Higsby

Mr. Higsby (Higure Yamitaro in the Japanese version) is a human operator and a recurring protagonist in the Mega Man Battle Network series, though he started out as an antagonist. He operates NumberMan.EXE throughout the series, and while he was a WWW agent initially, he left the organization to pursue his own goals.

Mega Man Battle Network
Higsby is a recurring character throughout the series, though he is only a villain in this game. He is first introduced as a substitute teacher to replace Ms. Mari, though he is later seen to have kidnapped her and tied her up to take over her class. He did so under WWW orders in order to share WWW propaganda to the students. He does this by force, keeping the students locked in the classroom. Lan and MegaMan.EXE are able to escape, and discover Ms. Mari, their teacher, locked away in a storage closet. They later confront Higsby and NumberMan directly, defeating them in a battle. Higsby is initially confident that his rare BattleChips are able to net him a victory, and is heavily blown away at his defeat by Lan and MegaMan. After this moment, he defects from the WWW and swears to never join the side of evil again, though this happens in a rain of tears. He also mentions that he mainly joined the WWW for the rewards of rare BattleChips, which he swears to only obtain morally from now on. Later in the story, he uses his previous WWW membership to help Lan and MegaMan take them down. While he appears in nearly every subsequent game in the series, he is only a villain in this one part of this one game, and is an ally to the protagonists in every subsequent appearance.

Role in the Anime
While he was never affiliated with World Three in the anime as he was in the games, he still made his debut as a villain. In this version, he starts out by providing a lesson to the class about virus busting, and his behavior here is mostly normal. However, he notices that Yai has a rare chip and covets said chip for himself. He, along with NumberMan, ends up locking her in the classroom, hijacking security to keep her inside, while challenging Yai and her NetNavi, Glide, to a battle for the chip. At this point, it is not clear that NumberMan is affiliated with Higsby, who is not implicated in this act. At first, NumberMan seems to have the edge in this battle. However, MegaMan and Roll are able to break through these makeshift defenses, discovering that Higsby was behind it all. They proceed to defeat NumberMan in this confrontation. When confronting Higsby directly, Ms. Mari is the one to reprimand Higsby for attempting to forcefully steal Yai's rare BattleChip, and she even warns him that he could be arrested for his actions. She then convinces him to put his evil ways behind him. Following this incident, he decides to quit teaching and open his own chip shop, much like the games. Also much like the games, he helps the protagonists frequently. He also has feelings of love for Ms. Mari, and frequently competes with Maysa, who also loves Ms. Mari, over these feelings.