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Perfect. I'm stocked up with beer and sake, you want something different, bring it along.

The door is unlocked when Dante arrives. Togusa gets up to greet him anyway, but he has definitely formed his settling in spot on the couch, laptop set up on the coffee table with a Japanese Kaiju flick ready go to. It makes for good background noise.

"Hey. I guess, once again, happy late birthday."

Dante's not bringing anything extra with him when he shows up at Togusa's--after all, Togusa said he wanted to treat him to a drink, right? And he's not got a problem with beer, so...

"Hey." For half a second, Togusa might be able to see a flash of discomfort on Dante's face, but it's gone a moment later as the boy runs a hand through his hair. "You don't have to keep saying that, you know. Monster movies?" he adds, almost as though he's hoping to prevent any sort of response. "I wouldn't have thought that'd be your thing, considering how we're always cleaning up after the giant messes Retrospec leaves."

"It's a big birthday," Togusa insists. "But all right." He will relent. He goes to the fridge, digs around for a second, and comes back with a six-pack and a bottle with a large Japanese character on the side. He leaves both on the counter for Dante to pick.

"Ah, this was my childhood! They're classics!" Togusa waves a hand at the computer. "Besides, one look at the effects in these, and there's no way you'd mistake the rubber suits for the real thing. I think that's half the fun."

A small shrug, and he keeps his tone casual. "If things were normal, I'd be streaming baseball from home, but, I've got to work with what I have on hand." Even net streaming doesn't reveal anything of the outside world around the five areas that Retrospec has dominion over. But Togusa has dealt with that shock, has to keep telling himself that they'll get it back.

So, I'm going to talk to you and Tsu about what I missed. I figured that whatever I miss from one of you I can get from the other.

Your place or mine, because I feel like it's going to take a while.

I can come to yours, let me grab all these printouts.

But honestly I think Tatsuo just knocked it out of the park there. I can fill in details though.

There's printouts? What have you been up to?

Alright. See you when you get here.

The issue with Togusa’s changes is that he cant show the things inside his brain without a monitor or printouts. Thus the folders under his arm when he approaches the door. He knocks at the door and waits, with a small smile on his face. Pay no attention to the fact that he is wearing a high-collared shirt in June. He still isn’t used to it, but he isn’t showing any discomfort.

“Hey.” The smile on his face is genuine, he is very glad to see Mariko again, even though it means she is back into the Retrospec mess.

The door opens and for a change, she doesn't immediately return to whatever she was doing before letting him in. Mariko steps back enough to give him room to come in and looks at him.

"Hey."

Her gaze flicks over him, a brow arching at the choice of shirt for a second, meeting his small smile with one of her own. She bites the urge to clown him for the fashion choice, figuring that as long as this is going to take - he'll set himself up soon enough. Instead she tries to be grateful that she's 'Awake' again - that she's in a place where she can actually do something.

If she can just get her head around this. She hopes she doesn't look as tired as she feels.

Par for the course, the bar/island is covered in notes on either side of her laptop with a rather large mug coffee where she'd last been.

"You know, one day someone's going to have questions about you coming over at such odd hours."

Togusa is giving her an appraising look right back. "Hey." If there are any clues he can glean about how she is really doing, he is trying to take it all in. It might just be his perception that tells him she is looking more sharply at him, that she is noticing what is going on around her, Retrospec-wise.

Togusa, on the other hand, is energized. He has someone back that he can truly bounce ideas off of. And breaking things down for another person, especially someone as perceptive as Mariko, often leads to new ideas for him.

"And I'll tell them the absolute truth, what I get up to with one of my best friends is none of their business, unless they give us a reason to have our sights on them." Togusa grins, and steps in.

He drops his folders to the stacks. "Some of this is going to look familiar from Tatsuo's update this morning. At least I don't have to go into deep detail on the layer theory bullshit. I just didn't know how it all tied in until today."

A deep sigh out. "That means, I'm less sure of where to start. What's the last thing you remember?"

He can recognize this kind of tired on her; there are not quite bags under her eyes and the rolling of her shoulder confirms - she’s just flirting with overwork or insomnia right now. Recoverable, especially since she’s still laughing at his retort to theoretical questioning. It’s good to hear him confident after all, but it’s so unlike him that she can’t help the flash of confusion in her expression.

Once she returns to her setup, she takes a sip of coffee and flips through the first few pages of the bounty he’s brought.

“End of November. Maybe early December - I remember Christmas decorations and everything tasting like nothing.”

Togusa brushes past to go for the pot, himself, knowing where she keeps the coffee mugs. It's more out of habit than true tiredness, though. He'll give her some time to look through the papers.

Was it mistake or intentional that he also left in a homicide report? Yukine Matsuoka, age 16, killed in a convenience store robbery. Mariko might recognize the last name as one of the Detectives in the Precinct.

"They fixed taste pretty fast," Togusa admits. "Only December I've ever lost a couple of pounds, I just wasn't up for eating anything that tasted like cardboard." He sips at his coffee.

"We got cut off from the outside world, and then when it opened back up, the nearest four towns were not what we remember. If there's anything huge, that might be where to start."

She sips her own coffee, stilling suddenly at the sight of the report. Matsuoka...Matsuoka.

"Uh-uh." She responds awkwardly, barely listening to his anecdote about the food. At least it seemed like he was talking about food. Sixteen is too young and for a moment her heart goes to Detective Matsuoka. They hadn't talked a lot, but it was still awful for something like this to happen.

"Is Matsuoka still there?" she asks carefully after a beat. She's not ignoring you Togusa, honest it's just...well it's a shame.

Togusa sets his own mug down. "Ichirou or Yukine? I was there to help Ichirou bust the perp. Pretty sure he would have just flat-out murdered the guy if I wasn't there." Not the best memory.

A pause. "And it's a damn good thing I did. Yukine? Alive again. As if nothing happened." The look on his face turns absolutely grave. "I shouldn't be upset. A man has his son back. It's nothing less than a miracle."

But he slowly shakes his head, not breaking eye contact with Mariko. "But this, more than anything else, scares the hell out of me."

"Ichirou." she confirms, gaze flicking up to meet his from the report.

She doesn't say anything to argue the speculation that the elder Matsuoka would have killed his son's murderer, her expression barely darkens. That kind of anger she knows and it was a stroke of luck that everyone walked away - but them he mentions Yukine being alive again and her entire expression darkens.

"Miracles have high prices," she says unable to suppress the shudder at the idea of Retrospec being able to tamper with life and death on top of memories.

"How are the two of them taking it?"

It would have been the ultimate irony if Togusa hadn't stopped Ichirou. If he had taken the man's life, only to get his son back in return. Togusa had tried to warn him that he always had more to lose. He would have been far too correct.

"I didn't get a chance to talk to Yukine before, it seems, he's been dropped off the Network. Retrospec's explanation that they," he waves a hand in the air, "fell out of sync."

"The soul they're trying to rebuild and the one they currently have aren't in alignment, so they had to let go, completely. At least, that was their explanation with Gentiana. But Gentiana never died, so," Togusa's hands raise in an exasperated shrug. "I don't know what it has to do with each other."

Then Togusa looks down, slightly regretful. "Ichirou's just happy to have his son back. I haven't had the heart to make the man question it. He was so- broken." Togusa grimaces tightly. Togusa's heart had gone out to the man so completely.

"That's probably going to be something we never find out unless we steal it."

Mariko shoots a 'why aren't you alcohol' look at her coffee before sighing and sipping it anyway. The tightness in Togusa's expression makes her pause. How much had she missed? Who else was going to make a face like that when they went to catch up?

"Hey." She waves her hand at the edge of his periphery to get his attention. "Just because Retrospec doesn't know how to stay out of shit that isn't their pay grade doesn't mean that we have to start following their lead."

Leaning on an elbow she looks at him, trying to gauge where his head is at.

"You're not responsible for their dirty work, even it is unsettling."

Edited 2018-06-04 17:08 (UTC)

Togusa's eyes lift again to look at Mariko fully. It takes him a few seconds to start nodding along, for her words to sink in. "It's okay now. And I know it. So a part of me wants to let that one lie, and find a different way to get our information." Ichirou has been through enough. Togusa can let that particular bit of guilt go. He did keep the man from making a mistake.

Togusa takes a long breath out, and that nervous tic of his to run a hand over the back of his neck returns. "When I asked about Gentiana, Maurice's answer was just what I said, that the soul fell out of alignment and so Retrospec had to let go of them. Which then gets weirder when you look at what Elliot Craig found." Togusa reaches over to leaf through one of the folders and finds the printout.

"The idea of the souls developing wrong and literally becoming corrupted. It's- unnerving. But it fits with what they've said before."

Togusa is practically bleeding grief and discomfort and it's enough to keep Mariko sipping her coffee as she listens. He rubs the back of his neck, sighing hard and she can feel her brows knit just a little more. This isn't right.

Still she nods a little, to indicate that she had been listening before straightening up.

"Well that means we have to reconcile Retrospec's bullshit behavior with the fact that the only lies they they've told us are ones of omission, at least from where I'm standing."

That actually gets Togusa to perk up. "You're right. From their perspective, they haven't lied to us at all. You talk to their newer guy, Zee? Oh, you're gonna love him." He stops his train of thought and points.

"Human Resources, officially. He's been in regular contact with us. Even has an office, over at the Towers. I am convinced that he's got some kind of ridiculous Retrospec-given power set that would put even Eleanor to shame, or they wouldn't be putting him out in the open and risking him. I have literally nothing to back that up with, though."

Right, focus. "He is absolutely walking the party line that we are these people Retrospec is trying to have us remember. Whatever. But he's actually what convinced me of the biggest theory I've got right now."

"The people running Retrospec? Now? Not only are they people who have been through the process before? But they're not on whatever that top layer is. That's why Retrospec doesn't know what it is. They're following the process? But even people like Zee and Maurice and even their Cavendish and Mahoney descendants? They don't know what the hell they're doing."

"Haven't had the pleasure yet, actually."

Immediately, she mentally puts a pin in Zee, Human Resouces Office at the Towers. And then Togusa conjectures a little more and Mariko looks down at the papers to try and master her expression. She'd remembered him giving some kind of briefing, all detail and conjecture and she'd thought it was some weird fluke or deja vu. But no.

She'd remembered him before anything else. And he was laying out this entire thing like a case, just the same as always. Why? Why?

He's off on another theory and the second he says that Retrospec maybe doesn't have the shape of things either, she breathes quietly, trying to get a hold of - God, is she panicking? She hasn't panicked in years. Not since the crash. It doesn't matter because she's fine, there just has to be a plan. Retrospec has to know something they don't - they have to have a plan, because if they don't...If they don't.

Mariko draws back from the whole setup with a noise. She can feel the inside of her lip bleeding from how hard she bit it to keep from ...crying? Screaming? The memories and everything she keeps hearing second-hand. Powers and super-strength and people finding out they weren't good people. Her Other being a fucking killer, she has to be to make a shot like that but Togusa is there - explaining cases like she's not a murderer.

She's not a murderer. She's never killed anyone.

"Jesus Christ," her voice is almost thin as she puts her face in her palms. Her voice is muffled as she presses her face into her palms, almost literally holding herself together.

"I rmbryu."

Togusa has let himself trail off when he notices that Mariko isn't entirely there. His brow tightens, and he is just about to put a hand to her shoulder, when he realizes what is happening, and takes a step back, instead. Damn it all. A memory.

"Mariko," saying her name low, quiet, trying to drag her back to where she is. "You're okay. You're here. It's just the two of us. This is going to stop soon." He's ridiculously practiced at this, having to sit while a friend is seeing the unthinkable too many times. He doesn't even need to know what it is-

And then she chokes those words out, and she might as well have dropped a bomb in the middle of the room. Togusa stops so abruptly that his mouth drops open. There is a cold rush of feeling down his spine, away from his face, skin paling a shade. There has to be another explanation. But he knows what those words have to mean.

"What?"

No, he damn well heard her, but he doesn't understand. And it's as if his brain won't start up again to process it.

"...Mariko?" All he can do is stand there, looking at her with more uncertainty than he ever has before.

He's trying to soothe her. He's trying to help and she bristles before she can catch it because of course he is. Her shoulders raise, quick and sharp because why aren't you any different?!. Then she takes three deep breaths because her shoulder feels like it's on fire and then she lowers her hands.

"I. Remember. You."

The words are clearer than they have any right to be, gazing at a spot in middle distance between them.Her eyes flick up to meet his, her gaze too tired and her expression dangerously close to looking like surrender.

"Before anything else, actually. Briefing me, same way you always do."

And another deep breath and she seems to straighten up, steeling herself for the next question.

Togusa’s shock doesn’t dissipate at all with those words, focusing in on before anything else. The implications are impossible to ignore. His back rows of teeth click together, a vain attempt at control. “The man Retrospec is making me see.” The words are firm, not inviting any argument on his belief about the separation between him and this other man. Not now. “You. Remember him.”

“And you didn’t tell me.”

There it is, there’s the hurt, but it’s so brief, buried again swiftly. Mariko is a woman that likes her secrets, but about this? “We’re supposed to be working together on this.”

There is an avalanche of questions. What is he like? Is he still human? How much more is he going to ‘convert’ to match up with that man’s physicality? What were they doing? Why do so many of his memories contradict each other?

Why Mariko?

That’s the one his mind finally stops on, and the slow look back and forth meets her eyes again. “But I dont remember you. Or anyone like you.” Not her. Someone else. “What was he doing? A- briefing? On what?”

They've known each other too long. Anyone else and this could slide, this could be recoverable but she knows him and she knows what she saw. For the first time, maybe since they've known each other, she glares at him. There is no edge of embarrassment or nervousness; it's just anger and offense.

"I could pick you out of a lineup with a hangover in a dark room." She growls, breaking eye contact to try and roll her shoulder because Jesus.

"I know what I saw." She nearly spits and they've known each other too long because she knows it sounds like I'm not crazy.

She almost doesn't react to his offense, she's used to disappointing men she's close to. However, in his next breath comes the accusation and that's what makes her look up at him like he just slapped her.

Mariko Kawaguchi isn't as strong as she plays at, but she's never wilted a day in her life. She didn't wilt the day her mother died, she didn't wilt the day she washed out of the academy - but anger comes easy and for this? For him?

"What the fuck was I supposed to tell you, Hitori?!"

It comes too easy, transgression over understanding because after ever everything...

She really must be losing her mind if they can't even believe in each other anymore.

"Explain to me how I was supposed to tell you I saw you in what felt like a fever dream, when my understanding of the world devoured itself so hard I couldn't even see the color blue any more."

She gestures wide and sweeping to encompass Recolle, Retrospect, the months - all of it.

"When would have been a good fucking time? Between you running around helping half an orphanage's worth of kids who all think they're losing their minds?"

Her hands go up and honest to God, she doesn't know if she's going to strangle him or squeeze her temples until her skull cracks because anger has always made her fast.

"It damn sure wouldn't have been proper to say it while you were drinking your way through the fact that the first girl you went nuts for since college got a fucking memory lobotomy."

Anger made her fast and she was never very wise in the first place.

It's a feeback loop; a bad one. The two of them are far, far more similar than either one of them would ever admit out loud. But it's a fact that they both know, deep down. So when Mariko's anger flares, the fire might as well leap through the gap between them and ignite Togusa's temper right back. They both know exactly what to say to strike at the other one deep. That look she gives him almost turns the tide, but even a sideways mention of Gentiana is too much.

"Bullshit. You know I make time for you. I was still right there when you suddenly didn't remember how you got a broken ankle. But you'd rather leave me in the dark when-" his own hands raise limply, shrug, and flop back down to his sides. "When I've been doing this for a damn year and a half. And not a sign that anybody else had a clue."

"Robots and tech I don't understand," oh, it is all coming out now. A hand goes to the side of his own head. "Retrospec put machines in my brain, Mariko. I have been trying to keep my grip and get used to it, but I don't know when this is going to stop." The sharp fear that has crept in, never leaving Togusa fully. That more and more changes are just going to keep coming to him. "How much of myself am I even going to recognize at the end of this?"

His hand falls again. "What did you see? Who is this guy?"

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