Stole was a new word for it. Rockman had said some choice things, some angry sentiment, but not stole. The time wasn't stolen to them, because- "Um, thank you." Tea. It was always tea. Netto expected coffee, the horrible instant stuff that Enzan only really pulled out when he wasn't expecting anyone. At the office. He stared down at the cup for a few moments. Rockman still inspected the table. "Um, yeah. Um- I guess that was low on the rung of crap that happened, but I thought it was- kinda the worst part." This, Rockman did react to- his hologram disappeared, but he was only returning to the PET. "Uh- the tech he was, working on, was also kinda bad too." He took a sip, and the sting on his tongue seemed to invigorate him to keep talking. "It was, like, a thing to make it easy to do full-synchro with any navi. A Link. Based on, like, the pulse transmission stuff. Just a lot safer. In theory." Maybe if he said it in a rush it wouldn't feel so bad. "It made me really sick, and uh-" He glanced at the PET, and went for it- "I think it's made me, um, unable to synch with Rock. At all." He said it, and it was a bygone conclusion, but soon after the words left his mouth there was a steady drip drip from his cheeks. He was crying. It was the absolute worst part. Damn the lost time, damn the pain, damn the sickness and the hallucinations, this was what was stolen from him. Netto blushed, as if ashamed of it, and looked away from Pen. "W-We just go fucking ballistic if we do. Can't control it anymore. W-Which sucks." Understatement. Netto pushed the heel of his free hand into his eye to stem the sudden flow of tears. He thought he'd already cried them all.

Enzan remembers those cold lips. Death lips. They'd been blue, contrasted with the harsh red burns across his lover's face. He finds his fingers drifting over his lips, and struggling to recall when the exact moment his desire had begun. Was it when he was a child, and he'd seen into the power infecting his navi? Was it when he'd held Laika's body, knowing it was the divine material keeping him in this world? "Put me down on red," Enzan says, as he pushes his bet towards her. "What do you really want to know?" He asked. Maybe if he told her— Maybe something different would happen this time. Maybe his luck would improve.

Now that she was seated and paying less attention to keeping the mug from spilling, Meiru noticed the burn wound. At first, the only thing that occurred to her was that it was an odd place for such a mark. “Aw, okay,” said Roll. “Well, if you insist!” Meiru didn’t mind either way; she had her tea, and she wasn’t particularly hungry. She took a sip, looked up to watch Netto introduce himself. He seemed completely normal now, neither unaware of his own injuries or— —Oh. That burn was in the spot she’d ripped the Link from. “I’m… Meiru,” she began. It was hard for her to tell whether she ought to be apologizing for the burn or not. Whether Netto even remembered where it’d come from. She found herself thinking aloud more than anything. “I… really don’t know the first thing about you, do I? In my world, you’re, well, one of my best friends.” “Netto means a lot to her. He and Rockman inspired us to fight!” Roll added. (An embarrassed cough rose from the PET on Meiru’s wrist.) It was the truth. Meiru didn’t deny it. “I… guess that’s what’s made things so awkward. I feel like I oughta be able to talk to you, but…” She shook her head. “Which is ridiculous. I’m probably just as different from your version of me as you are to my version of you. If I even exist at all.”

Cometman couldn't hide his disappointment. His face immediately fell upon hearing that Rockman hadn't recalled that incident. He quickly tried to recover his previous more pleasant expression, he wouldn't wanna be rude or something. "Well that's just it," he grumbled, holding his chin, "Everyone has been calling me a Navi. Ellen, Reg, Eni, even One and Silver. But-" he gently tapped his fist to his lips, "Okay, how do Navi's normally get made and activated? Cause whatever was normal for other Navis probably didn't happen to me. To me, one day I was just. Here. I was apparently just a video game character before all this and then I was just, this? "Is that-" he grasped the air like he was searching for words floating right before him, "Weird? Is it weird that I think that it's weird?" Was there something wrong with me? Those were the words he wanted to say, but couldn't voice them. He knew the words, he knew what they all meant, but to say them aloud was to admit they were real. And on top of it all, he couldn't ask Rockman that.