[FIN] Conspicuous

[Suudonym]

When regular day duty ended and those who had been assigned to it were dismissed to their own devices, the trainees' residential hall tended to become the rowdiest place on base. With eight Rockets packed into each room, the noise level often escalated rapidly, varying from room to room between laughter, arguments, and loud music, and sometimes even pokemon cries. For trainees who preferred a little peace and quiet with their rest and relaxation, evenings were a battle to find a place away from the dorms that wasn't already occupied by someone else. This particular evening, Gaia had given up. She'd taken the printouts she had made in the library and seated herself against the wall of the hallway leading to the trainee barracks. The occasional particularly loud shout or shriek of laughter still reached, but on the whole, the commotion was muffled and ignorable. Now and again somebody would pass by, returning to or departing from their room, but Gaia quickly found that if she paid them no attention, they would do the same for her in kind. Thus she could more or less focus on her reading materials undisturbed.  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

Izaya, appearing to be one of those many other trainees in his own maroon Rocket uniform, was strolling down the hallwa from the barracks followed by his Gardevoir when he noticed the girl sitting against one wall. Her behavior caused him to smile slightly as he was reminded of a hard-working high school bookworm attempting to immerse herself in her studies away from all the carefree, social antics of her peers.

What made the comparison even funnier was that Team Rocket, as a criminal organization, was far from a typical high school or any other educational institute. What necessity was there to be so studious? Perhaps it was a work of passion, but the only people Izaya knew who were nerdy enough to be so dedicated were Aila, Faleen, Frost, maybe Hayes...

Wait.

Aila?

The man halted mid-step and glanced back over his shoulder for a double-take. No doubt about it; that girl was the spitting image of Aila. With her head down, it was harder to see her face, but the build of her body, her posture, her hair... Was he finally losing his mind?

A tap on his shoulder and a slight pressure on his chin reminded him to close his gaping mouth. Turning his head, he saw Namie frowning at him, clearly demanding an explanation as to the hold-up and his odd behavior. In response, Izaya smirked sheepishly, held up her pokeball, and pressed the button just in time to see the look of shock and outrage on her face before she disappeared in a flash of red light. He would have to work very hard to make it up to her later or she was likely to give him hell.

With that distraction put aside for the time being, though, the informant looked back at the girl. He gazed at her in silence, his crimson eyes distant and melancholy as he fought with himself over whether or not he should try to speak to her. Even if he did, what would he say? 'Hello, are you, by any chance, the girl I watched die years ago?' He struggled to organize his thoughts and get them under control as his heart thumped painfully in his chest and his throat closed up.

If she was an illusion or a ghost, Izaya thought, he wasn't sure he could take it. On the other hand, if she wasn't, he didn't know what he would do. Maybe Aila had a sister he didn't know about? Impossible. A sister she didn't know about? Whatever she was, this girl couldn't be an illusion because in all the ones that Riviere had done of her, Aila had been wearing her Agent gear. This girl was most obviously wearing a Trainee uniform and sitting in the hallway leading to the Trainee barracks. She had to be real. Maybe she was a clone. They cloned pokemon in the labs, so why not a human? To be out here on her own among other Rocket Trainees seemed kind of risky if that were the case, though.

But what if this was some elaborate joke? No, couldn't be. Aulus, Zacharie, Adam, and a few others might have known he was staying with the Trainees now, but none of the other Trainees could have possibly known Aila, let alone her connection to Izaya, right? And the ones who knew didn't seem like they would have dared try to play a prank like this. So why would anyone else do that to him? Was he suffering from some trauma? Maybe this was a result of the experimentation they'd done on him...or maybe they were still experimenting and this was part of it. Had they drugged him with something to make him hallucinate? Did they want to see how he'd react?

Well, if the higher-ups or other people in charge of him as an experiment were watching, he must have been putting on quite a show, gaping like a Magikarp. Stop acting like a school girl about to confess your love and go talk to her! he mentally berated himself. Isn't talking supposed to be what you do best? It shouldn't be that hard to find something to say just because she seems a little familiar.

He took a step toward her, took a deep breath, and opened his mouth. "Excuse me," he began, but quickly had to clear his throat. Must have gotten dry while he'd been open-mouthed. "...but...are you...new, here?" Immediately he wanted to slap a hand to his face, but managed to refrain. Well duh, everyone was new there. They were all Trainees - new recruits. Izaya hurriedly continued with what he hoped was a friendly smile. The blood rushing to his heart was nearly deafening in his ears. "I don't think I've seen you around before...and I make it a habit to get to know everyone I can."

It wasn't a lie that he hadn't seen her before if she was merely a look-alike. That was probably all she was. He was getting worked up for no reason at all. She would raise her head and he'd see it wasn't Aila. How could he expect a girl who'd been dead for years to just be here reading in a hallway? If only he could tell his aching, throbbing heart that, but it didn't seem to want to listen to reason.  

[Suudonym]

Gaia was aware that someone had stopped nearby, and although she was certain she could feel eyes upon her, she maintained an act of incomprehension in hopes that she would be left alone. Those hopes did not come to fruition, however, and it was difficult to ignore someone who was directly speaking to her without being rather blatantly rude about it. In response to the question, she looked to the color of her uniform - this man too was wearing the red of a trainee, so it wasn't as though he could be ignorant of its meaning (if any Rocket could, with the organization as hierarchical as it was) - and then looked up to her addresser with a simple reply, "Yes, that's correct."  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

"Oh." He found it difficult to concentrate on her words when he saw her face. He almost forgot to breathe. How could this happen? Did no one else who had known Aila see this girl and question their resemblance?

He swallowed, his mouth dry again. Along with being stunned, he felt something else. There was no reason to feel disappointed. Why was he feeling disappointed? Had he thought she would recognize him; this girl who most certainly couldn't be Aila? But if she wasn't...then...who was she?

"Um...I'm Nakura," he said, crouching down beside her and extending a hand in greeting. "May I ask your name?" Beads of sweat started to form on his brow and he could only imagine what she must have thought of him and his strange behavior.  

[Suudonym]

So he was going to try to make conversation apparently, despite looking as though he desperately needed to use a restroom. Gaia took a moment to decide on an appropriate persona. She didn't want to be too friendly, lest she accidentally give off the impression that she actually wanted to chat idly, but she supposed there were more benefits in being polite than in being rude. She adopted a cordial smile and accepted the offered handshake. "Gaia," she answered. "Pleased to meet you, Nakura."  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

There was still absolutely no recognition. Her voice was the same, her movements the same, her behavior the same...but it was as if she'd never met him in her life. Maybe she hadn't. He still couldn't rule out the very likely possibility this wasn't Aila. To his disdain, however, he couldn't seem to keep his heart from hoping otherwise.

"Gaia," he repeated. "Pleased to meet you too." Izaya hesitated before letting go of her hand. He was at a loss again; a loss with himself and what to do now. Why did that smile of hers annoy him? It was a smile of polite indifference; the smile someone gave a stranger. Again, he asked himself, why should he have expected anything different?

Her face. If it had been any other face giving him that smile, he probably wouldn't have minded, but...he'd seen other expressions on that face that seemed closed off to him now. Hmm...expressions, huh? Suddenly he had an idea.

"I'm sorry to bother you so persistently while you're obviously attempting to avoid distractions," he chuckled lightly, giving her a sheepish look, "but you see...you look an awful lot like a girl I used to know." Taking out a phone of his from his pocket, he pulled up a picture and held out the device for her to see. "...Her name was Aila Christelle de Valois. She was a high-ranking agent here. You...wouldn't happen to have heard of her or...or know her, would you?"

The picture on the phone was of a teenage girl smiling and posing with a hand touching the scarf at her neck. It appeared to have been taken at a department store as a few mannequins were visible in the background. The girl's smile was practiced, like that of an accomplished actress', but nevertheless, it had more enthusiasm and effort put into it than the one Gaia had given Nakura. It was the sort of smile given to put on a show in order to satisfy a persistent, demanding friend.  

[Suudonym]

She glanced to the picture on the screen as it was presented but gave no apparently reaction. "I am familiar with the name," she said, "as I've read it in various old mission reports, but I'm sorry to say that I have no connection to this individual."

From the beginning, her vision had danced with black, a color that she was not familiar with. Even now, she still wasn't sure what to make of it. Was black indicative of friendship? That seemed a bit odd, if warmth and comfort were pale yellow. Perhaps things were a bit more complicated than they appeared... But in the end, regardless of what colors she saw, Gaia was Gaia. That wouldn't - and couldn't - change.  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

"...Then...you know what she's done and who she is," the man murmured softly, thinking to himself aloud. Did all Trainees have access to old mission reports? He knew he no longer did, but that was a different story, as he wasn't even a Trainee. Even if they had access, what kind of Trainee spent their leisure time reading old mission reports? As far as Izaya knew, most were too busy trying to learn how to be a proper Rocket to concern themselves with details of the history of the organization's recent past. Something strange was definitely going on here.

"You said you have no connection to this individual," Izaya repeated, realizing something new, "but even just physically speaking, wouldn't you agree that your outward appearance is remarkably close to hers? Possibly even identical?" His mouth twisted in a puzzled smile. "Surely someone inquisitive and curious enough to read old mission reports would wonder why this was. You said you recognized her name, but have you...not seen what she looks like until now?"  

[Suudonym]

"Only vaguely speaking," Gaia clarified.

"You misidentify the nature of my so-called curiosity," she said, thumbing over the corner of the page at the front of her small stack of papers and creasing it idly. "I'd like to know about the successes and failures of past missions so that I will be better prepared to undertake them for myself in the future. The fact that I happen to resemble a former agent to whom I have no relation is of little interest to me."  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

Izaya stared. Maybe he'd teased Faleen about being robot-like in the past, but this was absurd. "Gaia...where do you come from? How long have you been here?" The list of questions that had been scrolling through his mind began to seep out through his mouth. "What's your goal in becoming a Rocket?"  

[Suudonym]

Gaia raised an eyebrow slightly. "Is this how you 'get to know' people?" she said. "Continual, mildly invasive questions presented one after another?"  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

Well, he knew he couldn't have expected her to simply continue answering him obediently forever. Unless she was a robot which, he was glad to note, her question proved she was not. He gave her a somewhat guilty grin.

"Not usually. But then again, I don't go around very often seeing people with the exact likeness of those I thought were dead for years, either, so part of this is a test for me to make sure you aren't some figment of my imagination or a hallucination or illusion or apparition created by some mischievous pokemon."

He went from his crouching position across from her to seating himself beside her with his back against the wall, crossing his legs and grasping his ankles with his hands. He wouldn't have been sure what to do with them otherwise. They were cold and clammy, perhaps from shock. He was feeling oddly giddy still; giddy and light-headed with his self-control dropping at an alarming rate. He felt...like a happy, carefree little kid and that nothing else in the world really mattered except that he was getting to spend time with someone he hadn't seen in forever. Someone he'd really, really missed - so much that it still hadn't fully hit him how much, but it was getting there.

"Why? Is it bothering you?" He giggled. "I've been told I tend to bother people quite easily. Must be a natural talent of mine."  

[Suudonym]

She had a feeling, somehow, that giving a proper answer to his question would just end up wasting more time, and so she instead skipped directly to what she felt was most likely the root of the issue, "I apologize if my appearance surprised you or gave you some sort of expectations of me. I don't think it's fair that I should have to prove anything to you, though, merely because I happen to resemble a person who evidently no longer exists."  

[Kitomyx]

The person he missed didn't remember him, but that didn't even seem to matter. As long as he could spend time with her, even just the illusion of her, he was happy. He didn't know why. Riviere could take on her form, sure, but a pokemon wasn't the same as a human, especially one who could converse. What was happening to him? What was he feeling? Was he going crazy? Maybe so, but at the moment he didn't care. All that he knew was that he was happier than he had been in a long, long time.

"I'm not asking you to prove anything," Izaya answered, sounding astonished. "I was asking about you - Gaia. Not Aila. I already know all about her," he added, chuckling lightly. "I'm curious about you." Then, almost as an afterthought, he said, "I love humans, you see. It's kind of my hobby to observe them. So...would it bother you if I sat here and observed you for a while? Gaia-chan?"

Even if she didn't know him, it was like starting over anew with the girl he'd met so many years ago. Perhaps Gaia would shatter his delusion sooner or later by deviating from Aila's personality. Maybe that would be for the best and whatever weird spell had come over him would be broken. But until then, Izaya couldn't help himself. He couldn't help this feeling of wanting to be by her side.  

[Suudonym]

"Perhaps I misunderstood, then," she said, her eyes falling to the papers in her lap. "An easy mistake, given your claim that you were 'testing' me to confirm that I'm not hallucination." Whatever that was supposed to mean. "Observing is one thing. Poking and prodding, be it literal or figurative, will not be kindly received."