triggerhappytraitor | Prisma Inbox/index

[Placed under the tree in the shared chalet where Tachibana and the others are passing the holiday is a package for him. Inside is a diamond-shaped wooden pendant, a small screwdriver set, and a box of handmade chocolate truffles. Included is a small card that reads:]

Wishing you a happy Firialia, and all the best in the days to come!
~Dakki

[Here, have an awkward text from a little after the Majestas incident.]

Hey
You are Tachibana right?

[[considering his username is TachibanaS, same as his BOARD work email, really, it was a safe guess]]

Yes.

What is it?

You were the one helping people back at the amphitheater right?
When that 'thing' took over?

I'm that green haired kid you saved
Just wanted to
say thanks

I'm glad I was able to help.

Are you feeling better now? All healed up?

Yeah I'm feeling better

As for being healed up
I'm still pretty banged up
But I'll live

I was super confused when I woke up at the hospital
but the folks at the medical center explained to me what happened
Just my luck being at the wrong place and the wrong time like that

It's something that's unfortunately unavoidable. Don't beat yourself up over it.

[ In regards to this... ]

Who was it that attempted to cause the destruction of all living beings on the planet in the pursuit of personal power, precisely? I would almost guess Joker, but his motivations seem to have changed.

[[There's a bit of a pause as he remembers that oh right.... Isaka would have no way of knowing...]]

Tennouji.

The head of BOARD's parent company.

He wanted to win the Fight himself.

So he arranged to have it restarted.

[ There's... a delay in Isaka sending a response. He needs a moment to process that. ]

He wanted to what?

What in the fuck?

[[Another delay as just... how to even.]]

Where are you.

I can show you the memory.

[[it was the easiest way to explain.

...even if it meant being face to face with Isaka again after... everything a few weeks ago.]]

[ 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?

Prisma Inbox/index

A Firialia Delivery

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