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He loves it when the girl visits. And he thinks the girl might also like his visits, at least a little bit, as well.
The adults around try their best to keep her away from him. They say that the two of them shouldn’t be talking. But they’ve found their own ways. Even if it means that the girl will eventually be taken away again by her… father? He isn’t sure of her and the man’s dynamic, but it seems like the one most fitting.
Ever since the first night they met, it’s sort of been like that. The girl had come with a man-not her father, a different one that looked much nicer–and they had come tiptoeing through the halls to see him. Or, rather, they had come to see the new weapon they had heard about, and they found him in his room. He had been sitting on his little bed, watching his feet–his new boots–when he noticed them peeking in through the door.
They asked him his name that night. They didn’t seem to like A-258. Well, nothing to be done about that.
He doesn’t remember exactly how long they stayed with him that night. But they kept asking questions. So many questions that he didn’t know the answers to. It made his head start to spin.
And then when the sun started to rise, they seemed to remember again that they shouldn’t have been there in that room with him.
Maybe they realised that a bit too late. Maybe they got into some sort of trouble. After that only the girl really came to see him. He would see the man sometimes, with the other soldiers, but they never even made eye contact. Save for the little incident, of course, which he would rather not think about.
He doesn’t remember much from that incident, then again he doesn’t remember much of anything most of the time.
Just his room and the girl’s visits and the rest are only bits and pieces here and there. But what he does remember is that he was standing in front of the man and the man had something in his hands, and then after that the girl’s crying, and then the girl hugging him tightly, so tightly that it hurt, and thanking him for… something. And then after that… he was back in his room again.
But the hug was nice. The hug was warm. And he got it by doing something that was good. He may not remember what he did, but he remembers that he did it, and that is almost enough to justify the gesture.
The girl is some sort of doctor. He isn’t sure how, all the doctors he has seen in his life–and he has seen a lot of them–are a lot older than that.
But he does know that she is really, really good at it. Everytime the other doctors do anything, he has felt so tired afterwards and everything hurt and they never even talk to him and everything takes so long, but–
He remembers one time when they sent him out into the battle and activated… something. He isn't quite sure what they called it, but apparently that was their big plan, the sole reason he was sent here. Their winning card. They would clear out everyone, every single soldier, from the field, and they would send him out and activate it. And when the enemy is wiped out, they would deactivate it again and take him away to the doctors.
What matters is that there was this one time where they didn’t do that. Everything hurt a lot more and he could barely keep his eyes open. They didn’t take him to the normal doctors he usually gets taken to. They handed him over to the girl, and the relief was almost instant.
He was so focused on the butterflies floating around as it happened, that he barely even noticed what had happened for the first few moments. But nothing hurt anymore, and he felt so comfortable there. He almost wished the butterflies would last forever.
But they never took her to the girl after that. After that all over again it was the doctors and their injections and tests and the way they talked like he didn’t exist. He much preferred the girl’s butterflies, but it’s not like anyone would listen to him.
But now it is finally over! Or so he has overheard. It’s easy for him to overhear things when no one really acknowledges that he can understand things. He can just sit in a corner and they would spill everything without taking him into account.
It’s over. The war is over. The girl is going to go home, with her friend that he only talked to that first night, as she has told him. And he is going to go to… well, he assumes Professor N will be taking him back to wherever, but he has decided he much prefers that to this place and the past few months.
He doesn’t care about that right now. What he does care about is giving the news to the girl. He’s sure she will be so happy to hear it! She has been looking so tired, so sad these last few weeks, they could barely even hold a conversation.
But now she’ll be happy again! And maybe, if she is happy enough, he can ask her to show him the pretty butterflies again.
He isn’t stupid. Of course he knows that they will most likely never see each other again. The girl will go and have a normal life and maybe even go to school. School sounds fascinating to him, and from what she has heard from the girl, she must miss it at least a little bit, despite complaining about how tiring it is. And he will go back to the labs and the testings and the checkups, until it is ‘his time’ again.
He considered leaving with the girl one time, when he was left alone in his room for far too long, but he shut the idea down quickly. People might not notice when he is there, but they sure seem good at noticing when he isn’t.
Maybe before being part of this war, it would’ve been possible to flee, but not anymore, with so many eyes on him.
The girl and her friend would be in so much trouble if he did that. He can guess what would happen. There are rumours about her being unstable already, about her attacking people and having to heal them again. They could use that against her if he tried to follow her out.
So no matter what happens, he needs to stay where he has been brought up. He is young, but he isn’t stupid. He knows that the more he keeps in line, the less people will be hurt.
The only comfort now is that he knows there will be circumstances where they would let him out. He just needs to wait for them to arrive.
He has been told he has duties to fulfil, and he must fulfil them to keep people from being hurt. And he has decided that he wants to be a responsible one.
He would not fail at it. He would be excellent. He would do his best. It is all because of him that this war didn’t end so badly, of course. Or so he has been told.
He can see the girl sitting at the end of the corridor now. She is curled in on herself, as she usually is when he goes and looks for her.
“Hey!” He calls out, and the girl’s head instantly snaps up. Even from so far away, he can see her sadness, but he can also fix it now.
He speeds up his steps into a light run, and turns back and lets himself fall at the last second. Right next to the girl, he hits the floor in a sitting position and his back hits the wall that she is leaning against, and the pain from them combined together gets a small yelp out of him.
Maybe not his greatest or coolest plan for landing, but it could’ve gone worse. He immediately shakes off the pain and turns her head towards the girl with a smile. “I don’t think you’ve heard the news yet, but–”
“It’s over. Yeah. I’ve heard.” The girl tries to smile back at him, but no matter how soft or small, it’s still a shaky one. She’s been crying, he can tell that much. Her eyes are red and her eyelashes and cheeks are wet with tears. Shouldn’t she be happy? Shouldn’t she be even more excited than him?
His smile slowly fades and he tilts his head in concern. “Are you… okay? Did something happen? I thought you of all people would be… glad.” Her face falls for a moment, and he thinks that she might start crying again.
Maybe he has misread something. Maybe it isn’t this situation that she is so sad about? Maybe something has happened to her friend. Maybe one of the soldiers decided to attack her again, he remembers one time when that happened and her friend had her secretly come to his room to stay for the night. Maybe she really doesn’t secretly like school like he assumed.
“Oh, it’s nothing, it’s just–uh–” She shakes her head and wipes at her eyes harshly. “It’s just where I’m going to go after this.”
He frowns. Is she not happy about going with her friend? It has been the plan for so long, and she has talked about it so often that he assumed she was happy with it. But maybe not? It makes no sense though. She was absolutely ecstatic when she was mentioning it last week. “Are you not happy about going with your friend?”
“I am. That’s the problem, I–” She leans her head to the wall and her hand comes up to touch the metal butterfly in her hair. “That’s exactly the problem. I’m… not going with Shunzen.”
“...Why not? I thought you were told you could choose where you go after this? As a thank you for everything you did.” That’s something he was sure of, because both of them had overheard it. And yet it seemed to be not true?
“They did. And I did say I want to go with Shunzen, but because I’m a child there were still things they needed to make sure of to accept it. And they said that I couldn’t because they thought he was too unstable. So now I’m going with Mori, since it’s the only place I have left.” At his confused expression, she elaborates. “Mori is… you know the guy that usually comes for me whenever I lose track and stay with you for too long? That’s him.”
Oh. That one. The man he had assumed was her father, but it seemed like he was wrong about that one.
He tries to look on the bright side. “It’s… going to be better than here either way, right? At least you won’t get hurt as much anymore. I think.” Maybe he is assuming wrong again–he really doesn’t know.
The girl is quiet for a minute or two. And then she finally speaks again. “Maybe. I don’t know.” She blinks a few times and turns to him. “What about you? Where are you going after this?”
He considers answering honestly for a moment, but she already looks so sad that he doesn’t want to make it worse. So he just shrugs.
“Back where I came from.” It’s not a lie. But it’s just vague enough to make it hard to ask further questions.
More silence between them. “Uh–when are you leaving?” He finally brings himself to ask. “I–I guess I assumed you’d leave in the next few days when the soldiers will be going, but um….”
“Oh. Yeah, I’ll… probably be gone tomorrow morning.” She glances up at the clock nearby. It has passed the point of midnight by a few hours. “Or, well, today in a few hours, I guess.”
He leans over the slightest bit and she wraps her arms around him like that one time. It’s nice and comfortable and it’s over as quickly as it happens.
“I–I do hope we’ll meet again someday.” She admits in a soft voice. “You’re really recogniseable–it would be easy, I think. I could even spot you in a crowd with that hair of yours.”
He slowly shakes his head. “I wouldn’t. I’m not good at remembering faces.” He can barely remember his own sometimes.
She chuckles at that, and gestures at her hair clip. “You can remember that. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to make myself take it off.”
He nods a little at that, almost smiling as well. “I think I can remember that.” If he can remember all of her visits so well, then surely he can remember the accessory too.
She smiles at that. And then– “My name! Oh, wow, I never actually told you my name, did I?” He shakes his head, and she smacks herself in the forehead and yawns. “Oh dear. Well, I guess it’s about time for a proper introduction. My name is Akiko. Akiko Yosano.”
He nods. Akiko. He can remember that. The girl–Akiko stares at him expectantly, like she is waiting for an answer in return. “You already know my name.” He says, confused. “I told you the first day, it’s–”
“That’s not a name.” She cuts in, shaking her head. Her eyelids have started drooping. She must be really tired. “I don’t know what it is, but it’s not a name. Do you really not have one?”
He doesn’t look at her anymore and drops his head. A stupid question, he does have a name, it’s A-258.
“Can I choose a name for you then? I’m going to choose one for you. Hm. How about…” Akiko yawns again and lets her head fall onto her knees and her eyes shut. “...Nakanari? I think that’s a nice name.”
Nakanari. He’s not sure if he likes it, but… he thinks he could be Nakanari if she wants him to. He turns to tell her that, and to ask to see the butterflies again, and finds that she is already asleep.