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

... What about the people you knew from there? From where you were before coming here, did you forget them too?

[He doesn't mean the versions left in Luceti but them as a whole, but he doesn't understand that enough to ask in a clearer way.]

W-Well, you forget anything that you might have done with them here in the village.

But you don't forget them, no. Not the ones you're supposed to know from home.

[Sounding...almost relieved. Finally, he can give the kid some good news.]

[There's again silence as Goku thinks of this, though a relieved sigh is heard. Those are good news, if Hakkai remembers him then he can relax, they will come. They will notice him gone, and even if they don't, they were trying to get away from there, right? They will get to where he is... Eventually.]

How long was it for you to come back here?

In terms of the time that passed back home or the time that passed here?

[...]

Both?

[He doesn't sound very certain here but knowing a lot is important, right?]

Three months passed here.

Four years passed back home.

[There's a whine on his end.]

Someone said it took him two years to come here, four years is two times that many!

[Maybe he should wait four years rather than two? But two is already a long time!]

That was just for me, Goku. Other villagers have been here and back far more often in the same amount of time.

[He hums.]

But even if everyone is different, can't there be an example?

[He means to ask for an average, a general idea even if it's not exact of how long it may take, but he doesn't understand it enough to properly ask for it. An example is something that people follow so it seems like the closest thing in his mind for it.]

Yes, there could be. There should be. But it's harder to explain or even identify if everyone is different, Goku.

It's not impossible, but you can't do that? It must be really, really hard then.

[Because Giles is a smart adult, it's easy to see by the way he talks.]

There's a lot about this place that I still don't understand, I'm afraid.

[A fact that frustrates him about as much as it seems to frustrate Goku.]

I thought that was only me. So even smart adults don't understand a lot of this here? And there's no one who can explain them?

[The Malnosso don't count, even Goku knows they won't explain things.]

We only know what we've managed to learn from the Malnosso, I'm afraid.

...and as I'm sure you're aware, they're far from reliable.

[No, he's not fully aware of it.]

They aren't very nice, they send us to those wars. But why are they not reliable?

They don't know much more about this place than we do.

Eh? I thought they were from here!

[First news he has about this.]

A friend of mine who's been here longer than I have told me that apparently they aren't. They're trapped here just as we are.

... Then why are they bad with us?

[Like sending them to wars and kidnapping them.]

...I wish I knew.

There are a lot of things I wish I knew about this place, but most especially that.

I don't understand bad people... I don't think I want to understand them anyway.

[Like Nataku's father, and the people who fought and chased them... He really doesn't want to understand them, they are bad and that's enough for him.]

Neither do I.

...but sometimes, it helps if you do.

007th Meatbun ☼ Action / Voice

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