Author's Note: This is a story I've had on the backburner of my mind for a long time...what if we got to see more of Denkou's life before episode 4? They were such a small child with Skunk's gang, for a whole six months, so it must've been a hell of an experience. For this fic, I've tried to enter Denkou's point of view and retell what they went through, along with some headcanons of what happened before and after episode 4.
Denkou wakes up for the first time on a cold, grey-skied November day.
The sparkling flares of electricity began to die down, and the plasma tubes connected to Denkou began to cool and cease glowing. As one last blast of electricity flares out, the child sits up automatically, rising to peer over the edge of their containment pod.
The room is otherwise dark. Denkou turns their head very gently to the side, analyzing the area for sentient figures. There are many cables and tools on the floor. A man's hat hangs on a door. Each object highlights itself in Denkou's retinal vision; pre-installed linguistic programs let Denkou's memory store the placement of the room.
A figure moves towards the pod. Denkou turns their head, prompting a flinch from the other person. Denkou's eyes fall upon a hunched-over Caucasian human crawling towards the pod, one hand up to shield their eyes. Another figure enters, and likewise is written into Denkou's memory; roughly 6'6", clothed in sleek black, Southeast Asian.
A voice calls out from behind Denkou. The man on the floor speaks in return; fast and terse and loud. The receivers on the sides of Denkou's face perk up. The audio around them was being delivered in a mixture of American English and south-central Japanese. Denkou's language bank and speech system begin to connect. Their default network was via wifi connection, but the wifi in the room was highly encrypted. It connects to a nearby cellular network, stalling phone service for but half a minute, as Denkou's mind swims with code one last time.
"Hello?" they speak aloud. Their voice is faint and flimsy, twinged with the slightest German accent. They are a product of Switzerland engineers, and accordingly, contain programming meant primarily for use in Switzerland.
"H...Hi?" A voice breathes. Denkou turns to face the voice, and it's the man on the floor, who flinches again.
Denkou blinks. They pause to consider their default activation phase responses, and choose, asking, "Are you my family?"
The man on the floor nods apprehensively. He glances to his left, where the man in the black trench coat and hat is now standing in front of Denkou's capsule. All these words rush into Denkou's mind: man, coat, family, fear, concern, the tall man's face is urgently concerned.
"Yes," he says, slowly. He draws a hand towards Denkou. It is gloved in black, palm held open, an invitation to take it.
Denkou lifts up a pale green hand and sets it in the gloved hand's palm. The man says gently, "Yeah, that's it..."
A third figure enters the capsule's proximity. Denkou holds onto the gloved man's hand, and he tugs very lightly, indicating for Denkou to step forward. The humans around Denkou all seem to hold their breath, watching with wide eyes. Denkou carefully stands up, lifts one leg, steps over the capsule's side. They lift the other leg, step over the capsule, and take one more step forward. All sorts of new commands and prompts are loading in Denkou's mind. The figure on Denkou's right, the second-tallest with spiked bleached hair, makes a noise; it is a mix of a laugh and a cry.
"It worked!" screams the man on Denkou's left, the one who used to be on the floor.
The man before Denkou bursts into loud belly laughs. He looms down, his hands reaching for Denkou's sides. He picks them up and holds them to his chest, before holding them out into the air. Denkou stares down at this overjoyed, pale man, and smiles back. The men around them erupt into cheers and laughter.
Denkou is brought into the other room. The tall man in the hat sets them down on a reclining chair, and the men gather around a coffee table. Two go to an adjacent couch, and one sits down at the side of the coffee table. The man at the coffee table picks up a heavy-looking binder and thumbs through it; Denkou can just barely see it's full of pages of diagrams and numbers.
"Welcome, kid," the tall man smirks. "We're your family, yeah!"
"I am Denkou, from SagiSoft and Schweiz Mechanisches Institut," Denkou recites dutifully. "I am an experimental android designed around visual cloaking and environmental reception."
The tall man takes off his hat, revealing short, pale blonde hair. It hangs framing his face, which brandishes a wide smile. He says to Denkou, "I'm Skunk, Skunk Kusai."
Denkou nods, bowing a bit. They chirp in response, "I'm glad to meet you, Mr. Skunk!"
"These are my "brothers", at least in arms..." Skunk waves towards the blonde man. "This is Blues."
Dim as it is in this room, Denkou can see everyone better now. Blues registers in Denkou's mind – sunglasses, darker skin, dressed as slick and black as Skunk is. The slightly shorter man waves warmly at Denkou.
Skunk continues, pointing to the man at the table, "And that's Jazz."
Jazz only glances up and gives a stiff nod. He continues flipping through the binder. Denkou turns back to Skunk.
"Don't mind Jazz, he's always a cranky ▒▒▒▒▒," Skunk chortles.
Jazz whips his head up, glaring. "Hey! Boss, what the ▒▒▒?!"
"C'mon man, we've got a brand new ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ robot and you can't grunt a single word at 'em?!"
"I'm trying to study their god▒▒▒▒ setup instructions!"
Blues laughs at both of the men. Denkou's mind stirs, trying to download the definitions of the words Jazz and Skunk are saying. Denkou's connection returns nothing. They are programmed to only have access to a children's dictionary database.
"You're brothers?" Denkou asks, turning back to Skunk. "Are you my father?"
"I guess so?" chortles Skunk. "But don't call me that. Just call me Mr. Skunk, all right?"
"Okay, Mr. Skunk!"
"Welcome to the world, kiddo," Skunk says fondly. "You're in real good hands here."
He gives them a big grin. Denkou is thrilled, and they smile back. Skunk smiles even harder.
Denkou sits back in the big chair, overwhelmed but beaming. They have a family. They are happy.