Chapter 38: Friend
Chapter 38:
Friend
TOJI AWOKE in what seemed to be a quite well-equipped ICU room. No, wait. I recognize this layout. This place is the same size as the standard modular barracks units. Between the curtains to his side, he saw a row of operating tables.
A field hospital.
As he turned his head to look around, he saw Cyrillic letters.
“This can’t be good.”
He tried to scratch his head, but his left hand was oddly heavy.
The bedsheet fell from his arm, and his eyes went wide. His breath caught in his chest. What he saw wasn’t his cybernetic arm but a terribly pale, emaciated flesh-and-blood arm fastened to his shoulder.
“What the hell is this?!”
A man’s voice answered from the other side of the curtain.
“Don’t you recognize it? That’s your arm, Toji. We grew it for you three years ago but gave up on reattaching it after what happened. They didn’t have any spare cybernetics here for you.”
Through the curtains came…
“Kensuke,” Toji said.
“We didn’t reattach your limbs back then because of the whole ‘once Toji’s body becomes whole again the Angel Bardiel will reawaken and kill us all’ thing. I bet you thought your arm and leg were still somewhere in the medical research lab in HQ, providing very valuable data on the efficacy of preservatives.”
“What are you doing here?”
“Anyway, that’s why we haven’t reattached your leg. I’ve got that baby right here.” Kensuke patted a cylindrical container on the bedside table. The faint hum of a circulation system emanated from within. “And just so we’re clear, I didn’t steal your limbs or anything. We just took them back.” He cleared his throat. “We’d shipped them off to Nerv Germany as part of a trade. We got details on their synchro-equalizer tech, and they got a living sample of Angel infection to study. The security intelligence department’s technology division has been making these kinds of backroom deals for the science department since before I joined them.”
“I never heard about any of that.” Toji sighed. “I can’t figure you out anymore.”
“I’m only doing what’s logical,” Kensuke replied.
“How have you changed so much? You didn’t used to be so…clandestine.”
Kensuke offered a wry grin and shrugged, as if he’d been expecting this reaction.
“That’s exactly it, Toji. Am I the only one who’s never allowed to change? I got tired of you and Ikari going ahead without me while I played the comic relief. If I couldn’t follow the same road as you, and I was miserable where I was, why not find a different path? Is that so wrong?” Kensuke shook his head. “Anyway, don’t make me get into it now. I’d almost forgotten how lousy I used to feel.”
Kensuke picked up a water bottle and twisted the cap off. “I’ll admit, I go too far sometimes, but I’ll make things right. I know I really did something bad to Hikari.”
Kensuke’s team had, without permission, handed Hikari’s family over to Germany. Toji had every right to be furious. The past version of him would’ve punched Kensuke at least once by now.
Instead, Toji said, “Your right arm… Is that working for you?”
Kensuke’s arm had been turned into salt near the Ark in North Africa. His replacement was a basic robotic version—the kind typically donated to war-torn countries. The technology was limited so that local facilities could handle the installation and repair.
“It’s definitely a step down from the one you had,” Kensuke replied. “You almost walked out of here with one of these, you know.”
Kensuke exited through the curtains. As he left, he stuck out his stiffly moving right hand and formed the rock-paper-scissors gestures. And then he was gone.