So I just bought Dangan ronpa 2: Goodbye Despair. I'm loving it. Great game. However, it's so long. And it feels like I just don't have time! I mean, I've also got to write, do summer homework (kill me), go to work, ect. I've also got books upon books I need to read. Some of them I've got to finish because they're library books, another is one I have to annotate for school, and I actually just went to the book store and bought more books I really want to read. GAH! Why must time be so restricting? There's too little of it!
Anyway, on a more relevant note, onto the story.
By the time Ilya lifted her head, the airships had gone. Hisoka, who had lingered behind even after the airship's takeoff, had also left after a brief exchange with Chrollo. She didn't particularly mind the absences of what had been there earlier, but instead turned to Chrollo and asked, "We go….are we going back to base?"
"Are we going back to the base?" he repeated to clarify. Then he answered, "No." It wasn't like that was the place to return to, anyway. If there was a place like that for the Phantom Troupe, it would've been Meteor City. That was about as close to a home as any of them had. But that building he'd found in Yorknew could, he supposed, prove useful again the next time he needed to gather any of them in Yorknew. However, with the conditions the chain user had set on him, Chrollo doubted he'd be gathering any of the Troupe members anywhere for some time.
Confused, she began, "Then where…?"
"We'll travel until we find a city," he told her, stepping out of her grasp. Her hands fell to her sides as she watched him go to the edge of the platform and peer downwards. Normally, he would have had no trouble climbing down. Heck, he could have jumped down the side of the miniature gorge if he had had his Nen. But he didn't, and he also had Ilya to worry about.
Or, maybe not. Looking back at her, it occurred to him that she might be easier to get down than he was. All he had to do was push her, let her splat, then wait for her to heal back up. It was ugly, sure, but a simple solution nonetheless. Chrollo didn't fancy the idea, though, so he went around the edges looking for the easiest spot to climb down. When he eventually found an area that looked plausible, he motioned for her to come over.
Ilya watched without much concern as he began his way down the side. Only when waved for her to follow him did she begin to get anxious. He meant...for her to do that? She had grown used to Chrollo being an almighty being, someone who could do infinitely many things that she could not, but now he wanted her to copy him? To lower herself down a vertical cliffside?
But as he inched farther down and farther away from her, she finally found the conviction she needed to follow him. She mimicked him the best she could, slipping her hands and feet into the same handholds and footholds he had whenever she could. After a short while, she grew used to it. She was fine, so long as she did as Chrollo told her.
The image of her falling and becoming a stain on the ground below hadn't been prominent in Ilya's mind, but Chrollo was relieved when they both reached the lower ground without plummeting partway. He examined the scratches in his hand. It felt odd, having lasting injuries like this. Usually his Nen was enough to prevent small nicks of the sort, but when it wasn't, his aura would enable him to heal fairly quickly. Now, though, these marks were going to stay there. He might even end up with scars from them.
Tucking his ragged hands into his pockets, he glanced at Ilya to find her also studying her hands. He almost snickered. She must've just been copying him, since such small wounds on her skin would have healed by then. He covered one of her hands with one of his own to get her attention.
"Come."
"Where are we going?"
Slightly impressed by the speed and fluency of her reply, he responded honestly, "I don't know. Wherever our feet take us, although…" Recalling the fortune Neon had written him, he decided, "we'll be heading east."
So they began to walk. They walked for days at a time, getting out of the cliff area after the first full 24 hour cycle. Once they reached a slew of trees, they finally stopped to rest before continuing on. As they went, Chrollo picked vegetation in passing and ate, only offering some for Ilya when she expressed curiosity towards some berries in his hand, although she didn't eat it. He figured it best to take the nutrients for himself, since there was so little of it, and the Ilya had never shown the need for sustenance.
In the middle of the third day, the two of them happened across a creek, which Chrollo stopped to drink from. After sipping his fill of water, the man set his coat and shirt aside and began to wash himself. His face and hair came first, unfortunately messing up his slicked back hair style, before he moved on to washing the sweat from his neck and chest. He was doing so when he chanced to glance up at Ilya.
The girl was back. The one from when she and Chrollo had went into town. How had they been found, all the way out here? What did the girl want? And why, of all the places, was she in the water?
Sighing, Chrollo ran his hands through her reflection to distort the image. Ilya jumped at the sight and snapped her eyes up to look at him. What...what had that been? He just put his hand through that girl! Did...that mean she wasn't real? Then what was she? Or was this just another thing that Chrollo could do that she couldn't?
"Look," he beckoned her, pointing to his own reflection. Her eyes widened, and he continued, "That's a reflection. Reflection. That's still me." He waved his hand to let her see the reflection move with him. Then he pointed to her reflection, which had returned with the stillness of the water. "And that is you, Ilya. It's what you look like."
She took in his words, her gaze switching between him and the two images of them in the water. So...no, she didn't get it exactly. She still wasn't sure whether the copies of them were real or fake, but…. She at least thought she understood that she controlled the one he'd called Ilya. So was it an extension of herself, sort of?
The harder she thought on it, the more it made sense. Maybe it was past understanding coming back to her, or maybe Chrollo's words were just sinking in slowly, but as she stood looking at her reflection, she began to understand that it was just an image of herself. She still wasn't fond of it, though. The sight of…herself…staring back was unsettling.
When Chrollo finished cleaning himself, he slipped back into his shirt and folded his coat to set aside. Then, he turned to Ilya. "You should clean yourself, too."
She wasn't in any better shape than him. Grime caked her skin where it was bare, and her clothes had certainly absorbed their fair share of sweat. In her hair, dirt and small bits of leaf were tangled.
She hadn't noticed, though. Even if she had, she likely would not have cared. Seeing her lack of reaction, Chrollo ordered her to sit and scooped water into his hands. He began with pouring the water over her hands.
At the feeling of the water, she stiffened. It was cold, slick...and it gave her an awful feeling. She resisted pulling her hands away since Chrollo didn't seem to have any ill intent, but her hands began to shake in his. Whether he noticed this or not, he continued, next plunging her hands into the stream.
The hair on her arms stood on end when he submerged her hands. Her blood ran cold, her fingers spazzed, and her inhale sounded sharply as she yanked back and clutched her hands to her chest. Her nails dug into her palms. The water...was bad. It was very bad. Looking at it, she knew it was harmless, but feeling it...feeling it frightened her. She couldn't stand it, not when she couldn't help but recoil from the feeling! Not when she couldn't breathe when it ran over her skin!
Chrollo watched silently as she worked to calm herself down, as her trembling slowly stopped. That made three things she was apparently afraid of, or, at least, she was highly uncomfortable with: Hisoka, her reflection, and water. Heights had seemed to bother her earlier, but only at first. She had appeared to forget her fear soon after she'd started climbing down the cliff.
He didn't force any part of her into the water after that, instead just brushing her down the best he could. As he went through her hair, her hands came up to help. She then began to comb her fingers through it on her own to rid it of knots, so he ceased his help and instead tied his coat around his waist using the sleeves. It was too hot to continue wearing for any longer, but he was loathed to abandon the coat. It was his favorite, after all. He had actually found it in Meteor City, and although it didn't anymore, when he first picked it up it had had the smell of home lingering on it. He hadn't grown attached to any other piece of clothing he found ever since the coat.
Ilya, he thought, hadn't seemed to have much of an attachment to any of her clothes. She clearly didn't mind the rips and filth her clothes had sustained from their walk, and she hadn't reacted at all when Shalnark had replaced the clothes they'd found her in. She was yet to display any sort of attachment, really, except the one she evidently had to him. Although, if it counted, she was quite possessive of her name.
When she was as clean as she was going to get without washing off, he told her to get back to her feet and they continued walking on. They could have strayed from the water, Chrollo being able to identify cardinal direction by the sun's position in the sky, but he kept by it for some time. He observed Ilya's reactions as they went. Despite the length of time they followed the stream, she never seemed to grow comfortable with it.
That reflection of hers wouldn't stop following her, and although she had realized that it did that by necessity, it spurred anxiety within her. The feeling of unease was worse because she was appearing in the water, it felt. She hated seeing what was apparently herself in the wavering surface. If she looked at it for prolonged periods of time, she would have trouble breathing. Only when she began to gasp would she break her eyes away and regain her breath before looking back. She stuck close to Chrollo, feeling somewhat safer when the distance between them was short. Chrollo was strong. He could protect her. For whatever she was afraid of happening, if it happened, he could stop it.
The curiosity crossed Chrollo's mind as they walked as to what it was, precisely, that she feared. Yes, she was adverse to her reflection, and yes she seemed terrified of water, but why? What could an immortal girl possibly have to be afraid of?
So he asked her, "Do you fear death?"
Death? ….That was a difficult question. She understood it, but….death. What was death? The more she contemplated the word, the heavier her chest seemed to get. She rubbed the painful area over her heart as a chilling cold washed over her. She couldn't come up with a definition for 'death', but the more time that passed, the more the simple feelings she was experiencing began to attach themselves to the word.
Her reply, with a shaky breath, was, "Yes."
He thought about this, then went on. "Then, do you know what death is?"
She knew, knew that it was the cold and the weight she felt, but she got the feeling that he would be unable to tell her what it was. In a voice barely above a whisper, she inquired, "Do you?"
He hadn't expected a question in response, and such a heavy one it was. Did he know what death was? Of course not. He had never experienced it. He had come close, but he assumed that the rush of brushing past death would be nothing like the experience of death itself. So no, he didn't know. Instead of disappointing her like that, however, he replied,
"We'll all know death eventually. It's simply a matter of life."
I feel like I haven't asked in awhile, so I'm gonna ask: do you guys have any guesses as to her background? Someone said they suspect her to be connected to Leorio, which was interesting. But any guesses as to why she's scared of what she's scared of? And what about her memories? And do they intertwine? All of this will be answered, but until they are, I'm curious as to your guesses. I can't wait to hear from you!
Till then, Kisses from SnowyNeko! :3 MEOW!
