2024-06-03: A Doll's Lament
- Cutscene: A Doll's Lament
- Cast: Naoko Suzuki, Mao Suzuki, Itachi Suzuki
- Where: Ibaraki Port, Free Japan
- Date: 0097-06-03
- Summary: Out of the blue, Naoko is contacted by her long-missing parents. A lifetime of frustrations comes to a head in what is far from a happy reunion.
EARLIER, IN NOVA STELLAR'S PRIVATE HANGAR...
With the refit of her Arm Slave complete, Naoko Suzuki should have had time for new ventures again. Should have. But she found it difficult to look away from her work for very long. It's done, yes, but is it perfect? It's always been difficult for her to move on from a big project as long as there are still minor improvements possible or small blemishes to buff out. Unless there's an unexpected development, of course.
She hadn't expected a development quite as unexpected as 'getting a whole bunch of questions regarding her nature answered through a Battle Operations forum leak'. Mysteriously, that development has caused difficulty focusing on this, her 27th full pass over the Arm Slave's OS since completion.
It's just as well that her phone beeps a message notification at her. Probably Shari checking up on her, she thinks, fishing the device out of her pocket to glance at the screen.
Her attention is quickly grabbed by the characters displayed there, eyes widening, then narrowing. Wasting no time, she taps through to the message contents, her frown deepening further and further the more she reads. Until...
"...How dare you."
A long-dormant resentment billows up from deep within herself. It takes every ounce of self-control to not fling the device in her hands out of the open cockpit she sits in, instead gripping it more tightly as if to squeeze the life out of it.
"How dare you, how dare you...! I always knew it would be like this, but after all this time, how dare you!!"
Her friends, having read along by virtue of reading her mind, have their own opinions.
>"Tch. After all that, they want you to come to them? The nerve."<
>"This is suspicious... especially after what happened before. You're not going, are you?"<
"Oh, I'm going," comes the immediate answer, Naoko decisively pocketing her phone and gripping the sides of the console in front of her. "I have to go. It's about time I got the rest of my answers."
IBARAKI PORT, FREE JAPAN - 02:53 AM
The head of an Arm Slave emerges from the waters of the shadowy night-time bay. 'Not what I would have imagined for the new Sukeban's first outing,' its pilot thinks to herself as she scans the nearby warehouses for lifesigns.
There, that one. Switch to infra-red. Magnify. Enhance.
There is a loud *snap* as Naoko bites down on the PaPPy stick in her mouth, sending half of it tumbling down the cockpit.
"I can't believe them," she mutters as she examines the two blobs of red and orange on her screen, able to verify their identity from the shapes alone. Despite taking all the trouble of going here, somehow she still wasn't entirely convinced right up until this very moment. But it looks like it wasn't a lie, they're really here. Which means...
Naoko takes a deep breath, closes her eyes... then nods with conviction.
"Ariel. Listen carefully. I need you to keep monitoring things closely from here. If anybody else enters the warehouse after me, if I lose consciousness for any reason, or if anybody is following me when I return, I want you to take off, return to Orb and find help. Got it?"
>"H-huh? What are you saying? I'm coming too, I can't stay behind! Without me, you'll--"<
"I know." Naoko opens her eyes, her tone of voice fully determined. "It's what I need right now. ...Who I need to be right now. This isn't the time to soften my words out of consideration." She lowers her head, tone softening slightly. "...I need to be honest about the way I feel."
>"But..."<
Naoko's black butterfly hairclip detaches, fluttering in front of the white one still remaining in place.
>"It's fine, Ariel. Don't worry about it. I'll handle it."<
The white butterfly also leaves its perch, flying closer to its counterpart, who backs off a little.
>"Oh you will, will you? I know what happens when you 'handle' things. That's why she needed me in the first place!"<
>"Don't you think she knows that? This is what she wants, you should respect that."<
>"You don't get to lecture me on respect, you don't know the first thing about it! This will go badly for her without me, you know it will!"<
Naoko waves her hands in front of her face, prompting the flying entities to scatter. "Ugh, stop talking as if I'm not right here!"
There is a moment of silence, before Naoko sighs. "Look, you're both right. I know this probably won't go well when I only have Uriel with me. But I've decided that I don't want to hold back against them. And I need someone back here because I can't be sure this isn't a trap. Ariel, I'm sorry, but please let me be selfish this time. You too, Uriel - no active interference if I don't ask for it, alright? It's gonna be hard no matter what happens, so... I trust you both to help me get through this."
02:59 AM
A side door leading into the warehouse creaks open. Unlocked, just like they said it would be. Feeling her way past various containers of unknown contents, Naoko makes her way through the darkness, towards the point of light ahead. A single lantern, fully electrical despite its old-fashioned shape.
Typical, setting up an overdramatic clandestine meeting like this. Is this fun for you? Are you making fun of me?
Naoko pushes the thought aside, hyper-aware of her left braid, lacking the white butterfly hairclip that normally occupies it. Without Ariel's calming, cautioning influence on her mind, her thought patterns lack nuance. With only Uriel's aggressive, assertive presence guiding her, it's natural for her to edge towards hostility. Even remaining quiet as she requested, the passive effect combined with her own feelings are enough to guide her in that direction.
That's fine. It's what she wanted. But she cannot pass judgment, not yet. Not until she hears them out.
As she steps closer to the light, the faces of the two figures before her become more clear. A man a few inches taller than her is holding the lantern, the light illuminating his lazy smile and stubbled chin while leaving the rest of him mostly obscured in darkness. But she knows the perpetually tired-looking eyes to expect behind those glasses of his.
The focus of the lantern's light is on a woman closer to her own height, illuminated fully as if by a spotlight. Her hands are in the pockets of the lab coat she wears, identical to that of the man standing off to the side and slightly behind her. A sharp gaze in her bright blue eyes, highlighted by far too much eyeliner and mascara. Black hair in a single pony tail draped over her right shoulder. And lips curved slightly in the most insincere-looking smile she's ever seen.
...It's them alright. Still a fair distance removed, Naoko stops her approach, opening with the most neutral greeting she can manage at this time.
"Mother. Father."
Naoko's mother makes an effort to smile more brightly. She doesn't succeed very well. "Naoko. It's been a long time, hasn't it?"
...It's too much. Already, it's too much. Already, Naoko's long-standing frustrations begin to pour out. "Really? Over two years without a word, after a phone call like that, and this is how you greet me?"
A look of surprise crosses the face of her mother and father both, even if less visibly for the latter. That's right, she thinks to herself. It's not just going to be quiet acceptance, not this time. Emboldened by the lack of immediate reply, she adds, "Well? Are you going to explain what happened?"
She can tell her mother is flustered, gripping the inside of her pockets as she balls her fists. "I'm... honestly not sure what you want me to say. It's as I said at the time. The details aren't important, what matters is--"
"What matters is that you're always like this, never telling me about what you do - why you're never around. Even now, you're going to keep me in the dark? This is a little more than just disappearing for a few years! Our house is gone! You're really not going to tell me anything?"
Again, the shock is clearly visible on her mother's face. Even at her most rebellious, Naoko never interrupted her like this before. And while it feels liberating, letting out her true feelings like this... she recognizes that she might need to reel it in a bit, if she's going to get anywhere. She needs to listen, too. Even if they probably won't get it. They never have.
True to form, when her mother finds her bearings, she fails to answer directly, instead attempting to defuse and analyze the unexpected situation.
"Naoko, please, you must calm yourself. Exactly what is it that you're so unhappy about? Is there something we haven't given you enough of? What we've provided you with should have been enough for a carefree life regardless of circumstance. Granted, we couldn't foresee this turn of events, and it's unfortunate that things had to go the way they did. But you managed, didn't you? Your father and I had the utmost confidence that you would be able to handle yourself."
Naoko would be lying to herself if she claimed that statement didn't make her feel anything. It's not praise, exactly, but... her parents do trust her to a great a degree. She knows that. But it doesn't make it all okay. And they just... don't seem to understand why it doesn't. She struggles to manage the patience for an attempt at an explanation.
"...I have no complaints about how you provided for me financially. But did you really think that I would be totally fine as long as I had money? Do you really believe that's all it takes? Do you think loneliness is something a child should just get used to...?"
Her mother stares blankly, seeming at a total loss for words. Seeing this, her father steps in, his calm, slow voice bringing rest to any tense situation.
"I'll be the first to admit, parenting is something we never quite managed to figure out. If you asked me now how you're supposed to raise a child, I still wouldn't have a good answer for you. When we found out you were gifted, it was honestly a relief. In that case, we thought, it would be alright to treat her like an adult."
It sounds like admitting fault, but these are excuses, not an apology. It's not enough. Naoko shakes her head.
"If that's true, if you had so much faith in my ability to understand things like an adult, then... why didn't you ever tell me anything about where you were going, and what you were doing? How was I supposed to interpret you shutting me down every time I asked?"
"It was all to protect you."
This time it's Naoko who freezes up in surprise, staring at her mother who just made a claim that, up until quite recently, she would have found very difficult to believe. She's starting to see where this is going. Her mother doesn't appear comfortable herself by this admission, removing her right hand from her pocket to tug at her collar.
"I have no doubt that by now, you've figured out we had some... questionable ties. Ties that, even now, we're still trying to escape. We'd decided early on that we couldn't get you involved, no matter what. We'd thought you would be safe, so long as we regularly remained apart. But... things were more complicated than any of us realized, weren't they?"
They know. They've seen the leaked data, worked out what she is. Naoko is certain her mother can tell that she's aware of it, too.
"There are so many organizations in this world who would want to take advantage of someone like you. We know better than most that none of them can be trusted." Naoko's mother extends her hand forward, trying but still failing to manage a smile that appears genuine.
"Come with us, Naoko. We can keep you safe. We know how to hide you. After all, we've managed to do so for many years, haven't we?"
For a moment, Naoko is stunned. They're serious. None of what they said was a lie, she's certain. And yet. And yet... they're so, so blind. And she's not going to stand for it any longer. She lowers her head.
"...You think... you really think... that you can just vanish for over two years, only to come back now and tell me this...?"
Not allowing room for an interruption, she throws an arm out the side, raising her voice in anger. "Don't you understand how I feel?! All this time, while you were gone, I've been worried! Do you even remember what it's like, to worry? Maybe you've gotten completely used to everything working out in the end, but most people don't work that way! I don't work that way."
She presses her fingers against her forehead. "It's not that I didn't try... I tried very hard to believe everything was going to be okay. But, after everything that happened in Akaigawa..." She shakes her head.
"I assumed nothing could ever be the same again. I had to start a new life, and somehow, with a lot of help, I managed. And now... now you expect that I could just give it all up, go back to living the way I used to, as if nothing happened...?"
She gives her parents a pleading look. Do they get it? Is any of this getting through to them? Do they have any idea what it's been like for her?
"'If thinking about it won't solve anything, then I just won't think about it.' ...That's what kept me going. It's all that kept me sane, while you, all this time, you...!"
She bites back her anger, cutting it off there. Instead, she continues, "...I can't do that anymore. 'If thinking about it won't solve anything, then I'll do something to solve it.' That's the kind of person I want to be. I won't just wait obediently anymore." Eyes closed and yelling loudly, she expresses to them her innermost feelings:
"I'm not just some doll to keep in a doll house until you feel like playing at being a family again!!"
For some time, all that can be heard is Naoko's heavy, shaky breathing. She'd thought that clearing the air like this would make her feel better. But it's made her feel so, so much worse. Maybe this isn't anybody's fault, after all. But she doesn't think any of what she said was wrong, or unreasonable. If they're going to prove her otherwise... now is their chance.
Come on. Prove it to me. Prove how much you care.
Given how quiet her father is, she isn't surprised to hear her mother being the one who speaks up.
"...Naoko. I won't excuse any of what you said. But the truth is that we did everything we could. Until now, the best thing we could do was to keep our distance. There were... a lot of messes to clean up, before we could afford to contact you again. But now we have a chance. A chance to start over, a completely fresh start. Things will be different this time. We'll prove it to you, if you'll just give us this second chance."
Partway through the words, Naoko stopped listening. Right at the words 'a lot of messes to clean up'. Suddenly, it clicks. The missing link in the events regarding her hometown. Why things ended up happening the way they did. She slowly turns an incredulous look towards her mother, speaking softly in disbelief.
"...It was you. It was all you, wasn't it? What happened in Akaigawa. You deliberately sent heavy-handed, disloyal mercenaries to act in a way that would draw attention, so that once they were captured, they'd expose BioNet's operation and force them to back off."
Deny it. Please, deny it. Can't you see I'm begging you with my eyes?
Naoko's mother lets out a little laugh. "Indeed. I admit, it was not an entirely risk-free endeavor, but I had little doubt that your comrades would be able to handle the matter. Fairly ingenious, if I do say so myself."
You can't be serious...!
"Ingenious?! The entire town suffered because of you! You got Touwa seriously hurt!"
Her mother gives her a blank look. "Touwa?"
Something snaps.
"Y--"
Naoko can't even form the words to voice her outrage. They didn't even care enough to remember her best friend growing up.
Abruptly, Naoko turns around. She's not going to show them her tears, even if they are present in her voice.
"That's it. I'm done. I'm leaving. Goodbye."
Naoko's mother is left staring, completely perplexed at what's happening. A moment later, she raises her voice.
"Naoko! Naoko, don't you walk away from your mother!"
Naoko's only response is a rude gesture over her shoulder, shocking her mother into silence. A hand lands on her shoulder, the calm voice of Naoko's father speaking up.
"Mao. You know already, don't you? This battle is one that we lost a long time ago."
Mao Suzuki briefly looks over to her husband, then back to Naoko's retreating form, vanishing into the darkness ahead. Furiously patting the pockets of her lab coat, she finally finds and withdraws a cigarette case, flipping over the top. After a moment's consideration, she withdraws a red lollipop, staring at it for a moment.
"...We weren't wrong, were we? This was the only way, wasn't it? Wasn't it, Itachi?"
As the distressed Mao puts the candy in her mouth, the stoic Itachi puts his arm around her shoulders, the lantern's paltry light glinting off his glasses.
"It was the only way we could see, the path that our past actions inevitably led to. Whether or not it was 'right'..."
Itachi casts his gaze into the darkness ahead.
"...She is still alive, and she is still free. My only regret is failing to ensure this without causing her pain."