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15s week 6 sunday
CW: Extreme 999 Spoilers, VLR Spoilers
[Akane finishes pulling Hubert into the infirmary and then, after a hesitant moment, shuts the door behind them. The walls weren't soundproofed, she didn't think, not in the same way things were back in their rooms, but....
Well, truly, she did want to see him taken care of.]
Take your shirt off, okay? Is it... is it just your ribs? Or is something else hurt too?
[As she asks the question she fills a cup with water and then brings it and some of the painkillers back over to Hubert.]
And take these. No arguments.
[And then a pause, and now the slightly hard question.]
Um.
H-how much... did he tell you?
[Akane finishes pulling Hubert into the infirmary and then, after a hesitant moment, shuts the door behind them. The walls weren't soundproofed, she didn't think, not in the same way things were back in their rooms, but....
Well, truly, she did want to see him taken care of.]
Take your shirt off, okay? Is it... is it just your ribs? Or is something else hurt too?
[As she asks the question she fills a cup with water and then brings it and some of the painkillers back over to Hubert.]
And take these. No arguments.
[And then a pause, and now the slightly hard question.]
Um.
H-how much... did he tell you?
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Ribs. Broken, likely. All there is to do is let them heal.
[He swallows the drugs with no hesitation]
Not much. Mostly that he and I have... similar duties. Killers for a purpose. He did not expose any secrets you have but... well, I must assume you at least know about it.
[She's too stubborn to sit back]
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[She begins to rummage through the cupboards until she finds some medical tape.]
They probably don't have this where you're from, but we can do something to... reinforce them, at least a little. It should make it a little bit easier to live with, until they finish mending.
[She is silent as he tells her what he knows, and finally forces a small smile. It's....
It's hard to expose herself like this. Even if she does trust him. But she still makes herself talk as she comes back and carefully begins applying the tape.]
I see.
I... I guess you're right, then, that he didn't tell you that much. Because... it's.... it's mostly for me.
Do you remember... the time I told you about how I was burned to death when I was twelve?
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I do. That you are trapped between.
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[Her hands are gentle as she works.]
I didn't... quite tell you everything, at that time. I didn't even remember everything, actually.
[A soft sigh, and then she begins to speak. Her voice is even, measured, and without some of the hesitance that often seems to mark her words. She knows very well what she's talking about, here. She has spent a long, long time with this knowledge.]
When I was twelve years old, after being taken to a hospital for an illness, Aoi and I were made to perform a Ganzfeld Experiment, and we displayed strong psychic tenancies. Because of this, our aptitude, we were kidnapped to be used in the Nonary Project. It was a research project being run by the same company that owned that particular hospital. The men conducting the experiment wanted to study something called the 【Morphogenetic Field】.
Morphogenetic field theory posits the existence of a biological and social field that contains the information necessary to shape the exact form of a living thing as part of its epigenetics, as well as its behavior and the way it coordinates with and interacts with other beings.
Think of it as an invisible plane, or field, where the information for all biological life, and perhaps some things that aren't even alive, is stored. Anyone is able to access this field, to an extent, and as a result, some people have an easier time finding knowledge that is common to many people. Or, for example, if a hundred thousand people did a headstand tomorrow, you would be more inclined to want to do a headstand too, even if you didn't know about what was going on.
There are two factors that can strengthen one's ability to access information in this way: namely epiphany and danger. So Cradle Pharmaceuticals kidnapped 18 children and split them into teams of 9, and then set them in nearly identical scenarios. The first group, group A, was placed in the Gigantic, before a hole was torn in it so that it would sink. The second building was an identical replica named Building Q, which had been put in the Nevada desert.
The children in Building Q were told they had to solve the puzzles presented to them and use their psychic abilities to transmit the answers, to place them in the Morphogenetic Field, for their siblings to find, or they would... they would die.
I was on the Gigantic. So was Aoi. It was a mistake, actually. They had meant to split up every sibling pair, but it was me and another girl... we got switched, somehow.
We... we almost got out. A police officer found us, and he tried to rescue us, but I... went back. I'd dropped my doll. I didn't want to leave her. The ship was sinking. But when I did, that man... Gentarou Hongou... he caught me and he dragged me back into the incinerator.
Then he turned it on.
There was a puzzle I was supposed to solve, and if I could then I would have been able to escape but... I wasn't even in the right place. I was more skilled at transmitting than receiving information. I was terrified. And he stood there, with his face pressed against the glass, and he watched me while I was crying, and....
And that's where it gets complicated. I told you most of it last time. Sometimes I die, and sometimes I don't. But what stops it was something I don't think anybody expected.
It seems that the Morphogenetic Field also includes a temporal element, because when I was trapped like that... I managed to reach into the future. Nine years into the future, actually. I was able to make contact with... actually it was the same boy who gave me that doll. He was able to help me solve the puzzle. And I was able to get out.
But, you see, after that....
After that, if that Nonary Game didn't take place... if nine years in the future, my friend wasn't there to help me, to stop me from being burned... then I'd have died.
So that's what we did. Among other things.
Aoi and I, in that Nonary Game, the one I came from, were Zero. We set it up. We took the people who had to be there. And we killed one of the men who was responsible for that original Nonary Project.
My life has been in danger ever since then, you see, so it's... something I've sort of learned how to do. To read different timelines. To find different ways for things to go. But, because I'm still in the box, I get fevers too. So Aoi was the one who usually helped me. Who... did anything I told him had to be done. And then something would break, and I'd get the fevers again....
They get worse whenever it's not the right timeline. Whenever it's closer to being true.
no subject
So it is similar to what Aoi was attempting here- altering the timeline to try and find the outcome he needed. The one where you lived. And until you do, you are always, in some version of it, dying.
...
[Is he living now breaking a timeline? Or was him living now meant to keep it flowing? He can't even begin to understand it.
Regardless, he shows no shock or horror at her telling him that she was behind Aoi's 'crimes'. If anything he expected it to some degree.]
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Think of it like trying to solve a maze, I guess. Every time there's a dead end, you can restart from the beginning. And... yes. For now, anyway, I always die if it's not the right one. I don't... really mind it anymore, I guess. It's just... necessary.
We've done a lot of terrible things. I've done a lot of terrible things. There are more terrible things I have left to do. For one thing in.... mmm, I think it's about fifty years? I'll need to run another Nonary Game.
Or, well, hopefully not, I guess.
Aoi, I think, is from... after this. After I managed to find a way to end the loop. I'm not. And so, for me, when I survive--if I survive--there's... something bad that will happen. A disease. A disease that will kill... almost everybody, one way or another.
Including Aoi, actually. That's... part of why I have to stop it. So until I do....
[She gives him a slight smile, weak though it is.]
I'm going to keep doing bad things.
So you see, I really can't judge you for doing something so similar.
I'm... sorry.
I wish I could have been who you thought I was.
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Akane. My first love was a blood drenched emperor who has personally killed hundreds. Do you think this would upset me?
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No.
I don't know.
I lied to you.
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I don't know.
I don't.... I don't let very many people know this much. Part of that is because it's useful if everyone does just think I'm... that there's nothing else to me. But I'm not that little girl who I was, anymore.
I was, once. But not now.
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[Said softly, like he knows that very personally]
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When I was little... there were... there was some cruel boys who killed all the rabbits that were the class pets. I cried for days about them. And then, only a few minutes before I came here, originally....
Well, I didn't blow him up myself, I guess. But I made sure it would happen. He died a terrible death. And I don't regret it.
So....
So I know some, I think, of what... what you've had to go through.
But if I can keep fighting for my happy ending.... Won't you fight for yours?
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[She walks over, carefully, and gives him a slightly awkward hug, mostly around his neck and shoulders so to avoid hurting his ribs, though her arms stay very gentle, touch light, and she backs away after a moment.]
I...
[She sighs and bites her lip.]
I should probably just... want you to go him and be happy, but....
It's... more complicated than that. Because, like I said.... Aoi, he's from after we break out of the loop. I'm not. And... and it may take a while to get there. Well. A while for me, anyway. For you, it would either take a few years or... or it would never happen.
I... I could use your help, though. If you do come with me. But if not.... I'll... I'll understand.
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I can't leave him, after everything.
[He takes her hands in his own]
It... is not fair.
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Okay.
I... I'll keep trying.
Until I find my way through.
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I will wait for you, as long as it takes.
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I need....
I need to find out how to stop Radical-6 first. It's... it's what's coming.
I don't know how. And....
And I'm scared. And I can't....
Aoi won't be there. He... he catches it and he.... kills himself.
I've seen it happen so many times and I don't know how....
[She shakes her head, slightly, curling up, just a little.]
It doesn't matter.
no subject
[He glances at the door, brow furrowed]
And... already all our timelines are changed. Magicks and technology in play none of us can fully understand. There is something here you can use. I will find it for you.
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It's....
[She sighs.]
It's... forty five years. That's how long it takes for... technology to advance far enough. I still don't understand all of it, honestly. It's still... hard to see past the fire. Everything just.... if I get it wrong, it's all only fire, then. But....
[She smiles, just a little, faintly.]
I'll miss you. For however many hundreds of years it takes to find an end.