And the World Shall Forget You

[Zach Kaiser]

I guess she plans on catching our food, then? He wasn't sure how that would go, since due to the whole incident with Akizetsumei he hadn't gotten to see her fishing skills and no one had yet informed him of them.

After Etsu went to say goodbye and they'd left the house, Eld felt compelled to ask, "Why do you need to see Sarah?" Not that he had a problem with it, but he couldn't think of any particular reason they needed to go meet her before they went out towards the graveyard.

[Nayt]

"Reper-rrent," she replied simply.

Etsu led the way to Sarah's (even though Eld already knew the way by heart), and once there, set her stuff down at the door and knocked. Sarah's mother answered, and soon after Eld and Etsu were in the Vaerbond ranch. Etsu and Sarah discussed wolf repellent for a good while, something Sarah seemed knowledgeable enough about. According to her, it just took a good and solid parameter of bear urine, which was kind of a disgusting thought, and even more disgusting that Sarah's family had a small stock of it. Apparently it was Gaia's gift to man when it came to wild animal repellent. No wild animal in the forest wanted to tango with a 600 pound grizzly bear . . .

. . . except for a 700 pound grizzly bear, but there weren't any bears in this area, anyways. The Vaerbonds specially ordered this stuff from northern territories. It worked wonders.

Eld quickly became the designated urine bearer. It was kept in this sealed thermos thing and it didn't smell until the thermos was opened, but what if something happened and maybe the lid wasn't on tight enough? If anyone was going to have that brand of horrible accident, it was Eld.

And then they were off, down the path as night finally crested over town . . .

On the way, Etsu made conversation. "Did you r-rearn any-thing?" She asked, "From Toushikyo-san."

[Zach Kaiser]

As much as Eld disliked the idea of carrying urine on him--much less using it at some point--it was definitely a necessary precaution now that he thought about it. The last thing he needed was another late night run in with Batou, especially since Remmy was nowhere to be found.

It was good to see Sarah again, but they couldn't stay; they were rapidly losing light, and he wanted to get to where they were going to set up camp before it got completely dark. Which probably wasn't going to happen, but he could hope.

Being reminded of his talk with Toushikyo caused his chest to tighten a bit. He turned to Etsu so that she would know he was completely serious. "Yeah. Toushikyo is...is...well, he's suffering from the same thing Akizetsumei is. He has been for years. He says some days he feels normal, but other days he...wakes up and...he can't feel. No pain, no emotion, no anything. When he's normal, he dreads the days he's not."

He shook his head; if he hadn't seen it himself he doubted he'd have believed it. He wasn't sure Etsu would take his word on it, but he hoped she would. "He stepped on broken glass and didn't even know it; he couldn't feel a thing. Even though he's stoic, there's no way he'd be able to walk far like that."

For several moments Eld remained silent, his eyes downcast. "Until now...everything that had happened could have been reasonably explained. I only had my own guesses to go on, my own intuition...it could have just as easily been my imagination otherwise. My mind playing tricks on me. But now..."

It was easy to see why Eld was so upset; two of his friends were suffering, and one of them had been for a long time now. The cause was something that could not be explained conventionally; there was something abnormal at work. His investigation went from being a way to pass the time while he waited for Akizetsumei to feel better to perhaps being necessary to save both her and her brother from whatever was plaguing him.

It was a lot take in; perhaps more than he could right now. He was beginning to think he was in far over his head...

[Nayt]

"He wir-rr feer-r . . . nothing?" Etsu asked rhetorically.

She went silent for awhile, too. Yes, Eld certainly seemed sincere enough, and as she had seen before, he took health issues pretty seriously. Honestly, there was a time that he insisted that she get a bath after only four days without one. Most people she knew bathed twice a month, and most folk in Hillcrest? Yeah, once a month was a pretty good month. But hey, that's what perfume was for, right? And the perfume market was one of the most accessible luxury markets in the world. Even peasants could buy, and they bought in bulk. So yes, Eld was serious about health. He'd never joke about something like one of his friends stepping in glass and not even feeling it in the slightest.

But the whole concept astounded her. Not only did it suggest that there was some truth behind what they were investigating, but it dealt with something she couldn't bring herself to understand: how could one feel nothing? And to what extent?

"Wir-rr Akizetsumei-chan feer-r nothing, too?" Etsu asked.

She hadn't even known Akizetsumei that long, and the notion of that girl being incapable of experiencing emotion was a terrifying thought for Etsu. Akizetsumei of Terra being anything other than an energetic and lively young girl for any reason was a horrible injustice.

[Zach Kaiser]

"...I don't know." The thought frightened Eld as much as it did Etsu. Toushikyo managed to function almost unnoticed while under his curse--which wasn't to say that it was any less painful for him, but since he was stoic already his outward demeanor didn't change drastically.

But Akizetsumei was a girl of constant emotion; almost the opposite of her brother, she seemed to live far more by her feelings than by her thoughts. It was impossible to imagine her as stoic as Kyo had been.

"Honestly, I was so surprised that I didn't end up asking that many questions. But...maybe that's for the best. I think talking to him when he's feeling again would be better anyway."

"...He said I'd only be able to help Akizetsumei if she lets me. That probably applies to him too. I guess all I can do now is keep looking into this, and hope that they let me."

[Nayt]

"If they r-ret you?" Etsu asked.

That was a weird concept. Sure, she could understand stubbornness over little things. If Etsu hurt her ankle, and though it hurt to walk, she could walk just fine and not make it worse? A pulled muscle or something. She probably wouldn't accept Eld's offer to help her. But if she lost the ability to feel anything, and Eld was willing to help her . . . it didn't matter what her previous thoughts of him were, Etsu was going to be desperate for anyone that was willing and able to do her some good. Anything less would have been wasteful.

It made her question Toushikyo. The way Eld talked about it, it was as if he were saying that they had a choice in the matter of who was there to help them or not, and supposedly Toushikyo had been suffering for years. Why hadn't he got help yet? Why didn't he seek his friends earlier?

"But if they are suffer-ing and you can her-rp-- why wour-rd they not r-ret you?"

That had to go beyond simple stubbornness. Now Etsu really felt like she was missing a huge piece of the puzzle. Like this whole mystery was an intricate maze and now they couldn't even see where they were going, like a whole sector of the maze was blocked off by smog, leaving them no definitive route to an end-- to answers.

. . . wait a second . . .

[Zach Kaiser]

"I don't know. I mean, Toushikyo can be stubborn and prideful, but it sounds like he's really suffering...I can't see him staying silent for this long if he thought I could help." Well, it was possible he didn't actually think Eld could help, but at the very least he could have confided in him, or someone if he didn't feel comfortable with Eld, and yet he kept quiet.

And Akizetsumei had seen--

Eld stopped suddenly. It was a thought that had occurred to him, one he now felt compelled to share with Etsu. "Akizetsumei...when she woke up, she mentioned she'd seen something. She said something about seeing her and her family die...no, someone killing them...and she was afraid of me..." He couldn't remember off hand if he'd told Etsu this part or not, so he mentioned it just in case.

He turned rigidly to Etsu, staring at her with wide eyes and a vaguely horrified expression. "What if...what if that wasn't just a fever dream. What if Toushikyo saw the same thing for some reason? What if they think...I'll kill them?"

[Nayt]

Hmm. That sort of fit with her own epiphany, actually, but rather than voicing her theory on the matter right here and now, Etsu figured they should at least discuss Eld's for awhile, first. After all, he was the guy truly involved in this matter. Etsu was just intrigued enough to tag along. In the end, she was as like to be emotionally, mentally, or physically harmed over this ordeal as Maya, Emily, or Sarah. Perhaps even less likely than them. Toushikyo and Akizetsumei didn't know Etsu too well, after all.

Well . . . maybe. She'd had a very strange bonding experience with Toushikyo, one that kind of endeared him to her. They went spear fishing together, and he was actually pretty good . . .

Not that it mattered too much. To Etsu's knowledge, Toushikyo already had a girlfriend. She had no intrinsic desire to pursue that guy in a romantic way (even less of a desire now that she knew he had a serious problem), but girls could be protective sometimes. Etsu had found that out the hard way a couple years back. Merely befriending a boy that happened to be dating a girl at the time was like some form of social taboo half of the time. A girl almost tried to fight her over the matter. Which is to say, a girl slapped her for laughing at the girl's boyfriend's joke, so Etsu popped her in the nose, hit her head off of a wall, put her in a rear naked choke hold, and held her there until she drifted off harmlessly to sleep.

Good times.

Anyways, she had a thought about Toushikyo to finish:

"And if he can-not feer-r fear . . ."

If she hadn't been carrying so much stuff with such a high priority on making it out before midnight or something, she'd have stopped, folded her arms over her chest, and maybe even rubbed her chin in thought.

"Per-haps that is why he tor-rd you to-night," Etsu concluded pointedly, "Be-cause was not a-fraid . . ."

[Zach Kaiser]

"Probably." Eld sighed, and started walking again. It was kind of trying, knowing that his friend only told him about this because he wasn't himself at the time. "I wonder if he was like that when he stopped by yesterday, though, or if he was normal..." Kyo had said that as time passed his days where he couldn't feel were happening more and more frequent...would they happen multiple days in a row now?

It was painful to think of; going one day without feeling anything sounded terrible. What would it be like to go several days? A week? Even more?

He shook his head; dwelling on it wasn't going to help any. "I hope we can catch whoever's taking care of the graveyard...and I hope they have some answers."

[Nayt]

Etsu nodded her head. Yes, it was now especially imperative that they encounter this graveyard keeper and question him or her. And this person was going to talk. Of course, they were going to be kind and respectful . . . at first. If this person wasn't going to talk, though . . . Well, Etsu had many years of experience in abusing members of both sexes. If they really needed someone to talk, she could make them sing.

They walked for a good bit until they reached the lake, and just further down from it, through the dense overgrown path, they reached the graveyard. Of course, they weren't going to actually camp out at the graveyard. Firstly, there wasn't enough room. Secondly, that was unnervingly creepy. It was instead decided between them that they'd camp out just outside of the graveyard, just past some of the brush that marked the tree-line. It took clearing out a large patch of brush for them to find a decent spot to pitch a tent, a nice flat piece of earth framed by three large trees. Luckily, their tent could actually fit between the trees. Etsu didn't often tell herself that she was being strange, but when her first thoughts were this would make a great defensive position, she knew for a fact that she needed to get some sleep as soon as they were done working out the little details here.

The only problem was that it was pitch black by then and the only thing in the world that Etsu forgot to pack was Eld's desk lantern. GAH! Much time was spent berating herself for being so stupid-- remembering to pack Eld an extra and completely superfluous pair of pants, but completely forgetting to bring a light source. It wasn't one of her proudest moments in life, that was for sure.

Needless to say, setting up with difficult. They could only see when in the graveyard, but definitely not in the area they decided to build their tent. Etsu stuck to her own plan, though: she built the tent and Eld set the parameter. This meant he was on urine duty, naturally. It was late and supposedly there was a risk of wolves out around now, so it was imperative that they mark the parameter in that repellent they got from Sarah. It smelled absolutely awful, but it was necessary-- and hey, Etsu didn't have to deal with that. It was all on Eld to trip all over himself out in the middle of the woods, creating a moderate parameter of bear urine to deter every little animal in the woods from checking out their lovely camp spot.

Another problem was the size of the tent. When it was all packed up, it looked like it was going to be a lot bigger than it actually was. But in the end, it was no bigger than Eld's mattress! She stored all of their belongings in the back of the tent and tested out laying down, and they had a decent amount of space to stretch their legs out, but width wise, definitely not enough room.

Whatever! They'd just deal with that when the time came. Until then, Etsu got busy with laying out the blankets she packed-- enough blankets, in fact, to layer and create a makeshift mattress --and the pillows she brought. That was all that was left to do for now. They'd just have to go get a lantern tomorrow or something-- or just live without one.

[Zach Kaiser]

Damn...guess we took too long. It was well after dark by the time they arrived, so all their preparations would have to be done more or less blind, especially as they both agreed that camping in the graveyard itself was out of the question, meaning they didn't even get what little illumination the moon gave this night.

Etsu decided to clear the area and pitch the tent, so that left Eld with marking the perimeter of the site. If it weren't for his run in with Batou he would have absolutely refused to carry something as disgusting as bear urine, let alone actually use it. But being uncomfortable wasn't as bad as being eaten by wolves, so he didn't have much choice.

Fortunately, he was generally only a klutz when he wasn't paying attention, and this was a task he gave the utmost attention to. He took it nice and slow, and by the time he got back Etsu was finished setting up their site.

"...I could have sworn this seemed bigger last time I used it," he commented, noting that the tent was only going to barely fit both of them and their stuff. It was a good thing Etsu had been trusting him as of late, or he'd be afraid she'd make him sleep outside.

"Or maybe I was just smaller." It had probably been a year at least since he last went camping, come to think of it.

[Nayt]

Etsu was standing outside, arms folded over her chest, and observing the tent with a stern look of disapproval. This was what they had and they'd just have to make do, but that didn't mean she had to be thrilled with the idea. Honestly, the things she was doing for this boy. He might as well owe her half of his soul by now (not that she'd want something like that, but knowing that it was owed would still have given her some solace). The only thing she could see right now was the outline of the tent and the outline of Eld, though, so it was kind of a moot issue.

"You stay," she said to him, "I must change."

She gave him a glare, as if to say "if you peek, you die," but he couldn't see her, either, so it didn't matter. He could have poked his head in the tent, even wandered on in on his own, and he'd have seen nothing.

It took Etsu awhile to get changed, and she really only had a vague clue about what she put on. She kind of didn't know if it belonged to her or Eld, either. Oh well. It was a big shirt and it seemed to fit her, and that was fine by her. Once she was done, she crawled out of the tent on her hands and knees and reached her arm out blindly for Eld's pant leg, in hopes that she could catch him at the shin or knee or something and he'd help her up. Otherwise, she really had no idea what the heck she was doing.

This lack of light was quickly becoming a serious problem.

[Zach Kaiser]

"Alright." Of course, Eld wasn't the kind of person who would peek in on a girl changing. (Well, maybe on Sarah, but that was different.) Even if he decided too, though, he doubted it would matter much--he could probably have been right next to her and he wouldn't be able make anything out.

He was just staring off blindly into the woods when he felt a tug on his leg. "All done?" he asked rhetorically. Of course she was; no way she'd get his attention if she wasn't.

Once Etsu made a bit of room, he'd crawl into the tent himself. "Did you pack me any nightclothes, or should I just sleep in what I'm wearing?" he asked. The later was what he'd intended with his own packing, but if Etsu threw something in there wasn't much point in not putting it to use.

[Nayt]

"I did," she replied.

Where, she had no idea. Eld was just going to have to rummage through the two packs in the back of the tent until he found something. She'd stashed her bra, pants, undershirt, and jacket in the right corner; if he caught any of those, he was definitely looking in the wrong area.

It was colder at night than she gave it credit for. In hindsight, maybe she should have let Eld get dressed first before she did, then she'd just be able to curl under some blankets and be warm again-- but really, standing out here like this, in little more than a jumbo sized shirt, was way colder than expected. She crossed her arms over her chest and shivered. I'll be comfortable again in a minute, she told herself over and over again.

"Pr-rease hurry," she said after a moment of quiet.

Though her shivers were quiet enough before, when she spoke, they were very audible. Although it wasn't intended, that'd hopefully coerce Eld to speed things along.

[Zach Kaiser]

Indeed, Eld decided to hurry up; even fully dressed it was getting a bit cold, and he wanted to get warm and under covers himself in short order. After a brief moment of embarrassment when the first thing he encountered was Etsu's underwear, he quickly uncovered a pair of sweatpants that he could only assume were meant to be his nightclothes.

He slipped them on quickly, leaving his undershirt on for the sake of warmth, and then poked his head out of the tent. "All done," he said, grasping around for Etsu's leg much as she had done.