maskormenace | [video]

[video]

[The thing about employing text is that when you start using it when all your broadcasts are in video, people tend to question why you've suddenly switched. So he makes the decision to instead compose himself as best as he can and use video instead.

Unfortunately, he always sort of overestimates his ability to compose himself. He certainly doesn't seem distraught, or panicked, or anything of the sort, but he's definitely shaky. This is definitely a far cry from his normal, slow, quiet, lengthy broadcasts.]

I'm leaving on a business trip abroad for...some length of time. I'm - not certain how long. Please don't try to contact me; I'll be far too busy to answer any messages.

Good day.

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Well, that is all I am willing to say.

And yet, it doesn't tell me any more about the secret I'm supposed to be keeping for you.

M'already in this deep, it's not like details are gonna get me in any more trouble than I could be for knowing this much and not saying anything.

[Pause.]

And I could still ask around at your office, you know.

[Miserably:]

Do not ask at my office.

So you're gonna tell me?

[Normally, Kotetsu wouldn't push so hard. But Edgeworth is talking like he's going to try to disappear, take off and never come back. It's not as if Edgeworth hasn't been hard on himself before, but there's a difference between a stubborn refusal to accept oneself as a good man and thinking you're actively a danger. Something happened, he's sure of it, and he doesn't think Edgeworth should have to face it by himself. He deserves better than that.]

[A moment, and then, finally:]

My power. It's...malfunctioning. And hurting the people around me.

[And all of a sudden, Kotetsu's expression softens. There's something quietly aching in it, along with understanding.]

You're afraid of yourself.

[He's quiet for a very long moment, before he adds--]

Could I tell you something, Edgeworth?

[A moment.]

All right.

Back home, we NEXTs find out about our powers at different times. Sometimes they show up really early--the mayor's kid, he already has 'em, and he's just a baby. But other times...they take a long time to appear.

I got mine when I was ten. Perfectly ordinary kid one day, then suddenly a NEXT. My whole life changed, just like that.

...What I'm saying is, I didn't always have the Hundred Power. I couldn't always control it. And I didn't always think it could ever do anyone any good.

[A breath. He closes his eyes for a moment. It's not easy for him to talk about his past, and in fact, he rarely does. He doesn't like thinking back on that time, when he would spend every day in tears because he couldn't control his power and no one who knew wanted anything to do with him.]

So I get it, what you're going through. I used to be afraid too. If everyone around me thought I was a freak and a monster, that's what I had to be, right? And then one day, a man told me I was wrong.

He told me my powers were meant to save people.

[And with those words, had saved him. So he tries to pass the lesson along, tries to help pull people from that despair where he can. Like Tony. Like Edgeworth, now.]

[Edgeworth listens to that. And for a long time he's quiet, thinking it over. Finally, though, unsteadily, quietly, he says:]

What I do can't save anyone.

[And Kotetsu doesn't actually jump immediately to demanding to know the power, to attempt to find a good use for it. He's tempted to, and maybe he will, later. But he has a more important point to get across, first.]

A power by itself's just as neutral as a knife. It can be used to slit a throat or perform a surgery--what it does depends entirely on who's holding it. In your hands, it won't end up in anyone's throat. Maybe nick a few people while you're trying to get a good grip, but never more than that.

And you can get a grip on it, Edgeworth. It's a part of you now, and the sooner you can accept that, the easier it'll be to learn control. Running away from everything and everyone isn't gohna protect people from your power, not in the long run.

Yes, it will.

[He grits his jaw and closes his eyes and grinds out:]

If a man is diseased, he gets quarantined. He doesn't keep...walking around spreading poison to others because he might learn how to contain himself.

[It seems as if Edgeworth has hit a nerve, because something flashes in his eyes, then, his hand curls into a fist at his side. When he responds, it's bitten out through gritted teeth and clenched jaw, a half-snarl:]

It's not a disease.

[For how venomously it's spoken, he might as well have said go fuck yourself.]

[That does get Edgeworth's attention. He's never heard that tone before, and it's vicious enough that it breaks through even his self-absorbed misery for a moment. He stares at the feed for a few seconds, mouth very slightly open; then he closes his mouth again, and looks away, and says quietly:]

Mine is. That's all it is. It is an infection that I spread that attacks the mind. That harms the victim's sanity. Your ability can be used to save people, Mr. Kaburagi, and you have my admiration for that. Mine...

[His lips thin.]

Mine cannot.

[If he'd spoken of the details of his power earlier, Kotetsu might have tried to find out more, tried to figure out exactly what they were dealing with and help Edgeworth think of how he can use his power to help rather than harm. But he's pushed the wrong button, set Kotetsu off and so he barely hears any of that, all he hears is more of the same, and in his ears, it translates to NEXTs are a disease. He's heard that kind of thinking before. It's the kind of thinking that creates people like Jake and Kriem, the kind that makes kids like Tony feel like they have to harm, because that's all they're good for so they might as well own it. His blood boils with the indignation, the hurt, the anger, and he doesn't listen to Edgeworth. He just snaps back, still in that venomous, enraged growl.]

Then fine. Fine, run like a fucking coward. Run away from your duty and everything you wanted to protect and everyone who wanted to protect you, because you hurt someone with your power. As if you're the only one who's ever had to deal with that.

Back home, we don't get that option. We don't get funds from the government for signing a piece of paper to go out of the country and hide. We have to live with the fear and the scorn and the mistrust, and struggle for our entire lives to make something good out of ourselves with these powers we never asked for. But if you can't be assed to put in the effort, then fine. Get out.

[/DISCONNECT.]

[He doesn't try calling back. Instead, he sends a single text:]

Goodbye.

[Kotetsu doesn't look at his communicator again after he hangs up, so it's not until much later that night that he sees Edgeworth's message. It's just one word, but seeing it across the screen of his communicator when he finally turns it back on hits him like a punch in the gut. He stares at the message for a long time, and part of him just wants to leave it. Wants to let his anger stand, because he doesn't want to deal with the fact that Edgeworth just leaving like this upsets him. He wants to go find Edgeworth and punch him in the face for being an idiot.

He spends the better part of half an hour just glaring at the goddamn text as if he could change it by mere dint of his frustration, and then eventually, finally, he answers with an even briefer text of his own.]

bye

[Not 'see you', not 'later', not even 'take care'. He really doesn't believe he'll ever see Edgeworth again, and something about that is more painful than he ever would've imagined.]

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