Mr. Match

''"BURN BABY BURN! Hahahaha!" - Mr. Match, anime and earlier games''

Mr. Match, known in Japan as Ken'ichi Hino (火野ケンイチ), is a recurring character in the MegaMan Battle Network series. He uses three NetNavis in the games: FireMan.EXE, HeatMan.EXE, and FlameMan.EXE. He was part of criminal organization WWW until MegaMan Battle Network 3.

In MegaMan Battle Network, he is a member of the WWW that uses his NetNavi FireMan to cause criminal fires to search a superprogram for Wily. He disguises himself as a NetSafety repair man and hacks into the control panel of houses to spread viruses in the ovens, making them explode, but FireMan is stopped by Lan and MegaMan when they took control of the oven in their house. He is later seen with other WWW members.

In MegaMan Battle Network 2, he appears in the airport with HeatMan as his Navi, and challenges the player to an optional NetBattle.

In MegaMan Battle Network 3, he pretends that he quit the WWW and is now a good person, starting to work in SciLab and using his Navi FlameMan to help Lan against weak WWW Navis sent by him. He lures Lan into installing three malicious programs in the SciLab computers that caused the place to reach high temperatures. Match reveals himself to Lan as a WWW member and challenge him to extinguish the flame he spreaded through the web. After extinguishing all flames, Mr. Match calls him to Undernet 3 and fights against him with FlameMan. He had advantage, but Bass appears and deletes FlameMan, forcing Mr. Match to retreat. The security of SciLab weakened after this, and several scientists, including Lan's father, where sent to the hospital. He appears again with Anetta and PlantMan in Castle Wily, where they use Full Synchro and fights MegaMan at the same time. After Wily's defeat, he and the other WWW members were taken in custody and sent to a hospital.

In MegaMan Battle Network 4 Red Sun, he appears randomly with FireMan in the Den Battle Tournament, and also in Blue Moon if the player fights BurnerMan in the Eagle Tournament. In this game it appears that he had somehow gotten out of prison and redeemed himself, because Lan and Megaman show no antagonism towards him for betraying them in the previous game.

In MegaMan Battle Network 6 Cybeast Gregar, he became a teacher at Cyber Elementary School and gives Lan his first Link Navi and Cross after the defeat of DiveMan (And this time, he's quit WWW and truly became a good person). He sends some modified Kettle viruses throughout the net to test Lan's ability to bust viruses, and sends Heatman along with Lan to help learn the powers of the Cross System. His outfit changes drastically, turing from a shirt and loose pants or a jumpsuit into a suit and tie, along with glasses.

MegaMan NT Warrior
In the anime and manga, Mr. Match's first appearance is similar to the games, causing criminal fire for WWW, but he has more appearances in the anime.

Anime
After placing fire on Lan's house, MegaMan destroyed all viruses and TorchMan decided to leave. He later attacks Maylu's house and is defeated by MegaMan. Later, Match wants revenge on MegaMan and fights against him, but is defeated. He participates of the N1 Grand Prix with other WWW members and fights twice against MegaMan. After PharaohMan and Mr. Wily were believed to be destroyed, Mr. Match and the other WWW members started to work in a curry shop.

When Lan was traveling through several locations as reward for getting 2nd place in the N1 Grand Prix, Mr. Match traveled after him to have a rematch, but only reaches the previous city Lan was while he was in other city. After returning to DenCity, TorchMan was deleted by FreezeMan in NetCity, and Match had the help of Mr. Famous to change TorchMan into HeatMan using his remaining data to save him. HeatMan is able to defeat FreezeMan during the incident with Gospel.

In his fight against VineMan in episode 7 of MegaMan NT Warrior Axess, HeatMan turns back into TorchMan, and MegaMan uses Double Soul with him to defeat VineMan.

Manga
Match uses TorchMan to put fire in Lan's school, and Dex is stuck inside with other students. MegaMan enters the school server and finds several viruses and TorchMan, deleteting them. After being defeated, Match uses a backup of TorchMan and sends a message to MegaMan to meet his operator. Mr. Match lures Lan to join the WWW and wants him to rob a bank with him as his first job, but it was actually a trap to delete MegaMan. However, MegaMan is to strong for him and TorchMan is deleted again.

Trivia

 * In Megaman Battle Network, Fireman was your real first boss. This has become a popular theme throughout the series, having the first(in one way or another) boss be fire type.


 * Another recurring trend is having your first elemental viruses in a boss stage or even in the first area be fire-type.


 * Mr. Match has appeared in the exact same number of games as Wily:5