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[ Huh. He wants to show him in person? Isaka is surprised, but not about to turn down a chance like that. ]

I'm at my place.

Let's meet somewhere else.

[ And he sends along a map link that leads to a coffee shop that's close to the neighborhood where Isaka lives.

...everything from a few weeks ago was quite a lot. ]

10 minutes.

[[It's a little less than 10 minutes before Tachibana's bike pulls up outside the coffee shop. There's a definite tension and general moodiness that for once, is not caused by Isaka's existence or actions, but rather, dwelling on the situation he was going to be showing and talking with the Undead about.]]

10 minutes is not much time to leave and travel, but the location isn't far and coffee is not a time-consuming thing to obtain. By the time that Tachibana arrives, Isaka is already inside and waiting on an order for two cups of coffee to be poured and given over.

When the man enters, he'll turn his head and give him a neutral look. This is a serious matter. He cannot quite find a reason to be smiling.

Tachibana scans the shop, relentless and doing his best not to fidget before he spots Isaka and gives a small nod and heads over.

The timing of it all is working out very well. Isaka gives him a nod, looks back to the barista working on preparing drinks, and ah, they've set them down to be taken. So he takes both of them, in paper to-go cups with little lids snapped on, and hands one to Tachibana. "You take yours black, yes?" And he'll find that's just what it is.

With drinks arranged, Isaka gives a little 'come along with me' tilt of his head and makes for a table in the far corner. Some moderate privacy for their meeting.

"Yeah," Tachibana acknowledged, accepting the cup with a small nod of thanks before following Isaka to the thankfully semi secluded spot.

As he sits, his restlessness shifts, the hand not on the cup tapping lightly on the table surface before he holds it out in silent offer, not looking directly at Isaka.

He could just simply blast the memory from where he sat, but with physical contact... it was easier. And Isaka would be prepared for it, when it came.

Isaka sits, and shifts a bit to settle, and sips briefly at his own coffee... and is surprised to find Tachibana offering his hand. Ah. That's very polite. But physical connection does make mental connection much easier. They'd certainly found a lot of evidence of that.

Putting such thoughts aside for the moment, Isaka sets down his cup, and places his ungloved hand in Tachibana's.

Tachibana let out a slow breath before closing his eyes, fingers curling around Isaka's as he called up the memories he wanted to share, then let down his mental defenses to allow Isaka to watch them.

The first memory was almost an introduction-- context. A small flash of an Undead like creature-- but not one Isaka would have ever seen. It has two additional heads-- one on each shoulder-- and then a 4th, in the center of it's chest-- one that looks uneasily like a human being peering up from the armored chest. With it comes the deep and sickened understanding that that thing is Tennouji-- merged fully with an Undead of his own creation.

Then suddenly he's staring ahead down an open road on top his motorcycle, the thrumm of the engine-- and that of 3 others running like an electric current of tension

"If you win the Battle Fight, what would you wish for?" Kenzaki's voice asked, addressing the 5th person, the one standing behind them.

"Peace, of course! Never again will humans fight amongst themselves..."

"To do that... you would need to destroy all of humanity." Hajime's voice this time, further away than Kenzaki's.

"Of course! Right now, humanity is a mass of wickedness! I will destroy everything, and give birth to a new humanity, one that wishes for peace!"

"And... you will be their ruler." To Tachibana's right, this voice, one Isaka wouldn't recognize, but that Tachibana's memory provided the name and face of-- Mutsuki. Leangle.

A soft, smug chuckle swelled from behind before, Tachibana's frame tensing further and further before he shouted, "Why did you create BOARD?!"

"Everything has been going as planned! Hirose unleashed the Undead, and you guys sealed them for me! Thanks to you, I was able to complete Kerberos! I'm very grateful!"

"You're saying we were acting to fulfill your ambition from the very beginning?" In contrast to the yelled words before, Tachibana's voice was now a tense near whisper, almost trembling with anger. A tone Isaka could recognize from his own memories. "Our ideals... Our justice...!"

"It was all an illusion." A sickened laugh swelled before punctuated by a strange sound, a grotesque whoosh of energy before the man's voice, deeper, and more serious now, intoned his "Henshin..."

Memories finished, Tachibana again pulled his mental shields up tight around him, even as his grip on Isaka's hand lingered, the small bit of Chroma trickling through a reassuring grounding in the current reality that helped him push away the echoes of the past that he had just relived in his mind.

Though lacking in the force of some of the previous times that Tachibana had shared memories of him, the end result is still a stunned Isaka sitting across from him, hand gripping back very lightly. Though his expression is less of a man that's been thrown down several flights of stairs, and more along the lines of having been told bad news. He frowns. He thinks. He is not overwhelmed by this knowledge, but is engaged with it.

"...so there was one more step above what we thought was involved." He finally pulls his hand away, and picks up his cup of coffee instead, to take another swig of it. "No one knew?"

He can maybe bear having not known something if no one else had known, either.

Tachibana takes a drink of his own coffee first before answering. "Noone at BOARD knew. I don't even know if any of Tennouji's personal staff understood what he was doing," he confirmed, both hands holding the paper cup as his fingers drummed against it.

"We only found out any hint of it when he finally appeared before us, when he thought his creation had defeated us. At that point, there were only two Undead left still unsealed. He waited until almost the very last moment, to make his move..."

Edited 2020-07-21 22:47 (UTC)

...no, it doesn't make it feel much better, to have been so thoroughly deceived. And he feels like an idiot for having not even considered that a human might plan such a thing. His frown deepens.

"Which two were left? Joker and who?" The fingers of his other hand drum on the table top, an unthinking mirror to Tachibana's own anxious fidgeting. He has... gotten snips and bits of what he'd missed after being sealed. The high points, in almost no detail. He'd like to fill in some blanks, now. "Waiting to be the last one to make a move is much less risky when no one is even aware that you exist to make that move. How clever of him to wait." He says that last bit flatly. It is not praise.

"Don't call him that name," Tachibana corrected, almost automatically before pausing, looking up sharply and blinking.

He had never referred to Hajime by that name while they had been there. It was a habit he had long since worked himself out of. That Isaka used the name of that existence...

"You... You knew?"

"It's the name he ought to have had at the time. I'll use it if I wish." But he catches Tachibana's blink, Tachibana's hesitation, and realizes just what the man is realizing. Now he finds it within himself to smile a little.

"I could guess. There were clues that something wasn't right. Chalice, wearing Human Undead's face? Very suspicious. Maybe he was just very uncreative?" He shrugs, he takes another drink of his coffee, lingers a moment to savor it. "...I suppose he wasn't."

Edited 2020-07-21 23:52 (UTC)

"Even back then, he didn't want that existence," Tachibana retorted, defensively. "Don't call him that name."

That defending of his friend done, he shifted in his seat, sitting back, arms crossing with a faint scowl. "That any of you had human faces is strange enough," he returned before reaching out to pick up his coffee again. Not that anyone at BOARD could have figured it out. Who the hell knew what Human Undead looked like? Only the Undead who had fought him, he was sure.

And why the hell hadn't Hajime been given a human appearance, like the rest of the royals? Was his existence so hated by the Sealing Stone that he wasn't even given that much?

Isaka is quiet for a moment, considering Tachibana's demand as though it were a polite request. "Fine." He shrugs it away as though it's of no consequence. "It's no longer specific enough, at any rate."

Tachibana continues to fume and scowl, and Isaka's expression remains that no-doubt infuriating mask of mild bemusement. "The ones of us that cared to have human faces picked them, as far as I'm aware." Ah, is this something that's never come up for him? How nice to have the shoe on the other foot for a change.

"..Picked them?" Tachibana repeated, blinking in confusion.

Tachibana's confusion only makes him smile more smugly. "How did you think we ended up with such functional disguises?" No, really, please tell him. He is very curious now. He'd really like to know.

"Like there was ever any time to think about things like that?" Tachibana returned, tone defensive once more before he yet again reached for his coffee. "You all were trying to kill us, the hell were we going to find out anything about why you could suddenly look like humans?"

He took a sip from his drink, eyes averted before continuing. "...always just assumed it was... some side effect of Human Undead's victory or something," he admitted.

"You've had years after to contemplate it! There were better things to think about while it was happening, I'll give you that much, but... you'd never wondered?" He's about ready to be offended by Tachibana's lack of curiosity, but ah. There's an answer of sorts.

"...not a bad starting point for speculation. But no. Though I will say it is not easy." He takes a moment to look away, himself, betraying some vulnerability. "I'd have a hard time changing it, even if I cared to."

"With every other damned question left unanswered, the hell would I waste any time thinking about something like that?" Tachibana returned, still not making eye contact.

"... Just the one chance to choose, huh?" he acknowledged. Wasn't that just how everything went, when the Fight was concerned?

"You're a scientist, aren't you? Isn't that what a scientist does? Ask impossible questions, and try to find the answers?" Was he misinformed? Did he not understand? He hates not understanding. And Tachibana seems to persist in being incomprehensible in the strangest of ways. Isaka lets out a grumbling sigh, and settles back into his seat.

"More or less. None of us are as... changeable as Joker, but there's some of it to all of us. The effort to do it and get it right is... considerable."

"The things about Undead I study are things like how you heal, how you stay living despite taking damage that would kill someone mortal. Things that could help someone. Wasting time on something like appearance..." Tachibana scowled slightly, feeling... honestly a touch insulted.

Still....

"...The flexibility in Joker's transformation is enhanced by the energy of the Undead that's being used," he pointed out. "Like how the Rider System works. And even that is just a temporary change. That yours seems to be permanent..." He trailed off, tilting his cup back and forth, feeling the weight of the coffee left inside move with it.

"That existence... was not given the same choice as the rest of you were."

"And the cellular processes behind how we alter form isn't of any interest?" If he feels insulted, then good. Isaka feels a little insulted in turn. He takes a longer drink of his coffee and lets Tachibana continue, though, lets him actually spin out a bit of theory. So he's not completely disinterested. Just... defensive. Hm.

"I wouldn't say permanent, but...." He frowns thoughtfully, glances to Tachibana's hands, and finds himself suddenly reminded of how much Chroma the both of them produced while under the influence of those singing dragons. And then he stops himself, and exhales sharply. "...Joker, you mean. Who can possibly be anything, but wants nothing? But that's not correct any more, is it. Hajime knows perfectly well what he wants to be, now."

See, see? He can be polite.

"He had wants. He wanted to understand. He wanted to be something more than just a tool or a pawn in a greater game he had no way to win."

Tachibana finally sets the cup down, letting out a deep breath.

"...sometimes I wonder if the fact that he had nothing of his own made it easier for him to change. Only by losing what little any of you had..." he trailed off again, leaning back in his chair before looking over.

"If you hadn't have wound up here, out of reach of the Sealing Stone... would you have wanted to change?"

It was a soft question, but not an idle one. An important one. In multiple ways.

"I knew him before you did. He didn't have those wants." Does he need to explain? He doesn't think that he needs to explain. What he needs is more coffee, because by the time Tachibana is done saying moody things and asking moody questions, he has drained his cup.

He hesitates, absently tipping the cup back and forth, as though to assure himself that it's actually empty. He knows his answer, and he is quite sure that Tachibana will not like it. And because he is changed from how he once was, that somehow matters.

"Likely not. Something else might have re-framed my way of thinking... but likely not." Why lie? He should be honest. There is still a part of him that aches to return to doing what he was made to do.

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