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Togusa frowns a little, while Daisuke floofs back up and curls up at Togusa's own feet. "Not sure I want to know, so long as you're all keeping safe." Who else is regaining these abilities, who else has questionable things that Retrospec is showing them? No, Togusa isn't sure he wants to know at all.

"But if it's Retrospec-related? Well, what were you looking into?"

"We are. No incidents last week--even the people who thought it was going to be some sort of fight club calmed it down and played nicely. But I thought you should know..."

Dante steps close to Togusa, dropping his voice low. He doesn't know how Retrospec's surveillance footage works, but he's not taking any risks of being picked up by it.

"...it's not just a fight practice. Chloe and I met up after she found those blueprints and were talking about how we could get information out to people without cluing Retrospec in to the fact that we had it or had shared it. So every week during practice, we're holding secret meetings to share any information we can come up with to a whole group of people."

Togusa flat-out stops and stares at Dante for a second, and he knows he is supposed to straight-face what Dante is saying, it's supposed to be covert, but it's impossible to completely dispel the really, Dante? look on his face.

"So you took the satire idea of a subversive group and...instantly...made it into a real subversive group. That's got to be a record. Okay."

Nope, just petting my dog. Just. Petting. My. Dog.

"Help you get out what we found in the tunnels, at least? I don't know who all needs that, but any way we can let people know."

"You're really set on drawing this Fight Club comparison, aren't you?" Dante frowns, shaking his head. "I meant what I told you about it being to help people. Chloe was already thinking about trying to arrange secret meetings, so it made sense to set it up at the same time."

Come on, Togusa. Does he really have so little faith in him?

"But anyways, that's why I wanted to talk to you. We talked about them last week, but we'll be talking about them this coming weekend too." Dante pauses for a moment, for the first time second-guessing his decision to tell Togusa about this. Is he about to get that same disapproving look here, too?

But ultimately, he decides, it's more important to share the information. He doesn't want to hold information back from Togusa and risk Togusa deciding not to share any information with him, either...

"Last night, a bunch of us went back into the subway tunnels. Turns out, there's more to that graffiti than we realized."

That takes Togusa by surprise, he didn't expect to be so on the nose about what Dante was up to. He perks up, and his look instantly shifts to be slightly impressed. "You made it back in there without getting spotted? Good to know."

"I'd assume," talking slowly, thinking it through, "that it's not dangerous in there anymore, now that we're not on the low end of the food chain." Hopeful.

"Figured you take somebody who knows more about computers in there, they'd be able to learn more. What did you find out?" There is no apparent lecture incoming, just an eager curiosity in Togusa's tone.

Dante nods, a yes on all accounts. "We split up to get into the subway tunnels. Too many people sneaking in together all at the same time would've drawn too much attention. We didn't see anything dangerous down there--just a lot of tunnels that have been collapsed. Things didn't look too unstable for the most part, but if you go too far southwest, things get weird. If you went too far, it felt like falling off a cliff, even though you're standing on solid ground. If you try to keep going, things start feeling less stable. We didn't spend too much time down that way."

But that isn't the big thing. Dante pulls a file folder out of the backpack he's got slung over his shoulder, handing it to Togusa. "I wanted to get some better images of the binary so we could see if anyone could decipher it. BUt Prompto told me that you'd asked him to take photos with a film camera once, so he took some photos with a regular camera too and developed them to see what we'd find."

He figures the photos, as Togusa looks at them, should speak for themselves. They're of the binary in the tunnels, all right, but many of the numbers are blurred, as though they're halfway 0, halfway 1. Some of them are clear and crisp, unchanging, but it looks as though most of them are midway between changing from one digit to the other--an instance none of them had been able to see with the naked eye, or even in cell phone photos, but visible in developed photos.

"Southwest," Togusa repeats. "Staring from where? It doesn't make sense that anything would be collapsed unless you made it outside of the city," Togusa's brow furrows sharply. "Unless you were gunning for what I was, and tried to get under the center of town?"

He flips open the folder, and a somewhat vicious grin spreads across Togusa's face. "Oh, Prompto, you amazing kid, you. Every so often, I'm right, just sometimes not at the right time." He stares at the photo, but his enthusiasm isn't diminished. "Good. Work. Seriously. I don't know if there was any other way we could have figured this out. Thank you."

Togusa closes the folder and hands it back to Dante. "The code is changing. That dumb idea we were coming up with in the tunnels the first time was right. It's running right underneath the whole city, that's how they're affecting all of us at once."

A shake of the head. "We were trying to explore as much as we could. All the maps down there have been ruined; they've either been torn down entirely or ripped apart. I wanted to try and map some of it out while we were down there. Some of us started in the binary tunnel and tried to keep going toward Apprassage--that's where we hit that 'wall.' It wasn't really close to the center of town, I don't think."

As the grin spreads across Togusa's face, a matching smirk grows on Dante's own. See, he can come up with good ideas sometimes! "Yeah, it looks like it. The only problem is, what do we do next? My sword can't cut through it at all, so there's no way to disrupt the code that I could see."

Togusa puts a hand to his chin. "Enprise to Aprassage, that's almost doing what we did backwards. Why would there be a collapse down there now?" He shakes his head. "I might not be picturing this right. I got the idea initially by looking up the old subway maps from the Library. Pull copies of that next time before you go down there, maybe? At least we can keep a copy and mark off what has and hasn't been explored. There's only so many lines."

"We need to be able to read it before we can disrupt it. Break a random piece? That could be related to one of us. How do we read it if it's changing, well that's the question, isn't it?" Togusa breathes out a long breath. "But we know it's not just random, that's a start."

"Run it by Yoon-sung. Or Ecarle, she's that heiress, right? In theory they'd have access to the servers or computing power that would cut down on the work. Just we have to find some way to get that code from down the tunnel up to them."

"I started working on a current map while we were done there," Dante says. "I can probably try cross-referencing them with the maps from the library." Whether or not they'll match? That's another story entirely. But that's a problem for another day.

"How are we supposed to read it when we can't even get it to hold still long enough to get a clear picture?" Dante frowns. "It's not like we can plug a USB cable into the subway wall and connect it to a laptop."

"If you need the photo-lens to tell that it's moving," Togusa puts a hand to his chin. "We'd need a recording of some kind. But run it through a computer recognition software, something that can look faster than a human eye can process. If there's a way for them to display it, there has to be a way to read it, they're outputting it somehow."

Togusa glances at Dante with a half-smile. "This gives us some new ground to cover, though. Thank you. Was there anything else I can help out with?"

"Which means going back again," Dante notes. "With some sort of video equipment. Maybe we need to get someone else in on this; I don't know how some sort of recognition software like that would work."

He raises one shoulder in a half-shrug at Togusa's other words. "Yeah, no problem. I figured you would've let me know if you'd found out anything new, so..." He trails off, but then he's moving on to another topic. "I wanted to tell you about the info sessions. Even if you don't plan on coming to the training sessions, you've got a lot of info about what's going on. We're trying to centralize everybody's knowledge so that we've got more people in the know--it'd be pretty useful if you could share what you're finding out, too."

There's a slight tension in Togusa's shoulders when Dante mentions the training sessions. "I don't know..." He truly doesn't like the idea of going down there. He knows, he gets it. People as young as Dante suddenly remembering how to use swords, spar, maybe even worse.

He sighs deeply, glances at Dante. "If I can give the info through you, a few other people? Keep from drawing even more attention to the place by having a cop- another cop, sorry, show up there all the time?"

Dante shrugs again. "If you're off-duty, I don't think it'd be that conspicuous. But if you're that uncomfortable with it, then sure, I can carry any info for you. It just means we'll have to arrange to talk sometimes without doing it over the network. The biggest thing we're trying to do is keep it on the downlow so that maybe we can get ahead of Retrospec for once."

Togusa nods as soon as he can. "I get it. Then, yes, it might be better if you took the information there instead of me. I can't deny knowing about it. But it's better that way."

A measured pause. "Doubt I'd need the practice sessions, myself." Because those are actually the issue here.

"Don't write yourself off," Dante warns. He's willing to let it lie, if Togusa doesn't want to be a part of the practice sessions, but the way he's doing it says that he doesn't want to know anything about it--and Togusa is too valuable a resource for all of them to let him do that.

"We brought in a couple Nerf guns for people to try and there have been a few people that took to them pretty well. There's a kid named Orion, for one; he and Seto Kaiba were firing at each other, and there was another guy on the network that messaged me asking if it was 'bring your own gun.' I think his name was James." Dante pauses. "When I told him there was no room to shoot, he took it fine, but that's still three people that might benefit from some time at the range."

The look of reluctance on Togusa's face switches to one of unsurprised disappointment. "Oh really? Oh, Barnes, you're in trouble." Togusa shakes his head. "Not that he shouldn't practice. He needs to catch up with himself."

Togusa sighs tightly, and he looks away. "Funny this all comes back to James. Younger than you, and I watched him go from not even knowing how to open a revolver? To out-shooting me. In an instant. It just hit him between one shot and the next. 10,000 hours of training, there you go. Crammed into a 16 year-old brain all at once."

Togusa taps his own leg, distracting himself. "I can't keep watching that happen."

"You know him?" Dante starts to ask, but Togusa's continuation makes it pretty obvious that yes, he does, and his story has Dante giving a low whistle.

"So that's why you didn't want to come to those practices," he says, the reasoning obvious now. "You had enough of a problem with me being able to fight. You've got a problem with seeing people younger than you learning how to fight like that."

It's not meant to sound accusatory at all--he isn't meaning to insinuate that Togusa would be against anybody learning to protect themselves. But at the same time, he can't accept the idea that they should all sit back and let the "adults" on the network protect them just because they're older. Older or not, he's still got the skills to fight and defend people, and he'll be damned if he sits back letting other people get hurt just because they're older than he is!

Togusa briefly looks conflicted, but he has to charge ahead and explain more fully. He shakes his head. "It's everything that's missing, everything that being able to fight that well suggests that bothers me. It takes time and training to get that good." He looks back up at Dante. "Even you, that takes dedication to be able to use a sword that well. At your age."

"I can't shoot as well as, say, Fynn, because I didn't pick up guns early. But I'm catching up. James doesn't have to catch up. Because he's already put the time in. By age 16."

"What the hell kind of world is Retrospec showing him where that needs to be necessary? Who decided that so many people's childhoods were better spent learning to shoot and swing a sword and so many other things that I haven't even come up with yet? Because this keeps happening. This whole thing is one long trail of lost childhoods, and it makes me sick to really think about. But I can't ignore it."

"What makes you so sure we lost our childhoods?" Dante shakes his head, disagreeing. "I don't know what your memories have shown you, but mine have been different periods of time. When he's on the island with his friends, he's younger than I am--at least, I think he is. He's shorter and it just feels like I don't know as much as I do in other memories. But I remember going in and out of the simulation of that city, and I'm taller. I've got broader shoulders. I feel older. Nobody said we're remembering these things at the same age we were when they actually happened, you know."

Now he's lying, and it's in classic Dante fashion. Because he's shorter and slighter when he's inside Castle Oblivion, when he kidnaps that princess and when he's so certain he died. He's shorter and slighter when he closes himself in side this world of darkness he's remembered, an afterworld that must somehow have a passage of time, since he remembers himself later on, taller and broader and with that underlying sense of regret. Yes, he might be remembering things from a wide span of time, but that doesn't negate what it is that Togusa's saying, that they were kids when all of this began.

But he also can't let Togusa's opinion of their apparent lost childhoods prevent them from learning as much as they can about their pasts, either; and neither can he let that be a reason why they shouldn't utilize the skills they're being given.

Togusa thinks he has such a good read on Dante by this point that he doesn't question it. He nods along slowly, until a sharp frown comes to his face. "How can people be remembering things from later in their lives?" It's a more comforting idea, by far, but his mind briefly rebels at it.

"If that's true, then I'm right, and these are memories of another lifetime entirely. It's not us." And the fact that the concept backs up that idea is probably why Togusa hinges on it so much. "It's still- not the easiest thing to see. But maybe better. Maybe James was a cop, or a soldier, the other version of him learned it all later in life. It still isn't fair to shove that on someone so young."

But there's a relaxation in Togusa's shoulders. "But I'm willing to admit I'm being unfair about this. I just still can't find a good reason for it in my mind."

"The prof suggested reincarnation," Dante offers--it's the idea that he's held onto this whole time, because if it's true, then it gives all of this some sort of structure, some sort of sense. He doesn't want it to be at random, like he and Alison have discussed; accepting some sort of supernatural influence like reincarnation is strangely comforting.

He's satisfied to see Togusa's shoulders relax slightly. It's a step in the right direction, even if he doesn't think Togusa will be happy to see them running into combat any time soon. "It is pretty unfair," he says, careful with his tone of voice. Not too pointed, as he doesn't want to turn this into any sort of argument right now, but neither is he neutral either. It would be strange for him not to have an opinion here! "You're trying to make all of these decisions but you're not even taking what we want into consideration. According to the law I'm old enough to choose to enlist in the military and fight and die for this country. I'm old enough to decide whether I want to know the truth about what I'm learning, too. And so are the rest of us. We know there's a risk of remembering something bad. But you need to have faith in us, too."

Togusa is still just a little resistant, and shakes his head. "I've- started getting evidence that maybe what I'm seeing? Other Togusa is from the future. Reincarnation working backwards?"

"I do have faith in you guys," Togusa says quietly. "Would have more faith if Prompto could go a month without going to the hospital," a weak attempt at a joke. "Somehow it just feels like you're getting it even heavier than us adults."

"I'll- try to back off." Reluctant. It's hard for him to even talk about doing so. "If. I can trust you guys to actually ask for my help when you need it. Which is what this is for," Togusa waves a hand to indicate where they are and why they're talking right now. "So okay."

There's a ghost of a laugh on Dante's face when Togusa makes the (admittedly bad) joke about Prompto going to the hospital--it's bad, but it's also true; the guy's a little bit of a walking disaster (not that Dante's much better). But it's swept away soon enough, because they're on a serious track right now and he doesn't want to derail it.

"Maybe it seems like we're getting it worse because we're going out and doing more," Dante points out. "I remembered fighting, so I looked for someone who could help me try and see if I could trigger myself into remembering more about it. Prompto wanted to see if he could trigger some sort of flash so we took a night to try and do that. We're trying to learn more." Kind of. He could do without, honestly.

He relents a little bit with Togusa's acceptance. "Nobody's asking you to like it. But it's hard to want to talk to someone about things when you know all they're going to do is get pissed off over them."

He wants to keep Togusa in the loop. The information they've shared has been helpful, and it's nice to know he can ask him about things sometimes. But the constant repetition of how much he dislikes the memories Dante's remembering only makes him want to keep quiet about them.

Togusa sighs, and his frustration is all aimed at himself. "I'm not pissed off at you. Or Prompto, or anybody. You can't help what you're seeing. It's just getting angrier at Retrospec. But that's not helping, either, is it?" It's hard not to get angry, but there it is.

"I'll listen. I'll listen better. Remind you all that it's not you. That's what's been helping other people." Koutarou. In a way, Ardyn.

"I'm not chasing it and I'm not going to. I don't know if I can stop myself from trying to make sense of the things I do see, anyway." He's already fallen into that trap a few times. "But I won't stand in your way of trying to figure it out."

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GODS DAMN IT DANTE STOP BEING A SHIT

NEVER

DX

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