Note- You may have noticed that the four POVs I use are Nami, Robin, Iggy, and Sealand, not counting John. When it's from Nami and Robin's perspective, they can't understand what people say in other languages, so I put the translation in parenthesis. Iggy knows what they're saying but he doesn't know why, and he can't identify the language. However, he understands as well as a native speaker. Sealand can identify and understand all languages, but he's only as good as, say, someone who studied it for one year and knows all the vocabulary. At that point, there are a million things that one sentence could mean, you only understand half of what the other person is saying, and you have to really focus.
This chapter, non-English languages are in Italics.
So, who do you think is the mysterious figure? Actually, in every story with a mysterious figure, it's either the main antagonist or a girl. And since there are so few girls in Hetalia, and so few would be willing to go so far for the guys who vanished, it can only be one of a few girls.
Chapter 27 (Figure POV)
The kid closest to me stepped up and the kids behind him stepped back. So it was going to be one-on-one, until I pass out from exhaustion? No, they're just too inexperienced to really fight together. Much easier to circle around and let others fight, and have a perfectly reasonable excuse not to go in.
"Hey, you! Keep your eyes open!" the kid yelled. I punched him in the face.
The next kid dragged the other one off, and passed him to the crowd. "Ha! Jimmy isn't as strong as I am!"
I stood up to my full height- not that impressive when you're eleven and haven't hit puberty yet, but still enough to make some of them fade in comparison. "So this is your plan? To throw the weakest ones at me until one of them can beat me?!"
All of the kids stared, probably thinking, "He's got a point," and, "Why are we doing this again?"
"Ha! That was my plan all along!" The leader boasted.
"What, t' get us pounded?" one of the smaller kids protested.
"N- Your sacrifices will not be in vain!" the leader said quickly.
"Why don't we just send out Little Willy? He's right there!" another kid suggested.
"Yeah, why can't we?" another kid shouted.
"Come on, he's better than all the rest of us, why don't you give him a shot?"
Before long, all of the kids were ranting about someone named Little Willy. At last, the leader relented, and called, "Little Willy! It's your turn!"
A teenage boy with a baby-face stepped up. "I'm Little Willy, and I will be your opponent!"
"And why should I be intimidated?" I asked. He was only twenty centimeters taller than I was, and while that made a difference, it was no more than me and Russia [1].
"Because I'm bigger than you!" Willy bragged. "I'm the biggest twelve-year-old in the town!"
"What about that silver-haired kid with the creepy smile?" another kid, not as small as the others, said.
"The one hanging around with the pirates?"
"Yeah, he looked like he was taller than you,"
"I tried to steal his scarf, but he…" the kid who said that had bruises and bandages all over her.
"What?!" I shouted. "Where did you see him last?!"
"C-calm down," she said. "I saw him-"
"Hey, why are you telling our enemy information?!" the leader yelled.
I sighed. This was getting annoying. "If I beat this Little Willy, will you tell me where this guy is?" I asked.
"Ha! She's never gonna t-"
I broke his nose. "Yeah?! So who wants a piece of me?!" I screamed.
Before long, all of the kids were either on the ground, or ran crying off to their mothers. Can't say I blame them. The girl who knew where Russia was lay unconscious on the ground. Oh well. I'll try again later.
I picked her off the ground and slung her around my shoulder. There's no time like the one you make yourself.
Meanwhile… (Sealand POV)
Holy Roman Empire?! I thought that that's who the other nations swore by because of his name, and Italy's childhood love! No… it has to be just Austria swearing… Germany couldn't be… No. Prussia's still alive as East Germany, and there's a North and South Italy.
"Vhat?! Vhat are you talking about? I um Germany, not-!" Germany protested.
Romano smacked Germany as hard as he could to get him to shut up. "Shut up!" he yelled. "Don't say it in English!" he shouted in Italian. "Let's talk about it later!"
"Ja, ja, I know," Germany said.
Austria gave him an "I'll talk to you later," glance, and went back downstairs.
"Oi, where are you going?" asked Luffy.
"To eat," Austria explained. "I did not eat for days, so I um very hungry,"
"Oh. Well, I'm starving, too!"
"You just ate!" Nami yelled, slapping the back of Luffy's head.
"S-sowwy," he apologized through broken teeth.
"Good." Nami said firmly.
"So, what's with the dress?" Sanji asked Italy. "It's one thing to look like a woman, but another to dress like one,"
"Yeah! And how did you put it on in the bathroom, anyway?" asked Ussop.
"Ve~…It's a long story…" Italy said nervously.
Russia stood up. "Now, now, don't tease him,"
"Russia-san…" Japan said, disbelief vaguely crossing his face.
"After all, he will become one with-"
America slapped him before he could finish his sentence. "Shut up, you commie!"
"You vant to fight, da?" Russia's water pipe appeared in his hand. "Capitalist pig?"
"You bet I am, Commie!" America spat out the last word. He leapt at Russia, and received a blow from his pipe in retaliation. Instead of falling, America grabbed the pipe and swung it with Russia still holding on.
"Zey do zis too often for us to worry," France said.
"Wow… That America guy is stronger than I thought…" Luffy said, impressed. "My spleen nearly fell out when I fought with Russia,"
"Ja, ze last time I fought him, I lost," Germany said.
"Who, America or Russia?" asked Zoro.
"Both of zem," Germany replied.
"What? You fought them?" Robin asked. She was prying a bit too much. But then again, she was pretty loyal to jerk-England, so I guess that it's for a good reason. But I'm not so sure about that other girl…
"Ja," Germany got up quickly. "I um going to sleep. Gute Nacht" He went into our room. Austria followed, presumably to talk some more.
"Ve~ I missed my siesta because of the fight!" Italy followed him.
"Don't you go in just because Potato Jerk went in!" Romano chased his brother.
Spain yawned. "¡Buenas noches," he said, and followed suit. (Spanish for Good night)
Well, it was getting quite dark outside, so I might as well turn in. "Well, good night everyone!"
Once I got in, I locked the door. As I suspected, Germany and Austria were both rapidly speaking German, which I could guess was about Germany being the Holy Roman Empire. It was a good thing that Romano stopped Germany from saying that he wasn't the Holy Roman Empire in time. Even if the history was different here, and we could use our country names here, calling someone an empire would be a dead giveaway, or at least really suspicious. Sealand was one thing, but someone with 'Empire' in his name would raise some questions.
"So, what have you got now?" I asked.
Italy nudged me. He was still wearing the dress. "Ve," he whispered nervously, "I don't think that you should interrupt them,"
Huh? Italy was never this nervous around Germany…. So Italy never got over his occupation by Austria, then. Well, it's not like I can blame him. Being forced to clean and wear dresses when you're five must be traumatizing…
But it's not much different from what jerk-England did to me. Even now, his first words to me were etched in my memory.
"So, zat iz vhat happened?" asked Austria, jolting me from my memories.
"Ja, I can only remember vhen I vas established as Deuchland, und nothing more,"
"Vhat do you sink, Spanien?"
Spain shook his head. "I don't know. The Holy Roman Empire wasn't like we are now," he said in Spanish. "It was a collection of nations and territories, with HRE at the core. HRE could have been one of the states, but he represented the Union, like America and his states,"
"What about jerk-Arthur? He's part of the UK, but he's also the UK," I said in German, just to be sure.
"True…" Austria thought. "Vhat do you sink, Romano?"
Romano scowled. "If the Holy Roman Empire was a state, then which one would he be? How many countries have been parts of the HRE before becoming independent?" he said in Italian.
"Ve~, there's Liechtenstein-"
"Shut up!" Romano snapped. "That was a rhetorical question!"
"Ve~~~…." Italy trembled a little. "But she's the last remaining part of the HRE, isn't she?"
"True…" Germany thought on this.
"But Germany vas vhere ze HRE vas centralized, ja?" Austria asked.
"I cannot remember," Germany said firmly.
"Maybe that's because of all the territory and name changes you've been through, if you really were the HRE." I said. "The HRE was a union nation, right? But maybe, when he dissolved, he became one of the states that formed as a result. The way I see it, there are two kinds of union nations. Jerk-England was England before the UK, but America was always America, not any of his states. If the UK dissolved, then jerk-England would go back to being only England. But if America dissolved, more nations may be born, but he'd still be there. He might end up representing what's left of him. [2]"
"So you think that when the HRE disbanded, he became one of the nations left?" asked Romano.
"Nein." said Germany. "The HRE was conquered by Napoleon, and was organized into a territory, which later became me over time,"
"Ve~ so you are the HRE after all!"
"Nein," said Austria. "Did you forget about Liechtenstein? She could be the HRE, too,"
"So it's a question of whether the HRE stayed with his land, or with his name," Germany mused.
Spain straightened up. "Someone is eavesdropping!"
TO BE CONTINUED!
Here's what Sealand would have thought, if his train of thought was allowed to go on unhindered. This is canonical to the rest of the fic, but it was too long to put in the regular chapter. Enjoy!
It was 1943; four years after the war had begun [3]. Back then, I was known as HM Fort Roughs. I had been completed just last year, and I was awaiting deployment. Fight the Axis… Those were the thoughts of the factory workers who wrought my steel and poured and mixed my concrete. I could feel the pain of the Blitz from the steel…
"Hello," a battered young man stood before me. I wasn't even aware that I was sitting on the floor until then. I couldn't even remember being in that room at all. I knew I was thinking right now, but I couldn't remember thinking at all, just seeing and feeling thoughts of others. But now… I had a body similar to the shapes of the workers who made me, but smaller and less curved. That's because I'm a boy, my intuition told me. Those workers were women. Anything I wondered about, I knew automatically. "What is your name?" asked the young man. So cold, so distant…
"I am HM Fort Roughs," I said automatically. I had never spoken in my life. Life? I couldn't remember being born at all…
The man examined me for a moment. "You're different from the others," he said.
I was silent. He did not ask me a question. I had no reason to answer.
"You are the only one who has gained a human form," he said. "None of your brothers have gained a consciousness. They are, and always will be, just a hunk of metal. But you…"
If I had emotions back then, I would have shouted, "They're not hunks of metal! They're my brothers!" But I didn't. I saw no reason to.
He examined me closer. "I have never heard of a fort becoming like us before. But still…" He sighed. "I can't talk to you for long. I have to leave for Germany soon. Listen, I want you to hop on your land- or body, as you might think of it as-, and stay there until you reach your location. Your mission is to…"
That's what his first words to me were. But it didn't end there.
"What is your name?" I did not feel, but I felt an impulse to take in something, anything, that was a part of this place. I would never return, I felt.
The man paused. "So you don't know, then. I am the British Empire, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, England, and what you should call me, Arthur Kirkland."
"Do I… have a name?" I asked. I wanted him to give me one. This man… "Brother? Big brother?"
Sorrow filled his face, but I could see a glimmer of pride and happiness somewhere. "Okay," he said. "Your name is…"
Peter. Peter Kirkland. I've kept that name ever since. After that, I hid on my former body- the fort- and remained there ever since. Being personified was like having a part of me cut out, like an arm or a leg- and hung in my house, knowing that I could never reattach it to my body, ever. Or leaving the home that you lived in for your whole life- and never find it again, no matter how hard you searched. The other nations and mirconations never felt anything like that, no, they just woke up in a field or something.
But there were some things that I could do now that I was personified. The first and most important was that I was now practically immortal, and felt anything that happened to my land.. The second was that, like the other nations, as long as I was on my land, I could teleport anywhere on my land during peacetime. Handy, if you were a nation like England or Italy, and really useful if you're big like Russia. But it was a useless skill when you could walk anywhere in a few minutes on my land. The third was the ability to read the minds of my citizens, to an extent. But the last skill was one that only I had, out of all the nations and mirconations in the world.
TO BE CONTINUED! (In the regular chapter next time)
Oh yeah, one more of Sealand's lines that I couldn't fit in- "There were so many women who made me that I was surprised that I didn't turn out female,"
During WW2, because many of the men were drafted into the army, women worked in factories and took over their husband's jobs, an unprecedented idea at the time.
[1] Height difference between Russia and the figure- Russia is more than 20 cm taller than the figure. I looked it up. Little Willy is a reference to Little John from the legends of Robin Hood. He was really big, but his real name was John Little. When he joined the Band of Merry Men, one of them nicknamed him Little John as a joke.
[2] Everything about the HRE- Wikipedia sourced, but Liechtenstein being the last part of the HRE was from Hetalia Wiki.
Since I never formally learned about the HRE's history, I might be inaccurate.
Sealand talking about the two kinds of Union nations- One kind, like England, was a state in the Union before becoming part of it. America was always the Union, but the reason that he was stable for so long was because most of the states were basically counties, districts, prefectures, provinces, call them what you will, rather than actual sovereign states.
[3] WW2's starting date- I got it off of Wikipedia. Just like everything else.
Who is the HRE? Who is eavesdropping? What is Sealand's special power? And when will Iggy finally remember something?