Settle In
They arrived at the Ministry of Science under the cover of night.
"Meijin-kun, make sure the room's ready," Yuuichirou said as soon as the two scientists had maneuvered the stretcher out from the back of the van and into the Ministry lobby. As Meijin ran to comply, Yuuichirou's hand came to rest on Netto's right shoulder, where the General had branded him. Atsuki felt his eyebrow twitch; if Netto had been awake, he would've definitely had on one of those thousand-yard stares of his right now, dissociating from the feeling of being touched there without warning.
The thought occurred to Atsuki that maybe these people would like watching Netto lose his grip on reality about as little as he did, and he should tell them it worked better to hold Netto's hand first.
Before he could say anything, the entire gaggle of would-be heroes turned up, plus that stupid bird Netto had programmed for no reason and the princess of Creamland. Their attention was mostly focused on Netto, but Atsuki was a very hard figure to miss even under these ridiculous circumstances. The first one of them to look up and realize he was there was, of course, the infuriating rich-boy-in-chief. "What are you—?" Enzan began, but Atsuki quickly cut him off, furious that he had the gall to ask.
"What am I doing here?! This is all your fault!" This time, Atsuki was in no mood to stop at merely taking a warning swing at the Net Savior who had caused him and Netto so much grief. But all Atsuki got was one satisfying but too-short look of startled realization from Enzan before Laika had positioned himself between them. "Stand aside!"
"Unfortunately for you, that is not how we settle things around here," Laika said, stern as usual.
"Why is Atsuki here?" wondered Kaita. For a moment, Atsuki mourned for the way things would've gone if they'd followed the plan and taken the little brat away to become Tenth of the Silver Division; it would've been quite rewarding to watch his stupid, naive face harden under the relentless training Atsuki would've given him. As if reading his thoughts, Kaita shrank backward, adding, "Not that he needs a reason? I guess?"
"Atsuki saved Netto-kun," Rockman explained.
"Hard as it is to believe, he is, at present, our ally," Laika seconded.
"I'm 'Netto''s ally, at least," Atsuki said. "Don't know about all of you."
"We need to get him to the medical ward," Yuuichirou said decisively, cutting through the confusion.
"Papa, I need to tell you a few things," Rockman said, moving to stand on Yuuichirou's shoulder. "Before Netto-kun wakes up, so neither of you can get too surprised."
For a Navi, the little thing was so perceptive.
"Sir," Netto's other Navi said, materializing in front of Atsuki. "May I be returned to Netto's care, so that I may watch over him?"
"Why not," muttered Atsuki, slipping Netto's PET off his wrist. "I'm glad I'm rid of you two, anyway." He put the PET in Netto's left hand, since it wasn't bandaged.
And then the whole gaggle was all walking away, surrounding Netto's stretcher. By himself in front of the doorway, Atsuki remarked, "Well, might as well wait here, it's a roof."
Enzan's redheaded sidekick, last to leave, was apparently not quite out of earshot. "'Wait' for what?" Meiru asked, reappearing in the doorway.
"For Seven to wake up, of course." Cheerfully noting her confusion, Atsuki explained, "I can't go back to the Citadel labs after I had to drag him away from Two—it's my story against hers, and she's far closer to the General's ear. 'Netto' is the only one left who knows how to keep me alive and would, so I'll spend what's left of my life doing whatever he needs done."
He nearly had to do a double take; Meiru was looking at him with an expression on her face Atsuki couldn't quite identify, not quite fear but more complicated than sadness. "They… they treated you like that, too, didn't they? With… what we saw in the archive, I guess I shouldn't be surprised, but…"
Disgruntled, Atsuki said, "Don't look at me like that! That's weird."
"Okay, okay!" Though Meiru schooled her face into a more neutral expression, she didn't walk away. "Is Atsuki your real name?"
Atsuki shrugged in response. "It's another false name, but I made it up myself," he explained.
"Hmm, I guess that makes sense. It is very fiery," Meiru observed. "Well, since you're the one who decided on it, it's kind of like a proper name. So I guess I'll keep on calling you Atsuki!"
"Whatever," Atsuki said in response, looking around. The last time he'd been in this room, he had been running a distraction so that Netto could make a mess of the valuable data stored within the Ministry of Science… and send a message to both Net Saviors not to try any more clever tricks.
Netto had been adamant that it was better to plant the idea of attacking the Ministry early with Shun than to go with the alternative of killing the Net Saviors outright, even though it was so much more complicated that way. He was full of strange little quirks like that, but that was what made him a more interesting partner than one of the other Silvers and their boringly easy to read patterns of thought.
Atsuki realized that Meiru was still there, her gaze following his to various parts of the room. "Scram," he said flatly.
"No," she said in an equally flat tone of voice.
"Rockman said you were all friends of his. Don't you want to be there when he wakes up?"
She glanced to the side, finally seeming uncomfortable. "It's… complicated," she sighed. "Netto kept me at such a distance from whatever was going on. Now I feel like maybe we really were better off apart."
"What are you talking about? Of course you were at a distance. You're a glamorized civilian, and we're… we were in the greatest cyberwarfare unit on Earth. Why would you ever need to know what we were really doing?" At a loss as to where this expectation of hers had even come from and why he was hearing about it, he took a step toward her, scrutinizing her.
Meiru shrank back, though her eyes continued to meet his. "Y-you wouldn't hit a girl, would you?!"
"Huh?"
Meiru hurriedly explained, "I saw what happened with Enzan, and I'm kind of a lot smaller than you, y'know?!"
"So?" She was so baffling. The other girls in the Silvers had certainly never acted like this. Since she actually seemed to need it explained, Atsuki said, "You've proven yourself to be as capable as anyone else here."
"That's—" Meiru seemed rather surprised. "Thanks…?"
Atsuki shrugged.
"I just…" Meiru shook her head, then asked, "What's he like?"
"He's the strangest person I've ever met," Atsuki said honestly. "He's smart and dependable, but he's always taking stupid risks nobody else would ever think of taking. Like giving up our position for me, and choosing not to have you and Mister Perfect die even after you became a problem. And he's still doing shit like that, even after all the General did to break him of it." He smiled crookedly. "He's fascinating."
"…Oh. That sounds like him, yeah…" Tears shimmered in Meiru's eyes. "We should be there. You're right," she decided.
"I'm not one of your little group, in case you forgot," Atsuki pointed out dourly. "You should be there. I will just wait here."
"Are you sure?" she asked, seeming concerned.
"Do I need to make myself any clearer?" he asked more threateningly than he really felt like acting, taking another step toward her.
"Eep!" Meiru darted away and through the doorway, but she turned around rather than leave right away. Smiling, she explained, "I'm not a natural talent like Netto or a genius like Enzan, and Roll doesn't have a lot of base power like Rockman and Blues. We got here by practicing and studying enough strategy to compensate for all of it. But even now, people underestimate us, even if they should know better. So… it means a lot that you'd punch me?" After a moment, Meiru cried, "Argh, that came out wrong!" and fled.
What a strange girl. No wonder Netto had wanted to make sure she made it out alive.
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From the start of Rockman's self-appointed mission to return Netto to the Ministry, he had found himself needing to minimize his own feelings.
Rockman knew from what he'd heard his Net Savior friends say that Netto had changed over the half-decade he'd spent away from home. His initial conversation with Punk had been reassuring after the stories he'd heard of Black; clearly, Netto was still there underneath his colder persona. But he'd had to coax his Operator out painfully slowly, when all he'd wanted was to demand for Netto to come home and tell him what had happened.
It had become ever clearer as the days went on that it wasn't just Rockman who had to pretend he was more okay with what was happening than he really was. Netto also boxed his own emotions away, forced to work for a foe he was unable to defeat and nearly as incapable of hiding anything from. Rockman could understand why Netto had been so reluctant to involve anyone else now that he'd spent a few days trying to live alongside him. Barely even a fraction of the time Netto had spent isolated, and Rockman now found himself able to consider ideas he would've never seen the sense in before.
Little wonder Atsuki seemed to be such a monster, when that was what the world around him wanted from him. Little wonder Netto hated himself so much, having to twist his own morality into knots to survive.
It wasn't in Rockman's nature to wish harm on people. But the Darklish man who had taken his Operator away, abused him, and warped his mind until his self-confidence was shattered and he was unable to tell that his treatment was wrong? The people who had stood by and let that happen, or worse yet had joined in for their own benefit? Those were people that made Rockman understand why Punk had felt the urge to throw the whole lot away, all those years ago.
But that wasn't what anyone needed to hear now, not with Netto lying unconscious in the Ministry clinic. Rockman squeezed his eyes shut; there he was, pressing his own feelings down again even though he and Netto were to safety, knowing what he was thinking was wrong. Finally in control of himself, he materialized in front of his creator and spoke. "Papa, I need to tell you and Mama what's…" Then he took in the other faces surrounding his Operator's cot; the heartbreak, exhaustion, and worry all of them shared to varying degrees, even the woman Rockman didn't recognize who was holding onto Kaita's shoulders tightly.
"They can all hear it," Yuuichirou told him. "We'll need each other's help for this, going forward."
So Rockman told them everything he could. About how the General had held Netto captive underneath a Darklish fortress until he'd become the perfect servant that monster had wanted. About the scars under the bandages, from both experimentation and plain torture, and how self-conscious Netto seemed about them. About how brutal the pace and difficulty of his work had been, and how its products had been used almost exclusively to do harm. About the way Netto blamed himself for everything, how terrifying it was to watch him dissociate, how painful it was to hear him make excuses for the way he'd been treated—
"Rockman. Rockman!"
"—and I tried so hard to convince him, but I couldn't even—" The sound of Yuuichirou's voice entered Rockman's awareness. "…Papa?"
"It's all right, Rockman, you don't need to tell us any more. We understand."
"I haven't even said everything yet," Rockman protested numbly, staring up at his creator's face. Slowly, he realized how much even this had hurt to hear. Upset at his own inattentiveness, he said, "I'm sorry, Papa…"
"Rockman, dear, why don't you and I step out for a bit?" Haruka said soothingly. Immediately, Rockman's face flushed with shame—there she was, having just heard all this about her own flesh and blood, comforting him instead. Yuuichirou slipped his wife Rockman's old PET, and they quickly left the clinic behind. "You've done amazingly, Rockman," Haruka said before he could apologize. "You found your—our Netto, and brought him home to us."
"But he's not all right," Rockman protested sadly.
"He needs time, that's all," Haruka said. "He must have been terrified." She ran a finger along Rockman's hologram, as if petting him on the helmet. "It's going to be okay, sweetie. We're all going to have to adjust, but it's worth it, don't you think? It'll take patience, but we'll get Netto to relax."
"Right," Rockman said. He just had to convince himself that it would last, that nobody else would come along to knock Netto down once they'd gotten him back on his feet.
After a moment, Haruka gently said, "You must be scared, too."
"It's a nightmare," Rockman admitted. "Everything's just so awful!"
"I know it is. The grown-up world feels like it's full of unfair things sometimes. But it'll be okay," Haruka reassured him again, holding his hologram so he could rest against her shoulder. "We're here for each other, even when things look bad. I've found that on the small scale, it always, always all works out."
"I…" Rockman sagged into Haruka's shoulder. He hadn't let himself look this exhausted around Netto and Punk, but here, it was just him and one of the humans he considered his closest family. Still, after a short rest, he peered up into her face. "…I should be helping you, not the other way around. Netto-kun is your child, and—"
"I'm still your Mama, Rockman," Haruka said, smile tired but infinitely gentle. "I'll always be there for you when you need me."
Rockman wasn't sure what he could say to that, if anything. Fortunately, the sound of someone familiar entering the PET saved him from having to do so. Rockman returned to the home screen to see Roll. "Roll-chan," he greeted her, surprised.
"Ah, Roll-chan!" Haruka said, peering into the PET at the Navi girl. "I noticed Meiru-chan didn't follow us to the clinic. Is she all right?"
"I guess she just needed to figure something out for herself," Roll said, a mysterious kind of amusement sparkling in her eyes. "But she's doing much better now!"
"So you came to check in on Rockman!" finished Haruka. "Well, I guess I'll let you two catch up!"
Surprised, Rockman said, "Are you sure? I know you wanted to talk to me, and I've just been talking at you instead, so—"
"You can't have Mama tagging along for your reunion with your girlfriend, Rockman, that's just not how it's done!" Haruka got to her feet. "Where should I put you two?" she asked, already heading for the nearest elevator. "I know the roof seems to be a popular spot."
Roll perked up next to him; Rockman knew she loved views of natural beauty, like the stars and the sea. In addition, he remembered how Netto seemed to appreciate those sights so much after their absence. "That would be wonderful, Mama," he said honestly. "Thanks."
"How are you doing, Roll-chan?" Haruka asked while they rode the elevator up to the roof.
"I'm hanging in there, same as everyone else!" Roll smiled good-naturedly. Next to her in the PET, though, Rockman could see the sadness in her eyes. "You're always so thoughtful, Hikari-san. I feel like I don't thank you enough for looking out for Meiru-chan and all of us."
"Oh, thank you!" Haruka said, beaming. "You're quite considerate as well to notice, Roll-chan!"
The elevator doors smoothly opened out onto the clear evening sky. Slowly, Haruka looked around. "It feels right for something so wonderful to happen on such a beautiful night," she said, emotion thickening her voice. Rockman looked up in surprise. "And before you ask, don't you worry about whether I'm okay, you two! I'm better than ever, believe me." She next asked, "Does this panel look like it'd have a good view?"
Rockman hopped out of the PET to look for himself; it was on one of the old satellite dishes, which would also have a few other cameras on it to aid a Navi controlling it with positioning. "It definitely would."
"Plug in, you two!" Once they'd crossed from PET to dish system, Haruka asked, "Can you make your way back inside on your own, or should I come and pick you up after a while?"
"We can make it back by ourselves," Rockman reassured her. "Thanks, Mama!"
As soon as he saw the elevator door close in front of Haruka, Rockman sank to his knees.
"Rockman!" Roll was at his side in an instant, arms wrapping around his shoulders.
"I don't want to think humans are terrible," he cried, wrapping his arms around himself until one of his hands found one of Roll's. "I can't, because I've got to show Netto-kun and Punk they're not. But— but—!"
"I know," Roll said weakly in response. "I'm so tired of being unable to find the right words to say to Meiru-chan." She moved closer, her frame fitting next to his like they were never meant to be apart. "I just think… Meiru-chan's a human, too, you know? And so is Enzan-san, and Netto, and Hikari-san, and everyone here at the Ministry. So if I could just wrap them up and keep them safe from the world outside of here, I would!" She sighed into his shoulder, "But I can't…"
"They're a part of the world, too," Rockman said, thinking it over. "Maybe they're not enough to overpower all those bad people, but they exist, too."
"I wish they could," Roll said, her embrace tightening. "I don't want them to keep blaming themselves for what happened to Netto."
"Is that what's been happening?" Rockman asked, shocked.
Roll nodded. She explained, "We did some looking around for ourselves and found out about the Dimensional War. Hikari-hakase and Meijin-san took it really badly, and Enzan-san… no, he wouldn't want me to say…"
"But… but it's not their fault, either!" Rockman protested, remembering the pain on his Papa's face anew. "That was all other people using their work, not them…!"
"I know. But they can't see it that way," Roll sighed. "Everyone regrets the Dimensional Areas and the Synchro Chips now, because they think they're the ones who made it possible to cause so much sadness."
"I wish we could find a way to fix it all," Rockman said. "I know it's all too complicated to solve in one strike, but… still."
"Just because someone's invention gets used in a way that's bad doesn't make that person themselves bad, does it?" Roll wondered. "Because I can't believe that. Not of Hikari-hakase, after all these years."
"Papa started on his Dimensional Area project while he was still abroad, so I wasn't there," Rockman recalled. "But he genuinely would've wanted to bring humans and Navis closer as partners. I don't think he truly considers what other people would do when he's got a big, idealistic concept in mind…" Those sorts of big ideas had been few and far between following the Dimensional Area hearings, and not once had Rockman seem them be acted on. Some part of his creator's imagination had been quashed in those months, disappearing behind the judgment of the outside world.
"You know what?" Rockman said, turning to face Roll and putting his hands on her shoulders. "I want to help Papa see through another one of those big ideas. I don't know what kind of idea, but I really do! I want him to see that it's not his fault, even if we can't fix what's already happened. And I want Netto-kun to help, too, so he can see how talented he is."
"And if Enzan-san and Meiru-chan were able to use their skills for something completely good, too…" Roll wondered, "But how do we get something like that going?"
"It's not really up to us, is it," Rockman said as reality caught up to him once more.
Roll leapt to her feet, beaming. "No, I've decided! We may be too small to save the whole world from something as complicated as this is, but we can at least help the people we love face it. That's what I want to see us do!" she resolved. "Even if nobody comes up with some huge idea to help everyone, even if they do and it doesn't work. If we can attack it with everything we have and say we've done our best, then we can't regret it, and we can make sure everyone else doesn't, either. Right?"
"I guess, if I think about it, that's what I've been trying to do all along," Rockman said, rising to stand next to her. "I've been trying to be a good friend, and a good partner." Almost to himself, he added, "And maybe that was enough. That's what Mama was trying to say, too." Smiling back at Roll, he added, "It sounds so heroic, the way you put it!"
"Oh!" Roll laughed sheepishly. "I'm not being melodramatic again, am I…?"
"No, it's perfect! Thanks, Roll-chan." He extended his hand, and she took it; he could tell she already knew what he was going to say. "Let's make sure everyone's doing all right over in the clinic, okay? I bet they'll be really happy to see us."
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After a while, Atsuki ended up sitting against the wall, resting his eyes. Standing just made him itch to run, and the chairs in the lobby were too uncomfortable for someone as tall as he was.
The door slid open again. Atsuki didn't open his eyes at first, expecting the visitor to be Meiru. But judging from the spacing and heaviness of the footsteps, the person approaching was too small. It had to be one of the children.
The footsteps came to a stop. Atsuki opened his eyes to see Kaita sitting down next to him.
After a short while of Kaita glancing around silently, Atsuki finally said, "Go away."
"What's your name?" Kaita asked instead of doing what he was told. "I mean, your real name, not your number or your pretend name."
"I don't know. I was recruited when I was too young to remember my family," Atsuki said flatly.
"Oh." Kaita seemed unsure of how to proceed for a moment. "What should I call you?"
"It literally does not matter," Atsuki said, irked by what a thing it seemed to be around the Ministry. "Why are you being so nice to me?"
"Well, I guess you're gonna be here now, so I figured I might as well try…?"
"Not just you, all of you! You've all faced me before. I shot down people in this very room!" Frustrated, Atsuki asked, "Why would you even assume I am 'gonna be here', when everyone here knows exactly what I am?"
"You cared so much about Netto, you went in there and saved him before Laika could reach him. And Laika's super serious," Kaita explained. Flailing around pathetically with his hands, he said, "Rockman told us all about it, and… we know a lot of stuff because of what happened at the harbor, too, so… yeah."
"For a Navi, that thing has such an accursedly big mouth," Atsuki muttered. "And now you think I'm what, exactly? Some kind of 'friend', like all of you?"
"I think it depends on who you ask," Kaita said. "I haven't forgotten how scary you are. You never really… seemed to care about who you were hurting, and that really upset Mary-chan. I don't think you deserve to have nowhere to go, though."
"That's contradictory," Atsuki said flatly. "If I don't care about anyone, I don't belong here in your normal little city."
"No, it's not! You do care. You were just trying to keep Netto on the General's good side, so you put him over everyone else."
This was undoubtedly something else Rockman had explained secondhand to them. "I wanted for Netto to be able to keep going on missions, as he is a competent partner. If the General had continued to doubt his effectiveness, he would have been unable to. Sentiment doesn't factor into my reasoning." Yet he couldn't banish the image of Netto smiling softly at him while they hid from the cameras and ate real food, while they carried out their orders with enough efficiency to make a slight detour from the mission, while they drunkenly planned out dreams that wouldn't come true.
Netto small and fragile in his arms, bleeding out.
He was surrounded by all his little friends from the outside world now, and Atsuki was out here. Not belonging to that world, unable to hide his own nature for long enough to pretend.
In the end, Atsuki knew it was his own fault for deluding himself into believing they were in the same situation. Netto had a personhood to return to, but all Atsuki had ever had was being the General's thrall.
"I wanted to remain at his side, but that was just another fantasy…"
"No, it's not?" Kaita asked, confusion on his idiotic soft face. "We can go check on Netto right now and—"
"Why are you still here?!" A flash of impotent fury propelled Atsuki to his hands and knees; Kaita scrambled backward. "I'm not even human! Haven't been for years! You can't reason with me, or understand me, or even stand up to me." On his feet now, he raged, "I'll beat you into paste!"
Kaita darted away. It didn't lessen the sting of Atsuki's realization any, and neither did hurling one of the uncomfortable chairs across the room.
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The lobby was clearly not a safe place to wait, so Atsuki started looking for somewhere else to go.
There was a small gym on the first floor, thankfully, so Atsuki was able to busy himself in the usual way. He had a feeling nobody else knew it existed, since there was so much dust covering most of the equipment and the weights were not nearly as heavy as he was capable of lifting, so he also suspected that his chances of having any more bizarre encounters would be reduced.
It was a shame there wasn't anything heavy enough to really make him work hard; he needed to be putting back some of the bulk he'd lost if he wanted to regain enough strength to dependably be able to reduce that Enzan's head to a fine mist, and pushing himself to exhaustion would have been a great way to avoid thinking too hard about what he was still doing here and where he would have to go after. But he had to settle for what was there, and there was an adequately hefty punching bag, so he concentrated on technique.
He'd only been fighting his own body, still shaky and sore from its treatment over the last week, to run through drills for maybe fifteen minutes when he sensed someone else's eyes on him. It was definitely not the Sharan, who he was fairly certain he wouldn't have picked up on at all in his current state. He'd meant to use himself catching his breath as cover to prepare to attack the onlooker, but once he'd stopped moving, he found himself needing to stay still, limbs aching and leaden.
He did use his hunched-over position to get a surreptitious look at who was behind him. It was that piece of shit, Enzan. Atsuki thought that was quite fortuitous. All he needed was for Enzan to come just a little closer, and he could flatten him under the weight of one of his tackles.
Atsuki really did catch his breath, his implants kicking in to numb his nerves and cause the pain to recede. Enzan did not come closer. This was certainly the most annoying time he could have chosen to have learned his lesson for once, but Atsuki was not one to give up on his goals so easily.
Slowly, almost lazily, he turned and began to close the distance. Enzan watched him approach, his feet shifting but otherwise not moving just yet. That made sense. Someone so slender would need to use evasion and momentum to fight. Someone with a build like that probably also only ever ran into even more inexperienced fighters. Seeing that Enzan knew he was coming for an attack, Atsuki picked up speed with his final few steps forward, prompting the side-step, and in turn dropped and kicked his leg out at his opponent's feet, using a semicircular motion that would leave him prepared for his next move.
To his credit, Enzan realized what was happening and jumped back from that initial attempt at a sweep. But Atsuki, experienced as he was, only needed that half-second where his opponent was off-center. He sprang forward to meet Enzan before he had a chance to regain his footing, easily batting aside any attempts at a reaction, and hurled him to the padded floor, pinning him before planting a knee on his chest to keep him down.
"You really shouldn't try sneaking up on me," he said, grinning furiously. "This is, what, the second time, if we count the alleyway?"
"I wasn't trying—" Atsuki shifted more of his weight onto the leg holding Enzan down, enjoying the coughing and gasping it produced too much to be too bothered by his own lack of breath.
"We were supposed to be out of here months ago," Atsuki told him, so fixated on Enzan's struggles that he was barely aware he was doing so. Feeling out the most pressure he could exert on Enzan's sternum without breaking anything was second nature to him after the life he'd had. "But you kept prodding, and Netto just had to treat you with kid gloves instead of cutting that crap off like he was supposed to, and the mission got out of hand, and now he's almost dead. All because of you." He didn't realize how enraged he was until he found himself saying, "I have nowhere I can return to because of you."
Atsuki frowned. Enzan had stopped struggling. He removed his leg from Enzan's chest, figuring he'd just passed out. It wouldn't do to get thrown out before he could tell Netto that this was unfeasible; that Netto had gone to all that trouble for nothing.
Unfortunately, it seemed Enzan was still awake. "…I didn't intend to do this to someone else," he murmured, opening his eyes to star into the fluorescent lights overhead. Fixing a smirk on his face, he said, "I've really been making a nuisance of myself, haven't I?"
Never one to question an enemy's expression of utter hopelessness, Atsuki said, "Good. You're admitting it."
"At least it'll look less strange if we're both around here at odd hours," Enzan remarked. He seemed weirdly okay with the prospect.
Still, Atsuki couldn't let himself play along. Netto had always understood when it was fake, but some outsider moron wouldn't. "…I can't stay."
"Then why are you waiting around?"
"If I run before he wakes up, Netto will get all upset about it. Might even chase me down again. I have to stay long enough to tell him to leave me to my fate, and then I'll… go." Perhaps back to the harbor, where the sea could extinguish him.
"He won't accept that," Enzan pointed out.
"Don't you think I realize that?!" Atsuki got to his feet, needing to let out the frustration on the punching bag. "Someone like you can't even understand. I've only ever been what the General needed of me. And for a moment, I thought I could be what Netto needed of me. But he doesn't need me! He has all of you!"
Enzan sighed. "You'll fit right in around here, believe me." He started to turn to one side, but abruptly stopped with a wince. Dourly, he added, "Maybe ease back on the force, if you want to go around fighting us."
"That was easing back," Atsuki informed him. "I could've caved your chest in if I'd wanted to."
"…You've got those artificial bones, too. Like Marino," Enzan realized, then looked directly at Atsuki, propping himself up on his elbows. "How are you still conscious?"
"Because Netto ran all over town to save me, you twit," Atsuki said. "That's the only reason we got found in the first place."
"What did he do?" Enzan asked. Something had clicked together in his mind, that much was apparent, and it was propelling him past what had to be a few solid bruises to his feet. It was almost respectable.
Atsuki followed him to the door. "No, you answer my question, who the hell is Marino?"
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The patient now resting in one of the Ministry of Science's lab rooms was instantly familiar to Atsuki. After all, he'd helped train her. "Why isn't she dead?" he wondered.
"We've managed to stabilize her. But—"
"Not that, you idiot," Atsuki snapped impatiently at Enzan. "We aren't supposed to let ourselves get captured like this. What happened to her cyanide capsule?"
"We took it away," Enzan said. "…So she let herself get into this state on purpose."
"Wow, gold star," Atsuki said sarcastically. "I can't believe you've kept her around this long." He explained, "We're both inherently unstable. Our bodies only fall apart faster when we're cut off from the drugs Darkland gives us." It seemed like another fever dream, how much Netto had wanted him to stay by his side. He reached into his jacket pocket and found the proof it was real: the two vials Netto had slipped to him. "…This must've been to last us until we were finally out of here," he thought aloud.
Netto would've saved Eight, bleeding heart that he was. She'd probably never experienced the side effects of her enhancements until this week. And Atsuki knew he was doomed either way. There was no point to prolonging his life any further.
So he administered the injections to her, just as he would have to himself.
"Well, if you're going to be all sensitive toward some lunatic like her, you'd better give her some privacy," Atsuki told Enzan as he sauntered past the smaller man and out the door. "She's going to wake up in a lot of pain."
To his surprise, Hikari Yuuichirou was waiting for them outside. "Blues sent me a message. You were able to help Marino-san?" he asked Atsuki, sounding weirdly relieved about it.
"With any luck, you'll never see her again once she's figured out where she is," Atsuki told him flatly.
"Thank you, Atsuki-san," Yuuichirou said unreservedly. "I didn't want to have to see her wither away like that."
"Why are you thanking me?" Atsuki asked, baffled. "I haven't done anything. That was Netto who made those vials up."
Yuuichirou merely smiled in return, eyes gentle like his son's would have been. "Let's go see if Netto's woken up, you two," he said, clapping one hand over Enzan's shoulder in a half-hug and extending the other to Atsuki.
Atsuki looked away. "I should wait here."
"You're his friend, too, Atsuki-san," Yuuichirou pointed out.
"We're not friends, we're just in the same unit. We don't make friends," Atsuki protested, but Yuuichirou just kept talking.
"I'm sure he'd be much happier to see you there beside him, rather than wondering what had happened to you."
Atsuki crossed his arms. The way Yuuichirou seemed so willing to accept him was just too strange; he turned his head away from the older man's face. "Maybe he would, but what about all of you? You'd have to be delusional to want me around."
"Rockman was willing to vouch for you," Yuuichirou explained. "So we're willing to give you a chance."
"Well, of course he was, he's probably still under that charm ailment Netto put on him. It's not like I was ever nice around him," Atsuki said sourly. "Take that off him, and see what he says."
"'Charm'?" Enzan asked.
"It's an ailment that works like a suggestion effect," Atsuki explained. "It makes Rockman think Netto's an ally, even though he attacked the Ministry of Science. It also seems to make him think…" Enzan and Yuuichirou seemed to be somewhere between skeptical and amused. "…they have a history…?"
"Is that what he told you?" Enzan said, his laughter quiet but definitely amused. "And Rockman went along with it? How clever."
"There's no way I know of to make a suggestion work quite that subtly," Yuuichirou explained, also exceedingly mirthful. "Rockman has always been Netto's Navi. He returned to Netto's side as soon as he could of his own volition. He knew he needed to play along to earn your trust, but I had no idea they'd made up an entire story to explain what he was doing there!"
"He's been lying to my face…?" Atsuki realized. Netto knew everything Atsuki did about the art of deceit—after all, Atsuki had been the one to teach him—but he was far from a natural at it. "…So, he really did listen to me," he murmured to himself.
"As a matter of fact, if I didn't know better," Yuuichirou said gently, eyes twinkling with mirth, "I'd think Netto's charmed you, too."