"A Thorough Exam"
by Furor Scribendi
2008 Scribendi Productions
September 23rd
It was still dark when Mahoro arrived back at the Misato household. Alighting on the front porch, she sent the Sylpheed on its way and brought Suguru inside.
He seemed delirious and disoriented, muttering on about things. I will never forgive Ryuga for striking Suguru, snarled Mahoro, as she took Suguru upstairs. He has no real idea how fragile humans are.
She placed Suguru in her bed, as it was the largest bed in the house. "I do not want him falling out of bed and hurting himself even more," she mumbled. Laying him down, she took off his shoes and his belt, then covered him up. She put her hand on his head and he felt feverish, a bruise on the side of his face slowly appearing.
She quickly changed out of her warrior uniform and into her maid uniform. She went downstairs for a bowl of water and a washrag, which she brought back up and began to wipe his face down, trying to reduce both the fever and the swelling. That is going to be one nasty bruise, she thought.
The phone rang and she jumped from the surprise, nearly spilling the bowl. Gathering herself together, she got to the phone at the second ring. Who would be calling this early? she wondered. "Hello, Misato residence."
"Mahoro, this is Professor Hokaze."
"Yes, Professor Hokaze, what can I do for you?" Mahoro looked over at the clock. 5:10 am.
"Answer some questions for me, please. I was called in early to try and puzzle out some anomalies which have occurred. We show a tremendous amount of energy being expended in the region of the deserted Hiryu Hospital a few hours ago, the discharge of an anti-matter compression cannon and a power failure that plunged the region into darkness. You wouldn't happen to know anything about this, would you?"
"Well…..." Mahoro hedged.
"Yeah. I need you to come into HQ. Immediately." She had never heard Professor Hokaze so upset and terse.
"I will be there as fast as I can." CLICK. Staring at the phone, she looked perturbed as she removed her brooch. "I summon the Fang!" Moments later, Slash appeared, ready for action.
"Yes, Mahoro."
"I need you to keep an eye on Suguru." She gestured to the figure in bed, moving restlessly. "I do not want him wandering about or doing anything that may injure him more. I have to go to Vesper HQ and speak with Professor Hokaze."
"I'm not surprised. It wasn't like you could keep something like this hidden from them. You should have called for help."
"I…I had to do this alone. Honor among warriors." Mahoro was resolute.
Slash snorted. "That's a laugh. If Ryuga had any real honor, he would have walked away from it in the first place. That…thing has no honor and, what's more, never will!"
Mahoro pointed her finger at Slash. "You watch over Suguru. I will be back as soon as I can."
"Knowing Professor Hokaze, it will be all day. But I will do as you order."
Mahoro went outside. Dawn was just extending her fingers on the horizon. "I had better do this quickly, lest I draw attention to myself," said Mahoro. Leaping up to the roof, she called upon the Sylpheed and moments later, disappeared into the sky, looking to all like a twinkling star.
The trip to Vesper HQ gave her just enough time to wonder what was going to happen. Professor Hokaze was a rather hard person to understand, as one never knew how he would react to things. The gravest situations barely caused a stir in him, whereas trivial matters had him crawling the walls. He could be stern and forgiving. Whatever would happen, she knew that she had a lot to answer for.
The early morning air was just chilled enough so it took away some of her leftover heat from both the battle and the tension she felt for Suguru. Tokyo, with its massive skyline, came into view. The Vesper Building looked like another soulless steel-and-glass monolith. Good. Draw little attention to yourself, the first rule of survival, mulled Mahoro.
As she neared the roof, she could make out some figures and something else. Getting closer, she saw Dr. Hokaze, a couple of assistants and a gurney. This is odd, she thought, as she landed on the helipad. As the Sylpheed soared away, Professor Hokaze came up to her. "I need you to get onto the gurney."
"But…but I feel fine," she protested.
"Please, for me. Get onto the gurney." Please? This WAS serious, thought Mahoro. As she was helped onto the gurney, one of the assistants strapped her in. Not tightly, but with a firmness. She was rolled into the waiting elevator.
When the doors closed, the doctor put his key in a special slot and turned it, then pushed the "SB2" button. The elevator descended swiftly to the bottom floors. One of the assistants made a face. It must be nice not to have to worry about leaving your stomach behind, Mahoro pondered, as she looked at the doctor. She felt he really wanted to say something to her, but just couldn't bring himself to do so. The only sound was the ding as each floor was passed
Once they reached their floor, the doors opened and she was wheeled out. The professor's room was capacious by anyone's standards, with huge banks of computers, odd and arcane machinery about the walls and a massive raised central floor that could double as an operating theater. She was wheeled into the center and her restraints removed.
"Thank you both, "said the professor. "You may leave us." The doctor watched as the aides got back into the elevator and disappeared. He then turned his attention to Mahoro. "I need you to get into this hospital gown," he remarked, holding out the white garment. As she took it, the doctor walked to a nearby desk and put on an rather strange-looking optical device
She got off the gurney and proceeded to remove her maid outfit. She noticed that the doctor was looking at her while she divested herself of the uniform, but he was really searching for something. The device beeped and whirred and made odd noises as he poured over her. "Socks as well, please," he reminded her, pointing towards her feet. The clothing was placed on the gurney very neatly and Mahoro stood in the cold light of the exam area.
The professor motioned her over to a bed in the middle of the well-lit theater, taking off the device as they walked over. "Please, lie down. I have to run some tests." She placed herself on the table and the doctor began to attach a series of wires and monitoring devices all about her. He then turned on the equipment, which began to display a vast amount of data.
The professor moved between the banks of monitors. "So, do you want to tell me what happened out there? I need to know, as I do not really like what I am seeing."
"Tou Ryuga. I met him at…"
The professor looked at her from across the room. "Ryuga? Saint's greatest warrior android? Here? When did he get here?"
"He first arrived on August 31st."
"August 31st?" The professor looked at some notes on a clipboard. "This wouldn't have anything to do with the Green Star Refined Sake building fire later that evening, would it?"
"It would. He battled me there." Mahoro was almost blasé about the fact.
"What? What happened?" Hokaze's eyes bulged out.
"Well, it was more of a test, checking for weaknesses. Nothing came of it." Mahoro wanted to allay the professor's fears.
The professor closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. "Let's see what's inside, OK?" He rolled over a large screen and turned it on. For him, it displayed all of Mahoro's internal workings. "No stress fractures, no cracks or breaks, no ruptures or external damage. That's a relief." The machine was turned off and rolled away. He returned to his monitors and tapped in some information. He noticeably sagged, flopping into the chair.
"Tell me what happened at the hospital." She saw the professor trembling as he turned.
"Are you…angry with me?" Mahoro was disturbed by his actions.
He came right over to her. "I could never be angry at you. I am angry at the situation, I am frustrated by the circumstances, I am upset at the turn of events, I am…." Mahoro saw the tiniest tear trickle down his cheek. "I….I have to go to the bathroom," and he scampered away.
Mahoro heard the door slam hard. What was going on? The machinery whirred and hummed, spitting out reams of paper, tabulating miles of data and monitoring her vital functions. The professor came out, but with a completely different demeanor.
"Tell me the whole story." Mahoro saw he was fighting to keep himself in check.
"He challenged me to a duel."
The professor was concerned. "This is not normal behavior. This is something more personal, as aspect we did not feel they allowed themselves to have. But why didn't you call for help? We would have come."
"This is something I felt I had to do and settle it once and for all."
The doctor sighed. "Your warrior training. I can understand your feelings in that matter, but you have got to understand the Mahoro of the battlefield is no longer you. You are only about a third of what you really were. You just can't plunge into fights without thinking."
He looked over a few other monitors, and then came back to her. "I am having a hard time understanding how you could have missed with the anti-matter round. I know it is a rather slow weapon, but I didn't think he was that fast."
"I didn't miss. He took a direct hit."
"Oh, good, so he was destroyed, that's a relief." The professor had half a smile as he got up and went back to the monitors. "Well, that's over and done with."
"He wasn't destroyed, Professor Hokaze. He had a Radon Front coating on his armor that completely deflected the blast." He looked up at her, panic overtaking his face.
"WHAT!? Nothing has been known to survive that caliber of blast. If Saint is planning a new wave of invasions with that level of technology…"
"They aren't." Mahoro was very assured in her tone.
He shuddered as he ran his fingers through his hair, trying to comprehend all this. "You're telling me this android has a vendetta against YOU, wearing a power suit that deflected, absorbed or dissipated the full energy of anti-matter, just to prove something to himself? You can understand my concern."
"But he also stopped the attack. I was about to use Shining Darkness on him when…"
"NO! NO, NO, NO!" Hokaze leapt from his seat, the chair careening across the length of the floor and crashing against some equipment. He writhed about, as though he had been attacked by the worst migraine headache ever. He rushed over to her. "In your reduced condition, that would be immediate…….." He gasped and panted and shut his eyes tight. Grasping Mahoro's hands, he put his head on the bed. Mahoro was at a loss for words. The last time she felt this badly was when she saw young Suguru sobbing at the funeral for Commander Misato.
"Mahoro, you really don't know what you mean to all of us here." The words seemed so alien coming from Professor Hokaze. Mahoro looked down as he looked up and their eyes met. "You are so very special to us all, and not because you are a warrior android. You are more than mere machinery. You are the little sister I never had, you are another daughter for Commander Daimon, you are Secretary Shiina's best friend."
He stood up and began to remove all the probes and monitors and tracking devices from her, speaking the whole time. "We never want to see any harm befall you. I know it may seem at times that we have forgotten you, but that is not the case; that has never been the case. Come with me."
He helped her to her feet and they went over to an isolated area of the room. There was a stand-alone cubical. Inside was a desk, a chair, a monitor, a PC tower and stacks of paper. Entry into the cubical was roped off, and a larger chained-off area surrounded it. They both went in and the doctor tapped the keyboard. The monitor came to life showing a schematic.
"That…" said the doctor, pointing at the screen, "…that is you." Mahoro was confused. "That is the energy unit that powers you. Everyday, I come down here and ponder its mysteries. EVERY day, for at least two hours. I try and figure out what I can do to stop the clock or slow down the clock or reverse the clock."
He gestured to the voluminous piles of paperwork. "Endless calculations and tests, simulations and scenarios, thoughts and ideas. In fact, this system has an independent power supply, so if anything happens to the community grid, it will continue to run. That's how we knew about the battle this morning."
"It's rather odd that you had this battle, as I was going to call you in today anyway and run a test on you. This latest experiment held out great promise in the simulations and I wanted to really try it."
Mahoro brightened up. "Do you think it will work?"
"I certainly hope so." Taking her by the hand, they went back to the main table. Laying her down, he placed a sensor on her head and wheeled over an enormous piece of equipment, looking more like a stamping press.
"What I hope to do is a kind of recharging. At the very least, buy ourselves some more time. Just relax and let me worry about things." He went behind a protective screen and threw some switches. Mahoro felt energy surging through her. She looked over to see Hokaze fiddling with knobs and reading printouts.
Mahoro was aware that her hair was standing outwards. I guess from all this energy, she mused. She could feel tingling sensations at her toes and fingertips. Her nose felt itchy and her eyelids twitched. She tried to remember what it felt like when she was in combat mode and all that power, but she didn't feel appreciatively different then or now. How would she know if it really worked?
She lay there for a good 10 minutes, lost in her thoughts, and then the power was shut off. The doctor came out with a printout and was not happy. This made Mahoro sad.
"It…it didn't work, did it?" Mahoro was crestfallen.
"I can't seem to reenergize in this manner." He rolled the machine away and began to remove the sensor. "Not even the tiniest bit of change in anything."
"So, it failed?"
The doctor smiled and shook his head 'no'. "No, it didn't fail; I just discovered another way NOT to recharge you. All I need is one way TO do it. I'll keep at it. The answer is out there and I still have many more places to explore. Do not worry; I will find that way."
Mahoro clouded over a bit. "There…there is something I need to ask."
"And that is?"
"Uh…why has my request for a breast operation been denied?" Hokaze was taken aback by the request.
"Oh, well, as I said, I think of you as my little sister and I do not want anything bad to happen to you. I want people to take you seriously and focus on the person you are. The…larger breasts would distract people from who you are and focus it on what you have. You would no longer be taken seriously and thought of as less."
"I…see."
"Big breasts are not indicative of the person behind them. You are kind of heart, pure of heart and gentle of heart and that means a lot more than large breasts ever will. But, Mahoro, I will make you this promise: the day I crack the energy problem and bring you in to make things right, I will make ALL things right and give you what you request."
"You…will?" Mahoro's eyes glistened.
He sat her upright, removing the probe. "I promise. I wish there was more I could do for you today, I really do, but I cannot and I still have to write that report for Don Vesper. I want you to go home and take it easy for the rest of today. As soon as I am finished with him, I'll be right back down here, working for you."
Helping her off the table, he led her over to where she could get dressed, but this time, he turned his back to offer her some privacy. When she was set and ready to go, they went to the elevator for the ride to the roof. Again, Mahoro could sense the doctor wanted to say more, but potentially chose not to do so.
The sun was low in the sky, but the day had definitely arrived. Before she could call the Sylpheed, Professor Hokaze spoke to her. "Mahoro, I need a promise from you. A very big promise." She turned to look at him.
"You are not alone. You are never alone. Please, promise me that if a situation like this should ever arise again, call for backup. You abilities are just as good as ever; it's that you…promise that you will call for help. You mean a lot to me." He went over and gave her a big hug. Mahoro was a bit stunned by this display of emotions.
"I…I will. I will call for backup. I promise," she whispered.
"Thank you for that." Hokaze stepped back to look at. "Take care now, Mahoro," he said, as she called the Sylpheed to take her to the Misato household. As the doctor watched her disappear into the sky, his cell phone rang.
"Hokaze here. Yes, sir, I'll be writing the report up in a few minutes. Short version is this particular experiment to restore energy did not work. As to amount of energy damage she took in her battle….yes, I'll explain about that as well…I am still tabulating this, but…yes, and I…I am aware of…yes, that is on the agenda and…I haven't forgotten and…yes…yes…yes…yes…but…Will you shut up for one sacred minute!?
"The longer I jabber here means the longer it will take to get the report done! Cliff Notes version! She could have lost 20 days! I have to fully crunch the numbers! Sir, I am totally and painfully aware of all of this! I will deliver my report in one hour!" He closed down the phone smartly and stared at it, clutching it until his knuckles turned white, then strode back into the elevator.
Mahoro arrived at home and let herself in. Going up to her room, she saw Slash on the floor in front of the bed. She whispered to him. "How is Suguru?"
"He has been still, but he seems delirious. You got back in record time from the Professor."
"I did, didn't I? Thank you, Slash. I'll take over from here." When Slash left, she shut the door and changed into her pajamas. She went over to stroke Suguru's brow and looked at the bruise, now dark and unpleasant.
He stirred. "Mom? Mom, is that you? I missed you so," he muttered
"I will be here for you, Suguru. I will be here for you as long as I can." Then she got into bed with Suguru, holding him tight, closed her eyes and went to sleep.
MAHORO'S SYSTEMS WILL CEASE TO FUNCTION IN 299 DAYS.
End Notes
This is one of those rare instances that I call "Further Days". In the anime and the manga, this tale concludes in the early morning hours of the 23rd. OK, but what about the REST of the day?
I take this as a grand opportunity to not really give up a day while I expand on events that have occurred. I felt there was no possible way that Vesper did not learn about this, albeit after the fact, nor were they going to stand idly by while a Saint warrior android was being rogue, as that would cause dramatic problems with this fragile truce.
It also fills in the massive gaps. One has the distinct impression that, despite all the lip service paid to Mahoro from Vesper, about all she had done for them, there seems to be very little action to try and correct the situation of her Cease Function Day, or even why they put her into that predicament in the first place.
I always had the sneaking suspicion that they really expected her to be destroyed on the battlefield and this issue never had to be tackled. They built her far too well and she surprised them all. Think about it. She turned the tide against the Saint Invasion and held them in check, and all she gets for her efforts is an extra 398 days. Some gratitude!
This topic was partially addressed in my story, "A Sprig of Hope", but I wanted to address it from the Vesper point of view. With the exception of the August 1st letter from Mahoro, there is relatively little contact with Vesper until the End Days (March 22nd to approximately April 7th). Technically, I have to include the dream sequence from the Season Two, Episode Four, with the 'booby missiles', as they "sent" it to her in the first place.
In fact, Professor Hokaze doesn't profess ANYTHING until after the horrendous beating she absorbs from Dr. Metherius, and that is in early April. Let's do something much, much earlier. This is set up in the first chapter of this series I am attempting. And speaking of boobies, we need to talk of that. What gives?
The greatest warrior android ever, Earth's finest weapon and we can't find a bit of money in the budget to spring for some augmentation so she feels happier in her end days? (OK, I know that if we give her the breasts, that ends the rivalry with Shikijo, right? OF COURSE NOT! Now, we have even greater possibilities for humor and fan service.)
The other troubling aspect is that Hokaze HIMSELF denied the claim (seemingly, much to everyone's relief), so what is troubling him? This is why I took the Big Bro approach, trying to protect his "little sister" about these things. At least Sub-Commander Gunji is a bit more honest with his feelings, but they are still a rather closeted bunch. They need to be more human; I hope this does something towards that goal.
Oh, getting into bed with Suguru. I really hope that this comes off as a friendly gesture and not something more. Holding him close means holding herself close, a tenderness and familial warmth that Suguru and Mahoro both need, now more than ever.