warintheextreme | [For Takatora]

[For Takatora]

This is turning out to be much more interesting than I ever anticipated.

As I have made quite clear to everyone involved in the project- I am an intellectual. A scientist. Non-violent by nature. And anyway, the main reason I signed on to head the technology sector of this project was to provide a measure of protection to the citizens of the city.

I mean it when I say I don't want to see any innocents hurt, never mind killed.

Takatora has asked me, more than once now, to increase the pace on the secondary Driver project, the follow-up to the prototype Sengoku Driver.

I smirk to myself, as ever feeling maybe just a tad bit egocentric and flush with potentially unwarrantaed self-importance...

Then again, I did design the device entirely on my own, and build all seven of them, from scratch, by hand.

There is a technology department at Yggdrasill. I'm a part of it, a ranking member even. But this project is sensitive enough that I jumped at the position, knowing full well that I wouldn't have to work with any of my scientific peers.

It's my project. My work.

This new Driver will be no different.

Though I am still unsure, as the blueprints are finished and I've begun building the first model, if I trust it enough to let Takatora be the first to use one.

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I smirk at that, shrugging one shoulder but refusing to acknowledge it. Counts as a break for me.

"You'll have to make up your mind, Takatora, either you can have the new Driver sooner, or I can take frequent and unproductive breaks. You can't have it both ways."

I think he's smiling. It's just an educated guess, but judging by the particular near-haste with which he raised his cup, it seems likely that he was trying to hide a grin.

Then he makes an off-handed half-threat and I lower my own mug and fix him with a piercing stare.

"Try it."

Ah, I'm not looking for a fight with that comment, or to challenge him. He doesn't need to fix me with so serious a stare.

"Oh I know you'd find a way back in, I'm not arguing that." I sip at my coffee, then lower the cup, meeting Ryouma's eyes. "But during the hypothetical time spent trying to get back in you might learn something."

Maybe not to test me so, when it comes to the welfare of those that work under me.

I smirk at him around my coffee cup, and pointedly drain the cup in two long draws before leaning back in my chair to place the empty cup on one of my spare tables before scooting slowly back towards the work table, and the prototype sitting on it.

I keep my eyes on Takatora for now, though.

"I think you wouldn't ever dare to do that, whether I'm sleeping or not."

I think you wouldn't trust me to be the top scientist in the research department, or indeed to be working for Yggdrasill at all, if I couldn't bypass a few locks.

I hum, as if I am considering the matter, and while I do I put one of my feet out and set my shoe down on one of the wheels of his chair, stopping him from sliding any closer to his desk.

I reach into my pocket, and draw a sandwich wrapped in plastic from it. I hold it out to him, meeting his eyes with an unwavering glare.

"Eat."

He actually puts a foot on my chair to stop me from moving, and I give him a slight pout, shaking my head.

He actually brought a sandwich. Where did he get that?

I take it from him, holding it up with a little shake of my head and a laugh.

"I ate when I took my not-break around the lab." I say, and it's true, actually, I had an entire apple.

"Yes, I'm sure you did." I sip at my coffee again, keeping my foot firmly stilling his chair.

"And again, that was nine hours ago." I fix him with a gaze, half one of authority, of command, and half one that's a great deal more open, more private. Almost caring.

"I'm not asking you to stop working, to call it a night and go home. I am merely insisting that you refuel before you work yourself unconscious."

I watch him carefully as he speaks, catch all the multitude of tones in his voice, and then nod once and begin unwrapping the sandwich.

"You have to have more confidence in me, Takatora. I was, and in fact am, no where near unconsciousness, from lack of food, or sleep. I know my body well enough for that."

But I take a bite of the sandwich anyway, just to placate him.

"I was not implying that you were." He has misunderstood me. That's fine, I think I often misunderstand him. "I was asking you to refuel before the eventuality of you working yourself unconscious, whenever that may be."

I do give that faint hint of a smile to him when he decides to humor me and take a bite. I won't be releasing his chair until the sandwich is gone, mind, but the fact that he's intending to humor me is endearing.

"Talk to me about the progress you've made."

"Of course not." I smirk at him. He might not have been implying anything, but the indication was there regardless. He thought, indeed does still think, that I'm able to get so lost in my work that I will pass out on my desk.

That has only ever happened twice before, and only once since working with Yggdrasill.

I take another bite, and shrug, glancing back at my worktable and the prototype there.

"The Energy Lockseeds are on a completely different level from the others. There's simply too much power to use them in the same way. I couldn't just start with the Sengoku Driver and build up from there, I had to start from scratch."

"Somehow I think, even if you were able to start with the Sengoku Driver and build upon it, you wouldn't have." He's far too creative and masochistic for that, has been since I met him.

Then again, I can be equally as dedicated and self damaging. It's just that my talents lie outside the realms of science and engineering.

I shift a little, thinking of a recent battle I engaged in inside Helheim. My shoulder is still a bit strained from that fight. ...perhaps more than a bit.

I'm tempted to shove the entire sandwich into my mouth just to be a shit, but it's not really worth it, so I take another, slightly larger bite, as he speaks.

I hum, and swallow, then look up at him a bit imploringly. "I might have, you know, but it would have been counter-intuitive this time. You'll understand, once I'm done."

My eyes flit down his body as he shifts, shrugs, and I can tell there's a tension there that shouldn't be, that isn't usually.

"Takatora... When were you last in Helheim?"

I tense, as I realize his eyes have roamed over me, have caught on to my temporary physical issues.

"This afternoon, if you must know." I scowl, trying to keep my posture steady and composed.

I raise an eyebrow at that, and turn sharply in my chair to look at the clock on the far wall of the lab. I do the math and turn back to Takatora with a sharp look.

"Was anyone monitoring your activity?"

I shrug. "I assume your intricate computer system kept track of my vitals, and as none of them were in danger of failing, they did not alert you."

I reach my free hand over to my shoulder, tilting my head a bit and rubbing at the first degree muscle tear there.

I scowl at him for that one, and put my foot deliberately against his shin where he's trying to hold my chair into place, pushing firmly and with much determination until he moves so I can stand up, moving purposefully towards the side of my lab where all of the data is compiled.

He's right. He was in there, while I was absorbed in work on the new Driver, and straining himself unnecessarily. Not too much, not enough to set off any alarms, but enough that the print-outs are approximately 33% more than they are usually.

I grab up the papers and turn sharply, brandishing them at Takatora.

"Why was I not informed that you were entering the forest?"

I sigh, setting my nearly empty cup of coffee down on Ryouma's desk and crossing my arms, staring at him evenly.

He's being so dramatic, it would be endearing, even attractive, it it wasn't directed at me.

"Because it was a minor, routine Inves fight that lasted all of fifteen minutes total."

I'm actually infuriated with him just now, I don't even care if he thinks it's 'endearing'. I take several sharp steps closer to him, and then throw the reports down at his feet, my eyes locked on his in a firm gaze.

"I do not care what you think it was, Takatora. We know nothing about these creatures or that world, there is no such thing as routine. I should be informed, every time you enter the forest."

"Last time I checked." I speak calmly, almost coolly.

"I was the head of his project, not you."

He underestimates me, physically speaking. I think he always has. I don't care. I grab him by the lapel of his jacket and haul on it, hard and fast, with enough strength and purpose to shove him back against the nearest Lockseed tank.

"I am not talking about your stupid fucking project, Takatora, I am talking about you recklessly entering an unstable alternate dimension without anyone watching your back."

He's strong. I'm stronger.

But I don't fight back. I let him move me, let him think he has control of the situation, even as I control the angle of my limbs so him pushing me against a tank doesn't aggravate my strained shoulder.

"I don't need you constantly babysitting me."

I know he's stronger than me.

I don't care.

He's important to me.

And not just for the project. Not just the data he provides. And certainly not his rank, or his stupid damn fucking name, I could honestly not care less about that.

I care about him.

So I shove him, with the strength born not from training but from here, now, focus, reality. Me, and him.

I shove him on his good shoulder, so that's what hits the tank with a sharp crack.

"I'm not your fucking babysitter, Takatora. I never said I would be, and I never will be. I have enough on my hands babysitting all the other test subjects. You, I should not have to worry about, because you should respect this situation enough to let me know when you are risking yourself."

I shove him again.

"As if I would not go in there after you, if something went wrong."

Gazing at Ryouma, at his earnest face, at the worry there, hearing the sincerity of his words.

I swallow, lick my lips, clear my throat.

My words are soft, stern, but even.

"I would not wish you to follow me, no matter what the situation."

I give him one more shove, then turn sharply away from him, sit right back down in my chair, and scoot closer to my worktable, picking up the prototype of the new Driver and setting most of my focus to it once more.

"I don't need you babysitting me, Takatora." I throw back at him with a scoff. "If you don't want me in the forest, don't give me reason to worry about you."

"I don't want anyone in the forest." Not anyone but me. And I don't even want me going in there. No one should have to go in there.

I don't even want the workers we have going in there collecting lock seeds.

It's all too risky.

But it would be more risky to ignore the threat that Helheim poses to Zawame City.

"I was trying to do exactly that." I say, softly, oh so softly, as I push myself up and away from the lock seed tank. "Trying to not give you a reason to worry."

I grumble under my breath, but I don't respond. I keep my attention on the Driver prototype.

We don't have a choice. If we're going to figure out the Forest, people will have to go in... and come out again.

He continues, and I turn my head and look up at him. "I will always worry, until we're done with this stupid project."

[For Takatora]

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