the_brightest_sun | 005th Meatbun ☼ Voice / Drawings?

[So guess which kid woke up veeeery early in the morning due nature's call... Only to freak out about the recent experiment. Or rather than freak out, get terrified by it. Guess who gets out of Ukyo's apartment as fast and silently as possible -and for a monkey that's easy- to run away to the forest.

Later in the day, much later, in the early afternoon, after most of the village has gotten out of their "wtf" and such reactions... People flipping pages in the journals may come across an entry with someone doodling in there. They are pretty simple drawings, it's not as if Goku has his color pencils with him or whatever.

There's a girl, with long hair and a bow in the head, she holds what could be from a paint brush to a cooking tool. In fact for some it may be recognizable if they have visited a certain okonomiyaki stall. Her other hand holds the hand of a child, with messy hair and what seems like a hairband or a crown on his head, who looks very, very, happy. And he is holding the hand of a boy, who also has a hairband on his shorter hair and who has lots of interrogations above his head as if he's not sure where he is. On the girl's other side there's another man, older and taller and accompanied by a black dog. The drawing also has a happy sun and happy clouds and happy trees and everyone looks happy there.

There's a record accompanying this piece of art, but it has nothing of interest unless you like to listen to a child crying and sobbing. At any rate, the beautiful drawing is soon destroyed by lots of lines striking it almost angrily. At this point there's a voice being recorded but it sounds far, as if not talking to the journal.]

You guys are lucky... Whenever you get out of there you will have a mom and a dad... I don't have those...

I had them but it was a lie... I also had a grandad...

[Moar drawings, this time it's different though yet a bit similar, there are three "adults" but they are different from before, they are all boys, one has what one could assume is light hair and dresses like a girl and has a dot in the forehead. Another has short dark hair and seems to be smoking -or throwing smoke from his mouth- and holds what is a bottle that has "wine" scribbled on it messily because he almost ran out of space on the bottle. There's another one, with short hair and a monocle and with a kind of dragon or bird on his shoulder. The kid from before he here too, the only one unchanged and still looking happy. Everyone looks happy here.

It gets covered in strikes soon enough as well.]

I want my family back... Both of them.

[And that's all there's to see and hear. Yeah, here's one of the people who's taking this change sadly.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Nataku is normally an early riser, but sometime after midnight he dashed into the forest and he hasn't returned to the village since. He spent most of the night by the stream where he stopped with Rokuta over a week before. It's his last pleasant memory before... Before all the new ones.

He hasn't looked at the journals at all, or slept, or eaten anything. He just feels tired and empty, and he wishes he could forget how it felt to have a family because all of the carefully constructed lies he's told himself to get by just don't hold up against what he knows now.

After sunrise he leaves the riverbank to get lost in the forest, wandering aimlessly. Eventually, he hears the sobbing, and the voice that accompanies it. He moves without thought, but with purpose.] Goku?

[Hearing his name makes him shift, trying to hide more for a second, until he realizes who is calling for him.]

Nataku...

[Calling from the top of a tree, hidden among branches and leaves, Goku leans forward a bit trying to make himself seen for his friend.]

I'm up here. Come?

[He can hear the shifting, and he looks up. There's a glint of gold in the treetops, and he hesitates only long enough for the invitation before he's scrambling up the tree after his friend.

Once he's on the same branch, he pulls Goku into a desperate hug. This is real. What he remembers about Goku isn't something the Malnosso made up so they could have fun.]

...I heard you crying.

[Goku returns the hug tightly.]

It hurts. Everyone is upset and angry, but I'm just sad because it's over now... I want it back.

[Kind of, he doesn't want to not know Konzen or Ken-niichan like during those days, he wants both families, he's selfish.]

Me too. [Nataku buries his face in his friend's shoulder. He understands. He wants his brother and his mother and... Homura ... back. He wants the simple happiness of waking up every morning and knowing they'll be there and looking forward to coming home in the afternoon.]

Do you think they want us back?

I don't know... I want them to, but... I got scared so I came here before they woke up.

[See? This is why they can be friends so easily, Nataku understands him. And he can understand Nataku. At least he will always have this, right? Goku's sure of that because if Nataku could reach even Luceti, then things will really be okay one day.]

Was your family good too? Who were they?

[Nataku gives him a brief squeeze then and pulls back a little, but he's still close enough that their knees are touching. They have each other right now, and he's never needed any more than that before.]

I knew some of them already... like Homura. Shoryuu and Rokuta were friends of his. [He'll go back to Homura eventually, and he supposes Goku has Tenpou as well, but they haven't gone back yet for the same reason. He picks at a bit of bark on the tree.] But my mother and brother.... I don't think I've ever met them before. Their names are Ayumu and Okita. They were really good to me. [He bites the inside of his lip before looking up at Goku again.] What was your family like?

[Goku would want a family like the one he had for ten days, but he doesn't need it. He has enough having friends and besides Nataku has always been a special friend, he really is a good honest friend. Nataku didn't have to deal with Goku because others told him to or anything, on the contrary, people didn't want them to be friends but they still were.]

You had a big family then! Uhm, I only knew mama from before, she was at the party and made okonomiyaki. It was her and papa and grandpa, only, but I liked it. Mama makes the best okonomiyaki in the world and she taught me to make some and martial arts, papa too but he always gets lost and grandpa taught me about landmarks so I wouldn't get lost like papa and had a dog that came with me and played with me a bit.

I liked it a lot, it was nice and fun. Though I don't like how Konzen and Ken-niichan weren't there, I... I didn't even remember them.

[Goku is Nataku's first friend, and he will always be the most special. Since they met he's treated Nataku as someone worth caring about, and there aren't any tricks or other motives involved. Having a friend like that is worth more than his own life.

Nataku really hopes Goku's family will still talk to him. They would be really dumb if they didn't.]

My mom -- Ayumu made really delicious food too. It was the best I ever tasted. Oh! And we had a giant bird in the back yard and a fish we got at the fair. Souji and I named the fish Dog and Ayumu gave us this look... [He tries and fails to imitate her face. When he trails off, he's smiling a little.] I don't think the size of the family matters when everyone's happy. But you're right, it's important to remember everyone, and... it should be real.

Do you think friends can be like a family?

005th Meatbun ☼ Voice / Drawings?

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