The Cross Fusion tests are all done. It took a while, but finally, Mimic and ProtoMan's Cross Fusion is given the go-ahead by SciLab. It's a little weird, and definitely way different to Lan's, but it's safe - at least for Mimic and ProtoMan. Chaud and Dark Shadow, too.
But they're not finished yet, because Dr. Hikari wants to see how their Fusion is affecting Mimic's body and mind. Lan doesn't need to be tested for anything like this - MegaMan is a full human-Navi, and the only change in Lan's body is how much he eats or sleeps after using Cross Fusion, needing to regain the energy that he lost during a battle or something.
For Mimic, it's apparently a lot more than that.
She'd sort of noticed it herself - when Lan was being an asshole, she'd had a brief, odd moment in which she'd wanted to claw his eyes out. That had made no sense to her at the time, but Dr. Hikari thinks it has something to do with ProtoMan being a cat-Navi, or at least partially a cat-Navi. Some of his behaviours and abilities might be transferring over to her, sticking with Mimic even after Crossing Out. Wanting to claw Lan's eyes out despite not having claws is a prime example of that.
So she's still being tested by SciLab, just not for her Cross Fusion. More like the effects of her Cross Fusion. In that light, Dr. Hikari's asked Dr. Amano to help them, considering she regularly comes by to give Mimic checkups, and her input would obviously be useful.
"I didn't know SciLab had a medical facility," Lan says, looking around in awe.
"It's not as extensive as any regular hospital," Dr. Hikari replies. "But we need some on-site medical facilities in case accidents happen during experiments, or just in general. Considering you and Chaud are using Cross Fusion regularly, we're planning on updating our equipment. Is this alright for now?" That question he aims at Dr. Amano, who's checking the medical equipment in the room.
"It's perfectly fine," Dr. Amano replies. "I'll just be doing something similar to the usual checkup anyway, which I can do at your house as well as here."
"That's true," Dr. Hikari agrees, with a laugh.
Minutes later, Mimic is sitting on one of the medical tables while Dr. Amano shines a light into her eyes. It's not unusual, and Mimic has had this done a bunch of times, so she's used to it.
Except this time the light seems to be more intense than it usually is. Maybe it's because she's normally at home, where the lighting is softer - the medical facility at SciLab has white walls and the typical stark lighting that's associated with places like this, so maybe she's just feeling the light more than she would at home.
"That's interesting," Dr. Amano says, stepping back. Mimic blinks away the spots in her vision and looks at her. "You said your cybernetic eye has night vision, right?"
Mimic nods, wondering why she's bringing that up.
"Tapeta lucida," Dr. Amano murmurs, absently fiddling with the light in her hand.
"I thought it was tapetum lucidum?" Dr. Hikari asks, sounding puzzled.
"Tapeta lucida is the plural," Dr. Amano explains. "He has it in both eyes."
Mimic blinks at her, trying to comprehend that.
She has night vision in both eyes now? How the hell does that even work? Her cybernetic eye had malfunctioned or something, making it dull and black, and somehow giving her night vision in that eye - but her normal eye, the real one, has never been like that.
"It could be a result of the Cross Fusion," Dr. Amano says. "I'm not going to try to understand it - medical science is completely different to technological science, after all - but I think perhaps ProtoMan has night vision, and that's somehow transferred to Chaud. It was probably easy, considering he already had night vision in one eye."
"Does that mean both of his eyes do that glowy thing?" Lan asks curiously. "His cybernetic one reflects light or something, right? And it's because of the night vision."
"That's right," Dr. Amano agrees. "And now he has that in both eyes." She turns to Mimic. "I imagine the light I shined into your eyes hurt a little? More than usual, that is."
"Yeah," Mimic says. Is this why the light had burnt her eyes so much? Not because of her surroundings, but because both of her eyes have night vision?
That's both cool and extremely weird, Chaud says.
You're telling me, Mimic replies. Does this mean I'm the same as ProtoMan, now? I'm basically a cat, except I'm still human?
Maybe you'll be chasing cat toys at some point, Chaud jokes.
Mimic resists the urge to roll her eyes at that.
"Your eyes will be a little more sensitive to light now," Dr. Amano warns her. "I think you've probably already dealt with something like this with your cybernetic eye, but you may not have noticed given that it was only that eye. But now it's both of them, so you'll have to be a little more careful, alright? No staring into direct light."
Why would I do that anyway? Mimic wonders, even as she nods.
Lan did it once, Chaud says. But that was a dare from one of your classmates, so I don't know if that counts.
It probably doesn't, Mimic says.
Dr. Amano conducts a few more of the usual checkup tests, and then they move into the dimensional area lab for physical tests.
Dr. Hikari wants to check out her night vision properly, so he and a few other scientists place a few obstacles around the room without letting her see where they are. Then everyone but Mimic leaves the room, though Lan helps her put on a blindfold before he follows Dr. Hikari, Dr. Amano, and the SciLab scientists to the observation room above.
"Alright, Chaud." Dr. Hikari's voice comes out the speakers, echoing through the room. "We're shutting off all lights in the room . . . now."
The faint light bleeding through the blindfold vanishes suddenly, leaving Mimic in total darkness. She doesn't panic - she's never been scared of the dark. It's actually rather comforting for her, to be honest.
Apparently the observation room's windows will also be blackened, to prevent any external light sources from bleeding into the room. But there's a video feed of the dimensional area lab being broadcasted onto one of the monitors in the observation room, with night vision programs installed so the people in that room can see what's going on.
"Take off your blindfold now," Dr. Hikari calls.
Mimic reaches up to the back of her head and feels around until she finds the knot, then unties it and stuffs the blindfold into her pocket.
For a few moments, she's still just as blind as she was with the blindfold on. And then, gradually, she starts seeing shapes - not too far away, just a few feet at first, and then a few metres, and finally the whole room. It's all in various shades of black and grey, but she can see something.
There are obstacles in front of her. Most of them are just various boxes that the scientists placed at random - a normal person would be incapable of seeing them and would need to feel their way around, but Mimic's already been instructed not to use her hands, because that would defeat the purpose of the experiment. She's to use her eyes only, to get to the other side of the room using nothing but her night vision.
She can just barely make out the other side of the room, but more obvious to her sight are the box obstacles closest to her, within a few metres at least. Other obstacles are just vague shapes that she only knows are also boxes because those are pretty much the only thing in the room aside from her.
This is kinda boring, Mimic comments, as she starts moving.
She moves around a middle-sized box as Chaud replies.
What did you expect? he asks. This is only to test how well you can see in the dark, remember. They're not gonna give you fancy obstacles on the first go.
They could've made it a bit more interesting than a bunch of boxes, Mimic argues. Like that obstacle course they set up for the Cross Fusion tests.
There's a low wall of boxes directly in front of her. She could probably just push it apart, but she's not meant to use her hands, so she walks parallel to it until she finds the end, and then walks around it.
I highly doubt you can clear a ten-foot wall as a human, Chaud replies, exasperated. And that's not even mentioning everything else that the scientists set up for you!
Maybe not a ten-foot wall, Mimic agrees. But I could do five, maybe. I mean, if ProtoMan has night vision and that transferred to me, what else was transferred?
Does ProtoMan actually have night vision? Chaud wonders. The visor on his helmet has scanners built into it, sure, but those are for tracking or detecting data. He's never had night vision before. And if he does now and it's a result of becoming half-cat, he's never really shown any signs of having night vision, has he?
He's never been in a situation where night vision needed to be used, Mimic points out.
. . . Good point, Chaud admits. Maybe we should test that? Figure out some way to shut off the lights in your PET or some other network, and see what happens.
That's certainly an idea. Maybe she should mention this to Dr. Hikari - he'd be happy to help her test whether or not ProtoMan can actually see in the dark like she can.
Mimic reaches the other side of the room without any fanfare. She plants a hand on the wall and turns to look up, at where she can see the vague outlines of windows high above. That's where the observation room is - and through the darker shades of the glass, she can just about see shapes moving around.
"Good job, Chaud!" Dr. Hikari calls. "I'm going to turn on the lights now."
"Do it one-by-one," Dr. Amano suggests, her voice carrying through the speakers - she's probably right next to Dr. Hikari if her voice is being picked up by the microphone. "If you turn them all on at once, you'll hurt his eyes, remember."
"Ah, right." Dr. Hikari sounds a little sheepish.
Gradually, the lights come back on. From the other end of the room, one at a time like Dr. Amano had suggested, until finally the dimensional area lab is fully-lit once again and Mimic is surrounded by a bunch of white boxes. The simple obstacle course looks a little ridiculous in proper lighting.
Dr. Hikari calls her up to the observation room so she can watch the footage. The screen is tinted green - typical of night vision equipment, though her eyes had seen the darkness in shades of black and grey, which is probably how night vision works naturally - and shows a slightly grainy image of her standing on one end of the room, blindfolded and waiting to start.
The footage starts playing, and the Mimic on the screen takes off her blindfold. She doesn't do anything for a few moments, and then she starts looking around, taking stock of her surroundings.
"I could see your eyes lingering on some of the boxes," Dr. Hikari says to Mimic. "So that's obvious evidence that you could see them."
"What did it look like, to you?" Dr. Amano asks her, as the Mimic on the screen starts moving through the box obstacle course.
"Black and grey," Mimic answers. "Like those, um, those . . . pictures. Of animals. I-in the dark?"
"I know what you mean," Dr. Amano assures her.
Mimic feels a bit of relief at that. She's terrible at explaining things - that'd been obvious enough during the first Cross Fusion test. Looks like she managed to explain herself just fine this time.
The Mimic on the screen comes up to the low wall of boxes, pauses for a moment, and then moves parallel to it and walks around the end. There's not much variation aside from the sizes of boxes or how they were positioned, so the footage doesn't last long - and the Mimic on the screen makes it to the other side of the room easily. She looks up into the camera.
Dr. Amano had already told her, but even so, it hadn't really registered properly until right now. Mimic's used to people commenting on her cybernetic eye flashing in the darkness - her other eye never did that.
But as the Mimic on the screen looks up, both of her eyes flash in the darkness. It reminds her of Ragdoll, whose eyes she sometimes sees flashing back at her during the night when she can't sleep.
"You could do so many pranks with that," Lan comments.
Mimic's shoulders jerk as a quiet huff of laughter escapes from her mouth. Trust Lan to think of something like that when he sees both of her eyes flashing in the dark lab.
"Well, I think we've firmly established that you do indeed have night vision," Dr. Amano says, turning to Mimic as Dr. Hikari stops the footage. "Congratulations on being the first human with natural night vision!"
Mimic's not sure how 'natural' this is, considering her night vision came from two entirely non-natural sources. First her cybernetic eye, which is a result of malfunctioning technology, and then both of her eyes, a result of the scientific marvel that is Cross Fusion.
I think she means 'natural' as in 'inherent', Chaud says. Meaning you've got the ability, and you can use it. It's a little bit like your - our - mimicry ability. You never had that ability before you took over my body, right? So the night vision thing is a little bit like that.
That's a good point. So it is natural after all, just a little bit . . . unnatural, at the same time.
"We should run some more experiments," Dr. Hikari says. "Just to test different aspects of his night vision - how far it reaches, how much he can see, how low the lighting has to be in order for the night vision to work . . ."
"The lights were on their lowest settings," one of the scientists puts in. "We could try lowering the lighting from the standard settings until Chaud can't see anything."
Mimic had honestly thought they'd actually shut off the lights entirely, but then again, her eyes probably wouldn't have flashed like that if there was absolutely no light in the room. There has to be at least a little bit of light so her eyes could reflect it, after all.
The scientists - and Dr. Amano - start discussing possible tests they could conduct with Mimic's night vision. There's not much for Mimic to do here, so she turns her attention to Lan, who'd mostly just come so he could watch and see how things are going. He might have some sort of opinion - interesting or amusing, either way, it'll still be an opinion.
He's looking at his PET with an odd mixture of excitement and disappointment in his expression. When he sees her looking, he gives her a sad grin.
"I gotta go," Lan says apologetically. "I was kinda hoping I'd be able to stick around for longer, though."
"Where're you going?" Mimic asks curiously.
"Ms. Mari's taking me and Maylu to this new underwater tower that's just been built," Lan explains. "There's all kinds of events on the different floors - I heard there's even an exhibit with food from all around the world!"
Why does this sound familiar . . .?
"I'm hoping to find some curry from around the world," Lan goes on chattering, while Mimic desperately tries to rack her brains. "I love Japan's, and I've tried Namaste's curry, and Jawaii's, but if there's a curry section in the exhibit, there's bound to be different types of curry from other countries, too! I don't think I've ever had Netopian curry, I wonder if it's any different . . ."
A tower. Underwater. In the ocean? Or was it just a massive lake?
Mimic's eyes widen as she suddenly remembers - the Sea Tower! It had been in the ocean. And it isn't Ms. Mari that's taking Lan and Maylu to it, it's Ms. Yuri, disguised as Ms. Mari. She's setting Lan and MegaMan up for BeastMan to attack, so he can get his revenge, along with more Dark Chips.
"I asked Ms. Mari to pick me up from SciLab, since it's on the way," Lan is saying. "The exhibits should be on all week, so maybe Dad'll give you a break tomorrow or something, so you can- um, Chaud? Are you okay? You, uh, you look paler than you normally do."
Mimic blinks at him, still stunned stupid by her realisation.
"What's going on?" Dr. Hikari asks, coming over. "You two aren't arguing again, are you?"
"N-no," Lan replies, glancing up at his dad. "I was just telling Chaud about the Sea Tower - you know, the one that was just built? And I dunno why, he just got really pale suddenly."
"Are you feeling sick?" Dr. Hikari asks, turning to Mimic worriedly. "Is it because of the night vision test?"
Mimic manages to force herself to shake her head. She's not sure why she's reacting so strongly to this - she'd been fine when Lan had gone off for his overseas adventure, and when he'd had to deal with Shuko and the crying AquaMan, and before she'd gained the ability to use Cross Fusion with ProtoMan, she'd been more or less okay with just hearing about his adventures after they happened.
. . . But maybe that's it. She'd been fine with hearing about the adventures because she'd been too scared to want to get involved in them - but now she can use Cross Fusion, and she's capable of fighting at Lan's side, willing to fight at his side even, despite her lingering fear.
Lan's PET beeps, alerting him to a new message. He spares a glance at it and winces, then looks between Dr. Hikari and Mimic.
"I gotta go now, otherwise we might miss the events," Lan says. "Chaud? I'm really sorry."
Maybe he thinks she's not happy because he has to leave. That's not it at all - but she can't really tell him that, can she?
Lan heads out of the observation room with one last concerned glance over his shoulder, and then he's gone. Mimic stares after him and tries to fight through what feels like claws of guilt tearing up her insides.
The urge to run after him and at least warn him about what's going to happen is incredibly strong. She's never had to deal with this before - she'd been fine with letting things happen as they did in the anime. That's what she's meant to do, if Chaud's right. So she shouldn't interfere at all.
But the guilt still remains. She wants to try and warn him, even if he won't understand how she knows what she knows.
"Chaud?"
She jumps at Dr. Hikari's voice. She'd almost forgotten he was there.
Dr. Hikari looks at her for a few moments, and then turns to the other scientists in the room. "We'll take a break for a while - I think I can hear my stomach crying for food anyway," he jokes. He sounds more light-hearted than the oddly-serious expression he'd had when he looked at her a moment ago. "I'll let you all know when the night vision experiments are resuming."
The other scientists call out various agreements and confirmations. Only Dr. Amano remains silent, looking between Mimic and Dr. Hikari like she's trying to put together bits of information that don't add up. Of course she'd be more concerned - she knows Mimic, and Dr. Hikari, a little better than the team of scientists do, since she visits the Hikari household regularly.
Dr. Hikari gets some sandwiches for them from the cafeteria, and then takes her to a private room. He says it's his office - apparently he has two, one for private use and the other for more general use. He tells Mimic that he usually only uses his private office when he's dealing with sensitive reports or documents.
There's a comfortable sofa with a low table in front of it to one side of the office. Dr. Hikari sets the tray of sandwiches down on the table and sits on the sofa, patting the space next to him.
Mimic sits next to him, fighting the urge to run. She's wary - of course she is, Dr. Hikari already suspects that something's up with her, after how she acted when BeastMan and ShadeMan attacked SciLab and stole the other synchro chips. This is a little similar to then, because she'd let her reaction show to others, without thinking.
"Is something going to happen at the Sea Tower?" Dr. Hikari asks bluntly.
Mimic flinches.
"I'm not angry at you," Dr. Hikari assures her gently. "I just want to know - will something happen?"
Shit, shit, fuck! Mimic thinks. What do I do? I can't just do my usual bullshit trick and sidestep the question! It's too fucking direct!
He's not asking how you know, Chaud points out calmly, a stark contrast to Mimic's panic. He's just asking if something's gonna happen.
He'll ask how I know if I say yes! Mimic snaps back. The panic is making her temper short and she immediately feels guilty for snapping, but she's too worked up to apologise right now.
Just tell him yes, Chaud urges. He's only asking if something will happen, right? He's not asking what will happen.
Mimic pauses.
Can . . . can she really just do that? That's the kind of trick she usually does, sure, but she's never used it on Dr. Hikari - or any of the Hikaris, she doesn't think. At least, she certainly doesn't remember ever tricking Dr. Hikari or Haruka. Maybe the usual bullshit will work because she's never done it to Dr. Hikari?
"Yes," Mimic says.
Dr. Hikari blinks slowly. "I don't suppose you'll tell me what will happen?
Are you fucking serious-
Tell him no, Chaud says. He won't argue. No one can argue with you - that's how you got Maylu to back off, remember?
Right, she remembers. Why is her mind suddenly blank of her usual tricks when faced with such direct questions from Dr. Hikari? If he'd been anyone else, even Lan, would she react differently? Maybe it's because these direct questions are too close to the truth, and she's so used to lying about everything - even her own identity - that she doesn't have an automatic defence for when someone cuts through the lies.
"No," Mimic tells Dr. Hikari. "S-sorry."
"That's fine," Dr. Hikari replies. "Is it alright if I ask how you know something will happen?"
He's going through all the different ways to phrase this question. Is he trying to trick her into telling him the truth, or is he just trying to find a way to ask her for the truth without making her give up too much information?
He can probably tell you're freaking out, Chaud says dryly. I'd say it's the latter, in this case.
"Do you have some sort of . . . ability?" Dr. Hikari pushes carefully. "Like how Arcadia has his empath ability from that Empath Program?"
Mimic stares at Dr. Hikari in disbelief. He thinks she has some sort of special power that lets her see the future or something? How exactly is that his first thought, after she'd confirmed that she knows something will happen at the Sea Tower? She'd thought he might try and ask if she's somehow spying on the enemy or something.
This is your chance to prevent more questions you don't like! Chaud urges her. Whatever he's thinking, it's not going to be anything like the truth - and, no offence, I doubt it ever will be, because the truth is basically insane.
No offence taken, Mimic replies. The truth is insane.
"I c-can . . ." Mimic quickly racks her brains for a believable lie. "I have . . . dreams, sometimes. A-and I see . . . things ha-happen. Like, um, l-like the fire."
Dr. Hikari's eyes widen.
Mentioning the fire is technically putting some truth into this lie - she had dreamt about the hospital fire before it had happened, but not because she was dreaming about the future. She'd been afraid of what was coming, because the hospital fire had been a pretty big catalyst for one of the darkest arcs in the entire anime. She still dreams about it sometimes, but it's not her own fears of what's coming, but rather the memories of going through that particular event herself.
"You knew the hospital fire would happen?" Dr. Hikari's voice is hushed - Mimic can't tell if that's awe or disbelief she hears in his tone. "Did you . . . try to warn anyone?"
Mimic twitches and ducks her head, lowering her gaze to her hands on her lap.
"ProtoMan and Arcadia," she mumbles. "They, um. Th-they know. A-about my dreams. They h-helped me . . . try to prepare. Didn't- didn't work. But, um. N-no one else."
"I'm guessing it isn't just the hospital fire you've dreamed of," Dr. Hikari ventures.
This is the harder part - the dreams about the hospital fire had been a half-truth, but she hasn't really dreamt about anything else the same way, because she hadn't exactly dreaded anything else in the same way. She'd been worried about having to use Cross Fusion despite her fear of the Darkloids, but it hadn't brought the same dread that the hospital fire had.
"Yeah," Mimic whispers. She hopes she looks scared enough that Dr. Hikari doesn't doubt her.
"You also dreamed about the attack on SciLab," Dr. Hikari says. "That's how you knew to come, right? And how you knew to send ProtoMan and Arcadia?"
Mimic nods.
"And you dreamed about today, about whatever's going to happen at the Sea Tower," Dr. Hikari goes on. She nods again, hoping that he won't try asking her to tell him what's going to happen again.
Mimic gets lucky - it seems Dr. Hikari is satisfied with this, at least for now. He leans agsinst the back of the sofa, looking thoughtful.
"My gut-reaction is to think this is completely insane," he admits. "I'm sure you can understand why - dreaming about the future is something you only see in fiction. But it's the only possible explanation that makes any sense. I've seen you, sometimes, when Lan tells you about his latest adventure. You never seem entirely surprised, even when he leads up to a twist in the story and reveals something you couldn't possibly have known, unless you already knew about it beforehand."
God-fucking-damn it. Is she really that terrible at hiding things?
Or maybe it's just that Dr. Hikari is stupidly observant. He is a scientist, after all.
"Will Lan at least be alright, at the Sea Tower?" Dr. Hikari asks, looking at her. She can see the concern for his son shining through the shock at the revelation of her 'dreams'. "He won't be badly injured? Him or MegaMan?"
"Hurt a bit," Mimic mumbles. This isn't telling him everything, so it shouldn't matter, right? And it's not like Dr. Hikari's going to demand that she tell him everything, or decide that they need to go after Lan and stop him from going to the Sea Tower. "It's, um. He'll h-have to use Cross Fusion. To fight."
"Will it be bad?"
"Not- not much," Mimic replies. She's not sure if that's true. Lan had been pretty hurt by BeastMan's ruthless attack, but he'd defeated - even deleted - BeastMan in the end. "He'll be . . . um, he'll get knocked out." She hears a sharp intake of breath from Dr. Hikari, and rushes to reassure him. "B-but he'll- he'll be f-fine. I think. Didn't . . . didn't see past the end of- of the fight, but he w-wins. S-so. He's, um, he's fine."
Technically that's true - the episode hadn't ended with the battle, but Lan's part in it had ended when the battle with BeastMan was over, and the dimensional area was gone.
It's enough for Dr. Hikari, thank god. He slumps back in against the sofa, clearly relieved, though she can tell he's still worried - who wouldn't be, after being told that his son will be knocked out from a fight that he'll win? Mimic still wonders if Dr. Hikari will try and press her for details, especially after hearing this, but he doesn't seem to want to do that.
Not right now, anyway.
"Well," Dr. Hikari says quietly, "I suppose we'll see later. Do you know how much time will pass between now and when this- this fight will happen?"
That's at least something she doesn't have to mess with to fit the 'truth' that she's telling Dr. Hikari. The anime was never really specific with timelines, and she doesn't know how long it'll take to get to the Sea Tower - for all she knows, Lan, Maylu, and Ms. Yuri might even still be on their way, or Lan could be fighting BeastMan right now.
"No, s-sorry," Mimic says.
"It's fine," Dr. Hikari reassures her. "Just knowing that he'll be okay - kind of - is more than enough." He sighs and runs a hand down his face. "I don't think I'll be able to concentrate on work after this."
Mimic winces guiltily.
"That's not your fault," Dr. Hikari quickly tells her. "If someone else had told me that one of my sons was in danger, I wouldn't be able to concentrate on work until I knew he was okay."
That's true, she supposes.
. . . Wait a second.
"Sons?" Mimic echoes, blinking up at him.
Dr. Hikari freezes for a split second. "Never mind," he quickly says. "I just . . . misspoke, that's all."
"Okay," Mimic replies.
Dr. Hikari looks relieved at her easy agreement, but Mimic is still left with an odd feeling of disappointment.
There's no more testing or experiments after Mimic drops her bombshell - such as it is - on Dr. Hikari. He takes her home, apologising to Dr. Amano, who honestly doesn't seem all that fussed and says that she could tell something was bothering the two of them anyway. The experiments and and stuff will resume tomorrow, so Dr. Amano will be back then.
They wait the rest of the day for Lan to come home. Haruka can probably tell that something's troubling them, but to her credit, she doesn't ask, most likely guessing they won't be entirely willing to give her an answer. Instead, she fusses over them, making sure that Dr. Hikari has enough coffee to keep him sustained as he works through some reports from Mimic's Cross Fusion tests on the dining table, and regularly checks on Mimic, who's curled up on the sofa with Ragdoll purring at her side.
The doorbell rings a few hours after they return home, and Haruka goes to answer it. Dr. Hikari is absorbed in the reports and Mimic focused on Minecraft, but they both look up when Tamako herself walks into the living room, carrying an exhausted Lan on her back. Haruka follows them, looking concerned and more than a little bewildered, and Dr. Hikari shoots Mimic a swift glance before getting up and making his way over to Tamako.
"Hey!" Tamako announces cheerfully. "You're Lan's dad, right?"
"Er, yes," Dr. Hikari replies. He exchanges a quick glance with Haruka before coming forward to carefully take Lan from Tamako and set him down on the other end of the sofa. "Pardon my rudeness, but who are you?"
"Name's Tamako," Tamako replies, still with that same cheerfulness. "I'm your kid's friend. Kinda. I mean, we NetBattled a few times when he visited the hot springs where I work, and we got along pretty swell, so I hope we're friends!" She lets out a boisterous laugh. "Oh, your kid's a freakin' hero, by the way, he's- ohh, is that cat!?"
She bounces over to Mimic and crouches in front of Ragdoll excitedly. It happens so quickly that Mimic is too stunned to even be startled.
"It's so cute and fluffy!" Tamako coos. She grins at Ragdoll and makes a kissy noise, then spots Mimic. "Oh, hi there! Don't think Lan ever mentioned he had a brother." She gives Mimic a close look. "Wow, those bags under your eyes are terrible. You look like you haven't slept in a month!"
This conversation is going in every possible direction and Mimic has completely lost track of what's going on.
She sees Dr. Hikari peering at her carefully before blinking and looking away. He's probably thinking she doesn't get much sleep because her dreams keep her awake, but he's already agreed not to tell anyone about her 'prophetic dreams'.
"I'm Tamako, nice to meet you!" Tamako exclaims. "What's your name? And what's the cat's name?"
It probably wouldn't be a good idea to tell her that her name's Chaud. It'll be fine for this anyway, since Mimic's pretty sure that Tamako doesn't really show up that often.
"I, um, I'm M-Mimic," Mimic says quietly.
"Kinda weird name," Tamako comments. "Mimic Hikari, right? You're kinda skinny, do you not eat enough?" She perks up and reaches into a bag hanging over her shoulder. Mimic hadn't noticed it until now, mainly because Tamako's sheer presence is distracting. "Here, I've got some cookies from my stall - they're leftovers from the exhibit, but the whole thing kinda got shut down after some weird Navi attacked the Sea Tower, so I'm just handing these out to get rid of 'em."
She presses a handful of cookies into Mimic's palms and then glances at Ragdoll.
"So, what's this pretty kitty's name?" she asks, reaching out to pat his head.
"Ragdoll," Mimic replies.
"Aww, that's such a cute name!"
Speaking of names, Chaud says, she just called you Mimic Hikari.
I know, Mimic thinks, dazed. I'm still trying to process Tamako herself, honestly. I can freak out about the name thing later.
Fair enough.
"Um, Miss Tamako," Dr. Hikari calls hesitantly, "could you please explain what happened? Why is Lan so exhausted?"
"I deleted BeastMan." Lan speaks up for the first time since Tamako had dragged him into the house. He sounds absolutely drained, but there's a glimmer of triumph in the grin that he shoots Dr. Hikari. "He attacked the . . . the Sea Tower. Me an' MegaMan beat him up. Deleted him." The triumph fades quickly, replaced with something like confusion. "Was somethin' weird about him, though. I'll . . . tell you later. M'just real tired."
"Alright, sweetheart," Haruka says gently. "You go to sleep for now. I'll wake you when it's time for dinner, okay?"
"'kay," Lan mumbles faintly, already drifting off.
"Kid knocked himself out beating up that weird Navi," Tamako says. "I decided to take him back here, 'cus I figured he'd be better off sleeping in his own house than a sinking tower."
"How did you know where we live?" Dr. Hikari asks her.
"Asked his friend," Tamako replies simply, flashing him a grin. "Y'know, the pink-haired girl? With the skirt and the vest? Think her name's Maylu. Anyway, she told me where the kid lived, so I took him back here. Sorry for the intrusion, Mr. Hikari!"
"It's Dr. Hikari, actually," Dr. Hikari corrects her. He gives her a grateful look. "Thank you for bringing Lan back, though."
"My pleasure!" Tamako laughs. "Always kinda wondered about the rest of this kid's family anyway. I mean, he never said anything about having such an adorable brother!" She glances at Mimic, her entire expression bright with mirth.
She's, uh . . . a bit much, Chaud comments.
She's basically an older, female version of Lan, Mimic tells him.
Well, yeah, but Lan doesn't spring from one topic of conversation to the next in the same breath, Chaud says.
True, Mimic admits.
Tamako leaves after handing Dr. Hikari and Haruka an entire packet full of cookies, taking her energetic presence with her. Mimic finds herself relaxing when she's gone - it's kind of odd, since Tamako had been nothing but friendly, but she just had so much energy. Even more so than Lan, and that's saying something.
Mimic's not really sure how she feels about being called Lan's 'adorable brother', though.