Ghost: So apparently June 10th is Lan and Hub's birthday. Didn't know and if it is cool and not ah well knew story. Anypanel, on with the show! See you all Friday with more Disconnect and Happy Birthday to everyone's favorite Net Navi and his brother. Thanks to Devil's Den for letting me know about the birthday thing!
As Dr. Aika Itumi walked the hall of the mental institution, she gazed at several of the patients that were in the building, at least the ones who kept their doors open. She sighed as she saw some members of the family trying to reason with their loved one's disillusion. She felt sorry for a majority of them. She wished there was a way that she could just help them see the reality that was life and not the warped world they saw it. The main reason for her thinking in this manner was due to a special patient of hers, one who she had taken a very special interest in. After all, he had quite the imaginative mind.
Dr. Itumi opened the door to meet a man with brown hair and eyes. His arms were bound together in a straitjacket. As gentle as he he could be, the man was a destructive force that needed to be restrained for fear of him hurting himself and others. His name was Hub Hikari, the son of Dr. Yuichiro Hikari, brother of Lan Hikari, and brother-in-law to Mayl Hikari. He was about 32 years old by now, the same as her, and had been a resident in the DenTech Mental Institute for 15 years. His first case of his confusion starting at 11 years old. He had also been her first patient, starting with her about 7 years ago.
"Hi, Roll!" Hub said happily. Aika smiled back. Roll was the only name he ever referred to her as, despite her numerous attempts for her to call her anything but. She didn't know how she became the pink colored navi in his head; the only resemblance they had were the eye and hair color. Well there was the pink dress shirt that she normally wore. Okay, so maybe there were a few reasons why she was "Roll", but it still didn't help her any seeing as how Hub took things in the real world and...abstracted them. See, Hub was one of the cases that made her wish she could go in his mind and talk sense to him from within.
"Hello, Hub. How are you today?" she asked as always, though she was sighing internally due to knowing what that answer was going to be.
See, the man lived in a virtual world…in his head that was. After many conversations, Dr. Itumi had uncovered that he believed that he had died and was reborn again as a computer artificial intelligence program called a Net Navi. These programs were capable of acting human-like and helped a device known as a PET to work. What was more disturbing was the fade in and outs of his world. He believed his brother, Lan, was alive and that he was his navi known to the world as Megaman while his sister-in-law, Mayl, owned a pink navi named Roll. Pretty much in her mind, Dr. Itumi was a program. Together with his brother, he had gone on to save the world at least six times from various evils.
However…that was not exactly what had happened. In reality, he had had a near death experience which seemed to trigger all these events. His father worked at the famous scientist from science labs of AMAKEN and the two brothers had gone to "take your child to work" day. On the way home, Dr. Hikari had gotten into a car accident; a drunk driver had slammed into the family car.
Everyone was rushed to the hospital. However, Hub was the only one who seemed to favor the worst from the hit. The concussion he had gotten seemed to scramble his brain enough to create the reality he saw now. In the beginning, it wasn't that bad. It was only until he had started punching one of the neighborhood kids—Aika couldn't remember his name but Hub called him Gutsman—that everyone decided that Hub needed to talk about his world to someone other than his family.
As "Megaman" continued his journey, more and more people started getting hurt. Lawyers, doctors, school guards, and employees of various establishments were on the receiving end of his growing "power". At one point, he had almost gotten himself killed under the notion that his brother was in some kind of grave danger. It hadn't take much effort to ensure that Hub would be living in a mental institution until the day that he could finally be free of his own little world.
"Fine today. Nothing much is happening on the Net today and Lan still won't do his homework," Hub huffed. Oh yes, time hadn't moved much in his mind. While in reality his brother was married and a father of two, in Hub's mind he was still twelve years old.
"He does seem to be in the habit of not listening to you. Did the Cybeasts quiet down yet? I know they gave you some problems for a while," Dr. Itumi began taking her notes. She was specifically marking a part in her notes saying still no improvement. Just how on earth was she going to get him to change his thinking? She couldn't knock sense into him. It was his reality. He would just assume "Roll" was upset at him.
"Yeah. Though I'm still kinda sad that Colonel and Iris had to die. I just wished that I could have controlled my power better and maybe they wouldn't have had to die due to my incapability," He sighed looking at the ground.
"I'm sure they don't blame you, Hub." Aika said, looking at the man. The straitjacket only made him seem crazier. His bed hair came a little over his warm brown eyes. The only problem was that Aika still remembered when he had broken into another patient's area. He had thought the man in the room thought he was a vampire navi and attacked him for kidnapping her. For a while, it was all she could do from preventing the bosses at the top from transferring him either out of her care or to a different facility.
"I know, but it still hurts…you know?" He said, shaking the hair out of his eyes and looking at her.
She gently set her clipboard down and put a hand on his shoulder, "I know. But we've got to move forward, Hub. Sometimes we've got to realize the world we live in can't be simple. We can't save everyone. But we can try out hardest to make sure that we do the best we can to make it the best place for everyone to live in."
The man was silent for a while, as if pondering something to himself. Finally, he looked back up at her, "Hey Roll? Why do you call me Hub now? I mean, you always called me Mega until seven weeks ago," Hub asked, looking into the doctor's green eyes.
So years for her were only a few weeks for him at this time. For some reason, actual reality was either slower or faster for him but never really on time. However, it was the recognition of the switch that caused Aika to smirk, "Maybe I'm just want you to remember the real you." The doctor glanced down to her waist as a buzzer went off. As she reached for the device around her belt, she turned the pager so that she could see the number and sighed. Mayl had called. Lan was incredibly busy with his new promotion at AMAKEN and often could get his wife to check up on Hub for him about three times a week. He would come by on the weekends to see him and whatever day he happened to be off. However, her heart would break every time when he saw Hub in that jacket.
She knew the Hikaris had a desperate want to introduce Hub to his two year old niece and seven year old nephew. But the fact of the matter was that he just wasn't ready to face the reality of the world. For all she knew, he would look at them like a new pair of Net Navis. And the last thing she wanted to see was him getting violent.
Dr. Itumi cleared her throat, "I'm sorry, Hub. I've got to answer an email really fast." She said. It was easier for him to understand if she used his world's logic versus the real one's.
"Alright, Aika." Hub said.
Aika turned back to him with an eyebrow raised. He had never acknowledged her by her real name before. Every time she had tried to get him to do so, he seemed to either ignore her or forget. But now it seemed like the latter was actually incorrect, "What did you call me?" She asked carefully.
"Aika. At least, that's the nickname you gave yourself! If you're not going to call me Mega anymore, I'm not going to call you Roll anymore!" He said with a smile. He had missed the nickname and figured the only way to get her to return back to it was to do the same to her.
Dr. Itumi sent one back. It was a start; one that she was afraid he would never take. He had accepted her name which showed progress. It showed that he was capable of accepting things in the real world. However, getting him to acknowledge them for what they were rather than warp them in his head was another battle.
However, she would take the name for now, "Alright, Hub. We can play that game. But just know that I'll win in the end!"
"You're on Aika!" Hub smiled as she dismissed herself from the room.
Aika fished out her pink cellphone from her pocket and dialed Mayl Hikari's number, "Ms. Hikari? ... Hey, it's me. … Oh yes, I was with Hub. … He's doing about the same he has been, but I think we've made a bit of progress with him. He called me by my name today. … Yes, I know he's never done that before. … Well, it means that he's shown some improvement in terms of accepting things in the real world. He may be warping some people's existences into the Net Navis, but the fact that he accepted Aika as an alternate name to Roll is comforting to know. … Yes, but I must warn you that he's not ready yet to fully accept the world for what it is, but I think he's getting closer to the point. Not by much, but I'll take a step versus not walking any day. ... Alright, well you take care now and give my regards to Lan okay? … Goodbye, Mayl."
The doctor sighed as she became aware of someone walking up behind her. The green haired woman was just coming back in from her gardening up in the front. Sal had planted some beautiful flowers that the patients found amazing, "Oh, hey Sal. I didn't see you there."
"Hello, Aika! Yeah, just had to take care of some weeds that tried to sprout up. So, how is everything up here?" the gardener asked.
"Nothing much. Everyone seems to be well. Hub seems to be doing better as well," Aika said. She had become great friends with Sal after working with her for six years. And although Aika couldn't divulge into the patients' problems, she was at least happy she had someone that she could talk to.
"Really?" she asked amazed. After seven years, she just kinda assumed that the man was as stubborn as a mule and wasn't going to exit whatever mental state had landed him in here.
"Yes, it's small. But it's more progress than I've ever been able to make with him." She smiled.
Sal returned the favor, "Well then, you should celebrate. Your stubborn patient finally began to budge!"
Aika laughed, "I'll celebrate when he's properly seeing the world again and not a minute before Sal! Though, you can have a glass for me if you want when you get off."
The green haired woman shrugged, "You're missing out. Anyway, I better go. Got a few more plants to care of in the foyer. See you later, Aika!"
"Bye Sal!" Dr. Itumi waved as the green haired woman retreated into the building. As she turned back and headed to her office she began to think more on how to keep Hub's momentum going. She had to develop a way to make him accept the world for what it is without him assimilating it into his and changing it to suit his world's logic. But how?
As she entered her room, she still couldn't wipe the smirk on her face. He had called her Aika. He had accepted her name. And now, he just needed to get him to accept her, his doctor. Then she could get him to accept his family. And when all that was done, he could accept the world. She would just need to brave his world for just a little more until she could develop a stronger bridge into the world she lived in.
And in the end, that was what life was about. Braving a new world. It just depended on how you looked at said world.
Ghost: Alright, so this was a prompt challenge from terratasha. Making a story that involved Hub not actually being Megaman but actually a person. I probably butchered that explanation, but I think the story spoke for itself. Anypanel, for DN people, when Roll was originally redesigned for the series, she had a similar past to Hub Hikari (hence the name, You're Not Alone). Her original human name was Aika Itumi, the daughter of her mother Dr. Amaya Itumi (Roll's creator). Eventually like a couple other ideas, the human angle was scrapped for the final outcome and Roll was instead a Soul Navi. So, I brought the name back for this story since I saw the chance. And on that not, Ghost501 logging out!