Nikke: Nullable Type

After grabbing Guilty, dodging all the fans in the Ark who wanted an autograph, and heading back to the Surface, I immediately dragged Guilty to the recycling center.

"Let's see, there should be a lot of random parts around, right... Ah, yep." I walked over to a pile of Rapture plating chunks leftover from my experiments. Then I handed one to Guilty. "Try squishing this."

Guilty took the piece of metal and tilted her head. "You... want me to use my strength? On this?"

I nodded and said, "Yep. Try folding it, crumpling it... something like that."

Guilty looked confused. But she nodded and then slowly started folding the Rapture plating.

It screeched and twisted as her fingers manipulated the metal. And by the end of it, she was left with a distorted hunk of scrap metal.

Guilty frowned and held it back out. "...Is this what you want?"

I looked at it and laughed. "Perfect." I took the hunk of scrap metal and examined it.

Because Guilty had crushed and twisted it a bit, there were clear signs of where the metal bent and crumpled, as well as twisted into each other.

It didn't seem like it was useful to the casual eye. But...

I smiled and said, "Guilty. You said along the way here that the reason they put you away was because you couldn't control your strength, right?"

Guilty's expression darkened. "...That's right, Commander. It's because of those researchers. They made me like this." She looked up at me, a sad look on her face. "To me, the world is so fragile. Like..."

"Like a world of cardboard?"

Guilty blinked. "...Yes. That's... exactly it?" She frowned. "It's like..." She held her hands out to look at them. "Whatever I touch shatters. Rips, tears. Falls apart. But..." She looked at me, her violet eyes glowing with devotion, appreciation... and over all, the look of someone who had seen salvation. "...You don't."

It was a dangerous expression.

Mostly because I was weak to that sort of expression.

So I quickly changed the topic and said, "In that case, this is perfect." I pointed at the pile of Rapture scraps all over and said, "You can learn to control your strength with all of this. And I can teach you martial arts too so that you can use your strength properly."

Guilty paused. "...Martial arts?"

I nodded. "Yep. As far as I can tell, you're basically in the same spot as my mother, Liliweiss was."

Guilty's eyes widened. "I'm like Miss Liliweiss? No, wait." She paused, her eyes widening even more. "You're her son?!"

"Long story on that. But anyway, let's start with basic things. Think of this like, pottery class but with metal. Try squishing these into shapes... let's start with a shiny sphere." I handed the hunk of metal back to her and said, "Try smoothing this down."

Guilty looked like she had more questions still. But she nodded and grabbed hunk of metal before squishing it. At first, she was confused on why I was making her do it. But as she kept squishing and molding the metal, her eyes lit up. "...It's like playdough."

I watched how the metal slowly turned a bit orange from Guilty's efforts and said, "That doesn't burn you?"

"It feels a bit warm, but that's it." Guilty's violet eyes lit up, a faint smile on her face. "...It's nice." Just like a kid would with playdough, she rolled the metal in the palms of her hand, smoothing it out into a small orb.

It must have been therapeutic for her, who had only been breaking things with her strength up until now.

After a few more seconds, Guilty held up a polished metal orb, one with beautiful swirling patterns from the mix of materials that had been in the Rapture plating. She stared at it in awe and said, "...I made this. Me."

I nodded. "That's right. See? Since you have super strength, you can actually use a lot of things as materials for artwork or crafting-"

The doors to the recycling center suddenly slammed open.

I flinched and looked over.

Guilty reflexively moved in front of me, already determined to block whoever it was.

And then a male voice, out of breath and exasperated, echoed. "Here I am, running here... straight from the Ark worried about my kid... and he's here flirting with another girl...?!"

Andersen doubled over, wiping his brow of sweat.

Dorothy walked in after him, rolling her eyes. "He's your son, Commander. Did you expect any different?"

I thought it was just them, and because of the comment I made to Aunt Doro about technically dying on my first mission.

But then a few more people walked in.

Snow White entered, lifting up the visor she usually wore. "The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, Commander..."

Scarlet followed after Snow White, tilting her hat down. "Quite. The progeny of a prodigious son shall too be a prodigious individual." She glanced at me, looking amused. "And it appears our dear nephew here inherited Commander's skill with the opposite sex."

Rapunzel giggled as she entered after Scarlet. "I would like to personally test these skills... If the Creator wills it."

Red Hood entered after Rapunzel, laughing. "Sorry, Lil Boss. But I think you're stuck on this one."

I paused, seeing my father and the Goddess Squad lined up in the recycling center... and then naturally moving to block the exits.

Guilty glanced back at me, still holding the sphere in her hands. "Commander. Is this... dangerous?"

"No. It's alright." I patted Guilty's shoulder and moved in front of her. "So, uh. Pops. What brings you here?"

The door opened again and a pair of footsteps echoed before two final people entered.

The first was Marian, looking completely furious, her silver-hair done up in a practical bun. Probably done as she sprinted here, judging from how a few strands were still sticking out.

And the second was Rapi, her hair also a bit windswept.

After meeting my gaze, Rapi stepped forward and said, "What brings them here, Commander, is the fact that you neglected to tell ANY of us that there is no way to give you a blood transfusion in the event you sustain a critical injury."

I stopped to process that. "Huh? ...Oh, yeah. I guess the nurse DID say I had a rare bloodtype..."

Dorothy threw her hands up in the air and said, "RARE bloodtype?! You dense and moronic, suicidal nephew of ours! You don't have a RARE bloodtype, you have a SINGULAR bloodtype! No one else alive currently has a match! And your bloodtype makes it so you would reject every other bloodtype transfusion!"

I paused. Then my eyes widened. "Wait. You're saying that, this whole time when I've been mixing it up with the Raptures in close combat... I've basically been doing battles at 1 HP the entire time?"

"YES!" Dorothy screamed and walked forward, jabbing a finger at my chest. "You are WORSE than BOTH your parents combined! Lilith hiding the fact that her fighting overtaxed her core, Commander hiding the times he was shot or broke bones just to keep shouting orders-"

Andersen chimed in and said, "It was only a few times!"

"-All of that pales to the completely reckless and suicidal manner of fighting Raptures IN CLOSE COMBAT when a grazing bullet would mean your demise if you bleed out on the field!"

"Huh." I placed my hand on my chin. "...You know what? That would probably explain why the Raptures are so flabbergasted when I fight them. They have pretty good sensors, so it probably breaks their logic functions..."

Rapi facepalmed. "...Of course that would be the first thing you think about..."

Before anyone else could say anything, and before anyone else could do anything, Marian crossed the room and grabbed my arm. "Darling?"

I glanced at her and said, "Yes, Mari?"

"You're grounded."

"...But-"

Marian stared at me, her eyes uncharacteristically serious.

I sighed. "...Okay. I won't go adventuring for a while."

Andersen finally caught his breath and stood up straight. Adjusting his tie, he said, "Not just a while. Until there is a working solution for the inevitable event where you are injured, you are officially decommissioned from active duty, Commander Hoopa."

"What?! Decommissioned?!"

Andersen looked amused. "That's right. Just like I was. Until there's a workaround, you get stuck as a pencil pusher."

I wanted to protest. Especially since I remembered Siren mentioning that she had her friends still out there somewhere, and that there was that whole cool crystal region that Raptilion had scouted out.

...But considering all of the harsh stares I was getting, I had the feeling that saying anything would result in history repeating itself with me getting put into a medically induced coma like Andersen was until they came up with a solution.

So instead, I said, "...I guess I could stick to research for a while."

The moment I said those words, a collective sigh of relief echoed around the recycling center.

Still, when I heard that, I couldn't help but comment. "...You guys do realize the fact that this didn't even come up until now means I'm so good that it was never necessary?"

Dorothy's eyebrow twitched. "...That is exactly what Lilith said in the past after her adjustments. Word for word."

Andersen blinked. Then he laughed. "Well. No doubting whose kid you are... But seriously." He did the whole two fingers 'I'm watching you' gesture and said, "Stay home. Be a good boy. You're gonna be a father soon anyway, so just stay inside. If you want to be a Commander, then be a COMMANDER. Give orders. And I can't believe it's me of all people saying this, but stop trying to rush to fight on the battlefield. You're needed more elsewhere."

Marian wrapped herself around my arm, holding me tight. "...Yes. I need you. We need you. Stay for a while. Please?"

"...Alright, alright. I get it." I sighed.