bunnyfic 11, 12
...finally broke 25k, three days late. xD; Eugh, so much burnout. Timing is so off, rhythm is bad, nothing is funny. BUT THAT IS OKAY, IT WILL BE FINISHED. oh god, how is it only half done? aeafsrf. Maa~ xD がんばるさ。負けないのさ～ lalala. :D 8D;
[edit 10 Jan'12] Hovering over Japanese text will give you a translation. :D
Errants 74-M, 21-K. Legal entity 53-N. Government entity M15.
( 11: triple counter )
Nikaido had been ready, but on second thoughts maybe he could've asked where they were going first. His heart tripped to a halt when the dark, shadowed and ultra creepy forest scenario materialised around them-but then staggered to its feet and kept going again when Tamamori tried to shake his hand off.
"Stop that, please," the slicer mumbled. "It hurts..."
Nikaido looked down in surprise, then let go of Tamamori's wrist. And put on an unconvincing face of snotty bravado. "Heh. Not my fault you're malnourished."
Tamamori, if he noticed Nikaido's transparency, said nothing. "I take care of myself just fine," he muttered instead, with self-conscious indignation.
"Uh-huh," Nikaido said, grinning despite himself, "so I can practically like wrap my hand around your elbow."
"Wrist," Tamamori corrected. "I just happen to be slim."
Nikaido had a comeback for that-he really did-but yelped instead, jumping behind Tamamori as two random figures materialised out of the nearby foliage.
Tamamori brandished his torchlight like a sword, steadfastly ignoring the fact that the beam was shaking. "Miyacchi?" he said, "is that you?"
"It is Miyacchi," Miyata's voice floated back, distressed. "It is Miyacchi whose eyes are crying..."
"That torch is like, plus ten brightness!" a second voice exclaimed. "Wow, handy. Super handy!"
"Who are you?" Tamamori asked, lowering the beam of his torch to shine at the chest of the second guy, instead of right in his face as it seemed he'd accidentally done to Miyata.
"Senga Kento!" the second guy chirped. "Are you Tama-chan?"
"Tamamori," Tamamori said curtly. "So you're the one who needs help?"
"Yup! I need serious help, man."
"Alright," Tamamori said. Senga, he thought, seemed pretty cheerful about being retarded.
Miyata wiped his eyes on his sleeve as they recovered from assault, and stepped tentatively closer. "Where's your friend...?" he asked Tamamori. "Nikaido something...?"
"Just Nikaido," Tamamori said, and glanced back. Puzzlingly enough though, Nikaido wasn't there. Behind was only tree and gloom, the shadows thickening as the sun disappeared. It was very nearly fully dark now. Tamamori glanced over his other shoulder and then turned around properly, torchlight flashing. Nikaido was still nowhere to be seen. "...Nikaido? ...?" After all that high talk about Tamamori being the one who'd run off...
Suddenly, a ball of white fluff streaked past Tamamori's left foot and leapt right into the middle of the triangle of humans. There it sat, wide-eyed and shaking scared.
Mystery solved.
"That's him," Tamamori said, and pinned the little white rabbit with the beam of his torch.
"Oh," Miyata said cordially, leaning down a little. "Nice to meet you, Nika-chan~" he smiled.
Senga, on the other hand, was on his hands and knees in an instant. "She's so cute!" he cooed. Nikaido tried to skitter back, but Senga cornered him in a makeshift little pen with his arms.
Tamamori smirked. "He. Nikaido's male."
"Hm?" Senga blinked. "For real?" He scooped the rabbit up in order to check.
Tamamori was struck with the thought then, that he might like Senga's type of retardedness. A furious bunny was an amusing thing. Nikaido thrashed around in Senga's grasp, his little self no doubt feeling a bit more than slightly violated. Tamamori indulged himself a small fit of amusement behind one hand as the drama unfolded.
"...oh," Senga said at length. "You're right, Tamamori. He's definitely male."
"You've got funny friends, Tama-chan," Miyata laughed awkwardly by Tamamori's side. (As if he could talk.)
"Mm," Tamamori shrugged, holding out the flashlight. Miyata dutifully took it from him without being otherwise prompted. "Mr. Rabbit is interesting enough, I suppose."
The bunny stilled in Senga's hands, one of its eyes glaring up in Tamamori's direction.
"Aww~" Senga said. "An angry face! So cute~" His tones turned babying. "D'yew wanna wide on my shoulder, Bunny-chyon?"
Nikaido shook his head, the motion vehement in spite of his minusculity.
"Did you teach him that?" Tamamori murmured.
"Hm? What?" Miyata blinked.
"The -chan thing..."
"No?"
"Hm..."
"We gotta lotta walking to do though~" Senga argued, face to face with Nikaido, holding the bunny up high. "A whooole lotta walking, so are yew sure? We don't wanna weave yew behind or step on yew or nothin'~"
"You... might want to put him down," Miyata tried tentatively.
Tamamori shrugged at the quizzical glance Senga cast around. "Just a hunch," he said. A hunch based on the fact that Nikaido was struggling kind of ferally, but whatever. Rabbits probably couldn't give themselves aneurysms. Maybe.
"Ah..." Senga said, and shrugged to himself. "Okay." He let Nikaido go in thin air, and stepped back.
The bunny avatar flailed as it fell, but Nikaido was human-shaped again as he hit the forest floor in a crouch. Next instant, he was standing. And tugging uncomfortably at the crotch of his pants. "What the hell's your problem?!"
Surprised, Senga's agitation hit the roof just as fast. "-what do you mean what's my problem!?" he shouted right back. Nikaido's angry face wasn't so cute in human form. "You're the one that turned into such a tiny, girl-looking bunny in the first place!"
"That's because you and that Miyata guy totally freaked me out showing up through the trees like that!" Nikaido snapped.
"Oops~" Miyata chuckled.
"It's not our fault you're so scaredy cat!" Senga yelled, his hands balling into fists.
Somewhere nearby, a bough snapped and crashed to the forest floor. Nikaido yelped. Senga blinked.
"Whoa," Miyata observed, impressed. "He's got psychic powers~!"
"There aren't any such thing," Tamamori muttered. "They don't exist." It just wasn't physically possible, especially in the virtual world. He brought up a vicinity scan to check for hostiles... it wasn't probable that they'd run into anybody nasty, but you never knew when you had a guy like Miyata in your party. Nikaido also seemed to be a trouble magnet, and Senga was currently unknown.
"...mou, why are you a bunny again?" Senga asked Nikaido. It was a rhetorical question full of pout. He crouched by the other's quivering white form with a certain reluctance and sighed, cupping his hands close to the ground. Nikaido scrambled aboard without apparent second thought. "I totally can't yell at you this way, you know...?"
Nikaido did seem to know. His nose twitched cutely, drawing a little whining sound from Senga who tried valiantly to resist the adorable, but failed and cuddled Nikaido close the next second. The arrangement seemed to please Nikaido a great deal.
"...Tama-chan," Miyata said thoughtfully, "if I got a bunny avatar, would you carry me?"
"No," Tamamori replied crisply. He checked the results of his scanner. Nothing so far. Still... maybe they should get going regardless.
"Ah," Miyata grinned anyway. "I thought so..."
"Senga-" Tamamori started.
But had to compose himself when Senga turned around with Nikaido perched atop his head.
"Hm?"
"..."
Miyata sporfled.
"...what am I even here for?" Tamamori muttered.
"Oh!" Senga exclaimed, jarring Nikaido a bit from his perch. The bunny's front paws slipped down Senga's bangs until he scrambled back to where gravity didn't want him so bad.
Senga, Tamamori thought with a (very) distant admiration, seemed entirely okay with the fact that his hair was totally messed up. Unperturbed, the other reached into the inside of his tunic and pulled out a thin scroll. Not sealed. Not encrypted. "This," Senga said, looking up at Tamamori through his mussed bangs, with serious eyes. "I need to deliver it to the castle."
Tamamori regarded the plain scroll. So plain. And to a castle? "There's a castle in this scenario?" he muttered. "I had no idea."
Senga's face fell yet again with a very soft wail. "That's exactly what he said!" He pointed to Miyata.
Tamamori sighed a little. "Miyacchi... you're in this scenario all the time..." Tamamori wasn't. Codes aside, Miyata should theoretically have been able to help Senga better.
Miyata shrugged, sheepish. "Well, I've never looked for a castle before. It's not like I come here to find princesses to save, you know?"
That much was true. Tamamori pursed his lips. Miyata wasn't exactly adventurous, or the type to save anybody in distress. In fact, Tamamori was pretty sure that Miyata was about the furthest thing from Prince Charming that existed.
"Well, if you just want to get to the castle," he said for the hell of it, "I could just get a chopper in and..."
"A chopper?" Senga chirped. "Hm? Will that help get rid of the trees?" Nikaido thumped his hind feet down on Senga's head. "Hey! Ow!" Reaching up, Senga tried to pick Nikaido up, but the other just dug his paws and teeth into Senga's hair, refusing to be brought down. "Ow, ow, ow..."
"Not if it's a helicopter?" Miyata supplied with an awkward chuckle, as Tamamori just stared at Senga like Senga was stupid. For many more reasons than one.
"Waaait, waaait..." Senga said, disbelief running through his elongated vowels. He turned back to Tamamori, wide-eyed. Atop his head, Nikaido's long ears flapped in amusement as Senga, distracted, ceased attempting to rid himself of the bunny's pestilence. "What? You can do that kind of thing?"
"Actually, getting rid of the trees would be harder..." Tamamori looked away. "A little."
"I told you he's good~♥" Miyata grinned.
"Miyacchi..." Tamamori said, giving Miyata a Look. Have you been saying weird things again?
"Nothing, nothing!" Miyata preempted, holding his hands up as his eyes disappeared with a chuckle. "I just said you were good~♥"
Despite this, when Senga snickered behind his hand in a wonderful display of failed discretion, Tamamori felt vaguely as if his reputation had been tarnished somehow. "...okay."
Miyata beamed at him. Senga beamed at him. And Nikaido snuffled a laugh behind his little front paws.
Tamamori regarded them all with a measure of wariness.
While these happy expressions were all well and good, and might even have been pleasant in daytime environments not lit by torchlight... well. They were in a nighttime environment lit by torchlight, and the white teeth and collective lack of visible irises kind of made Tamamori's skin crawl.
I'm surrounded by idiots, he thought, mind bluntly graceless. "Please stop that... all of you..."
"まぁ~" Miyata said and coughed, turning. "Well... Senga..."
"Well..." Senga said, glancing somewhere up to the right, "I'm supposed to walk there anyway... because of my foot."
"What foot?" Miyata blinked.
Senga looked down in surprise, nearly upsetting Nikaido from his perch again. Indignantly, the bunny scrambled for purchase. "My foot!" Senga exclaimed, wide-eyed. "It's gone!"
"..." Tamamori said, not minding his own incomprehension at present. As far as he could see, Senga was still in very clear possession of both his bipedal extremities.
"Ah!" Senga said, flushing a vague pink in the reflected torchlight. "I mean I hurt it before and my boss said I had to get rid of the bandage and walk and learn to get rid of the bandage..."
"Oh!" Miyata said quickly. "Oh really! なるほど~ I see."
"...sooo awkward," Tamamori muttered.
"Hey, I'm trying here!" Miyata said under a laugh, and rubbed the back of his neck. Awkwardly.
Tamamori ignored him, turning back to Senga again. "What does the castle mean to you anyway?" he asked directly. He was doing this as a favour to Miyata, he reminded himself. So the sooner he got it done the better-not least because it would suck if he had to jet halfway through because of yet more chasers. The day wasn't over yet; his streak of bad luck might still be running.
Senga blinked owlishly back at him for a moment. "It changes depending on the person...?" he asked. Settled, Nikaido also stared, nose twitching.
Tamamori nodded. "Landmarks and stuff," he said, tugging on his ear again. "Sometimes they change. Because they're just goals. Representations of something."
Senga stared.
Tamamori made a pained face and forced himself to continue: "Each path to the castle is different, and once you actually get inside the castle, the result is also different. Depending on what you wanted in the first place. So if... you want me to help you get there, as opposed to getting there yourself, I have to know what you're aiming for..."
"Speech! Speech! Speech!" Miyata struck up the hushed chant, golf-clapping in time.
Tamamori continued to ignore him. Following Tamamori's lead, Senga did the same. "Umm..." he said, and held up the scroll to Tamamori. "Well, I have to deliver this to Prince Domoto Koichi. It's from my boss."
Tamamori and Miyata both went dead still at that, Miyata freezing halfway through a clap.
"Um..." Miyata started, glancing at Tamamori-
"Say that again?" Tamamori asked Senga, tones suddenly professionally smooth, strictly distant.
"This... letter?" Senga said, shrinking back a little though he wasn't sure why. "I'm supposed to deliver it... to Prince Domoto Koichi. From... my boss."
Legal entities Y00, I14. 53-N, errant 21-K.
( 12: back up the truck )
"Do you think we should check on him?" Iida murmured aloud, not really minding either way. He was currently tracking the location of Senga's avatar, but not much else.
"No," Yokoo said. "So long as he hasn't left the original scenario, he should learn to deal with these situations himself."
"Alright. I'll message Takizawa that he won't be back for dinner, then..."
Yokoo snickered at that. "Don't bother. I set a PM to auto-send at eighteen-hundred when Tackey came back from issuing the challenge."
"Playing at prediction again, Wataru?" Iida chuckled.
"Well, I was right wasn't I?" Yokoo grinned.
"You were."
Iida didn't bother to say that the chances of anybody being right when betting against Senga were higher than when betting on him in most situations, but that was okay. Yokoo already knew it. And sometimes his sixth sense was eerily accurate...
Senga's existence just didn't really warrant such psychic efforts most of the time, was all.
They lapsed back into a comfortable silence broken only occasionally when Yokoo's game bleeped at him with understated urgency.
Whack-an-errant's-contact-sequence.
The errants were all real people, actual illegals, the game's algorithms based on real-time online data; Yokoo was tagging them all harmlessly though, briefly painting each one with mere identification rather than attacking them for real.
Iida watched the data stream with detached interest. Yokoo was doing well, having only missed one so far.
"You know..." Yokoo said at length, after thirteen separate bleeps. "If the government hired us, with maybe Kitayama and Taisuke or the Guard, we'd probably be able to clear off all the errants online in under a fortnight. And have fun doing it, too."
"In five days, Goseki-kun would say," Iida chuckled. "It's a good thing we're not on the opposite side then, isn't it."
"The wrong side," Yokoo corrected absently.
"I don't know about right and wrong," Iida said.
"Sure you do, Kyon," Yokoo told him, still not taking his eyes off of his game. Not that he was really required to look elsewhere, for propriety's sake or otherwise-Iida wasn't physically present-but it meant his focus was still elsewhere occupied.
That was fine by Iida, though. An off-hand comment like that meant Yokoo didn't see the need to reassure Iida that his memories contained accurate imaging of what was 'good' or 'bad', despite them being such exclusively human concepts. Somehow this deduction was more comforting than anything else Yokoo might have told Iida directly. As was the knowledge that Iida could still read Yokoo like that. Iida soon found he felt better.
Requiring 'comfort'... feeling 'better'...
Other things that were exclusively 'human'. Iida considered the thought of having experienced them for a moment. The idea was...
Ultimately inconsequential, wasn't it? Always. Yes. 1.
Iida gave a virtual shrug to himself, directing his own processing power back to the mundane task of minding Senga's sequence. The boy was currently still chatting with two other entities-one an errant, one legal-and engaged in a continuous interaction with a third.
From the data stream, Iida recognised them all:
The code of 21-K, the boy with Kitayama's skates; M15, a wholly unremarkable government agent but for his pointed (defiant) ineffectiveness; and, of course, 74-M, with his scrambler. The boy with the potential to crack the phoenix model.
The dots that had been set down were starting to join of their own volition, faster than expected, and with exponentially increasing speed-something Iida found objectively fascinating. No matter the limitless potential found in imagination and the scripting of code, real life always seemed to be one step ahead.
Naturally though, almost as if to compensate for all that extra momentum, the problem with the unpredictable progression of real life was its ability to misstep and tangle, and come to a halt in the blink of an eye...
And because it was almost a sure bet more than a tendency, really, Iida continued to keep watch.
:::
Tamamori turned an unreadable glare, sharper by torchlight, in Miyata's direction-it was always Miyata, though, that bore the brunt of his anger, since Tamamori wasn't the type to bare his emotions to anybody he wasn't familiar with. "You know this crosses the line."
Miyata mustered up an awkward smile, rubbing the back of his neck. "I didn't think to ask..."
"You should've."
And just like that, Tamamori's avatar turned around and disappeared, his presence gone from the scenario.
"Huh?" Senga blinked.
Miyata sighed.
Nikaido jumped down from Senga's head, landing in a crouch-human again-on the forest floor. "What the hell?" He kicked the air where Tamamori's avatar had been standing just seconds ago. "What was that about? I told him not to run off on me."
"Ah..." Miyata said, with something of an apologetic bow. "He hasn't run. I mean, that was more of a 'storm off' than a 'flee', if you catch my drift..."
Senga's eyes trailed downcast. "I'm sorry I made him angry at you...?" Inadvertently. He didn't really know how it had happened...
Nikaido crossed his arms, unimpressed. "Uh-huh. So tell us what got his knickers in a twist this time."
"Well... we did kind of ask him to hack up to the Princes' gates," Miyata said uncertainly.
Senga looked crestfallen, shoulders drooping even further at the realisation.
"He could've just said no," Nikaido countered. Hell, Tamamori hadn't even had to hack it up to there at all. He could've just drawn up a scenario map and gotten Miyata and Senga to memorise the route before taking his leave.
"Well," Miyata said, "he doesn't like the government too much..."
"Yeah, well neither do I?" Not liking the government was every illegal's excuse under the sun, including Nikaido's own on a regular enough basis. It wasn't enough. "Like that means anything."
"...why are you arguing with me then?" Miyata raised an eyebrow, curious. "I mean, I'm just wondering." If Senga worked for a guy who was close enough to one of the Princes to be sending him hand-delivered mail, then... theoretically, Nikaido should want to foil Senga, too.
Nikaido wasn't much into logical warfare, though. "'Cause you're defending him, I guess?" he snorted, still fundamentally offended by the way Tamamori had left. He indicated Senga with a jerk of his head. "That, and 'cause this guy kind of doesn't really seem up to it."
"Hey!" Senga protested. "That's because I was in the wrong!"
Nikaido raised an eyebrow, rounding on the messenger. "How, exactly?"
"...well," Senga tried-"Um, I kind of..."-and failed.
Nikaido handily picked up the ball for him: "You were kind of dumb enough to pick a forest scenario to walk through, in real time when it's dark, and you got lost in it and wanted help. Apart from every step up until the 'wanting help' bit, wanna tell me where you went wrong?"
"!..." Senga flailed on the inside, before skipping that question and looking to Miyata instead, with pleading eyes. "Um. Is he gonna be mad at you for very long...?" Because if Tamamori was going to stay angry, maybe Senga could write him an apology note...
Miyata smiled, eyes crinkling up at the edges. "Not so long...? Give him two weeks, maybe, and it'll all be back to normal."
"...two weeks?" Nikaido stared, at once incredulous and amused. A fortnight was ages to stay pissed off at somebody. "What a girl."
"Well~" Miyata said, grinning. He knew the right answer to this one: "It's not just the pissed off part. He stops being angry pretty quick, but then it's a pride thing, see? So it's only after that..." Happily, Miyata gave a peace sign, confident in his Tamamori Theory from long experience, or so it seemed. "まぁ~ he'll be in contact again when he misses me enough."
"Ohh..." Senga said, mouth very o-shaped, as if it all made sense.
Nikaido just rolled his eyes. "Right. Like I said, a total girl."
Miyata cleared his throat.
"..." Senga shut his mouth and said nothing, shifting his weight from side to side.
"So." Nikaido randomly stomped his foot, sending a few small bugs skittering away from them across the fallen leaves-at which Senga shrieked, jerking back. Nikaido blinked at him.
"...sorry," Senga said, composing himself. He stood on the balls of his feet though, after that. Amusingly enough. Then again, his feet were bare.
Nikaido was tempted to stomp again.
"...do you want to change scenarios?" Miyata asked.
Senga shook his head. "I have to walk..."
Miyata raised a brow. "Even when your foot's virtually healed...?"
Senga shrugged miserably, but said nothing. He wasn't sure. When he wasn't sure, he liked to stick to the status quo.
Nikaido didn't really care either way. "...so," he tried again, shrugging. "What's in your letter anyway?" If the thing wasn't sealed, its contents were fair game.
"...I don't know?" Senga said, and looked down at the scroll in his hand.
"You didn't look at it?" Miyata asked.
"I didn't look at it," Senga nodded.
"Then let's open it up," Nikaido said, impatient. They were doing a whole lot of nothing at the moment, and even if Tamamori would return to Miyata (in a whole two weeks! and they were supposed to be friends) that was still no guarantee Nikaido would be able to find him again.
Which had nothing to do with anything really, because Nikaido was pretty sure that if he started looking now or if he tried in a month's time instead, he'd still have the same (very slim) chance of finding a good slicer who didn't want to be found.
But it just pissed him off that they were doing nothing in the meantime, was all.
Senga blinked at him. "But... it's for Prince Domoto..."
"Koichi," Miyata added. "さま."
"So?" Nikaido persisted. "He's not going to care if we open it if it's not even got a seal or password on it or anything. He's not even going to know it's been looked at unless he digs up its history."
Senga looked decidedly uncomfortable. "But it's Boss Tackey's co..."
"Co what?" Nikaido demanded.
"Co... respondants? Correspondence..."
"...did you say 'Boss Tackey'?" Miyata asked, suddenly guarded.
Senga nodded, head tilted. "I work for Tackey-"
"Takizawa Hideaki?"
Senga blinked. "You know him?"
"Um. You know what..." Miyata said, changing the subject with a sudden, intent look at a watch he wasn't wearing. "I should really get going... I've got work tomorrow, and it's kind of getting late."
"Hey-!" Nikaido protested. "What's with you guys just up and leaving like this?"
"It was nice meeting you okay? Senga~" Miyata smiled and spread his fingers in a wave, just once. "Nikaido~" And waved again. Just once. And set the torch down on the forest floor. "Take care of yourselves~"
"Um... bye?" Senga said, as Miyata's crouching avatar abruptly faded from view. "I guess..."
Nikaido frowned, turning to Senga with his hands posted on his hips as the other picked up the twice-abandoned flashlight. "Alright," Nikaido said, "I don't get this. One gets pissed at the mention of the Princes; the other one freaks out when he hears about who you work for..." He narrowed his eyes, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "And you still need to get to the castle."
Senga nodded. It kind of sounded like Nikaido was maybe going somewhere with that line of thought. "Yeah...?" Senga was tentatively interested in what the other had to say. (Not least because he didn't really have a lot of options anymore that didn't involve a whole lot of fat chances. But at least he had the torch...)
Objectively, Nikaido figured that if Tamamori's friend had run off at the name of Senga's boss, then... logically, Nikaido probably also ought to feel a little scared, warning bells and all that jazz.
Logically.
But Nikaido had never been one for much logic and sense, if he had a choice in the matter. Especially concerning issues that piqued his curiosity.
So: "I'll do you a deal," he proposed instead, like a moth to flame. He grinned. "You send me a data dump about your boss and what he's got to do with the Princes and stuff, and let me read the scroll, and I'll cut you the quickest way to the castle from here on a map."
Senga looked dubious. "All that information, for just a map?"
"Unless you want verbal directions or something," Nikaido said. And affected a deep, stuffy voice: "'Take a left at the roots of the big tree five hundred metres ahead, and climb over the fallen bough...!'"
Senga cracked a grin at that. "No... no, I mean a map would be good. But... you won't come with me?" It wasn't that he was concerned about the possibility of Nikaido giving him a fake map-Senga wasn't sure why, but he felt like he could trust Nikaido's kind of character-but just because Miyata had left them the torch... didn't mean Senga wanted to walk through the nighttime forest alone.
Nikaido, for his part, gave a considering tilt of his head and looked around. Nothing else creepy had happened lately, like people materialising out of the trees... Hn. "Well, what I'll do'll depend what your data dump tells me, won't it?" he said and shrugged, non-committal. "I mean, Miyata took off kinda fast."
Senga pouted. "Mou, I don't know why he did that..." He chewed his upper lip for a bit, considering the offer as he mumbled. "I mean, we're not scary or illegals or anything."
Nikaido sniffed, assuming that by 'we', Senga meant his boss and co. Because he sure hadn't been referring to Nikaido and Tamamori unless he really was that dumb. He waited.
"...um," Senga said at last, worrying his lip again. "I don't want to give you a direct data transfer-but! But but but but but-" He quickly held his hands up, trying to forestall Nikaido's annoyed frown. "But, I'll tell you all I know while we walk, if you come with me." That sounded like a fair deal to him. "And if you come all the way to the castle, you can read the scroll. How's that?"
Really, it wasn't as if Senga was privy to that much of Boss Tackey's business anyway, so he probably wouldn't unveil anything vital... He beamed winningly, convinced he'd get this one. "Data dumps are boring. Interaction is important to humans, you know!" (Who'd have thought Boss Tackey's random preachings would come in handy for trade negotiations one day...?)
Nikaido raised an eyebrow. What Senga said was true, and yet-something about the way he said it still made him sound kind of crazy. Nevertheless, Nikaido gave an inward shrug. It wasn't as if Nikaido himself had ever been accused of having a problem with too much crazy, after all. He grinned and stuck a hand out for the shaking. "Alright, done deal."
1- 13 or 14 are headed for so much random exposition, lol. *pad pad pad* (...i don't know how iida's pov got in there. 8D; unexpected.)
2- stretched the canon rabbit thing because four people talking at once = HARD unless they're ABC, awkjergt. xDD
3- not satisfactory, these two parts were. 8D ♥ OK, NEXT.
[edit 10 Jan'12] Hovering over Japanese text will give you a translation. :D
Errants 74-M, 21-K. Legal entity 53-N. Government entity M15.
( 11: triple counter )
Nikaido had been ready, but on second thoughts maybe he could've asked where they were going first. His heart tripped to a halt when the dark, shadowed and ultra creepy forest scenario materialised around them-but then staggered to its feet and kept going again when Tamamori tried to shake his hand off.
"Stop that, please," the slicer mumbled. "It hurts..."
Nikaido looked down in surprise, then let go of Tamamori's wrist. And put on an unconvincing face of snotty bravado. "Heh. Not my fault you're malnourished."
Tamamori, if he noticed Nikaido's transparency, said nothing. "I take care of myself just fine," he muttered instead, with self-conscious indignation.
"Uh-huh," Nikaido said, grinning despite himself, "so I can practically like wrap my hand around your elbow."
"Wrist," Tamamori corrected. "I just happen to be slim."
Nikaido had a comeback for that-he really did-but yelped instead, jumping behind Tamamori as two random figures materialised out of the nearby foliage.
Tamamori brandished his torchlight like a sword, steadfastly ignoring the fact that the beam was shaking. "Miyacchi?" he said, "is that you?"
"It is Miyacchi," Miyata's voice floated back, distressed. "It is Miyacchi whose eyes are crying..."
"That torch is like, plus ten brightness!" a second voice exclaimed. "Wow, handy. Super handy!"
"Who are you?" Tamamori asked, lowering the beam of his torch to shine at the chest of the second guy, instead of right in his face as it seemed he'd accidentally done to Miyata.
"Senga Kento!" the second guy chirped. "Are you Tama-chan?"
"Tamamori," Tamamori said curtly. "So you're the one who needs help?"
"Yup! I need serious help, man."
"Alright," Tamamori said. Senga, he thought, seemed pretty cheerful about being retarded.
Miyata wiped his eyes on his sleeve as they recovered from assault, and stepped tentatively closer. "Where's your friend...?" he asked Tamamori. "Nikaido something...?"
"Just Nikaido," Tamamori said, and glanced back. Puzzlingly enough though, Nikaido wasn't there. Behind was only tree and gloom, the shadows thickening as the sun disappeared. It was very nearly fully dark now. Tamamori glanced over his other shoulder and then turned around properly, torchlight flashing. Nikaido was still nowhere to be seen. "...Nikaido? ...?" After all that high talk about Tamamori being the one who'd run off...
Suddenly, a ball of white fluff streaked past Tamamori's left foot and leapt right into the middle of the triangle of humans. There it sat, wide-eyed and shaking scared.
Mystery solved.
"That's him," Tamamori said, and pinned the little white rabbit with the beam of his torch.
"Oh," Miyata said cordially, leaning down a little. "Nice to meet you, Nika-chan~" he smiled.
Senga, on the other hand, was on his hands and knees in an instant. "She's so cute!" he cooed. Nikaido tried to skitter back, but Senga cornered him in a makeshift little pen with his arms.
Tamamori smirked. "He. Nikaido's male."
"Hm?" Senga blinked. "For real?" He scooped the rabbit up in order to check.
Tamamori was struck with the thought then, that he might like Senga's type of retardedness. A furious bunny was an amusing thing. Nikaido thrashed around in Senga's grasp, his little self no doubt feeling a bit more than slightly violated. Tamamori indulged himself a small fit of amusement behind one hand as the drama unfolded.
"...oh," Senga said at length. "You're right, Tamamori. He's definitely male."
"You've got funny friends, Tama-chan," Miyata laughed awkwardly by Tamamori's side. (As if he could talk.)
"Mm," Tamamori shrugged, holding out the flashlight. Miyata dutifully took it from him without being otherwise prompted. "Mr. Rabbit is interesting enough, I suppose."
The bunny stilled in Senga's hands, one of its eyes glaring up in Tamamori's direction.
"Aww~" Senga said. "An angry face! So cute~" His tones turned babying. "D'yew wanna wide on my shoulder, Bunny-chyon?"
Nikaido shook his head, the motion vehement in spite of his minusculity.
"Did you teach him that?" Tamamori murmured.
"Hm? What?" Miyata blinked.
"The -chan thing..."
"No?"
"Hm..."
"We gotta lotta walking to do though~" Senga argued, face to face with Nikaido, holding the bunny up high. "A whooole lotta walking, so are yew sure? We don't wanna weave yew behind or step on yew or nothin'~"
"You... might want to put him down," Miyata tried tentatively.
Tamamori shrugged at the quizzical glance Senga cast around. "Just a hunch," he said. A hunch based on the fact that Nikaido was struggling kind of ferally, but whatever. Rabbits probably couldn't give themselves aneurysms. Maybe.
"Ah..." Senga said, and shrugged to himself. "Okay." He let Nikaido go in thin air, and stepped back.
The bunny avatar flailed as it fell, but Nikaido was human-shaped again as he hit the forest floor in a crouch. Next instant, he was standing. And tugging uncomfortably at the crotch of his pants. "What the hell's your problem?!"
Surprised, Senga's agitation hit the roof just as fast. "-what do you mean what's my problem!?" he shouted right back. Nikaido's angry face wasn't so cute in human form. "You're the one that turned into such a tiny, girl-looking bunny in the first place!"
"That's because you and that Miyata guy totally freaked me out showing up through the trees like that!" Nikaido snapped.
"Oops~" Miyata chuckled.
"It's not our fault you're so scaredy cat!" Senga yelled, his hands balling into fists.
Somewhere nearby, a bough snapped and crashed to the forest floor. Nikaido yelped. Senga blinked.
"Whoa," Miyata observed, impressed. "He's got psychic powers~!"
"There aren't any such thing," Tamamori muttered. "They don't exist." It just wasn't physically possible, especially in the virtual world. He brought up a vicinity scan to check for hostiles... it wasn't probable that they'd run into anybody nasty, but you never knew when you had a guy like Miyata in your party. Nikaido also seemed to be a trouble magnet, and Senga was currently unknown.
"...mou, why are you a bunny again?" Senga asked Nikaido. It was a rhetorical question full of pout. He crouched by the other's quivering white form with a certain reluctance and sighed, cupping his hands close to the ground. Nikaido scrambled aboard without apparent second thought. "I totally can't yell at you this way, you know...?"
Nikaido did seem to know. His nose twitched cutely, drawing a little whining sound from Senga who tried valiantly to resist the adorable, but failed and cuddled Nikaido close the next second. The arrangement seemed to please Nikaido a great deal.
"...Tama-chan," Miyata said thoughtfully, "if I got a bunny avatar, would you carry me?"
"No," Tamamori replied crisply. He checked the results of his scanner. Nothing so far. Still... maybe they should get going regardless.
"Ah," Miyata grinned anyway. "I thought so..."
"Senga-" Tamamori started.
But had to compose himself when Senga turned around with Nikaido perched atop his head.
"Hm?"
"..."
Miyata sporfled.
"...what am I even here for?" Tamamori muttered.
"Oh!" Senga exclaimed, jarring Nikaido a bit from his perch. The bunny's front paws slipped down Senga's bangs until he scrambled back to where gravity didn't want him so bad.
Senga, Tamamori thought with a (very) distant admiration, seemed entirely okay with the fact that his hair was totally messed up. Unperturbed, the other reached into the inside of his tunic and pulled out a thin scroll. Not sealed. Not encrypted. "This," Senga said, looking up at Tamamori through his mussed bangs, with serious eyes. "I need to deliver it to the castle."
Tamamori regarded the plain scroll. So plain. And to a castle? "There's a castle in this scenario?" he muttered. "I had no idea."
Senga's face fell yet again with a very soft wail. "That's exactly what he said!" He pointed to Miyata.
Tamamori sighed a little. "Miyacchi... you're in this scenario all the time..." Tamamori wasn't. Codes aside, Miyata should theoretically have been able to help Senga better.
Miyata shrugged, sheepish. "Well, I've never looked for a castle before. It's not like I come here to find princesses to save, you know?"
That much was true. Tamamori pursed his lips. Miyata wasn't exactly adventurous, or the type to save anybody in distress. In fact, Tamamori was pretty sure that Miyata was about the furthest thing from Prince Charming that existed.
"Well, if you just want to get to the castle," he said for the hell of it, "I could just get a chopper in and..."
"A chopper?" Senga chirped. "Hm? Will that help get rid of the trees?" Nikaido thumped his hind feet down on Senga's head. "Hey! Ow!" Reaching up, Senga tried to pick Nikaido up, but the other just dug his paws and teeth into Senga's hair, refusing to be brought down. "Ow, ow, ow..."
"Not if it's a helicopter?" Miyata supplied with an awkward chuckle, as Tamamori just stared at Senga like Senga was stupid. For many more reasons than one.
"Waaait, waaait..." Senga said, disbelief running through his elongated vowels. He turned back to Tamamori, wide-eyed. Atop his head, Nikaido's long ears flapped in amusement as Senga, distracted, ceased attempting to rid himself of the bunny's pestilence. "What? You can do that kind of thing?"
"Actually, getting rid of the trees would be harder..." Tamamori looked away. "A little."
"I told you he's good~♥" Miyata grinned.
"Miyacchi..." Tamamori said, giving Miyata a Look. Have you been saying weird things again?
"Nothing, nothing!" Miyata preempted, holding his hands up as his eyes disappeared with a chuckle. "I just said you were good~♥"
Despite this, when Senga snickered behind his hand in a wonderful display of failed discretion, Tamamori felt vaguely as if his reputation had been tarnished somehow. "...okay."
Miyata beamed at him. Senga beamed at him. And Nikaido snuffled a laugh behind his little front paws.
Tamamori regarded them all with a measure of wariness.
While these happy expressions were all well and good, and might even have been pleasant in daytime environments not lit by torchlight... well. They were in a nighttime environment lit by torchlight, and the white teeth and collective lack of visible irises kind of made Tamamori's skin crawl.
I'm surrounded by idiots, he thought, mind bluntly graceless. "Please stop that... all of you..."
"まぁ~" Miyata said and coughed, turning. "Well... Senga..."
"Well..." Senga said, glancing somewhere up to the right, "I'm supposed to walk there anyway... because of my foot."
"What foot?" Miyata blinked.
Senga looked down in surprise, nearly upsetting Nikaido from his perch again. Indignantly, the bunny scrambled for purchase. "My foot!" Senga exclaimed, wide-eyed. "It's gone!"
"..." Tamamori said, not minding his own incomprehension at present. As far as he could see, Senga was still in very clear possession of both his bipedal extremities.
"Ah!" Senga said, flushing a vague pink in the reflected torchlight. "I mean I hurt it before and my boss said I had to get rid of the bandage and walk and learn to get rid of the bandage..."
"Oh!" Miyata said quickly. "Oh really! なるほど~ I see."
"...sooo awkward," Tamamori muttered.
"Hey, I'm trying here!" Miyata said under a laugh, and rubbed the back of his neck. Awkwardly.
Tamamori ignored him, turning back to Senga again. "What does the castle mean to you anyway?" he asked directly. He was doing this as a favour to Miyata, he reminded himself. So the sooner he got it done the better-not least because it would suck if he had to jet halfway through because of yet more chasers. The day wasn't over yet; his streak of bad luck might still be running.
Senga blinked owlishly back at him for a moment. "It changes depending on the person...?" he asked. Settled, Nikaido also stared, nose twitching.
Tamamori nodded. "Landmarks and stuff," he said, tugging on his ear again. "Sometimes they change. Because they're just goals. Representations of something."
Senga stared.
Tamamori made a pained face and forced himself to continue: "Each path to the castle is different, and once you actually get inside the castle, the result is also different. Depending on what you wanted in the first place. So if... you want me to help you get there, as opposed to getting there yourself, I have to know what you're aiming for..."
"Speech! Speech! Speech!" Miyata struck up the hushed chant, golf-clapping in time.
Tamamori continued to ignore him. Following Tamamori's lead, Senga did the same. "Umm..." he said, and held up the scroll to Tamamori. "Well, I have to deliver this to Prince Domoto Koichi. It's from my boss."
Tamamori and Miyata both went dead still at that, Miyata freezing halfway through a clap.
"Um..." Miyata started, glancing at Tamamori-
"Say that again?" Tamamori asked Senga, tones suddenly professionally smooth, strictly distant.
"This... letter?" Senga said, shrinking back a little though he wasn't sure why. "I'm supposed to deliver it... to Prince Domoto Koichi. From... my boss."
Legal entities Y00, I14. 53-N, errant 21-K.
( 12: back up the truck )
"Do you think we should check on him?" Iida murmured aloud, not really minding either way. He was currently tracking the location of Senga's avatar, but not much else.
"No," Yokoo said. "So long as he hasn't left the original scenario, he should learn to deal with these situations himself."
"Alright. I'll message Takizawa that he won't be back for dinner, then..."
Yokoo snickered at that. "Don't bother. I set a PM to auto-send at eighteen-hundred when Tackey came back from issuing the challenge."
"Playing at prediction again, Wataru?" Iida chuckled.
"Well, I was right wasn't I?" Yokoo grinned.
"You were."
Iida didn't bother to say that the chances of anybody being right when betting against Senga were higher than when betting on him in most situations, but that was okay. Yokoo already knew it. And sometimes his sixth sense was eerily accurate...
Senga's existence just didn't really warrant such psychic efforts most of the time, was all.
They lapsed back into a comfortable silence broken only occasionally when Yokoo's game bleeped at him with understated urgency.
Whack-an-errant's-contact-sequence.
The errants were all real people, actual illegals, the game's algorithms based on real-time online data; Yokoo was tagging them all harmlessly though, briefly painting each one with mere identification rather than attacking them for real.
Iida watched the data stream with detached interest. Yokoo was doing well, having only missed one so far.
"You know..." Yokoo said at length, after thirteen separate bleeps. "If the government hired us, with maybe Kitayama and Taisuke or the Guard, we'd probably be able to clear off all the errants online in under a fortnight. And have fun doing it, too."
"In five days, Goseki-kun would say," Iida chuckled. "It's a good thing we're not on the opposite side then, isn't it."
"The wrong side," Yokoo corrected absently.
"I don't know about right and wrong," Iida said.
"Sure you do, Kyon," Yokoo told him, still not taking his eyes off of his game. Not that he was really required to look elsewhere, for propriety's sake or otherwise-Iida wasn't physically present-but it meant his focus was still elsewhere occupied.
That was fine by Iida, though. An off-hand comment like that meant Yokoo didn't see the need to reassure Iida that his memories contained accurate imaging of what was 'good' or 'bad', despite them being such exclusively human concepts. Somehow this deduction was more comforting than anything else Yokoo might have told Iida directly. As was the knowledge that Iida could still read Yokoo like that. Iida soon found he felt better.
Requiring 'comfort'... feeling 'better'...
Other things that were exclusively 'human'. Iida considered the thought of having experienced them for a moment. The idea was...
Ultimately inconsequential, wasn't it? Always. Yes. 1.
Iida gave a virtual shrug to himself, directing his own processing power back to the mundane task of minding Senga's sequence. The boy was currently still chatting with two other entities-one an errant, one legal-and engaged in a continuous interaction with a third.
From the data stream, Iida recognised them all:
The code of 21-K, the boy with Kitayama's skates; M15, a wholly unremarkable government agent but for his pointed (defiant) ineffectiveness; and, of course, 74-M, with his scrambler. The boy with the potential to crack the phoenix model.
The dots that had been set down were starting to join of their own volition, faster than expected, and with exponentially increasing speed-something Iida found objectively fascinating. No matter the limitless potential found in imagination and the scripting of code, real life always seemed to be one step ahead.
Naturally though, almost as if to compensate for all that extra momentum, the problem with the unpredictable progression of real life was its ability to misstep and tangle, and come to a halt in the blink of an eye...
And because it was almost a sure bet more than a tendency, really, Iida continued to keep watch.
:::
Tamamori turned an unreadable glare, sharper by torchlight, in Miyata's direction-it was always Miyata, though, that bore the brunt of his anger, since Tamamori wasn't the type to bare his emotions to anybody he wasn't familiar with. "You know this crosses the line."
Miyata mustered up an awkward smile, rubbing the back of his neck. "I didn't think to ask..."
"You should've."
And just like that, Tamamori's avatar turned around and disappeared, his presence gone from the scenario.
"Huh?" Senga blinked.
Miyata sighed.
Nikaido jumped down from Senga's head, landing in a crouch-human again-on the forest floor. "What the hell?" He kicked the air where Tamamori's avatar had been standing just seconds ago. "What was that about? I told him not to run off on me."
"Ah..." Miyata said, with something of an apologetic bow. "He hasn't run. I mean, that was more of a 'storm off' than a 'flee', if you catch my drift..."
Senga's eyes trailed downcast. "I'm sorry I made him angry at you...?" Inadvertently. He didn't really know how it had happened...
Nikaido crossed his arms, unimpressed. "Uh-huh. So tell us what got his knickers in a twist this time."
"Well... we did kind of ask him to hack up to the Princes' gates," Miyata said uncertainly.
Senga looked crestfallen, shoulders drooping even further at the realisation.
"He could've just said no," Nikaido countered. Hell, Tamamori hadn't even had to hack it up to there at all. He could've just drawn up a scenario map and gotten Miyata and Senga to memorise the route before taking his leave.
"Well," Miyata said, "he doesn't like the government too much..."
"Yeah, well neither do I?" Not liking the government was every illegal's excuse under the sun, including Nikaido's own on a regular enough basis. It wasn't enough. "Like that means anything."
"...why are you arguing with me then?" Miyata raised an eyebrow, curious. "I mean, I'm just wondering." If Senga worked for a guy who was close enough to one of the Princes to be sending him hand-delivered mail, then... theoretically, Nikaido should want to foil Senga, too.
Nikaido wasn't much into logical warfare, though. "'Cause you're defending him, I guess?" he snorted, still fundamentally offended by the way Tamamori had left. He indicated Senga with a jerk of his head. "That, and 'cause this guy kind of doesn't really seem up to it."
"Hey!" Senga protested. "That's because I was in the wrong!"
Nikaido raised an eyebrow, rounding on the messenger. "How, exactly?"
"...well," Senga tried-"Um, I kind of..."-and failed.
Nikaido handily picked up the ball for him: "You were kind of dumb enough to pick a forest scenario to walk through, in real time when it's dark, and you got lost in it and wanted help. Apart from every step up until the 'wanting help' bit, wanna tell me where you went wrong?"
"!..." Senga flailed on the inside, before skipping that question and looking to Miyata instead, with pleading eyes. "Um. Is he gonna be mad at you for very long...?" Because if Tamamori was going to stay angry, maybe Senga could write him an apology note...
Miyata smiled, eyes crinkling up at the edges. "Not so long...? Give him two weeks, maybe, and it'll all be back to normal."
"...two weeks?" Nikaido stared, at once incredulous and amused. A fortnight was ages to stay pissed off at somebody. "What a girl."
"Well~" Miyata said, grinning. He knew the right answer to this one: "It's not just the pissed off part. He stops being angry pretty quick, but then it's a pride thing, see? So it's only after that..." Happily, Miyata gave a peace sign, confident in his Tamamori Theory from long experience, or so it seemed. "まぁ~ he'll be in contact again when he misses me enough."
"Ohh..." Senga said, mouth very o-shaped, as if it all made sense.
Nikaido just rolled his eyes. "Right. Like I said, a total girl."
Miyata cleared his throat.
"..." Senga shut his mouth and said nothing, shifting his weight from side to side.
"So." Nikaido randomly stomped his foot, sending a few small bugs skittering away from them across the fallen leaves-at which Senga shrieked, jerking back. Nikaido blinked at him.
"...sorry," Senga said, composing himself. He stood on the balls of his feet though, after that. Amusingly enough. Then again, his feet were bare.
Nikaido was tempted to stomp again.
"...do you want to change scenarios?" Miyata asked.
Senga shook his head. "I have to walk..."
Miyata raised a brow. "Even when your foot's virtually healed...?"
Senga shrugged miserably, but said nothing. He wasn't sure. When he wasn't sure, he liked to stick to the status quo.
Nikaido didn't really care either way. "...so," he tried again, shrugging. "What's in your letter anyway?" If the thing wasn't sealed, its contents were fair game.
"...I don't know?" Senga said, and looked down at the scroll in his hand.
"You didn't look at it?" Miyata asked.
"I didn't look at it," Senga nodded.
"Then let's open it up," Nikaido said, impatient. They were doing a whole lot of nothing at the moment, and even if Tamamori would return to Miyata (in a whole two weeks! and they were supposed to be friends) that was still no guarantee Nikaido would be able to find him again.
Which had nothing to do with anything really, because Nikaido was pretty sure that if he started looking now or if he tried in a month's time instead, he'd still have the same (very slim) chance of finding a good slicer who didn't want to be found.
But it just pissed him off that they were doing nothing in the meantime, was all.
Senga blinked at him. "But... it's for Prince Domoto..."
"Koichi," Miyata added. "さま."
"So?" Nikaido persisted. "He's not going to care if we open it if it's not even got a seal or password on it or anything. He's not even going to know it's been looked at unless he digs up its history."
Senga looked decidedly uncomfortable. "But it's Boss Tackey's co..."
"Co what?" Nikaido demanded.
"Co... respondants? Correspondence..."
"...did you say 'Boss Tackey'?" Miyata asked, suddenly guarded.
Senga nodded, head tilted. "I work for Tackey-"
"Takizawa Hideaki?"
Senga blinked. "You know him?"
"Um. You know what..." Miyata said, changing the subject with a sudden, intent look at a watch he wasn't wearing. "I should really get going... I've got work tomorrow, and it's kind of getting late."
"Hey-!" Nikaido protested. "What's with you guys just up and leaving like this?"
"It was nice meeting you okay? Senga~" Miyata smiled and spread his fingers in a wave, just once. "Nikaido~" And waved again. Just once. And set the torch down on the forest floor. "Take care of yourselves~"
"Um... bye?" Senga said, as Miyata's crouching avatar abruptly faded from view. "I guess..."
Nikaido frowned, turning to Senga with his hands posted on his hips as the other picked up the twice-abandoned flashlight. "Alright," Nikaido said, "I don't get this. One gets pissed at the mention of the Princes; the other one freaks out when he hears about who you work for..." He narrowed his eyes, crossing his arms in front of his chest. "And you still need to get to the castle."
Senga nodded. It kind of sounded like Nikaido was maybe going somewhere with that line of thought. "Yeah...?" Senga was tentatively interested in what the other had to say. (Not least because he didn't really have a lot of options anymore that didn't involve a whole lot of fat chances. But at least he had the torch...)
Objectively, Nikaido figured that if Tamamori's friend had run off at the name of Senga's boss, then... logically, Nikaido probably also ought to feel a little scared, warning bells and all that jazz.
Logically.
But Nikaido had never been one for much logic and sense, if he had a choice in the matter. Especially concerning issues that piqued his curiosity.
So: "I'll do you a deal," he proposed instead, like a moth to flame. He grinned. "You send me a data dump about your boss and what he's got to do with the Princes and stuff, and let me read the scroll, and I'll cut you the quickest way to the castle from here on a map."
Senga looked dubious. "All that information, for just a map?"
"Unless you want verbal directions or something," Nikaido said. And affected a deep, stuffy voice: "'Take a left at the roots of the big tree five hundred metres ahead, and climb over the fallen bough...!'"
Senga cracked a grin at that. "No... no, I mean a map would be good. But... you won't come with me?" It wasn't that he was concerned about the possibility of Nikaido giving him a fake map-Senga wasn't sure why, but he felt like he could trust Nikaido's kind of character-but just because Miyata had left them the torch... didn't mean Senga wanted to walk through the nighttime forest alone.
Nikaido, for his part, gave a considering tilt of his head and looked around. Nothing else creepy had happened lately, like people materialising out of the trees... Hn. "Well, what I'll do'll depend what your data dump tells me, won't it?" he said and shrugged, non-committal. "I mean, Miyata took off kinda fast."
Senga pouted. "Mou, I don't know why he did that..." He chewed his upper lip for a bit, considering the offer as he mumbled. "I mean, we're not scary or illegals or anything."
Nikaido sniffed, assuming that by 'we', Senga meant his boss and co. Because he sure hadn't been referring to Nikaido and Tamamori unless he really was that dumb. He waited.
"...um," Senga said at last, worrying his lip again. "I don't want to give you a direct data transfer-but! But but but but but-" He quickly held his hands up, trying to forestall Nikaido's annoyed frown. "But, I'll tell you all I know while we walk, if you come with me." That sounded like a fair deal to him. "And if you come all the way to the castle, you can read the scroll. How's that?"
Really, it wasn't as if Senga was privy to that much of Boss Tackey's business anyway, so he probably wouldn't unveil anything vital... He beamed winningly, convinced he'd get this one. "Data dumps are boring. Interaction is important to humans, you know!" (Who'd have thought Boss Tackey's random preachings would come in handy for trade negotiations one day...?)
Nikaido raised an eyebrow. What Senga said was true, and yet-something about the way he said it still made him sound kind of crazy. Nevertheless, Nikaido gave an inward shrug. It wasn't as if Nikaido himself had ever been accused of having a problem with too much crazy, after all. He grinned and stuck a hand out for the shaking. "Alright, done deal."
1- 13 or 14 are headed for so much random exposition, lol. *pad pad pad* (...i don't know how iida's pov got in there. 8D; unexpected.)
2- stretched the canon rabbit thing because four people talking at once = HARD unless they're ABC, awkjergt. xDD
3- not satisfactory, these two parts were. 8D ♥ OK, NEXT.