Sal

Sal
Information
NetNavi:	WoodMan.EXE
Misc. Information
Japanese Name:	Saroma
Kanji:	サロマ
Alt. Name(s):	Black Rose
Series Information
In-game Appearances:	MegaMan Battle Network MegaMan Battle Chip Challenge MegaMan Battle Network 4 Rockman.EXE 4.5 Real Operation
Other Appearances:	MegaMan NT Warrior
Voice Actor(s):	Kelly Sheridan
Sprites

"Sometimes one must fight to protect nature."

—Sal, Mega Man Battle Chip Challenge

Sal, known as Saroma (サロマ, Saroma) in Japan, is the owner of a lunch stand near the Government Complex and operator of WoodMan.EXE. In the anime, she is a gardener and is a secret agent known as Black Rose that works for Commander Beef.

Personality

Sal has a very kind personality; because of this, she was able to make friends with Lan and his friends really quickly. Sal is wise and smart and often helps and give advice to Lan and his friends during difficult moments. She also gets frightened easily as when Miyu and Masa pops out of nowhere in her truck, freaking her out, and causing her to nearly crash. In the game, Sal seems to be concerned a lot and often leaves without saying anything, however, like the anime, she is kind and fair, treating Lan with respect before the battle.

Game History

MegaMan Battle Network

Sal appeared in the first game, but plays a very small role. In the game she sells sandwiches to people and challenges them for entertainment.

MegaMan Battle Chip Challenge

Sal appears again in MegaMan Battle Chip Challenge as a contestant losing to the playable character.

MegaMan Battle Network 4

Sal makes an appearance in MegaMan Battle Network 4 Bluemoon, playing a much larger role. In this game she is a contestant in the Eagle tournament battling against Lan. Before the match it was revealed that Sal has joined some fellow nature preservers in order to protect nature, however, this leads to WoodMan.EXE's disappearance and thus Lan must help her search for him. After finding WoodMan.EXE, Lan and Sal battle in the tournament with Sal losing. Afterward, she leaves and thanks Lan.

At the end of the game, she appears in front of the people on Earth as Lan and MegaMan just defeated Duo. She encourages everyone on Earth to believe in Lan and MegaMan to save the world; which leads everyone's voices to reach MegaMan and gives him strength to change the asteroid's course.

MegaMan Battle Network 6

Despite not appearing at all in MegaMan Battle Network 6, she, along with Miyuki and Masa, were mentioned by Ms. Mari, where she sent a letter to Ms. Mari congratulating the students. All three of them being mentioned together was possibly a reference to their roles in the anime.

Anime History

MegaMan NT Warrior

Sal in the anime.

Sal appearing as Black Rose in the anime.

She along with Miyu and Masa appeared in the 1st season of the MegaMan NT Warrior anime, being a frequent character. She was first introduced by Mayl (Maylu in the English anime) as an owner of a florist shop. Sal often appeared in the anime giving young Lan Hikari advice during the 1st part of 1st season. She was revealed to be a net police officer that goes by the name Black Rose. Sal, as Black Rose, helped Lan and his friends when Count Zap and ElecMan.EXE were stealing the game data from Gabcom (Ayano Tech); she uses WoodMan.EXE's, Woody Tower attack, to block the lightning that was regenerating ElecMan's health.

Sal along with the other main net battlers entered the N1 Grand Prix. Her challenger was Higsby and NumberMan.EXE, she and Woodman.EXE defeated them both easily and made it to the 2nd round. In the 2nd round, she was put into a tag team along with Dex and GutsMan.EXE, and their challengers were StoneMan.EXE and BombMan.EXE (BlasterMan.EXE in English anime) who won all their matches by default, which cause Sal and Dex unable to understand their strategy before the battle. She and Dex loses easily to the Solo Navis and appear as one of the crowds watching the battle.

In part 2 of Season 1, she along with the others, dress up as Aki in festivals and contests. Sal also continues working as a Netpolice officer and helps to stop Gospel, fighting against their members with WoodMan, Miyu, and Masa.

Rockman EXE Beast

In Rockman EXE Beast, a beyondard version of Sal appears. The beyondard version of Sal is exactly the same as the original Sal, having the same personality and features. Beyondard Sal is also a secret net police in Beyondard. Her last appearance is along with Masa and Miyu, finally seeing peace in Beyondard.

Trivia

• Sal is the optional boss character from MegaMan Battle Network (Miyu and Masa are the others) who communicates the most with Lan, this was reflected in the anime where out of the three, Sal has the most screen time and dialogue.

• She was the first secret net police to be suspected by Lan in the anime.

• In the game, Sal has her sprite changed in every game she appeared in. In the first game Sal has long hair, in Battle Chip Challenge she has a short hair, and in Battle Network 4 her sprite was redesign to match the current style.
• According to the Mega Man Battle Network Official Complete Works, Sal was originally intended to be male. However, Sal's character portrait in the game was more feminine, so they changed Sal's gender to a girl.

  

  Toys of Sal, Miyu, and Masa

• Sal appears as a toy of Black Rose in one episode of Axess, there also toys of Miyu and Masa.
• In the anime, several times when Sal (disguised as Black Rose takes off the wrap on her head, her eyes are a pale gray. However, they usually change back to green in the next scene where she is shown. 
• Sal's alter ego's name, the Black Rose, was adopted by the Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's character Aki Izayoi (Akiza Izinski in the dub).

  

  Sal (with gray eyes) after revealing herself to be Black Rose.