~ Brain Dive ~

The thing in the capsule was still trying to figure out what was going on. As the rest of the cargo had yet to have a brain translated, he was the only one sentient and active and he was trying to show his activity as he kept banging against the walls. Hopefully to draw attention. Of course, he didn't know of the wires or likely he'd have caused either less or more ruckus.

"C'è Qualcuno?" He asked with a slightly loud voice, Italian for 'Is there anyone?" He could hear some indistinct buzzing, possibly of people, but no hints they had heard him out. What happened next actually made him gasp as first he felt as if someone had lifted the whole cell he was in, quickly followed by the rumour of a loud explosion. As soundproof as his small prison was, no way it could fully drown that loud noise, just feeling buffeted all over as he was rolled out of the place.

Did he do that? No it was unlikely, the way they seemed to pay attention to him had next to no correlation to his actions. Something had to be acting out. Slowly, however, not fatigue, not physical but mental would begin to supersede, his blows beginning to lose enthusiasm. Was anyone even noticing him? Possibly? He was hearing some movement again.

If only, if only. For a second, a small fit of rage and his prosthetic argumented strength would send his fist against one of the wall. The thud was surprising, but it was far from damaged. Maybe it had a dent? He couldn't say, too dark. Still... he didn't know it was this strong. Quickly, this realisation was followed by pain and numbness in his arm.

How much time was it passing outside? He had no idea. There was next to no light source so he could see, nor he had enough of an inner clock to be able to mark the passing of time. He wasn't tired, but he rested against one of the walls, trying to ponder for new strategies. Different transports, new movements. Occasionally he tapped with the foot the angle of his prison, by now pretty sure they weren't noticing him.

Now that he thought of it... that capsule wasn't too bad. Sure, eating was a problem but... he could breathe... have some movement... who knew what waited him outside. Did he want to know?

He honestly had come to fear to know were he was going... if that thought, this 'ghost feeling' weren't beginning to big him, he could have even fallen asleep. Maybe if closed the eyes for a mom... wait... what were those noise? was that... more light?

Oh yes, they are opening the capsule.

Oh no they are opening it.

What could he do? what could he do? Oddly his first instinct was a vain attempt to keep the door shut, but the blinding light, as used as he had been for his several hours inside a completely dark are made his optic receptors take some time to stabilise. Now he was frozen in fear to begin his new life, whatever it could be or, worse, how long it could last?

Staring at the young boy inside the container, no, a capsule, Motoko peered in. They were protected by several resistant blast screens but she stepped around and looked at him. Slowly peering at him without a word. Everyone around them had gone to Autistic mode; non-wireless mode and everything contained in their own head.

"Hello." Motoko spoke softly, she wore her standard blue jeans, V piece pink thing with a leather jacket and a pair of sunglasses tucked over in a pocket.

"My name is Major Motoko Kusanagi, I am from the Japanese Public Security Section 9 Police Agency." She spoke calmly, softly, almost motherly. Unsure if this was some sort of weaponized cyborg made to look like a child or perhaps a real child stolen. There had been cases of children being stolen during the Solid State Society case but they had to make sure.

"You are safe here. What is your name?"

When the woman spoke at first, he felt a little frozen, his sensory in an overload between the bright light, causing him to remove glasses and... wait, he could see, and pretty well... So why was he wearing glasses? He didn't know, but he put them by instinct back on. They felt almost as if protecting him.

Listening to the woman, he recognised the language as being Japanese, and he seemed to be understanding it pretty well. When he heard she was from a police agency, out of instinct he rose his hand in the air as if to show he had no weapon and was innocent. Slowly he gathered enough confidence to step out of the container.

And then came the question.

My name?

He hadn't thought of it nor he remembered it. His name his name? Immediately he looked all over his jacket as if to check for a clue, feeling a small piece of paper in his pocket he pulled it out and checked it.

闇暗黒

"Yami... Ankoku?" He read it aloud. Two different words which meant both darkness? 'Uh, well, it was as good as nothing.'

"Ankoku Yami?" He repeated, as if to say it was his name. He wasn't sure, to be honest, doubt dribbled all over his voice.

"Alright Ankoku Yami, how would you like me to address you?" She asked, "You can call me Motoko or Major, either one will do." She smiled softly and held out a hand.

"We will have to run some tests, to make sure you are okay, you've been through a lot but I'm here to help." She nodded slowly and smiled kindly at him.

His movements felt clumsy. Maybe he was used to be at that height, but not at what weight, clearly of someone who wasn't too good at getting used to this body. Even as he stretched his fingers, those were the movements of someone who didn't know the strength of his cybernetic body.

"I don't know, Major, call me as you wish." Was his genuine answer, giving a small bow as he nodded, giving an awkward smile back. It was understandable. However, he had to ask her something. He knew the answer but maybe…

"You don't know who I am, right Major?" He asked her. It was a genuine question, from someone who had no memory of anything before he had been activated.

"I'll call you Yami, as that's shorter." She explained and took his hand softly, making sure she did not hurt him. She could already sense through the small links she was opening between them that he had a lot of cyborg parts, seeing how clumsy he acted.

"I am afraid we do not know anything. We rescued you from terrorists but I promise you we will help you." She explained and would guide him through all the tests.

Red robed technicians would inspect his body, do scans and eventually at a final point, do a dive. Motoko would be the one doing the dive, and Yami was sat in a special chair to allow them to scan and monitor him. Motoko was sat behind him and she was speaking him through it.

"Alright Yami, I'm going to talk with you through a link, and we're going to dive into your mind. Stay calm through it and we will work through it all."

Closing her eyes, she dived into his mind. Standing in front of him in the virtual world of his mind, she had made sure to start avatars so they looked human inside the world.

He didn't say anything, his hand was clearly shaking in her grip. Was it because of nervousness, not getting used to the new body, contact? Or more? He himself couldn't say it. He was a little too confused. He did process the information, but didn't express any outward emotion.

Mostly because he didn't know how to react. She was more of an expert on this, he supposed. He wasn't even aware of the full technology behind it. Although honestly he was curious about it. Who knew what he could find. He was only able to crack an half smile, although it disappeared as he was being scanned. His body was a full body prosthetic, with only the brain of organic. Not an unusual case, by now, but to the Young man, he wouldn't even know he was far from the first case.

"You what?" He said, clearly new to these new information, but nodding. "I mean, sure Major, as you wish."

As his first time being dived into, much less when he was still trying to figure out his new body, was a little uncomfortable but the very transition between real world and virtual word was almost seamless.

"This isn't the real world anymore, isn't it?" He asked. The place was mostly fine. A fine and seamless gathering of data, such as language information, motor knowledge and other data. But the memory bank was almost completely wiped out.

The only coherent memories were from but a few ours ago, then strings of nearly undecipherable data, literally mangled fragment of memories

"We will have some answers as soon as possible, I have good people." She nodded and smiled.

She paused for a second and then nodded to herself. "You want to go outside? You will have to stay in autistic mode, I can show you how to do that but I requested it and they said that you can go out on a trip with me" she asked softly.

In fact this was a little plan to see if the enemy who did this to him would pop out, but she wouldn't say that to him; not very nice calling him bait after all

A vague statement.

Not a good beginning, but she had been left for only half a day and from what he knew his case was all but easy

When she said if he could go outside, Ankoku's eyes visibly sparkled. "I would not wish for anything else!"

Realising the excessive enthusiasm he dialled back as he repeated. "I would like to, Major. I guess that by autistic mode it practically means I would not have any long ranged connection, right?"

Seeing the enthusiasm in his eyes, she grinned softly. "You are basically going to be like a normal human being, no access to wireless connections. You will be wearing one of these to be safe." She pulled out the moon shaped neck brace.

"This is a defence barrier, if anyone tries to connect to you, it will stop them long enough for me to get to you. Tomorrow morning we will be going. You okay with being on your own over night?" She asked softly

"This is fine by me, I'd keep myself as grounded as possible as we speak, you know, first I want to get accustomed to this body, then being able to experiment with it. I have occasionally problem of twitching, I hope it's not a bug of some sort."

"We will check it out. But for now, I will take us out." With a quick flash, they were back in the 'Real world'. Motoko pulled out the connection and stood up, walking over to him.

Lets see about getting you some accommodation, you will be staying with us until we find out what happened to you then we will try and help you anyway we can."