Lan Hikari (Cross Reflection)

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Lan Hikari (Cross Reflection)
Instance	CR-S
Age	13
Pronouns	she/her
NetNavi	Rock.EXE Megaman.EXE (formerly)

"I'm... I'm my own person now! So drill this into your thick skull: I. HATE. YOU! GET OUT OF MY LIFE!!"

Lan Hikari is the main character of Mega Man Battle Network: Cross Reflection and its sequel, Cross Shadows. An alternate counterpart of the canonical Lan Hikari, she is a lonely, moody teenage girl deeply affected by the tragedy in the Hikari family, which in her universe had no solace. Her NetNavi is Rock.EXE.

An unlucky girl born into an unlucky family, she was left to wonder for years and years how things could've gone differently. The Hikaris are infamous in her instance for playing a role in the downfall of the Internet; shortly before the Autuvera outbreak, her father, Yuichiro Hikari, made news when his project to convert the soul of Lan's dying older brother into a Navi leaked to the public. After Autuvera, the family slowly fell apart, leaving Lan scarred and alone with no company other than her eternally busy mother. Haunted by traumatic memories and slowly developing depression from the decay of everything around her, Lan was only pulled out of her shell by a deus ex machina from another world.

One strange occurrence sprawled out into a dozen more and a dozen more after that, and eventually, and Lan came out the other end of a conspiracy puppeteered by the very ghosts that haunted her with the resolve to protect the world she'd found things to love in. While she fought by the side of another world's Megaman in their battle against the Destroying Angel, she was gifted a custom-made battle Navi by none other than Dr. Wily once Megaman went home. Lan and Rock hit it off incredibly quickly - being metaphorically and literally made for each other - and have become tighter knit than ever after an incident at the messy Luminous Revival NetBattle tournament. Now, self-fashioning themselves as "vigilantes", they've sworn to help as many broken hearts spread throughout the real world and the Net as they can.

Personality

Lan is a moody, troubled preteen who is belligerent and antisocial on the surface, pushing people away as a self-defense mechanism. Years of being bullied and pitied by the people around her have left her lonely and reclusive; much of her time is spent inside or just around her home. She's near-violently protective of the people she _has_ opened up to, however, and quickly thaws and becomes unendingly sincere around people who aren't treating her like a freak. She's also a fast learner, picking up rollerskating solely on her own time and becoming a force to be reckoned with at NetBattling incredibly quickly. With a Navi by her side, she's gravitated toward the Internet far more, feeling that it gives her a true voice, power, and identity to call her own.

She is very attached to Rock above all else, and is the most vulnerable around her. They've made a powerful battling duo as well, with their Synchro being volatile enough to enable a connection between them known as "Shadow Trance". Shadow Trance not only enhances Rock's abilities, but it enhances Lan's physical capabilities and lowers her inhibitions as well; neither of them really know the extent of the chaotic energy that drives their harmony, or how deeply it intertwines their souls with each other's. For all her experience, Lan is hotheaded and easily manipulable, and frequently turns to violent and dark solutions to problems - paranoia and self-hatred is unfortunately deep-rooted in her. She's a good, strong-willed person underneath the messy exterior, however.

Appearance

Lan is about the same height as her canon counterpart (4'10, 146m), and shares much in common with him appearance-wise. She has brown eyes, and wears a pink jacket with orange highlights, cyan shorts, and orange sports shoes. Her brown hair is incredibly fluffy and messy, with tufts of it covering the cyan bandana with an upside-down heart symbol she always wears. She also wears pink fingerless gloves, which she habitually wears to cover the scars and cuts induced by recklessness. She frequently carries around a black backpack that she tends to clutch the straps of.

While she looks a bit twiglike and/or plushlike on the surface, Lan is fairly physically active and quite a bit stronger than your average angry 13-year old. She was already pretty scrappy even before she met Megaman, but now, with Rock by her side, she's become even stronger - and is slowly gravitating toward spikier looks. While under the effects of Shadow Trance, her eyes and bandana glow red, and strange dark particles coalesce around her body, sometimes forming into strange, bat-like wings.

History

Prior to the events of Cross Reflection, Lan was the second child born to Yuichiro and Haruka Hikari, after her brother Hub five years prior. Hub was born with a genetic disease known only as HBD, which slowly began to kill him when she was three years old. Yuichiro, desperate to save him, attempted to extract his DNA and transfer his soul to a NetNavi body - but unlike in canon, this process failed for an unknown reason. Hub passed away, and the Hikari family crumbled as Autuvera destroyed the Net that they had worked so hard to cultivate. Two years of living in a broken home pass before Yuichiro disappears, leaving Lan and her mother to pick up the pieces.

Lan is pushed into becoming an antisocial recluse thanks to the infamy of her family's name and all the bullying and pity that came with it.

Destroying Angel incident

Baited out by the appearance of a mysterious portal, a Megaman.EXE from another world soon fell into Lan's instance, taken into custody after defeating the mysterious NetNavi Sapronosis.EXE. After being called over to the Official center, Lan impulsively granted the lost Megaman a sanctuary, despite never having a NetNavi before. It wasn't long before the suicide cult Kituvest and their various allies began seeking them out, however, seeking answers as to how Megaman was able to defeat the "Angel of Decay" that they worshiped.

Initially assisted by Carme Julvino and their Void Guardian Navis, they all butted heads as their egos clashed and Lan sought to prove herself useful to the world. Through a series of incidents, Lan bonded with Triese Abysa and Iris.EXE^CR, also meeting the latter's father and his so-called "World Three". As they slowly unveiled Kituvest's plot, Carme lashed out against them to steal various super-programs that they'd been keeping out of Kituvest's hands, stabbing Megaman - and therefore the Synchro-infused Lan - with a hallucinogenic drug.

After recovering and reconciling with Megaman's original operator, a Lan that she can't help but view as having never suffered, the two of them nearly talk down Kituvest's leader before being interrupted by Timeman.EXE, who turns out to be the servant of the long-lost Yuichiro Hikari, having been pulling the strings the entire time. Travelling to Yuichiro's hideout on Tartarus Isle, she and her friends, assisted by Megaman's operator and the Chaud Ijuin of his world, fought against the remnants of Kituvest's allies, as well as a desperate-for-glory Carme. Yuichiro revealed his plan to restart the Net with an Autuvera-spreading program named the Destroying Angel, which she and Megaman managed to defeat with the help of a "Triple Synchro" from Megaman's operator.

The group escaped the crumbling Tartarus, with Sapronosis sacrificing itself to secure Megaman's safety. Lan and Megaman then parted ways, with the former tearfully realizing that she'd finally escaped the shadow of her past and claimed her life for herself.

Rescuing Triese

After the defeat of the Destroying Angel (a.k.a. the end of Cross Reflection), Dr. Wily gifted Lan a NetNavi, Rock.EXE, to call her own. The two hit it off extremely quickly and began honing their skills, but it wasn't long before the chatroom automatically installed itself onto her and her friends' PETs. Lan initially ignores the chatroom, in contrast to Triese's boundless enthusiasm, but that same enthusiasm turns the latter into a target of Dr. Regal^KQ. When Triese goes missing, she and Lurerre beg for the chatroom's insistence, and a large group infiltrate Regal's base - only for the majority of them to be used as further test subjects for Regal and Dr. Hikari^SF's machinations.

Once she's freed from a Pulse Transmission chair, and they escape a bizarre dark clone of Triese, they rescue the real Triese and bring her home. While Triese recovers from being drugged with Nixtruel, Lan begins to interact with the chatroom, feeling indebted to them for helping rescue her friend. She becomes fast friends with Rockman.EXE^KQ and Netto Hikari (Falling Stars), confessing her messy feelings about her life and identity to the both of them. She also meets Mellicent Kidd, who confronts her about Triese being kept in the dark about what really happened to her in Regal's lab, and Reg Garrett and Eniac Ijuin, who she finds weird as hell.

MagnoMetal hunt

Per Meiru Sakurai^FS's suggestion, Lan Hikari^SF volunteered to host a beach party on his world's version of Oran Isle. To protect everyone from the effects of the worldwide SoulNet, however, they required a large supply of MagnoMetal - which Lan and Triese quickly discovered was in bountiful supply in their world. Lan formed a team with Meiru^FS, Lan^SF and Jasmine to infiltrate her world's Oran Isle and pilfer a MagnoMetal supply with the help of a drill machine borrowed from Dr. Wily.

Encountering the enigmatic Dead Hand organization, they were allowed to take their MagnoMetal samples amongst their drilling operation, only for the machine to be attacked by a virus only known as "The Lovers". Defeating the virus, they recovered a "vault" it used as its core, and Lan swiftly snatched up the opportunity to deliver the fault to the Ministry of Science^FS to avoid being invited to the incoming beach party.

Instead, while following Netto^FS's directions, Lan was accidentally caught in the crossfire of a Liminal Space. Rendevouzing with Kaita Todoroki and Mary Towa, the three of them explored a haunted house themed after a horror movie, repeatedly succumbing to its bloody machinations. Lan, forced to comfort the young NetSaviors so that they can escape, ends up sleeping over at the Ministry overnight, confiding in Kaita her conflicted feelings about repeatedly visiting their instance. Kaita reassures her, and Lan is left to linger on the feeling of fighting alongside Rock in the same physical space.

Alpha Squad

Not long after, Lan and Rock received a mysterious ticket inviting them to the Starliner Express, a supposed luxury train that they had never heard of. After being directed there through a line that didn't quite make sense, she met up with Meiru^FS, Ellen Stream, and Aon.EXE, who soon realized they were the only passengers on the train. Harassing the Conductor of the express for information, they soon find out that they are an extension of Alpha's will, and wish to put the group to sleep such that they can harness their data.

While battling the Conductor, Rock lost control of herself once more, this time in front of both Lan and Aon. Earning Aon's ire, Lan crumpled as she protected her Navi and broke down in tears over the Conductor's motivations. She quietly left after the Conductor's deletion, and took her anger out on Reg a few days later; thankfully, the two dispel the tension between each other and actually bond for real this time.

Alpha's agents soon track her down once more, however, and she finds herself trapped in the Colossus Coliseum with Meiru^FS, Ellen, and Aon once more. They meet the manipulative Serpentine, who forces them all to fight each other in her endless tournament. Lan loses to Meiru^FS in the first round, resulting in Rock being kidnapped by Serpentine and Dark Rockman^KQ. Desperate, Lan illegally gambles in Serpentine's casino to win Rock back, but is unknowingly planted with a mind control seed in the process.

When Ellen falls under Serpentine's control, fighting to win and trap herself in the tournament forever, Lan joins her as well, succumbing once Ellen taunts her for being weak. Roll^FS and Aon battle against a forcibly-controlled Rock and Cometman, managing to free the four of them and reconvene with a battered Netto^KQ, who had also been under Serpentine's thrall. Netto^KQ calls the Officials while the rest track down and delete Serpentine. Lan, deeply rattled by the experience, returns home, trying her best to forget about the whole ordeal.

Creeping shadows

After the destruction of the Lotus Engine, Lan returned home and reconnected to the chatroom, utterly exhausted. Wrought with guilt over Prairie's situation, she was quick to message Rockman^KQ, only to be put in contact with his operator instead. Faced with no other choice, she finally reconciled with Netto^KQ, feeling bad for him after seeing Serpentine slam him so badly. With the Shadow Trance ability under her belt, a growing obsession with power festers in the back of Lan's mind, and she harasses the Undernet chatroom for training advice. Mel takes her up on her offer, passing her along the knife she stole from Rei Tao.

Feeling like a monster due to her attitude and abilities, she seeks advice from Netto^FS once more, inadvertently finding herself embroiled in the spectres of the Silver Divison that have come back to haunt him. She nearly loses herself to the influence of Atsuki Homura^FS's nihilism, but recovers thanks to Netto^FS's encouragement.

Threads

• 2024-05-23: no matter what! - Netto^KQ leads the charge to rescue Triese from Dr. Regal^KQ's clutches.
• 2024-06-22: and what good did sacrificing the lamb even do? - Lan^CR and Lurerre, trying desperately to comfort the Nixtruel-deprived Triese, are visited by Pen and Rockman^KQ
• 2024-06-24: don't run away, it's only me! - Meiru^FS, Roll^FS, and Rockman^FS invite every Lan in the chatroom to a sleepover, under the pretense of testing the Fossa Trackers.
• 2024-07-05: Shepherd's Concert - Rockman^KQ bonds with Lan^CR over a Disturbed concert.
• 2024-07-24: Rock n' Rumble - Rock and Rockman^KQ visit an Undernet fight ring. It gets bloody.
• 2024-07-28: broken eyes watching over us - Netto^FS helps Lan^CR mod her PET, while Lan soothes his paranoia about the chatroom.
• 2024-08-13: Into the blue - Reg and Triese drag their Hikari accomplices to the Penguin Gardens aquarium. Viruses and high emotions chase them down.
• 2024-08-23: !!!really, we should have realized this sooner. - Netto^KQ finds Lan^CR in a place she doesn't belong in.
• 2024-08-29: rises the moon - Rockman^KQ meets with the Megaman that Lan^CR speaks so highly of.
• 2024-09-09: My Favorite Pool of Urchins - Triese barges into Mel's apartment uninvited.
• 2024-09-15: everyone has been doing emails - Netto^FS and Meiru^FS, with ineffective assistance from Lan^CR, attempt to teach Enzan^FS how to "post".
• 2024-09-18: visitation of the ghost - Rockman^KQ and Lan^CR hang out at the mall.
• 2024-10-01: !!!she thinks I'm a saint, but divinity was never the aim! - Dark Rockman^KQ, let out for Halloween, manipulates Lan^CR into succumbing to his will.
• 2024-10-07: Heart♥Racing! The Oran Isle Expedition! - The quest for MagnoMetal takes everyone to the CROSSFADE Oran Isle, where they clash with a mysterious robotics company known as Dead Hand.
• 2025-02-03: THIR13EN - Lan^CR, Kaita, and Mary are trapped within a horror movie-themed Liminal Space.
• 2025-02-24: dead things (like we are) - Per Netto^KQ's suggestion, Lan^CR, Netto^FS, and Rockman^KQ go shopping and eat frozen yogurt together. The appearence of another Arcana virus instantly wipes that slate clean.
• 2025-04-12: The Starliner Express - The first of Alpha's agents makes their move, inviting four disparate users onto a luxurious train ride.
• 2025-07-20: The Sin of Obedience - Reg, frustrated with his assignments at DART, absentmindedly slips to Lan^CR's world. Tensions boil to a head once he's discovered.
• 2025-10-03: The Colossus Challenge - The passengers of the Starliner Express are trapped by another agent of Alpha and forced to participate in a merciless tournament.
• 2025-10-15: you make a good other. - After the destruction of the Lotus Engine, Lan^CR finally reconciles with Netto^KQ.
• 2025-10-17: Rage and Violence 101 - Lan^CR, desperate for strength in the aftermath of the Guardians' attack, begs Mel to train her.
• 2025-12-23: Soul's Impact - Triese referees a no-holds-barred NetBattle between Ellen and Lan^CR.

Notes

• Some might call her the "Roxas" to the canonical Lan's "Sora". Everyone knows that this is true.
• In NetBattling, she prefers Break-type Battle Chips such as Air Hockey and Drill Arm.