Recovery (Klonoa)
…
…Body…warm…
…Arms…heavy…
…Vision…clouded…again…
…Am I…am I back…?
"…oa!? …ey, kl…a!?"
…That voice…muffled…below me…?
"G-Guntz…?" I muttered weakly – I couldn't muster up the energy to speak any louder.
"Klo…a!" the voice responded. And was it… was it laughing? "Th…cla…!"
"C-can't…under…stand…" I continued to mutter. "Your…voice…is…muffled…"
Silence – did the voice's owner run off or something?
Fortunately, my vision started to clear up a bit… looking around, I found myself floating – or rather, hanging from wires on my waist – in some warm, blue-ish substance. A strange, muffled hissing sound accompanied each of my inhales, and each time I exhaled, a stream of bubbles flowed away from me, floating up to the substance's surface.
…Wait…how am I breathing…?
Though my arms were still heavy, I could at least reach high enough to touch my… well, not my nose, but something hard covering it and my mouth.
…A mask…? …Is that how…
I tried inhaling again, still touching the mask. Sure enough, it vibrated slightly – must be whatever's giving it air.
So that explains it…
A few moments later, I could make out a tall, dark figure approaching me. I don't know if it because I'm submerged or because my vision hasn't cleared up all the way, but the figure's details were too blurry for me to make out – aside from some splotches of gold or yellow near the top.
The figure seemed to lean towards me… or rather, towards something between us. "Kl…a?" it said… its voice deeper than the first one. "Ca…he…m…?"
"B-Butz…?" I muttered yet again. "S-still…can't…understand…"
The voice started speaking slower. "I…kn…tri…rota…ja…"
"Still…muffled…" I paused. "…'Rota'?…Something about…rotating…?"
"Ye…yo…ja…" The voice paused. "Jay…ay…dob…yu…"
Is he… is he spelling out something?
Let's see… "jay ay"… does that mean "J-A"?
And what about the "dob yu" at the end? Unless he's saying "double-u", or…
"M-my jaw?" I asked.
"Ye…" the voice responded. "Rota…ja…"
"Alright…" Reluctantly, I started rotating my lower jaw. Each time I did so, I'd feel some kind of pressure building up in my ears. About ten rotations in, both my eardrums popped loudly, startling me.
"Klonoa!?" the voice shouted, much clearer than before. Sure enough, it was Butz. "You alright there?"
"Y-yeah," I answered, my voice a bit stronger now, "I'm fine. Though, I can't quite make you out…"
"Makes sense; light refracts differently in fluids than in air."
"I see… that reminds me, what exactly am I in?"
"You're in one of Garlen's defrosting tanks – for resuscitating those exposed to a hard vacuum."
His voice grew pensive. "Honestly, it… it's a miracle it worked at all, considering you were outside for around three minutes…"
"Miracle?"
"Right – this'd normally only work if you were exposed for less than a minute, reviving you in around two hours."
He paused.
"T-then…" I began to ask, concerned. "…How long was I in here for?"
Butz sighed. "…Just under six hours. And you only started breathing again fifteen minutes ago."
Christ… my time with Lolo… it only felt like ten minutes…
"Do you have any idea how much you frightened us?" Butz continued. "My son especially; this was the second time you nearly died on his watch, and he… he really thought you wouldn't come back this time…"
"Pops is right." another voice joined in – it was Guntz. Like Butz, his dark, gold-headed figure was too blurry for me to recognize him. Unlike Butz, he looked almost completely white from the neck down – from his spacesuit, no doubt.
"Just…" he sighed, his voice just as pensive as his father's. "Just… did you get what you wanted? Did you get to see Lolo again?"
"Y-yeah…" I answered, still concerned. "I take it you told Butz about her passing…?"
"I did. And how was she?"
"She… she seemed to be doing pretty well for herself… I mean, she misses us, but… but she's working with Marigold to try and reach us in our dreams…"
Silence – did Guntz step away again? No, his figure's still there, but…
"…Who…?" he eventually asked, his voice growing increasingly worried… "…Who did you say she was working with?"
"W-with Marigold… Pango's late wife…"
"And how did you know her name?"
Right… he and Pango never told me…
"L-Lolo told me…" I said, a bit of nervousness trickling in. "…when I brought up how… how he'd see Mari in his sleep…"
Silence again. Guntz's figure seemed to lean closer toward the tank… I thought I could hear a soft thump before he could reach me – did he hit his head on the glass?
"S-so…" he continued, his voice shaking a bit, "…so you really did see her…"
"Of course. And, erm… she said I was right about my last nightmare…"
"…T-then she was tryin' to… to tell you something?"
I nodded.
"H-hold up…" Butz cut in. "What nightmare?"
"R-right, we didn't tell you… last night, I dreamed that… actually, did Guntz tell you how she died?"
"Y-yeah; I'm… sorry you had to go through that…"
"Same here…" I muttered. "Anyway, I dreamed that… that I died in Lolo's place, and… she and your son didn't take it well. At all."
"Shit… some friend you had…"
"Oh, n-no…!" I quickly added. "She didn't mean for it to… to be that way… she just hasn't perfected her messages yet; that's all."
"Gotcha… then what was she tryin' to say?"
"S-she wanted to… to tell me that… that one of us had to die to… to save the rest of the world… and if was me, then… then she couldn't help Breezegale move on as well as I could…"
"How come?"
I paused. "…Because she loved me too much…"
"As a close friend, right?" Guntz cut in again, still worried. "Like we discussed the other day?"
"M-more than that, actually… like how Mari and Pango loved each other…"
"And did you love her back the same way?"
"Yep… at least, I think I do… I mean, given how far I was willing to go to try and save her, Lolo seems to think so too…
"…So she didn't just die defending our dreams… she gave herself for me…"
"I see…" Butz commented, his voice just as worried as his son's. "If she loved you that much, then…"
He paused again.
"…Did you really think she'd want you dead alongside her?"
"O-of course not…" I answered, my nervousness giving way to concern once again. "I… I just figured that… since Guntz has you again…"
"That I don't need you anymore?" Guntz cut in yet again. "That you'd be better off keeping Lolo company?"
"P-pretty much…"
Guntz sighed again. "Like I told Pango and Popka…"
I tensed up. "Wait… told them what? And how?"
"With one of the base's message bots." he went on. "I'm pretty sure it already beamed my message to… to another bot on Earth, but it's… still here with my original copy…"
"And you want me to hear it for myself?"
"Please. It's probably for the best if… if you know what we're getting you into before… before we head back…"
I hesitated. "…Very well…"
Guntz stepped away from the tank again, his blurry figure disappearing with him – probably needs to bring the message bot over. Sure enough, his figure re-appeared a few moments later, a round, yellow figure floating next to him.
He moved the figure – the message bot, most likely – closer to me. "Alright," he said, "please play back my message to… to Pango and Popka…"
A high, robotic voice took over for him. "Understood, naga." it said. "Beginning playback now."
No sooner did it say this that Guntz's static-lined, pre-recorded voice started to reverberate throughout the tank… a shaky, wavering voice that sounded like it could break into tears at any moment:
H-hey, Pango… I'm… I'm sorry if I come off as… as blunt, but… well, you were right to worry about… about Klonoa doing something reckless…
Now, the way you said it, I… I wasn't sure if… if Popka told you already, despite saying he wouldn't, but… well, in case he hasn't, I'd… I'd like to keep this from spreadin' to the… to the other villagers… to try and respect Klonoa's wishes to some extent… and yes, Popka, he… he knew that you know…
See, f-from what he told me, e-ever since we… we left the Lunar Base the first time, he… of course, we all know he's quite upset over… over losing Lolo, but… but I guess he misses her more than we thought…
So much so that he… (He paused) …that he's been considering taking his… his own life, just so he… he could be with her again…
Now, I thought I could stymie this during… during our time together, but…
(He shakily recounted our last two days together, mainly for Popka's benefit, as Pango already knew most of this. It was pretty much a loose repeat of what I told Lolo - the shadowy figure from Volk leading us back to the Lunar Base for a fight, and how I wanted to ease my mind by either killing the figure or confirming he wasn't related to Janga.)
Once we beat, err… once I beat him, however, he… (He sighed.) …He turned out to… to be my pops, Butz. He's lucky I didn't… I didn't kill him before he revealed himself, as apparently, he… he withstood Janga's poison, and I… I didn't notice all those years ago…
And right now, I… I can't help but wonder what was… what was going through Klonoa's mind in… in that moment, before he… before he left us to our reunion. Of course, since I have my pops again, and… well, the world isn't in any real danger right now, my… my best guess is that he… he thought we don't need him anymore…
(He paused again – a bit longer than his previous pause.)
…Had I caught him before he left, I… I would've told him that his… his thought couldn't be further from the truth…
(He went on to say how I could've followed in Lolo's footsteps and… well, like she told me in the afterlife, maintain Breezegale's hope and peace through small actions, as I encouraged the other villagers to do in my eulogy…)
Not only that, but… but Pops is… hold on… (He started muttering – did he step away from the message bot?) …He's close to fifty right now, so I… I don't know how much longer I'll… I'll have him back for…
So when Pops does have to… have to pass on for real, I… well, I don't wanna have to… have to grieve for him alone… just as I didn't want Klonoa to… to grieve for Lolo alone…
(He paused yet again – much longer than the last one. Even longer than that.)
…I just wish I could've told Klonoa before he… before he ran out of the Lunar Dome without… without a spacesuit…
(He paused one more time… before drawing in another, shaky breath.)
F-fortunately, I… I brought him back in before… before the vacuum could do too much damage, but… well, he's been in one of the Lunar Base's defrosting tanks for… for just over the past four hours. Though his heart's still beating, he… he hasn't taken a single breath yet…
O-of course, my plan hasn't… hasn't changed from before – I'm still gonna… gonna bring Klonoa back home, but… but I don't know if…
(He whimpered a bit.)
…I don't know if I'm bringing him back dead or alive…
(His voice started to shake a bit more.)
If… if it's the former, then… then I'm sorry I couldn't… I couldn't keep my… my promise to you, Pango… and I'm… I'm sorry that… that Klonoa couldn't keep… couldn't keep his promise to… to you, Popka…
(His voice continued to waver.)
…Christ, I… I don't know how… how much longer I can… I can keep my composure, but we'll… we'll probably be on the… on the rocket by the time you… you hear this, so we'll… we'll radio you once we… once we land in Breezegale – I think Boris still has the… the one Klonoa gave him. Then we… then we can discuss our… our next steps from there…
Until then, just… just wish us luck…
Klonoa's gonna need it…
The recording cut out. "End of message, naga."
Silence again. I looked back and forth between the two wolves' figures – neither of them said a single word. Were they waiting for me to react, or… do they think I'm still processing what I just heard…?
Eventually, Guntz broke the silence.
"N-now, before you get mad…" he said nervously, "I know I said I wouldn't tell anyone about our conversations without… without asking you first, but… well, like Pops said, I was worried you weren't gonna make it…"
"It-it's fine…" I muttered. "In… in all honesty, s-since I frightened you that much, then I… then I can see why you'd… you'd wanna get it off your chest… let someone know what we're going through…
"Besides, kn-knowing Pango, I'd… I'd say like you, he… he can be trusted to… to keep my decision from… from spreading any further than necessary…"
I sighed. "Speaking of which, your promise to him… did it involve…?"
"Bringing you home safe? Yeah, it did."
Like I promised Popka…
"And I know you… you won't be too keen on going back, but… well, did Lolo say anything about… about how your friends back home felt?"
I nodded again. "She… she heard from Mari via Pango that… that Breezegale as a whole was worried for me… I take it Pango told you something similar last night?"
"Yep. And before you repeat yourself, I… I know you said that was the last thing you needed, but…"
He hesitated. "If I'm being honest, my… my remaining jobs aren't very exciting – just more phantom beast cleanup in unused areas… and I don't think it'd be good for your mood if they're… if they're gonna feel too easy for you, like our last gig…"
"Fair point…" I cut in. "So do you… do you think I need that last thing after all?"
Silence yet again.
"…Yes." Guntz eventually responded. "At least, Pango seems to think so. He said with your mind the way it is, you'll… you'll need all the help you can get…
"More than Pops and I can provide for you, apparently…"
Silence once more. I thought over Guntz's proposal – if the rest of his gigs were gonna be too easy, and… and Lolo thought I should do what I said at her eulogy, then…
"…Very well… I imagine Pango could use some help preparing for the summer festival, anyway…"
Did Guntz… did Guntz just chuckle? "That's the spirit, Klonoa."
I thought I could feel a slight grin forming on my face… "A-and your father can help you with… with any other jobs you come across… right, Butz?"
"Right…" the older wolf noted. "Besides, I'm… I'm sure my son and I have a lot of catching up to do… see what we've been up to in each other's absences…"
"Agreed." Guntz added. "So, how 'bout it? Once Pops gives the go-ahead, we'll get you cleaned up and brought home safe."
"Sounds good." I answered, still grinning.
