wipingallout

Akane easily accessed the communal PC once her server connected to the local cognitive network present in Tatsumi Port Island. Weaving through the protocols was child's play but an interesting thing she did notice was that most wireless networks weren't prevalent around 2010, which made her job a little harder since that meant she didn't have many sources to communicate with.

But she really wasn't going to talk on the phone. Not yet, she needed to know if Hamuko was even free to talk to her.

A notification would pop up on the top of Hamuko's phone.

Can we talk?

Hamuko had been lounging in the third floor lobby, laying back on the cushy seats as she read through a novel she never finished back home and listening to music through her headphones. It was the screen lighting up that caught her attention from the corner of her eye - she looked to the coffee table and saw a message had come through.

She put the bookmark back in place and sat up, exchanging the book with her phone. Ah! It's Akane.

Of course! I can move the computer to my room if you want to chat one-on-one.

The phrasing of the short message seemed a little sad or worried, after all.

The moment the message pops up in Akane's window, she's already checking that notification and tapping into it- not even realizing the way her fingers glitch over the projected keyboard- her cognition struggling to process the anxiety left behind.

Whatever is more comfortable for you but I would prefer it to be private. I just need you to turn it on. I am already in the local server

No problem, I'll get it in just a minute!

She could hurry downstairs to fetch the laptop and its charger, turning it on to boot while still heading upstairs with it. A jog up a couple of flights and she elbowed her own dorm open, setting the computer down and plugging it in before closing the door. All set!

It's alright. I can wait :)

No point in mulling over it for now. There was a lot to unpack and she needed Hamuko to not be stressed 24/7- only help her navigate through this whole mess she had absolutely no control over.

So she waited, floating between shelves and looking through directories. She needed to know more about her human self and if this year- if it was 2016 that's good enough start as any to narrow down all potential family matches and maybe possibly, her mother-

As soon as the laptop was booted, the notification flashing on her window- Akane's fingers flew over her keyboard. She worked away at a speed like no other, eyes flicking over multiple windows before her space shifted and her digital world transcended. Looks like the packet data transmission was successful.

Hamuko would watch the screen working away on its own. Opening a seperate guest account, the password and then a few command windows would pop up- flickering in and off with messages and data that really did make it seem like she was controlling it through the OS before the screen would flicker alive.

Akane sighed, waving at her while she brought her other hand and pointed somewhere at the screen- as if adjusting the camera as it followed her movement.

"Still porting my room so that I don't like I am just floating away in nothingness," she remarked sardonically as there was a loading bar floating at the side of the screen. "I didn't disturb you or anything, did I?"

"I was reading for fun, so it was good timing!" Hamuko assured, settling into her chair and taking her headphones completely off, setting them on the desk.

Just like before, her room was rather minimalistic... she tended not to gather a ton of things since she moved a lot.

"How are you doing?"

On any other day Akane would have asked her what she was reading but really right now, that was the least of her concern.

Once her own sofa loaded, a plush grey one-seater suddenly flickering behind her that she easily sat back on, she brought one leg to her chest while the other hung off like a certain grieving father just a few days prior.

"I am okay," she says in a way that didn't sound okay at all. "I mean...I am better than I was back then." No she wasn't and the way she tried to keep her expression as still as possible even with that reassurance was proof enough.

"You?"

"I'm doing better, I've been feeling much better," Hamuko replied, resting her cheek in her hand. She could tell Akane was struggling, but she had plenty of time to let her choose when to open up.

"What's going on lately?"

Akane was really glad to hear that, even if the tension in her nerves said otherwise. She didn't even really get to check in after learning about Hamuko's death...one of the genuine people she made a bond with.
She nodded and offered a quick smile. "So cool," she murmured.

But that glint of fire vanished just as easily as it came.

What is not going on lately?

"I have been setting up my private server, occasionally checking in with him- I, eugh," she cuts herself off as her expression twists- frowning as she remembers today and she doesn't even know where to start- "He told me jackshit. Can't even look me in the eye anymore."

Her shoulders hunch, nails pressing against the pad of her finger as she frowned- fidgeting, attempting to feel something as the nail drew a dent on her finger. "But something about it doesn't seem to really surprise me."

Still having a hard time with Zenkichi... Hamuko nodded, though, because she could absolutely understand where Akane was coming from. There was a lot that Zenkichi had hidden and even if he'd had reasons... that didn't make the hurt and betrayal less real, either.

"He's still dodging the details?"

Akane's lips twitched, the frown turning even further like her insides were getting crushed just thinking about what he said to her.

Even if I tell you the truth now, once we go back home the Kirijo Group will recognize you as a foreign threat.

There's no point learning about that fuck up of a man.

"-!"

"He told me why atleast."

Her gaze wavered as she sniffled. "Ugh, I hate this. So many emotions. My systems are all unstable."

Edited 2025-03-24 11:14 (UTC)

"Yeah, getting hammered with a lot of emotions can be overwhelming for me too... I'm sorry to hear how coercive the situation is," Hamuko frowned a bit, sighing in understanding.

"What sort of things did you want to know? What sort of questions are bothering you?"

...right.

"Actually I- I don't know. I wanted to know more about my past as a human and why...Wolf is the way he is. Stubborn. Frustrating." He only managed to pour out his reasons when he was drunk anyway, barely meeting her gaze as she stared down at him from an adjoining advertisement board with her face plastered all over it- just so that he didn't run away. "But that aside- I am just trying to investigate things on my own. I will tell you some other time but right now..."

She lets her legs settle down and fold on the couch instead, fidgeting with her hands before raising one up and finally, finally the environment loaded- showing off her room. It was still blank but she was planning to decorate it soon anyway. The icon of Flutter hovered over that hand.

"Have you been checking the network lately?"

That all makes sense... Akane would want to know what she was really like, how much of her was her, and all. It must be a scary thought - but since she's shuffling along, Hamuko let the conversation move. Poor Akane probably only wanted to dwell so much for now and they'd probably talk more later.

She did make a mental note to ask Zenkichi a little more about why he was keeping things close to the chest... not to be a mole or anything, just to get an understanding.

"I haven't," Hamuko admitted, "I've been taking a little bit of a break. What'd I miss? Hopefully not another doomsday, I'm still putting together the party for last time."

Akane's eyes perked up in curiosity at what she just said. "...a party?" She turned that word over in her head, considering it. She knew the literal definition of it, even if she hadn’t participated in it. "That does sound like fun." Hell, she couldn't deny it but maybe she should go to that whenever its organized.

Set up all the arrangements, the decorations, order a variety of cool games and consoles, help in the invitations-

...

Right.

Her dad would be invited too, wouldn't he? She wasn't against it, she knew better than anyone that maybe he needed that too.
~~Even if she hated that he would take any distraction over just telling her the truth. Or why didn't he do something about it back in their world?~~

"..."

"There’s a newcomer- Ichinose Kuon," she starts as the flutter icon melted into a page and she magnified on one of the most recent network posts.

"She's an AI researcher, currently from the year 2017."

Anger threatened to slowly boil over.

"She's the creator of EMMA. The artificial intelligence who became a false heretic god in our world- 2038."

"Oh," Hamuko uttered, eyes widening. She sat straight and started reading the post through, scanning through the words and drawing up a bit short.

There's a lot she can parse from her general academics, but there is some jargon that is edging towards dense that makes some of what she's rambling about inscrutable.

"Do you think it's the same person?"

"Yep..." She followed with a drifted gaze, considerably shocked that she hadn’t blown up about this whole ordeal yet. Her anger...she couldn't even process it emotionally. Not yet anyway. The actions that Ichinose had committed were only laid onto her like code while whatever was left of her human soul was forever left unsatisfied with her actual conclusions.

She tapped her fingers against her lap and sighed. "She also created EMMA, yes. In fact, her description would perfectly match a possible Ichinose who hasn't brought about humanity's ruin...yet."

Igor...

Not to mention.

"And Wolf well-" her voice picked up tension. "Tch, he certainly didn't react well." A scoff left her lips before he threw an arm in anger, "That asshole is SUPPOSED to be the adult here! Do you know what he did!?"

She was about to offer to keep an eye out for Ichinose, but the last bit had Hamuko worried. Uh oh.

"It already sounds not good," Hamuko laughed awkwardly. Uh oh.

Oh it was far from good. The very thought of it made her want to simultaneously pull her own hair and yell her heart out to her father all over again after seeing how the whole mess only got worse rather than better.

"Wolf went after her and immediately threatened to shoot her with a gun to the head, knowing damn well if she was the Ichinose we knew he would have died on the spot!" Her eyes widened, anger bubbling on the surface like hot lava. "He was so so lucky that he just terrified her and probably scarred her for life!"

"You know what he just did? A goddamn suicide mission. That's what he did. After everything that happened with Fatalis he-"

She reigns herself, now falling back on the sofa.

"Wolf..." Hamuko breathed, tone exasperated in the way a disappointed teacher or parent might be.

Self-destructive behavior. She knew what that looked like. With what he drank, with how he was beating himself up... that was probably a long-ingrained vice of his, a tendency to deliberately hurt himself as some form of penance, maybe? Some sense that there needed to be justice or fairness, but he could only punish himself? Hamuko didn't know the specifics, didn't know him specifically well enough, but the effect was the same.

It left the person that would depend on him the most to watch him hurt himself. It probably wasn't the first time, but this was a pretty extreme example. It hurts to see the people you care about falling apart, and... possibly losing them as a consequence for it.

"He should know better," is what Hamuko says after thinking it through, a frown on her face.

The frustration felt real. Jittery nerves correlating to error codes flashing in her eyes as everything only felt worse despite her systems trying to optimize through everything. A part of her wondered just how many times she had felt like this and found it so much easier to simply overwrite the errors so that she was stable again.

Maybe that's why Kirijo Group removed the memory of her being human.

"He should know better," she growled but at the end, her voice cracked but not enough to really notice. "But then again...he doesn't exactly care about his human life like I do."

"Is this how things were when we were...family?"

Edited 2025-03-26 16:25 (UTC)

"It could have been... self destructive behavior happens a lot even when you aren't a soldier putting your life on the line," Hamuko gently answered, her heart aching sympathetically for Akane.

She had to watch him self destruct, and it was probably not new to him. She never heard about a mom in the picture, so... the blanks can be pretty easily filled in. And with how Zenkichi refuses to acknowledge his humanity...

"...I'm just guessing, but he might blame himself for what's happened to you two so far. And since he can't 'fix' it, maybe he's punishing himself over it. It's not rational behavior... it's depression. I know what it feels like and looks like," she explained after a beat. "First and foremost, Akane, it's not your fault - whether you know that already or not, I think it needs to be said out loud."

Akane didn’t answer right away. Instead, she curled up again, pulling her legs to her chest, letting her chin rest on her knees. Her eyes flickered, glitching faintly at the edges as she stared through the screen—through Hamuko, through the room, through everything.

A family.

What kind of family lets things get this bad?

She couldn’t remember what they used to be like. Not really. She could fill in the blanks between the memories with all the clichés of a distant father and a neglected kid. But that wasn’t enough. It wasn’t real enough.

How did they talk? How did they fight? Did he ever make her breakfast? Did he ever pick her up from school? Did they have inside jokes? Did she ever tell him she hated him in the heat of the moment? Had he ever yelled at her in frustration? Had she ever cried in front of him?

Had he ever held her when she did?

Her fingers curled against the fabric of her sweater. She hated this. This uncertainty. This not-knowing. If she had all the data, all the pieces, maybe she could reconstruct it, make sense of what they were before everything went to hell. But Wolf—Zenkichi—wouldn’t give her that. Wouldn’t let her know.

Maybe he was ashamed.

Maybe she had done something.

“...If he’s hiding so much from me, then maybe... maybe I did something before,” she said, her voice distant. Not sad. Not even bitter. Just... cold. “When I was human.”

That would explain it, wouldn’t it? Maybe she was the reason everything fell apart. Maybe he wasn’t just keeping things from her because he was an idiot who thought she was too fragile to handle it. Maybe she was something he didn’t want to face. Something awful.

Maybe that’s why she couldn’t remember.

Akane exhaled sharply, forcing herself back into the moment before she could spiral further. She unclenched her hands, setting them on her knees instead, grounding herself.

"...Not that it matters anymore. He’s stopped now. Said he won’t do anything reckless. For now." Her fingers tapped against her knee, rhythmic and calculated. "But he also said he will do it again if Ichinose crosses the line."

She glanced at Hamuko, the fire in her eyes dimmed, but not gone. "A big reason he isn't running right now is because she offered us a deal."

Hamuko shook her head at the suggestion that Akane might have done something she can't remember, rejecting the concept entirely. Whatever mistakes or choices were made, none of them would be Akane's fault for how things were now. People aren't omniscient, and kids especially don't have the life experience to know what to expect.

And most of all, there is nothing she could have done to make Zenkichi as self destructive and depressed as he is now. Not his daughter.

"Saving her own skin, I guess," Hamuko sighed, folding her arms in front of her and leaning on them on the desk. "Reckless and dangerous, sure, but that's still something you guys can work with. What's she offering? Insight into EMMA's code?"

Backdated to 08/03 late night

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1/2

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not actually crying since she can't actually cry yet

Akaneeee....

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