Chapter Text
The boy must have fallen asleep inside of the Wolf, as next thing he knew he was being jostled around inside of the zoid’s cockpit. His ribs hurt, his arms hurt, everything hurt. Even pressing the release for his harness and for the canopy required a lot more energy than he’d like to expend. He slid out onto the asphalt of the small lot next to his house, and scraped himself up off the ground weakly.
Each step to the back door was torture. He still felt sick to his stomach, and he was tired as hell. The sun hung low, suspended in the air by distant skyscrapers. He squinted at it, remembering how high it was when he was still conscious. Looking at it reminded him of just how lousy he felt, so he rested on the cool wooden panels of his house before slinking in. If his father caught him, he'd ask for the parts, and if he didn't catch him, he could run upstairs and sleep peacefully. He took a deep breath in, weighing his options. He slowly reached for the doorknob, turning it ever so slightly. No noises came from the other side, signalling that his father wasn’t home. He opened the door just enough for his body to slide through without making any noises, and shut it behind him. The house was completely dark, and as he peered around the corner he realized that his father was nowhere to be seen. He must be out drinking. The boy sighed. It may be a bad habit, but it was letting him off the hook for tonight. He tossed the contents of his pockets onto the kotatsu, and made his way upstairs. His bed never seemed more comfortable as he propelled himself full-force into it.
A warm breeze blew on the boy's face, ruffling his honey-brown tresses. From the school’s roof, he could see the city in the distance ahead. He could make out twisting suspended roads and bridges between impossibly tall buildings in the distant city. Surrounding the school was a typical little town setting, or as his friends liked to call it, the slums. There were main roads strictly for zoids, but not many people had money to own one. In the city, zoids were able to travel underneath said floating highways. The boy sighed. He only had an hour for lunch, and most of it would be spent up on the roof. He shut out most of what his friend Itsuki was blabbering about, and stared into the abyss. Alas, it was hard to zone out when his name was being chanted like a mantra.
“1.3 million yen for a Heldigunner...that’s too expensive, but it looks so badass!” Itsuki whined. “I guess I’ll have to go for something more low tech. Old Republic zoids should be fairly common here. That’s more realistic.” He flipped around in the marketplace section of the magazine in his hands before turning to the boy.
“Hey Takumi, you listening?” The boy shot out of his daydream. Lingering in the sleepy afterglow, he glanced over at Itsuki.
“Yeah, yeah. I hear you...So how much are the...uh…” Takumi paused, attempting to string together a cognizant description to show Itsuki that he was actually paying attention, which wouldn’t fool anyone, “the cheap Republican ones…?” Itsuki seemed pleased with his response.
“Well, the best kinds of zoids are the ones that are the most adaptive. Like say you have a Molga. They’re pretty shitty.” He looked at the boy to check if he was still paying attention. “But the one thing they have goin’ for them is that they can host a variety of weapons. You can put on a Shot Cannon, or an AA-”
“A what?”
“Anti Air, as in shooting down flyers? Aircraft?” Itsuki let out an exasperated sigh, enunciating every word slowly. Takumi still didn’t understand, but he nodded anyway.
“Do you want a Molga?”
“No! It was just an example. Jeez, Takumi! I swear…” Itsuki had to look somewhere else, lest he let out his rage on the boy. “You want something versatile. Like here,” He opened the magazine, dramatically flipping through the ads and leaning into Takumi, “this one right here.” He tapped on the image of a wolf with white armor. Alongside it was one with blue metallic flake armor, a red one, and a grey one, all equipped with the stock 50mm Anti-Zoid Double Barrel Beam Cannon. Takumi knew that the colors weren’t what he should be focusing on, so he tuned back in to Itsuki.
“These bad boys can take just about any weapon. Plop a Dual Sniper Rifle on it and bam! It’d be nearly invincible! But that doesn’t make up for the weak armor, or the lessened maneuverability and speed…” Itsuki rubbed his chin in contemplation. Takumi peered down to get a closer look at the ads. They looked oddly similar to his father’s Wolf, but he couldn’t imagine it ever looking as nice and shiny as these, and the guns were different, so obviously they couldn’t be the same.
“So how much are these….Command Wolves?”
“They’re pretty common, so you can find one just about anywhere for 300K yen. But that’s without registration...or insurance...or modifications…” Itsuki trailed off, expression growing more sour by the second.
“And how much do you have saved?”
“...Around 50K…” Takumi rested his chin on his hand, and gazed out at the distant city.
“So there’s still a long way to go…” Itsuki groaned.
“Why can’t there be some magical way to get a lot of money fast?!? Even at our job we work our asses off all summer just to make 120K at best! And no one tips!” While Itsuki raged, Takumi tilted towards the magazine again, still leaning against the railing.
“What about this one?” He pointed to a little stegosaurus, hidden in the corner of the page.
“Huh? A Gorhecks? No way! You can’t fight with that! It’s useless!”
“But it has weapons. And it’s cute.” Takumi looked closely at the image, noting its various missile pods.
“Cute! Takumi, are you sure you’re alright up here?” He knocked on the boy’s head. “And the missiles mean nothing. What would you do if someone came too close to you? It’s slow as crap, and its armor is thin, too. Cute… you’re lucky no one’s here to hear you. What would Iketani say?!?” Itsuki shivered, but before he could continue berating Takumi, a familiar head popped in the space separating them.
“What are you nerds up to?”
“Mogi…” Takumi muttered under his breath. A moment of silence passed in between them, while Itsuki gaped at the tension between them.
“Don’t clam up, it's not that weird that I'd talk to you!” She teased Takumi, tapping his chest. He remained silent. Ignoring his awkwardness, she moved on.
“You only get 120K…? How many times a week do you work then?” Itsuki responded in Takumi’s mental absence.
“Five or six times a week.”
“What?!? You work that much!?” Mogi looked from Itsuki to Takumi and back again, freaking out. “All that work for such little money!!” Takumi finally decided to get his head out of the clouds, and stepped off the railing to face Mogi.
“ .. .'S uch little money'? That’s about normal for a high schooler working part time.” Mogi seemed genuinely surprised, and gave him a thoughtful look.
"I didn’t know that. I’ve never had one, so…” She gave them a bashful smile, before turning to go. “Well, good luck!” Winking at Takumi, she added, “Why don’t we go somewhere when finals are over?” With that, she headed down the stairs leading back inside of the school. Takumi watched her take every step, remembering the past he so sorely wished to forget. He didn’t even notice how close Itsuki had gotten, or how intensely he was being watched.
“ Duuude! You never told me you know Natsuki Mogi!”
“It’s been over a year since I last talked to her.” Takumi said matter-of-factly.
“Really...”
“We used to talk a lot until the summer after our second year, since we were in the same club. But then, some things happened that made her not want to be around me anymore.”
“What’d you do?” Itsuki raised an eyebrow.
“Nothing like that.” Takumi said sternly. “I didn’t do anything to her. There was a guy, one year older than us in the soccer club who was her…uh, boyfriend at the time, and I beat him up in the locker room. I quit after that, while she kept being the manager. When I’d see her outside of the club, she would pretend I didn't exist.”
“That’s to be expected, I guess. He was her boyfriend after all. But, for you of all people to beat up an upperclassman in a sports club… what’d he do for you to snap like that?” Takumi sighed, closing his eyes. The warm breeze felt much harsher than before, as if it wanted to burn off his skin.
“I… I don’t really want to get into why I did it… he just wasn't exactly a pleasant person.”
“You’ve always been like that. Hard to read. You usually just stare off sleepily into space, but… sometimes, you snap, and it’s like you turn into a completely different person.” Takumi put his hands in his pockets and started off, disliking the resurfacing memories. Itsuki followed after him.
“You know how in elementary school there’s those kids who go crazy after crying and get really strong? I was kind of like that.” Takumi sighed, hoping that was enough to make Itsuki drop the subject.
“Hey, stop reading that while walking already. You’re going to walk into a pole.” Not to mention how stupid you look… The ‘walk’ sign lit up green, and the two boys crossed the road. Itsuki ignored Takumi, and continued scrolling through the magazine’s pages. Suddenly, he shot up straight, and wildly pushed the magazine in Takumi’s face.
“Oooh! This ‘Wolf might be good!” He gave Takumi a sly look. “Saaaay~ Takumi, why don’t we pool our money and get a zoid together? If we combine our wages we should be able to afford a loan…” Takumi pouted, and broke eye contact.
“Absolutely not… why are you that desperate to get a zoid? You can’t even do anything with them, and your family’s got a car. Just borrow that if you want to go somewhere.”
“A car?!? My pop’s car !? No way! A car can't even come close to competing with a zoid! It's shit!”
“But it gets you places, doesn’t it? And there’s no point in owning a zoid. You can’t even take them places here, and they’re a pain to take care of.” Takumi shuttered, remembering his father’s Wolf having a field day tearing at the Gustav’s core. Itsuki stopped in the middle of the sidewalk give his friend the ‘are you stupid?’ look.
“You don’t get it, do you? You can’t form a bond, let alone a friendship, with a car. There’s nothing like roaming the wilderness with your partner, and you surely can’t take a car to the gulches.”
“To the what ? Why would you want to go to the gulches?"
“Isn’t it obvious? To fight!” Itsuki held up his fists and started boxing at an invisible foe.
“That’s fun ?” Takumi thought back to all of the times he and the Wolf had been attacked by feral zoids on their scrapping missions. The first time they were ambushed, he almost wet himself. The Wolf dispatched them neatly and as painlessly as possible, but he always felt guilty afterwards. He couldn’t imagine hunting them as a sport. Itsuki apparently didn’t see the cruelty in doing so, and he looked like he was going to have a meltdown.
“Duh, of course it’s fun! Not that I’ve ever done it…” He added sadly. Itsuki immediately perked back up to continue berating Takumi. “You call yourself a man, and you’ve never wanted to fight in a zoid battle… it’s like the wars of old, but without the casualties! Your blood should be singing just thinking of it!” Takumi, tired of hearing all this, quickly walked away and changed the subject.
“Let’s go get some juice before work. I’ll get you pineapple.”
“Nooo! Wait up!” Itsuki chased after him, waving the magazine. “Not pineapple!”