Necessity

Disclaimer: I do not own the Rockman logo, brand, games, anime or any product in even the faintest relation with the aforementioned. These shall be accredited to Capcom (games and the brand itself) and Shogakukan (the anime series). I do not make a profit off of this; seriously, would you pay money for this, apart from that you use to access it on the Internet? Thought as much…

Necessity

ne•ces•si•ty: The force exerted by circumstance; the presence or pressure of circumstances that justify or compel a certain course of action.

Chapter 01

At the “Game Soul” gaming arcade in Dentown, a net battle of nearly epic proportions was taking place. Around the console where it played out people crowded together to see the close-to-legendary Navis who battled, and their equally renowned Operators, and to maybe catch a glimpse of their techniques in the fray. As swords clashed together in the digital arena, the spectators gasped in awe, and the Operators grinned tauntingly. One of them, a white- and black-haired boy dressed in army pants and a red vest more smirked than grinned as his Navi held his opponent in a standstill, swords only: “Hmmm? You seem to have gained some skill since last I scrubbed the floor with your sorry behind, Netto…” he mocked the other Operator, a brown-haired boy in an orange vest and black and orange shorts who grinned back, just as mocking: “What’s that, Enzan? What I remember of last time is you chickening out on our fight after I sliced your Beta Sword in two, and blaming it on an ‘IPC emergency call’.”

“Who’re you calling a chicken? It was an emergency call, you brat.” Enzan smirked, fishing forth three battle chips from his folder, and Netto blushed slightly, though refusing to back down an inch: “If it was an emergency call, and not just Blues covering up for you, I must say it was incredibly convenient.” he said, observing the battle chips in Enzan’s hand: “Rockman…he still thinks it was a fluke when you severed the Beta Sword. Let’s show him it’s nothing of a sort.” he grinned and gave his Navi a thumbs-up sign, which Rockman answered promptly, taking a sword stance as Netto gave him a sword chip: “OK, Netto-kun”. Enzan, in turn, observed him just as closely back, trying to figure out whether or not he actually would be able to do it once more: “Blues…what do you think of the current situation?” he asked his Navi, and was frankly quite surprised when he was rewarded a shrug for doing so: “I honestly do not have sufficient information at hand to speculate, Enzan-sama. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.” he replied, and Enzan nodded, slotting in the Program Advance data.

After the passing of a few seconds, he had a peculiar feeling of dèja vû as he once more beheld his black ship of Net Battling, the Beta Sword, being effectively annihilated by his opponent, and part of him had already decided to let this battle go to Netto as a trophy of coming up with such a technique when suddenly, as he was about to transfer chip data for the finishing blow to Rockman, Netto had a taste of impending doom as he caught a glimpse of the clock on his PET: “…oh shit. Oh damn, I’m so entirely screwed…” he said, lowering the device: “Enzan…I guess we’ll have to call this one a draw as well. I’ve gotta get home; my curfew has passed, and Mama is positively going to kill me if I don’t get home right now.” Enzan, being both older and totally unaccustomed to such regulations blinked a couple of times, before sighing: “Now who’s chickening out?” he smirked, and Netto grew red: “Oh, believe me, if it hadn’t been so late…” he began, and Enzan chuckled: “Netto, it’s nine in the evening. It’s bedtime for brats, not net battlers.” To this, Netto had no reply other than a furious blush and embarrassed silence.

“Anyway…” he said after gathering up his stuff, not looking Enzan in the eyes as he was still quite red: “I’m going now…” he mumbled, heading for the exit. After a few seconds of internal discussion and deliberation, Enzan halted him: “Netto…wait, I’m coming with you.” he said, plugging out and following the other operator to the door: “I mean, on the way…” he said quickly, afraid to be misunderstood. Netto looked at him with a puzzled expression, before smiling truthfully: “Mh. Thanks.” Together, they exited the “Game Soul” arcade and got a subway car bound for Akihara. Well inside, finding themselves alone, they sat down on opposite seats did what they did best: generate awkward silence, and thus annoying their Navis.

After ten minutes or so of utter silence, only broken by the rhythmic thumping of the subway car going over the railway tracks, Enzan broke the silence, his voice even colder and more stern than usual: “Netto…about that tactic you’ve developed against the Beta Sword…” he said, and Netto stopped looking out of the window as he had been doing for a while, looking at him as their passage into a unlit section of the tracks changed the light in their car in a subtle way: “I\'ll admit it’s probably not a fluke, or sheer luck after all, as I thought before.” Enzan managed to wring from deep inside, cursing himself silently for making it seem so difficult. Netto looked at him, a look of relief and happiness creeping into his features, despite his intentions: “…thanks. We’ve been working on that one for a long time, since first you showed us your Program Advance…” he said, looking to the side: “We made it to defeat you…it’s just too bad we never seem to be given enough time to put it to good use…” he sighed, leaning back and closing his eyes as Enzan nodded: “Yes, the world has gotten terribly interruptive and noisy lately. Sometimes it seems like we’ll never be able to conclude our match.” A few seconds after, Netto cracked open an eye, looking at the white haired boy: “Don’t say things like that. Of course we are. I’ll defeat you if it’s the last thing I do, I swear.”

A silence emerged from these words, and as their eyes met Enzan got the feeling that this was one of those moments he’d remember at the end of the world, no matter what happened in between: The profile of Netto\'s face against the car window, one eye open looking at him, telling more of how he felt than a thousand of his clumsy words, the profound yellowish light from the lamps above their heads, and the thundering silence, before the car erupted out into the Akihara station. The moment broken, both looked away from the other, the awkward silence reinstated once more, lasting the remaining 15 seconds before the train pulled up to the station, the doors sliding open. As he did not live in Akihara, but in a district farther along the train\'s route, Enzan remained seated as Netto stood up, his skates in his hands. \"Well, we\'re here...\" Netto said weakly, and Enzan looked up at him: \"Hm...well, who would have guessed...\" he said sarcastically, only to be taken aback and as completely off guard as he had ever been when Netto\'s lips suddenly met his. It lasted but for an instant, before Netto pulled back, his eyes remaining locked with Enzan\'s for a few brief seconds, revealing a turmoil of feelings to the older boy before the bond broke. \"Some day, for sure...\" he whispered, and then a short \"Sorry.\" as he nearly fled from the train, just slipping though the sliding doors as they closed, leaving a stunned Enzan on board.

- - -

\"Ahh...I really shouldn\'t have done that, should I, Rockman? I mean, he\'ll think of me as a total freak now, after...after kissing him...\" Netto complained as he walked the path leading to the exit of the Akihara subway station, shuddering inside at a variety of different facial expressions Enzan might be wearing at the moment, ranging from mild distaste to outright disgust. In his PET Rockman looked out at him, an expression of worry on his face: \"I don\'t know, Netto-kun. And you don\'t know either, so don\'t condemn yourself just yet. I think you were brave, expressing your feelings like that; I know I would never have had the courage to do anything remotely like it.\" he said, and Netto brightened up a little: \"You think? Well, it was still kinda cowardly running away afterwards...but it was true, as we told him; I really should get home if I want Mama to ever forgive me.\" he fretted,, quickening his pace a little. His face brightened even a little more at knowing that if he closed his eyes, he could still feel Enzan\'s kiss, a kind of cherry-sweet sensation, and for a little while his mind was occupied with this alone.

\"Ne...Netto-kun...?\" Rockman inquired after emerging from the subway station, not reaching through to Netto\'s mush-dazed mind. \"Oi, Netto-kun. Netto-kun!\" he said, raising his voice a little, and thus finally breaching Netto\'s mental shores: \"Uh...what?\" he said, and Rockman sighed: \"Have you noticed how silent it is in Akihara tonight? Kinda creepy...\" he said, and Netto blinked a couple of times, before grinning: \"Yeah...just the right mood for ghosts to come out and play a scare on a random Navi isn\'t it?\" he said, and Rockman looked back at him, obviously insulted: \"That was not what I meant at all...\" he mumbled, his face red with embarrassment, before he looked at Netto again, his eyes serious: \"But, really...it\'s very quiet tonight. There\'s not a single car out, not a single person...even the neighborhood dogs keep quiet tonight.\" he said, and Netto shrugged: \"Well, its past curfew. Maybe it\'s really this quiet every night, only we don\'t know it cause we\'re asleep...\" he yawned, leaving Rockman pondering in silence.

At this time, they had reached the Squirrel Park in Akihara, and Netto\'s house was not far off, and he sped up even more to earn those extra seconds to quell his mother\'s anger. Suddenly, from behind the squirrel statue a person emerged, blocking their path: \"Halt, Hikari Netto.\" it commanded, revealing a female as its owner. Said boy took a few cautious steps back, going into a defensive stance: \"W-who\'re you?\" he asked, part annoyed and part nervous at what this lady would want with him in the park this late an evening. \"Hehe...\" the lady sniggered as two more people appeared behind her: \"That\'s rather irrelevant at this point. But fine...\" she added at Netto\'s clueless face: \"My name is Shisawa Dokusai, but people just call me #4. These here goons are called #10 and #12.\" The mentioned men grunted something in response, and the lady looked back at Netto; he could not see any of their faces in the dark, but judging from her voice she was probably quite pretty.

\"So, Dokusai...\" Netto began, but was cut off at a soft \"tsk tsk tsk\" sound, and Shisawa lifted her index finger wiggling it from side to side in a repulsively cute manner: \"I\'d much prefer \'#4\' please, boy...\" she said in a sickeningly sweet and polite way, and Netto could not help but shiver as he continued: \"...#4, what do you want with me?\" he said, and even in the darkness he could tell she smiled: \"Well, you see...we have been sent to take care off you once and for all...\" she said, the men behind her grunting approvingly: \"Because, well...Regal-sama has had enough of your meddling.\" she concluded, and Netto felt himself pale at the mention of the insane scientist\'s name: \"D-Dr. Regal? So that bastard is behind all of this...I thought I beat him thoroughly enough the last time he tried anything. So, what is it this time?\" he said, trying to provoke her, but much to her surprise she spoke, almost as on cue: \"Ah, well...I suppose I\'m allowed to tell. Shortly...\" she said, in a sort of contemplative way that made shivers of cold run down Netto\'s back: \"...we\'re going to pick up on that old fool Wily\'s work, and forge the pieces of the bug program Gospel together with the data of the one known as Forte, in the frame of the extraterrestrial Navi Duo.\" she said in a whimsically unaffected way, and Netto felt his jaw drop open at the sheer and simple way she had told him all this.

\"B-but...\" he stammered, and she spoke softly: \"What, boy? Speak up; I can\'t hear you.\" she said, and Netto felt his face turn red in anger, both at this outrageous plan, an insane fantasy that could absolutely not be allowed to even begin, and also at this disgusting lady that insisted on treating him like an unwitting child: \"Like you\'ll ever be able to do that. I\'ve stopped Regal before and I\'ll do it again. Especially now that you\'ve told me your plan. What\'s the deal with that anyways?\" he said, looking sternly at her as she began to laugh: \"What? What the hell\'s so funny, old lady?\" he asked, and he calmed down, though still snickering: \"Well...I\'ve told you my name, who we\'re working for and what we\'re planning to do because you\'re neither going to be telling it on to anyone, nor be able to do anything about it. We meant what we said; we are gonna finish you off once and for all.\" she said, and Netto pulled forth his PET, preparing for a Net Battle: \"Go ahead and try. Better people than you have tried stopping us. Rockman isn\'t going down so easily.\" he said determinedly. \"Well...then it\'s a good thing that was not exactly what we had in mind...\" she said smiling, and moments after hearing a metallic click, he felt something his him in the chest with the impact of a punch.

Not understanding what had happened to him, his eyes widened in surprise as he was thrown back, landing on his back with a heavy thud, the PET falling out of his hand. Feeling a cold numbness in his ribs, he slowly put a hand to them, feeling disbelief as they came out stained with blood. He heard some commotion from the PET, it almost sounded like Rockman calling his name, but in this new state of reality all sound was closed out apart from the echo of a soft sound, almost like a gentle stroke of a whip. Struggling to raise his head, it felt like his whole body had gone numb as well, and he felt sick and queasy as he looked up at the lady, staring into the mouth of a gun: \"See...you\'re not going anywhere...\" she said, her voice cold as steel, though retaining that sweet, sweet touch: \"...because, well...you\'re going to die right here.\" she said, and he felt himself being shot twice more, though the crucial nature of such matters started slipping past his mind. He only felt the numbness spread further, mixing with some pain and strange feelings as he felt warmth streaming over his skin, warm blood running over his increasingly cold body.

He still had a hard time realizing what was happening to him as the female lowered her gun, turning around to the other men: \"Now, let\'s go. We\'ll leave young Netto-kun right here...and his PET along with him.\" she said, looking at one of the men who seemed to be particularly eager to get his hands on said item. It sounded to Netto as though she was talking under water: \"Remember what Regal-sama said. The more detached the preliminary stages of his plan are from the Network the better. People these days have no other ways tracking anyone down or knowing anything in general if it\'s not on the Network. So leave the PET and the Navi here. Considering the special nature of this Navi, I doubt he would have any use whatsoever to any other person than Hikari here...\" she leered, walking off triumphantly, disappearing into the night.

Her departure and her final words to the other men mostly escaped Netto as he slipped farther and farther into the cold unconsciousness of death, coughing blood from a perforated lung. Never-ending, in the back of his head, he thought he could hear Rockman, calling his name over and over, echoing into his dying delirium. Then, suddenly, he reached a lucid stage, when the world abruptly slid into focus, when the pain of the entire affair caught up with him and he doubled together from the wounds, moaning in pain with what little strength he could muster. Only then he heard Rockman was actually yelling at him from the PET discarded at the foot of the Squirrel Statue: \"R-rock...man...\" he managed to utter, as he clawed himself closer to the device, until he finally came eye to eye with his Navi, out of his mind in desperation what to do, almost insane with frustration over his limitations: \"Netto-kun!! What, what should I do? What happened to you? What\'s going on?\" he said, to be cut off as Netto coughed, small droplets of blood sputtering onto the PET\'s display: \"N-netto-kun...you\'re hurt, horribly. I-I\'ve gotta get help, I have to call an ambulance or something, I need to plug in, I...\" he stammered, but silenced as Netto shook his head, a pained, sad expression on his face: \"R-Rockman...\" he mumbled, feeling as though his eyelids were made out of iron: \"I-it\'s to late...too late for me...I\'m done for, I can feel...it...\" he said,

\"B-baka!\" Rockman scolded, nearly banging on the display: \"What\'re you saying, you idiot! Of course you\'re not gonna die. I\'m gonna get help, just plug me in somewhere and...\" he began once more, but had his attention diverted by a full fit of coughs, leaving Netto as an exhausted lump on the ground, struggling to get air into his lungs: \"Rockman...\" he said, his voice surprisingly stable considering the fact he was on his way to die from three gun shot wounds to the chest: \"I can see...things so...so clearly now...\" he begun, and Rockman felt tears running down his face, part because his operator, and brother, was about to die, but part also because he, Saito, knew the feeling he was talking about quite well. He\'d felt it himself, many years ago, when he had died from an illness as a child, leaving Netto behind. \"I...I need you to go...go to Papa, or Enzan, or...or someone, and tell them. Tell them...\" he said, before coughing again: \"Tell them what they\'re planning...\" he mumbled, his breathing shivering. Rockman was frozen stiff: \"B-but...Netto-kun...\" he said, tears flowing freely now: \"I...I can\'t leave you now...I mean...\" he said, trying to point to all that he could not put into words: all emotions, all yearning, all the reasons he had to have for being there when his brother and best friend died. Netto smiled: \"But...you need someone to plug you in...\" he said, hacking once more: \"...and that someone has to be me...and I don\'t have much time left...it\'s really kinda spooky, I c-can feel my time running out...almost like a clock...\" he mumbled, feeling himself slipping off.

\"N-netto-kun...\" Rockman said, unable to process all of this, feeling about to short-circuit from the torment of being unable to do anything at all: \"I...I\'ll do what you wish, though it hurts me beyond words...\" he said, his voice breaking into a sob at the end. Netto still smiled: \"I\'m the...the luckiest person in the world, for having had you...had you as my Navi...and for knowing you, all in all...\" he said, putting his hand to the PET display: \"T-thanks...\" he shivered, and Rockman put his hand against Netto\'s, and felt more miserable than he had ever before, even when he was about to die himself: \"I...I\'m ready...\" he managed to utter, and with a nod Netto mustered the remainder of his strength, managing to lift the PET level with the Squirrel Statue: \"Goodbye...\" he mumbled, issuing the \"Transmission\" command, and seeing Rockman disappearing from the display before he fell together, shivering with cold. He not as much felt as registered at the edge of his consciousness that he too was crying, mostly for making Rockman do what he had just done. But then, suddenly, all the pain died out, and he was in a sort of bliss. Also, it was no longer dark around him...well, not very. It was a kind of comfortable hue of darkness, so to say. And...and everyone was there...all his friends, his mother, his father...Rockman too. And Enzan...Enzan was there, smiling unreservedly at him, hugging him and telling him that he loved him...and kissing him, just as he had daydreamt so many times before.

- - -

As a heavy rainfall, almost like tears, overcame Akihara and Hikari Netto shakily exhaled his last breath, he could still feel Enzan\'s lips on his own, still feel the cherry-sweet sensation of the kiss, and he smiled, a smile that stayed on his lips indefinitely.

- - -

In the Ijuuin manor, the young master Enzan\'s teacup suddenly cracked in his hand, long lightning fork deformities making themselves apparent in the pristine white porcelain, and he looked at the ruined tableware with concern in his eyes before putting it down on the platter. Slowly he rose from the chair in front of his fireplace, walking over to the window and putting his hands on the sill, looking at the sky outside. The sun had set, leaving the world tumbling through darkness, a feeling not all too uncommon to the young boy. However...there was something else out there, something sinister...something that made his skin creep, and he shuddered, his skin goose bumped under the thin bath robe he wore. In addition to this ominous mood lying in the air of this evening there was the issue with Netto. Somehow, he had to tell him how he felt, that he was not angry with him. Rather on the contrary, really; he had wanted to tell the brat how fond he was of him for a long time, he...well, he\'d never found the right moment, or had the courage to do so when those moments came. Sighing, he slid over into his recliner by the fire, staring into the dancing flames, the image of the broken tea cup haunting the back of his mind. Giving it a docile contemplative look, he exhaled a shaky breath, suddenly feeling very cold: “Netto…”

| ~fin~ |

Well...my first death fiction ever. Or at least, the first chapter. I don\'t think I\'m ever gonna make writing these thigns a habit, first off because it feels horrible killing people you love and adore, and secondsly because I don\'t think I get the deaths right. I\'d like some opinions on this, and other general points in the reviews you\'re gonna leave me...aren\'t you? *begging eyes*

That said, rate and review, and all things sweet and nice, please. ^.^ It might take some time for the seconds chapter to come along, but if you people wish I shall do my very best.