(July 26, 2024)
I don't know how to go about things after what happened at Blanc's mansion. We ended up escaping with her younger twin sisters, Rom and Ram. I knew things weren't going to be good between us, especially since Suomi and I killed their big sister. After the entire car ride back to town, getting lost in the vast desert and having to scrounge for gas, I still had no idea what to do. Rom and Ram would barely say a word the entire time we were out there. Occasionally I would try to ask them a simple question like 'what's your favorite color?' but they would always answer with one word and that was it. I didn't think it was entire because of a grudge they were holding against Suomi and I, but mostly because they were scared… and I can't blame them. When we made it back to town after two days with a very navigationally impaired Suomi, we went into Dew's shop and brought Rom and Ram with us. When we went in, Dew was selling someone flowers. Dew smiled when she saw Suomi and I came back, but she smiled even more when she saw Rom and Ram. After she got the customer all set, she came over to us.
"I'm so glad you two finally came back!" Dew said happily as ever. "And who might these two young ladies be?" Rom and Ram were both backing away cautiously.
"Dew, this is Rom, and that's Ram." I said, pointing at them respectively. Rom and Ram still looked scared out of their minds. I didn't want to say anything about them being Blanc's sisters because I didn't know how anyone would react. Dew was very happy to see them.
"Well hello, Rom and Ram. I'm Dew Coletyn." Dew said calmly. She could tell Rom and Ram were scared for their lives. "Want me to make the two of you some tea?" Rom and Ram looked at each other, then they looked back at Dew and nodded shyly. "Why don't you two come with me then? Klonoa, Suomi, why don't you two join us?"
"Um… I think we're fine." I stammered. Dew just shrugged, then she took Rom and Ram into the kitchen. I can't speak for Suomi, but I felt super out of place throughout that entire exchange. Suomi and I just headed down to the cellar.
"I feel really bad… but I'm not sure if that's how I should be feeling." Suomi admitted to me as we walked down the stairs.
"I don't really know what to feel either…" I admitted.
"I mean… I had the displeasure of meeting Blanc when I was a prisoner in the labor camp…" Suomi reminisced. "After being physically and emotionally abused by her and her lieutenants, all I wanted was to kill her. The time I spent in the labor camp only made my yearning to kill her greater. It felt great when you killed her, but now that it feels like we orphaned two little girls… I don't know what to think." I leaned up against the wall and slid down it until my bottom hit the floor.
"What were we supposed to do?" I asked, feeling desperate for some sort of answer. "Should we have let Blanc kill us? The way things were back there, it was either us or her." Suomi shook her head.
"I care about you too much to say 'we should have let Blanc win.'" Suomi said as she sat on the floor next to me. Just then, Jason, Meta Knight and Soldier walked down the stairs. Jason's jaw dropped and he held his hands out in a 'what the heck' type of sense.
"Where the frick were you two?" Jason asked us without saying 'frick.' I just looked at him for a few seconds.
"Blanc's dead." I said apathetically. Normally I would be glad, but the Rom and Ram situation was draining me of energy. The two day car ride didn't help much either.
"Why do you speak of that as if it was a bad occurrence?" Meta Knight asked. After he said that, I realized it was best to keep Rom's and Ram's relationship to Blanc a secret.
"Uh… oh, I'm happy… I'm just super tired." I stammered.
"WELL PRIVATE FELINE, WE HAVE BEEN SEARCHING FOR YOU AND THE MAAVOIMAT MAIDEN ALL DAY!" Soldier yelled. "PRIVATE STICK CAME BACK FROM HIS REPRIEVE AND WAS WORRIED ABOUT THE TWO OF YOU! WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY FOR YOURSELVES?" Knowing Yu was back in town picked me up a little bit.
"Can you tell him we're ok?" I said, once again mostly apathetically.
"YOU THINK YOU CAN TALK TO ME LIKE THAT, PRIVATE FELINE?" Soldier yelled.
"Your name's Soldier, not Commander." Suomi pointed out, apathetically as well. "Klonoa is a commander." Soldier was about to yell again, but Meta Knight held his sword up, but not in a threatening way.
"Kindly stop this back and forth… It's getting depressing." Meta Knight said as he waddled to bed and… tucked his sword in for the night. I then got up and walked over to the table.
"By the way, I managed to swipe Blanc's laptop." I said apathetically. I took the laptop out of my bag and put it on the table. It required a password to get in, but I was to mentally drained to worry about it.
"Klonoa, dude, you sound like you need a beer or something." Jason said. "Maybe I could take you to a bar or something?"
"As long as Yu and Suomi can come, I'd be ok with that." I said, feeling slightly more lively. An angry orchard would help me get my mind off of everything. I noticed Suomi perking up as well.
"Do they have koskenkorva?" Suomi asked.
"Kosken-what?" Jason asked.
"Finnish vodka." Suomi clarified.
"Never heard of it." Jason said flatly. Just then, I heard the bell on Dew's door ring. Someone came in. It was Yu and Inspector Gadget. Yu looked pleasantly surprised when he saw me and Suomi.
"Klonoa! Suomi!" Yu said happily. "Where have you two been? I was worried."
"Blanc's mansion." I answered. "It's a long story, but Blanc found me and Suomi when we were having fun in a nearby town and she dragged us back to her mansion. She's dead now."
"Actually, I was going to take them out for drinks. They both seem stressed out." Jason said. "Wanna come?"
"I'd better, especially if Suomi's going." Yu said. Suomi scowled. As we got up to head to the bar, I noticed Inspector Gadget toying with Blanc's laptop.
"Can you figure the password out?" I asked him.
"I have a robotic implant in my brain that lets me perform twelve-quadrillion calculations per second." Inspector Gadget started. "I could balance all of Dew Coletyn's finances while cleaning my guns and memorizing enemy movements all at the same time." I figured he could do it, so I just gave him a thumbs up. The four of us went upstairs and left Dew's shop, but on the way out I looked behind me and saw Rom and Ram sitting at a table with Dew. They looked back at me, so I awkwardly smiled and waved. At least they looked calmer when they were conversing with Dew.
—-
The bar Jason took us to wasn't as bad as the biker bar. In fact, it was a heck of a lot better. The music wasn't shaking my insides and I didn't get the impression that I had to either blend in or die. Honestly, if it wasn't for the King, me, Suomi and Yu would have been killed by a glass shard back at Osmunds. I also looked around to make sure no one was watching us when we got there. It all looked fine, so I was able to relax slightly more. Fortunately, they had angry orchards, so I was happy, and they had koskenkorva, so Suomi was ecstatic. Jason, Yu, Suomi and I were all sitting around a table telling our backstories. Jason told us about how he was able to evade enemy capture for his first three weeks in this dimension, but then he was captured by the Minions when he was passing through. After that, he was sent to a giant prison, which was where he met the other guys we're working with now. They were able to work a system of communication, 'morse code,' and they all started a riot in the prison yard and were able to slip away. He also told us about when he and the guys ambushed the prison transport and rescued Dew. After that, Yu told Jason about his story, then I told him mine.
"Alright Suomi, your turn." Jason said. Suomi fidgeted a bit.
"I… don't really want to." Suomi said nervously.
"It's that bad?" Yu asked. Suomi just nodded slowly. I knew her backstory… it nearly brought me to tears when she told me.
"Maybe another few shots of 'Kostenkorga' will loosen your tongue." Jason said as he got up and started walking over to the bar. Yu forcefully grabbed Jason's wrist.
"Don't." Yu said through extremely clenched teeth. Jason just sat down. That was followed by awkward silence, so I looked around the bar a little bit. I noticed a guy sitting at the bar, looking super sad. I could sense this hopelessness radiating from him. He had dark hair and he was wearing a brown leather jacket. I also couldn't help but notice he had a holstered 1911 handgun attached to his belt. I felt downtrodden just knowing he was in so much pain. I had to do something.
"I'll be right back." I said as I stood up and grabbed my angry orchard. I walked over to the bar and sat next to the guy. He just eyed me for a few seconds, then went back to looking straight ahead.
"Can I help you with something?" He asked before he took a big slow sip of his drink.
"Are you doing ok, sir?" I asked. He started rubbing his forehead with his fingertips and did a very long sigh.
"Hopefully I'll be better soon, I just need more drinks." He was slurring his words very slightly. He must have been pretty tired.
"Want to try some of my angry orchard?" I asked him as I slid my bottle towards him. He slid it back to me and slowly shook his head. "Why are you so sad, sir?" He took a long sigh.
"I don't belong on the ground." He said sadly. "I was an ace in the Great War, I was a sky pirate after the war, and now I'm… here. On the ground."
"Why aren't you flying anymore?" I asked.
"My devastator… they took it." The guy said sadly. "They took everything from me… my zeppelin… my money… even my two friends… Big John and Betty." I was starting to gather that the devastator was his plane. He then reached into his pocket and took a few five-dollar bills out. He showed them to the bartender, who got another beer for him. "Without my plane and my friends… I'm just an empty shell of a man."
"Um… sir?" Suomi suddenly said from behind us, just barely holding herself together. She seemed like she was about to start bawling. "Your friend… Betty… are you talking about… B- Betty Charles?" The man's face brightened up as he turned to look at Suomi.
"Yes! Do you know where she is?" The man happily asked. Tears started pouring from Suomi's eyes. My stomach tightened. I knew what she was about to say.
"She… I couldn't… She's dead." Suomi said softly as she covered her face. The man suddenly looked even more devoid of hope than before. Suomi bought an entire bottle of koskenkorva, then she slowly walked to the table Yu and Jason were sitting at.
"Is there anything I can do sir?" I asked.
"The least I want is Big John back… I also want to get back in the air." The man said, slurring his words even more. "My devastator… I miss it."
"You can't let them keep you down like this, sir." I said. "The ones who think they're in charge are weak when you look past their authority and numbers. All you need to do is take initiative and fight them." The man slowly looked at me and scoffed.
"Why do you think that?" He asked.
"Because we're actually fighting." Yu said, having also come behind us without my knowledge. "These guys just count on crushing you to the point where you don't feel like there's any point in fighting back." Yu then patted my back. "Klonoa and I… we started fighting because we had no other choice. We've come so far already, and we're not going to stop. You can't give up like this." The man looked like he was trying to look Yu in the eyes, but he seemed to be sort of dizzy.
"I'm not the besht… best shot in the world." The man admitted. "By the way… how do you think I can fight without my… devashtator?"
"We'll find it, sir." I vowed to the man. We had Blanc's laptop, which Inspector Gadget was breaking into at the moment, unless he already had. Not to mention… Lukas would sing for us with enough convincing. I reached my hand out to the man. "My name's Klonoa. The tall guy is Yu Narukami, my best friend."
"Nathan Zachary, former… Fffortune Hunter." The man grabbed my hand with just a little bit of gusto. I think I put a little wind back in his sails. He took a piece of paper out of one of his coat pockets and wrote something on it. "Thish is my radio frequenshy… If you find w… where my devashtator is, conshact me…" He slid the paper across the bartop to me.
—-
Suomi ended up getting pretty wiped out by the time we left the bar. I'm not sure what it is about bars that makes Suomi so tired that she can't walk without leaning on me. We got back to town just before sunset and I got Suomi comfortable so she could sleep for the night. Once she was asleep, I checked the laptop Inspector Gadget was trying to get into, and luckily it was open. I spent a little bit of time teaching myself how to use the little touchpad, and once I got that down, I looked at the files on the desktop. There was nothing worth noting on it, except for some sort of story called 'Blanc X Goro.' Maybe I'll read it when I'm bored, since the idea of multiplying people was kind of funny. After a while, I decided to take a break and go outside to enjoy the nice evening air. Luckily, Yu was outside sitting on a bench, folding origami cranes. He looked at me and smiled.
"What's up, Klonoa?" He greeted me. I sat on the bench with him, and he handed me a piece of paper. "Want to try making origami? It's fun once you get the hang of it."
"I guess I'll try." I said, feeling slightly daunted since it looked kind of complicated. Yu taught me which folds to make in order to make a paper crane, and I ended up not making a very good one.
"You suck." Yu said jokingly.
"That wasn't very nice." I slightly scolded Yu. "Can I try again? I think I know what I did wrong." Yu handed me another sheet of paper.
"Have at it." Yu said encouragingly.
"Yu… can I ask you a question?" I asked as I was in the middle of making a masterpiece.
"You can ask me anything." Yu said calmly. "You don't need to ask in the future."
"Is it really hard for you to sleep when Lukas is nearby?" I asked. Yu did a lengthy exhale.
"I suppose it was hard for me at first…" Yu started, "Honestly it… still kind of is. When I was staying at the girls' estate I just felt… better, simply because I was so far away from him."
"I understand why you hate him." I said. "He plunged you into a life where you had to fight in order to get by." Yu looked straight forward and nodded slowly.
"I know how devoid of hope he has been, which is an explanation for why he did what he did, but that's still not an excuse." Yu reasoned. "But… There is something good to be said about keeping him alive. Suomi is safe, and he might be able to tell us where Nathan's plane is." Yu looked to the ground then chuckled lightly. "I want to be more like you, Klonoa."
"Really? Why?" I asked.
"You can see past hatred." Yu said. "I became hatred at the beginning of this, and yet you stuck with me until I came back to reality."
"But… what about Lukas's leg?" I asked. "Or that white dog I killed with the crowbar?"
"Those were just moments of weakness." Yu said. "You came back from both of those events. Me on the other hand… I let a moment of weakness become my personality. I was horrible to you at first… and I'm very sorry."
"It was a long time ago, Yu." I said comfortingly. "That isn't you anymore." Yu looked like a weight was lifted off his shoulders. He had been carrying that around for a while. That look of relief was soon clouded by another burdened look.
"Amamiya…" Yu whispered. This was followed by some awkward silence as Yu sat there brooding. I didn't really know what to say at that point. "By the way, Sopmod Jr's birthday was eight days ago."
"Really?" I said, feeling bad. "I wish I knew when her birthday was… I would have tried to make time for her."
"Suomi was imprisoned at the time." Yu reminded me. "She probably knows you're busy."
"I hope…" I said as I exhaled. "I don't want to make her think I forgot about her or anything. I need to visit everyone soon."
"Sopmod really misses you." Yu told me. "She wouldn't stop asking me to call you and have you come over." Suddenly we heard engines coming from the distance, and they were getting closer!
"Are those bombers?" Yu asked. Yu and I both got off the bench.
"We need to alert everyone!" I yelled. "You go sound the alarm, I'll get the guys in the cellar ready to fight!" Yu held his fist out for a fist bump, and I quickly returned it. Yu ran towards the alarm, but I realized he didn't have his M14. I ran into Dew's shop. "Dew, get Rom and Ram downstairs now!"
"Klonoa… are we under attack?" Dew asked. I nodded. "Rom, Ram, come with me to the cellar!" I ran down to the cellar with Dew, Rom and Ram not far behind.
"Bombers are coming!" I yelled. "We need to man the anti-air guns!" I ran over to my mattress and grabbed my AK, and I also grabbed Yu's M14. I tried waking Suomi up, but Jason ran over to me.
"Forget it, man! She's too wasted to fight!" Jason said as he ran up the stairs along with everyone else. We all got outside and got onto anti-air guns and started shooting down bombers… At least I thought they were bombers. A few of them flew over the town, and guards jumped out with parachutes!
"THEY'RE DROPPING DEATH SQUADS!" Soldier yelled. "IF THEY GET ON THE GROUND, HEY WILL KILL ANYTHING WITH A PULSE!" Dani and Jason both got off their guns and started sniping guards as they were floating downwards towards the town. With less anti-air guns being manned, more planes got through and dropped more CWC troopers! Then I finally got hit by the realization that Yu was defenseless! I got off the AA gun and ran to find him. On the way, I saw a few troopers that had landed and they were trying to break down people's doors! I was able to take them out easily because they were distracted by trying to forcefully enter peoples' homes. After a while, a few more waves of guards hit the ground, and I started getting overwhelmed. They were beginning to shoot through doors, and I think they were hitting people because I could hear screams! This caused Woods, Inspector Gadget and Meta Knight to get off their AA guns and they started helping me clear the streets. Once we got the enemies at bay, I went around a corner and saw a guard aiming his rifle at Yu! I quickly shot the guard in the head, then I ran over to Yu.
"Thank you, Brother!" Yu exclaimed in relief.
"Anytime Brother!" I said as I tossed Yu his M14. "Let's move, we have a town to save!" We all had to get back on the AA guns, because there was another wave of guard transports coming! We all started spraying the planes while they were far. I remembered what Suomi taught me back in Bordertown; aim higher when they're further away. I didn't down any while they were far away, but I did manage to get some good hits on a few of the planes' engines, which made some of them start swaying uncontrollably. Suddenly, a bunch of bullets hit the AA gun I was on. A fighter plane had made a pass at me, but the bullets the fighter shot didn't hit me. It did end up breaking enough mechanisms on my AA gun that I couldn't move it! The fighter circled back around, and all the others were focusing on the transport planes coming in fast. Inspector Gadget readied his gadget-copter… and a grenade.
"Time to be a go-go gadget hero." Inspector Gadget said. "Thank you, Klonoa… for getting us this far. Continue to go further. Do not worry about me, there will be brown bricks in the afterlife." By the time I processed what he was saying, he flew upwards, right towards the fighter. An explosion happened next to the fighter, and the plane split apart. I just stood there, feeling unable to move. Inspector Gadget just killed himself to save us… I didn't even get to know him well. I wish I had known what he was about to do and stop it. There had to have been another way.
"Klonoa! Brother!" I heard Yu yell at the top of his lungs. I snapped back to the situation we were currently in. Other lives were on the line. "More of them are parachuting here!" Yu and I then joined Meta Knight, Woods, Dani and Jason as they were picking off the CWC troopers as they were plummeting towards the ground. It got easier to pick them off once they opened their parachutes, not just because it slowed their fall, but because it made them way more visible. Soldier, BJ and Dedede were focusing their fire on the planes that hadn't dropped their troopers yet. Since they were doing a good job of taking down the planes that still had troopers, their means of dropping more troopers was gone. Planes stopped coming, and we were able to stop all the troopers before they hit the ground. It was suddenly too quiet.
"Dang… Inspector Gadget…" BJ muttered as he joined us in the center of town. We walked around assessing the damage. Luckily not too many civilians were hurt, but there were a few who tragically got killed. A few doors were broken down, but a lot of doors were still standing, but the troopers shot through them. Yu and I split off from the group to check one small street, the one where Lukas was being kept. Yu noticed the door of the house where Lukas was had broken down right away, so we ran inside. The handcuffs were broken, and there weren't any blood splatters. Yu punched the wall in sheer anger.
"DANGIT! LUKAS IS FREE!" Yu growled. He leaned against the wall and slid down in disappointment. He buried his face in his hands. "I should have killed him when I had the chance…" I didn't know what to say. So many thoughts were rushing through my head. My brother's arch-enemy is out there somewhere… and he knew where we were hiding. Attacks like the one we just experienced could become a daily thing now. I wanted to squeeze all of the info out of Lukas possible… and not going to lie, I wanted Lukas to see what was worth fighting for and against. That was when I remembered; Blanc's laptop was open. Hopefully it would be an untapped gold mine!
"It'll be ok, Brother." I comforted Yu as much as I could. "We'll find Lukas again… and when we do, whether he lives or dies will be up to you." Yu looked up at me and nodded slightly. I helped him onto his feet and we headed back to Dew's shop. Luckily Dew, Rom and Ram were all ok. There were a few bullet holes in the shop, which was pretty scary. If someone had been in the right spot, they would have gotten hit. I walked downstairs, and I was beginning to feel kind of burned out. I wanted to go back to the girls' region to visit Soppo, especially since I missed her birthday, but I couldn't leave with things being so uncertain. I sat at the table, then I combed through the opened laptop, hoping to find something that would give us a way forward.