Day 25: "Charged Up"
Before her collapse, the Captain called Minato late one night with a request.
She made the request calmly, but nevertheless, Minato thought he detected a sliver of anxiety in her voice—that quiet hum of dread that made the syllables run long in places and short in others, the typical rhythm of her speech disturbed by an undercurrent of unspoken fear. That fear is why he had not argued against her coming over so late at night to hand over her iPod, which had run dangerously low on battery. That panic is why he had not argued when she asked if he could save the device from dying. And the look of quiet desperation in her eye is why he'd done some tinkering before handing the iPod back over, standing beside the Captain in his underground base beneath the dome of wheeling stars.
"All charged up," he said, gratified by the relief that danced in her brown eyes. "I made some helpful modifications, as well."
She looked away from the iPod to stare at him, eyes brown like warm earth. "Modifications?" she said. "What kind?"
"You won't have to worry about battery life for at least a month, if the device is used sparingly."
The Captain's lips twisted, not quite a smile, not quite not a smile. "Sparingly, huh?"
He nodded. Her smirk told him she knew what he was getting at. But she was a stubborn one, the Captain. It was possible that too many warnings and admonishments will have the opposite of his desired intention. But while he did not want to cross the line into the realm of lecture, he felt compelled to at least say…
"Try not to overdo it, Captain." He nodded at the iPod. "At the very least, the device must remain secret. That technology is too sophisticated for this time period." A pause. "And that's saying nothing of the music."
The Captain nodded, not really paying attention. She was too busy looking at the iPod, scrolling through its bright menus one by one. Minato wanted to tell her to stop, of course… but he'd be remiss if he didn't admit, at least to himself, that he'd looked at the songs the iPod contained while charging the device for her. But they had very different music tastes, and he didn't find much of anything he was hoping for. He hadn't chanced a second scroll through the playlist to double check, either. He had a feeling, if his hunch about the Captain—indeed, his hunch about all of the Not-Quites—proved correct, that he'd find something he'd conveniently missed before. But that was an experiment he'd conduct another time.
"Do you really think that's what this is?" said the Captain out of nowhere. Eyed of warmed darkened searched his face, plaintive and pleading. "Psychological warfare? To throw me off balance?"
Minato met her eyes without flinching, saying softly, "You know what I think."
"I guess." Her eyes flashed silver. "I just don't like believing it."
She claimed she didn't like believing. But that flash in her eye said everything he really needed to know—about her belief. About Hiruko's intentions. About the impact of the iPod. He only smiled, though, not allowing the thoughts to crack his composed mask. He smiled and ushered Keiko toward the door without a word, because their business that night was done.
That night being the operative portion of that statement.
This was undoubtedly a conversation they'd return to someday. Some other time. Once he'd collected more data, of course. The Captain had proved time and again that she was the type to withhold belief until provided ample evidence, and Minato did not want her to harden her heart against the truth just yet. He would lie in wait for the appropriate moment, ambush it when the time was right, and then tell her what he'd begun to suspect with such certainty.
Evidence. That's what the crown of the Not-Quites required.
And he intended to provide her just that.
So I could've sworn that either Hiruko told NQK that the battery on the iPod wouldn't run out, or that Minato rigged it for her so that she could charge it/never have to worry about the battery (both of these scenarios are in my notes) but I can't find that scene in the more-than-1-point-2-million words of the extended LC universe. The pitfalls of writing a long fanfic, I guess. Small details get away from you eventually, written and unwritten and planned-but-not-used blurring into one another. Here's one of those scenes just so it's on the record and in case I forgot to work it into LC itself.
But yeah… Minato has hinted that he has theories about the iPod, her eyes, and all that jazz before. Wanted to write a short dedicated to it because this'll become relevant in LC again pretty soon.
Many thanks to ladyofchaos, cestlavie, xenocanann, Kaiya Azure, tammywammy9, SuzyQBeats, and C S Stars for their comments on chapter 24.