MB-4 Bravery, Stupidity

Silence, you alright?

I'm alright.

Why are you over here now?

Cause you've been over here for ages. Just checking in.

Eep. That wine bottle there... you're drinking now?

Just a little.

Director Muelsyse?

She's still back there waiting for us.

Where are you in the story?

Up until Anthony started trusting Kafka to help him. She also told me some stuff about what went down between Control and Saria.

Did she now?

Want me to tell you?

No. Not necessary for the time being.

You look like you're doing terrible. Was it some bad crap Director Muelsyse told you about?

No... though it was, in a sense.

I'm... I can't put it straight.

My mind is in disarray. I have some regrets. I feel as though I may have done something I am not equipped to do.

You mean this whole breakout?

Yes.

I should apologize to you, Mayer.

What for?

I shouldn't have gotten you involved. I was too cowardly. I couldn't bear it, and I told you about all this. I made you assume responsibility with me.

Whoa, I don't really mind, y'know. The fact you could trust me makes me pretty freakin' happy, Silence.

And I mean, really, all I've done is take a trip back to Columbia with you.

Actually, there's something I haven't told you.

What is it?

Behind this incident, behind HydeBro, is the Energy Section.

Huh? Energy?!

You and the rest of Engineering are so closely tied with Energy, I'd been unsure whether I should tell you.

Oh... Hm, I'm fine, really. We're pretty tied up work-wise with Energy, yeah, but honestly, I'm not the world's biggest fan of their section.

Or more I'm, like, kinda terrified of Energy's director...

What's the Director of Energy like?

Nngh? Haven't met more than a few times, but sometimes he comes over to our end just to see. He'll drop in on our meetings, too.

He opens his mouth and you go 'wow, he's a big, smart cookie,' but he gives off this kinda feeling like...

I don't know how to capture it. He, like, cares more about what our stuff can be used to make, or what it can be exchanged for, things like that.

I see...

And, like, since Saria took all the blame and resigned, it feels like us and the Energy Section got, like, even more tied up in each other.

All these times some kinda weird work got scheduled and I couldn't even do any of my own crap.

And that's why I wanted a chance to send myself off to Rhodes Island.

Even if Closure's a little weird too, I'm way happier just doing my work at Rhodes.

So that's it...

Anyways, don't worry about me too much, Silence. In fact, I feel like you've done something good. Right?

Something good...

This intel and analysis you have provided is extremely valuable. It compels me to note your viewpoint strongly, Operator Silence.

In that case...

But first of all, this intel's origins are clearly internal to Rhine Lab. Divulging internal intelligence to third parties without permission inspires me not to place trust in you.

However, from your behavior, I can trust you are in no way an imprudent person. Therefore, I require an explanation.

This is intel I arrived at through collection and analysis via my own personal channels. It has no direct relation to Rhine Lab.

But your discovery of a matter like this should've prompted submission to internal channels, to be dealt with there. Rhodes Island has no capacity to adjudicate this incident.

No. I had no expectation that Rhodes Island would be able to.

I simply wanted to aid this person. I wanted to hear your viewpoint.

Why mine? Or should I say, why Rhodes Island?

As of now, I trust Rhodes Island more than I do Rhine Lab.

What of Rhine Lab are you skeptical about?

I don't know. I don't even know what it is I'm skeptical of.

But I've come to work here for a very long while, now. I've seen with my own eyes what Rhodes Island is doing. I, at the least, KNOW what Rhodes Island is doing.

What you see may not be what you get, Operator Silence.

Moreover, it may be that you haven't noticed, but from your intel, it is very likely this Feline named Anthony was only immediately arrested the next state over as a setup by his father.

In all likelihood, a situation they'd arranged long beforehand.

But Anthony still hasn't been released to this day. He's already been stewing in that prison for six years. It's all the more likely he'll be in there forever.

Why are you placing such importance on a person who has nothing to do with you?

Because I want to see clearly, once and for all, just what kind of company the Rhine Lab I've served all this time is.

......

You may be disappointed.

But it'll be far better than knowing nothing.

You are greatly persuasive, Operator Silence.

Rhodes Island cannot provide you any outward assistance whatsoever, but I can, from a personal standpoint, provide you my viewpoint.

I hope you are able to maintain your notion from start to finish.

What notion?

The notion that you are doing something good.

I'm starting to have some doubts. Is this truly something good I've done?

Huh? Why?

I'm starting to worry, Mayer.

About what?

In the past, I always believed that as long as I gave my effort to any problem, it'd always be answerable.

But this time, I fear I've run against a problem I have no way to answer.

Because you can't solve it?

Not that I can't solve it. It's that I don't dare to. I don't dare to pull it apart.

Mayer, did Kafka ever tell you how she and I know each other?

Hm? Didja forget? She remembers she even mentioned it while talking to Mina.

Mina.

Mm-hm.

Phew. Finally found a chance to talk to you. How's your results?

Following what you said, I've been spendin' this whole time ascertainin' this prison's structure on the down-low. Already got a general grasp of it now.

Helps the prison turnkeys're lax, but structure's tight. I feel like gettin' out's a pretty tall order...

No problem, Boblem. There's always a way.

How's about your end, then?

I'm tapped in with Anthony. Turns out he had an idea for leaving in the first place, so we'll be following PLAN-A operations, helpin' him break out.

We'll treat the clinic as our secret base from here on. I told Dr. Domma there about you. Just head right over, and you'll be good.

So that's it...

What? You're a snap away from meeting the big guy who's been on your brain. Why d'ya look so flat?

I'm not. I've seen him from far away a bunch of times. I feel like the big guy's kind of different to the one who saved my family once.

Huh, I see. What did he used to be like?

He used to be... a little more, ermm... cool?

That's a way to phrase it.

Once after I learned he saved 'em all, I went to see him all secret. He was plenty more cheery 'n' open than he is now.

What way? Was he that kinda big, splashy guy? The kid with like ten or so bodyguards fannin' from his heels?

No, no... um... he was like, a bit more... I'm not sure how you describe it...

I'm gonna say he was the rich kid then.

Whatever, now he's really silent, I feel like, and he's never showin' emotion. It feels someways sad lookin' at him...

He got slammed in here for six years, after all. It'd do a number like that on even the cheeriest kid.

I s'pose so...

So we just need to help him escape, and he'll be back to the way he was before, for sure.

More or less, right? Eh, I'd pass on him becoming a rich kid again, though!

I think it'd be swell.

Okay, okay. You lost me now.

If you wanna put it like that, you're losing me. You said you only came to help Anthony 'cause a friend trusted you to. Why would you go so far to help your Silence friend?

Because I think Silence is a good person.

What kind of reason is that?

Mmnnn... me and Silence know each other from one time she went out to do field work.

Me, I was used to pretty grubby methods to do my stuff. So happened I bumped into her.

Guess I made some pretty un-small trouble for her back then. I drove her an inch from giving up her business there.

But things worked out. And in the end, I got to know her. Can't knock 'em until you knock 'em, right? Do they say that?

Anyways, after that, she'd show me some work pretty often. Felt like she was hoping I'd do things proper like she did.

She sounds like a real good person.

Sure as heck is. Always felt Silence saw this world a little too rosy, though.

Turns out there's a lotta things people who think like her can't ever make headway on.

Okay, maybe Silence is a little naive. But she's so smart. And she ain't stubborn. So I've always felt she's fine the way she is. I wanna be friends with her.

I may have plenty of friends, but I only got one like Silence. I really cherish her, y'know.

So that's why you went to prison to help her?

Eh. That's not all of it.

Another part's I once heard about this prison. Definitely been curious about this place.

Another 'nother part's... 'cause Silence kinda changed this time.

You mean her gettin' you to help someone jailbreak?

Mmm. And she begged me to help her get all this corporate intel together. I picture how Silence used to be and it doesn't fit with her doing this kinda stuff.

Hm... did somethin' happen to her, you think?

I dunno... ever since she left Columbia and went to some shop called Rhodes Island, I never saw her again. Been stuck with pen-palling.

Never really made clear why she left Columbia either... but, yeah, I guess something musta happened.

In any case, Silence seems real dead-set on this, so I figure I'll help her out proper for once.

Kafka. Hear me out. You might be a real good person yourself?

Eh? You're saying you saw me as some stinker?

I seem to remember you good-Kafka-bad-Kafkain' me straight into prison with you, y'know...

Ahah. Imagine if I asked a stranger outta nowhere 'hey, let's get locked up together.' Don't matter how I ask, they'd think I was going nuts, right. So I needed a little more of an approach, yannow?

Yep. I cannot out-words you. Forget it.

Heehee. No, but anyways, I just don't think this is really a 'good or bad' kinda thing.

It's like how you're going all neck or nothing for the guy who once saved your family, but what you're actually doing is breaking him outta jail.

If saying it's for a friend makes it kind for sure, then maybe more of my friends are good people than the ones who just put on the looks.

But people who do bad stuff even though they have good intentions... how do you call them good people, huh?

Hm... I think you have a point.

They coulda just admitted they were bad people from the start, probably.

......

Oop, here come the jailers. Work's 'boutta start. Catch you at the clinic later.

You'd better hustle. Who knows, these people might get scrappy again soon.

Mm-hm. Kafka, you take care too.

So, you got a problem with knowing Kafka or something?

No. I have no problem with knowing her. It's...

After I got to know her, I always hoped she'd be able to live a normal life. To never have to do those... things she used to.

I introduced her to what work I could. I even wanted her to get a job with Rhine Lab. That didn't pan out, in the end.

But no matter what, the entire time, I've been hoping for a better life for Kafka. I've been hoping for a better her. And that 'better' was based on my standard of living at Rhine Lab.

Mm... well, I reckon life at Rhine Lab's not bad, right?

It was conditional on us not knowing just what we were doing.

But as research workers, we should be pretty first-place for knowing what we're doing, right?

No, I don't mean in terms of research goals. I mean what was looming in the background.

If our research would have some adverse effect if it truly succeeded; if our results would be appropriated for something; whether or not that happens to be what we're researching right now.

Since the 'Diαbolic Crisis,' what's been happening inside the company has had me starting to consider this.

I, like you, like a majority of our colleagues, believed that our research was right. That our direction was ideal.

But is that really how things are?

Ifrit has given me considerable doubts.

That seed of doubt compelled me to leave Rhine Lab for the time being. To head for Rhodes Island.

So this is what's been on your mind all this time, Silence...

During my time with Rhodes Island, I've continued my research. But on the flipside, I've begun to pay attention to some data I'd never paid mind before.

My mentor gave me these data. I never before understood what purpose he had in handing me company and local data, and I'd long since put them aside.

But once I began analysis and research on these data, I came to all sorts of questions about them.

After I first uncovered those questions, I struggled to sleep again.

Are you talking about things to do with Anthony?

No, Anthony—more precisely, Simon Co.'s affairs were just one part amongst them. A tiny part, even.

There are so many more things going on, not just at Rhine Lab, but throughout the whole of Columbia.

It was only then I truly realized. I understood far too little about this company I called Rhine Lab. This country I called Columbia.

But I did not resign myself. I don't believe what happened to Ifrit, or what happened to Anthony, should be considered the norm.

And that's why I involved myself in Anthony's affairs here.

But... perhaps, all at once, I've jumped too far.

I feel the same now as I did then, that moment when Saria emerged from the experiment site with Ifrit cradled unconscious in her arms. As if I have been doused, from the head down, in ice-cold water.

Just what happened in that experiment?

I don't know.

Wha?

I always thought I knew what I was doing, but now I realize: I really don't know.

I only know that I can never let Ifrit be treated like that again.

This, probably, is the only thing I am capable of persisting in now.

Silence, you're a little drunk. I'll go get you some tea. Sober you up.

Nmm...

I'm sorry. Silence. I don't know how to comfort you.

That's not your fault, Mayer.

I only blame ignorance of my own past.

Personally, I think you already know a hell of a lot, Silence. Just, everyone's got things they're not good at.

Mayer. Know this. I truly have not resigned myself.

If I'd come to know more, if I'd come to know earlier, perhaps things wouldn't have become the way they are now.

But it's not too late to learn things now, yeah?

I think Director Muelsyse oughta reckon you're pretty strong, too.

I'm gonna tell the truth, Silence.

You tell me.

I feel like some bits of you resemble a few colleagues I have.

You learn something you didn't know before, and you feel like everything you learned already was completely pointless. Then you start grieving about, like, why you didn't get the chance to learn this all earlier.

I'm not saying that's, like, incorrect, but I think it's a really boring way of going at it. What, everything you put in effort before's just useless? Just like that? Stuff's good for you just 'cause it's new?

Cause if it really is, if you really feel like you can use it, then just go study it with the same effort you put in all those times before, right? It's not like you gotta rush for it.

Here. Drink this up. Tea for the mind.

Things are different, though. These matters aren't the same as academia...

But... but there's sense in what you say, too, I admit...

Aw, jeez. Fine, I'll come over and feed you. Honestly, Silence, you've got zero alcohol tolerance.

How's that? Feel a little better?

Hff... phew...

Much better. Thank you, Mayer.

If you feel like things are too rough, we can just head straight back?

No. It's not quite the time yet.

You're gonna keep chatting with Director Muelsyse?

Mm-hm.

That's my Silence. Pulling yourself together in the blink of an eye.

I haven't, not at all.

I'd love to run away right now. Run, and head straight back.

But this is a very rare opportunity. Even if it hurts me, I have to see this through to the end.

What you said might not be a solution to my current issues, but there is one part I believe to be very on point.

I can only learn—accept—all this new knowledge with the same effort I've had in the past.

However. I also need to make some additional preparations.