And the World Shall Forget You

[Zach Kaiser]

"Something like that." He still wasn't sure what to believe himself, but it made as much sense as any other explanation he could think of. And he didn't really want to carry Etsu back and try to explain to his parents why another girl had fainted on him.

The graveyard looked the same as it always did: foreboding. One didn't need to believe in the supernatural to be unnerved by the strange place. He rather wished he hadn't agreed to go hiking with Akizetsumei that day; there was little doubt in his mind that they'd be better off if no one found it. Especially if it was haunted.

"Well...I guess we should start looking around." Though what they were looking for was something he hadn't quite figured out; as Etsu suggested they come here, he wondered if she had any ideas.

[Nayt]

For Etsu to form a reply, she needed to first get over the unnerving experience of being at this place. She'd learned about this before, this effect on people. What was it called, again? Spiritus mundi? Where you could stand upon a battlefield from hundreds of years ago, where thousands upon thousands of people lost their lives in brutal warfare, and without even knowing of the battle or even the war, you'd feel a horrible weight on your heart-- so heavy, in fact, that it felt like your body wanted to cave just by standing there.

That's what this was. There was a terrible spiritus mundi in this place, and it practically made Etsu feel weak at the knees. She had to shut her eyes, shake her head, and push past all that . . .

Etsu did just that, and made her intentions to this place known by taking a strong step forward and wrinkling her brow in stubborn displeasure. She'd walked a long way to get here and she wasn't about to let this place get the best of her and make her give in to that small urge to suggest to Eld that they go home and forget this graveyard ever happened.

She decided to make an initial observation before even getting into the major details. Yes, these plots were marked by items. Yes, they were evenly lined up. Yes, the ground felt dead and decayed here. And yes, they were in a clearing. But this was all stuff Eld had told her about before. There was one more important detail that he left out:

"There are pr-rots missing," she observed, before pointing to those in the front, and then especially motioned towards those in the back line. The whole back line was missing, in fact, but it was edged out as if something was supposed to be there--or, rather, that something had once been there, just like the front-line plots.

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld glanced back at Etsu when she didn't immediately respond; he wondered if she was as unnerved as he'd been when he and Akizetsumei first stumbled upon the place. He'd be more surprised if she wasn't, really; even before he thought there was something odd going on, it struck him as a strange place.

"Yeah, that's right." It was a detail he'd forgotten, as before he'd only been focused on the fans Akizetsumei touched. He hadn't been back since having reason to believe the entire graveyard might have something to do with what happened.

"I wonder what it means?" he asked rhetorically. "Maya said in the book the graves were empty...if it's the same here, it wouldn't make sense to have a spot without a marker. Maybe somebody took them...?" If that was the case, who knew how long they'd been gone? He suspected this place had been here for quite some time.

[Nayt]

Etsu folded her arms over her chest.

"If that is the case," she paused and thought about her next statement for a second. There was no making it sound less crazy, unfortunately. "Then some-one started the Repeat r-rong time ago?"

After all, that warning message said something about the act of disturbing one of these graves was a means of starting a Repeat-- whatever that was. Well then, if that somehow was the end of the world or whatever, then at least Akizets wouldn't have to bare the guilt of blowing everything to hell, because she wasn't the first person to disturb this site and cue the start of all that hell. If she ever needed to know that consolation, Etsu would be sure to inform her. But if it came down to the world exploding, she really doubted that any consolation would be enough to make up for the whole world blowing up thing. That was bound to ruin everyone's week, guilty and innocent alike.

Etsu stepped in closer so she could get a look at the plot that marked the largest gap in the front line of graves. She couldn't see any outline, though. Chances were, if something had been there, it'd been removed a long time ago. Well, if this whole Repeat business was real, then that definitely supported her case. Not that she believed in it. Etsu never stopped being skeptical, she simply became interested.

[Zach Kaiser]

"Maybe. Or maybe it's already happened a few times?" He meant it as a joke, but that was kind of a chilling thought. If time was in some kind of cycle, who knew how long it had been like that?

He really hoped this was all a bunch of baloney, because even thinking about it hypothetically was giving him a headache. He went to the fans, walking down the line of graves until he came to the tome. Touching it was out of the question, but he bent down to see if he could at least make out a title.

"Maya said the End wasn't really the end of the world, but just enough happened that it marked a new age, basically. So what if the End was really the latest Repeat?" It wasn't a thought he could bring himself to take seriously; it sounded like the kind of thing a crazy person would shout on the streets to anyone who would listen.

He really hoped he wouldn't end up as that crazy person by the time this was finished.

[Nayt]

The tome was dusty and old. Eld wouldn't even have to touch it to see that much. It bore a title, but it appeared to be in a completely different language. "ἐπιστήμη," it read. It was definitely one of the ancient languages, but which in particular was hard to say. Despite its age, though, it appeared to be in great condition. The lock was solid and the pages didn't even appear to be frayed in the slightest. If someone were to take it out of here and dust it off, they could easily have claimed it as brand new.

"Then someone stor-re from here . . . hun-dred of years ago?" Etsu asked skeptically.

For some reason, she just couldn't imagine that this graveyard was hundreds of years old. Everything was in too great of condition to be that old. There was that huge book that looked good as new, a dagger and knife that still looked sharp, a wooden crossbow that appeared sturdy as a brand new construct, and a metal quarter staff and a pair of metal gauntlets that weren't even remotely rusted, despite all the weather patterns of multiple centuries of time . . .

Anyways, the whole idea that the end of the world was the latest Repeat kind of struck a nerve with her. That was a hard line to swallow.

"Did Takamine-san say any-thing er-rse?" she asked, hoping that maybe Maya had given other possible definitions of a Repeat that'd be at least a little easier to work with.

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld didn't want to touch the book--there was a difference between being skeptical and not being cautious. What he did do was pull out his notepad and write down the title of the book; perhaps he could find some way of translating it later.

"Not really; she didn't actually know what a Repeat was. She recognized the name Graveyard of Memories, though; it's supposed to be in the novel she lent me." Naturally, he didn't intend to tell Etsu about the other topic of conversation; it really wasn't any of her (or anyone else's) business.

After he finished copying the ancient title, he walked back to the empty row, to see if he could find some clue as to why it was the way it was.

"You know, someone else around here must know about this place; it's kept maintained. Otherwise, most of this stuff would be rusty or tattered, and it wouldn't be in a neat clearing." But who was another question; Remmy had known about it, but he wasn't always here so it couldn't be him. If the place was old, maybe a family took care of it?

[Nayt]

Each plot seemed to have a raised section of dirt on which each item marker sat. The missing section in the front row of grave plots had that, and the entire missing back row had it, too. They were equidistant just like the others, but there were neither items back there nor any indication to what once rested there.

That was a strange thought. Of course it'd be useful to discuss this business with the person, or peoples, that took care of this graveyard, but how in the world could they find out who? If no one in Hillcrest knew about this graveyard, or at least admitted knowledge of it, then that certainly ruled out someone from Hillcrest-- and then there was really no sense even asking around in Galaens. That city was far too large; they'd just wind up going on a wild goose hunt and ultimately come up with nothing.

"But how wour-rd we find out?" Etsu asked.

Wait a second. Maybe she had an idea, formed immediately after she asked the question. Without skipping a beat, she answered herself aloud:

"Camp here for many night?"

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld sighed; there was no way to tell what was missing, otherwise they could have asked about some of the items.

"That's the only way I can think of. It's not like we could just go around town asking about this stuff; no one would have a clue and people would probably think we're crazy to boot."

He moved back to the objects that were still there, looking them over for any sort...well, anything that stuck out or seemed important. "But the again, who knows how often they come here; for all we know it could be months before anyone actually shows up." And needless to say it wasn't likely they'd be able to camp out here for months on end, even if they could go into town to get supplies.

"Still...if this place has been here more than one generation, it would have to be a family or something taking care of it; it couldn't be just one person..."

[Nayt]

"More fre-quent than that," Etsu replied.

Not that she sincerely wanted to camp out with Eld for awhile. He might have disproved her theory that he was a total jerk, but he was still a mild jerk and a total pervert. But still, avoiding close contact with him wasn't going to help solve this mystery, so discomfort was the least of her concerns.

"If it were month on end, these br-rades wour-rd be ve-ry dur-rr," she said, only to realize that her last word there didn't even sound like a word. "Ano-- not sharp?"

Sometimes even Etsu noticed when she had glitches in Common, and it was actually quite embarrassing for her when she fell out of personal confidence. Even now there was a slight redness to her cheeks in light of that phonetic accident. But no matter. There were more important issues to deal with.

"But they cour-rd cut ve-ry wer-rr right now," she said. At least, they looked like that. She turned away from the graves and walked enough to reach the treeline, picked up a short stick, and returned to Eld. She handed it towards him expectantly. "Test."

[Zach Kaiser]

"Dull. I get you," Eld assured her. Being half-Cizokian himself he was a bit more used to the accent than most, even if he didn't speak with one himself. Etsu would really have to garble her words before it got to the point where he'd need clarification.

Eld took the stick from her, but gave her a confused look. "Err...how am I supposed to test how sharp it is if I can't touch it?"

Though, he had a feeling he knew what her response was going to be...

[Nayt]

Etsu gave Eld a confused and dumbfounded look. Really? She needed to spell it out for him? She was physically incapable of suppressing a sigh.

"Rub stick again-st br-rade," she said while pantomiming the act of pulling a lever or something.

She was actually really terrible at pantomiming, and if Eld were a deaf person with no idea what she was talking about, he'd probably be very confused right now. Fortunately he was not deaf and he was active in the conversation, so he'd know. Or he'd better know.

If he didn't know and she had to actually do it for him, she was going to have to kick him at some point for being such a dunce. Really, if it came to that, he was just asking for it.

[Zach Kaiser]

That was her idea? Well, it beat her insisting that he handle one of the blades at least, but there was still a problem. "There's no way this will work," he pointed out. He'd be lucky to do more than put a few scratches in it the way she suggested.

But he knew she wouldn't be satisfied with that, so with a sigh he went over to the dagger (which thanks to the crossbow seemed to be propped at a good angle for this) and knelt down.

Much to his surprise, though, it only took two motions for the stick to be cut clean through--he nearly cut his finger on the blade, but fortunately managed to avoid touching it with a bit of fumbling.

"H-How...I've never seen anything sharp enough to do that! Someone must be sharpening it regularly." He let his amazement die down as something else occurred to him. "If it's getting sharpened, then there must be a way to handle them without getting haunted."

It would certainly be easier to search if they could actually touch the objects...maybe he could find a way to open that book, then.

[Nayt]

Etsu was seriously trying to not believe any of this and instead just be interested in the whole potential story of it, but even still, if she was going to get haunted or something to that effect by touching one of these items, she wasn't keen on invoking the spirit of some desperate spirit searching for remembrance. Or whatever it was they wanted. So Eld was definitely the one that got the stick, and she was probably going to leave him the short end some other way. If, of course, she could come up with an idea.

Wait a second . . .

"Per-haps it is skin?" she asked.

Eld was still awake and not experiencing the least bit of shock. In fact, it didn't look like he was feeling strange at all-- and according to him, the changes in Akizetsumei were almost immediate.

"You did not faint when touched it with stick," Etsu reasoned, "So . . ."

Eld would probably be able to see where she was going with this. And also that she was going to leave it to him to try this out rather than taking the risk herself. It was only the gentlemanly thing Eld could do.

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld looked at her incredulously. "D-Did you seriously have me do that thinking I might faint from it?" That was...kind of cold, really. It didn't enter his mind that touching it with a stick might set off the ghosts or whatever happened.

Of course, he imagined it was less that Etsu was incredibly reckless with his well-being and more that she just didn't believe in the idea of being haunted. Or at least that was what he chose to believe.

"Alright, alright..." He took off his outer shirt, leaving him in just his undershirt on the upper half of his body. Wrapping his hands in it, he hesitantly reached towards the hilt of the dagger...