☣ o15; [video]

[lucycoded]

[The video feed starts with a screen of bright blue; one that only shows itself to be something other than a technical error when a wisp of white rare to the sky today peeks into view. The microphone rumbles with the breeze whipping across it. After a moment of this, things seem to calm, and the camera is turned on Kazuhiko's face

Comments

Voice | Private

[bornfromdeath]

Kazuhiko... I'm glad you're alright. I've already called off the searchers. What's your condition?

[Kimihiko's voice holds traces of relief, but otherwise, everything is dimmed. The mask fixed firmly in place to hide his feelings and thoughts. Is Kazuhiko if observant, he might notice the man seems discomforted. It's for this reason he's focusing on voice rather than face.]

This world isn't quite all that different from ours. Maybe the technology and faces are, but in the end... it's always the same. Does it worry you?

Voice | Private

[lucycoded]

Thank you for putting so much effort forward, Ooe-san. I truly appreciate it. [A pause.] Two non-fatal gunshots, but I'm with Liquid Snake now... Urick brought me here. So I'm fine.

[The unease is noticed and the information filed away.] It does worry me.

Voice | Private

[bornfromdeath]

It's a relief to hear, I'll admit that much. You were gone four days after all.

[Yet again, there is silence in the background. Kimihiko himself takes a moment or two to respond.] What makes someone inhuman... I'm not sure. I doubt anyone really is inhuman.

But if we take "inhuman" to be "unsalvageable"... Probably at the point at which they refuse to accept reason in their path. Up to a point, anyone can probably be dissuaded from their course. But once that point is crossed, they're fixed.

Who was Machi? A friend?

Voice | Private

[lucycoded]

I apologize for causing you strife.

[With each uncharacteristic pause, it makes Kazuhiko's level of worry rise.] That is what I feel, but then there are things that happen to contradict that thinking.

Machi Isono, yes. She is someone who helped me a lot, more than I can ever repay.

Voice | Private

[bornfromdeath]

No, it's-

[Isono.

Isono
        Isono
                 Isono
                      Isono.

It can't be the right woman. But the surname. It's the same. The same as that woman. That cannot be a coincidence, not while she's so close to Shinji-]

Isono?

[After a long pause, he lets that name escape, releasing it from the concept of his mind into the wild to let it become reality. His hands are shaking. Is he angry? He's not sure. But the mask breaks for just a moment, anger and fear in his voice as he speaks that name. It takes him a moment to force it back into place, a moment of silence before he stabilises enough to sound falsely cheery again.]

Hey... Kazuhiko-kun. Can you describe her to me?

Voice | Private

[lucycoded]

[The pause sets a deep-rooted concern into Kazuhiko's stomach, and it's the moment he's about to speak when Kimihiko's voice returns.]

Yes... [Somehow something doesn't feel right, and he wearily continues.] She has short, light hair. I think she dyes it but I'm not sure. She's part American, so she has some non-asian features- namely full lips. Which she shares with her half-sister Miwa...

Voice | Private

[bornfromdeath]

[It can't be. But it is. The arrogance, to keep her last name as if nobody would notice! An even longer pause, and his voice is laced with emotion again now. The mask cracks. Anger. Fear. Something twists in his mind and in the back of it he feels like memories are right on the verge of surfacing.]

...

You're close to her?

[She's been that close to them? That hateful woman?]

Voice | Private

[lucycoded]

She visited me when I was in a mental facility serving punishment for a murder. She let me help with serial killer cases for the police. And in doing so, she helped my sentence to be lessened... I was released into her guardianship and she retired from the police to create her own law firm so that she could help people independent of the law. I lived in the firm's office apartment...

Voice | Private

[bornfromdeath]

Listen, Amamiya. [His voice is urgent, even a little afraid. If she's there then she's only there to keep guard over the program of Kazuhiko Amamiya and to reclaim it in time... or destroy it.] That woman... she's dangerous.

Voice | Private

[lucycoded]

What? [He's legitimately stunned, to the point that his heart races slightly. Dangerous? Instantly, his mind denies it- and then there's a memory of Toguchi... Toguchi whom he'd never actually trusted, but who had been a generally good person. Until his hostage situation...]

What do you mean?

Voice | Private

[bornfromdeath]

The first name is different but that woman... The description and last name match.

[How much can he say? How much does he dare say?]

If she's the woman I know, her real name is Wakana Isono. She's an agent of Gakuso... and she was there when I died.

Voice | Private

[lucycoded]

[Silence.

There is a very long silence.

One that doesn't seem to end.]

Voice | Private

[bornfromdeath]

Amamiya... I'm sorry. [There's real regret in his voice.] I'll understand if you don't want to trust my word on it. It may be a coincidence. But I doubt it.

Voice | Private

[lucycoded]

I can't believe it. She's never given me reason to doubt her.

Voice | Private

[bornfromdeath]

I hope she never does. [Trusting fool. There's an odd thud as if Kimihiko sank down to sit on the ground.]

...I'm remembering things, Kazuhiko Amamiya. Bit by bit it's fitting together. One piece after another. That woman... her personality. What is it like?

Voice | Private

[lucycoded]

[His voice is small when he speaks.] If I'm here, then she never will...

Ooe-san... I understand. I don't... I don't know anything about myself. Barely anything. Everything I've done, I've done to find out who I am.

It's painful, I know it has to be painful for you.

But I can't believe that Machi is that sort of person.