eyes widened. "I-In what concept?"
"Huh?" the green-eyed navi lifted his face, meeting with a shocked Netto. His face flushed beet red, recalling 'how she feels' could be rephrased to something quite different.
Rockman immediately reacted. "N-No! That's not what I meant! I just wanted to find out how she was doing with her injuries! Nothing else!" He shook his head in denial, whilst waving his hands.
"Sure you did..." Netto rolled his eyes. Then, out of the blue, a sharp grin covered the boy's face, followed by an evil chuckle. "You know... that gives me an idea!"
"I really don't like that look on your face," Rockman stepped back.
"We're going to spy on them!" exclaimed Netto.
The green-eyed navi felt his hair rise to air, whilst practically yelling. "WHAT!? Are you mad? Entering a house without the owners' permission is illegal!"
"I know that! But don't you see? Not only we'll find out the truth, but we also won't have to let them know we were there!" He lifted his fists. "I am such a genius!"
He suddenly pointed at the startled netnavi. "And you're are gonna help me!"
"But-"
"Shut up! It's been decided. Now let's go!" Netto approached the door, covered in his pride.
Rockman sighed. "I guess it would've been okay if Roll-chan were alone... but after Flora-san slapped Netto-kun..." he touched his cheek, sweatdropping. "It wouldn't be a surprise if Emmie-san decided to kill me after this."
Emmie: Umm... what are we meant to say? *Flora gives her a paper* Let's hope that Netto doesn't do anything naughty today.
Flora: Oh if only I'd believe you...
Emmie: We'll just have to wait for the next episode!
Flora: Please read and review, it is very much appreciate it.
Flora & Emmie: Coming- waaaaaaaaaah!
GN2012: *Bursts in*Wait!Oops! Sorry, about that. Minna, just a little reminder about the voting! 5 days and counting! You may precede *laughs nervously*
Flora & Emmie: C-Coming soon... Serenity Trouble
Ending Song:
Fureta yubisaki
Kokoro tomoshite
Nagaredasu senritsu
Ai o nozomu
Kizutsuketa eda no saki
Kuchite yuku sadame na no ?
Tozasareta toki no hazama ni mayoikonda
Chiisana hikari no shizuku
Yume no owari tada kimi dake o negau
Hitomi ni utsuru
Gin no tsukikage
Yasurakana senritsu
Douka towa ni
Kizamiyuku hari no oto
Aragaenu sadame na no?
Chigirareta kono gensou o tsutsumikonda
Utsuro na hikari no rasen
Motomeru no wa tada shiawase na kotae
Hari iro no toki no hazama ni michite yuku yo
Odayaka na hikari no shizuku
Yume no owari tada sore dake o negau