MMBN RP - HOPITAL

@pro gramer move @scenegraph

Somewhere along the line, the void seemed to become… more peaceful. Sleep became restful, and repair programs began to properly run. Meiru woke up first, protected from the brunt of the damage thanks to her Cross Fusion. She couldn’t remember what she’d done to end up in a hospital room, at first. She could feel stitches in her back—the Elec Sword— In the bed across from hers was the boy from the chat room. Pat. She’d thought she was going to protect him, and everyone else, and instead she had landed them here. Why had she done any of the things she’d done in that facility? (Besides breaking that wicked Hikari-hakase’s nose. He’d definitely deserved that.) She had no idea what had even happened to the girl they were supposed to rescue. Meiru couldn’t move much, with the injury so fresh. She could only turn her head away in shame. Hopefully she would be able to go home soon and forget all about the chatroom; she had made a truly monumental mistake this time…

Pat didn't know when he'd completely lost consciousness after dragging himself into that portal. For him, he might as well have been unconscious since they'd stepped into that facility's room. His dreams in that moment had that same level of blur, though the unease they gave him didn't feel any less real. Hurting. He was hurting. Other people were hurting. He was doing it. It wasn't an uncommon genre of dream for him, but this one stung with much more familiarity- it wasn't just a nightmare. What could he say to them? He shouldn't be here, this shouldn't be happening, he.... "I'm sorry..!!" His voice was almost a panicked cry as he jolted awake. Then he realized he was staring. That lady, Meiru, was across from him. It was all real. But what had they been doing...? "....Oh.... um...." He'd quickly fallen quiet after his outburst. His hands gripped the sides of the bed a few times, just to have that feeling, to know that he was somewhere safe now. Several spots on his body ached. Moving any more than that would be rough right now.

Meiru flinched when Pat cried out. This was still such a nightmare, the residual darkness in her heart sliding her mind inward. She’d hit him—there’d been two of them, hadn’t there? Part of him? Was that just another trick of her mind under SoulNet?—just for asking a question. Yes, I’m sorry. But now the part of her mind that listened and cared and thought things through was no longer being overridden by that awful mental noise, and she could realize that those words were being said by the wrong person. She could stop, gather her courage, take a breath to shove away that paralyzing hopelessness, and do what needed to be done. “No,” she said. It had taken her a little time to speak, but her voice now was resolute. “You have nothing to apologize for. As a Net Savior acting under someone else’s command, my duty was to keep you all as safe as possible while we were on this rescue. I’m the one who needs to apologize to you, and to everyone.” There was absolutely no point in blaming anyone else; she hadn’t asked enough questions, and they'd all paid the price. Especially the gentle kid from the chatroom with his beautiful flowers. “It’s all right if you don’t want to talk to me anymore after this. I’d be pretty mad at me, too.”

Now... she was apologizing? Pat's frown deepened as he felt nothing but uncertainty. That hopeless pit in his stomach that that experience had caused hadn't fully gone away. Probably because it didn't take much at all on Soulnet's part to drag that feeling up; it was one that was always with him. "You don't-" He bit his lip as Meiru had finished what she was saying: It's all right if you don't want to talk to me anymore. The reason there was this lump in his throat right now is because those were almost the exact words that had been about to leave his own mouth. It was like second nature to say by now, right? Do what he'd always done when things went wrong. Leave everyone else to their lives and go back to his own. Wasn't nearly as easy when it was being spoken to him. The boy stared down at his lap for a moment. "I barely told you guys anything. I shouldn't have gone. I... should just get back home." A pause. He should just leave it like that so he could properly disconnect from all of these people, but... he couldn't. "...And I'm not mad at you." (edited)

“That’s not your fault at all, okay?” Meiru told him. “You seem like a lovely person, and I can tell you went in there with the best of intentions. The rest of us with more experience are the ones who failed you, by not making sure those intentions wouldn’t go to waste.” Pat seemed to be taking too much of the blame to her, but it wasn’t like she’d been that much older when she’d gotten this job. But even if she tried to rationalize it that way—that this boy was some kind of Net Savior or Official or Sheriff or whatever they were called where he was from, and he’d had as much right to be there as she had—she couldn’t help but remember how she’d had Enzan’s steady presence there to help her when she was that young. And she’d never been let down like what she felt she’d done to Pat. When Pat made his last addition, Meiru’s laugh was sad. “That’s so kind of you. Thank you.” But she couldn’t help but still feel horribly disappointed in herself. “Maybe I’m mad at me,” she said aloud. “I admit it.” Then, from the watch-like device propped on the beside table, a girlish voice asked, “Meiru-chan…?” “Roll!” Quickly, Meiru darted a hand out to slip the PET back onto her other wrist. Roll materialized over her chest, similar to the warrior Pat had faced but a bit different, simpler in design. “Are you recovering okay? Do I need to get you back to the Ministry?” After a moment, she wondered, “…Where are we?” “I… don’t know. I have this terrible feeling that we—“ Roll turned to see Pat, and the tiny face of the hologram went pale. “Oh, no!” (edited)

"Mm..." Pat was not really inclined to believe those words, even if Meiru sounded sincere. Or... it was more like he refused to accept that he carried no blame. "That's how I feel too, I think..." It was an improvement over how he'd felt earlier. Mad at everyone and everything. He could ground his thoughts now, find any bit of comfort and cling to it. "...But I don't remember a lot. I don't... think I want to. I hope everyone else is okay too." The new voice caught him a bit off guard. Meiru reaching for her PET reminded him about his own device. Turning to his own table, he was relieved to see his Wave Scanner there. (He never was much for transitioning to a Hunter VG. Keep it old school.) Though, unlike her, he didn't think talking to Gemini was a good idea right then, so he left it there for now. He turned back to the two of them, Roll's exclamation making him want to sheepishly look elsewhere again. "...I.. I'm okay, don't worry. I guess we must've tied back there."

“Maybe that’s for the best. I can remember what happened, but it doesn’t help at all. I gave in to all my worst habits,” Meiru admitted. “Everything was so loud and hopeless in my head. I couldn’t think.” She sighed. “Some help I was.” Being reminded of the outcome of their battle made Meiru smile, decidedly amused this time instead of regretful. “I sure underestimated you, when usually it’s other people who do that to me! Your power and fighting spirit are incredible. I think those flowers of yours, and anything else you want to protect, are in good hands.” “…Everything that happened is all my fault, Meiru-chan, Pat-san. I’m sorry.” The interrupting voice was unnervingly intense in its sadness; alarmed, Meiru looked back to the little Navi over her chest. “Roll?” “I was looking for active devices, but I missed that server in Hikari-hakase’s pocket,” fretted Roll. “I should’ve been able to warn everyone. How could I have made such a terrible mistake?” “You weren’t the only Navi there, you know,” Meiru reminded Roll. “It might've been cloaked, somehow.” “But I can find those..." Roll shook her head. "But, that’s not all. I lost my temper,” she said slowly, regretfully. “And—“ In a rush, she confessed, “Meiru-chan, Rush is gone!” That jogged Meiru’s memory. It had seemed like a fever dream, but it was all real. The Heart Slash to the back of the head, the Cross Fusion when Rush had just wanted to hide. “We probably… deserve that…”

"So it did that to everyone..." Okay. Knowing that was... weirdly relieving. Only a little. "...Haha... the things I want to protect..." he trailed off into what sounded like a sigh. Pat wished for a second that he could name off anything particularly glamorous. In that moment he couldn't think of a single thing that didn't feel selfish in some way, so he simply nodded along. "...I'm not really a hero, but thanks," he added as more of an afterthought mumble. The boy's head tilted as he listened to the two of them. "...Rush?" He was in no position to pry on these people or what goes on in their worlds, but this seemed offered pretty freely, so now he was curious. "You lost something? ...Back there?" Another pause. Maybe he was saying too much right now, they looked pretty distressed. "Ah... hey, it's like you said. It wasn't just all loud and hopeless for you, how were you supposed to know?"

“Rush is my support program,” Roll explained. “He’s shaped like a dog, and he was made to track down data. But he doesn’t really do much of that anymore,” she added, sounding a bit disapproving. “He picked up the ability to substantiate from a virus, and, well, it’s a long story…” “Er, most things that live inside the Internet, like Navis and viruses, can’t normally appear in the real world like what happened back there,” Meiru tried to clarify. “Even that Cross Fusion we did usually only happens in a special field, a Dimensional Area. Rush can get around that for us, but he has to want to cooperate. Otherwise, he can be a real scaredy-cat.” And that, of course, could be really annoying, especially in situations where Meiru and Roll didn’t have the time to persuade him. “He followed us into Regal’s lab, but I… I forced him to become the—I mean, to catalyze the Cross Fusion,” Roll explained. “And we would’ve unfused there if we're waking up here, so if he isn’t with us…” “He can make… portals between the real world and the Cyberworld,” Meiru said. “So it might not even be anything to worry about. He could be hiding anywhere. Maybe even in any world, now that he’s been exposed to something else new to him. I just have to hope that nothing major happens between when I get home and when I find Rush again.” “I hope he comes back soon, so I can tell him I’m sorry,” Roll sighed. Glancing at Pat, Meiru mused, “Rush doesn’t like to fight, and I was always scared of the really big enemies Netto would face. So we weren’t exactly heroes either, when we started. We just kind of… stepped up and made things work, I guess.”

"Huh...." This was a lot to unpack. He had heard about Cross Fusion and Dimensional Areas previously, but he wasn't going to make that clear. The last thing he wanted was to be bombarded with questions any time soon. Or ever. He wasn't sure when this unsettled feeling would stop. "I hope so too. If he can travel anywhere, I would think he would." He's quieter now. Lost in thought. "It doesn't feel right to not tell you anything about myself, but... I think I'd be from the future for you. Not sure how much I should say." Yeah, that's a fine enough excuse. Leave it like that... right? The hesitant look on his face unintentionally gave away otherwise. "...Not that that... really stopped a lot of people in the chatroom. After this, I'm not sure if I should go back in there."

“Well, I think if it mattered that people in the chatroom are from the past or the future, the damage would be done already. Nobody seemed very cautious or anything.” But especially after the events of her summer, Meiru could see on Pat’s face that this stemmed from a much simpler fear. “Hmm… Maybe we should trade!” Meiru suggested, smiling. “You can tell me something about where you’re from, and I can tell you something about me!” But when Pat mentioned cutting himself off from the chatroom, she glanced away. “I was… thinking the same thing. About the chatroom. It all felt kinda harmless before this, like we were separated from one another. But now we know for sure that's not true. And…" Sadly, Meiru admitted, "I don’t even know if most of the people in there would want to see me again, after I just ran in and made everything worse like that. After everything that happened in my world, I thought I could help, and instead I ended up being rescued.” It brought back memories more bitter than sweet, of watching her best friend fight, unable to do anything but get in the way. “…We do have to keep an eye on it in case Rush pops back up,” Roll pointed out, subdued. “If anything were to happen in our world again, and we didn’t have Rush…” “I guess… we should see what it looks like in there, huh,” Meiru said. She wasn’t in any condition to hunch over her screen and see for herself, with the fresh stitches in her back. “Then I’ll go,” Roll said. “I’ll let both of you know what’s going on.” Slowly, almost hesitantly, her projection disappeared.

There it was again. This time Pat couldn't help it- the look he gave to Meiru betrayed his speechlessness, eyes widened for only a split second. "That's...." He put his hands together in his lap, tapping his fingers against his legs. "...what I was thinking too. But... I didn't think that about you. Actually, I couldn't really think about what anyone else was doing at that point. But you seemed so prepared, and I was a liability before I even walked in that room. Like you said, you have the experience. You should have been there." It was a matter of fact, wasn't it? He wasn't looking back up again this time. "...Thanks," he replied to Roll as the Navi headed off to investigate the chatroom. "Haha... yeah, trading's a good idea." Anything he might have been feeling on the previous topic was now hidden behind his placid tone and neutral smile. "You heard about Wizards by now, right? The digital companions we have where I'm from. Mine's not much for talking to people. But... he's powerful. That's how we were able to fight you." No point in not saying it. Meiru had already seen them as Gemini Spark; no excuse was going to change that one. "It's not something I want everyone to know, though. I don't want them to be worried."

Meiru nodded along, silent. There was absolutely nothing stopping these people from entering her world, with all the substantiation technology it had, and taking what they wanted for use in their own. Her Netto was not going to take this well. She needed to get back home, stitches or no stitches, before he could really work himself up. (It seemed silly to even consider that perhaps Netto hadn’t noticed her absence by now, or that Enzan hadn’t told Netto about the letter she’d left explaining why she wasn’t there for dinner. There weren’t exactly many secrets left between the three of them. They all knew better than that now.) Looking over at the obviously nervous boy across from her as he pushed down the fear and played along with their conversational game reminded Meiru that there was also nothing stopping these people from going to Pat’s world. “Yeah, that makes sense! Though, wait… can every Wizard fuse with their Operator?” After a moment, Meiru realized, “Oh, wait, that’s an extra question! Let me explain. In my world, anything to do with substantiation is… well, all it ever seems to get used for is destruction. So a lot of people are afraid of it. In the country where I’m from, it’s illegal to bring digital beings and objects into the real world by any means. Even though I’m a Net Savior, I have to keep Rush’s ability a secret, or we’d all get in trouble.” After a moment, Meiru added, “Nobody really knows how it works, anyway.” After a moment’s more thought, Meiru added, “…Hey. You know, if I belonged there even though I didn’t have a full enough picture, you belonged there, too. With your power. And if they could kidnap that girl from her own dimension, they can do it to us. Even if it isn’t safe to use the chatroom for it, I think we oughta stick together somehow.” (edited)

"...No. Most can't. That's why I haven't said anything in the chatroom. It wouldn't be very good." It was a weird feeling to hand out this information. Like he shouldn't- Pat's always kept most of himself hidden. But nowadays he wanted to trust. It was an almost desperate feeling, one he had to remain conscious of. He might say too much. As much as he wanted to bring himself to believe Meiru's reassurance, he couldn't. He'd nod along for now, though. No sense making her dwell on it too. "But. I guess I can't hide that from anyone that was in our group now, huh?" A small shrug. Another pause. "...I don't want to just stop talking to people like you," he added. "That's probably kind of selfish too, haha..."

"No, no, that's really reassuring to hear!" It genuinely was, too. Meiru already was starting to feel that things were a lot less hopeless than they'd seemed when she'd woken up. It was still a terrible mistake, but Pat was being so understanding of her. "I really do think that we should keep in touch, even if we just use messages and not the chatroom. I think it'd be way more selfish of us not to, in case those guys make another move. Them getting their hands on technology from either of our worlds would be horrible."

"There's people I knew already in that chatroom too. It wouldn't feel right to leave them." Yeah. Yeah that sounded right. Finally he was dragging himself into doing something that wasn't avoiding people. And we're happy about this why? Ah. He was wondering when Rey was going to be able to offer commentary again. Oh boy. He was still dazed too, of course. Well, if this plan prevented people from ending up in their world in the long run, it should be a win-win, right? "Um... thanks. For understanding. It does mean a lot." Though his smile looked a bit sad, it was the most genuine one he'd had yet. "You're right. I can just be careful back home. Keep an eye out. You should take a break too... your job would let you have that, wouldn't it?"

It reminded Meiru that her own connection to the chatroom was far more tenuous; perhaps it was still better, both for her and for her world, if she eased back on using the chatroom proper. But then Pat thanked her for exactly what she was thankful for, and she couldn't help but say, "Gosh, I could say the same thing! Thank you, too." After hearing what else he had to say, Meiru wondered, "I'm sure the kids would be okay, but what'll Netto and Enzan think...?" "Oh, you don't have to wonder! Rockman's in the chatroom," Roll reported without preamble, reappearing next to Meiru. "Our Rockman, I mean!" "Ours?!" Meiru asked, amazed. "Everyone's a bit shaken, but nobody really seems to be blaming us. Or each other, for the most part..." "'For the most part'...?" Meiru repeated skeptically. (edited)

Pat would never be fully used to hearing so many people refer to a Rockman. He was aware that there was a NetNavi with that name, but it still made him second guess who they were talking about. ..No, no, he should focus on the conversation before he started zoning out on that thought. Blinking a few times, he just processed what Roll had said. "That's... understandable," he replied a little late. Would it hurt for him to look in there himself? The curiosity was killing him... pushing through the numbness in his muscles, he slowly reached over and grabbed his own device, just setting it in his lap for now. "It sounds like you'll be able to talk to people you know too, then? But... is something going on in there?"

Roll explained to Pat, “The girl we rescued, Triese, it seems like she’s sick. And everyone’s really rattled. That other Rockman who belongs to the Netto who organized this seems to feel really bad about it all, and some people seem pretty upset with him…” Roll seemed worried for that Rockman, but she pressed on. “But nobody’s really blaming the rescue party for what happened. They weren’t even mad at me for not finding the SoulNet server in time.” “And you found Rockman?” Meiru asked. “Yeah. I guess Netto had already been in the chatroom for a bit before this, and he’s worried about this happening in our world, with… everything. He’s been picking apart this thing he found in the Ministry archives from Beyondard, so we’ll have something to warn us if someone opens a Fossa Ambience into our world. A ‘Fossa Tracker’.” Upon her Operator’s worried sigh, Roll added, “But he does know we’re okay now, don’t worry.” Meiru couldn’t help but want to look, as well. It would be good to set things right with the rest of their half of the rescue team. And if nothing else, she could make sure Netto wasn’t making a terror of himself, or being a terror to himself. “If… we did keep using the chatroom, that would really help it feel less dangerous,” Meiru thought aloud. “Having that advance warning to be on the lookout.” (edited)

"...Ah..." Pat couldn't imagine what happened with the other team. The thought of whatever that girl had to go through, if it was worse than what they dealt with... in fact, he'd been so caught up on worrying about distancing himself that he'd almost neglected why they'd gone there in the first place. "I hope she gets better soon." Ugh... so pointless to say here, but what else could he do right now? "That tracker... it sounds useful. I wonder if we'd have anything similar, since we're... about 200 years ahead of you?" Didn't sound quite as excited as he maybe could have been. He did not want to talk to officials back home. But that was a dread he could shove aside for now at least. An affirmative nod. "...Yeah. I agree. Maybe it's a way to make up for things. Maybe."

"Me, too." There seemed to be nothing odd about saying it, or about agreeing, to Meiru. It was the polite sentiment to make, after all. When Pat volunteered his world's expertise, Meiru encouraged, "It's really hard to say whether there'd be anything to find about it in your world, but it's worth a try!" More wistfully, almost to herself, she added, "It might be that the things that happened to me and my friends never happened at all where you're from. It's hard to even imagine what my world would be like, in 200 years." And then the subject of rejoining the chatroom reappeared. Meiru couldn't help but not want to do it alone. "Why don't we hop back in together?" she asked. "It'd make me a lot less nervous, for sure."

"I... don't think it'd be an overall bad thing if it ends up anything like my world." Pushing aside his own circumstances, of course. Pat wasn't about to start delving into his personal life. He'd had enough traumatic thoughts in the past.... amount of time. How long had they been out...? "So I'll see what I can find once we're all home. It might take a while, though." He pondered Meiru's suggestion a moment. "...Yeah. I'd like that more too," he replied, the small smile on his face easing up just a bit more. Turning down to his screen, he stared at his applications. In a way, the end of this mission didn't feel like the end of anything. More like the beginning of a whole new level of problems. But he was more than used to that by now.. for better or worse.

That in turn gave Meiru pause. Between the Dimensional War and the climate, it seemed as though society as she knew it would not exist in 200 years. The work they did after hours made Meiru feel better about it all, but was it really going to make that much of a difference...? But there was Pat, evidence that it was possible. It was a hopeful thought all on its own. "Thanks! For everything!" Meiru exclaimed with the new surge of optimism. Gingerly, she tapped along the side of the bed for the controls. "I've got it!" Roll told her, the bed propping Meiru up into a sitting position. Her holoscreen appeared at a comfortable angle, the chatroom app nestled among various others. "Here we go! One, two..."