Higsby

Higsby, known as Yamitaro Higure (日暮闇太郎) in Japan, is a recurring character from the Mega Man Battle Network series. He is found in every Battle Network game except for Mega Man Battle Network 6, although for the most part of the story his role is selling Battle Chips in his chip shop. His NetNavi is NumberMan.EXE.

Higsby often says "huh!" while speaking, making it clear it was him with the e-mail about chip traders in Mega Man Battle Network 2.

Personality
Higsby's personality is defined by his love of Battle Chips and travels the world looking for them. He is willing to work for the WWW in order to get them. However, he learns the error of his ways and decides to sell chips for a living. Higsby also has a crush on Ms. Mari in both the games and anime. In the anime, he is known to be excitable and freaks out often, but becomes a father figure to Shuko Kido.

Mega Man Battle Network
Higsby is first introduced as a substitute teacher by Ms. Mari lecturing on Battle Chips in Lan Hikari's class 5-A, although he acts oddly and asks the students to trade chips with him. It is revealed that this is a ruse: Higsby is actually a World Three agent that instigates the WWW's Re-education Program after class. He locks down the ACDC Elementary School to prevent escape and projects Lord Wily's image on the blackboards which spouts WWW propaganda to brainwash the students and staff. Then he ties up Ms. Mari in a storage room to prevent anyone from opening up the doors with an ID. After doing so, he bumps into Lan, who was going toward the storage room. His motivation for doing this was the promise of rare battle chips. After being defeated by Lan and MegaMan, he opens a shop and promises to be good from then on, leaving the WWW. Higsby reveals he used to work at Scilab with a colleague before he joined the WWW.

Mega Man Battle Network 2
Higsby goes on a trip to Netopia collecting rare chips and installing Chip Traders in other countries; he helps Lan and MegaMan reconcile after their fight in Netopia. During the latter half of the game he returns to Electopia and reopens his shop.

Mega Man Battle Network 3
Higsby goes on vacation to YumLand and returns later to Electopia. Mayl promises to help him with chores, but on the same day she got the BubbleWash. She convinces Lan to do it for her and he has to accomplish several tasks.

Mega Man Battle Chip Challenge
Higsby is one of the participants in the Battle Chip GP tournament. His shop is also accessible, providing the option to buy a single Battle Chip, 10 Battle Chips or Get info on gameplay. Higsby will eventually open up a couple of other shops, which feature an increase in both rarity and price of the Battle Chips sold.

Mega Man Battle Network 4
Higsby is a contestant at the Den City Tournament. In the events that follow, a guy is planning to close down his shop and replace it with a shop that sells brushes, though Lan manages to help out by gathering posters for his assistant. After that he and Lan battle each other at the Den City Tournament, where Lan and MegaMan beat him.

Mega Man Battle Network 5
Higsby joins Team Colonel and allows them to use the back of his shop as a base. However, If Lan joins Team ProtoMan, it is not until later in the game when Chaud needs a secret base that Higsby's shop is used. In the latter case, Higsby is a bit more reluctant to lend this room.

Mega Man Battle Network 6
Higsby doesn't appear, because he is once again traveling, but he does send his congratulations to ACDC Elementary School for graduation.

MegaMan NT Warrior
Higsby shows up to teach the students of Lan's school about Virus Busting, but is mostly concerned about rare chips. After class, he locks Lan's classroom and attempts to steal Yai's chips in a battle against Glide. Lan, MegaMan and Roll manage to unlock the door and rescue Glide, and they discover Higsby was behind it. After his defeat, Ms. Mari convinces Higsby to stop stealing rare chips, reminding him of how he would feel if chips were stolen from him. After this event, he quits teaching and opens up a chip shop like in the games. In the anime, he is Maysa's rival for Ms. Mari's affection, and the two are seen fighting on many occasions.

Later, he runs out of money for his Battle Chip shop. NumberMan thinks it is because he won't sell his rare chips. Gauss Magnus offers him a job at his company where he makes lots of money and buys several rare chips, but it turns out the money was being stolen from the company of Yai's father. After Lan and Chaud foil Gauss's plan, Higsby returns to his chip shop, though he is temporarily relocated near a bridge where the trains run, the vibrations knocking his chips off the shelf every time they pass, much to his dismay.

In MegaMan NT Warrior Axess, he wins a pair of virtual bowling tickets, and uses them to ask Ms. Mari out. Lan and Maylu come along too. He tries to impress Ms. Mari, but remembers he's not good at sports. NumberMan decides to help by cheating, making every time Higsby bowls, he gets a strike. This attracts the attention of BowlMan, who was recently transformed into a Darkloid, and he attacks. MegaMan defends NumberMan, but BowlMan comes to the real world with the use of a Dimensional Area. Lan and MegaMan use Cross Fusion to defeat him, and Higsby and NumberMan apologize for cheating, earning a second chance with Ms. Mari.

He later becomes a role model for Shuko Kido because of his upbeat attitude despite his misfortunes. She and SpoutMan enter a promotional tournament for ten pounds of rice and wins. When the electricity is turned off, SpoutMan goes to turn it back on, only to attract the security Navis. SpoutMan then starts crying, causing a flood of tears and Shuko falls into despair at the hopelessness of the situation. However, Higsby motivates her and with her help they stop SpoutMan with MegaMan's newly acquired Number Soul. Shuko admires his attitude and decided to work for his Chip Shop ever since.

Higsby continues to appear throughout Stream, Beast and Beast+.

Trivia

 * Although Higsby knows how dangerous Dark Chips are and even freaks out at seeing one, in Mega Man Battle Network 5 the player can obtain a Dark Chip from the Number Lotto in his shop.


 * In Mega Man Battle Chip Challenge, Higsby's shop provides the option to "Get info", which means to receive advice on gameplay. The varying pieces of information are shown at random and there's a chance that Higsby will say: "Sigh... Ms. Mari...".


 * In Mega Man Battle Network 5, it's revealed that the decorations in his store are all handmade by Higsby himself.


 * In Mega Man Battle Network 3, Higsby's username when posting on a BBS is "HigHig".


 * Higsby, unlike his Mega Man Battle Network and Mega Man Star Force successors, has several ways of selling Battle Chips: through a normal vendor and via a premium service order list. Players may be able to buy some rare chips they can't ordinarily get from his shop or other places if they look through Higsby's display shelves. To get the chip from his service order, you must either look at his shelves or collect that chip from defeating the virus in battle. Additionally, his "bargain bin" may also contain some chips for sale.