Okay, first of all, sorry for taking so long. No real excuse, really. And second of all: Check this out! 3 communities, 50 reviews, 99 favourites, 116 followers, and 8,811 views. I am so happy! Thank you for the continued support, and here's another chapter!
Read and enjoy!
"Hello again"
"'Hello again' yourself" I shot back unhappily, crossing my arms and glaring half-heartedly at the moving picture of me in the operation room. A small miracle I hadn't accidently destroyed it during my fight.
Yeah, I had died, again. Well, sort of, not quite. My heart had stopped, and I had blacked out, but it had started again and I was technically alive, my mind just wasn't with my soul at the moment, which is why I was here with Death watching to see if I lived through my injuries this time. In mind, at least, everything else was in the operating room.
"You seem rather calm" he commented idly, and I fought the urge to roll my eyes.
"I was the first time" I replied like it was obvious and, to a certain point, it was. I could somehow feel he was smirking, and shook of the weird feeling of knowing despite having no proof of said knowledge being truth.
"Indeed"
'Indeed my ass' I thought blithely, watching as my pulse 'beeped' in a steady rhythm on the monitor.
"By the way" I said suddenly "I know that you sent me here to help and everything, but your explanation doesn't actually explain much. Why was I chosen, when so many would have been better choices? How did I end up here? While I'm sure you're powers are great and everything, I doubt you would be able to transcend dimensions and reapply the fabric of reality so I could actually find my own role in this world" I asked, sending a questioning look to the tall male. At least, I assume he's male.
"Ah, I was wondering when you would ask" he said, as though commenting on the weather, I sweat-dropped and sent him a flat look.
"Are you fucking kidding me?" I deadpanned, and he shrugged in reply. I huffed in irritation and stuff my hands in my maroon hoodie. "Well?" I asked after a few moments of silence, and Death sighed melodramatically.
"So impatient"
"I can be perfectly patient, just not with you" I countered easily, and he sighed again, only this time with fond exasperation.
"Back in your world, in the country called America, they developed a machine that can send a soul into another reality, another world. However, they had to remove their soul from their current vessel"
"So die" I stated.
"Just so" he nodded "However, because of this the visitors believed they were invincible and died foolishly, and the people of your world ceased their attempts of traveling to this world. The machine they used to travel here was shut down, but it still had the power for a limited amount of 'jumps' so to speak. Subsequently, at random intervals when someone would die they would be transferred to this world in a new, if not damaged, vessel" he gave me a pointed look, and I wondered if I was the only one to actually be injured in their 'awakening' to this world.
"America" I pondered for a moment before chuckling "well, conspiracy theorists would go nuts for this" I grinned a little as I shook my head and looked back at the image that was practically luminescent. Seriously, how did this guy live here? Even I could make this place more homely, like a rug and a few chairs, maybe a lamp. Eternal sentient beings are weird.
"Patient is stable" and echoing male voice pierced the silence that had settled "surgery complete" he said after a few more minutes of digging through my innards, and started sewing me up.
"Well, that's my cue" I sighed and rolled my shoulders, a familiar tingling sensation beginning to settle as I drifted from the void to the land of the living. From what I knew, this wasn't the land of the dead; it was a lot like limbo, apparently.
Wait a minute.
"Grimm!" I called out suddenly, feeling very far away and yet very close to the ancient being. He made a humming noise that affirmed he heard me "How can I see the spirits of the dead? Why can I see scenes of the past?" I tried to raise my voice to make up for the distant feeling, but my voice only gently echoed in the darkness.
"There's not time to explain" he stated calmly, like I wasn't running out of time to figure out those weird occurrences "Go to Alabasta, and see the old woman who knows of me" his voice was a whispering resonance, reverberating through my mind as I slipped into the familiar embrace of ethereal sleep.
"Son of a bitch" was the first thing I said when I woke, muttering it darkly as I thought of the melodramatic sneaky little git that was the Grimm Reaper. Why is it never easy? Why can't they ever make it simple? I mean, seriously, is it too much to ask?
Something moved in the corner of my vision, and for a moment I thought Boris was there, falling out of his seat again, and that I was back at The Islands with Maria in the kitchen making me her special soup that almost always came with a scolding.
But then the world returned to its clarity and my mind came into focus, reminding me that I was a long distance from family and friends. A nurse dressed in white came into my vision, staring at me with shock and cautious hope, along with a tiny mix of awe and a little fear. Why would she be afraid? Oh yeah, I totalled her town.
I gave a small smile, too tired to do much else, and the nurse gave a quick 'don't move' before practically teleporting out of the room with an excited smile. I raised a brow at the open door, wondering how I could move with the amount of morphine running through my system.
Barely a minute later, a doctor was practically running through said open door and skidding to a stop at the foot of my bed. I chuckled a little at how frazzled he looked, and fought a smile when I saw him stare at my medical records. It was stupidly funny how confused he looked as he stared at the information, even as those looks changed to surprise and awe. Why was everything funny? Eh, I blame the drugs.
"Uh… Traveller…" the doctor started, his eyes flicking between me and the paper a couple of times before he cleared his throat and took on a more professional approach "Traveller, do you remember what happened to you?" he asked, and I nodded in return.
"I was fighting a pirate captain and, in the process, accidently demolished your town. Sorry about that, by the way" I paused to see if he had any reaction to that, when none seemed forth coming, I continued "I managed to beat him, but I had pierced my lung, probably by a broken rib, I think I hurt my shoulder but I know I dislocated my knee and after the fight I passed out" I finished my summary of the past events.
A long silence stretched through the room as the doctor started writing several things down, and I briefly wondered what he was writing about, but figured it was probably my recount of what happened. I doubt anyone else had knowledge of that fight, since they were either absent or dead.
"How long was I out for?" I asked suddenly, the man looked up from his work before a moment before looking back down to continue his work. This guy was very professional.
"Twelve days"
Oh. Well. Holy shit…
"Damn" I breathed, slowly taking a breath and finding my movements were restricted. Why is it restricted? Oh, pierced lung, right, right…
"It seems you'll be out of action for quite some time…" I tuned him out shortly after he began. I already could heal abnormally quickly. Something that took a person week's to get over only took me, like, a fortnight or something. Besides, I had someplace to be.
Alabasta. The woman who knows of Death. Jesus Christ, like this wasn't hard enough.
I closed my eyes and allowed the drugs to do their job and send me into sleep. The more I slept, the faster my body could repair itself, and the sooner I would be out of here.
My time at the hospital was much like the last time, minus the annoying reporter and suspicious doctors. The ones here seemed mostly unfazed by my 'name' and just took it as it was. I guess the Grand Line was used to the stranger things in life, which helped me immensely because after two weeks I was walking out of the hospital, albeit with crutches, and explicit instructions not to overdo it.
This time, I would listen and obey. A pierced lung and broken rib was not like a dislocated ankle or torn leg, I couldn't just walk this off and continue on my merry way. This injury was more dangerous and could easily prove lethal if I were to break the still-healing bone again. I didn't need that sort of complication to slow me down, I had work to do!
The town was well into construction, and despite the fact I had near destroyed their home, everyone was merry and chipper and didn't seem at all bothered by my presence. It was nice. I went down to the docks, where the least amount of damage was, surprisingly, and found my pack under some rubble. I was incredibly relieved no damage had been done to the items inside or the pack itself, and adjusted it on my back snuggly, the familiar weight a comfort that I didn't know I had missed.
I grabbed my personal journal and opened it up, reading through my personal thoughts and little poems and writings, all the little collectibles I had picked up during my journey. A Cronus flower, a chip of Laboon's tooth, the heather flower, a picture of Captain Keys and his crew dancing and drinking and having fun, all of these had importance to me in some way, my personal life could be read in these pages, my heart and soul was contained within this little book. Cliché, I know, but true nonetheless.
Pulling out a small transparent packet from my pocket, I taped it into just underneath a newspaper picture of me fighting the axe-wielding maniac, how someone had managed to take it was beyond me, and wrote 'bone shards of my broken rib' to the side with a little arrow pointing to the little square packet that held the white shards. They had been removed during the surgery, apparently; otherwise they would have caused a lot of pain and even cause internal bleeding. Thus, they were here. It was a little strange to see my bone outside of my body, since it was meant to stay inside my body and yet I was staring at some pieces of myself right now.
Revelations, it seems, is the theme for this island.
Closing the book, I tucked it safely away and after a little searching found a ship that would take me to the next island, hopefully I wouldn't have to worry about any fights for a while.
Yeah... this one is a bit short. Sorry. The next one should be longer and, generally, more pleasant. Have you noticed that in nearly every chapter I have Alex either fighting or injured in some way? Well, that's gonna change for a chapter or two. It's gonna be all happiness and fluff and all that lovely stuff.
R&R
Imma Outta Here!