BlazBlue:CT Material Collection Tager Short Story "Trust You"
Where is this place?
The man's consciousness returned. His vision was blurry. He blinked several times, before his sight finally came into focus, and a woman in a white coat stood before his eyes.
“It looks like you finally opened your eyes. How're you feeling?”
The man didn't answer. No, he couldn't answer. It was as if his head was filled with lead, his senses still dull and heavy. His consciousness was hazy, and he felt like his entire body was stuck to the floor by some sort of magnetic force. Only his eyes could move slightly, as he tried to recognise what was by his side. There were various apparatuses and liquids which he didn't know their uses for, samples from creatures, as well as books and sheafs of papers piled up in a corner. Somehow, it looked like he was in a lab.
“I'm Kokonoe. A scientist from Sector Seven”
Just like that, the woman named Kokonoe introduced herself briefly. Only being able to move his eyes, the man observed Kokonoe.
It was a unhealthy and ill-humored face that looked like all the lack of sleep in the world had been crammed into it, the man thought. Clad casually in a shabby white coat, small glasses lying apologetically on top of a small nose. I see, her appearance makes it hard for me to disagree with her statement that she's a scientist, the man thought. There was something in her mouth. He thought it was a toothpick or a cigarette, but it turned out to be a stick of candy.
“... Tager“
“... what?”
“It's your name.”
“My... name...?”
The man mumbled while staring at the cold and robotic light that illuminated the room. Tager... Was that really a name? He tried to remember his own name but gave up after a while. His memories were still cloudy, and he couldn't compose his thoughts properly.
“So my name is Tager?”
“Yeah. I just decided on it.”
The man named Tager was at a loss for words at Kokonoe's casual remark. He waited for her next remark. However, it didn't look like Kokonoe was going to open her mouth. Occasionally she moved the stick of candy in her mouth.
Some time passed in mutual silence, and in that time his consciousness cleared up.
“I'm sorry but, I don't understand the entire situation. Can you explain?”
“Let's see... Well, originally it seems you were the captain of some investigative unit. And then, you got caught up in some battle somewhere and you died.”
As if to signify the explanation was over, the stick of candy— it looked like a catnip lollipop— rolled around in her mouth again.
Investigative unit... Captain... Battle... The blurry images in his head cleared a little, and he felt he could grasp his situation a little better.
“ What is this feeling...?”
“You shouldn't try to recall so much. Otherwise you'll get errors in your engine.”
“ Did you say... engine...?”
At the moment, he experienced a pain that felt like something was clamping around his head. For a moment, towards the end of the pain his view was covered by was he thought looked like spinning lights.
“Am I... dead?”
“See for yourself. Don't you think you're splendidly alive?”
While saying all that, Kokonoe twisted one of her long strands of hairs around her finger.
“You, did you help me?”
“You can call me Kokonoe.”
“Kokonoe... You said you were a scientist...”
She was more like a doctor. Although even if she was a scientist or a doctor, he thought she looked more like a young girl.
Kokonoe stood up. Hands thrusted into her pockets, she walked up briskly to Tager's side.
“If left alone you'd probably have died. I thought it'd be such a waste, so that's why...”
At that moment, Tager noticed it for the first time. From the girl's back a tail forked into 2 was waving about. Although she had hid most of the fur on top of her head, on top of that sat a pair of tiny, chubby cat-like ears.
“ A beastkin...?”
As if saying it is as you see, Kokonoe ignored him and begin casually extracting codes installed into Tager's body.
“... how is it, can you move?”
Tager moved his modified body. His body, which up until now he had lacked total control over, surprisingly moved smoothly. He took a light breath, and exerted his upper body. He easily pulled himself upright.
“What the heck is this...?!”
“I picked it up from the scrapheap where my colleagues dump things they deem “beyond help”. I thought that I might be able to save this one.”
Kokonoe picked up a test tube placed to one side, and a rare expression of happiness surfaced.
“... And that?”
“Recently, unique cells were discovered in the oriental region. Put simply, they posess the ability to stimulate the functions of living creatures. However, because their effect is too strong, injecting them into a normal human is tantamount to killing them.”
Disturbing words were rapidly coming out of Kokonoe's mouth.
“ Despite that, you turned out to be a splendid match. Incidentally the damaged tissue which couldn't be healed with this I replaced with cyborg parts. In simple words, you were revived as a cybernetic organism.”
It was true... looking at his image reflected in the glass, Tager understood. His muscles had been bulked up immensely. His enormous body's skin was colored red. Buried in his angular face were two sharp eyes. Furthermore, his mouth contain two “fangs”, to put it politely. His appearance was as one of those “demons” from the oriental fairy tales.
With no say in the matter Kokonoe had rescued, modified, and renamed him. With really no say in anything Tager now found himself in his current situation, furthermore he was now working with Kokonoe. Although he was said to be working with her, his job didn't consist of him by her side offering assistance. Although a member of Sector Seven's investigative team, he primarily participated in the “beastkin's” research. Kokonoe's pretext was to “return him back to his original state.”
The first mission for the newly refurbished Tager, was a “request” from Kokonoe. Upon asking for more details, it seemed that the central city of Ikaruga had disappeared not too long ago. His mission was to take advantage of the chaos, and sneak in to retrieve “a certain something”.
Carrying a large package on his back, Tager landed at the objective site and stood up. He surveyed the area with his own eyes and grew suspicious. For a place that had just been the site of a heated battle, the traces left behind were definitely odd.
“... did they just send a single person?”
From the footprints left on the ground the direction the battle took could be roughly conjectured. Most of the footprints were probably from the scared Ikarugan soldiers. Their footprints were all pointed in one direction. However those footprints suddenly vanished midway.
“Just what did they use to fight these Ikarugans?”
Looking around him, he could see that the buildings had definitely been hacked and sliced by an extremely sharp bladed object. It was almost as if this were an optical illusion wherein the buildings were made of butter. At that moment, he felt someone's stare from behind. As he turned he momentarily saw a “green shadow”like thing. He suddenly felt dizzy.
“There's some noise interfering with your thought patterns. Tager, is there a problem?”
Kokonoe opened a channel on the communications device.
“... Ah, no, it's nothing.”
Surveying his surroundings again he noticed nothing. It was probably his imagination. Right now he was in a middle of a mission. Also he was carrying something very important in his arms. He shouldn't be thinking so much unnecessary thoughts— Tager shook his head. Kokonoe also guessed something had happened, so she didn't pursue the matter any further.
“So, have you found it, “that thing” I mentioned earlier?”
“Yeah. However, the 13th is completely missing, and the 12th is empty. I've secured number 11, but since it was on the verge of being scrapped it's in terrible shape.”
“I see... I guess we were a little late then. Well it can't be helped. Even if it's just number 11 it'll be fine...”
What to do from now on— The communications device crackled and a voice could be heard.
“Well then Tager, return to base directly. I think you already know this, but that thing is a living creature. There's no dry ice. If we're going to prevent it from rotting you better get back here at top speed.”
“... Roger.”
Saying that Tager moved towards the huge crate marked “11” — it resembled a coffin— and grabbed it securely.
“TR/ 0009 Tager... Heading back now.”
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