2023-12-16: Mending Bones, Opening Doors
- Cast: Christina MacKenzie, Koji Kabuto
- Where: Fujinomiya City Hospital
- Date: U.C. 0097 12 16
- Summary: Chris has been jumpy and secretive since the pyrrhic victory at Gryps II, but as soon as she hears that her dear friend survived yet another cataclysmic fate-of-the-world battle, she waits until she can speak with him alone. Learning of LiSA's fate, Chris is heartbroken for Koji, and in the end it's /him/ that cheers /her/ up.
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
Things have changed a lot in Fujinomiya, very recently. The OCU withdrawing from the Federation Agreement combined with the Nagoya massacre have made things very complicated this close to the border with the ill-fated 'Special Administrative Zone' - but more crucially, the city was recently occupied by a massive kikaiju army as Doctor Hell prepared to use an incredible power to reset the world according to his whims.
The colossal Mazinger known as Infinity has now been destroyed, its megalomaniac pilot returned to the underworld he crawled back out of, and the world's future has been secured, for now... but a battle so terrible cannot be fought without consequence.
Specifically: Anyone looking for Koji Kabuto is going to have to check the city hospital.
His room on the second floor looks out towards the city, still scarred from the campaign against Doctor Hell - though construction is already beginning to rebuild the toppled skyscrapers and shattered roads. The TV in the room is off - Koji's leaning back in the bed, eyes closed, with earphones in - apparently listening to music of some kind.
<Pose Tracker> Christina MacKenzie has posed.
The doors parted, and she stepped aside to let a nurse wheel a patient outside, helping them to their ride. Christina MacKenzie passed the threshold, and made her way to the floorstaff station, murmuring a quiet question. While he stopped to check for visitation exclusions, a phone on the other side of the station rang, and was answered. Someone stood up. The sense of being watched crept up inside her heart looked over her shoulder, and she pulled her porter's cap down to shadow her red eyebrows. Getting out of the elevator was a relief, much like finding "Kabuto" on the digital display next to the door.
A quiet knock, then a louder one. "Koji, are you decent?" Waiting for a moment, she opened the door and peeked through.
She closed the door slowly, with hardly a click, and set her cap and bag on the chair.
"Hey there, big hero," she announced at the first sign he wasn't asleep, trying to catch his attention. "How are you feeling? I brought you something, nothing special."
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
The sound of a familiar voice behind the door has Koji opening his eyes and sitting up, clicking the music player in his hand off as he pulls the earphones out. "I'm good, come in."
The sight of Chris entering has him grinning. "Oh, hey, mystery lady," he banters right back. "Long time no see. I've been laid up with worse, to be honest, but... I'm taking things a little easy, since we've been through a lot."
At the mention of a gift, he sits up, arching a brow. "Nothing explosive, I hope," he teases.
<Pose Tracker> Christina MacKenzie has posed.
"It's been /too/ long, if it's been a day. I'm sorry I wasn't here to help, but I was keeping a close eye on the news as it came out. I'm so glad you and Sayaka are okay..."
Chris pulled a chair up and slumped into it, before jerking up a little bit.
"Don't, don't even joke about that!" It takes a moment to realize her voice came out a little strident, and she follows it up with a nervous laugh. She holds up what looks like a picture frame, and hands it "Nothing dangerous. It's a puzzle... I thought you might get a little restless being off your feet."
She tapped the side of it and a photograph shimmered into appearance, sunrise over the Moroccon horizon, and a second tap scrambled all the pieces.
"I threw a few dozen photos on there, but you can get as many images as you want on it, better than this." If he flips through the gallery, he'll see Zaftra, the Philippines, some Appalachian cabins... it looks like a couple rubbled landscapes snuck into--wait, are these Chris's own photographs?
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
Koji waves a hand as Chris apologises for not being there. "Don't worry about it - I know it wasn't the only crisis going on. ... It means a lot to know you were looking out for us, though."
Chris's panicked reaction to his joke gets another arched brow, but when she hands over the device he blinks a little, swiping through the photos on the tablet. "... Chris, are these all photos you took?"
<Pose Tracker> Christina MacKenzie has posed.
"Me? Not all of them, a couple of them came from the Oberge's topographic scans. Why, is something wrong with them? You can find other ones, even electrical schematics," Is that a good choice for a virtual jigsaw puzzle? Nerd. "Or put in your own photos. You can even do a puzzle of Sayaka!"
Chris paused, looking around, realizing just how open the hospital room was. She takes a glance over at her bag, where an wrapped corner pokes out.
"I guess she has to cover both of you, over at the League...especially with current events being what they are. I'm surprised your little shadow isn't at your side, though. I brought something for her, too, I don't know if she'd like it..."
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
<pose> "Heh. That'd be cute, if I can convince her to stop for long enough to get a photo." He nods as Chris guesses that she's busy. "Yeah... There's a lot of people demanding answers about what happened here. ... I kind of wish we had more of them than we do."
There is a question he can answer, though. When Chris asks about his 'little shadow' his face falls, and he glances towards the window.
"... Lisa's gone. She... she stayed on the other side of Goragon to make sure we could stop Infinity. I passed out at the end of the battle, but... I felt her say goodbye. I think."
He lets out a ragged sigh - the sigh of someone who's been through the loss of important people before, and knows it never gets easier. </poem>
<Pose Tracker> Christina MacKenzie has posed.
Chris stops breathing for a moment, frozen, watching her friend's expression change.
"No... No way... Oh, Koji." Without another breath between, Chris was on her feet, leaning in towards her friend. "She... in Goragon, with Dr. Hell and that giant..."
'Is there any way to go after her?'
The words died before they could reach her lips. It's Koji. If he had any ideas, he wouldn't be resting here, he'd be blistering his hands turning that possibility into reality.
She sank heavily down onto the edge of the bed, gaze lifting from her boots, up to the same window Koji was lost beyond.
"You felt her say goodbye... Did you..."
When Koji replied to her VERTEX, she was relieved, glad to hear that he was alive if not well. But this...
"I'm so sorry..."
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
Koji leans into the hug almost on instinct. "No. We destroyed Infinity and Hell. She made sure of that. But she was part of the machine... I suppose her existence must have been dependent on its."
It was an outcome he'd been afraid of, all the time they were figuring out how to stop the massive Mazin.
He swallows. "It's not your fault. She made the choice herself. To give everything she was to make sure Hell couldn't destroy the world." There are tears in his eyes, but the expression on his face... it's a complicated shape of pride.
"I wish she could have stayed, but... she was the real hero, in the end."
<Pose Tracker> Christina MacKenzie has posed.
Chris hugged Koji tight, bandages, bruises and all.
"She was a smart kid, she deserved a better future than having to stop someone like Hell."
"A real hero... Yeah. Since it's her, I'm sure she held nothing back. If there was any other way..."
Christina released him, leaning back and scrunching up her face.
"There's never any other way; it keeps ending like this." She fell quiet for a while, finally murmuring, "Koji... Are you still going to fight?" It's him, so is there any doubt? That leaves the real question.
"Why? And...how?"
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
Koji is silent until the hug ends, just... feeling. Grieving. He sniffs as Chris pulls away, smiling a wry little smile at her.
'Are you still going to fight?'
It's not the big question, but it's an important one too.
"I fought Hell to stop him destroying everything we've built, but... I still don't like a lot of stuff about the world," he admits. "As long as there are people who need Mazinger Z's strength, I'll be the one to bring it to them."
...
"They'll just have to wait a while, because that battle took a hell of a toll on it." The energy-matter conversion didn't hold - the Jet Scrander and most of Z's armour collapsed once the connection to the Goragon plane was severed. "We've learned a lot, and we're going to have to be careful going forward, but... the world still isn't a shape I can be proud of, and I'm willing to keep working until it's closer."
<Pose Tracker> Christina MacKenzie has posed.
"Everything we've built... Koji, you're... so strong. Even though you lost so much to Dr. Hell, even if we change the world, people like him won't stop showing up."
Chris stood up, with her back to the hospital bed, and it isn't obvious at first, but if he looks down, her fists clench and unclench at her sides.
"I'm...not sure how to make myself keep fighting, when it's the people around me who pay the most price."
She took a deep breath and turned around, green eyes staring into charcoal.
"Koji, I'm so tired of war. Sacrifices that mean something, that change something... they're few and far between. How many people have I cut down? What do I have to show for it?"
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
Koji sighs. "It's an impossible question, isn't it? Sometimes it seems like every time a megalomaniac is taken out of the picture there's three more eager to jump into the frame. I thought, at first, that just focusing on building up the world would be enough - Sayaka and I spent ten years retired from piloting, remember?"
He shakes his head. "Turns out there's a part of me that enjoys fighting, and by committing to a life of peace I was stifling that part. Even though it's been rough, getting back into the cockpit has... I don't know. I feel more complete."
"That doesn't mean I'm going to abandon my work at the Lab, though. If I just focus on fighting, that's just as bad as focusing on peace." He reaches over to squeeze Chris's hand. "I know how frustrating it is to feel like you're fighting a hopeless battle."
He looks over to the window out to the hospital corridor, checking to see if any staff are coming to check on him. "... so are you sure you're in the right place?"
<Pose Tracker> Christina MacKenzie has posed.
Chris nods, remembering her own "quieter" days in the Tristan, digging out survivors, before VEDA scouted her. She didn't think it would go anywhere, but still... she jumped at the chance to pretend she could stop the innocents' hemorrhage.
"They'll grab every loose thread. Whether they're exploiting greed or cruelty or powers from beyond... They'll really take anything, and the Earth won't run out of those. How many heroes does it take?"
Chris looked down, surprised but reassured by her friend's contact. "Koji, I understand. I can't deny...feeling the thrill of pushing myself to the limit, pinpointing weak points...of protecting the people important to me--making a difference."
She started to draw her fingers back, almost slipping out of Koji's grasp. "You know, huh? I figured. Since we fought the Banshee?" She couldn't break the contact, after all. "Am I in the right place? I don't know... My colleagues, they're stuck between idealism and cynicism."
Chris sank back down, legs giving out from under her, holding limply onto Koji's hand.
"I tried to do better, and instead made a mess," she whispered, barely above a breath. "I showed my face, I drew a gun on my friend, and I let a Weapon stay intact, all to spare a few more soldiers. And who knows if I even managed that? I'm neither a god nor a devil... I'm just a human with blood on her hands."
<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.
"I mean... maybe it's impossible to make a perfect world of peace," Koji admits with another sigh, "but that's no reason for us to give up. The struggle of trying to get the world closer to that ideal is worth it... but fighting isn't the only way to do that."
"I know you're plenty smart, Chris, after we worked on rebuilding Sayla's Gundam. Are you telling me you can't think of anything you can do besides fighting that helps people?"
<Pose Tracker> Christina MacKenzie has posed.
<poem>
"Something besides fighting?" Something besides cutting down soldiers like Bernie? "Something I can do to balance, to balance the pain and destruction in this world."
Chris offered Koji a brief, wan smile. She'd come to check on him, but... perhaps this was also her needed to see a friend. Ever since Gryps, she'd been on edge.
"...Well, since you're asking. I /do/ have some concept sketches I've drawn...Would you like to see them? And... Koji, if it's alright... I'd like it if I could have a picture of her."
Her friend's encouraging challenge had given her some fresh room to breathe. But in the shadowed corners of her heart, she knew things had already moved well beyond her reach. She was on the far side of the Rubicon; even if she was done with fighting, fighting wasn't done with her.