Aibouverse: for Masato (and maybe others as the need arises) [Early-20s Canon]

[silverpleather]

It took EMC long enough to decide they could probably trust us enough to let us come and go from their main base and headquarters. To be fair, stealing that entire truck of Enetron probably didn't endear us much at first, but come on! We needed it.

Anyway. Now we're just as good as real members of the team, even if we still tend to operate after our own rules at times.

Still, there is yet one question, and I'm not entirely satisfied with the platitudes and half-answers I've gotten so far.

The biggest plus side is that Masato has taken to spending more and more time with the Commander, which is where I figure he is right now. Which is what allows me to sneak out of the base.

I'm going to find answers, even if I have to do it entirely my own way.

Comments

[goldenikemen]

Emi has seriously lost his mind if he thinks I'm not keeping at least half an eye on him still, even when I am with Kurorin.

And that half an eye would be named J and Kotako.

J lumbers after Emi after letting me know that he's left the base, tailing him while I catch up. I asked him to be stealthy, but, well... it is J, after all...

[silverpleather]

A little caught up in my mind, it takes me a few blocks before I realize that Jueki is behind me.

I stop once I realize, waiting for him to catch up with me. I can hear every footstep, but I can tell by his motions that he is at least attempting stealth.

"Zut alors," I mutter to myself before raising my voice. "Jueki! You don't have to sneak."

He stops moving at all for a moment.

"I am not sneaking."

"Not now, you aren't. Come here. Did Masato send you after me?"

"It was merely a suggestion."

"I'm sure."

[goldenikemen]

I catch up to them soon enough, and sure enough, J was noticed. I sigh, and shake my head, as I stride up to them.

"I think I may need to upgrade you a bit, J." I give him a shove out of the way, and then with one hand on my hip, offer my Aibou a smile.

"Out for a moonlit stroll?"

[silverpleather]

"If you were angling for stealth, aibou, you should have sent Kotako." I say this with a smirk, knowing off the top of my head at least three reasons why Kotako is unsuited to tailing me secretly.

The smirk falters a bit as I tilt my head back, squinting towards the sky. "You could say that. Fresh air, maybe."

[goldenikemen]

"You know she hardly ever listens to me." It's true, though it's only one of the reasons why she'd have been an ever worse choice, and he and I both know that.

Fresh air my ass..

"I'll join you then." I nod, and smile. I'm not actually being a complete nagging parent. If he's really out for just a walk, it'd be nice to join him for it.

[silverpleather]

"Well, maybe she would have been able to talk you out of setting a tail on me like I'm some kind of suspect."

She is my partner, after all.

I pull a face at his offer to join me. "And if I said I wanted some space to think?"

[goldenikemen]

I squint at him, and slowly slide my hands from my hips in favor of crossing them over my chest. This line of his doesn't hold up, not with him.

Whenever he needed time to himself he'd find a place to tuck himself away in the lab. Caused me a couple of near panic attacks early on.

"Plenty of places for that at the base, or the lab." I scratch at the back of my neck.

There's something more going on here. I didn't spend thirteen years alone with him and learn nothing about his tells.

[silverpleather]

He's not buying it, I can tell by the way his hand goes to the back of his neck.

Not that I was really trying to sell it. I was being purposefully obnoxious to try and derail him, sure, but I seem to have just made him overly suspicious, which translates to overly protective.

I sigh and cross my arms and pout at him for a minute, but he's not about to just let it go.

"Merde," I mutter to myself, looking away. I can't meet his eyes for this.

"If you want me to be honest, perhaps I was hoping to run into Et-- Into Enter."

[goldenikemen]

Part of me softens, part of me is fucking pissed. It's strange, I'm as much his Aibou as I am his surrogate parent. I'm more his Aibou now, but sometimes...

I scratch more at the back of my neck, then ruffle my hair a bit in mild frustration.

"Emi..."

[silverpleather]

Now he's mad. It's the way he fluffs his hair that gives it away.

I shove my hands in my pockets and hunch my shoulders.

"I have questions, is all. The Commander isn't answering any of them. I don't think anyone else has answers. But he does. He has to."

[goldenikemen]

"And of course he's just going to give you all the answers. He's been wonderfully helpful and forthcoming to all of us so far."

I sigh, calming myself down. Getting upset won't fix anything, it'll probably just drive Emi further down whatever crazy plan he's got in his head.

I look at him, studying his face. A face so similar to Enter's Kurorin thought he was Enter when we first showed up.

"I'm sorry, Emi." I shake my head. "

[silverpleather]

"Has anyone tried talking to him alone?" I throw back at him.

Then he's just looking at me. Staring, really. I wonder what he sees when he looks at me, compared to what everyone else sees. Masato knows me, inside and out, better than anyone except maybe Kotako.

"I have to know, Masato." I say softly. "If have to know why he looks like me. If he could really be..."

[goldenikemen]

"Well, no. Generally whenever anyone sees him he attacks or fuck's off."

He softens, and I swallow my snark. I understand his thought process, his need to grab on to any shred of hope he's offered that his brother may still be alive, even if it's only as alive as he and I are now.

"He's not." I have to be firm in this, I can't risk losing him. "You and I both know all the reasons why it just isn't possible."

[silverpleather]

He has a point.

In fact, he has several.

I don't care.

I scowl a bit at the tone in his voice. He never sounds half-so as serious with anyone else.

"Sure, sure. I know the reasons." And they are many, and varied. "But how else would you explain it?"

[goldenikemen]

I sigh, and shake my head, one hand scratching furiously at the back of it, messing up my hair. Not that it matters; it'll settle perfectly once my hand moves out of it. One of the many 'benefits' of being an avatar.

Fuck everything.

"Come back to the base, Aibou." I say, my voice softening. I slide my hands to my hips, and make a motion like I'm swallowing hard, looking off to the side.

"Well start working on figuring out exactly what Enter is, and what connection he has to you or your brother. Why he looks the way he does."

[silverpleather]

I've got him really riled up now, all worried, all of his tells are flashing at me like neon and I sigh. My shoulders fall a little. I hang my head.

None of this is right.

None of this is fair.

"How?" I demand softly. "How are we going to figure it out from the base?" I pause. "If it's as easy as that, why haven't we done it sooner?"

[goldenikemen]

"I didn't say it would be easy."

I look back at him, wondering just how much my face is giving away, how much worry.

There are still so many things I wish I could protect him from.

Still so much guilt over what I couldn't protect him from.

It was a blessing in some ways that he was with me in the lab that night, but sometimes I wonder if it would have been more merciful...

Don't think that way. It's neither productive nor healthy.

"We haven't done it sooner because I've been trying to... to keep you away from him. It. Enter."

[silverpleather]

I frown at him.

"I figured that much." I say, and then I turn away from him and take a few steps away. I know I won't get far. If I push him too far, he'll tell Jueki to cut my connection and drop me back into the subdimension.

I stop a few yards away and turn to look at him again. I don't know how much of my anger is playing on my face, in my gaze.

"Why?"

[goldenikemen]

He asks me why. I don't know if I have a good answer for him.

Why do any of us try to keep the ones we love aware from things that will hurt them? The simple answer is usually because we love them. But it's more than that.

"Because..." I falter, but I have to give him some sort of answer.

A split second later I'm shoving him out of the way of a cable, sending him crashing to the ground while I take the hit in the would-be fleshy part just below my shoulder.

My hand reaches for my Morphin Blaster on reflex, ready to transform and fight.

Speak of the devil.

"Busters, ready?"

[silverpleather]

He doesn't have a real answer and I sigh at him, but before he can make something up, he's moving, too quickly, which means that something's gone wrong. And that's about all I have time to think before I hit the ground and I hear the tell-tale sound of him taking a hit that was inevitably meant for me.

I wish he wouldn't do that. He's no more indestructible than I am.

Enter. Funny how these things work out. I scramble back to my feet, drawing my own Blaster and releasing the catch on the visor.

"Let's Morphin!"

"Oh la la. Mes coléoptères... What ever could you be doing out and about at this late hour?"

[goldenikemen]

I hiss through my teeth, still recovering a bit from the hit I took, even after my transformation.

I move to stand beside my Aibou, readying a defensive stance. I would much rather we retreat than engage Enter head on; I'm not sure if we'd have backup at this hour.

I try to contact the base, at least Kurorin. Speaking low and hurried.

I dodge another cable, and manage to shoot a blast off toward Enter in the process.

[silverpleather]

I know this is probably a mistake, but at the same time, I came out here looking for him, and here he is, and, mon dieu, I still want answers.

I half-hear my aibou contacting the base, but I don't hear if there's any response. Depends on who is still awake, I guess, or if the Commander is intending on sounding an alarm for something like this.

I dive forward and take some shots at Enter, trying to shoot down some of his cables as they go flying around us.

One of them catches me off guard as my focus is on the cables attacking Masato. It wraps around my ankle and pulls me off balance.

[red_pleather]

Ryuu-san and Yoko-chan and I stand in the main room as the Commander orders us to a Vaglass reaction on the south side...... but just as we're about to leave, the Commander gets a call from Jin-san.

I head out to help Jin-san and Emi. They've been engaged by Enter.

Alone.

There aren't enough of us.

They're not too far, at least. Don't even need to take Nick. I sprint around the corner and see Jin in motion, Emi flying through the air courtesy of a cable.

I fire.

[goldenikemen]

I curse under my breath when I see Emi go down in my peripheral. I launch forward, getting a foot down on the cable pulling him by the ankle, and severing it with my Driblade.

I don't care what Emi was planning on, I'm not letting Enter have him. Not for any reason. Not ever.

More gunfire, and a flash of red.

"Nice of you to join us, Hiromu-chan!" I toss over my shoulder, flashing my horned fingers at him.

[silverpleather]

Enter takes a staggered step back when a shot nearly catches him in the shoulder. It misses (of course it does, and when have I ever seen anything actually connect with him?), but it distracts him enough not to act quickly enough at pulling me nearer to him before Masato cuts in, bringing his Driblade down on the cable holding me. It was one of the smaller ones, and actually snaps under the force of Masato's strike. For my part, I had been struggling back against the force of the pull, and when it's severed I go rolling backwards. I use the momentum to slide to my feet again and summon my own Driblade, blowing between Masato and Hiromu (when did he get here?) to engage Enter one-on-one.

I have just enough time to reflect that Masato's going to be pissed before Enter summons a weapon of his own and we slide into a strangely comfortable dance of thrusts, parries and sweeping strikes.

How am I supposed to get him to talk?