Remind Blue

“This is their island. They should be the ones protecting us, if their experiment is so precious to them. We shouldn’t be risking our lives, unless that’s the point.” Every disaster, calculated to see how they’d respond, like putting a couple beetles in a box and seeing if they’d fight. “There are plenty of us here who aren’t as vulnerable; we should be the ones handling the danger whenever we can… You’re welcome. Sorry.” 

The explosions hadn’t given them much time to organize, and the flood of returning memories had distracted him enough that he hadn’t even thought of calling on his fellow robots to assist. Once he put Shintaro down and assessed the situation properly, then they could decide what to do. 9S avoids a patch of melting asphalt, sending acrid smoke into the air. “I know they’re not all gone, I’ve seen other people, I think they all just moved over to Koi.” The bridge between the island is ahead. No ferry service today. He comes to a stop and gently lets Shintaro back onto his feet, brushing ash off his clothing. Although he hadn’t heard it buzz, he digs his phone from his pocket and checks it anyway. No response yet. He sighs softly and puts it away again. 

Hearing the first part of his statement shocks him. ‘Their island’ and ‘Experiment’ really threw him off. That wasn’t anything he knew about. Yes, he had been there for almost a month, but he had just been trying to survive. Meeting people was the best plan that he had, but he quickly realizes that his plan wasn’t smart. For the first time, he realizes that he hasn’t been thinking with his head on straight. Having been spirited away on the dime through him off, for sure, but Shintaro shouldn’t have let that get the better of his judgement. ‘If I was better equip to help, I would...’

Dazai huffed a short laugh before smiling in a manner that was nothing short of menacing as he leaned closer to the younger man sitting next to him. First this stranger invades his privacy by asking such a tactless question, and then decides that he is lying when he answers?

“Oooh, you think I’m lying? You think I’m wearing these as some sort of fashion statement, huh?” Dazai slipped a finger under one of the bandages wound around his neck, “Do you want me to prove it to you? I can show you, if you want.”

“Did you know that the incubation period for rabies in humans is commonly one to two months? That means you won’t show any obvious symptoms for quite a long time after the initial infection. Unfortunately for you, there’s no way of knowing if I’m rabid or not!”

Well that was the last thing that he wanted to hear from some stranger. Yes, he knew that. No, he didn’t want to be close to someone that could possibly have rabies. Instinctively, he leans away from the other. “Why would you be out in public after being attacked by a rabid dog? Shouldn’t you be in the hospital?”

First he wears bandages out in public, then he says he was attacked, then he says he probably has rabies, but he can’t know for sure.  Why the hell was he out in public? What if he really did have rabies? Doubtful, but still! 

“Maybe you should go to the hospital. At least, if you were really attacked by rabid dogs. Which I don’t believe, by the way.” Taking a sip from his coffee, Shintaro glares at the man and eyes the bandages. “If they are just for fashion, you can say so. People are into all sorts of fashion tastes nowadays.”

9S sheepishly rubs at the damaged portion of his neck. It was a tic he’d picked up recently, running his fingers over the slightly different texture of the repaired skin. “I- yeah, that’s fine, I was going to ask you to call me that anyway.” Nobody in their right mind would want to go around saying Unit 9 Type S every time they wanted to address him, not even the most straitlaced of YoRHa’s soldiers. 

It feels like they’re caught in a loop here, and the frustration of that thought is enough to get him to snap out of his placid customer-service mode. “If you know you’re not strong, the best thing for you to do is to stay out of danger. You’re probably going to burn yourself, or inhale a bunch of smoke… Humans are great at a lot of things, but surviving fire isn’t one of them.” Looking out at the ash and chunks of smoldering wood and concrete strewn across the road, he knew he couldn’t leave Shintaro to navigate this for himself. “At least let me get us there.”

Without waiting for an answer, 9S leans down and scoops up the taller human in his arms, lifting him as if he weighed nothing at all, which he might as well to 9S’s mechanical frame. Scanners might not be built for battle but they still had the same strength as any other unit. He starts across the rubble, nimbly making his way through the ruins. It looked like most people had cleared out of this area… Where had they all gone?

Ah, good. At least the name thing was okay. “Good I’m glad.” Would it be better if he told 9S that he preferred his first name over his last name? That would be hard to explain. How does he just casually say ‘oh hey, Kisaragi reminds me of my sister and I don’t know if she’s okay and I’m trying so hard not to freak out over that.’ That isn’t possible. At least, not to a stranger. No one, besides someone that has a sibling that they can’t see anymore, can understand that. 

It mildly shocked him when 9S blatantly called him out for being weak. It felt like another stab when he said humans were not apt to surviving fire. His mind immediately strays to Kido and his eyes flash red for a split moment. Kido died in a fire with his sister and that’s how she got her power. If it wasn’t for his own power, he would have never known that. Fire was bad, obviously. However... “People’s lives mean more to me than surviving a little bit of fire and smoke. I just want to make sure people aren’t hurt,” even at his own expense.  That was all that mattered to him. If people were okay, then he would be fine. Shintaro would keep coming back until he could prove that no one was harmed. 

The offer to take him into the city was nice, but he wasn’t sure how that was going to happen. However, that was answered for him when he was lifted by the much smaller man as if it was nothing. First of all, his very small amount of pride died. Shintaro wasn’t strong, and here he was being carried by someone smaller than him. Yes, he concurred that this person wasn’t human, but that didn’t make this any less embarrassing. 

This was going to stick with him forever, but that was okay. It was fine. He would just... go to the gym. It would be fine. Totally. “Th... Thanks...” Would he struggle to get free? No. Because his weak ass self knew he wouldn’t last long in this atmosphere. 

SEND ME✏️ FOR MY MUSE TO DRAW YOUR MUSE. || Meme - Accepting  @shintaroxisaragi​​ said:✏️ 

“I think a nice cup of emperors smile would fix that pout of yours! Although you remind me of a certain someone…” 

“Of course I’m alright. Why wouldn’t I be? I’m not as vulnerable to fire as organic beings.” 9S withdraws his hand, folding them together by his chest.  “Unit 9, type S, at your service. Why don’t we go together?” Yes, that was a reasonable solution. This was salvageable yet. Neither of them was injured. He could keep going until he got a response from 2B, though he was certain she’d be fine. A little fire was nothing she couldn’t handle, right? 

As long as he reasoned with himself, he could get through this. Maybe there’d be time to process all of it later, but he’d finally sorted his priorities out. Get humans and other vulnerable people to safety, then take care of his own needs. Whatever those might be. Find his partner. “I’m sure everything will be just fine,” he murmurs, more to himself than to Shintaro.

“Uh...” Unit 9 type S? Was that his name? It took him a moment to process that who he was talking to wasn’t human. For only a split moment, it shocked him. However, Ene popped in his mind and the shock quickly wore off. She had literally been a conscious inside of his phone for just about two years in every timeline. It wasn’t out of the norm for him to run into strange people. But Unit 9 type S? He wasn’t going to say that every time he referred to the other. “Can I just call you 9S?”

Hearing the last comment from the android(?) made his heart ache. That was something he used to tell himself all the time when things were going wrong or when things were hard. It took years for everything to be okay and then he was sent here. All his hard work, for nothing. But he couldn’t think about that right now. No, Shintaro had to physically go out and help people, just in case. “It would probably be better if we went to help together. I’m not exactly strong, but I just... want to make sure people are safe.” 

Duel commands of ASSIST HUMAN and FIND 2B feel like they’re going to tear his code in half. 9S manages to clean his screen off enough to message her a quick ‘are you okay?’ before he gathers himself and looks back at Shintaro. His blindfold is slipping down his face. He hurriedly pushes it back up, fumbling with the ties.

“P-ple-e-ease,” his voice distorts to his frustration, and he pauses, taking a few shaky breaths to try and get himself back under control. When he speaks again, it’s with an almost eerie calm. “Please don’t run. I might be sturdy, but you could have seriously hurt yourself if you’d collided with another human. Let me take you somewhere safe.” 

After wiping his hands clean on his black sweater, he offers the left one to Shintaro. It felt almost like something else had taken over, some default mode grabbing the wheel when he’d begun to panic too hard. 9S was grateful for it, but he hoped it wouldn’t last. He didn’t like feeling as if he was only partially in control. 

Now he definitely knew something was wrong. His actions didn’t match his words, nor his tone. At least, not at first. When the other’s voice fell calm, it went a pang of worry into his heart. That didn’t seem normal. Just a moment ago, the young man was fumbling with his phone and looked distressed. However, now, he seemed like nothing was wrong. 

That, in of itself, was wrong. Shitnaro glances at the hand offered to him and shakes his head in response. “No, I’m fine. I came out here to see if anyone needed any help. I just wasn’t watching where I was going.” He reaches up and gently pushes his hand away, but not taking his own hand back just yet. 

“I want to know if you’re alright.” That was a rather silly question. Currently, the other seemed fine, but he couldn’t shake what happened before. “You seem okay now, but you weren’t before. Do you need any help?” That was what he wants to do. Help. Shintaro knew he can’t do much in terms of moving big rocks, but he could help dig through just in case it was needed. While the first time he asked, the other didn’t respond, but he opted to try again. Maybe introducing himself might work? “I’m Shintaro Kisaragi, what’s your name?” For some reason, he felt the urge to be gentle. Like with Marry. She was soft and this man reminded him of her, in a way. 

Admittedly, there were reasons why he wasn’t really around the Bureau before ( mainly he absolutely wasn’t feeling like being a helpful member of society and all that for a while ), but Yuta figures that if there’s a thing he can do is look around the debris, check things out, maybe help out a little? So many volunteers, some more than willing to accept help, he can definitely find some things to distract himself from his dark thoughts! And also, after that weird announcement… he felt like it would be a good start to look at the source of the disaster. Mostly because he still didn’t feel confident enough to go through those portals just yet…

At least, that’s what he was expecting, but he definitely didn’t think that one of those distractions would be someone tripping on one too many pebbles and falling flat onto the ground. Ouch, that must’ve hurt like Hell! Now, while we already established that Yuta isn’t a charitable person ( not much at least ), he’s not indifferent to the plights of clumsy people, being one himself. Also no one else is helping this guy with the red jacket, so unfortunately, it falls on Yuta to check if he’s okay.

That didn’t stop him though. Without so much as a thought of how he could help, he set out with his phone in pocket and made his way over to the rather depressing scene. People were searching through the debris already and he went around asking people if they needed any help. Some ignored him while others asked for him to help search for a particular item. That was something he understood so he helped whenever someone would accept his help. 

Once maybe an hour of helping passed by, his body began to beg for him to stop. The NEET’s body ached and cried for a hot bath. He didn’t quite know what was going on and the announcement just confused him. Maybe if he asked around, someone would be able to tell him exactly what was going on. It didn’t help that he was still relatively new to this place and he didn’t even know the bare minimum to keep his mind sated. No knowledge meant he was useless. Then this happened. 

What a fucking mess. 

A sharp, short scream escaped his mouth as his foot decided it was going to run into a rock. No, he wasn’t going to admit he wasn’t watching where he was going. His foot collided with the rock on purpose to punish him for being weak. That’s it. The consequence of hitting the rock, however, was falling flat on his face, on the rubble. Yes, it hurt. No, he wasn’t crying. 

As he laid there, not even attempting to get up, he lamented his life. However, that was paused when he felt someone prodding him and speaking to him. Great. Someone saw that. Wonderful. 

Sipping daintily from his porcelain coffee mug, Dazai considered the young man’s dejected mood. He wasn’t feeling particularly helpful or charitable this evening, so he didn’t bother inquiring about the other’s troubles- at the same time, it was indicative of the type of discretion he would prefer others to allow him.

Apparently the implication was lost on this kid as he pointed out his bandages- rather loudly, in fact. A few of the other patrons stopped what they were doing to glance in their direction. Dazai withheld a sigh, but remained overall unruffled. It wasn’t as if he weren’t used to this sort of reaction, after all.

“Oh, these?” He blinked and examined himself, as if the bandages were news to him as well, “Yes, I’m perfectly fine! I just happened to get scratched up real bad the other day by some sort of feral dog. Pretty unlucky, huh?”

That response was the last thing he expected from the other man. Concern was quickly replaced with annoyance. What a bullshit answer. If he was in that condition, he wouldn’t be out and about like this. Much less getting coffee. Unless he wore them because he liked them and this man was just bullshitting him. 

“Uh huh,” Shintaro frowned and finally opted to take off his jacket so he wasn’t wearing a coffee stained jacket. He’d have to wash that later. What a pity. His name was said from the counter and he got up, leaving his jacket on the chair, to get his coffee. Once he got it, he went back to his seat and sat down with a huff.