Those words had been haunting Netto's mind ever since the moment Enzan had said them to him. It was a definite shock that he'd unbent enough to even say something like that, but to say it to him, Hikari Netto, of all people? That was the part that he wasn't quite sure he understood. He supposed it was nothing but the truth, really; Enzan wouldn't lie about something like that, as closed off as he normally was...but what in the world had convinced him to say such a thing, and so freely at that? It made no sense - it was so un-Enzan-like - and that was why the issue wouldn't stop drifting restlessly through the brown-haired netbattler's brain.

You're important to me.

Sitting at his desk, his hands resting idly on the well-worn surface next to his half-finished math homework, he stared out the window and tried to put the words out of his brain long enough to concentrate, though it wasn't working. Important...to you... he found himself thinking, his eyes dropping halfway closed, as if he imagined Enzan could suddenly hear him. Why am I so important, then? Why did you say that to me? What did you mean by it? I don't understand, Enzan. He sighed, let his eyes close completely, and laid his head down on his notebook, feeling suddenly tired and lost. "Why am I so important to you?" he whispered out loud.

From the PET, Rockman could clearly hear every word, and chewed unhappily on the corner of his lip as he turned away from his file-sorting to watch Netto's face. "Netto-kun...you've been thinking about this for almost a week now," he said softly, stepping closer to the screen and pressing his hands up against the inside of it, wishing - not for the first time - that there were no barriers between them and he could more easily comfort Netto. "I don't know why Enzan said that either, but I really don't think he said it just to bug you until you figured it out. Can't you try to put it out of your mind for a little while? Just appreciate the fact that he cares for you enough to say something like that to you, ne?" He smiled weakly, hoping Netto wouldn't take offense to his words, but the smile quickly faded away when Netto only made a distracted little noise in response. "...Netto-kun...if it's really bothering you that bad...why don't you just ask Enzan what he meant by it?"

Netto murmured something inaudible in response, letting his eyes open just slightly so he could look at his twin-turned-Navi. "...The fact that he cares for me...?" he said after a moment, a slight frown crossing his face which he couldn't quite manage to shake away. "I guess you're right about that...he does care, in his own way. But he has the absolute weirdest ways of showing it..." He trailed off there, memories of an event he'd long forgotten surfacing to play across his mind's eye - Rockman gone, stolen away by Nebula, and just when he'd begun to think things were hopeless, Enzan had been the one to convince him to keep on going by loaning him Blues to use instead - letting his rival borrow his own treasured Navi in a very un-Enzan-like display of concern and support, another confusing gesture of kindness. "...The ways he shows it...I don't understand any of them, Rockman. He does all these amazing things for me when I'm feeling my absolute worst and I can never seem to find any way to return the favor! I don't understand it...I don't understand him..."

"I don't think anyone understands Enzan except himself and maybe Blues," Rockman replied, though he'd been having a niggling little feeling for a while that he had begun to realize what was going through Enzan's head every time he did something like that for Netto. "Like I said, if it's bothering you that badly, just ask him what he meant. What's the worst he can do, stop saying so many ambiguous things and deprive you of things to wonder about?" His tone was teasing, a desperate attempt to get Netto to cheer up at least a little bit, and he relaxed slightly when his twin made a face at the PET and sat up straight again. "Seriously...I don't think he's going to get mad at you, Netto-kun. Maybe...I don't really know if I'm right about this, so don't take my word for it...but maybe he wants you to ask him what he meant."

"Knowing him, he just wants to see me get frustrated over it," Netto grumbled, but obediently brought up his email program, tapping his fingers against the desk for a long moment before putting them to the keyboard, surprised at how quickly the words suddenly seemed to flow from his hands as he began to type. He couldn't help himself - he was rambling, spilling out onto the screen everything he couldn't say with his voice, but paused at wondering how he should finish the email. With everything he'd said, all the frustration and curiosity and unhappiness he'd poured into the text, what would be the right way to end it?

He thought deeply for a moment, the tip of his tongue just barely showing between his lips, then abruptly finished with a single word - Why?

Before he could chicken out, he moved the mouse convulsively and clicked on "send".