Set Up - Norihara & Tanya
darthcourt10
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Snippet 12: NotHimAgain
Well, well, well. Another day, another snippet. I think that I might be trying to get it done before I have to go back to college. I'm not sure that one is quite as... emotional as the past ones were, but I'm putting it up anyways. Let's go.
Set Up
-----
The human hadn't come back yet.
It was all right with her. She didn't want the human to come back. Because the human had said things, and the things were tearing her apart.
What had she meant, patient? She was a prisoner. Of course they were going to try to keep her alive, right? She would be pumped for any information that she had on the movements of her people, and then disposed of. Failing that, she would be turned over to their scientists for experimentation or torture. That was what they did when they found themselves with live humans.
But… patient.
As if her life mattered to her somehow. As if she had some reason… as if…
She couldn't put it into words.
-----
"I think she's broken," Hiei said, watching intently from behind the curtains. "She's just been staring up at the ceiling this entire time."
"She barely moved at all before we brought Doctor Norihara in," Ooyodo pointed out. It was true: the one burst of energy that the Ta-class had shown was when the doctor had entered the room. A desperate attempt to kill her, and then broken tears… and then a near catatonic state that had deepened after she had left.
"Yeah, but… It's different this time," Hiei said, swirling her hands in front of her as if she was trying to pull abstracts out of midair. "Before, it was more… Grouchy. Like… how do I put this…"
"Hiei," Admiral Goto cut her off. Ooyodo gave him a thankful glance, and he gave a brief nod in her direction. Then he turned his attention back to the Abyssal. "This is turning out to be a bit of a crazy day."
"Right. She just seems kinda stuck in place now." Hiei reported, and looked at their guest in askance. "You don't think Doctor Norihara… did something?"
The man standing next to Admiral Goto snorted. Doctor Misaki Yousuke was a man with grey-white hair and a piercing glare—in other words, the archetypal "Grumpy Doctor" popularized by American medical dramas, if he was Japanese instead of Caucasian. "Norihara-kun may be a naïve child," he growled, "but she's a professional through and through. There is no way on this Earth that she would harm that thing in any way, not if you asked her to take care of it."
"Then what's wrong with Tanya?" Hiei whined, pointing at the Abyssal dramatically.
"Maybe you should get her to come back and take a look," Doctor Misaki said. He grit his teeth and muttered something under his breath about a smoke. Ooyodo gave him a baleful look, and he raised an unapologetic eyebrow. She returned her attention back to the curtain with a huff.
But yes, there had been a difference after Norihara had left if she thought about it. Before the lady doctor had come, the Abyssal had been like an unstrung bow—although capable of great power, even when crippled, she had been in a slackened state incapable of unleashing it. Now, she seemed lessened. The Ta-class just lay there, looking at the ceiling with that look on her face. The one that asked "Why, why?"
Actually, come to think about it, when had that face appeared on the Abyssal? She had been wearing it as she had spoken with the doctor about how to feed her, which meant… before that… She had been looking like that during the checkup? She would have to ask Shouhou… wait.
"She's not a monster," Ooyodo said, drawing up the memory. "Just a patient." Her fellow observers turned to look at her, Hiei's face one of puzzlement, and Doctor Misaki's one that asked if she was joking. "It's what Doctor Norihara said," Ooyodo explained quickly. "I asked her why she was so calm when caring for the Abyssal, and that's what she said in response. I think…" she replied, slowing down and glancing at their faces hopefully. "I think that's when she started looking like that."
"Sounds like Norihara-kun," Doctor Misaki agreed gruffly. "Damn idealistic brat that she is."
"So, to Doctor Norihara, Tanya was just another day at the office?" Hiei said, lips beginning to form a crooked grin that was only too familiar to Ooyodo. "What kind of hospital do you work at?" Doctor Misaki snorted, and his lips curled up into something that halfway resembled a smile.
"You know," Ooyodo growled, trying to restrain the impulse to punch her colleague through a wall or five, "sooner or later something is going to snap you out of that attitude."
"Not gonna happen," Hiei said cheekily.
"I'm serious. Someone's going to get hurt, or you'll meet someone you really, really like, and you'll just…" Ooyodo made a stopping motion with her hands. "Just like that," she finished, smirking darkly.
"Never gonna happen," Hiei laughed.
"Yes," Admiral Goto deadpanned. "With your observational skills, you'll never get the chance."
The two shipgirls froze at this. Slowly, slowly, they turned as one to face back at the Abyssal—the Abyssal who was now looking directly at them with an intensity that couldn't be matched by anything human, so far as Ooyodo knew.
Oh no. Was it responding to that silly name Hiei had given it?
"In any case," Doctor Misaki continued, turning away, "I don't think I can help you here."
"You can't?" Ooyodo asked, confused. "But Doctor Norihara--"
"Kid," Doctor Misaki said in a tired voice, "I've been a doctor thirty years. I was in there, during Blood Week. Patching wounded, setting limbs, comforting... Comforting the people we couldn't help." His hand grasped for a phantom cigarette. "I can still hear them crying. Can still smell the blood. That thing out there?" He waved out towards the Abyssal. "That thing, and things like it, were the ones that did that. And I can't help you." He sighed, and began walking for the door. Hiei jumped and followed after him. "I need a damn smoke."
-----
Norihara. The human was called Norihara.
The human who had confused her so, who had done things that she had believed impossible of her kind, was named Norihara. And… was she going to come back? Would she come to make her question herself even more?
Or maybe to explain?
She couldn't have the answers to the troubles that she had inspired in the Ta-class. But then, she had inspired the questions in the first place. So maybe she did? Maybe she could… could stop the chaos tearing her apart from the inside? But… how…
She would find her way to the Norihara human. She would get the Shipgirls and their commander humans to bring Norihara back to her. Failing that, she would escape somehow. She would drag herself through the dirt and the refuse and she would find Norihara. And she would ask her questions, and Norihara would answer them.
Norihara would help her understand. She knew she would.
-----
Umi quietly slid the door open and stepped inside. Then she stopped. In front of her, Ushio could hear the other club members yelling, a twisted jumble of voices that she couldn't decipher. She could see Umi's hands clench into fists, squeeze until her knuckles turned white, and then she sucked in a deep breath.
"Who's that behind you, is that Nagawa?" one of the girls, Ushio was fairly sure she was named Chisaki, said, her voice managing to cut through the confusion and reach Umi's ears. She let out the breath she was holding, and held her arms out straight, her hands perpendicular to the floor. The girls trailed off and stopped, looking at her with baited breath. And Umi stood aside, and let Ushio walk in.
And then Ushio had to restrain herself from jumping through the ceiling. The members of the Kanmasu Tracking Club ran to her and embraced her as one—or at least they tried to. Chisaki, Miko, and Yae were the ones who were able to get close enough to do so. The other four were jumping up and down shrieking for joy and relief and what have you. The one that really stuck out to Ushio was Miya saying "Oh thank God you're alive, which means you're not dead, which means Umi isn't going to die too keep MizuMizu from breaking up!"
Ushio couldn't help it. She started laughing.
"Oh," she gasped, "there is something that I need to tell you all so badly." Behind her, Umi slid the door shut. Gently, gently, she pushed the other girls away. They stepped back, watching nervously. Ushio took a deep breath. Somehow, this was different from telling Umi. Then, the relief from not being hurt, from not being alone had opened her mouth and let the words pour out.
"Ahahaha… what?" Umi asked.
"A Shipgirl. Me. I was born as a normal human, but I'm a Shipgirl." Apprehension was starting to set into her voice, and she began to cast about. What could she do, how could she make her believe… Of course! She thrust out her hand and searched, searched for it, the part of herself she knew existed—
Umi gaped as a smoking, steaming backpack formed on Ushio's back, torpedo tubes attached themselves to her thighs, and on her hand—
"NO!" Ikazuchi yelped, grabbing her arm and forcing her turret down. "Don't do that! You get in SO MUCH TROUBLE for firing cannons without authorization—and don't ask how I know that!"
Umi flopped down on her butt, a goldfish expression on her face.
"… Wow, she's taking this a lot better than Matsuhiro," Ikazuchi said quickly, as if her casual tone was an attempt to distract Ushio from what she had just said.
"Oh hey," Fubuki said, planting her fist in the palm of her hand. "Wasn't that the one guy you told me about in your art class?"
"Oh, you remember that?"
"Okay, so just a refresher… What do you know about Natural-Borns?" Ushio asked. Hopefully, this would help her segue smoothly into her explanation.
The girls were silent for a second, then two. Ushio began to worry that this wasn't going to work. Thankfully, Ichika raised a hand. She let herself breath an internal sigh of relief. Ichika was the one who some of the girls jokingly called the "lore master," which she was pretty sure meant that she knew a lot of things about Shipgirls. She should be able to answer.
"Natural-Borns are Shipgirls who are born as normal humans," Ichika said, rewarding Ushio's faith. "They're not summoned, they're awakened through a special ceremony when other Shipgirls identify them, though there've been stories about them awakening under duress. They're able to stay off the front lines if they want, and… Why did you ask?"
Ushio could see on the other girls faces that they were coming to the same conclusions. She smiled hopefully (what she thought was hopefully, Umi had told her before that her smiles looked more like she was pleading "please don't eat me") and nodded. She steeled herself. This definitely wasn't as easy.
"I was born Nagawa Namiko," she confirmed. She sucked in a deep breath, shut her eyes, clenched her fists. She needed to get this over with, like ripping off a bandage, but it was getting harder every second she spent trying. "And just last night… I awakened. As Ushio."
Confirming the Club's suspicions did little to aid in their reactions. Or rather, their lack thereof. It seemed to be slowly sinking in, as their brains picked the new information apart, and put it back together.
"Are you…" Miko began, tapping her fingers together. She seemed to be the first to put thing together, judging by how her expression had shifted to a sort of hopeful disbelief.
"She did," Umi confirmed, her eyes going wide and her grin slightly wild at the memory. "She really is. And she…"
Someone knocked at the door. Ushio turned and slid it open to reveal Fubuki. Ikazuchi had left "before anyone missed her" so Fubuki had agreed to guide them back to the house considering Ushio hadn't been looking where she was going, and Umi had once gotten lost in a broom closet (which Ushio had always thought was probably made up).
"So, is everything under control?" she asked.
"It's all fine," Ushio replied. Behind her, she could hear gasps as the members of her club identified another Shipgirl
"Great!" Fubuki said cheerily. "In that case, I should really be going, I've got patrol with—Ah! Someone will probably be along later to pick you up. You probably got the basics from Mutsu and Kongou, but there's a lot of little legal things that they'll want to discuss with you."
"Thank you," Ushio replied. "I'm… Oh no, I'm going to have to call my parents. I'm going to have to tell them I forgot all about it—" Her panic began to pour through her body. Every time she told someone it seemed, the next person to inform would be even more difficult.
"It's okay, really," Fubuki reassured her. "I'm sure you'll be able to come up with something, I gotta go, bye see you later!" She turned and began to walk briskly away.
Yae's shriek set the windows all rattling. Ushio wasn't sure, turning back to face her club as she was, but Fubuki may have tripped over her own feet in surprise. Mamiya, the club president, put her hand on her shoulder, and gave a reassuring squeeze.
"I think," she said, and Ushio admired that she was able to hold together the way she was, "That we all need to sit down for a minute. Or maybe more." She looked around the different club members, and Ushio thought for a moment that maybe she was gauging their reactions. "Heaven knows I need to," she added in a quieter voice.
"Yes! Sitting… Sitting down is good," Ushio agreed. She was going to have to get her story together. Who knew what her parents were going to say about all of this.
-----
The family telephone fell from nerveless fingers.
"Ma'am? Hello?" the nice lady who said she was from the Navy said. She dropped to her knees and fumbled for the phone, holding it back up to her ear first upside down, then sideways, and finally properly. It did not occur to her for a second that she had accidentally wrapped the cord around her arms several times.
"Yes, yes, sorry. What did you say was wrong with Namiko?" Nagawa Sasami asked.
-----
Well what do you think, sirs?
Well, well, well. Another day, another snippet. I think that I might be trying to get it done before I have to go back to college. I'm not sure that one is quite as... emotional as the past ones were, but I'm putting it up anyways. Let's go.
Set Up
-----
The human hadn't come back yet.
It was all right with her. She didn't want the human to come back. Because the human had said things, and the things were tearing her apart.
What had she meant, patient? She was a prisoner. Of course they were going to try to keep her alive, right? She would be pumped for any information that she had on the movements of her people, and then disposed of. Failing that, she would be turned over to their scientists for experimentation or torture. That was what they did when they found themselves with live humans.
But… patient.
As if her life mattered to her somehow. As if she had some reason… as if…
She couldn't put it into words.
-----
"I think she's broken," Hiei said, watching intently from behind the curtains. "She's just been staring up at the ceiling this entire time."
"She barely moved at all before we brought Doctor Norihara in," Ooyodo pointed out. It was true: the one burst of energy that the Ta-class had shown was when the doctor had entered the room. A desperate attempt to kill her, and then broken tears… and then a near catatonic state that had deepened after she had left.
"Yeah, but… It's different this time," Hiei said, swirling her hands in front of her as if she was trying to pull abstracts out of midair. "Before, it was more… Grouchy. Like… how do I put this…"
"Hiei," Admiral Goto cut her off. Ooyodo gave him a thankful glance, and he gave a brief nod in her direction. Then he turned his attention back to the Abyssal. "This is turning out to be a bit of a crazy day."
"Right. She just seems kinda stuck in place now." Hiei reported, and looked at their guest in askance. "You don't think Doctor Norihara… did something?"
The man standing next to Admiral Goto snorted. Doctor Misaki Yousuke was a man with grey-white hair and a piercing glare—in other words, the archetypal "Grumpy Doctor" popularized by American medical dramas, if he was Japanese instead of Caucasian. "Norihara-kun may be a naïve child," he growled, "but she's a professional through and through. There is no way on this Earth that she would harm that thing in any way, not if you asked her to take care of it."
"Then what's wrong with Tanya?" Hiei whined, pointing at the Abyssal dramatically.
"Maybe you should get her to come back and take a look," Doctor Misaki said. He grit his teeth and muttered something under his breath about a smoke. Ooyodo gave him a baleful look, and he raised an unapologetic eyebrow. She returned her attention back to the curtain with a huff.
But yes, there had been a difference after Norihara had left if she thought about it. Before the lady doctor had come, the Abyssal had been like an unstrung bow—although capable of great power, even when crippled, she had been in a slackened state incapable of unleashing it. Now, she seemed lessened. The Ta-class just lay there, looking at the ceiling with that look on her face. The one that asked "Why, why?"
Actually, come to think about it, when had that face appeared on the Abyssal? She had been wearing it as she had spoken with the doctor about how to feed her, which meant… before that… She had been looking like that during the checkup? She would have to ask Shouhou… wait.
"She's not a monster," Ooyodo said, drawing up the memory. "Just a patient." Her fellow observers turned to look at her, Hiei's face one of puzzlement, and Doctor Misaki's one that asked if she was joking. "It's what Doctor Norihara said," Ooyodo explained quickly. "I asked her why she was so calm when caring for the Abyssal, and that's what she said in response. I think…" she replied, slowing down and glancing at their faces hopefully. "I think that's when she started looking like that."
"Sounds like Norihara-kun," Doctor Misaki agreed gruffly. "Damn idealistic brat that she is."
"So, to Doctor Norihara, Tanya was just another day at the office?" Hiei said, lips beginning to form a crooked grin that was only too familiar to Ooyodo. "What kind of hospital do you work at?" Doctor Misaki snorted, and his lips curled up into something that halfway resembled a smile.
"You know," Ooyodo growled, trying to restrain the impulse to punch her colleague through a wall or five, "sooner or later something is going to snap you out of that attitude."
"Not gonna happen," Hiei said cheekily.
"I'm serious. Someone's going to get hurt, or you'll meet someone you really, really like, and you'll just…" Ooyodo made a stopping motion with her hands. "Just like that," she finished, smirking darkly.
"Never gonna happen," Hiei laughed.
"Yes," Admiral Goto deadpanned. "With your observational skills, you'll never get the chance."
The two shipgirls froze at this. Slowly, slowly, they turned as one to face back at the Abyssal—the Abyssal who was now looking directly at them with an intensity that couldn't be matched by anything human, so far as Ooyodo knew.
Oh no. Was it responding to that silly name Hiei had given it?
"In any case," Doctor Misaki continued, turning away, "I don't think I can help you here."
"You can't?" Ooyodo asked, confused. "But Doctor Norihara--"
"Kid," Doctor Misaki said in a tired voice, "I've been a doctor thirty years. I was in there, during Blood Week. Patching wounded, setting limbs, comforting... Comforting the people we couldn't help." His hand grasped for a phantom cigarette. "I can still hear them crying. Can still smell the blood. That thing out there?" He waved out towards the Abyssal. "That thing, and things like it, were the ones that did that. And I can't help you." He sighed, and began walking for the door. Hiei jumped and followed after him. "I need a damn smoke."
-----
Norihara. The human was called Norihara.
The human who had confused her so, who had done things that she had believed impossible of her kind, was named Norihara. And… was she going to come back? Would she come to make her question herself even more?
Or maybe to explain?
She couldn't have the answers to the troubles that she had inspired in the Ta-class. But then, she had inspired the questions in the first place. So maybe she did? Maybe she could… could stop the chaos tearing her apart from the inside? But… how…
She would find her way to the Norihara human. She would get the Shipgirls and their commander humans to bring Norihara back to her. Failing that, she would escape somehow. She would drag herself through the dirt and the refuse and she would find Norihara. And she would ask her questions, and Norihara would answer them.
Norihara would help her understand. She knew she would.
-----
Umi quietly slid the door open and stepped inside. Then she stopped. In front of her, Ushio could hear the other club members yelling, a twisted jumble of voices that she couldn't decipher. She could see Umi's hands clench into fists, squeeze until her knuckles turned white, and then she sucked in a deep breath.
"Who's that behind you, is that Nagawa?" one of the girls, Ushio was fairly sure she was named Chisaki, said, her voice managing to cut through the confusion and reach Umi's ears. She let out the breath she was holding, and held her arms out straight, her hands perpendicular to the floor. The girls trailed off and stopped, looking at her with baited breath. And Umi stood aside, and let Ushio walk in.
And then Ushio had to restrain herself from jumping through the ceiling. The members of the Kanmasu Tracking Club ran to her and embraced her as one—or at least they tried to. Chisaki, Miko, and Yae were the ones who were able to get close enough to do so. The other four were jumping up and down shrieking for joy and relief and what have you. The one that really stuck out to Ushio was Miya saying "Oh thank God you're alive, which means you're not dead, which means Umi isn't going to die too keep MizuMizu from breaking up!"
Ushio couldn't help it. She started laughing.
"Oh," she gasped, "there is something that I need to tell you all so badly." Behind her, Umi slid the door shut. Gently, gently, she pushed the other girls away. They stepped back, watching nervously. Ushio took a deep breath. Somehow, this was different from telling Umi. Then, the relief from not being hurt, from not being alone had opened her mouth and let the words pour out.
"Ahahaha… what?" Umi asked.
"A Shipgirl. Me. I was born as a normal human, but I'm a Shipgirl." Apprehension was starting to set into her voice, and she began to cast about. What could she do, how could she make her believe… Of course! She thrust out her hand and searched, searched for it, the part of herself she knew existed—
Umi gaped as a smoking, steaming backpack formed on Ushio's back, torpedo tubes attached themselves to her thighs, and on her hand—
"NO!" Ikazuchi yelped, grabbing her arm and forcing her turret down. "Don't do that! You get in SO MUCH TROUBLE for firing cannons without authorization—and don't ask how I know that!"
Umi flopped down on her butt, a goldfish expression on her face.
"… Wow, she's taking this a lot better than Matsuhiro," Ikazuchi said quickly, as if her casual tone was an attempt to distract Ushio from what she had just said.
"Oh hey," Fubuki said, planting her fist in the palm of her hand. "Wasn't that the one guy you told me about in your art class?"
"Oh, you remember that?"
"Okay, so just a refresher… What do you know about Natural-Borns?" Ushio asked. Hopefully, this would help her segue smoothly into her explanation.
The girls were silent for a second, then two. Ushio began to worry that this wasn't going to work. Thankfully, Ichika raised a hand. She let herself breath an internal sigh of relief. Ichika was the one who some of the girls jokingly called the "lore master," which she was pretty sure meant that she knew a lot of things about Shipgirls. She should be able to answer.
"Natural-Borns are Shipgirls who are born as normal humans," Ichika said, rewarding Ushio's faith. "They're not summoned, they're awakened through a special ceremony when other Shipgirls identify them, though there've been stories about them awakening under duress. They're able to stay off the front lines if they want, and… Why did you ask?"
Ushio could see on the other girls faces that they were coming to the same conclusions. She smiled hopefully (what she thought was hopefully, Umi had told her before that her smiles looked more like she was pleading "please don't eat me") and nodded. She steeled herself. This definitely wasn't as easy.
"I was born Nagawa Namiko," she confirmed. She sucked in a deep breath, shut her eyes, clenched her fists. She needed to get this over with, like ripping off a bandage, but it was getting harder every second she spent trying. "And just last night… I awakened. As Ushio."
Confirming the Club's suspicions did little to aid in their reactions. Or rather, their lack thereof. It seemed to be slowly sinking in, as their brains picked the new information apart, and put it back together.
"Are you…" Miko began, tapping her fingers together. She seemed to be the first to put thing together, judging by how her expression had shifted to a sort of hopeful disbelief.
"She did," Umi confirmed, her eyes going wide and her grin slightly wild at the memory. "She really is. And she…"
Someone knocked at the door. Ushio turned and slid it open to reveal Fubuki. Ikazuchi had left "before anyone missed her" so Fubuki had agreed to guide them back to the house considering Ushio hadn't been looking where she was going, and Umi had once gotten lost in a broom closet (which Ushio had always thought was probably made up).
"So, is everything under control?" she asked.
"It's all fine," Ushio replied. Behind her, she could hear gasps as the members of her club identified another Shipgirl
"Great!" Fubuki said cheerily. "In that case, I should really be going, I've got patrol with—Ah! Someone will probably be along later to pick you up. You probably got the basics from Mutsu and Kongou, but there's a lot of little legal things that they'll want to discuss with you."
"Thank you," Ushio replied. "I'm… Oh no, I'm going to have to call my parents. I'm going to have to tell them I forgot all about it—" Her panic began to pour through her body. Every time she told someone it seemed, the next person to inform would be even more difficult.
"It's okay, really," Fubuki reassured her. "I'm sure you'll be able to come up with something, I gotta go, bye see you later!" She turned and began to walk briskly away.
Yae's shriek set the windows all rattling. Ushio wasn't sure, turning back to face her club as she was, but Fubuki may have tripped over her own feet in surprise. Mamiya, the club president, put her hand on her shoulder, and gave a reassuring squeeze.
"I think," she said, and Ushio admired that she was able to hold together the way she was, "That we all need to sit down for a minute. Or maybe more." She looked around the different club members, and Ushio thought for a moment that maybe she was gauging their reactions. "Heaven knows I need to," she added in a quieter voice.
"Yes! Sitting… Sitting down is good," Ushio agreed. She was going to have to get her story together. Who knew what her parents were going to say about all of this.
-----
The family telephone fell from nerveless fingers.
"Ma'am? Hello?" the nice lady who said she was from the Navy said. She dropped to her knees and fumbled for the phone, holding it back up to her ear first upside down, then sideways, and finally properly. It did not occur to her for a second that she had accidentally wrapped the cord around her arms several times.
"Yes, yes, sorry. What did you say was wrong with Namiko?" Nagawa Sasami asked.
-----
Well what do you think, sirs?