2023-02-17: Hurt
- Cast: Gridman, Neon Genesis Junior High Students, Shozo
- Where: Tsutsujidai
- Date: U.C. 0097 02 17
- Summary: Shozo returns home, seeking answers. Each of the Hyper Agents try to answer him in their own way. In the end, will it be enough?
<Pose Tracker> Gridman has posed.
"I'm really glad you joined us." Gridman says, a smile on his face. Brilliant yellow eyes shimmer with life and light.
"Yeah..." Vit sighs, his phone in one hand. "Anything to stop you guys blowing up my phone..."
Gridman laughs softly, a gentle sort of sound. He, Vit, and Calibur sit at Borr's dining room table -- which is a generous word for the object. In truth, it's a raised planter box flipped over and stacked on some cinderblocks. At least the chairs are the real deal.
Across the room, Max has his hair pulled back in a messy bun. "Borr. This is intolerable. How are you caring for a child in these conditions?" One large hand gestures to the stovetop, covered in succulents.
Borr, with pruning shears in hand, looks up from the basil they're shaping to give Max a sour look. "He likes it. And besides, he's some kinda little man from beyond the void. It's healthy for him to get a respect for life! Maybe it'll prevent him blowing up the damn city someday or something."
Gridman smiles at the commotion. Borr's house is... quite covered in plants. They've converted half of it to a massive greenhouse, and the other half has more kitchen herbs and succulents than is reasonable. But this is the first time they've all been together since... Ennil left. It feels good. Maybe it's all in his head, but Gridman finds himself feeling just a bit more 'whole' in moments like this.
"S--she's been seen." Calibur mumbles, slouched forward on the table. "Several times. I--it isn't hopeless."
Vit flicks his thumb against his phone, pulling up his home screen. Ennil and Vit pose in front of an arcade machine displaying a high score. They're both grinning.
"Yeah. Yeah, I know." Vit manages a little smile. "I'm a long way from giving up."
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
A low, groaning /crack/ breaks the silence, literally, as the assembled hyper agents feel a deadly chill affix to their hearts. Before their very eyes, creation itself begins to crumble and become unwound, the air in front of them fissuring, infernal red light pouring out. Eventually, the firmament can take no more, and it BURSTS, shattering to reveal a man-sized portal into a crimson hell...
And then Shozo hops out, holding a stack of boxes as big as he was. As his feet touch the ground, the shards of reality reassemble themselves immediately behind them, leaving no trace. Toddling over, Shozo puts the boxes on the coffee table and waves to the others.
"Hi guys! I'm back! Oh, are you Vit?"
<Pose Tracker> Gridman has posed.
In perfect harmony, four of the five present Hyper Agents recoil in horror.
"Gridman!" Max calls, immediately flashing between him and the cracking portal.
Calibur stands, appearing at Max's side, sword already in hand.
Vit drops his phone to the 'table' surface, pushing himself to his feet so quickly his chair clatters to the ground.
"It's fine." Says Borr.
...
"...Shozo?" Gridman asks, peeking around Max's huge form.
Calibur, with a heavy sigh, sheathes his blade. Max crosses his arms over his barrel chest, and Vit...
"So. We're okay with this?" He glances between his comrades, baffled. "This is -- yeah I'm Vit. What the hell, kid."
Borr puts their shears down, walking over to the little child. They help Shozo put the boxes on the table. "You buy something? How's the allowance working out? Need some more?"
With a pat to Max's arm, Gridman walks around the man, standing next to Shozo. "Hey, Shozo. It's nice to see you again. Does making those portals hurt you at all..?"
Vit isn't sitting down yet. He looks absolutely flabbergasted at Borr's casual reaction.
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
Shozo starts to hand out the boxes to the various hyper agents, including Vit, as well as pulling bags of rice crackers out of a big bag. The rice crackers were in a fitting japanese, but the boxes say "RIKSENT- DUTY-FREE" on them.
"I gotcha souvenirs!" he chirps excitedly, before looking to Borr. "Yeah! But the people in Riksent said I had to exchange the currency. Oh, I met Mr. Knight there! He was nice!"
That whiplash moment passing casually, Shozo turns back to Gridman. "No? Why would it?" Almost casually, he reaches over and CRACKs a little pinhole in space with his finger before repairing it. He then hands Gridman his gifts, beaming and continuing to hand out boxes.
<Pose Tracker> Gridman has posed.
"Thank you, young man." Max says, returning to Borr's kitchen. He seems to be trying to cook something amidst the greenery. The rice cracker box is placed carefully on the counter.
"Uh," Vit watches Calibur pop open his box and try one. "...yeah, thanks. Shozo, right? Thanks..."
Borr pats Shozo on the shoulder, smiling. "Great job, lil' dude. I'll get you some more cash."
Gridman, in turn, also opens his box and munches on a few crackers. "Oh, how is Knight doing? We haven't seen him in a while." Crunch, crunch crunch. "I'm glad you're not hurting yourself. I just wanted to check! Sometimes people do things they feel like they have to, even if it hurts."
"W--we don't want that for you." Calibur adds.
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
Shozo smiled at Borr before turning to Gridman and nodding.
"He's good! You didn't tell me he was big, though! You said he was still young, but he looked like an adult. I liked his suit." He hops onto a chair with a bag of rice crackers and starts gingerly munching at them.
"A lot of people have been concerned about me today. Knight, that robot lady, and now you. Well, the robot lady /was/ concerned. I think she wants to destroy me now..." He takes a pouting bite of rice cracker, chewing quietly for a moment.
"Gridman, how do people decide what's a good thing and what's a bad thing?"
<Pose Tracker> Gridman has posed.
"Yeah, that's new." Gridman laughs. "I haven't actually seen him yet, but I've been texting Akane. They're family. I wish I could pull the same trick and grow up, too."
"We'll get you a suit soon. Just gotta make sure you don't immediately grow out of it or something." Borr promises, taking a seat next to Shozo and putting their feet up on the 'table'. "Wait, who wanted to destroy you?! A robot lady? That could be anyone."
Max rolls out dough on the counter, having gently scooted Borr's herbs to one corner. "Shozo, have you ever used cookie-cutters before? I was initially planning on more simple shapes, but this might be fun for you."
Invitingly, Max holds out a collection of hollow plastic items. A star, a lightning bolt, a circle with... a face?, and several other simple shapes.
"Uh," Gridman says in response to Shozo's next question. He sits down, looking to Calibur, first, for help. Calibur meets him with a blank stare.
"I'm not fielding this." Vit grumbles, picking up his phone again.
Max simply nods encouragingly. Borr gives him a thumbs up.
"I can't tell you how other people think, Shozo. But I can tell you what I think. I hope that's okay." Gridman layers his hands atop the table, thinking hard. "To me, something is 'good' if it helps people. If it makes their lives easier and makes them happy. And something is 'bad' if it hurts them. If it makes them sad, or scared, or destroys things they love."
Gridman sighs. "It's not always that simple, but that's what I try to come back when I think about it."
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
Shozo says nothing for a moment, just chewing in silence.
"Does that make me bad, then? That robot lady -- um, Asciel? Her name was Asciel. Asciel... My /existence/ makes her upset, makes her... She realized I wasn't normal, and... Mmm..." he takes another bite of rice cracker, not /sad/, but pensive in a way he hasn't been before. He actually doesn't notice the cookie-cutters initially, his eyes far away.
"I /recognize/ hurting... But I don't understand it. You're hurting," he says, looking up at Gridman and then turning to Vit. "You're hurting. Kaworu is hurting. Even Alexis is hurting, and everyone says /he's/ bad. He's all hurting, all the time. I don't understand..."
<Pose Tracker> Gridman has posed.
"Asciel, huh? I'll see what I can find." Borr grumbles. "Somebody saying that to a kid is bullshit."
Shozo brings up Alexis, and there's a ripple of discomfort from the Hyper Agents. Gridman looks down at his hands, trying to think of how to respond.
But before he can...
"T--this is the hardest part." Calibur looks straight at Shozo. "Not everyone has the same needs. Some people will be hurt by things that help others. N--no one has all the answers."
"Asciel was wrong to say that to you, Shozo." Gridman chimes in, smiling at the young boy. "You're not hurting anyone by just existing. I don't know anything about her, so I can't tell you why she said it. But you have every right to exist. Just like she does. Just like we do."
A soft breath. Gridman wishes, in this moment, that Kaworu was here. He's so much better at these things.
"The truth is, almost everyone is hurting for one reason or another. That's the way this world works. What matters is what you choose to do with the hurt you feel." Gridman glances to Vit. "Let's pretend Vit threw his phone at my head. That would hurt me! But if I threw my phone at /his/ head, it wouldn't do anything to reduce my hurt. It would just make Vit hurt, too."
"Alexis is someone... who was hurt, and then used his hurt as an excuse to hurt others. It didn't make him feel any better, but it made other people very, very sad. He destroyed things that people loved. And /people/ that were loved."
"Basically, kid." Vit rubs at his eyes, exhausted. "You're gonna get hurt eventually. But that doesn't mean you get to hurt others. And don't throw phones."
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
Shozo nodded slowly, taking another bite of rice cracker.
"...OK." he says quietly, digesting the information.
"So how do you make it so that someone isn't hurting anymore? If you can't get rid of it by passing it on to others, does it just... stay with you?" The thought seems to agitate him, and he gets off the chair, standing. "Does it just get bigger and bigger, with no way to get rid of it? How are people supposed to live like that?" He pulls out the Battlenizer and looks into it, frowning.
"...Mister's big, but I think his hurt is bigger, and I don't know how to take it from him. Alexis's hurt is big too, and... I don't know how he can do anything when he's hurting that bad..."
<Pose Tracker> Gridman has posed.
Shozo grows upset. This seems to reach Max, who puts his rolling pin down and walks over. Getting down to his knees, the enormous Hyper Agent places his hand on Shozo's shoulder.
"We cannot /make/ anyone heal." Max's voice is soft, echoing from behind his mask. "But as you live, and move forward, the hurt you feel eases. You cannot force the pain you feel onto others, but when you find people who love you, they will willingly take it on. They will help you carry it."
The Battlenizer gets a wary look from Max and Calibur, but neither intervene to remove it.
"It's like gardening. You remember." Borr turns in her chair. "A little seed is pretty helpless. But we help it. We plant it, and care for it, and it grows. That's how feelings are, too. Whichever feeling you nurture will get strong."
Calibur grunts in affirmative. "A--and never forget. Anyone can change. P--people make bad choices when they're stressed. Sometimes they only need to be loved."
"But sometimes." Vit adds, quietly. "The destruction they'll cause while you try and help them is too much. Sometimes you have to /stop/ someone, instead of saving them. But you have to be very, very careful when you make that decision. It's something we talk over a lot, about Alexis."
Hesitantly, Gridman stands from his chair, also approaching Shozo. "Is it okay if I talk to Mister, Shozo? I have a message I'd like to give him."
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
Shozo seemed... a bit unsatisfied at this.
"But what comes AFTER you stop them? They're still hurting, right? Are you supposed to just... give up on them?" He clasped his fingers together, groaning quietly. When Gridman asked to talk to Mister, he just held up the Battlenizer.
"Everyone wants to talk to Mister... Do you just want me to bring him out? If you know a place with enough space, maybe it'll be fine..."
<Pose Tracker> Gridman has posed.
Vit sighs. "Listen, kid. Saving someone is a responsibility. If you keep somebody alive who wants to hurt others? Keeping them from doing that is your job, now. If you can't do that? It'd be better to--"
"HEY!" Borr shouts, cutting off Vit. "We're talking about love and hope."
"You cannot make someone heal. You cannot make someone be better. Only they can do that." Max rumbles. "It is a terrible thing to accept, but you must come to terms with it. Some people do not /wish/ to heal. Until they change their minds, you must keep yourself at a distance. Or they will drag you down."
Gridman blinks, but clears his throat. "I hope we've answered your questions enough, Shozo. I just want to make sure Mister knows we're here for him, too. He must be lonely on his own in there. There was a time I was trapped in a box, too. And I was very sad about it."
"L--let's go to Aya." Calibur says. "There's room behind the store. W--we can sit and talk."
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
Shozo looked at Vit, tilting his head.
"You're saying that /because/ you're hurt, right? You want more than anything for /her/ to stop hurting and hurting others, but you've been through everything they've been telling me about. But you couldn't kill her. No matter what she did. She's half of your heart, as much as-" he gestured to the other NGJHS members and Gridman, "-they are." There was no judgment in his voice -- hell, he almost seemed mystified. He listens to Max speak, before nodding slowly.
"But they still need the ability to change their mind, right?"
He walks up next to Gridman and starts walking with him, ready to follow him to Aya.
"OK, let's go."
<Pose Tracker> Gridman has posed.
Vit's hands tremble. He looks at Shozo, then stands and walks out of the room. The greenhouse door opens, then shuts.
Calibur and Max look at each other. Max raises his hands, a fist formed above a flat hand. Calibur does the same. Three taps, and--
Samurai Calibur: Scissors!
Battle Tracto Max: Rock!
"Calibur." Max sighs. "You must stop playing scissors every single time."
"M--mh." Calibur grumbles. With that, he stands, pats Shozo on the head, and vanishes. The greenhouse door, again, opens and closes.
Together, the remaining Hyper Agents, Shozo, and Mister make their way out of Borr's house. Max picks up Gridman in his arms, and Borr offers the same to Shozo.
"Way faster this way, kid. Hop on my back."
Should Shozo agree, both Borr and Max will vanish in a blur of motion. Only a few seconds pass as they traverse nearly the entirety of Tsutsujidai, appearing before Junk Shop Aya.
"Okay, Shozo. I'll transform and meet you behind the shop. There's a big wide area between the building and the cars and mobile suits. Invite Mister to meet us there, please."
Soon enough...
"Access...Flash!"
Gridman appears in a burst of light behind Aya. Sitting politely with his knees drawn into his chest, he waits for Mister to appear.
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
Shozo stared up at Gridman, mouth a bit agape.
"Coooooool..." he murmured excitedly. "OK, Mister, you can come out. Monsload!" The boy raised the Battlenizer to the sky, and there was a tremendous flash of light, blinding in scope... and a moment later, looming over the kneeling Gridman... was an Ultraman.
At least, it looked like one. With a fin on his head, he was brilliant in silver and red, with glowing yellow eyes, and golden shackles around his neck, waist, and limbs. Slowly, with a mechanical groan, the giant looked down at Gridman silently.
<Pose Tracker> Gridman has posed.
Gridman gives Shozo a little wave. "It's still me!" He says, in a voice that echoes with a metallic sheen.
"Shit." Borr says, still human-sized, as the new giant appears. "Think we knew this one?"
"Mm." Max rumbles, looking uneasy.
"Hello." Gridman offers. He stands, carefully, until he's eye-level with the other Giant of Light. The golden shackles get a long look. "My name is Gridman. I'm a friend of Shozo's. It's nice to finally meet you."
Putting a hand forward, Gridman tries a friendly handshake.
"Shozo has been having a lot of trouble with learning about how people hurt each other, and how to help people deal with that hurt." He goes on, quietly. "We're doing our best, but it's a lot to take in for anyone. Especially a young boy. I wanted to tell you that I understand your position. I was trapped in a computer for a full year."
Gridman looks again at the shakles binding the other Giant. "I don't know your situation. But I know you're important to Shozo. So you can count on myself, and my comrades. If there's anything we can do for you, anything at all... Please let us know. We have many resources and allies."
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
The giant is silent -- unnaturally so. And yet, when Gridman extends his hand, with a mechanical groan, he reaches his own hand out to take it slowly. A few moments later, Shozo just... floats up to land on the giant's shoulders.
"Sorry, Gridman! Mister can't actually speak. My father never gave him the ability. Just... everything else."
<Pose Tracker> Gridman has posed.
"Did you know he could float?" Max asks Borr.
"Sure didn't." Borr responds. "Kids are weird."
"That's alright." Gridman says, softly. "Could he write, if I found a large enough paper and pencil? Or use sign language? And, Shozo, why does he have these bindings?"
Gridman turns back to the other Giant. "I'm sorry. I don't want to talk about you like you're not here. Your comfort matters the most, um, Mister. Is there anything you enjoy doing? I like to dance, for example."
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
Shozo cringes a bit. "He can write, but getting him a big pencil would be hard, right? As for stuff he likes to do... Um... He never had a chance to find something he wanted to do. He was just..." He goes silent, and the looming, silent giant stands there, arms at his side.
"The bindings were made to remind him that he's not real. They're part of his body."
<Pose Tracker> Gridman has posed.
Gridman looks absolutely stricken at Shozo's answer.
"He /is/ real. You are real!" He says. "You're here, right in front of me, in a real city, full of real people."
Slowly, carefully, so the other Giant can express a wish not to be touched if he so desires, Gridman reaches out and places a hand on his fellow Giant's shoulder.
"You're real. And I'm glad you're here. Thank you for watching over Shozo. I'll make it my mission to find a big pencil, or pen, or whatever! We're going to find a way for you to express yourself!"
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
Gridman can feel the sensation of ice-cold metal as he touches the giant. This is... a robot.
"There's an Ultraman out there, Mister says. A real one. He was made after him. So that he could... He doesn't like to talk about it, but I sometimes see it anyway. It's bad." Shozo reaches over and hugs the robot, on one of his golden bindings. It barely reacts, but tilts its head ever so slightly, to bring it closer to the boy on its shoulders.
<Pose Tracker> Gridman has posed.
Max and Borr exchange a Look, from down on the ground. What is this..? What is up with Shozo's father, creating a being already pre-shackled?
"I... see." Gridman murmurs. "You don't have to tell me anything you don't want to, either of you. I can tell you have a strong bond, and that's all that matters."
Gridman makes an effort to sound a bit more bright. "I'm really happy to have met you, Mister. And you too, Shozo. You're both welcome here in Tsutsujidai for as long as you'd like to be. We're allies now!"
<Pose Tracker> Shozo has posed.
Shozo pats the Ace Robot on his shackled neck, grinning.
"I told you. They're nice. You're always telling me to trust people. They're a good choice." The robot slowly nods, giving a respectful, if slightly creaky bow to Gridman again before disappearing in a flash of orange light, letting Shozo float down to the ground.
"Um, I'm a little tired now, so I'm going to go to bed, OK? I'll see you later!" With that, he ran off into the house. He had learned a lot from this, but all that it had convinced him of is that he needed to speak to someone. The first someone he'd /ever/ spoken to, in fact.