2022-06-30: Grasping

• Cutscene: Grasping
• Cast: Akane Shinjo, Alexis Kerib
• Where: Tsutsujidai - Akane's Room
• Date: 0096-06-30
• Summary: Akane and Alexis revisit their previous several chats after a conversation with Asuka, Rei, and Ouka tips her off to a lot.

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Akane's door swings open with a slam, and then shuts no more gracefully. Akane deposits her payment for helping NERV sort through her garbage on one of her shelves, then starts making her way to her desk. She doesn't even bother maneuvering around the garbage piling up between her door and her desk; instead, she just walks straight over it.

It's not a graceful endeavor. About midway through the room, her foot gets caught on something; she nearly trips, but goes into a full-body twist against one of the shelving units instead. She ends up back on her feet easily enough. A normal person would have twisted an ankle.

A God doesn't even notice for more than a few seconds.

She sits in her chair.

"Hey, Alexis?" she asks. "I think I've got some information about some of our guests."

The monitor flickers to life, all dancing panels and flickering flame as it ever is. "Oh? Have you updated your diagram again?"

"Yes, but not from the direction you're thinking." She whips her notebook onto the desk. "Hmm..." She waits for her computer's clock to approach the next minute. "Three minute timer this time. Tell me why I hate this less than I want to crush Gridman."

Alexis glances down, a faint glint of red and gold the only thing marking the reorientation of his gaze. "Ah."

"Tick tock~" Akane chides.

Alexis explains it simply. "Gridman and the other Vessels of Light have allies in the Federation... and outside, through people like Dr. Mass and our other guests. Heroes band together with heroes."

"The Betterman didn't," Akane replies, sulky. "He even attacked the school like he was one of my kaiju."

(Put a pin in that one.)

"Not all of them behave the same way at the same rate, Akane-kun." Alexis's turn to be chiding. "Regardless --"

"Why try to kill Kaworu and steamroll Tokyo-3?"

That gives Alexis some pause. "I didn't try to kill Kaworu." That much, at least, is true; he doesn't deny the kaiju... but he knows that Akane tends to lump actions and categories together.

"Phew. OK, you're off the hook for that one, though I don't have any other great explanations for why one of my kaiju was there..." It doesn't actually make Akane feel less bad about it -- it is, after all, still her kaiju. But it's not Alexis's fault. (Even if it was: it'd still be her fault.)

... actually -- did she do that, subconsciously...? After all, this space is a 'psychic rupture.' Could she have done that... to push Kaworu away?

Whatever. She has other things to worry about. There are lines on the page that need addressing, and implied conclusions. "Two minutes," she notes. "DG cells? Cyborgs? I feel like this smells like BioNet."

Alexis actually has to waste five to ten of his valuable seconds pausing. "Well!" he eventually settles for. "I did underline that you've made enemies of the Federation, whoever supports Dr. Mass, and every one of the Vessels of Light, yes?"

"Yes. That's very clear." Akane can already feel the ground shifting under her.

"Even I can't fight the entire world for you, Akane-kun! It really is quite horrible out there, you know. You remember using GaoFighGar to purify Renais, yes?"

Akane feels a deep relief she doesn't sweat. "... Yes," she has to agree. "I do."

Alexis affirms, then, "So too with BioNet! You're a brilliant young lady; you must understand strategy! If all the horrible things outside this world can be made to crash themselves into your enemies, then so much the better, isn't it...?"

"Are you just -- paying them?" Akane asks, incredulously.

Alexis remains his usual face-on-a-monitor self, even at the incredulous question. "How gauche, Akane-kun!" He laughs. "I just act like I'm one of them and let them do the rest. It occasionally requires a bit of assistance here and there, but you mentioned you don't mind me helping other girls..."

That... okay. Akane doesn't like that, but she can understand it, and she can live with it.

Well, scratch that. Akane feels like she's been made an accomplice to science crime in a major way. She has no idea how to express that, though -- no idea how to get from 'this feels Bad and I don't get why' to 'you're the problem,' least of all with the protection of her one remaining real route to safety at stake and Alexis holding the only door to that path open. She sits there staring blankly for 30 seconds.

"Akane-kun?" comes a gentle prompt.

She glances down. "Is Anti working with them because you made him, or because he volunteered?"

"Oh, I assure you that he volunteered. He was quite concerned about the escapee," comes the oh-so-pleasant answer.

The question of how Anti volunteered doesn't occur to Akane, drowning in the bubbles she's drawn. "... Okay."

Akane's computer clock ticks over. Fifteen seconds pass.

Akane spends them drawing more lines out from the 'Unknown Hand' of her diagram. In the end... she really does have control of things.

Doesn't she?