middleofsomewhere | 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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

.. 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."

Conclusion

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