The Difference Between Netnavis and Reploids

Hikari no Namida

Chapter 3- Netto, Meet Zero

“Netto-kun! You’re alright!” Rockman yelled the moment he saw Netto enter the room. Netto felt a small pang of regret in his heart. He had died and was now a reploid. He could look human, but he would never be one again. Somehow, he didn’t think that having to be changed into a reploid would really be considered ‘alright’, but he kept that to himself.

“Hey, of course I am! You can’t get rid of me!” ‘Oh really? Why then are you a reploid? Why aren’t you at home with Mama?’ Netto tried to ignore the mental voice, knowing that if he listened to it, he would only get depressed and people would get suspicious. Rockman cracked a small grin.

“Heh, I guess so…but I was so worried about you, Netto-kun…” Netto smiled reassuringly at Rockman.

"You worry too much Rockman!" 'But not nearly as much as I worry about you...' Ciel then spoke up.

"Rockman, I'm sure you'll want to know the extent of damage that Netto-kun took on?" Rockman nodded, not saying anything about the -kun that Ciel added to Netto's name, figuring it was just that Ciel called all of her patients that. Ciel sighed slightly and started speaking in a slightly regretful tone.

"I'm afraid that he has permanent damage to his arms. That's why he must always keep those bandages wrapped around his arms. There was also some minor damage to the head, but he'll recover from that fairly quickly. However, I want him to stay here to recover." Rockman blinked in surprise. Netto smiled inwardly. He had wondered how Ciel was going to come up with an excuse for him staying here all the time. It was a brilliant excuse. Since Rockman thought Ciel was only a doctor, he couldn't argue with what she said. Only a doctor. Netto mentally scoffed at that idea. Actually, Netto realized, Ciel was a doctor. Just not exactly a doctor in the field of medics.

"Alright...so is this place a hospital?" Rockman questioned. Netto vaguely wondered how Ciel was going to answer that without giving too much away.

"No, I'm afraid not." Netto quickly glanced towards Ciel at that. Rockman stared as well. "This place is more of a hospital for reploids. However, since we landed closest to here, I also have equipment here that can help humans." Ciel explained. Rockman looked at her confused.

"Reploids?" Rockman questioned.

"Robots who have the ability to think, make their own decision and feel emotions. In short, they are as nearly as close as you can get to being human." Rockman nodded his understanding. Just then, there was a knock on the door before the door whirred open.

A medium sized reploid stepped inside. He had a purple bodysuit with red, yellow and white armor. His helmet was also red and purple with a turquoise blue triangular gem set in the front. White feathers started at the base of his jaw and shot back towards the back of the helmet. His hair was long and blonde. His eyes were a dark purple. Ciel smiled at the newcomer.

"Ah Zero. Is there anything I can help you with?" Ciel asked the reploid. Zero glanced at Netto for a moment before turning back towards the scientist.

“Actually, yes. I heard a rumor of a new reploid here who’s going to be helping us in our fight against Neo Arcadia. Is this true?” Zero questioned. Ciel nodded.

“Yes, this is indeed true. His name is Yurei and he said he would be willing to help out. He may not be around too often, as he is quite busy.” Ciel glanced over at Netto quickly with a slight smile, before looking back over at Zero. “However, since he’s just been upgraded from a messenger to a fighter reploid, he’ll need training. Would you be willing to do so, Zero?” Zero simply turned towards the door and glanced at Ciel over his shoulder.

“Let me meet him first and then I’ll decide.” Zero then walked out the door.

“Why do I get the feeling that you didn’t ask Yurei, whoever he is, if he wanted any training?” Rockman asked after a few moments of silence. Ciel laughed slightly and gave Rockman a look that reminded him way too much of Netto. Rockman had a feeling that Ciel and Netto were going to get along just fine.

“Well, that would be because I didn’t. I just wanted to see if Zero would actually consider the idea before getting Yurei’s hopes up.” Ciel explained.

“Getting his hopes up indeed…” Netto muttered under his breath. Then he said a bit louder, “Don’t you think you should have asked first?” Netto chided.

“Ah yes, well….” Ciel cleared her throat. “I’ll burn that bridge when I come to it.” She said, looking semi-embarrassed. Netto winced at the prospect of anything burning. Images of the plane flashed in front of his eyes and he closed his eyes to wipe the images away. The memories were too fresh, too vivid and much too painful to think about right now.

“Is something wrong, Netto-kun?” Netto snapped out his flashbacks and saw Rockman and Ciel staring at him in concern.

“Huh? No, nothing’s wrong. Just…thinking…that’s all.” Netto said rather quickly. Ciel simply raised an eyebrow.

“Right…well, I was wondering if you could go and find Yurei for me and bring him here. I need to talk to him about his training. You can wander around the base after if you’d like after.” Netto nodded and left the room. Thank goodness Ciel had come up with an excuse for him when he was Yurei. He didn’t want Rockman getting too suspicious. He quickly walked around the corner and after checking to see if the coast was clear, activated the civilian program. Netto breathed a sigh of relief when he felt the drain on his energy start to fade a bit. Anytime he was in his human look-alike form, his energy seemed to drain a bit quicker than it did in his armored form. Netto waited a few minutes before walking back to Ciel’s lab at a leisurely pace. It would be rather suspicious if Netto showed up as Yurei just moments after Hikari Netto had left. And Netto didn’t want Rockman suspecting him already. It only took Netto less than a minute to get back to Ciel’s lab. He knocked on the door and went inside without waiting for an answer.

“You wanted to see me Ciel?” Netto asked, relieved to hear that Yurei’s voice was different than Hikari Netto’s.

“Yes, I did. Yurei, meet Hikari Netto’s netnavi, Rockman. Rockman, this is Yurei.” Netto smiled at Rockman.

“It’s nice to meet you Rockman.” Netto felt so strange saying that to his own navi. Rockman returned the smile.

“Likewise. So, where do you come from, Yurei?” Netto kept a calm expression on his face, while inwardly, he was panicking. What was he supposed to say? He and Ciel had never discussed this! Thankfully, Netto was saved when once again, Zero walked in.

“Is there a reason you’ve ONCE AGAIN called me in here?” Zero demanded, sounding quite irritated. Apparently, he was having a bit of a bad day. Ciel sighed and shook her head.

“It looks like I interrupted your training, huh?” Then Ciel leaned over towards Netto and whispered. “Don’t worry about him. He’s always like this when someone interrupts his training time.” Now Zero looked even more irritated.

“Will you PLEASE just tell me what’s going on?” Zero once again demanded.

“Alright, calm down. Zero, I wanted to introduce you to Yurei. Yurei, this is Zero. He’s the one who’s going to training you.” Well, at least now Zero got to meet Yurei face-to-face. Zero made a ‘hmm’ noise and slowly walked around Netto, examining him. Netto found himself growing more and more nervous as the elder reploid circled him like a predator circled its prey.

“Not too bad for an upgraded messenger reploid…mainly built for speed, as any messenger reploid should be…after all…” Zero grinned slightly. “You don’t want to get hit by the enemy while trying to deliver something, hm?...Defense is fairly high…power and accuracy could be higher…” Zero finally stopped circling Netto, which made Netto much more relieved.

“Alright then, Ciel. I’ll…train him. Yurei. Come with me.” Zero commanded, spun around and walked out of Ciel’s lab at a brisk pace. Netto rolled his eyes.

“It was nice meeting you Rockman.” Netto said to his netnavi with a smile. Rockman smiled back.

“You too Yurei.” Netto quickly left the room, trying to catch up to Zero. Zero glanced back at Netto.

“You may not like me very much right now, but by the end of this, you’re going to hate me with a passion. But at least you’ll be able to defend yourself and you’ll still be functioning.” Zero looked forward again and Netto had a very bad feeling about this.

What was he getting himself into?

END CHAPTER

You know, I really should have named this chapter, “The chapter in which nothing really happens”. So, I apologize for the long delay in getting this out.

Here’s a question for everyone:

Which enemy do you want to attack first?

One of the guardians(Rockman Zero)

Or

One of the darkloids ()