Checking In On Him [Yusaku]

Most of the tension in Miyu’s body vanished the moment she saw Yusaku again. Some irrational part of her had thought he’d been expelled, or even arrested, and that his room would be left empty. At the very least, he was safe and okay, and whatever had happened wasn’t bad enough that he would need to move out.

She still wasn’t completely relaxed, though. At just a glance, with just a few words, she could tell something was up. Usually, he was far happier, far more enthusiastic to see her and to hang out. It was an unfortunate fact that his robotic body meant any kind of body language beyond that was lost on her, but she could at least tell something had happened.

“Hey.” Miyu raised one arm in a lazy wave.

She walked into the room calmly, not quite behaving her usual self either. Rather than springing her questions on him immediately, she walked over to Yusaku’s bed and sat on the side, facing him.

“So, uh…” she trailed off for a moment, trying to think of a good way to breach the topic at hand. After a moment of awkward silence, she gave up, and just came out with it.

“Are… are you okay? Like, did anything happen? I heard some rumours that you got caught doing something bad, but I… I mean I don’t believe them but I wanted to make sure you were okay…”

He said he was fine, but the way he was acting suggested anything but. Miyu wasn’t the type to object to someone lying about something like that, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t worried. Every moment of Yusaku’s silence was torture to her.
Eventually, he turned around, and handed her a bodysuit. She recognized it on sight. They’d spoken about it before, how Yusaku was more comfortable with someone wearing him if they had this kind of suit on. Something about extra layers of clothing restricting his movement, and this kind of material conducting his haptic feedback systems better. Honestly, she didn’t remember most of the details, but she’d been really excited to have a suit of her own.
Right now, she wasn’t feeling that excitement. She was happy to have it, sure, but the vibes in the room right now were kind of limiting it. Even her name stitched onto the sleeve wasn’t enough to completely lighten her mood, though it did make her smile.
She hugged it to her chest, and tried to give Yusaku her best grin. “Thank you! I’ll go put it on immediately!” Miyu exclaimed, rushing off mid-sentence toward the bathroom. Once inside, out of Yusaku’s view, her grin faded.
The next couple minutes of changing went by in a blur. She wanted nothing more than to know what'd happened to Yusaku, why the poor boy was so sad. Despite the lack of a zipper on the suit, it was surprisingly easy to put on, and she slipped out of the bathroom again afterward.
“Okay, Yusaku… I’m ready now. Put me in, and tell me what happened.”

She reciprocated Yusaku’s hug, squeezing as hard as she could around his metal exterior. No matter how cold he was in reality, as far as Miyu was concerned, he felt as warm as any flesh and blood human.
“Right back at you, bro…” She murmured, her face buried in Yusaku’s shoulder.
At this point in their friendship, getting into Yusaku was basically second nature to Miyu. She noticed that he was embarrassed about something, but if he was opening himself up anyway she might as well get in before asking him about it. She barely thought about each step of getting in, leaving it down to muscle memory instead.
The only thing that was new about wearing him was the pilot suit. Miyu hadn't noticed getting in, but now she could feel the blanket beneath her as if it were against bare skin. Her eyes widened in excitement. They could work this closely together now! She kicked their legs a few times to test the full range of the haptic feedback, smiling at how easy the movements were.
Miyu knew of Yusaku's DNI; he'd told her about it months ago and it was a secret she held close to her heart. However, she hadn't expected him to use it for this. It made sense for him to, it would be easier to show her what'd happened than explaining, but she didn't think he'd want to relive whatever had got him so down. Least of all, with her along for the ride.
For the next four hours, she felt everything he'd felt in those moments. The anger at the world around him that'd lead him to befriending a villain in the first place. The horror when that same villain came to their meeting spot beaten and bloodied. The genuine concern he'd had for Goro Utari, who had no choice but to hurt and kill.
Then the pain of Elise confronting him; seeing himself as nothing more than a machine, convinced his friend had turned on him, that he'd be unable to help the man he'd promised to save. As focused as she was on the memories she was living, Miyu didn't know she'd started crying. Tears flooded out like waterfalls, running against Yusaku's padding and staining it.
It was a lot to take in, possibly more than Miyu could bear, but she'd asked Yusaku what was wrong and it'd be unfair to him if she couldn't.
She only spoke again when it was over. Reflexively, their hands went to Yusaku's visor, as Miyu tried to wipe away long-dry tears. "That… Oh my God… Yusaku, I'm, I'm so sorry…"
"I… So you're not being expelled, right? As long as you don't go out and f-fight people with Utari again, r-right?" She asked, her voice trembling in sorrow despite her best efforts.
"Yusaku, big brother, I, I'm not just friends with you o-out of pity, I really like you, y'know? You might think just cuz you're a robot, that you aren't alive, but, I could feel everything you did. Th-those weren't fake feelings!" She slowly put one of their paws over where Yusaku's heart would be, and continued.
"Just because you don't have a physical heart doesn't mean you're heartless, or soulless! And I-I'm sure Yumi knows that too! And Elise! T-there's no way she'd want you taken apart or arrested. I-I don't think she did the right thing, but I'm…. I'm not sure what the right thing would be here…"

Miyu breathed a deep sigh of relief when Yusaku said he’d be ok. Of course, the probation was upsetting to hear about, but the thought of losing her friend was far more so. “I… I hope you can save him. S-So he won’t have to hurt anyone like at Tokyo5 again…” No matter what she’d seen through Yusaku’s eyes, the memory of watching the hijacking live wasn’t going to just… go away.

She wasn’t sure if the rest of her attempts to comfort and encourage Yusaku had gotten through entirely, but it was obvious to her that he felt a lot better, at least. “S-Same. You make me feel a lot… a lot better about myself.”

She hadn’t realized how long they’d been sitting there, not moving, so the sudden motion of her legs felt a little weird. They’d fallen asleep at some point, and for the first few steps Yusaku was all that was keeping her standing. However, by the time they got to the bathroom, she was able to hold her own weight up. She took a deep breath as his visor retracted, and after a quick drink of water she felt a lot better.

“Yeah,” she nodded a bit at Yusaku’s suggestion that they stay together, “Yeah, I’d like that…” At the suggestion of them using the DNI for real, she barely hesitated. It sounded like fun! Of course, she knew the real weight of it, but it wasn’t a hard decision to make. The moment Yusaku was done talking, she responded.

“I’d love to! It seems really cool, y’know, like in Omegaman when they merge with a human.” She grinned at Yusaku, which, sort of meant grinning at the mirror they were in front of.