[OPEN] Relapse

Toshi sat alone on the rooftop, leaned back against the fence.

It was a calm day, partly cloudy and warm. The glow of the afternoon sun filled the surroundings.

Ironic, huh.

Can't believe these damn nightmares are back again.
I thought I was done with all that.

He flipped through the pages of the novel he was reading, but it was difficult to stay focused on anything. He looked up when the door to the stairs suddenly opened and someone came through.

Ichiko is headed up to the roof, as usual, to perform her routine maintenance on her bionic arm. She has neglected to do so since hearing the news of Nayumi's passing, and the joints have started to seize up. As usual, the plastic casing is missing from her arm, exposing the internal mechanisms.

She isn't too surprised to see someone else up on the roof; her maintenance has been interrupted at least twice before. It appears to be a popular place for Yamaku students to go to. "Hi," she says, smiling. "Don't mind me; I'm just here to do some maintenance." She held up the spray can and cloth in her right hand.

"Hi," he replied.

"Maintenance," huh?
I guess we all have our own necessary maintenance in one way or another.

"I've seen you around a few times, but I haven't had the pleasure of making your acquaintance yet.
I'm Toshiaki."

"I'm Ichiko. Ichiko Asari. Nice you meet you, Toshiaki!" Ichiko smiles at him, then sits down on one of the benches, placing the cloth and spray next to her, and starts to unfasten her bionic arm from its mountings.

Toshi watched as she detached her arm, intrigued.

"So… you're in your junior year now, right?"

Ichiko, having detached her arm, lays it carefully in her lap. "Yeah, I guess I am...time sure flies, huh?" She rattles the spray can and sprays part of the arm's mechanisms, before picking up the cloth and starting to gently wipe it down.

"Certainly does," he answered. "I just started here though."

He closed his book and moved over to the bench on the other side of the table.

"Not to sound creepy or anything, but… do you mind if I watch? It's just that I've read a lot about cybernetics, but I've never really gotten to see one up close."

"Yeah, sure, that's fine." Once Ichiko is satisfied that that part of the arm is clean, she puts down the cloth, picks up the spray and sprays another part of the arm with polish, before picking up the cloth again.

Toshi observed quietly as she worked over the metallic surfaces until he noticed a small logo mark on one of the parts.

"… Is that a CyberHeart cybernetic?
I used to hear a lot of talk about them, but then I stopped hearing about them a few years ago, back in middle school. Sounded like they were doing a lot of good work, but I guess they had to close down or something. Wonder what happened to them…"

Ichiko's smile falters. That story isn't a happy one, but it evidently needs telling.

"Well...a few years ago the guy who ran it was in a car accident. He was badly injured, and his wife...she passed away. After that, he closed CyberHeart down, and kinda shut himself away a bit. It's really sad."

"Wow… that is really sad.

"They were helping a lot of people. Not to mention breaking new ground in cybernetics development. What's the guy's name… Takahashi, or Hanadachi, or something…"

"Tachibana. Takeshi Tachibana, that was his name."

"That's right… Tachibana.

"Anyway, I ask because I'm planning on going into medical research myself. He sounded like he would've been a really cool person to meet. I guess he and others like him were quite the inspiration for me."

Ichiko nods solemnly, her cheerfulness seeming to have faded. "I see. Yeah...he was a good man..." She goes back to polishing her bionic arm.

The change was not lost on Toshiaki.
"Why do you put it like that?"
Is this what she was so distraught about that morning?
No, that doesn't make sense…

Ichiko, not really feeling in the mood to talk about Nayumi with a relative stranger, tries to wave the question away. "It's, uhh...it's nothing. Just...you know, it's sad how he...lost everything like that..."

That's definitely not nothing. But no sense rushing her into talking about something she's not comfortable with.

"Yeah," he replied. "Sometimes seems like the worst things happen to the best people."
He paused for a moment.
"He's definitely a good man. Probably saved my life."

All in. Let's see what fate deals me this time.

Ichiko looks up, curious. "Saved your life? What do you mean?"

"Well… I haven't told anyone else here about this, but…"

He turned around and lifted his jacket and shirt, revealing the web of scars across his lower back.

Most prominent was a single vertical line, extending about ten centimeters along his spine. On each side were four circles, each one centimeter in diameter and spaced two centimeters apart.

"… I have a cybernetic of sorts, too."

Ichiko leans forward, examining the matrix of scars with surprise. "Wow...that's a lot of scars. So, your cybernetics are...in your spine? Wow..."

Toshi was about to lower his shirt and sit back down, but when her reaction appeared to be more of interest than shock, he stayed where he was.

"Yeah," he answered. "Broke my back. 3 vertebrae. Damaged my spinal cord. The doctors had to put in a titanium brace to hold it together, and a cybernetic implant to reconnect the nerves."

"Wow! I didn't know they could repair people's spines with cybernetics as well! That's really cool! So, uhh..." Ichiko is about to ask how Toshiaki ended up breaking his back, but thinks better of it. There's probably a reason why he hasn't told anyone else.

Toshiaki turned around and took his seat.

"Go ahead and ask. You won't offend me with an honest question."

"Okay, then...how did you hurt your back?" The conversation seems to have distracted Ichiko from her own sorrows, as she no longer seems upset, merely curious and slightly excited.

"You sure you want to know the answer?" he asked flatly. "It's far from a happy story."