Better Eight Than Never

Chapter 29: Autobutts

"I don't even know where to start." Simon growled as they entered the Inkea parking lot. "Just why. WHY?" They began to pace back and forth, Jill and Toda sitting down on a short wall and looking on awkwardly.

Bato scratched the back of his neck, surprisingly calm given the current circumstance. "I screwed up." He said quietly. "I... I got too comfortable."

"How do you get that comfortable around someone who's tried to kill us several times!?" They demanded. "Someone who wants to destroy our lives as we know it!?"

"... I don't know." He shook his head, looking away for a moment. "I know that's not an acceptable answer..."

They shook their head. "... It's really not. She could have killed us all!"

"I know." He said, clenching his fists and looking at the ground. "It's not fair to any of you, I put all of you in danger... I... I'm sorry."

Toda finally spoke up, looking at Bato. "Bato, you try to see the good in people. That's not a bad thing, there are plenty of grown adults that can't do that. But sometimes you take it too far. it's like you get tunnel vision or something; you focus too much on the good, and you forgive some people way, way too quickly." He smiled a little, shifting his weight off his leg. "And, naturally, it happens at some of the worst possible times. It's something you need to work on."

Jill nodded in agreement. "Toda's right... You need to learn where to draw the line... but otherwise it's one of the best things about you Bato." She paused, and then started giggling. "Other then the fact that you've obviously got a mind-control voice that cheers people up." She continued. "Maybe you're some sort of alien!"

Bato slowly nodded, then snorted.

Simon sighed. "Yeah, it's not that you're a bad person, it's just you're too good of a person a lot of the time."

"... Thanks?" Bato said awkwardly.

Toda snorted, then hesitated a second before continuing. "Hey, sometimes you are the one who notices when someone is bad news before anyone else. Remember Benny?"

Bato's expression darkened a bit. "That was just a bad feeling; completely baseless. And it didn't..."

"That was my fault, though, I didn't listen." Toda sighed a little, expression also darkening. "Such a luna-wielding ass..."

Jill frowned. "Luna-wielding... Oh! That's why you said no to the luna blaster..." She said, covering her mouth. "Because of somebody you knew... I'm so sorry!"

"You don't have to go into it if it's bad. I don't even think we have the time..." Simon said. "We still have to figure out what we're going to do." They cast a slight glare at Bato, but then forced themselves to soften their expression. He knew he'd done wrong, they were all in trouble right now. "They say we can't go home, but what about our parents? Not only do we have to go home eventually but they're in danger too."

Bato nodded again, straightening up a little and folding his arms. "Right... and we can't really tell them about it either, can we? They said not to tell anyone."

"And they probably wouldn't believe us, anyway." Toda added, then paused, as if remembering something. "Hey Bato... weren't we going to meet at your place for breakfast tomorrow?"

He blinked, then groaned and facepalmed. "I completely forgot about that."

"Too bad Hachi's already stayed at your place three times this week... Otherwise we would could try to sleep over, Bato." Simon murmured. "Because while we would all be in the same place, that means that if they strike and try to get us that means that there's a 66% chance they'll pick the wrong house, and if they do attack the right one, we'd all be there to fight them. No matter what we do, at this point it's going to be dangerous..."