Keeping the Peace
-
“It is,” Roll said in honest agreement. “He’s got a job at the Ministry, too. But both of us feel we’re better off for making it work.”
(Meiru noticed the way Aon’s mouth curled at that, but said nothing and allowed herself no such outward reaction. Her polite smile remained unchanged.)
“Interesting! We know a version of Meiru-chan who’s a Net Sheriff and her Navi, too, but our world doesn’t have all these different names.” Knowing her own version of the Net Saviors, Roll had to assume something bad had happened to prompt such a widespread rebranding of the program in her world. She also had to wonder if there would even be very many people left around to gossip about it.
“Always?” wondered Meiru behind Roll’s head. Roll could tell from the tone of her Operator’s voice that she had more to say on that, but Aon moved on too quickly to give her time to answer.
“Oh, basically everything! It’s part of the Net Saviors’ job to monitor digital phenomena of all kinds! Even this one,” Roll easily replied to Aon's final question.
“After we found out how easy it is for people and Navis to travel between worlds using it, it became obvious to everyone that the chatroom needed more formal observation. So, the other more senior Net Saviors and I take turns keeping tabs on it,” Meiru explained. After a moment, she sheepishly added, “Though I’m guessing we’ve got a little more explaining to do about what our job entails, now that we’ve said all that. If yours wouldn’t want to know about it, I’d have to assume that your Officials don’t have quite as wide a scope…”
-
“I see.” Aon nodded along through most of the explanation until it landed back on the topic of the chatroom and theirs.
“Ah, I don’t think it’s for lack of wanting to know. Rather…” They started, “I just don’t think I can shoulder something like that just yet.” A far cry from all of their funny ideas about punitive justice.
“It’s more that I seem to be the only vector for the chatroom here. I don’t claim to know how this all works, but Miss Blaire can only access it through me as well, she doesn’t have access her own client. Which worries me as to why she keeps getting dragged into things.”
It was so easy for things like that MegaMan to come through…and for Blaire to have been involved in the past two Alpha encounters. They weren’t familiar enough with the people working on preventative measures in the chat to inquire.
“Maybe it’s selfish, but I don’t want the hands of every old man in the government prying me open to take a gander when I’m confident that I can keep tabs myself.
“But I guess I can feel at ease that your side has things under control! I am curious about what that looks like.”
-
Roll cast a quick glance at Meiru’s window at the mention of Blaire, but Meiru didn’t react. She listened to Aon’s recounting of things with a gently thoughtful expression as though it was another Net Savior case. The Αlpha Squad did count as another part of her work, in a sense…
“So there’s nobody you feel you can trust in your version of the Officials, huh…” Really, that explained a lot about Aon’s demeanor, when Meiru thought about it. Here she and Roll were, wondering why Aon didn’t seem to know the first thing about being a team player, when the answer was as straightforward as ‘they really didn’t know’. “That’s really sad. I’m sorry, Aon-san.”
Meiru decided to indulge Aon’s curiosity before continuing further down that particular train of thought. There was no reason to rush things, after all; they’d circle back round to it when they got there. “Well, Enzan and I split the watch over the chatroom right now, though Roll subs in oftentimes for both of us.”
“I don’t think you could get Blues to post to any sort of social media of his own free will,” giggled Roll. “I guess it wouldn’t be so funny to imagine, otherwise!”
“Kaita-kun and Netto are in there, too, but they're just there. They don’t really monitor things, y’know?” added Meiru. “We report anything of interest to our world, like the movements of some of the troublemakers in the chatroom, to Meijin-san. That’s our Chief,” Meiru explained. “And then if something comes up like the Arcana Viruses, he and the rest of the Ministry team can start researching them.”
-
Aon opened their mouth to deny but quickly shut it again. They hadn’t thought about it so deeply…but surely this had to be true, otherwise they could have felt safe enough to have asked for help.
“Ah…well I don’t know if that’s necessarily the case but…”
Accepting that, or a fault of their own ego were equally undesirable options. So they chose to let that topic die in awkward silence.
They blinked through all of the names listed off and just nodded along, recognizing none of them except ‘Netto’; knowing there were least a few of that guy in the chatroom and theirs wasn’t one they had met yet.
“Right, do we know if there’s any update on them?”
They glanced down past their visor at their restless hands while they debated sharing their own information. There really wouldn’t be any harm in telling a half truth…That that SoulNet Yuichiro reached out to them in direct messages inquiring about the Tower. But that could potentially lead to–
No, they couldn’t. Not yet.
“You don’t need to tell me. Just curious.”
-
Meiru watched Aon try to wriggle their way out of confirming her conclusion, indirectly confirming it anyway. They seemed nervous again as they asked after the Arcana Viruses… or maybe they’d meant to ask after the people who were likely to cause trouble…?
“Well… Our sample size is just two for now, so it’s slow going. Even so, Hikari-hakase can tell that they seem to be mutating over time. And we’ve got Netto working on a way to automatically recognize them, so we can know right away what we’re dealing with. Hopefully, pretty soon, we’ll also be able to learn something about where they're coming from.”
Having explained all of that, Meiru regarded Aon thoughtfully. Roll caught her eye, and Meiru gave her a nod; now seemed to be as good a time as any.
“But, y’know, Aon-san… I think you really hit on something important, earlier, saying you weren’t ready to handle all of that yet,” Roll ventured.
“Yeah,” Meiru agreed, calmly friendly. “I’m glad you felt like we were trustworthy enough to share that with.”
-
“Mutating over time…”
Aon took a moment to consider what that could possibly mean for theirs…and a mental note to keep a closer eye on her in the chatroom.
They were caught off guard by how nicely they had put what they could only assume they were really trying to say. The whole intent of the meeting was to solidify trust with the two, now it was backfiring in their face.
“What? N-no I meant dealing with the whole of the chatroom and having to deal with the government backend breathing down my neck if I were to disclose it not-”
Their control was slipping away. Bitter malaise rose in their throat that they had to fight to keep down, clenching their jaw. They propped their elbow up onto the table and put their chin in their hand in an attempt to ease it up.
“Are you saying you think I’m incompetent?”
-
“What? Of course not!” Roll immediately protested, genuinely taken aback. “We wouldn’t be here if we did!“
Meiru, too, was surprised at how quickly Aon had taken offense. But she rallied and explained, “Part of trusting a teammate is giving them the space to be vulnerable while still believing in their capabilities, Aon-san. Roll and I wanted to thank you for extending that trust to us, that’s all. Nothing else intended.”
“It’s just that—correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems like you’re more used to working on your own,” Roll mused. She didn’t speculate on whether that was from preference or necessity; the latter could’ve shaped the former, from what they’d heard so far.
-
“Ah..” A weak noise creaked and died in the back of Aon’s throat while they tried to process their misstep. The hand cupping their chin moved upwards and under their visor to cradle their forehead.
“I’m sorry…I shouldn’t have assumed you would think that. My PR has been horrendous lately, so I…”
They could still turn this around! This kind of answer was what they wanted out of this after all, regardless of how unearned.
“Thank you for um. For that.”
Their hand retracted from their face and joined the other back on the table.
“I don’t think that’s entirely true. I think I get on just fine with my coworkers…” Very rarely did they take actual cases with them that weren’t more than small time operations or data collection. And then there was the marketing. It was peaceful times. They hadn’t really considered if maybe their standing within the system had gotten in the way of being approachable to their own coworkers. They never really cared either.
“Though I guess it’s not really the same as the kind of work we have been dealing with in the chatroom. I can’t say I’ve pulled off the type of coordination I have with you in battle with anyone else. So for the sake of this exercise let’s say that’s correct.”
-
Roll’s concern (were they sure they were okay?) warred with her temper (they could do with making a few less assumptions about their allies in general, couldn’t they?) in her core. But she could hear Meiru’s smooth smile in her response of, “Ah, you’re welcome! It’s what a teammate ought to do, isn’t it?” and followed her Operator’s example in letting the more acerbic thought go.
Roll nodded along with Aon’s other observation. “I see… It still sounds like for more dangerous cases, you really do kinda work on your own...” That level of coordination was, after all, what she and Blues pulled off every day at the minimum.
“You’re in the right place if you’d like some advice, though!” Meiru cheerfully said. “Not to toot our own horns, but Roll-chan and I are kind of great at public outreach! It's why we were first brought on board, after all.”
“People want their concerns to truly be heard, I think,” Roll mused. She’d had quite a few years to think on what worked and what didn’t, after all. “For what we’re doing to feel like it’s being done with both kindness and panache. ‘Like on a Sunday-morning superhero show’, I think Meijin-san said once…”
-
“That’s an excellent way of putting it, yes.” Aon nodded along, eager to keep this conversation back on the rails.
“I think I’m in very capable hands then.” They clasped their hands together and leaned back a bit in their chair.
If there was one thing they were good at, it was laying it on thick. And they had kept them on the line so far despite the outbursts. Their fingers pressed tighter together at the notion of having their concerns heard, as if theirs weren’t drowned out from the start in their mind. They kept that to themselves.
“I…think I see where you’re going.”
Of course it was something a police mascot could do. They just had to try a little harder at the kindness part. This would all come a bit easier once they were able to get their current state of being under control.
“I’ll take anything you can give me, if we’ve got the time.”
