Better Eight Than Never

Chapter 22: The Sea Lion King

"Alright, we're here." Bato told Hachi as he set down the bag that he'd confined her inside. "We're in my room, we can talk now if you want."

Despite everything though, she almost wanted to just stay in here. It was enclosed and dark, and she felt safe and secure... Well, until she thought about how Orion and Oswald had both abandoned her. She slipped out of the bag and changed back into her humanoid form. "I don't know why I'm bothering... you're just going to put me back in sooner or later..." She mumbled, flopping down onto Bato's bed and stifling a cough.

"Well, not today, hopefully." He replied, grunting as he stretched his shoulders. "... Are you hungry? You haven't really had anything to eat today."

"I don't care." She huffed.

She could pretty much feel Bato's gaze on her as he fell into a silence that wasn't near long enough. "Oh... we never looked at your back this morning, did we?"

Hachi grunted, then rolled over onto her stomach, pressing her face into the pillow. As Bato checked and tended to her wound, she almost fell asleep. Unfortunately for her, he was way too chatty for his own good.

"Let's hope tomorrow isn't so hectic, then maybe it'll start healing a little better." He said as he pressed a wet something to her back, likely a washcloth. It was a little cold.

"What's the point..." She muttered.

"It'd be one less thing to worry about..." He pointed out, tone hesitant.

"For what purpose?" She asked. "They've made it painfully clear they don't need me."

"For the purpose of your back not hurting? So that you feel better?" He rummaged around for something in what she assumed was their first aid kit.

Honestly she didn't expect him to understand, he didn't seem to have any particular direction or goal he was heading toward in his life... and she'd just lost hers... her dream had all but vanished. They'd left her up here on the surface with no way of getting home, she'd have no elite ceremony in her honor, no way for her to apply for a job at the real place she wanted to work at... The mask workshop. The masks were such an important part of life, and she wanted to be part of it, she wanted to be that important, but they'd never let her with the way sometimes she froze up when faced with indecision, or the way her tentacles acted on their own accord, or because of her allergies... She'd wanted to prove everyone wrong, but she couldn't... she was just as useless as they said...

"Alright, you're all patched up." Bato said gently as he tugged her shirt back into place.

"I give up." Hachi whispered, ears drooping.

"What?" He asked, sounding surprised.

"I give up on everything." She repeated, a little louder. "If he was going to come back for me, he would have sent me something. Said something. Anything. They don't need me. I have no purpose to them, and I've tried so hard to prove them wrong... There's no point anymore."

"... Your purpose isn't something that depends on someone else." Bato said after a moment. "It's what you yourself make of it."

"I tried to..." Hachi said, making herself turn over so she could stare at the ceiling. "But... my genetics, they don't mean anything, I'm not worth it."

Bato hesitated, then slowly sat down on the edge of the bed."... I don't... pretend to understand the world or how everything works; I'm not sure that's even possible. But... I don't think we're born into the world because we have some set worth; we're not machines, we're not tools for someone or something else to use and then be left to rot when they're done with us, we're people. We're people and we get to choose what we want to do with our lives, and what makes it important to us. No one else gets to decide that, even though some people try to. They don't get to pick your purpose."