nip take#1
so, once upon a time i used to write fic. too much fic. but only once upon awhile did i ever finish them.
but once upon a few months ago my old laptop, affectionately dubbed 'massu,' crashed and i was scared i had lost everything--files, memories, words. so many, many words. i managed to salvage everything i needed and wanted and also a few things i just couldn't let go of--i do so hate to waste words. so i am going to clean out my old drafts folder and archive all the fic i never finished here, so that i can finally delete them from my new laptop.
closure, i think.
and i guess there's no better place for this word vomit than the community that 77 of you still, for whatever reason--be it laziness, forgetfulness, late-to-the-party-ness, etc.--watch for my writing. thank you so much for everything, i hope there will perhaps be something you still enjoy among the ruins of the draft folder.
warning: nothing has been edited since they were last been touched--and remember that they will never be touched again!
most things so it should be all okay.'>
"Tegoshi Yuya, age 17." He said, swallowing the growing lump in his throat as he handed a bundle of tightly wadded papers to the man sitting behind the desk. The man stared down at the papers wordlessly, before finally unraveling the pages, using his hand to smooth out some of the worse wrinkles. Tegoshi's ears burned with embarrassment as he looked away--he had been in such a hurry to get away that he had all but stuffed the forms in his bag at the last second. At the time he had been glad enough to have made it out in one piece, even ecstatic that most of the papers were still in tact, but something told him that this wasn't exactly orthodox. Though, Tegoshi mused with a little bitterness, not many things in his life were. But that's the way the world worked--this world, anyway. Tegoshi really wouldn't wish this upon any other poor planet in existence.
The man cleared his throat and it was all Tegoshi could do to keep his feet on the ground. The process was taking much longer than he had expected--of course, it might have taken less time if the man needed not iron out each and every page before being able to read them. Tegoshi fidgeted, glancing all around the room for something to keep his attention--which was futile, to say the least. The walls were painted a blinding white, and there wasn't much in the room anyway, except the man, the desk, and the small plaque mounted on the wall above the desk, emblazoned with the bold letters: J.A.
He heard the man shift through his papers, coughing a little and muttering something incoherent under his breath. Tegoshi chanced to take a second look at the now preoccupied man. His hair was light, golden brown, and his left ear was pierced. He was dressed in a simple black sleeveless shirt that seemed to hang right off of his thin and wiry frame. Tegoshi thought he seemed a little under dressed for the establishment, before catching sight of the black jacket hanging lazily off the back of his chair. It was trimmed with gold, and Tegoshi could make out half of a golden label sticking out from the left breast pocket; "--yama." But the most striking thing about the man named "--yama", the thing that had first drawn Tegoshi's eyes--though he would never admit to it aloud, and especially not to him--was the bizarre contraption resting over his eyes. Tegoshi wasn't sure what to make of it; it looked like a pair of mechanical swimming goggles or something. The front looked like it was made of glass, semi-transparent and wine colored; Tegoshi could barely see "--yama's" eyes through them. The glass was held in place by a metal frame, which continued and wrapped around his head, over his ears, and seemed to fasten at the back.
"They're getting younger and younger lately," "--yama" said suddenly, startling Tegoshi out of his wits. He rubbed at his goggles a bit and Tegoshi wondered why he just didn't take the thing off altogether, "Tegoshi, was it?"
"Y-yes." Tegoshi nearly choked, immediately straightening to attention.
"I've heard a bit about you--handpicked by Johnny-san himself, wasn't it?" Koyama continued aimlessly, and Tegoshi wasn't even sure he was talking to him at this point. But that story was true, for the most part. It had been a few months ago that a strange old man had walked up to him, in the middle of the dusty streets, and had handed him a folder of papers and a business card with only two letters on it: J.A. It was only a few weeks prior to today that Tegoshi had finally realized that the man had been the Johnny-san himself. But Tegoshi allowed himself his dim mistake--his mind had not been quite right during that period.
"Anyway, Tegoshi Yuya-san," "--yama" said, with a strange emphasis that Tegoshi wasn't sure was from mocking or otherwise, "welcome to Johnny's Army."
Tegoshi nodded uneasily, and the other man grinned wryly as he extended a hand, "I'm Koyama Keiichiro and--oi, Masuda!"
Tegoshi winced and quickly withdrew his hand when Koyama's attention seemed taken up by a new presence--"Koyama" had quite the handshake for someone who looked as he did. Tegoshi was still rubbing his hands even after the newcomer jogged towards them. "Masuda" as Koyama had addressed the boy, looked about his own height, give or take a few millimeters. He had dark, nearly black hair, that fell over and obscured most of his eyes from sight. He was wearing the same black attire that Koyama seemed to have on, though his jacket was slung haphazardly over his shoulder. Did no one dress properly in this place, Tegoshi wondered.
"Eh? Him?" He heard Masuda ask, and Tegoshi promptly came to his senses. While they weren't exactly whispering, Tegoshi still only heard a few fleeting words between the two of them before the one named Masuda turned towards him and extended a hand.
"Masuda Takahisa, I guess I'll be showing you around today."
"Ah--" Tegoshi stammered a bit, caught off guard by easy smile on the other boy's face. He would soon learn that this was rather commonplace for that one, but for now, Tegoshi was a little relieved by the friendly countenance, and the eyes he could mostly make out behind the bangs. "Tegoshi Yuya--nice to meet you Mas-su--"
Tegoshi squeaked a little--Koyama's handshake had been painful enough, but Masuda seemed to hide a monstrous strength behind his gentle smile.
"Massu?" Koyama repeated, voice bubbly with glee, "That's cute, ne, Massu?"
Massu raised an eyebrow at him, but the smile never left his face.
"Ah, well, you can call me whatever you want I guess." Massu said, turning towards the only other door in the white room, besides the exit. He pressed his hand into a panel and the door retracted upwards. Tegoshi didn't even have a chance to apologize as he scrambled over to follow, afraid the door would close on him forever.
"Okay then, Massu!" Koyama shouted just as Tegoshi crossed into the next room.
"You can't." Massu's amused voice rang out, just before the door shut.
Koyama cackled and spun around in his chair.
-
"Your room." Massu announced, opening the door with a few quick taps of the keypad situated right beside the door frame. He switched on the lights and motioned for Tegoshi to follow. It was a small but roomy enough, comfortable--whole. Tegoshi set his single bag on the small twin sized bed tucked into the furthest corner of the room. There was a small window with drawn curtains above it. A desk and dresser were placed against the opposite wall, and a single tall lamp filled the room with a warm yellow light. So caught up in the room was he that Tegoshi hardly even noticed Massu's absence until he reappeared with a knock at the door.
"Er?" Tegoshi let out unintelligibly. Massu laughed and threw him a small black garment bag, which Tegoshi easily caught in his hands.
"Try it on--it should fit all right for now. I'll be outside when you're done." Was all Massu said before exiting the room once more.
Left alone in the room, Tegoshi took a deep breath and closed his eyes. It was real--this was real. Slowly, he opened his eyes and turned his attention towards the small garment bag in his arms. He carefully unzipped it. Inside was a sleeveless black shirt, a pair of khaki colored shorts. The last item in the bag was a long, dark colored vest that was patched at the sides. He quickly tore off his old, tattered clothing and slipped the unfamiliar garments over his skin. It was a little loose, and seemed to have been worn before, but it was in better shape than his old clothes, which he gathered in a bundle and stuffed into his dresser. He took up his bag again and was about to exit the room when he caught sight of the full length mirror, previously unseen, hanging on the door. He blinked, staring at his reflection long and hard. His hair was long and unkempt, bleached brown from the sun, and falling all over the place; his face and skin were covered with dust. It had been a while since he had been able to see what had become of him.
"You done in there, rookie?" A voice seemed to sing from outside his door.
He frowned at the nickname but strode out the door all the same. Massu was leaning against the opposite wall, arms crossed and legs angled out in front of him. He looked Tegoshi up and down and then smiled a little.
"A little loose, but not bad. It'll do until they can take your measurements and have a new pair whipped up." He paused, "Better tell them to add a new pair of shoes to that order too."
Tegoshi scuffed the toe of his old sneakers against the floor, embarrassed, when Massu continued to stare at him, "Uhm...?"
Massu blinked, before smiling sheepishly, "Ah, sorry, sorry. Seeing you in that makes me feel nostalgic."
"Were these yours?" Tegoshi prompted, fingering the bottom of the vest hesitantly.
"Hm, yeah, but don't worry, they're clean and haven't been worn in a while. It's just kind of a policy for everyone to be uniformed when entering the main building."
"M-main building?" Tegoshi repeated in awe as Massu continued along the corridor without him. He started and followed after him, forgetting that he hadn't had the chance to say "thank you" either.
-
"M-Massu?" Tegoshi said finally, as the elevator door shut, breaking the silence that had descended right after they had left his new room. He tasted the syllables on his tongue for the first time, on purpose, and found that he rather liked the sound of it. "Massu" strangely suited him, it had a softer quality to it that "Masuda" seemed to lack.
"Hm?" Massu replied idly, tapping his boot against the elevator floor in an odd rhythm.
"Does this mean that training starts now?" Tegoshi asked anxiously, as the numbers continued to light up--10, 11, 12...
13.
The elevator chimed and Tegoshi jumped a little, before quickly trotting after Massu. They entered a long room filled with rows and rows of desks and large monitors. Half the desks were filled with men of various ages and various uniforms. Tegoshi could make out a satellite picture of Japan from one of the larger monitors on the far side of the room.
"Cool." He breathed to himself, just as he saw Massu disappear behind a door out of the corner of his eyes. Tegoshi almost cursed as he ran after him, and ended up nearly bowling into Massu, who had stopped short in the middle of the next room. Tegoshi managed to maneuver so that he only tapped his forehead against the other man's shoulder. He only managed to catch the last bit of Massu's words, "--won't be for a while."
Tegoshi rubbed his head and squinted up at him, "Sorry, what?"
Massu looked fairly amused as he repeated, "I said we can't talk in the monitoring station, and that training won't be for a while, you need to be appointed a teacher by Leader-san, first."
"O-oh." He replied, unable to mask his disappointment, "Then where are we going?"
"Well, Koyama said I was supposed to give you a general tour around the place, but for now..." Massu trailed off, staring at Tegoshi curiously again.
"For now?" Tegoshi repeated, then nearly yelped as Massu was suddenly in front of him, hands on his waist. Massu stepped back, the same damn smile still on his face, as Tegoshi squirmed self consciously in his spot.
"Cafeteria," he said laughingly, turning on his heel and continuing ahead, "you're malnourished."
Tegoshi begrudgingly followed, as he had been since the beginning of the entire day. He was starting to get rather sick of Massu's casual demeanor. They passed threw a few rather plain looking rooms without much incident, other than the occasional hello from someone that seemed to recognize Massu, before they entered a large circular room with a high ceiling. There was a large, holographic sphere in the center of the room that served as a television, and there were rows and rows of chairs and sofas pointed around it. There were more people in this one room than Tegoshi had seen during his entire stay here, bustling about and chatting merrily with one another, or watching the news in the center of the room.
"M-Massu? What is this place?" He asked, tugging at the other boy's shirt, already forgetting his initial annoyance at him in favor of sheer wonderment.
"It's the common room, and the main meeting room when the need arises." Massu commented offhandedly, attention momentarily distracted by something on the holographic television.
"Massu?" A new voice snorted disdainfully, "Is that how a commanding officer should let his subordinates address him?"
"Ah, Nishikido-san." Massu greeted pleasantly, turning to face the newcomer. "Nishikido-san" was just a little bit taller than the two of them, and had short black hair. He was wearing the same uniform as Massu and Koyama, though there was a quality about him that screamed dignity, something that the other two seemed to lack. In fact, Tegoshi would've felt more compelled to study the man if his previous words hadn't struck a chord in him. Massu was a...commanding officer?
"--goshi Yuya," Massu motioned at him, and Tegoshi blinked back to reality.
"Oh, is he the one?" Nishikido-san asked, eyebrows raised as he surveys the boy. Tegoshi lowered his gaze, feeling ashamed for some reason.
"Mm, specially picked out by Johnny-san, means he's special." Massu continued cheerfully, and Tegoshi just wanted to sink into the floor and disappear altogether, away from the smoldering glare of Nishikido-san. "Tegoshi, say hello!"
Tegoshi cursed under his breath, looked to Massu who is smiling, oblivious to his discomfort, looked to Nishikido-san, who stared back impassively.
"T-Tegoshi Yuya." He muttered, shifting his gaze away immediately.
When Nishikido remained silent, Massu chuckled and pat him on the shoulder, "Don't be like that--Ryo."
Tegoshi blinked at the sudden change in Massu's tone of voice. When he looked back up, Nishikido-san--Ryo?--looked dazed for a brief second, before he shook his head lightly and frowned apologetically, "Sorry about that, I'm Nishikido Ryo."
Tegoshi stared, bewildered at Nishikido Ryo's outstretched hand, before Massu came up next to him and whispered, "Split personalities. Had a tough time as a kid, it manifested itself like this. Just smile and shake his hand--Ryo's the polite one."
Tegoshi nodded wordlessly, before taking the other man's hand and giving it a firm shake.
"I hope you'll find it pleasant here." Ryo muttered softly, staring off into the distance. He was about to leave, but Massu bounded up to him first, pressing a hand upon his back.
"Wait, you probably wanted to meet him too, ne, Ryo-chan?"
Tegoshi watched as Ryo's eyes became unfocused again, before clearing once more. Ryo-chan smiled brightly at him. Tegoshi was kind of scared.
"Un! It's nice to meet you, Tego-nyan! Lets play later some time!" Ryo-chan giggled, shaking Tegoshi's hand again, vigorously, with both of his, before fluttering off to the other side of the room.
Massu couldn't contain his laughter at Tegoshi's completely flabbergasted expression. "Sorry, maybe I should've warned you about that last one. Ryo's personalities kind of come and go on a whim--but sometimes, if you find the right pressure points, you can kind of change him on will. It's useful sometimes, if we really need one of his sides, but...maybe I shouldn't have done
that so quickly." Massu muttered, mostly to himself as he scratched the back of his head. Ryo-chan was bouncing up and down the rows of sofas, giggling and asking people to play with him.
"Maybe we should get out of here." Massu muttered as someone yelped, "Ryo-chan?! Who let you out?" Tegoshi grimaced as there was a sound of something breaking, and was about to agree when Massu's attention was caught by something above--or more precisely, someone above.
"Hm, so the princess is out today" Massu said, staring up at the figure on the large walkway that spanned across the entire top of the room. Tegoshi looked up curiously, there was a girl in J. A.?
"The only one," Massu said, as if reading Tegoshi's mind, "we found her just outside the woods. She was nearly dead. Leader-san wouldn't give up though, and she finally regained consciousness a few weeks ago."
"Ah, she's spotted us." Massu said, sending her a friendly smile and wave. "Princess" blinked, before nodding and sending a hesitant wave back, lips twitching slightly.
"Ah, she smiled." Massu laughed, as she turned and hurriedly walked along the corridor. But Tegoshi had long since stopped listening to Massu, having frozen the moment he had seen the girl's face. It wasn't possible that she--
"Oi rookie, cafeteria's up ahead." Massu's voice cut through his musings. Tegoshi blinked, the princess was gone from sight and so was Massu. Frowning, Tegoshi hurried through the nearest exit.
-
"Shige!" Massu called, raising a hand in greeting while
"Don't!" Shige shrieks, and Tegoshi springs up from where he was about to sit, across from Shige. "You'll sit on Nyanta."
"Masuda." Shige said dully, left eye twitching and fingers alighting over the base of the headset on his ear, "Leader-san is calling you."
Massu sighed, setting his spoon down and passing his tray over to to Tegoshi, "Oh well, you need it more anyway."
...
"So you're the one that created the vision thing for Koyama-san, huh? I've heard it's amazing."
"Thanks. The idea came to me in a dream."
"Oh, was he born with bad vision?"
"Nope, small eyes." Shige cackled.
"So, why don't you make more to be used?"
"I forgot it in another dream."
-
and why yes, that last part was blatantly stolen from futurama. this also would have been the first fic i ever wrote a girl--maki, of course--in, had i gotten to her part. she was going to be tegoshi's twin sister. but with AMNESIA. also shoon was going to be in a coma (in a plot device not unlike attention please) and really, the whole premise of this fic was, i remember distinctly, a showdown (with guns!--real guns, don't be dirty) between tegoshi and massu with tego crying and learning what it means to be a real soldier/whatever the heck he is supposed to be. obviously.
but once upon a few months ago my old laptop, affectionately dubbed 'massu,' crashed and i was scared i had lost everything--files, memories, words. so many, many words. i managed to salvage everything i needed and wanted and also a few things i just couldn't let go of--i do so hate to waste words. so i am going to clean out my old drafts folder and archive all the fic i never finished here, so that i can finally delete them from my new laptop.
closure, i think.
and i guess there's no better place for this word vomit than the community that 77 of you still, for whatever reason--be it laziness, forgetfulness, late-to-the-party-ness, etc.--watch for my writing. thank you so much for everything, i hope there will perhaps be something you still enjoy among the ruins of the draft folder.
warning: nothing has been edited since they were last been touched--and remember that they will never be touched again!
most things so it should be all okay.'>
"Tegoshi Yuya, age 17." He said, swallowing the growing lump in his throat as he handed a bundle of tightly wadded papers to the man sitting behind the desk. The man stared down at the papers wordlessly, before finally unraveling the pages, using his hand to smooth out some of the worse wrinkles. Tegoshi's ears burned with embarrassment as he looked away--he had been in such a hurry to get away that he had all but stuffed the forms in his bag at the last second. At the time he had been glad enough to have made it out in one piece, even ecstatic that most of the papers were still in tact, but something told him that this wasn't exactly orthodox. Though, Tegoshi mused with a little bitterness, not many things in his life were. But that's the way the world worked--this world, anyway. Tegoshi really wouldn't wish this upon any other poor planet in existence.
The man cleared his throat and it was all Tegoshi could do to keep his feet on the ground. The process was taking much longer than he had expected--of course, it might have taken less time if the man needed not iron out each and every page before being able to read them. Tegoshi fidgeted, glancing all around the room for something to keep his attention--which was futile, to say the least. The walls were painted a blinding white, and there wasn't much in the room anyway, except the man, the desk, and the small plaque mounted on the wall above the desk, emblazoned with the bold letters: J.A.
He heard the man shift through his papers, coughing a little and muttering something incoherent under his breath. Tegoshi chanced to take a second look at the now preoccupied man. His hair was light, golden brown, and his left ear was pierced. He was dressed in a simple black sleeveless shirt that seemed to hang right off of his thin and wiry frame. Tegoshi thought he seemed a little under dressed for the establishment, before catching sight of the black jacket hanging lazily off the back of his chair. It was trimmed with gold, and Tegoshi could make out half of a golden label sticking out from the left breast pocket; "--yama." But the most striking thing about the man named "--yama", the thing that had first drawn Tegoshi's eyes--though he would never admit to it aloud, and especially not to him--was the bizarre contraption resting over his eyes. Tegoshi wasn't sure what to make of it; it looked like a pair of mechanical swimming goggles or something. The front looked like it was made of glass, semi-transparent and wine colored; Tegoshi could barely see "--yama's" eyes through them. The glass was held in place by a metal frame, which continued and wrapped around his head, over his ears, and seemed to fasten at the back.
"They're getting younger and younger lately," "--yama" said suddenly, startling Tegoshi out of his wits. He rubbed at his goggles a bit and Tegoshi wondered why he just didn't take the thing off altogether, "Tegoshi, was it?"
"Y-yes." Tegoshi nearly choked, immediately straightening to attention.
"I've heard a bit about you--handpicked by Johnny-san himself, wasn't it?" Koyama continued aimlessly, and Tegoshi wasn't even sure he was talking to him at this point. But that story was true, for the most part. It had been a few months ago that a strange old man had walked up to him, in the middle of the dusty streets, and had handed him a folder of papers and a business card with only two letters on it: J.A. It was only a few weeks prior to today that Tegoshi had finally realized that the man had been the Johnny-san himself. But Tegoshi allowed himself his dim mistake--his mind had not been quite right during that period.
"Anyway, Tegoshi Yuya-san," "--yama" said, with a strange emphasis that Tegoshi wasn't sure was from mocking or otherwise, "welcome to Johnny's Army."
Tegoshi nodded uneasily, and the other man grinned wryly as he extended a hand, "I'm Koyama Keiichiro and--oi, Masuda!"
Tegoshi winced and quickly withdrew his hand when Koyama's attention seemed taken up by a new presence--"Koyama" had quite the handshake for someone who looked as he did. Tegoshi was still rubbing his hands even after the newcomer jogged towards them. "Masuda" as Koyama had addressed the boy, looked about his own height, give or take a few millimeters. He had dark, nearly black hair, that fell over and obscured most of his eyes from sight. He was wearing the same black attire that Koyama seemed to have on, though his jacket was slung haphazardly over his shoulder. Did no one dress properly in this place, Tegoshi wondered.
"Eh? Him?" He heard Masuda ask, and Tegoshi promptly came to his senses. While they weren't exactly whispering, Tegoshi still only heard a few fleeting words between the two of them before the one named Masuda turned towards him and extended a hand.
"Masuda Takahisa, I guess I'll be showing you around today."
"Ah--" Tegoshi stammered a bit, caught off guard by easy smile on the other boy's face. He would soon learn that this was rather commonplace for that one, but for now, Tegoshi was a little relieved by the friendly countenance, and the eyes he could mostly make out behind the bangs. "Tegoshi Yuya--nice to meet you Mas-su--"
Tegoshi squeaked a little--Koyama's handshake had been painful enough, but Masuda seemed to hide a monstrous strength behind his gentle smile.
"Massu?" Koyama repeated, voice bubbly with glee, "That's cute, ne, Massu?"
Massu raised an eyebrow at him, but the smile never left his face.
"Ah, well, you can call me whatever you want I guess." Massu said, turning towards the only other door in the white room, besides the exit. He pressed his hand into a panel and the door retracted upwards. Tegoshi didn't even have a chance to apologize as he scrambled over to follow, afraid the door would close on him forever.
"Okay then, Massu!" Koyama shouted just as Tegoshi crossed into the next room.
"You can't." Massu's amused voice rang out, just before the door shut.
Koyama cackled and spun around in his chair.
-
"Your room." Massu announced, opening the door with a few quick taps of the keypad situated right beside the door frame. He switched on the lights and motioned for Tegoshi to follow. It was a small but roomy enough, comfortable--whole. Tegoshi set his single bag on the small twin sized bed tucked into the furthest corner of the room. There was a small window with drawn curtains above it. A desk and dresser were placed against the opposite wall, and a single tall lamp filled the room with a warm yellow light. So caught up in the room was he that Tegoshi hardly even noticed Massu's absence until he reappeared with a knock at the door.
"Er?" Tegoshi let out unintelligibly. Massu laughed and threw him a small black garment bag, which Tegoshi easily caught in his hands.
"Try it on--it should fit all right for now. I'll be outside when you're done." Was all Massu said before exiting the room once more.
Left alone in the room, Tegoshi took a deep breath and closed his eyes. It was real--this was real. Slowly, he opened his eyes and turned his attention towards the small garment bag in his arms. He carefully unzipped it. Inside was a sleeveless black shirt, a pair of khaki colored shorts. The last item in the bag was a long, dark colored vest that was patched at the sides. He quickly tore off his old, tattered clothing and slipped the unfamiliar garments over his skin. It was a little loose, and seemed to have been worn before, but it was in better shape than his old clothes, which he gathered in a bundle and stuffed into his dresser. He took up his bag again and was about to exit the room when he caught sight of the full length mirror, previously unseen, hanging on the door. He blinked, staring at his reflection long and hard. His hair was long and unkempt, bleached brown from the sun, and falling all over the place; his face and skin were covered with dust. It had been a while since he had been able to see what had become of him.
"You done in there, rookie?" A voice seemed to sing from outside his door.
He frowned at the nickname but strode out the door all the same. Massu was leaning against the opposite wall, arms crossed and legs angled out in front of him. He looked Tegoshi up and down and then smiled a little.
"A little loose, but not bad. It'll do until they can take your measurements and have a new pair whipped up." He paused, "Better tell them to add a new pair of shoes to that order too."
Tegoshi scuffed the toe of his old sneakers against the floor, embarrassed, when Massu continued to stare at him, "Uhm...?"
Massu blinked, before smiling sheepishly, "Ah, sorry, sorry. Seeing you in that makes me feel nostalgic."
"Were these yours?" Tegoshi prompted, fingering the bottom of the vest hesitantly.
"Hm, yeah, but don't worry, they're clean and haven't been worn in a while. It's just kind of a policy for everyone to be uniformed when entering the main building."
"M-main building?" Tegoshi repeated in awe as Massu continued along the corridor without him. He started and followed after him, forgetting that he hadn't had the chance to say "thank you" either.
-
"M-Massu?" Tegoshi said finally, as the elevator door shut, breaking the silence that had descended right after they had left his new room. He tasted the syllables on his tongue for the first time, on purpose, and found that he rather liked the sound of it. "Massu" strangely suited him, it had a softer quality to it that "Masuda" seemed to lack.
"Hm?" Massu replied idly, tapping his boot against the elevator floor in an odd rhythm.
"Does this mean that training starts now?" Tegoshi asked anxiously, as the numbers continued to light up--10, 11, 12...
13.
The elevator chimed and Tegoshi jumped a little, before quickly trotting after Massu. They entered a long room filled with rows and rows of desks and large monitors. Half the desks were filled with men of various ages and various uniforms. Tegoshi could make out a satellite picture of Japan from one of the larger monitors on the far side of the room.
"Cool." He breathed to himself, just as he saw Massu disappear behind a door out of the corner of his eyes. Tegoshi almost cursed as he ran after him, and ended up nearly bowling into Massu, who had stopped short in the middle of the next room. Tegoshi managed to maneuver so that he only tapped his forehead against the other man's shoulder. He only managed to catch the last bit of Massu's words, "--won't be for a while."
Tegoshi rubbed his head and squinted up at him, "Sorry, what?"
Massu looked fairly amused as he repeated, "I said we can't talk in the monitoring station, and that training won't be for a while, you need to be appointed a teacher by Leader-san, first."
"O-oh." He replied, unable to mask his disappointment, "Then where are we going?"
"Well, Koyama said I was supposed to give you a general tour around the place, but for now..." Massu trailed off, staring at Tegoshi curiously again.
"For now?" Tegoshi repeated, then nearly yelped as Massu was suddenly in front of him, hands on his waist. Massu stepped back, the same damn smile still on his face, as Tegoshi squirmed self consciously in his spot.
"Cafeteria," he said laughingly, turning on his heel and continuing ahead, "you're malnourished."
Tegoshi begrudgingly followed, as he had been since the beginning of the entire day. He was starting to get rather sick of Massu's casual demeanor. They passed threw a few rather plain looking rooms without much incident, other than the occasional hello from someone that seemed to recognize Massu, before they entered a large circular room with a high ceiling. There was a large, holographic sphere in the center of the room that served as a television, and there were rows and rows of chairs and sofas pointed around it. There were more people in this one room than Tegoshi had seen during his entire stay here, bustling about and chatting merrily with one another, or watching the news in the center of the room.
"M-Massu? What is this place?" He asked, tugging at the other boy's shirt, already forgetting his initial annoyance at him in favor of sheer wonderment.
"It's the common room, and the main meeting room when the need arises." Massu commented offhandedly, attention momentarily distracted by something on the holographic television.
"Massu?" A new voice snorted disdainfully, "Is that how a commanding officer should let his subordinates address him?"
"Ah, Nishikido-san." Massu greeted pleasantly, turning to face the newcomer. "Nishikido-san" was just a little bit taller than the two of them, and had short black hair. He was wearing the same uniform as Massu and Koyama, though there was a quality about him that screamed dignity, something that the other two seemed to lack. In fact, Tegoshi would've felt more compelled to study the man if his previous words hadn't struck a chord in him. Massu was a...commanding officer?
"--goshi Yuya," Massu motioned at him, and Tegoshi blinked back to reality.
"Oh, is he the one?" Nishikido-san asked, eyebrows raised as he surveys the boy. Tegoshi lowered his gaze, feeling ashamed for some reason.
"Mm, specially picked out by Johnny-san, means he's special." Massu continued cheerfully, and Tegoshi just wanted to sink into the floor and disappear altogether, away from the smoldering glare of Nishikido-san. "Tegoshi, say hello!"
Tegoshi cursed under his breath, looked to Massu who is smiling, oblivious to his discomfort, looked to Nishikido-san, who stared back impassively.
"T-Tegoshi Yuya." He muttered, shifting his gaze away immediately.
When Nishikido remained silent, Massu chuckled and pat him on the shoulder, "Don't be like that--Ryo."
Tegoshi blinked at the sudden change in Massu's tone of voice. When he looked back up, Nishikido-san--Ryo?--looked dazed for a brief second, before he shook his head lightly and frowned apologetically, "Sorry about that, I'm Nishikido Ryo."
Tegoshi stared, bewildered at Nishikido Ryo's outstretched hand, before Massu came up next to him and whispered, "Split personalities. Had a tough time as a kid, it manifested itself like this. Just smile and shake his hand--Ryo's the polite one."
Tegoshi nodded wordlessly, before taking the other man's hand and giving it a firm shake.
"I hope you'll find it pleasant here." Ryo muttered softly, staring off into the distance. He was about to leave, but Massu bounded up to him first, pressing a hand upon his back.
"Wait, you probably wanted to meet him too, ne, Ryo-chan?"
Tegoshi watched as Ryo's eyes became unfocused again, before clearing once more. Ryo-chan smiled brightly at him. Tegoshi was kind of scared.
"Un! It's nice to meet you, Tego-nyan! Lets play later some time!" Ryo-chan giggled, shaking Tegoshi's hand again, vigorously, with both of his, before fluttering off to the other side of the room.
Massu couldn't contain his laughter at Tegoshi's completely flabbergasted expression. "Sorry, maybe I should've warned you about that last one. Ryo's personalities kind of come and go on a whim--but sometimes, if you find the right pressure points, you can kind of change him on will. It's useful sometimes, if we really need one of his sides, but...maybe I shouldn't have done
that so quickly." Massu muttered, mostly to himself as he scratched the back of his head. Ryo-chan was bouncing up and down the rows of sofas, giggling and asking people to play with him.
"Maybe we should get out of here." Massu muttered as someone yelped, "Ryo-chan?! Who let you out?" Tegoshi grimaced as there was a sound of something breaking, and was about to agree when Massu's attention was caught by something above--or more precisely, someone above.
"Hm, so the princess is out today" Massu said, staring up at the figure on the large walkway that spanned across the entire top of the room. Tegoshi looked up curiously, there was a girl in J. A.?
"The only one," Massu said, as if reading Tegoshi's mind, "we found her just outside the woods. She was nearly dead. Leader-san wouldn't give up though, and she finally regained consciousness a few weeks ago."
"Ah, she's spotted us." Massu said, sending her a friendly smile and wave. "Princess" blinked, before nodding and sending a hesitant wave back, lips twitching slightly.
"Ah, she smiled." Massu laughed, as she turned and hurriedly walked along the corridor. But Tegoshi had long since stopped listening to Massu, having frozen the moment he had seen the girl's face. It wasn't possible that she--
"Oi rookie, cafeteria's up ahead." Massu's voice cut through his musings. Tegoshi blinked, the princess was gone from sight and so was Massu. Frowning, Tegoshi hurried through the nearest exit.
-
"Shige!" Massu called, raising a hand in greeting while
"Don't!" Shige shrieks, and Tegoshi springs up from where he was about to sit, across from Shige. "You'll sit on Nyanta."
"Masuda." Shige said dully, left eye twitching and fingers alighting over the base of the headset on his ear, "Leader-san is calling you."
Massu sighed, setting his spoon down and passing his tray over to to Tegoshi, "Oh well, you need it more anyway."
...
"So you're the one that created the vision thing for Koyama-san, huh? I've heard it's amazing."
"Thanks. The idea came to me in a dream."
"Oh, was he born with bad vision?"
"Nope, small eyes." Shige cackled.
"So, why don't you make more to be used?"
"I forgot it in another dream."
-
and why yes, that last part was blatantly stolen from futurama. this also would have been the first fic i ever wrote a girl--maki, of course--in, had i gotten to her part. she was going to be tegoshi's twin sister. but with AMNESIA. also shoon was going to be in a coma (in a plot device not unlike attention please) and really, the whole premise of this fic was, i remember distinctly, a showdown (with guns!--real guns, don't be dirty) between tegoshi and massu with tego crying and learning what it means to be a real soldier/whatever the heck he is supposed to be. obviously.