The next day Mr. Mach is all fired up in class because its blackboard got a tune-up, explaining why Yuuichiro was at the school the previous day. Lan almost immediately nods off to Megaman's exasperation. He doesn't get caught by the teacher again, but he's eventually wakened by the sound of something crashing around inside a locker near his desk but it soon settles down. That mystery will have to wait until later, because at the end of the day Lan and Megaman get much more pressing news from Haruka: Yuuichiro has been arrested!
After hurrying home a frantic Haruka tells us that Yuuichiro has been accused of hacking Green Town's Judge Tree, and his trial will be held soon. Obviously that's a bunch of bull, so we have to hurry to Green Town to get to the bottom of everything. After I take care of an important new job, that is.
Job 4: Somebody Help!
This is one of those “please finance me!” jobs. A Navi in Robot Control Computer 1 begs us to donate cash to keep his company afloat, and he promises to pay us back ten times the amount. We're given the option of paying him 100z, 1000z, or 10000z. You want to pay the highest amount possible because, not right now mind, closer to the end of the game, he'll indeed repay us ten times the principal. So, 100000z. In a welcome respite from Battle Network 4 and to a lesser extent 5 money is really easy to come by in this game, so ten-thousand should be no problem.
Alas, we're too late. As soon as we reach the courthouse the Judge Tree is shown declaring Yuuichiro guilty and sentencing him to “one-hundred hours of zapping.” Holy crap, that's downright medieval! The whole Judge Tree concept to begin with is wacked, but this?! That's torture!
Well, Prosecutor Ito is nearby, and though he's reluctant, he provides a few more details. Namely, that the cornerstone of the case against Yuuichiro was simply that the Judge Tree said that he hacked it.
…
That is not how evidence works! Green Town is just getting nuttier and nuttier by the minute! Ito goes on to give Lan a copy of the case file, which says that the crime took place a four in the afternoon on the previous day. Lan tells the man that he met with his father in Central Town at that time, but Ito tells him that that's not good enough for an alibi, despite the fact that that was exactly what the Judge Tree just did!
Thinking that the culprit was actually the shady guy from the other day, Lan and Megaman decide to head back to Cyber Academy to see if they can't get more information to strengthen their defense. Mr. Mach is too vague on the matter to be of any help. However, they get the idea to jack in to the security camera in the classroom to see if there's anything there. There's a console inside of it for Megaman to access, but there's no footage from during the time when the blackboard maintenance was supposedly carried out. And it's also booby-trapped with viruses, which at least proves that there's foul play going on. Unfortunately though, there's still no solid evidence, but a Program comes up to Megaman after overhearing him and tells him that last night, at around ten, a strange, tall Navi had accessed the camera. But again, any traces of him or his operator have been wiped.
Not all is lost though. The Program brings up a clip from earlier in the previous day, showing Mick playing a prank by locking one of the security robots inside of the lockers at the back of the classroom, explaining the noises that Lan heard. Upon freeing it, Lan realizes that was probably recording whatever it could see while stuck inside, so back to the giant console in Robot Control Computer 2. There, the truth is laid bare: the one who framed Yuuichiro was none other than Prosecutor Ito himself. Surprise, the perpetually-smiling, eyes-closed guy was a villain all along! What a turn of events!
Back to the courthouse, where Lan explains himself to one of the staff there and is allowed into the Punishment Room, the jail cells accessed through a side door. Yuuichiro's imprisoned in one of them, with two of the police robots flanking him as the start of his sentence draws near. Lan explains things again to the jailer, who is at first reluctant but tells him that he'll have to clear things with the Judge Tree itself to overturn the sentence. Green Town's legal system just has everything stacked against the defendant, geez. We can jack in to a chair in an open cell for a Full Energy and a Guardian O inside a PMD.
Back to the courtroom, where Lan commits the classic Phoenix Wright mistake of confronting the culprit directly. Ito readily admits to being behind everything, and it turns out that he's yet another member of our nebulous “organization.” He explains that his role is to “remove nuisances to us in a lawful way” and naturally when Lan asks why he prosecuted Blackbeard it was because Blackbeard had failed. It's simple, but I do have to admit that this rather cunning villainy for a Battle Network villain. At least it explains why the Judge Tree is so ridiculous. Ito has the Judge Tree pronounce the whole of Cyber City “guilty” and dispatch a horde of police robots to corral its citizens. Hey, wasn't that basically the plot of the I, Robot movie?
Lan manages to escape the courtroom, but since Ito's barricaded inside they can't get at the Judge Tree to reverse its sentence. What we have to do is go through a password-protected side door (requiring another trip to the lawyer study group on the Green Area homepage) to reach the courthouse's basement, where the trunk of the Judge Tree is pumped full of water and nutrients. There, climbing a ladder allows us to reach the control panel on the tree itself, out of reach of Ito and his robots. Ito tells him to give up, since not only is his own Navi, Judgeman (incidentally another contest winner), inside the Judge Tree, but so is another Navi, one that's very powerful.
Next we move on to Ito's motives when Lan asks him how someone who has a sense of justice can do what he is, and he gets the story of how, when he was young, Ito was bright and naïve, wanting to put away all criminals. But crime can't be fully eradicated, so he tossed away his faith in justice and became something of a nihilist and destroy this corrupt world. Lan says that that's messed up and that because he used to respect Ito, he'll stop him. He jacks in.
Once inside the Judge Tree Computer Megaman hears a voice that tells him to stop and asks why he's fighting so hard against them. He says that it's simply the right thing to do and the voice replies that he'll have no regrets deleting him. Lan says that that was probably Ito's Navi, but Megaman isn't so sure...
The puzzle for the Judge Tree Computer is very, very simple. The pathway is very linear as the puzzle revolves around backtracking – or rather the prohibition of. Whenever Megaman steps across a tile it'll become covered in grass, and the goal is to hit switches to open security doors without backtracking. If you do and step on the grass, Megaman will get hauled back to the start of the area and punished for stepping on it by getting walloped with a giant gavel. It sounds goofy, but it takes off 100 HP, and I only have a little over 300 at this point. The punishments stack too, so if you step on the grass a second time you'll take 200 damage. Still though, it's not difficult because the paths are largely contained and if there's Mystery Data in the way you can use that as a guide, since the layout is set up in such a way that you can hit both the switches and them. I'm reminded of those tile puzzles in the Game Boy Color Zelda games, only easier. If you need to you can hit L to move the camera around and scout out the path.
So, past the skull mark in the final area is a broad platform with the control system for the tree. Just like Ito said, there are two Navis there waiting for us. One is Judgeman, while the other is...the former leader of Team Colonel, Colonel himself.
Sadly, he's not here to offer us any support, instead he answers Megaman's question by saying that he is the one who's really in charge of the operation. That's right, Colonel has undergone a Face-Heel Turn, and this isn't a case of him being a double agent, he's genuinely on the “organization's” side. When Megaman throws him the obvious question, “why?”, his answer is that he has a higher calling than simply justice, and that he'll show him no mercy. Even putting aside the fact that he's now an antagonist Colonel's much colder in this game than in 5, likely due to better writing and the fact that he's no longer sharing three-fourths of his dialogue with Protoman.
So, Colonel goes into his battle stance and prepares to attack, but there's suddenly a flash and he starts sparking to show that he's taken damage from an unseen attacker. There appears to be no other Navis around, so he says that he'll deal with this mystery attack and orders Judgeman, who up until this point has simply been standing off to the side, to handle Megaman. He leaves, and Judgeman (who speaks in Ye Olde Butchered English) moves up.
Ito, who's probably one of the wordiest minions in the series by now, echoes Colonel's question to Lan of why he's trying so hard to stop him. Lan's Shut Up, Hannibal! response is simple, but effective: because crime hurts the people he cares about. Finally we can start the battle.
Judgeman
◊
HP: 800
Element: Normal
Attacks:
- Bind Chain – Judgeman lashes a chain down a three-panel range that deals 40 Elec damage and paralyzes Megaman.
- Arrest Book – Judgeman summons two fanged books that slowly chomp their way towards Megaman like slow-moving rattons for 30 damage.
- Strange Shield – A giant book is summoned to Judgeman's front column. Depending on which page the book is open to it can produce the following attacks:
- Fire Burner – A three-panel-long stream of flame comes out for 60 Fire damage.
- Bubble Star – A stream of three bubbles comes out, trapping Megaman in a bubble and dealing 30 Aqua damage.
- Golem Hit – A giant rock fist slams Megaman's column for 60 Break damage and cracks the panel he's on.
If you're curious as to why Judgeman has a book theme, it's because the design originally submitted to the contest was called Bookman. So, he's got a fair variety of attacks, and is capable of breaking both Crosses that are currently available. Bind Chain can even pierce through Mercy Invincibility and the Invisible chip. Despite that, Slash Cross is great for destroying the obstacles that he can summon, leaving him much easier to deal with.
Winning gives us 4000z.
With Judgeman defeated, Megaman hurries over to the control console and hits the emergency override, shutting down the Judge Tree and all the robots, including the ones that were about to start shocking Yuuichiro. Ito's finished, and before the scene fades out the shady figure with the hat and parka is seen leaving the courtroom with a “hmph.”
Lan's narration explains that Ito was arrested and the Judge Tree restored (what?! No, get rid of that thing!). In fact, its first action after being repaired was to find Ito guilty, the irony of which is pointed out. Yuuichiro's name was cleared, and Mr. Mach ended up punishing Mick for hiding the security robot from school. All's well that ends well on our front.
Time for another interlude with the “organization,” only this time we actually get to see its members. In a gray, sterile-looking room a man named Vic
◊ enters and approaches a stage where Colonel's operator Baryl
◊ stands. Vic mentions Ito getting busted, but Baryl replies that that doesn't matter, their plans are still going forward. Vic is apparently tasked with getting a specific program, and Baryl says that he'll send Colonel as backup, no doubt in response to every other scheme being foiled or interfered with so far. Vic's reaction is rather flippant, and says that while the WWW will rise again, it won't be thanks to them.
That's certainly a note to end on!
Virus Listing
- Killer Eye
- Returning from Battle Network 3, Killer Eyes remain in place, but if Megaman happens to step into their line of sight they will fire a beam of electricity at him which pierces invisibility and paralyzes. Killer Eyes start off looking directly ahead, but they will glance to the side occasionally.
- Shrubby
- Viruses that look like mobile pieces of shrubbery. They attack by spitting out logs that roll down their rows, and otherwise they try to stay out of Megaman's sight by hiding behind obstacles if any are available.
Soundtrack
- Tree of Judgement
- Don't step on the grass!
