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“Major. Thanks for coming in today.”The Commander just nodded as she shook the doctor’s hand. Well…”doctor” in the sense that made sure everything in Major’s body was working properly. But really she was an engineer. She dealt with technology, which was what the Major mainly was, Batou thought to himself. It was still super weird to see. He was glad she allowed him to tag along however, he had nothing better to do on this particular day. He saw the Major glance at him slightly. Ugh. She looked so cute. He gave her a thumbs up, jokingly.“We’re going to need a biopsy sample soon. You probably guessed that though right?”Batou heard her mumble a “yes” quietly. She appeared to look slightly nervous as well. Biopsy? Now he was curious. Major needed a Biopsy? What were they gonna take-
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Oh. Right.
Batou now was a little concerned on how exactly they were going to do this. And if he would even be able to watch it. Geez…“Um…..are we doing this today..?” Major spoke up. He kinda stopped in place. Was she….scared? He knew she probably had reason to be, but he had never seen obvious fear in her eyes before. Not badass Major. She was never frightened. But now he could clearly see it. It was...incredibly adorable. He just wanted to go give her a hug.“The sooner we can get the sample, the better.” The doctor replied. Major’s eyes nervously just glanced around the room. Batou felt bad. Doctors and Engineers were both the same with making sure people made their appointments however. Which is, they didn’t care at all. Batou reminded himself that Major was a different story, being the leader of Section 9 and all… Eh, it was worth a shot.“We don’t have to do this today Major...if you don’t wanna I mean….” He stopped as she turned and glared at him. She probably knew she looked afraid. “No. I can handle this. It’s...very simple.” she huffed.Yeah. She knew.“So...how exactly….?” Batou started as the doctor began preparing. Major walked closer to him, then giving a small twirl. She pulled her short hair up to point near the base of her skull, just above her neck.“Plate there. She’s just gonna...lift it off….” “Damn. Is it gonna hurt?” He realized that was probably the worst question he could ask someone about to get a medical procedure done, but it had already come out of his mouth. Fuck, he probably made things worse for her…“Eh...barely. The brain itself can’t feel pain actually, so yeah-”“Ready for you now Major.”Batou looked over as he heard the doctor’s voice. The chair in front of him looked like some kind of weird thing you would see in a gory horror flick. Well, not really. All it had was some extra parts that were going to go around her head. Nothing dirty or grungy about it appearance wise. Still, it probably felt terrifying for her…“...Do you have to strap her head down like that..?” Batou asked as the Major sat down.“Batou, any small movement could make the sampler slice into m-more of my brain…” She rushed the ending of her sentence, obviously getting more anxious. She was showing emotion and Batou definitely knew a ghost was in there. He also admired how still she was as the doctor locked her in so she couldn’t move. 'Poor Motoko....’ Batou thought to himself. He wanted to comfort her, but Major, she was complex. He knew she would get pissed if he even alluded to the fact that she was scared. She liked being tough, and Batou learned the hard way not to tease her. He did have another stupid idea, one that he didn’t exactly trust, but he felt giddy to try it. He saw the doctor put on gloves, so he approached the commander.“W-What, I look stupid, I know-” She said shakily.“I wasn’t gonna say that.”
He took one more step closer to her side, trying to focus on her face than on what the doctor was doing.... He could definitely watch if he wanted to…“I wanna see something, do you mind?” He wasn’t exactly sure Major would buy this bullshit he just made up in under 10 seconds. No, he already knew she wouldn’t.“Eh?”“I want to see how your body reacts to something medical like this. If it’s the same as mine. I’ll just feel your pulse.” Yeah. This was garbage of course, but he really wanted to hold her hand. Especially if she was feeling scared… She seemed to pause a bit when he took her hand gently into his.“Ah...uh...alright…?” she muttered, before suddenly tensing her body. Batou took a quick glance, then immediately turned his head. The doctor was cutting into her scalp slowly. Major’s hair wasn’t an issue, as there wasn’t much chance for an infection in her head cavity, so it was just lightly pulled back.“Well...your pulse is...okay as of right now…” Batou reported, wanting to say something. Major tried to give him a side glare with just her pupils, but it didn’t work too well.“Batou you idiot...you check someone's’ pulse in their wrist…not their entire hand...” She sneered. He gave her hand a squeeze, and tried to avoid looking behind her.“Ah...I didn’t know that…”“........You studied human anatomy…for at least 4 years….” Batou smiled, but immediately had to cringe as he heard a tiny clunk sound and then the sound of metal hitting metal. He felt Major gripping his hand now, and he struggled not to appear happy about that fact.“Stay still Major. This will take a few seconds.”He noticed she was starting to breathe quickly, and she looked almost panicked. Batou frowned, and put his other hand on her arm, in hopes to comfort her. It worked for a second, though the Major just shut both her eyes until it was over. He was still holding onto her but he was honestly curious…..He decided to glance behind her. Bad idea. He had to hold in a gasp of surprise, as he didn’t want to freak her out. There, tucked underneath the opening, was her brain. Batou stared in morbid fascination. A living brain. It didn’t look anything like in cartoons, or heck even in the medical illustrations he had studied. It wasn’t bright Pink. It was barely any shade of pink, rather, it reflected a dark looking red. Along with even darker, almost black nerves spreading here and there. And the oddest thing, was that it looked dry, even though he knew the brain was quite wet. He really wanted to know why that was, but he guessed maybe her titanium skull had something to do with it.He only saw it for a second or two, but it was pretty captivating. He gave Major’s hand another squeeze as he turned back to her. She seemed to sigh in relief as her metal plate was put back on. “Well, guess you’re done now.” Batou beamed as the doctor fixed her skin. The Major frowned, though Batou could tell she was forcing it. Once she was let out of the chair, she struggled to fix her hair back to how it originally was.“Is that it for now?” She asked with no real emotion. Her doctor just nodded, which evidently meant she was free to go, as Batou had to follow her out of the lab. He walked silently beside her for several seconds and was surprised when she suddenly spoke.“Eh, Batou...thanks...for that…” she mumbled, and seemed to have a bit blush on her face. “Don’t mention it, everyone gets freaked out by something…”He was honestly waiting for her to smack him right there, but it never came. Instead what he heard was a grumbled “Yeah I guess” as they entered a hallway. He paused, but decided to ask.“So...why exactly does it freak you out? I’m not fucking around either, I swear. No one will hear a peep about this.”To his surprise, she answered him again.“Well...that’s my brain you know...that’s actually me…..I can recover from nearly any injury but if my brain ever received physical damage, that would be it for me. Very low chance of any recovery if something were to happen…”Well, that actually made perfect sense to Batou. No wonder…“I...I saw it actually…” he found himself blurting out, without really thinking about it.“You saw my ghost?” Ah. He forgot that she called her brain that. He didn’t know if the brain itself was what a ghost, or soul was, but that was a topic that didn’t need to be discussed.“Pervert. Did I look good naked at least?”He stopped in his tracks as the joke took him a second or two. Then he turned his head away from her as he blushed.“Oh come on, Motoko….why...” He groaned at the stupid joke. But he was really happy that Major was talking to him on a more friendly and personal level. He felt calm around her right now, mainly because she was so relaxed.He smiled slightly, giving a small chuckle as he noticed it was chilly in the building. “Hey Major…”She was still smiling a bit but widened her eyes as Batou took her hand again.“It’s cold in here. I need to see how quickly your hands heat up....”Major rolled her eyes but still had a small grin.“Alright smartass, you only have until we get outside. though.”