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Tatsuya. The message blinks on the screen of his phone. I found something you need to see. Not "want to", not "should" - something he needs to see.
He lets his mind sweep through the building they had taken up residence in. Everyone is sleeping but him - Eikichi's rest is dark and deep, Lisa gives off the hazy half-thoughts of dreams, and Maya... doesn't seem to be there, at first, but then he feels her presence entangled with Ulala's, both happily exhausted.
But he can barely sleep these days. He knows why, of course. Why the others weren't affected in the same way. It was different for someone who had felt the callousness from the men and women with the white coats and the clipboards, someone who had known even then how little they had cared about their wellbeing. And now more of the nightmare was waiting for him, more files recovered from their systems.
He steps into the hall, being careful not to wake anyone else. The only member of their little team who sleeps less than he does is Baofu, who, as he had explained, doesn't need to sleep at all, as long as he stays charged. Tatsuya still isn't sure if it had been pride or bitterness he heard in the man's voice - the only person he knows whose intentions he can't just feel, and he has to confuse everything by coating all his words in sarcasm. He knows better than to bring it up, though, he'd only be mocked for his dissatisfaction with what everyone else has to live with. And besides, he owes Baofu for helping them in the first place.
Through the door at the end of the hall is the android in question, basking in the greenish glow of a half dozen computer screens. He seems more at home here in his own lair than in Ulala's operating rooms, monitoring several things at once instead of giving all his focus to one.
"Hey."
"You're here." Baofu's voice is unusually soft - something tells him it's apprehension, but he chalks it up to the time of night (or morning, as the case may be). "Take a look."
He pulls up a file on the screen closest to him - security footage, dated just over ten years ago. There's a plain, sterile-looking room - Tatsuya can almost smell the antiseptic, this might have been a mistake - a pair of blank-faced doctors, and one wary-eyed girl with messy auburn hair.
"We're almost done, Nobuyo-chan." He fails to suppress a shudder at the sound of his old name. "We just need to give you a shot so you stay healthy when you leave, okay?" The doctor picks up the syringe, letting it catch the light - just looking at it makes his blood go cold, makes his breath catch. The child meets the eyes of the man holding the needle, but there's no fear there, just raw hostility.
"You're lying." There's a mad dash for the door, only for the child to be stopped by the other doctor.
"Hold her still!"
"Don't touch me!" And then the child is pinned down with a needle in the arm. There's kicking and screaming that turns into cries for help that aren't acknowledged, much less answered. And back in the present, Tatsuya brings his fingers to his left arm, where a small lump sits next to his bone. It sits there with muscles and nerves grown around it, it sits there under a wire-thin scar, it sits there like it did for years, holding back his abilities because he couldn't be controlled.
Baofu closes the video, looking at him with more concern than he would be caught dead showing to anyone else. Tatsuya doesn't want his fucking pity. Not now - not ever - not with the walls starting to close in on him, not with the silence making him nauseous.
"I need some air," he manages. And then he's running out into the night as fast as his feet will carry him.