the_brightest_sun | 007th Meatbun ☼ Action / Voice

[It has been already a month, hasn't it? Goku isn't really sure, he remembers that a month is supposed to have around thirty days and though he hasn't been counting he has the impression that such a length of time has passed. At first he hadn't minded it too much, even if he had asked Hakkai to promise to leave a note next time he left before the kid woke up Goku was aware that there were times in which it wasn't possible. And seeing that there was nothing left that belonged to Hakkai in the apartment the kid had assumed it had been one of those times rather than Hakkai merely leaving on his own.

So he had waited. He had kept going to play around the village and helping Ukyo at the okonomiyaki restaurant. He ate at the restaurants before returning to the apartment to wait for Hakkai. And he kept waiting. Eventually the days turned into weeks and he got tired of waiting. He wanted his friend back already, it was lonely without him, the apartment was big and cold and the drawings hanging on the walls didn't make him smile proudly anymore, happy that the older man appreciated his work, instead they made him want to cry and hurt inside. It wasn't the first time that being alone hurt, but the pain this time felt worse. Why wasn't Hakkai coming back? Had he done something bad? Had he got the other man angry? Had he been a burden? An annoyance?

Sitting and crying wouldn't help, so he had grabbed a bag, left a note at Ukyo's restaurant and gone to search for Hakkai. Everyone said they were trapped inside that barrier, they only went outside during those draft-things, so, of course, wherever Hakkai was it had to be somewhere inside, he just had to search for the man. He knew Hakkai's scent so he could track him, he was sure of it. Wherever Hakkai was hiding or trapped, he would find him and bring him back home with him, even if Hakkai was angry with him, it wasn't a reason to hide from everyone else too.

More weeks passed and Goku is finally back at the village. Alone. Hakkai was nowhere to be found. He isn't in Luceti. How had he left? Why? Had he gone back to search for Kenren and Konzen and bring them to Luceti? The two men were taking a really long time to get there after all... But why hadn't he left a note. Why leave without a word? And what if he hadn't found them? What if the army had got them instead and hurt them as Nataku got hurt? Goku has no idea, he can't understand and he is tired, exhausted and hungry.]

[There's a kid walking slowly around the streets, he wobbles and trips at times, but he keeps moving. His appearance is a real mess, he's dirty, full of mud and looking very much as if he had been out and without an umbrella during yesterday's rainfall. He isn't paying much attention to where he's going, or what or who he bumps into, mumbling a soft sorry before he continues his way.

It feels strange inside. It has stopped hurting as the days went by with him unable to find Hakkai, but he doesn't feel well either. It feels as when he's hungry, but he isn't sure how to fill that gap. Sure, he is also hungry now, if the growling stomach is any indication -no, people of Luceti, that's not a lion trotting around the village and roaring, it's just a hungry monkey-, but he knows it's not only that. He feels hungry in the chest too, where it hurt before.

He probably end at Seventh Heaven, he should go with Ukyo but he's worried about seeing her now looking like this. She probably won't like it, maybe she's angry that he left to begin with. So he just sits there, dirty and hungry, waiting for someone to ask him what he wants to eat before he starts munching the table.

Eventually he will open the journal and ask a question he didn't want to ask.]

How long does it take for someone who leaves Luceti to return here? Anyone knows?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Two years?!

[That's... Awfully a lot of time. But still, it's the first time rate he has got so far so it's definitively better than "who knows".]

That's a lot of time... Was everyone you knew here still here when you returned?

They WERE, actually---apparently only six days passed in the wake of my leaving, you see.

Odd thing, time.

But that's good, they didn't have to wait long for you!

[They didn't have to wait a month and counting... Goku already knows that Hakkai won't be back in just a few days, so... Even if time at Luceti is different he will set it as two years of wait even if it's awfully long.]

And you weren't lonely when you came back.

Nah---hard to be lonely in a tiny place like Luceti, eh? A man can't get a moment's peace here, is what.

There's lot of people but you don't know all of them, right? Wouldn't it be a bit lonely to not know anyone when coming here?

[Well, that about describes how it was for Jack when he FIRST got to Luceti, although Tia Dalma had greeted him.]

Aye---it would. But a man should keep himself to himself in any case, right lad? Trusting another too greatly out of loneliness or a need for camaraderie is a good way to set yourself up for an early death.

[This is the first time he has heard anything like that, well, he has been told to be careful and all but no one ever said it that way. The kid is all about trusting and getting attached easily as of now.]

Is it? Then... It's better to be alone? But that hurts, doesn't it?

Well everything hurts, son! That's why they invented rum!

What's that?

[It is a VILE drink that makes even the most respectable man act a fool!]

Rum's GOOD! And it can take that lonely hurt away, yes it can! For a few hours at least.

Really? So it's like medicine? Is it food?

No, lad----you drink it. At Good Spirits. It's one of the aforementioned good spirits, come to think of it. You should try it. You most definitely must try it, son.

Oh, it's a drink? Like sake? Ken-niichan used to drink sake a lot, said it was good for problems too.

[Watch him go to Buffy and ask for rum.]

Aye, that's right! You must find yourself some straight away when everything starts to hurt!

[oh dear God....]

Aye! I'll go and ask for some now then, since it has been hurting for a while now. Will it work even if it has been hurting already?

[The sad thing is that even with this Jack is still a better influence than some of Goku's friends in canon.]

It can't fail, son. Remember that. Enjoy.

[And that is REALLY SAD.]

Okay! Thank you, ojiisan!

007th Meatbun ☼ Action / Voice

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