middleofsomewhere | Conclusion

Conclusion

Thank you.

For those inside the system the voices of the Great-Seasons ring out around them once the red mass has vanished and the blue plinth it was smothering is freed once more. They don't have all that much time to reflect on that before they find themselves waking up once more in their bodies around the tree trunks.

Or at least, around the tube that is the Great-Season they entered through. All illusions have vanished now, all that is left are pipes and metal.

The Great-Seasons allow them passage out from the centre, no sentries or pipes attack them this time. Everything seems to have been put to rights, the walls in the Autumn sector have stopped moving, there is no strange weather effects in the Summer Sector, no engineering problems in Winter and all the camaloid creatures in Spring are calm. Any Helpmates they come across are doing their jobs and no longer malfunctioning.

After a small amount of time, enough to check that all is well, their SCA's light up. All Passengers are to return to the Voidtrecker Express.

Considering the vast distances involved it is probably best that they use the evacuation function to return to the Luggage carriage.

Once all Voidtreckers have returned the train returns to the Void once more.

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He appreciated the levity over seriousness anyway. When they had a negative result, they could be a lot more serious about it.

"That's true enough." He chuckled lightly. "It was the same for me and Gen." He explained. "I happened to test it twice by chance. But nothing seemed to change, except the language barrier. Did Tidus happen to try?" He didn't think he would since they weren't close to the train.

"Tidus?"

Inigo first says, sounding surprised, like he didn't see the question coming from Senku. Senku had said Tidus knew about the experiment too, but it didn't seem like Senku had asked Tidus to participate..

"No." Should Tidus have? Inigo would be covering for his bro if so, but he's pretty sure Tidus never agreed to anything, so it should be fine. Although now Inigo is just thinking of how awkward that moment back there got. "It seems that world was fine for anyone to take their SCA off on. I guess since they were building that place in a way that was meant for people to eventually live there.. I think?"

Look, it didn't seem very liveable for medieval boy over here, but his standards sure are different from most people's.

"I was just curious. I didn't think he would, this time." Senku commented with a bit of a hum. Tidus hadn't been asked, but he volunteered under certain criteria, and that criteria hadn't been met this mission. Roland might not like that, but it was Tidus' choice.

"I got that impression too. I would've taken samples but taking things was against some stupid law, not that I saw anything of interest anyway." He sighed. "Oh well, I'll have to rely on data I pick up then."

Inigo exhales. The topic of Tidus in combination with what happened during the mission still feels a little Difficult, but that's actually why he'll gladly drop it for a moment. The less said about it, the better, probably.

Instead he shakes his head.

"I could do it again next time." Even though it's dangerous. Even though he was well aware of exactly that in the moments before he took off his SCA back on the mission world. "If you think that'd help, that is. Or if it'd give you more to work with."

Inigo isn't the one who can draw conclusions very well from those kinds of things, after all. He's just here to help Senku in ways he can.

"I'm not afraid."

"I appreciate it." Senku responded. "I really do. I would say that once I go, you wouldn't need to if it was dangerous, but that's the whole point. We're trying to figure out if it's tied to individuals or not."

He nodded slightly. "I think it could potentially help a lot. I want to understand how we're all tied to this thing. Ultimately, I want to break it in a safe way so that if people want to leave they can and go where they want to go."

"Then I'll do it."

There's no hesitation about that. Maybe there should be a bit of hesitation, but.. Inigo can't help it. If Senku says that it'll be helpful, then Inigo instantly believes the other. What else would they be friends for if he didn't 100% believe in Senku and his experiments?

And if he can do it, rather than too many other people having to risk it, then that's all for the better. If just him, Senku and Gen do it - that should already be enough of a varied pool of people, right?

"I want to help out everyone here too. And if it does end up being a problem on some world we try it on, then I'll just make sure to quickly put it back on. No problem." He shakes his head, managing to smile confidently despite the topic.

.. although. His smile drops a tad, though it doesn't fully fade. "I might have to look for a different partner to watch me though."

Considering what Tidus had looked like during his attempt during the last mission. Inigo doesn't want to put him through that again.

"Thank you." Senku said simply, because he meant it although he tended to avoid saying such things.

"What happened on the mission?" He couldn't help but ask, since Inigo brought it up.

"I get the impulse to do it alone, but Gen would skin me alive."

He doesn't want to fully go into the details. It feels like something between Tidus and him, after all. But it's not as if Inigo can't tell Senku anything at all, especially since there was a part of that which he does feel like he can share openly. If not just because it's logical.

"He was worried about me," Inigo explains. "He almost told me to just not do it at all. I managed to convince him this time, but I don't know if I could do it a second time. And I also just don't want him to have to feel bad because of worrying about me in the first place."

"Ah." Senku said with a bit of a thoughtful look. "Roland was like that too. He caught me getting ready and we wound up talking about this. He wants to take the burden too. I don't think he wants you involved either, but I told him it's your choice." He said softly.

"If you change your mind, it's alright. I'm not going to be mad. I know it's a big request. I would do it on my own, but I'm not sure that's enough data to make the difference." He was a little scared what would happen, but at the same time, could they continue on in ignorance?

He pressed his lips together. "As much as I hope it helps, I can't even guarantee that. This could wind up yielding nothing of use. It's science, it's...I'm used to it, but I'm not going to lie and tell you we'll know completely how this works in a week. We definitely won't."

"I'm not going to change my mind."

He wants to make that very clear first and foremost, just so Senku doesn't get even the slightest shred of the wrong idea here. Inigo isn't backing out of this. There's no way he wants to, even if it may only help a little. Or not at all.

Anything is better than just doing nothing, and since Inigo can't think of much to do on his own--

"I really don't mind, Senku. I'm not scared. I've nearly died so many times by now. I wouldn't care if I had to get to that point again." Especially if it may serve a greater goal in the end. "I just don't want Tidus to worry about me, or Roland, so.. let's just try to not let them know I'm doing it next time, alright? It's easier that way."

"I won't tell them." Senku confirmed. He could promise that much, and hopefully that support wouldn't come back to bite him in the ass later.

"Ideally, we're hoping not to end up dead during the experiment but..." He shrugged slightly. "In theory there's a failsafe. What the effects of that are...I don't know."

Gen wouldn't be happy to hear him talk like that, not at all, so he got it.

"I'd try and avoid Gen, but he wouldn't stand for it." He quirked a small smile. "But he'll do this with me."

.. Inigo momentarily wonders if it says something about him. Gen is worried about Senku, so Senku lets Gen do it together with him. But when Tidus or Roland are worried about him.. Inigo doesn't want them to do it with them. It's much better for him to risk it than either of them, right?

Well, he's already made his decision anyway on that now, thanks to Senku's promise.

"I appreciate it," he says, smiling thinly. But the sentiment behind it is genuine. Inigo knows he can count on Senku when he promises that.

"Tidus said that he had a hard time breathing when he took it off before, so if that's the worst that's going to happen, it's fine. I can just put the thing right back on if I have trouble breathing next time I take it off."

Inigo shrugs. Choking for a moment is hardly all that scary to him. But then again, he doesn't have a whole lot of self worth to care much about what happens to him.

Senku wouldn't think it was something to do with Inigo exactly, because he understood the impulse, but his relationship with Gen was just different, in that they'd done so many things together that leaving the other behind was pretty much non-negotiable at that point.

"That hasn't happened to me yet." Senku shook his head. "So I don't know if it's a specific thing to Tidus, or if it was just where he was at the time. That's the whole thing. These things know so much about us, and I suspect more than we think." He pressed his lips together.

"It's beeped at me for my allergies too, which is very specific to me, that's why I think there's more going on than we understand."

Inigo tries thinking about whether it could have been a Tidus thing. Maybe..? He was able to stay underwater really long back in those hot springs, so maybe there's just something different about his lungs or something that'd cause it..

But then again, it could really just be the place too.

"Well, I assume we'll get an answer if we end up having a different reaction when we try it in the next world." Since then they'll know it's caused by the place, rather than the person. Unless their reactions vary. "I've never heard mine go off other than that time we were forcibly evacuated, so I don't think there's anything specifically about me that's put me in danger before."

Despite now knowing his blood makes him kind of different from other people.

"I mean, we can find something I'm allergic to and test it." Senku said, mostly because he didn't care if he got exposed to allergens.

"If we do that, don't tell Gen." He quipped with a bit of a smirk.

"I don't think he likes it when I just have reactions because I don't really care." That was an understatement, although his last reaction was completely accidental, and then Gen wasn't too mad.

"It's since he cares about you. He doesn't want you to get hurt, not even a little bit."

At least, that's what Inigo is assuming here. Or maybe he's projecting a bit, since it's how he'd feel in that situation. Heck, it's kind of what he's feeling right now - not exactly excited at the idea of Senku inducing something like that on himself on purpose.

"He'd probably murder me if he knew I was part of anything like that." Inigo says, shaking his head. "And I'd like to live a while longer, you know!"

Look, it's just a convenient excuse compared to I don't want to do it since I'd worry too much about you, since Inigo figures Senku is more likely to understand Gen's concern than Inigo's own. Since he knows Gen better.

"Oh, I don't think he'd blame you. He and I have met before." Senku said with a bit of a smile.

"But point taken, yeah, it's probably because he...cares..." Ugh, that sounded so mushy. It also made him blush a little bit.

"And he wishes I would stop doing things like that."

Oh, Senku! Please! Come on! Surely you can at least say someone you're that close to actually cares about you without blushing, right? It's only natural that Gen would care for Senku, after all. Or so Inigo thinks.

"Then maybe it's time to listen to him. Maybe not entirely, but.. just a little bit." There may be a teasing edge to Inigo's voice.

Because he knows he's being a hypocrite. After all, he knows Roland and Tidus and his other friends wouldn't want him to put himself at risk, and yet here he is, promising Senku to do exactly that - putting himself at risk.

"You don't want to make him too worried, right?"

"I don't like it when he worries." Senku agreed. "But at the same time I can't just give up pursuing things because it's potentially a safety risk. I think Gen knows that too. Some things are just bigger than how he feels about it. I don't usually take senseless risks though."

Notably, Senku never said Gen was mad at him about the SCA situation. He hadn't been. He understood what happened, where everyone else didn't.

"He'd rather babysit me to try and protect me instead. He and I fought together in the digital scenario or whatever that was."

"Don't even talk to me about that. I'll get a headache."

Inigo even releases a breath that sounds like a sigh as he says it. That dumb digital scenario. So much happened back there, and his mind is still not done processing it. That whole world was just a little bit too much for one not-too-intelligent medieval boy.

"I'm glad you guys were together though. Things got pretty wild, didn't they?"

"Yeah. Well I wasn't really expecting to be thrown into a final battle sort of situation on the front lines. It's uh, not my strong suit. Or Gen's really, but we managed okay." They hadn't digitally died or anything, so there was nothing to worry about in the end.

"The magic was interesting, but apart from that, I'd rather not really repeat the experience."

He smiles a little, though there's something wry around its edges.

"I understand." Inigo hadn't thought the battle was too bad, but it sure did involve pretty much all of them being thrown in there - unlike in other scenarios, where it had been easier for people who aren't used to fighting to stay out of it. "I'd rather not have people who aren't used to fighting involved in those sorts of things either."

Not because he thinks they'd get in the way, but just because Inigo wishes to never see people hurt.

"I do hope you mean you two didn't get terribly hurt when you say you managed 'okay'." JUST MAKING SURE.. He's worried about you, Senku! You're his friend!

"I'm sure. We do fight at home, when necessary, with a lot of scientific help. We've been kind of bereft of that as of late." He admitted with a bit of a frown.

Wow, Inigo, it was like he didn't trust Senku not to lie about injuring himself!

"We didn't get hurt at all. I have a few bruises from the whole getting past the whacking tree part, but that's it. Nothing serious."

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