[Notes]

Arc 2: The Dream Virus and the God of Navis

Some decisions had to be made regarding the name of the characters in the story. A strict adherence to the Japanese names meant that sooner or later they all became difficult to memorize. As the wish was to not burden the readers, even those who are not very well versed with the MMBN universe, with a litany of names that in themselves had no significance, some characters were chosen to be described with their English counterparts, which were, in most cases, more of a caricature than a serious imitation of a human name. The characters whose roles, however, were not designed to be mere caricatures were given their Japanese names, as the silliness of their names was found to collide with the gravitas of the scenes involving them. One of such example is Mr. Meijin, whose English name is Mr. Famous (even though Mr. Famous/Skillful is a direct translation of Mr. Meijin, but there is a sense of honor in his original name which did not carry over to his English name), and in the original MMBN it fit him as his role was more or less limited to being a spice of comedy.

Chapter 8: The New Equilibrium

Eight months passed. A new year, a new semester, a new equilibrium of life. Rockman, next to Netto, so distantly removed by a screen, yet so close in hearts. This was the future Netto of which he himself was disgusted about. The future Netto without Saito; the future Netto whose hole in the soul had been plugged with tenderness for another, and tenderness by another. Rockman came to Netto and plugged it with the shape that was exactly like the one that was removed, for he was the shape that had been removed. Now Netto looked to the future, refilled with the hope of life. Rockman watched Netto from inside the PET. Always together, now, and forever more. Yes?

A pair of eyelids, underneath which were softly shining green eyes, opened. Rockman woke up according to the schedule, as he always did, 30 minutes before he had to do the same to his operator. The restless semi-transparent polygons of ever-shifting shapes filled his view as a sore reminder of his fundamental severance from the one he cared about the most. The reality often plunged him into an incurable moroseness, in which he curled up in the corner of the PET every night, knees to his face, and shed tears of deepest sorrows under suppressed cries and hiccups, for with no one he could share the burden, for he was a prisoner without a sentence. Currently, he was on the floor of the PET space—a posture he found himself in each morning as he emerged from the sleep mode that lasted overnight—truly befitting a human who had fallen from the heights of freedom to the nadir of slavery.

Had the severance been the only trouble, then Rockman would not be so perpetually broken, for in ten or twenty years he might be able to reach his Netto with the aid of new technology, however the form. Alas, every morning, Rockman was also debilitated with an insurmountable weakness of the body and the fear that saturated every particle of his existence. The fear was so great in magnitude that Rockman saw every frame, every tile, every program in the PET to be full of malicious intents against him, sometimes even hallucinating that they were in the forms of venomous vermins such as spiders, snakes, wasps, or an unspeakably grotesque amalgam of all combined. He could not move a finger and had to wait for his strength to return, as if slowly surfacing from the abyss of sleep paralysis, which happened too slowly and tested his sanity. Sometimes he had bizarre reflexive responses as soon as he reactivated, such as checking his body for burns, cuts, breaks, and all other manners of injuries. The urgency to do so was so great when the fit struck him in the morning, that he inspected himself thoroughly from head to toe, and only realized the strange nature of his behavior after his morning terror had subsided. He attributed all these symptoms to the personal pain of his soul that stemmed from the secret that he had to keep from his dearest Netto.

'Papa, you were right. The secrecy gnaws at the soul.'

There was one solace in the midst of his misery. Every morning, he also remembered what he dreamed during the night, and this vision repeated in the exact same way. The dream went thus: he was sitting on the swing, his favorite place in the ACDC park, while watching the sunset as he frequently did when he breathed as Saito. In the beauty of the setting sun, Saito used to feel a camaraderie, as he overlapped his situation with that of the disappearing celestial body, painting the world in a breathtaking orange-red hue. Back then, he himself was in the last moments of his life, and he wished his end to be as graceful and beautiful as the display he witnessed. To some degree, Saito believed that this was achieved, that his exit was conducted smoothly, for he was not in commotion and pain when it reached him. Nevertheless, because of the fond memories bound to the location, the swing and the sunset still had a special place in his heart, and reliving the moment in his dream every night became soothing to his soul. On the swing right next to him was a person, or at least thought Rockman as he saw a shadowy figure at the edge of his peripheral vision, and he assumed this to be Netto, but it was never verified as the dream predictably terminated whenever he turned his head to see this person. Rockman did not think much about it, as in real life the watching of the sunset on the swing happened multiple times, and Netto was his companion in each.

Rockman now could move up to his arms, and a little bit of his legs, but standing up proved to be too difficult a task. He brought up the external display screen by waving his hands through the control panel and then tilted it perpendicular to its original orientation so that he could still see outside his abode while remaining in his lying position. In the window to the outside world was a brown-haired boy sleeping on his bed, with arms and legs stretched out, and his blanket tossed to the side. His Netto was just across the screen. Rockman lifted his right arm until the image of Netto's head overlapped with his hand, after which his fingers started to move as if coursing through his operator's hair. When he was Saito, and woke up early with Netto next to him, he habitually did this and found relief from the anxiety of his certain future. In his weakness, by the same habit, he sought the same comfort.

'Ah, only if I...

...only if what? If I can touch him just once? Will then I be satisfied? Rockman, do you believe this yourself?'

At this self-admonishment, His hand fell down like a puppet whose strings had been severed. Rockman closed his eyes again; looking at unreachable Netto became painful.

'It's okay, I don't regret.'

Every minute together was precious beyond measure, and Rockman wasted no time getting to work to save the soul of his brother since his return from the train station of the afterlife. At first, Rockman approached Netto slowly so as to not provoke a violent response from that poor boy who was about to burst from vexation, because of questions pertaining to Saito and Rockman, which would then lead to a disastrous chain reaction that was sure to end in the uncovering of Rockman's true identity. As such, for the first few weeks, during the summer, when Netto was preparing to go out, they frequently conversed in this way or similarly:

"Going out, Netto kun?"

"Uhuh"

"To play soccer?" Rockman said as he noticed the battered soccer ball stuck under Netto's arm.

"Yup"

"Have fun, Netto-kun, and stay safe! No rollerblading near the road!"

And Rockman would send him off with a cheery smile and a handwave from his PET while Netto muttered as he went out,

"Rockman, you sound awfully like Saito niisan."

But Netto never had the intention to press his suspicions, and kept his observations strictly to moments when he was distancing himself from the PET, which made sure that he never had a clear look at Rockman whenever he compared the blue navi to his late twin. He was afraid to discover the truth, that this navi actually had nothing to do with Saito, and that the cause of the navi's close resemblance in appearance to Saito was something unrelated and practical, as his father was a man of science. As long as the identity of the blue navi remained ambiguous, he could oscillate between a puerile hope of Saito having returned and the likely fact that this navi was simply a high-functioning custom product. One positive aspect of this superposition of possibilities was that Netto started to transform back to his old, active self, spending much time outside with his cadre, because a hopeless hope was still better than having no hope.

By the time the summer was almost over, Rockman started to drill deeper into the Netto's heart, towards the source of all his sorrows. He achieved this by becoming an entity with which Netto spent most of his time, for as Saito that was exactly what he did—Netto always orbited around him and Saito pampered him with undiluted adorations. One early afternoon, Rockman mustered enough bravery:

"Netto kun, are you going out?"

"Yeah, I'll be back before five."

"Um, Netto kun?" Rockman fidgeted, right and left index fingers touching each other over his chest.

"Yes?"

"Can you...can you take me with you?"

At this request, Netto stopped in his motion of packing the bag with necessities—water, snack, towel, and wallet, in which was hidden a family photo. Haruka in a genocidal manner removed all personal belongings of Saito and photos containing him only a week ago, and the one in his wallet was the only surviving one.

"What's gotten into you, Rockman?"

"It's just...I don't want to be alone without you."

"Mama is home and you can help her out like usual."

Rockman was ready for a casual rejection, as he knew Netto would be resistant to change in his routine; Rockman escalated his plea with a carefully designed gesture of hanging his head ever so slightly, in a way that the shadow from the helmet covered his eyes but did not make them completely invisible from the screen.

"Netto kun, I am your navi and I want to spend more time with you. Can't I?"

"Rockman, you know I'm going to the schoolyard. You will be exposed to dirt and heat, and will have to wait for me all the same. There won't be any job for you there."

"...but all I do is sit by the window and think about you."

"!"

Rockman saw Netto paralyzed, and he knew why. He just delivered the exact same line he delivered as Saito to soothe his pouting brother, and he could only pray that his gambit to work. Either Netto was going to allow him into his personal space through this point-blank approach, or the whole house was to burn down. Netto, by this time, was well aware that Rockman sometimes unexpectedly showed motions or speeches uncannily identical to that of Saito. However, he could not get used to this no matter his resolve, and each time this happened he was engulfed in a shock that left him temporarily speechless.

"Netto kun? Are you okay? If what I asked you just now bothered you that much, then, please ignore it. I'm sorry..."

As Rockman stopped fidgeting and hung his head completely, assuming a failure, Netto felt as if his heart was thrust by a hot knife, for he felt as if Rockman was indeed Saito, and that he just made his brother, who was the world to him, dejected. This blue navi looked, sounded, spoke, and acted like Saito to an excessive degree; Netto conceded.

"Alright, fine, fine! I'll take you with me. You will have to wait for me and watch me from afar on top of my backpack. Don't complain to me later!"

"Thank you Netto kun!"

Netto then took his navi, went to the schoolyard, put down his belongings under the tree from which Saito used to wait (which was unusual as Netto had been avoiding that spot out of deference to his memories, and Rockman had no way of knowing this, and therefore did not catch the significance of this choice. He simply assumed that Netto had been using the same place as an established pattern of his behavior), placed his PET on top of his backpack so his navi could see him play, and then proceeded to join his friends. Rockman was already starting to replace Saito in Netto's heart.

Much to Netto's embarrassment, Rockman then assumed a role of a personal cheerleader for his operator, spewing out lines with awkward cheer moves (Netto was too far away to see him, but the fact did not stop him) he secretly practiced for this moment, such as,

"Beat'em! Bust'em! Rock'em! Let's go Netto!"

and,

"What makes the grass grow? Blood and sweat! You got the heat! You got the skill! Let's go N-E-T-T-O!"

or,

"Yeah, go and show'em! Don't make them forget your name! NETTO! Nice Deeefeeeence!'

This continued until Netto, furious and red, came back and put the PET on mute. Later that day, because Rockman gave a sullen look at him with both of his arms crossed, he had to admit that he did not dislike it, and a bit of moderation was all that was asked.

Fall came and the second semester began. At this point, Rockman entered the final stage of his plan to save Netto permanently from that supernatural depression; he wanted Netto to look at him and think about him in lieu of Saito, and replace his own ghost permanently, such as to render if a person named Saito never existed in the first place. To achieve this, Rockman concluded that a shared interest and a shared experience were needed. So, one afternoon, Rockman suggested,

"Netto kun, why don't we practice virus busting?"

To which Netto simply froze.

"Come on, Netto kun, you haven't used me in virus busting so far. I'm your custom navi, and this is within my functionality. I can't help but feel a bit neglected."

"I-I, mean-that's-"

Up to this juncture, Netto had not once operated Rockman for virus busting. Whether this was due to the similarity of the navi to Saito, or due to Saito's last letter urging him to stay away from violence, Netto did not know. At any rate, the event was inevitable; few more weeks into the semester and Netto would be forced to do so as part of the school curriculum.

"Netto kun, Dr. Yuichiro told me that you like virus busting. Is there a reason why you are not doing it with me?"

"I...do not want to see you get hurt."

"Most of the damages can be repaired by the PET recovery function."

"...Right."

Netto breathed in.

"Besides, Rockman, Papa made me promise to not use you for virus busting, or, at least, use you for that purpose as little as possible."

To Netto, this was simply an excuse; after all, when was the last time he kept his promises? To Rockman, this was an obstacle that he did not anticipate but should have; what kind of father would thrust his child into the world of swords, firearms, and pain? Yet Rockman was not dissuaded, as he knew precisely how to implant ideas into the head of Netto, and lead him into paths both wise and foolish alike. To make Netto use him, and as a result become an entity that was important and intimate, Rockman formulated an argument that sounded equally responsible.

"Netto kun, virus busting is an official school curriculum, and you will have to use me in that. We can start slow with few mettaurs, and there would be no risk! We would simply be preparing ahead!"

Netto's eyes lit up. He, at last, found a counter-excuse to override his promise to his father.

"You think?"

"Not think. It is true."

"For schoolwork?"

"Yup"

"And this is strictly necessary?"

"We can't help it, right?"

With clear exhilaration, Netto commanded

"Jack in, Rockman execute!"

The part where Rockman and Netto ended up deleting few dozen mettaurs in various fashions, including some questionable methods that evoked war crimes, needs not be elaborated. To Netto, it was the culmination of his pent-up desires to resume netbattling, which was the one subject he excelled without effort. To Rockman, part of it was in the enjoyment of his own freedom of movement, which he never experienced as Saito, and in his violent joy he ended up deleting more mettaurs than necessary in acrobatic maneuvers. Another part of it was the excitement of play that he never experienced before—Saito never had a netnavi of his own—driven by a sense of empowerment of finding a job he was proficient at. Strangely, there was also a part of him that found the whole exercise inexplicably familiar, and he could even, at some times, predict what battle chips and in what order his operator would send them. Further, he did not have any difficulty in calculating the future movements of viruses, and avoiding their attacks with minimal movements with certain cold-bloodedness. Rockman did not contemplate much on this paradox of his veterancy in fighting desipte this occasion being his first time busting viruses, and also attributed this strange connection with his operator as arising from his full understanding of his little brother.

Over the course of the semester, it became undeniable that some of the familiarity Rockman felt with his netnavi works could not be brushed off as trivial. Occasionally, Rockman was disturbed by a false memory (could it be really said as false, if the information contained was true?), such as the one he felt the first day of his netnavi existence, pertaining to Netto's habits in class and internet usage. During class, he would pay more attention to certain subjects or parts of the lecture because he knew Netto would struggle there later, and diligently took notes. How was this possible? How did he know before experiencing firsthand the academic strengths and weaknesses of Netto? Because he went to the same school as his operator before? Nonsense—by the last year Saito was missing classes so much that he had no way of knowing this. When Netto was doing homework by his bedside, he could not even help out his little brother as he was so far behind the curriculum. When they surfed the net together after school, at home, Rockman found the knowledge of the paths of the web, its landscapes, and Netto's favorite sites coming to him out of nowhere. This, too, was inexplicable. Netto did not notice a single incongruency, however, as the syndrome simply meant that Rockman did his job so excellently, just like the green navi before him, as he was somehow aware of Netto's preferences.

Unable to bear the madness etching away at his sanity, and seeking relief from the affliction, Rockman did bring the matter forth to Dr. Yuichiro since the first month under the pretense of a regular checkup. He knew, if this constant integration of something not himself continued, then in the future a time would come when he could no longer be certain of his identity, whether he was Saito Hikari, and whether everything he experienced in the afterlife was real at all, at which point the mere possibility of him not being the true Saito would easily break him. To his dismay, attempts by his father to pinpoint the source were unsuccessful, or rather more accurately, any and all diagnostic methods were found to be inapplicable. A simple attempt at a disassembly of the core, which navis routinely went through during normal diagnostics, caused a sensation of levitation and disconnection, and Rockman started seeing his ghost-body separating, that Yuichiro had to stop the procedure.

Yuichiro then had no option but to invent programs akin to endoscopes, imaging scans, and biopsy machines just for Rockman, which he did with great zeal over several months in hopes of saving his son once again. Albeit his novel approach, the tests were all inconclusive. The only clue he had was that the cause was tightly related with the fact that Rockman dreamed, as netnavis did not have this feature. However, between Rockman being the only navi with a human soul and the estbalished knowledge of how navis functioned, Yuichiro could not conjecture any meaningful hypothesis, and prescribed observation alone. The contingency plan was this: if Rockman's status deteriorated with decompensation, then he would forcefully put his son in a coma and carry on with the disassembly. It was the dangerous endpoint that he wished to avoid at all costs, as he did not know where and how Saito's soul was anchored to Rockman, and what the forced analysis would achieve.

After a few virus busting lessons later in the semester, and seeing that Netto and Rockman were experienced in the matter, Dekao challenged Netto. He and other friends observed last few weeks how Netto had changed, that he was no longer downtrodden, and how he did not shut down at the mere mention of Saito. It seemed, to their relief, that Netto had finally come to terms with the loss of his twin, and was ready to come out of his shell, although he was now mysteriously very attached to his new custom navi. Dekao no longer tiptoed around Netto and their relationship was back to usual, with Dekao acting slightly like a bully without any oppressive intentions associated. His size, voice, and strength naturally lend him the air of a tyrant—it was simply who he was.

"I gave you enough time to practice with your new navi. Let's see whose navi is better! My Gutsman is going to pulverize that blue thing in no time, hehe"

"Oh yeah?"

Netto responded with a defiant enthusiasm, only to abruptly calm down and check his PET

"Rockman, you up for this?"

Lo, and behold! Netto was asking for permission from his netnavi! The scene was so surreal, so unbelievable, that the entire class swallowed their breaths and watched him. Netto, oblivious at the collective attention, continued to speak to his navi. Children could not help but notice how his voice turned very soft and amicable, which was quite unusual for this hyperactive boy.

"I would really hate to see you get hurt."

"I'm stronger than I appear! Trust me, Netto kun, it will be fun!"

A voice from PET, and the whole class heard it. It was uncomfortably similar to you-know-who, though not exact. The pitch was higher, somewhere between masculine and feminine, but the tone, the intonation, the delivery, all evoked someone. Netto's soccer group was an insensitive sportive bunch and they never cared much about Rockman's voice and his cheerleading. If anything, all they did was to use Rockman's behavior to tease Netto. However, this time, the girls—the sensitive creatures who are always acutely aware of small details—heard it too. Something was amiss.

"Alright, Dekao, I accept your challenge! I'm going to win for sure this time, you just wait!"

Netto accepted! The son of Dr. Yuichiro was the second-best netbattler in the school after Dekao, and he did this with his old green navi. Everyone knew Dekao owed the entirety of his success to the raw power of Gutsman. This time, Netto had his new custom navi. The news spread like a wildfire—it would be the game of the year!

Yaito did not interject (which was always without effect) as she used to when Netto and Dekao plotted to use the IT room for their private netbattling sessions. This was clearly against school rules, but she, too, was curious of the new netnavi of Netto that was suspected to have contributed to the cure of Netto's depression. Everyone was curious.

The duel was held right after school, and oh what a crowd filled the IT room that day! At the center of the room was a large hologram device that visualized the battlefield for demonstration purposes, and students shamelessly requisitioned it to create a display for the audience, so even those who were at the edge of the room could see. Gutsman loaded in and let out a roar of intimidation. Dekao was aware of his stardom, even if it was a spotted one, tarnished with speculations of his inferior operating skill and accusations of him relying too much on the strength of his navi. The roar was for a show; navis were programs and were not affected by such behaviors. Rockman was...not yet loaded in. The eyes of the crowd converged at Netto, who was checking his PET while making last-minute organization of his battle chip collections.

"Rockman, if you get damaged too much, I'm logging you out."

Conditioned like Pavlov's dog, at the sight of Gutsman, Netto could only imagine Rockman getting destroyed like his previous green navi. He wanted to win, but he could not see that future. There was a time in the past when Netto was disgusted by future himself who would have been cured of depression, by replacing Saito with someone else. Who could've predicted that his soul could be comforted by something not even human, an artificial intelligence? If his virtual Saito (Netto accepted the fact that he became very attached to Rockman because of his looks, voice, and behavior) was to be heavily damaged, Netto instinctively understood that he would be devastated, and would never be able to netbattle again.

"Don't worry, Netto kun, I'll be okay, so, be confident! Please operate me!"

Contrary to Netto, who was not obliged to netbattle, Rockman had motivations. One reason was as discussed above—to become someone who was uniquely significant to Netto and completely replace Saito. Another reason was that as soon as Dekao challenged Netto, several visions flashed before him, as if they were real, and they all ended with him getting smashed into the wall or the floor by the Gutsman despite some very heroic efforts. Instead of making him afraid, the visions enraged him, and a personal need for a vendetta was ignited. From a third-person view, this was all very unreasonable—Gutsman never wronged Rockman, nor did they cross paths before. The sudden invasion of the visions should have been questioned, but what Rockman felt was so physical that he became convinced, subconsciously, that those really happened to him, and that he needed to overcome Gutsman for his previous failures and disappointing Netto, which he deeply regretted.

"Alright, Rockman exe transmission!"

Rockman appeared on the opposite side of Gutsman in the center hologram display. A gasp of the crowd, then a murmur. The navi did not look so strong. Some mentioned how the navi looked very much like the operator himself. To Netto's close friends, the case of Netto's recovery from his depression was clarified in this single moment. They were aghast at the discovery: Netto did not come to a closure; he simply found a replacement! They so far had not had a chance to look at Rockman in such a high resolution. That blue navi limited himself to interacting with other navis, and had been very discreet in communicating with other humans. After the initial disturbance, they understood—that this was the only way Netto could have been saved, and that this was the work of his father, Dr. Yuichiro, who now started to appear monstrous. Among the friends, Yaito was the one who was particularly shaken. She knew she could not judge Netto, for she did not know what it was like to have a twin sibling and be so close, but if a similar choice—using the dead sibling as a navi—was offered to her, she would have vomited. Was this not a direct desecration of the peace of the dead? Yaito sensed that in Rockman was the darkness of the Hikari family which she should never venture to illuminate.

In a highly unsportsmanlike manner, Dekao did not wait for someone to give a signal. He knew Netto consistently resorted to kiting his navi around Gutsman, maintaining a safe distance, while trying to whittle down his foe before being forced into a melee. That was already difficult enough to deal with when Netto operated the slow and old green navi, and Dekao, despite speaking haughtily, decided that he should not give the new blue navi a chance to take the initiative of the battle. The blue navi was surprisingly small, even smaller than the previous green navi; in fact, he imagined that if Saito was somehow digitalized and stood in the arena, he would be of similar size and shape to Rockman. Dekao reasoned that if the size was inversely proportional to speed, then the new blue navi must have been customized to maximize precisely that, and Netto must have met the challenge today confidently because he had already calculated that the blue navi was nimble enough to prolong the fight at range, indefinitely, until Gutsman was defeated.

The sudden charge by Gutsman was met with gasps and jeers from the throng. However, when Rockman darted away to the right from his position and handily avoided the ambush, and spammed seven shots of Rock buster in quick succession, all aimed at the centerline of Gutsman, the crowd went wild. The speed of this new navi was nothing like what they had witnessed before.

"Hm, just as suspected. Your navi is the speed type, eh? A bad news for you, Netto: I came prepared for this situation as well!"

"Say that after you've beaten me!" Netto retorted as he slotted in chips for cannons.

Rockman lost no time in spending two of them, one aimed at the head and one aimed at the torso. Rockman's aim was too precise, and, paradoxically, Gutsman predicted where he would aim, based on the seven shots he made earlier, and blocked the projectiles with his giant arms. The damage was limited to the armor and minimal. Rockman prepared to move again in anticipation of another charge. Contrary to Rockman's calculations, Gutsman did not close in; he rather opted to stand still and raise his arms high. Then, like a pair of sledgehammers, they came down, striking the ground with great force. The ground shook and shattered, and the force of the strike was transferred to the terrain, delivering a shockwave towards Rockman. He, of course, dodged the traveling wave with ease by stepping away a few meters sideways, but noticed how the ground left behind all appeared fractured.

Netto understood what was happening. This was why he could not picture Rockman winning. Nevertheless, he had to try; otherwise, this would be his last netbattle.

"Rockman, the fractured ground will break under you, and you won't be able to step on it more than once. It will be a race between us two—whether he takes away ground from us faster than we can shoot him down. I'm sending you shotguns. Keep aiming at the center torso. He won't be able to block the spread."

"On it."

Rockman engaged exactly as ordered, and to some degree, it worked. First shot, Gutsman tried to block, but the shot spread was diffuse and several rounds made it into the unprotected areas of the abdomen and face. After this, Gutsman went on a full offensive, spamming shockwaves as fast as he could while tanking the entirety of shotgun pallets. The spread meant, however, that the damage was applied diffusely: some were inevitably absorbed by the armor. As a result, Rockman started losing traversable ground faster than he could accumulate damage to that towering yellow navi.

"Netto kun?"

"Yeah, I see that. Slotting in minibombs."

"Nice idea!"

Rockman dodged two more shockwaves. Gutsman started placing some of them well ahead of Rockman in anticipation of the dodge. Rockman, being in full control of his movements, only had to halt his dashes earlier and see the slow shockwave, thrown at him at the intercept vector, harmlessly passing in front him. Rockman quickly hurled all of the grenades he was given to Gutsman's feet. An explosion. It worked! Once the smoke cleared, Gutsman was seen suffering from critical damage, evidenced by parts that became blurry and dysfunctional. The yellow navi bellowed a scream of frustration. Finding the damage from bombs unsustainable, Gutsman had to move from his central position when the next rounds of bombs were delivered. No more shockwaves came Rockman's way.

The entire battlefield progressively devolved into a pile of wreckage. Between Gutsman's smashings and Rockman's liberal application of explosives, nothing remained intact. Many ground tiles were completely gone, revealing the chaos underneath that both navis could not touch without being caught in it as in a quagmire. Rockman changed his mode of movement from dashes to jumps as the field started to resemble more of a collection of stepstones than a proper field, which made his landings quite predictable and forced him to use some of the cracked tiles in convenient places that he wished to save till last in an effort to avoid Gutsman's attacks. That gorilla-like navi, seeing that the shockwaves no longer effectively traveled in such a ragged terrain, resorted to throwing rubbles at Rockman, which, under current circumstances, was more threatening than his other mode of offenses.

"Netto kun, we are almost out of space."

"Yeah, but Gutsman is almost done, too. Damn it, why won't he log out? Slotting in a cannon."

Rockman immediately expended the cannon on Gutsman. This time he aimed at the left leg, which was badly damaged from the previous minibomb explosion, and Gutsman could not block it. The damage was substantial, causing a bleeding of programs.

"We might...win, actually, Rockman. Few more shots like that and Gutsman should be forced to logout!"

Netto, excited at the unexpected prospect of victory, and knowing that he was in the lead, looked up at Dekao, hoping to see the sign of defeat. All he found was a mischievous smile on that swarthy face. Netto's heart grew cold. He looked back at the PET, and noticed the trouble Rockman was in: a line of tiles, still intact between the two navis, with no ground to jump to on either side.

"Rockman! Get out of there! Shit, sorry, we are trapped!"

"There's no room, Netto kun."

"Ah, what the heck, sword in. Let's hope this is enough."

Gutsman roared and made his charge. It was guaranteed to land, and Rockman had nowhere to go. Netto calculated that the best he could offer was a counter-trade of hits using a sword chip. To his surprise, Rockman did not use the sword or charged up his buster. He stood still.

"Rockman, this is not the time to freeze! Come on!"

A laughter full of catharsis coming from the other side wormed into Netto's ears. Was this it? He was so close, and he was never this close before. Maybe Dekao was right—proficiency in navi operation did not matter as long as the navi was strong enough. Netto wanted to close his eyes; he was not ready to see what was going to unravel before him. His finger hovered around the logout button.

"It's okay, Netto kun"

A calm voice returned, as if Rockman knew what Netto was contemplating. He was not intimidated or resigned. His inexplicable (rather injected) need for a revenge demanded this: he had to defeat Gutsman in the contest of strength. The damage to the left leg had surely taken its toll on that giant navi; the charging had less than half the normal momentum, but everyone around was so focused on the drama of small cornered navi that this fact was not noticed except by Rockman, whose mind remained tranquil the whole time. In his accelerated mind, the world moved slowly, and he had already determined that the kinetic energy of the charge was below his strength threshold. Rockman lifted his hands and met the charge of Gutsman merely with his palms, for the revenge could not be complete without a total humiliation.

"!"

A complete silence covered the room. Rockman was not thrown away, nor did he lose an inch of ground. The fearsome charge of Gutsman was stopped with unnatural brusqueness. Up to this point, everyone was convinced that Rockman was a speed-focused navi, including the operator. Netto's hand slid away from the logout button. He himself did not know what to do.

Gutsman followed up his charge with a right hook (a curved horizontal punch). In response, Rockman jumped with a speed that can only be described as a spectral disappearance, made a gymnastic 360 mid-air flip, and landed on Gutsman's fist as lightly as a butterfly on a flower. Then, putting his right foot on Gutsman's left shoulder, Rockman used his left hand to grab and extend backwards Gutsman's head, transformed his right arm into a sword, and pressed the edge to the neck. Rockman stated rather unceremoniously:

"It's over, Dekao. Logout your navi."

Dekao did not move. He was simply agape.

"...Quickly, if you do not want to see this brute's head rolling."

At the threat, Dekao grew a bit pale, came back to his senses, and logged out his navi. As Rockman landed softly to where the subdued Gutsman was, Netto also logged him out.

A thunderous applause and frenzied congratulations.

Netto did not know what to do, intoxicated with joy. In his stupor, he did not even notice Mayl giving him a hug. To be fair, everyone around Netto was hugging, touching, poking, pushing, pulling, hitting, and shouting at him; he had no method of distinguishing Mayl's transitory contact from that of others. When Netto looked down at this PET screen, there was Rockman with the most satisfied expression. Netto could not take his eyes off of him as multiple emotions swirled inside, and he did not know how to organize them.

"We...we did it, Rockman."

"Un, nice operating!"

From here on, Rockman was no longer a replacement for Saito. He obtained uniqueness in the eyes of Netto, and started acting more proactively as a netnavi. He could even start bringing out more of his Saito-self without the fear of shattering Netto's psyche. The result was that Rockman started to openly upbraid Netto for his academic shortcomings and actively supervised the homework sessions much to the boy's dismay (but it was too late to save the average grade of Netto, and Rockman vowed to double his efforts next semester). Rockman's position in Netto became a hybrid of a sort, commanding his operator with the combined authority of an older brother and the best friend, and possibly something even more special of which humans have no word for. At least this much could be said with confidence: Netto, just as he could not survive without Saito, would not survive without Rockman. Should Rockman disappear, the hole he leaves behind would be greater and be immediately fatal.

That was a couple of months ago. Since then, the routine between Netto and Dekao reversed—Dekao challenged Netto every one or two weeks, and lost by a wider margin each time. Netto improved at a rate that others could not even fathom, and by the third match, Rockman did not even have to engage in the melee, as both of them processed Gutsman so methodically that the confrontation seldom continued until the battlefield was plowed through and through. By the fifth match, what Rockman did to Gutsman was exceedingly closer to a public execution than a proper fight, Netto had to promise to crying Dekao that he would never repeat such chip combinations as to ruin a man's spirit, and that he would end each battle honorably.

Rockman exited his memory and very gradually stood up, in a shambling motion like a person suffering from an advanced stage of rheumatoid arthritis. The strength was restored just enough for him to stand up and do his duty as an untiring alarm clock. On Netto, Rockman fixed his eyes, in which gently fluctuated an ocean-like melancholy, impenetrable and immovable—the kind acquired through constant self-discipline and denial of one's needs. The soul of his brother had been saved, and the purpose of his return was fulfilled. He only had to maintain the status quo, for he had promised to himself that he would sacrifice anything and everything for the sake of his Netto. Yet, what about his own soul? This purgatory?

'Netto kun, really, everything is still a mess. I feel possessed from time to time, remembering fragments of the past that are clearly not mine, yet papa could not even begin the diagnosis scan on me. I am...something is wrong with me in the morning, and I don't know what to do. My new body seems to be diseased, just like my previous one. Netto kun, is this my fate again? Unable to reach you, decay, and then perish? Netto kun, I can't stand this place. I can't breathe. There's only darkness here. It's been only eight months and I am already...

'Netto kun, you will save me, right? I'll wait, so, please...please, Netto kun...please...'

-Beep beep beep

A reminder from PET to Rockman that it was time. Rockman assumed his cheerful appearance, placed his hands on his hips, breathed in, and began Netto's morning routine.

"WAKE UP, NETTO KUN!"