Pandion (Genera #1)

Chapter 15

T he removal process was never going to be completely safe, but it didn’t take long to figure out the safest way forward. Takazaki came over to film it so that Kagesawa and Satoru could concentrate on the task itself.

The plan was simple: freeze the port with freeze spray, block the injector with a suitable instrument and pull out the port as quickly as possible. Since liquid gas sprays were fairly common and most empaths had a cleaning kit for their port, the equipment wasn’t too difficult to get a hold of. They usually already had everything at hand.

The difficult part was knowing exactly how scared Satoru was. The shared nerves were making Kagesawa’s hands shake, so, once he’d sprayed the area, he recruited Takazaki to place the micro spatula through the slit to block the injector. The port itself required a few twists to dislodge from the grooves along its sides.

Kagesawa’s port had been degraded from all his tinkering: its grooves had been so worn, he’d been able to yank it off with that one measly tug. Satoru’s port, on the other hand, was in pristine condition: it wasn’t very old, and he’d taken excellent care of it. It required the right sequence of turns to come loose, and the sequences were not exactly public knowledge.

Luckily, Kagesawa had stumbled upon the sequence key file while collecting other data as part of his hobby a few months ago. It had most of the port models and their respective sequences listed for maintenance purposes. He’d memorised the sequence, but, with nothing to practise on, he felt grossly inept and ill-prepared.

This was not a matter of life and death, but the stakes were almost as high. If he screwed this up, Satoru would be left with a dead organism, and there was no guarantee he would get a replacement after the investigation that would ensue. Even if he got one, it would be linked to someone else.

Kagesawa swallowed. He didn’t have much time before the effects of the spray wore off so he took a deep breath and gave Takazaki a sign that he was going for it.

After the third twist, he heard the injector pop. Satoru flinched. Silence.

With his heart about to pound through his chest, Kagesawa fought to keep his hands steady. He turned the final turn, the port came loose, and something moist trickled onto his fingers. Adjusting his work light, he inspected the socket membrane and wiped it with a piece of clean cotton cloth. The cloth remained clean.

“Oh, sweet mother of— I thought I’d have a heart attack.” He exhaled shakily.

“Is it fine? It’s fine, right?” Satoru asked, doing his best to keep still but twitching with nervous energy.

“It’s fine. The spray did its thing. The injector was triggered but slowed down enough for me to pull out the port before anything was released. I’m going to go wash my hands.” Kagesawa got up. “I’ll be right back.”

His chest felt tight. His hands were still shaking as he washed them. The sound of the injector being triggered, the moment of sheer panic through the link, Satoru flinching, the already weak link muffling to near nothingness…

It was fine. It had worked. The link would improve with time. Everything was all right. Kagesawa stared at himself in the bathroom mirror, dread written all over his face. Better wait a moment for the worst of it to pass. Satoru had enough to worry about.

After filming an overview of the port they’d removed from Harumine’s head and making sure nothing had indeed been spilled onto the socket membrane, the three of them could finally relax.

“I could use a beer,” Takazaki noted.

Harumine caught Kagesawa’s glance and chuckled. “Don’t mind me. The port is out. By all means, you deserve a cold one.” The link was there, but he had to concentrate to be able to tell.

“You want one?” Kagesawa asked. He seemed a little subdued, but at least he wasn’t angry anymore.

“No, thanks. Not my thing, but you two go ahead.”

Kagesawa went to fetch the beers while Takazaki used his kit to upload the footage onto a server and made backups.

With bits of past conversations echoing in his mind, Harumine had had his doubts about both Takazaki and Kagesawa, but with the port now safely out, he felt fairly confident he could trust the two of them. Had they meant him any harm, this would have been the perfect opportunity to do it. But the organism seemed fine. He felt fine.

“Oh, maybe you should have a conversation with Kagesawa about his parents at some point. Regarding the DEFD. I may have uncovered something, but I’d be interested in his take,” Takazaki said.

“Why not ask him yourself?”

“I’m going to hazard a guess it’s a sore topic. He’s already pretty cross with me. I feel like it would be better coming from you.” The man looked peeved to have to rely on Harumine, but since Kagesawa had only just calmed down to more his usual self, it made sense to avoid stirring the pot. “You’ll have a better chance of finding a decent timing for it.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” Harumine wasn’t too keen on prying into Kagesawa’s family situation since he hadn’t mentioned anything about it himself. They were already forced to share a lot linked together, so it was especially important to give each other some privacy whenever that was possible. At any rate, it didn’t feel right to dig into it without first discussing it with Kagesawa, so Harumine didn’t bother to question Takazaki any further.

He sat down onto Kagesawa’s bed. Funny how it no longer felt awkward to be spending time in Kagesawa’s bedroom, though he still found it strange that someone would choose to sleep in the same room with all of this tech junk. Considering that he’d had a whole other bedroom filled with other junk, wouldn’t it have made more sense to use that as an office of sorts?

When Kagesawa returned with the beers, Harumine slapped himself for being so slow.

“What? Did I miss something?” Kagesawa handed Takazaki a can of beer.

“I have a question,” Harumine said.

“What is it?”

“At what point did it become more convenient to work from here instead of your office?” Having cleaned said room, Harumine should have realised it sooner, but in his defence, he’d had other things on his mind. Kagesawa shrugged. “Where will you sleep when this room fills up? In the living room?” Harumine continued.

“It’s not that full yet.” Kagesawa looked around as if to assess. “Where did you put my stuff from the other room, by the way?”

“I chucked some of it. Some of it I returned to where it belongs in the other rooms. The rest is in those two containers.” Harumine pointed at the two large containers in one corner of the room.

“All of that?”

“Most of it is still around. I only tossed what was obviously trash.”

“Uh, I’m sorry. I suck.” Kagesawa sighed and sat down on his bed next to Harumine.

“No, you have DEFD,” Harumine corrected.

“What does that even mean?” Kagesawa took a swig of beer, put the can down on the floor and leaned back on the bed. Harumine frowned.

“Is that a rhetorical question, or are you seriously asking? Didn’t the doctor explain it to you? He gave you that data chip, didn’t he…?”

“Oh yeah, he did give me something.” Kagesawa started to laugh. Takazaki dared to join him with a chuckle.

“What’s so funny?” Harumine was used to Kagesawa laughing at himself at random times but Takazaki too?

“I’m just imagining what kind of dumbass doctor gives him, a patient with DEFD, a data chip and expects him to read it.” Takazaki’s light chuckle turned into a roar of laughter until he was wiping tears from his eyes. Kagesawa was also still laughing. He even produced the chip from one of his pockets after some rummaging.

“What did you do while you were away? I thought you took time off to take stock of the situation, maybe learn what you can do about it.” Harumine rubbed the bridge of his nose.

“Look, I really am sorry. I know I suck.” Kagesawa covered his face with his hands but continued to laugh.

“You seriously don’t know what DEFD means?” Harumine asked, dreading the answer. The acronym was well-known in empath circles because it was one of the most common reasons for rejection from training. Kagesawa shrugged.

“Executive something or other…” He made an effort to stop laughing, but, with Takazaki still failing to do the same, they were feeding off of each other’s stifled snorts and cackles.

Harumine sighed, relented and decided to let them have their fun. He did, however, want to make one thing clear whilst on the subject.

“Listen, since you keep repeating it, I’m going to correct this once and for all: you don’t suck.” Harumine patted Kagesawa’s shoulder. Kagesawa finally stopped laughing and looked at him like he’d said something completely unexpected and unfathomable. Harumine could sense the familiar dark gloom this subject brought out in him.

“What do you mean?”

“You don’t suck. You have DEFD.”

“But I still do those things. Or rather, don’t do the things I’m supposed to. That’s all on me.”

“Taking responsibility is all well and good, but you’re not a shitty person for not being able to do everything that other people do. It’s a neurodevelopmental disorder, not a character flaw. It irks me when you keep beating yourself up like you’d purposely chosen it. Enjoy your beer and have the evening off. You’ve been working hard all day.” Harumine turned to look at Kagesawa, who’d done a 179 from the laughing-fit.

“Are you crying?” Takazaki asked. “Is he crying?”

“Not yet, but so what if he were?” Harumine shot Takazaki a glare. Takazaki recoiled.

“No, nothing wrong with that.”

“You’d probably feel a bit of something had you gone your whole life thinking you’re a worthless loser and someone pointed out you’re not.” Harumine checked the can of beer on the floor. It was nearly empty. He drank the rest of it. “I’ll get you another one.” He got up to go.

“Ah, I’d better take my leave,” Takazaki said and followed Harumine. “Thanks for the beer. I’ll let you know when the video is live.”

“Thanks for all the help. I do appreciate it,” Harumine replied.

“I should be the one thanking you. The both of you. This will be big. One day I’ll tell you the whole of it, but I want to see how it ends first. When we’re done with this, let’s sit down and share stories.”

“All right. I’ll hold you to that.” While Harumine didn’t mind the chance to pick Takazaki’s brain, he was currently more interested in figuring out Kagesawa and what was left of their link.