2022-08-15: Surrounded by Legend

• Cast: Koji Kabuto, Liam 7-020
• Where: Fujinomiya City - The Mazin Museum
• Date: U.C. 0096 08 15
• Summary: Recognising a young man floundering in the wider world, Koji Kabuto invites Liam to a place where they can talk safely, hoping to provide the young cyborg some emotional fortitude and guidance.

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<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.

Opposite the grounds of the New Photon Power Laboratory: The Mazin Museum, a place that enshrines the many battles of Mazinger Z and Great Mazinger against Doctor Hell's Kikaiju and the Mycenaean Battle Beasts into history. Great replica statues of the Mazin Corps machines, including Ichinanas and Aphrodite A, Venus A and Diana A dot the halls and chambers, standing vigil over exhibits that are holographic dioramas of the battles fought over the many years of the Photon Power and Science Fortress Labs' wars.

It is to this place that Koji Kabuto has extended an invitation to someone he's seen in a few NERV meetings, even though the museum is closed today. The former(?) pilot is sitting cross-legged on a bench outside the building, which is fronted with a facade of Mazinger Z's stern visage.

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.

        Going outside without an escort is still difficult, but some days are better than others. Today, the weather is nice, and the trains aren't too crowded--with his hood up, Liam is just another passerby, maybe a foreign exchange student. It isn't too much of a hike from the train stop to the museum, and he takes it at a decent pace. His eyes flick about, studying his surroundings. He's alert, but not in an awful state of hyperarousal.

        Liam does, of course, recognize Koji on sight. He's a distinctive individual, and even if he weren't, he's a person of no small importance. The young pilot approaches him, stops within conversational range, and manages a little smile. "Doctor Kabuto," Liam says. Silently, he wonders if he's dressed down--he went with the casual athletic clothes for relative anonymity, and Koji doesn't /seem/ to get hung up on formality, but what if he guessed wrong?

<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.

Koji smiles as Liam greets him. "Liam, right?" He's also dressed casually, in a white tee, jeans, and an olive green jacket, so there's little concern of formality. "Hope you don't mind the weird invitation - I wanted to properly meet you, since we've been in more than one official meeting now and you seemed... troubled, I guess."

Seeing the young man standing tensely in front of him reminds Koji of Tetsuya in the old days. Yeah, this was definitely a good idea. "So I figured I'd offer you an ear, if there's anything bothering you you'd like to talk about."

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.

        "Yes," Liam says. He bows at the waist, as he's gotten accustomed to doing around Japanese personnel--he likes it better than shaking hands, anyway. There's no need to touch anyone. His face settles into a well-practiced expression as Koji speaks; attentive, neutral shading towards receptive.

        'Troubled'. That's one way of putting it. Normally, Liam would shy away from someone asking him to talk openly, but everything he's seen, heard, and read about Koji paints him as a genuine and good person. It's enough to pry open the shell, a little.

        "I accept," Liam says. He glances at the front doors of the museum, nestled within the Mazin head. "Did you requisition this venue... for that?" His eyebrows rise a little.

<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.

"It's a little unorthodox, but they always close up on Mondays anyway and Sayaka and I have keys." He grins. "So we're guaranteed to not be overheard, at least."

He stands up, fishing a keyring out of his pocket, and heads around to a side entrance into the museum. "Plus if you have questions about me or anything, I figured this would be the best place to answer 'em." He opens the side door into the maintenance access, gesturing to Liam to step through first. "After you."

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.

        "Appreciated," Liam says, his smile growing warmer. He follows Koji, eyes still scanning his surroundings, as he heads for a more discreet entrance. "I... remember a little of when it happened," he says. 'It' could mean many things, but in this case, probably: 'When Dr. Hell and the Mycenae tried to take over the world'. "But nothing after '88."

        That's an ominous date.

        Liam steps through, glances around, and moves aside to let Koji in once he's done his initial sweep. Even in a place of relative quiet, with no one else around, Liam still seems on edge. "How is your brother?" he asks, because 'small talk' is appropriate here.

<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.

Nothing after '88? Huh. "That was the year of our final battle against the Emperor of Darkness. So I guess there's an eight-year gap from then on?" Curious, but Koji doesn't press hard - if Liam wants to explain, he will.

When the topic of his brother comes up, Koji smiles. "Shiro's doing fine - he threw himself back into training as soon as the docs cleared him. It's kinda typical of us - 'when someone tries to kill you, it probably means you're doing something right'." He chuckles.

The maintenance corridors are quiet and unused today, and Koji leads Liam through to the door to the public atrium, flicking the lights on from the controls on the maintenance side of the door before opening it to a profile view of a Mazinger Z statue twice the height of a human, right fist outstretched in the pre-firing stance of the iconic Rocket Punch.

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.

        "That's when the lab took me," Liam says. If Koji is smart enough to help make a power plant that makes energy from nothing, he's smart enough to deduce that Liam was captured, trained, and augmented against his will by some awful people. "Not NERV. BioNet."

        The supersoldier nods, appreciatively, when Koji gives his update. "That's... a philosophy," he says, seeming to shrink back just a little as he thinks on it. First Guy, and now Koji. These people are living legends, and he feels so small and cowardly in comparison. But he follows nevertheless, stopping beneath the statue and looking up at it.

        "Mazinger is an icon," Liam says. "How did it start?"

<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.

BioNet, huh. "No wonder you're so invested in what's going on with Tsutsujidai." And no wonder he gets such a strong Young Tetsuya vibe from him. Liam asks how it started, and Koji sighs. "That question's got a very different answer depending on who you ask - at first I thought it started in '83 when grandfather was killed by Baron Ashura, but the battle had been going on for a long time before that, in secret. Grandpa had been opposing Doctor Hell for a long time and chosen to never tell anyone. If Shiro and I hadn't found him, Mazinger Z would have died with him, but he entrusted it to me."

"I'll be honest - I had no idea what I was doing, in those early days. Thankfully, Sayaka and Aphrodite A found me and disabled Mazinger Z before I did any real damage, and they introduced me to the Photon Power Lab - and that's where things really started. Her father already knew about Doctor Hell and had been preparing to support Mazinger Z ever since grandpa retired from the Lab."

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.

        "We freed Anti," Liam says, his gaze drifting into the middle distance as he looks up at the statue. "I... hope we can free Akane, as well. But how do you help someone who thinks they don't deserve it?"

        He asked that question at the meeting, too.

        But then he falls silent, and listens to Koji's explanation. "He didn't," Liam says, but he doesn't finish the sentence. He thinks back to 88, and how so much of the 'news' was the Gundam Fight. Other things made it in as sidebars, but looking back, it's /so clear/ what Britannia's priorities were. "I see. You're lucky. We all are."

        "Sayaka still works with you, right?"

<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.

"It's..." Another sigh. "You have to believe in yourself and keep trying to reach them. It's really hard to get people to realise what the best choice for them is, but the alternative? Having to fight them? What Administrator Nagisa suggested might be Akane's strategy?" He shakes his head. "Unacceptable."

He's been in that position before. It still turns his stomach to think about Lorelei.

"I was incredibly lucky that there were so many people able and willing to support me, and to have Sayaka at my side in the fighting." A warm smile, now. "We still work together, yeah. She's Head Director of the Photon Power Research Institute, after all - so, technically, she's my boss." He grins.

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.

        Liam's brow furrows. That's... a tall order for him, but he doesn't say so aloud. "BioNet is using her," he says, instead. "They could do even worse, if they wanted--but she's a secure asset. The most secure asset is one that doesn't even think it can escape." His shoulders sag.

        "It's... good to have friends," Liam manages, because another possibility surfaces and he decides it's too personal. Just friends. Just like Lucine.

        "May I see more of this place?" Liam asks. He's a little hesitant, even though Koji invited him for just that purpose.

<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.

"Exactly. I've been to Tsutsujidai - that place is almost like a perfect prison." He shakes his head. "Can't wait to find a way to smash the bars open."

He grins when Liam says 'friends'. "Sayaka's not just a friend, she's like family." He lets that statement stand for itself, looking around at the museum. "Is there anything in particular you wanted to look at?"

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.

        "Agreed," Liam says. "I still don't know how to help," he says, "but... I have to."

        Family. That thought brings up painful nostalgia, but what Koji says next is--

        Choose. Choose anything. Liam doesn't know what his options are, it's even worse than the snack machine. The younger man stands there, blinking as he tries to recall what he knows of Koji's history. "The... kikaiju?" he says, hesitantly, as if he's expecting to have chosen wrong.

<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.

He chuckles. "Quite a topic to pick. There's a bunch of holo-exhibits focusing on the battles I've fought against them, though." He walks over to one and powers it up, the holographic display showing a 3D snapshot of the passenger-jet-shaped Genocider J9 bombarding a wingless Mazinger Z from the air, the Super Robot shielding itself from the barrage of missiles with upraised, crossed arms. "I tried to make sure the whole story of the fights was included; I wanted people to get a sense of what it was really like to fight the Kikaiju rather than just focusing on the victories."

He clicks a button on the display interface to tab forward to a rotating diagram of the Jet Scrander, then back to the diorama. "Tried to put in as much detail as possible without breaching stuff that should be classified." Of course, part of the joy of being the pilot and owner of Mazinger Z is that Koji gets to decide what's classified when it comes to the Castle of Iron.

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.

        "Know the enemy," says Liam, as Koji leads the way. It sounds like something that's equal parts indoctrinated and earnestly felt; Liam's handlers didn't want their test subjects /too/ independent, but he managed to walk a line between being insubordinate and being proactive. As the display flickers to life, Liam takes it in, face adopting a pensive frown.

        "I wondered if I'd imagined some of them," he remarks, as he studies J9's design. "They seem so... unorthodox. More like kaiju than anything /built/. Dr. Hell... built them, didn't he?"

        Liam gives equal attention to the Scrander display. "What made you decide to develop the Ichinanas?" he asks, now looking a little more animated. "They're good, dependable machines; I deployed in one during an anti-Kaiju operation in a rural area." A pause. "Which... turned into an anti-Angel operation, in its own way."

        "The summary," Liam says, "is that there may be a second individual with the power to create kaiju like the one the Devil deployed. It gave a Core and an AT Field to a Namegon." Unpleasant surprise, to say the least.

<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.

Koji nods. "Understandable." He flicks back over to a diagram of the kikaiju in question, which includes cross-sections of its limbs and chassis. "They are a lot like Kaiju, yeah, but they were certainly built. Hell's understanding of Mycenaean supertechnology and the designs they'd left behind, combined with his own ingenuity and the Staff of Bardos to control them, are what allowed them to be developed. Every single one of them was a unique creation, too - not once did he reuse a design except to iterate on it to the point that it was ultimately unrecognisable until we were able to get our hands on the remains and draw parallels between the design commonalities."

"As for the Ichinana, that was a result of Sayaka and I agreeing to retire from piloting. We decided that the military applications of Photon Power still had purpose, particularly to fight BioNet's objectives, so we consulted with NISAR to mass-produce an inheritor of the Mazingers' power."

"The presence of a second entity capable of combining monster powers... That's certainly alarming." He frowns. "I don't suppose there are any more leads other than it having happened, as yet, though?"

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.

        "Were all of them built to fight Mazinger Z?" Liam says, eyebrows rising. "That's... dedication." And many other things, but Liam did not have the dubious honor of meeting the dear Doctor to confirm. "I think I remember seeing one on the news? Three heads, saucer body? Looked like something from a comic book."

        "It's a good design," the younger pilot continues. "I'm... proud to be a part of it, however small." The smile he gives doesn't quite reach his eyes, but Liam is... a subdued person, in some ways. How much of that was he born with? How much of it came from his childhood? How much of it was beaten into him in the lab?

        "The Administrator thinks it's unrelated to the Devil's activities," Liam says, with a shrug, "but it's... eerily similar. He mentioned a coin-shaped object that was left behind after the Core we extracted... messily disintegrated." Liam can't quite suppress an involuntary shudder. That's an experience he doesn't want to repeat.

<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.

"Yeah, after the first two - Garada K7 and Doublas M2 - it was pretty clear that Hell had reworked the Mycenaean designs to create weapons that presented a threat to Mazinger Z, since M2's heat beams didn't really do anything to it but the weapons on models after that were much more dangerous." Koji nods when Liam describes the one from the news. "Ah, yeah, that one was Jeiser J1. Real pain to fight, given how heavily-armoured its shell was and how dangerous engaging it from below was considering the fanblades on the underside."

"I'm glad so many pilots are appreciating the Ichinana's qualities," Koji grins. "Tried my best to build something as dependable and tough as Mazinger Z was for me, even with the considerations of making it actually affordable to mass-produce."

He arches a brow when Liam elaborates on the aftermath of that fight. "A coin left behind, huh? That's definitely outside the range of my expertise - sounds kinda like magic, rather than machinery."

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.

        So he didn't imagine it. It might not be a great unifying revelation that brings Liam to terms with what's happened to him, but it is a link to the boy he was. "I'm glad we had people to protect us," he says. "Even if..." He trails off, and looks away. "...you couldn't protect us from everything." There's something hollow in Liam's voice when he says that, and it gets more pronounced as he delivers tactical data.

        Like he sounded on the radio. "Affirmative," Liam says. "Origin unknown. Significant. Almost likely in STORAGE custody."

<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.

As Liam's emotional affect bottoms out, Koji frowns, reaching out to place a hand on the young man's shoulder. "Hey, s'okay. No hostiles around, you can relax." He sighs. "A lot of bad stuff has happened that I couldn't stop. I wish I'd been able to, but I guess I'd have had to have been everywhere at once - and at least some of that bad stuff happened in space, which Mazinger was never designed for." That is, at least, a change they thought about when building the Ichinanas, but still. "Sometimes it seems like everything went to hell all at once while I was retired."

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.

        Liam freezes.

        Intellectually, he knows Koji means him no harm. There are parts of every person's brain, however, that don't listen to intellect in the moment--like the fear response. His eyes lock on Koji's, and stay there, while tension builds in his body. His breath starts to quicken. He remains like this for a good five or so seconds before:

        "Please don't touch me without asking." Liam shies away. He doesn't meet Koji's eyes. "That is--I don't--it's not you. I just--"

        Liam takes a deep breath. Koji said he wanted to talk, right? "They only touched me to test me. To give me drugs. To cut me open, while I was under. It's... bad memories. It's not you, Doctor."

<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.

Liam freezes and Koji instantly knows he's messed up, retracting his hand as quickly as he can. "I'm sorry," he says, a lump in his throat. "I understand. Those bastards really did a number on you, huh?"

He sighs. "What's it like in your head when you get, uh, into combat mode, like that? It's never been how I get in a fight."

Indeed, during the fight against Generonglee he was a roaring inferno, throwing himself at the kaiju with a ferocity that could be called reckless by a cold tactical mind but with a surprising instinctive understanding of his machine's strengths and weaknesses.

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.

        "They did it to all of us." Liam was just one of at least a dozen or so. There are subjects he knows only as numbers, and ones who likely died before he could come to know them as anything more. "Guy and Alouette are trying to help find them. But... I don't know where they are."

        But if nothing else, Koji's done the right thing in apologizing, and moving back, and Liam slowly starts to calm down. "Intense," he says. That much is obvious. "But focused. The objectives come first; I take action as necessary, calculating risk. The feedback systems make it feel good when I do something right--when I outmaneuver, or score a clean hit. But it feels like... like I could fall into fight-or-flight at any moment. They found a way to activate it while conditioning me to operate effectively while in that state." How much is 'training', and how much is augmentation?

        "I don't think they wanted a berserker," Liam says. "but they did want someone who wouldn't stop for anything."

<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.

"So almost like a trance where you're focused on the tactical approach." He grunts. "It sounds almost like you get lost in it without meaning to, have you noticed that being a problem?"

Hearing that Guy and Alouette are focused on finding the lab makes him feel a little better. "Good. 3G's intelligence facilities are a lot stronger than the Photon Power Lab's, since we're officially a civilian organization. They'll find them. And if BioNet makes trouble... It's a good excuse to get Z out again." He wants to grin, but this feels too serious, so he simply looks intense.

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.

        "A more elegant way of putting it," Liam admits, scratching at the back of his head. His fingers find the surgical scar there without even meaning to. "The system doesn't differentiate between combat and other sources of stress. And even if it's not at work, it's easy to fall back into methods that kept me safe."

        "In many cases, what made me seem like less of a threat. What kept me from wasting their precious time. A weapon does not need opinions." Liam swallows hard, when he says that. He's not a small person by any means, but he /feels/ tiny.

        But this place is safe. And Koji is helping. (Liam wonders if this is what it would be like to have a big brother. This is what he's tried to do for the other child pilots at NERV, and before that, the other experimental subjects.) "I appreciate that," he says. "You've done so much already."

<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.

"Stupid. Trying to make people into weapons is stupid." Koji glowers. "It's not just opinions - a weapon can't reason or improvise, it simply cuts what it's swung at - which is great if you want limited-use deniable assets to just smash things and get blown up, but it's gonna be BioNet's weakness in the end, that they try to force everything into boxes of simplified purpose and crash those boxes into each other."

He lets out a breath, the stormcloud passing across his visage as quickly as it came on. "They always forget that a person can surprise them. That's how you got out, after all, right? You did things they didn't program into you or expect you to do."

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.

        Liam lets Koji vent. It might be a lingering instinct to go silent when someone around him is displeased, but he... doesn't disagree with much of what the older man says. His eyes darken as he tries to recall his own thoughts on the matter--

        "It's pushing the envelope," Liam says. "My thermal tolerance is much higher than baseline, moreso if active cooling is hooked up. My nerves are wired. My bones are reinforced. I can perform maneuers that would render another pilot unconscious. But they made me like that because someone paid them to. The 'Sun Prince' wanted a Mobile Fighter, and--"

        Now Liam's starting to get angry. His face is tightening, and he clenches his hands. "I did. They didn't think I could code. They didn't know I knew about the overrides they built into the Proto Helios. They didn't expect me to run for help."

<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.

"Remember that, the next time you feel like you're just a weapon." He'd said it at the meeting, and it stuck in Koji's memory. "You've already proven that you're more than that - it's why you're here. You've triumphed over the expectations placed upon you, exceeded them in ways they never could have anticipated, and you're even placing your trust in others - or you wouldn't have come to meet me here just because I asked."

He grins. "That's going to make you a better warrior than this 'Sun Prince' could ever have dreamed of, and he'll almost certainly come to regret his investment one day. So I guess that's my advice for you - embrace those feelings. Take emotional risks. As long as you're honest with yourself and trust those around you, those experiences will make you stronger and stronger."

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.

        Honest praise is still an alien thing. In this case, it heads off the anger with something less familiar: pride, and the nagging worry that he might have misrepresented himself. Liam doesn't shrink back like he did earlier, and he stays perfectly attentive, but a blush rises in his cheeks, made more pronounced by his pale skin. "I... thank you, Doctor," he says. "I don't know if I'll ever not be a weapon... but you can be a person, too. Right?"

        Aside from that, he can only process the directions Koji's given him--directions, not orders. (He has to keep reminding himself, especially when there's a 'Doctor' on the other end.) It doesn't feel any less enormous than it did the day after he escaped. Part of him wonders if it will ever feel better.

        But he has to try.

<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.

"I know Tetsuya's making a damn good showing of being both." Koji grins. "But we can't all be Tetsuya Tsurugi and Jun Hono, 'Literally the Perfect Couple'. Still - not bad role models, if you ask me." The baby's soon, too. That'll be the real symbol of this hypothesis, Koji thinks to himself.

"Remember that it's a process, too, you won't just feel like a Complete Person overnight. Believe it or not, I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do with my life even now. As long as we keep trying to be better tomorrow than we are today, though? Nothing's impossible."

<Pose Tracker> Liam 7-020 has posed.

        "Tetsuya," Liam says, eyes widening a little. He remembers the name from the attack on the testing field, and the man himself from stromboli night. "I'll... have to talk to him, then." Is he doing this because Koji's gently nudging him along that path? Yes. Is he doing this because he's lonely and wants to get to know more people with similar experiences? Yes.

        'Nothing's impossible'. Liam nods, and files that one away with all the other affirmations. "Thank you." Liam smiles, and this time it reaches his eyes. "Can we see the rest of this place? It's so much calmer when there's no one here..."