(July 21, 2024)
The entire time Suomi was in the labor camp, I would wake up with this horrible feeling, knowing that one of my best friends was not only missing, but in enemy hands. This morning, the stress of having one of my best friends out there somewhere woke me up early, and I just laid there awake, that feeling of someone missing still weighing on me. I rolled over, and Suomi was on the mattress right next to mine, sleeping. Safe and sound. I forgot we rescued her yesterday. I had grown so used to waking up with that feeling. I sprung off my mattress, happy as could be.
"Nice to see the happy Klonoa I know and love…" I heard from the corner of the cellar. "No homo, by the way." It was Yu, sitting at the table playing solitaire by himself. I sat down at the table with him and watched him play.
"Why are you up so early?" I asked.
"I'm assuming the same reason you're up early." Yu answered. "I thought Suomi was still in that darn labor camp… it also didn't help me sleep when I could tell you were tormented as well."
"So you can sleep like normal now?" I asked.
"Mostly…" Yu answered. "My mortal enemy is sleeping in the same town as I am… and there's also…" Yu trailed off. I've seen that look in his eyes before… that overwhelming regret of what happened shortly after he came to this dimension. Yu always gets this distinct distraught look in his eyes whenever he thinks of what happened to Amamiya.
"Amamiya?" I caught on.
"It shouldn't have gone down like that." Yu said in a very distraught and quiet tone.
"It's not your fault that he died." I reminded Yu. "You didn't ask him to sacrifice himself for you, he just did it."
"There was another way, I know it." Yu said while full of regret. "Maybe if I wasn't so blinded by what I had lost, I could have thought of a better way. Something that could have saved all of us." Yu sat there motionless with his head hanging down. I was trying to think of something to say. Yu stared at me for a few seconds, silently. "You know, Klonoa? I think Amamiya's sacrifice may have saved you as well." I looked at Yu with a confused face. "If Amamiya hadn't gotten me out of that prison, I wouldn't have been able to find and save you." Yu had a bittersweet look on his face. "I'll never be able to repay Amamiya for that." I extended my fist towards my brother in arms for a fist bump. Yu happily returned it. "Klonoa, I love you man. No homo."
"I love you too, Yu… no homo…?" I said with lots of confusion at the last part. "What does 'no homo' mean?"
"It means I don't want to… how shall we say this… sleep with you, essentially." Yu explained. That didn't help.
"But we slept in the same giant bed at the girls' estate." I reminded Yu.
"Ok, someone really needs to give you 'the talk.'" Yu said in a lightheartedly mocking tone. Just then, Woods, BJ, Dani, Jason and Soldier headed up the stairs to leave the cellar.
"Where are you five headed?" I asked out of curiosity.
"We're headed to morning PT." Woods said quietly. "You two can join us if you want."
"I'd love to… but I have a question; what's 'PT?'" I asked.
"Physical Training." Woods clarified. "We do it every morning to stay in shape. There is a certain someone down here who really should do PT, but he's too comfortable being fat." He was talking about Dedede, because right after he said that, Dedede woke up and was super angry.
"EEH, HOW DARE YOU TALK THAT WAY ABOUT THE KING O' DREAMLAND?! I OUGHTTA HAVE YOU BEHEADED FOR THAT ONE!" Dedede yelled. He unfortunately woke Suomi up, somewhat.
"Sssut up, ssomphelli…" Suomi slured her words as she was half-asleep. I think she went right back to sleep after that.
"Here's an idea," BJ started, "How about you come with us and just watch us, Dedede? If you want to join in, you can." I couldn't help but notice BJ was reaching for one of his hatchets.
"Alright fine, but don't be expectin' me to do no push ups or nothin'!" Dedede said slightly quieter but still kind of loud.
"What about Inspector Gadget?" I asked.
"I'm too busy building bricks in minecrap." Inspector Gadget said whilst playing on an Ipad, looking like he had been up for a few hours at least. I have a sneaking suspicion that the Ipad belonged to someone else at a certain time. Anyway, we all left Dew's store and made our way outside of town, and PT began.
—-
I've never been so sore in my entire life! That workout was the fastest and most intense workout I ever thought I would do. Those guys seriously took working out to a whole new level. Dedede didn't do a single workout, but that didn't stop him from mocking me after I couldn't do any more push ups. After we finished the very very VERY intense PT, we walked back into town… well, everyone else walked just fine, but Yu and I were walking like old men who needed walkers. We made it back to Dew's shop, and it smelled amazing.
"Good morning, boys!" Dew said happily. "I made extra bacon today!"
"You're a God-send, Dew!" Woods said happily. Everyone sat down at a giant table that had a massive spread on it.
"Klonoa, Yu, I didn't know you two would do the workout today." Dew said, sounding kind of impressed.
"It was tough." Yu said, sounding about as upfront as he usually is.
"Well, sit down and enjoy the feast!" Dew said welcomingly. "I make the guys breakfast every morning after their PT. By the way, how'd you get Dedede to do PT with you?" Dedede got this smug look on his face like he was about to say something like 'I did a thousand of those there push ups, y'all,' but Yu answered for him.
"Oh, he didn't even do the warm up stretches." Yu said as he stiffly sat down. Dedede glared at him, but he couldn't say anything. He knew Yu was right. I sat down at a giant table full of bacon, eggs and toasted flatbread with peanut butter.
"You know something, maybe this 'dimension merge' isn't so bad." Woods said after he shoved three sunny side up eggs in his mouth. "Being back in 'Nam made me used to crappy MRE's for every meal, but Dew's cooking is absolutely freaking amazing." Woods didn't actually say 'crappy' or 'freaking.'
"If you keep talking like that I won't let you have any more bacon." Dew warned Woods. Woods gave a quick salute to Dew.
"Dang, I thought I had it rough." Jason said as he piled bacon on his plate after he finished a plateful of it. "I was eating whatever I could find on the Rook islands."
"Was that a vacation you took or something?" I asked, trying to make conversation.
"Kind of." Jason answered. "I'll need to tell you my tale at some point. We gotta go to a bar or something." I sat there kind of worried because I didn't want to go to another place that was so noisy it felt like my head was going to cave in. We sat there eating for a while, and then I realized Dew wasn't eating any bacon.
"Aren't you going to have any bacon, Dew?" I asked.
"Nah, I personally don't like bacon." Dew said. "That doesn't stop me from making it for the guys, though."
"Fank yo, ig's rearry guh!" Jason said with a mouth so full of bacon I thought his jaw was going to snap.
"You can thank me by not talking with food in your mouth." Dew said. It was a mere fifteen minutes later when all of us reduced Dew's feast to a table full of dirty dishes.
"Want me to help you with the dishes, Dew?" Yu asked.
"That's nice of you, but you don't have to do that." Dew said with a smile.
"She never lets us help with the dishes." Meta Knight said. "But, I will admit, it was fun watching you try." Meta Knight's warning didn't stop Yu from persisting.
"Please let me help, Dew." Yu pleaded. "It's the least I can do." Dew stood there for a few moments.
"I… suppose some help would be nice." Dew relented.
"Well boys, time to burn off this breakfast by crapping all over Neptune's day." Woods said as he led everyone out the door. I was headed downstairs to check on Suomi when Dew stopped me. "Klonoa, will you bring this down to Suomi? We need to be careful what we feed her since she's been starved." Dew handed me a plate with fruit and mashed potatoes on it.
"Sure thing, Dew." I said as I took the plate. "I'll make sure she knows this is from you." I headed downstairs, where Suomi was still sound asleep. I didn't want to wake her up, so I sat next to her mattress and waited for her to wake up.
—-
I ended up dozing off while I waited for Suomi to wake up, but I got woken up by her tossing and turning. It took me a few minutes to realize she was having a bad dream. I lightly put my hand on her shoulder and shook her lightly, but that made it even worse.
"YOU WON'T… YOU CAN'T BREAK ME!" Suomi yelled in her sleep. She looked very traumatized. I shook her a little more heavily and she woke up and started darting her head around. She realized she wasn't in the labor camp anymore and calmed down. "Klonoa? It's you." She said with a smile. "So yesterday wasn't a dream." I helped her sit up and put the plate of food in front of her.
"Here, eat this slowly." I instructed her. She started eating, but she looked very nervous, almost as if she was being watched. "Suomi, there's no one down here except you and me. No one's going to make you do any work."
"I'm down here." Inspector Gadget informed us. Suomi was startled. "I love building bricks in Minecrap." Despite the fact I told Suomi to eat the food slowly, she ate it like a wild animal.
"You feeling better?" I asked Suomi while ignoring Inspector Gadget.
"I feel a lot better now." Suomi said with appreciation in her eyes. "Thank you so much for getting me out of there… honestly, I started losing hope after a while."
"I know exactly how you feel…" I started, reminiscing about when Suomi rescued me from Akechi's prison. "That's one of the reasons why leaving you in that camp wasn't an option." Suomi just looked in my eyes and smiled. She leaned over towards me for a hug, but she was obviously struggling. I leaned over her and hugged her tight.
"I'm so happy you're safe again, Suomi." I whispered while hugging her.
"I'm so happy I'm where I belong again…" Suomi started. "...Right by your side." After hugging a little while longer, I carefully laid Suomi back onto her mattress.
"Want me to let you get some rest now?" I asked. Suomi meekly nodded.
"At least I can get better sleep now that I know for sure I was actually rescued last night." Suomi said as she was getting herself comfortable. "The entire time I was asleep, I thought I would be awoken by another brutal whipping."
"Well, I won't let anyone do that to you, you have my word." I said as I gave Suomi a head pat, since I knew T-dolls love that. Suomi just sat there with the biggest, widest and happiest eyes I had ever seen.
"Sh… Shiki… eh? Oh, I mean… Klonoa…" Suomi stuttered.
"Get some more rest." I said. "I'll come back down to give you more food and sterilize your wound again."
"Sounds good… I look forward to it." Suomi said as she was still smiling. As I headed up the stairs, I could tell Suomi was still smiling at me. I got outside and went to look for the girls I asked to come and help us set up ambushes back at the command building. It didn't take me too long to find them.
"Good morning, Shikikan!" AK-12 greeted me. "What will you be expecting of us today?"
"You girls are good to go back to your region now." I announced. All the girls looked a little bit saddened by this. I wanted to keep them around… but I didn't want this to be their fight. I had somewhat come to terms with Super Shorty's death, but I still couldn't help but think that she would still be alive if I hadn't asked the girls to help.
"Are you sure, Shikikan?" MDR asked me. "If you want us to stay here and help you, we'd be more than happy to."
"This doesn't have to be your fight… and I'm sorry for dragging you all into this." I said.
"You didn't drag us into anything." Lee Enfield reassured me. "We told you that if you ever needed any help over here, don't hesitate to call us."
"I'm glad you called us over here," M9 started. "It's always great fighting alongside you."
"Your request for help is never a burden to us." 9A said. "I can't speak for all of us, but I was super happy when I got to come here." I was a little stunned. I thought they didn't want to leave the safety of their region to fight over here. That showed me the amount of dedication they all had.
"If I'm ever short on allies, I'll give you all a call." I said. PPK then walked up to me and handed me a sheet of paper with lots of intel written on it.
"I was able to make Lukas sing like a bird." PPK said proudly. "I got locations of other prisons and outposts for you." PPK then gave me a huge hug. "Be careful when you and your guy friends go to these places. If you need any help, never hesitate to ask." I patted PPK on the head as I returned her hug. As we ended our embrace, she looked at me with affection in her eyes. I then walked over to each of the girls and gave them all headpats.
"You all did an amazing job, same as always." I announced to the girls. "I'm very proud of you all."
"Hey Brother, what's going on?" Yu asked me as he walked up to us.
"I'm saying bye to the girls, they're going back to their region." I said. In an instant, I remembered the radio call when we were trying to get extra help. Nanako got on the radio and almost brought Yu to tears. "In fact, if you want to go with them to visit Nanako for a bit, you can." Yu's eyes widened.
"Really?" Yu asked happily. "You're sure that won't be too much trouble?"
"I'm sure." I answered. "We'll all be fine. Go visit your Sister." Yu walked up to me and gave me a bro hug.
"Thank you, Klonoa. I'll come back here soon." Yu said. "Try not to walk into anything too big while I'm away." I watched as Yu and the girls piled into the jeep. They all waved at me as the jeep started towards the estate. Once the jeep was but a speck on the horizon, I walked outside of town towards Super Shorty's grave. I knelt down in front of it.
"Well Super Shorty…" I sadly started. "We got Suomi out of enemy hands, and all your friends are headed home… I want to say 'I wish you were headed home with them…' but you're already home." I looked up at the sky. "I'm so sorry the last thing I did was lie to you…" This may sound strange, but I could feel Super Shorty smiling on me from the heavens. I could hear Super Shorty's voice in my head.
"I forgive you, Shikikan."
I placed my hand gently on the mound of sand, right over where her head was. I just lightly patted that same spot for a few moments. I stood up and turned back towards the town, but BJ was standing a decent distance away from me. I got a little bit startled, I didn't know how long he had been standing there.
"You saying goodbye to your fallen soldier?" BJ asked me. I simply nodded in response. BJ walked over to her grave. "Sleep easy, soldier." BJ and I stood there for a few more moments in silence. We then walked back into the town together. "I'm going to help the other guys with their objectives. Want to come with?"
"Is it ok if I take a few days?" I asked. "I'm still pretty sore from the workout… I also… want to stay here with Suomi."
"Of course it's fine." BJ said accompanied by some pats on the back. "You did very well during the workout, if that's any consolation."
"Give me a few days of rest, then I'll hopefully do better." I said confidently.