And the World Shall Forget You

[Nayt]

Etsu couldn't help but hope for a very particular answer, too. In a roundabout way, Eld provided just that answer, though she had to think about it to come to the conclusion.

"So . . . you have not been on many dates, then," Etsu observed aloud.

For some reason or the other, this was kind of a relief to her. Maybe, then, the night that she arrived there was just a fluke. Yes, he did perverted things. At the time, she'd thought he'd forgotten or didn't give a damn about her in the slightest. But now, believing otherwise, she figured he was just a boy. Boys were perverts. It was just to be expected. The level of perverse things they did often depended on how much a girl would allow them to do-- and clearly the girl he was with that night was of loose moral boundaries.

So yes. Yes, that was a relief. Why? She hadn't the slightest clue. It was like hearing about an attractive celebrity from town, about how they were now single, and that somehow, someway, this was a pleasing development.

[Zach Kaiser]

"P-Pretty much," Eld was forced to admit. No, when it came to the actual dating part he had little idea how to act. One was supposed to take girls out on dates, right? But the two girls he'd dated had already been his friends for some time; they'd mostly just continued doing what they'd been doing.

But having been asked that, he did have one thing going for him: turnabout was fair play. "So, what about you?" he asked. "You talked about kicking boys butts back at school. Go on any dates with them?"

[Nayt]

This was a question that Etsu actually felt prepared for. She hadn't personally sat down and thought over and over about how she'd respond to it or something similar, but she did feel absolutely prepped to take care of it without falter. Perhaps that was because the answer was so glaringly easy . . .

"None," she said as she shook her head.

Etsu folded her arms over her chest like an authority figure would when stamping out a rebellion.

"I was under im-pression that we may some-day have sumiengumi," she reasoned, "I wanted to have cr-rean sr-rate by that time."

Obviously that wasn't going to happen anymore, though. Now Etsu really had no idea what she was going to do with her life, romantically speaking. Granted, she hadn't devoted much thought to it yet, but the thought did cross her mind just now, and she did feel a little helpless at the idea of having absolutely nothing set in stone for her life.

[Zach Kaiser]

At this, Eld turned red and looked down. "S-Sorry," he mumbled. Not about there not being a sumiengumi, since had little to no say in that, but because if it had happened he wouldn't have had a clear slate, as Etsu would likely recall from her first night at the clinic.

There was something he felt the need to ask, though he wasn't sure how he'd handle the answer. Or what answer he even hoped for. "H-Hey, when you came here, were you hoping to be...umm...well, hoping we'd be in a sumiengumi?"

It was one thing to think his parents almost put him in an arranged marriage, but it just struck him as odd that someone might actually want to marry him, from meeting him just once, no less. Or maybe it was because of that...maybe enough time around him simply made people think he wasn't marriage material.

[Nayt]

Etsu stopped walking entirely-- stopped on a coin, at that. She dropped her arms to her sides and looked at Eld incredulously. On one hand, she was appalled that he'd ask her that. On the other, it made perfect sense to her-- but she'd been hoping for a different end result when she showed up in Hillcrest. A single boy that she had been quite fond of at an earlier age waiting for her, for instance. Then, she'd have joined with him in an arranged marriage, and there'd again be some order to her life. Perhaps for the rest of her life, even.

Her situation was what she hated more than anything else. More than her previous hatred for Eld, in fact. It through her life into chaos, and if there was anything in the world she hated, it was chaos. As such, the idea of an arranged marriage never bothered her. It completely circumvented the whole courting process, which was in itself awfully chaotic. In hindsight, Etsu had recalled a moment in her life that contradicted her previous statement, one dealing with that chaotic thing called courting, but she wasn't going to talk about that right now.

Regardless, an arranged marriage would have set a permanent order to her life. She'd have taken fewer risks than with the courting process, and unlike the sporadic and flaky dating scene, Etsu's parental unit would have benefited from it just as much as she. And unlike filthy rich nobles, her mother and stepfather wanted the very best for Etsu, and would have never married her off to someone who'd treat her poorly. It was a win-win scenario for her. She would have a structured and happy life, and her parents would be a little better . . .

"I wour-rd be r-rying if I said no," she replied simply, before starting to walk again.

[Zach Kaiser]

"O-Oh." That was...well, that was something. He wasn't sure what just yet, but it was something. It was also perhaps a question he should have kept to himself. He stared at his feet as he walked now, wishing he hadn't said anything.

There would be another long, awkward silence before he spoke again. It was just...odd, to think that Etsu had come here and on top of everything else going on in her life she hoped that she'd get engaged to him. He must have made a really good impression back when they'd first met. And though he hadn't known about it, he'd still let her down.

"What do you think it would be like if they had put us in a...sumiengumi?" he asked for the sake of starting conversation again. Idle speculation was harmless enough, he figured.

[Nayt]

This question was just as easy to answer as the question about how many dates Etsu had been on. Except this time, it wasn't that it was a no-brainer. This time, she'd actually practiced the answer. Yes, there had been some nights where she imagined what it would have been like to be married to a nice boy-- and yes, her idea of a nice boy was that of the Eldridge Tsukimono she met years ago. Earlier thoughts on this bordered on girlish fancies. She had pictured what all their wedding would be like. Who she'd invite. If sake would be permitted or not. Probably not. And ultimately, she thought about what kind of dress she'd wear.

There was even a time that an eleven year old Etsu wandered into the tailor's down the road and spent hours searching through all the shiromuku he had on display. The tailor jokingly asked if she was going to get married, and Etsu very seriously replied that yes, she was in fact going to be married. A week later, she saw that tailor again; he asked when the ceremony was going to be held. She lied and told him that she believed it was going to be six months from then. Six months later, she saw him again and he asked, and she said that it had been pushed back by a year. And when she was twelve and still unmarried, she made a sincere effort to avoid that tailor from that point on.

Later on, Etsu's fancies became less imaginative and more realistic. At thirteen, she became well versed in town economics and how dowries functioned. She learned of the stability of marriage and she learned of the horrors of going unmarried for the majority of one's life. Whilst some romance remained in her heart, she began to see it as a rational event-- a logical conclusion to her romantic life, allowing her to focus on other things, like education, professional interests, and starting a family.

"He wour-rd buy us a home," she was speaking of her stepfather, of course, "And Ojisan wour-rd give a dowry to my famir-ry. And you and I wour-rd r-rive to-gether-- and it wour-rd be com-fort-abr-re and stabr-re. Be-cause a good husband and a good wife do not r-reave each-other and they do not hurt each-other, and I wour-rd r-rike to be a good wife some-day. And . . . then we wour-rd finish schoor-r, and per-haps we wour-rd move on to-gether for cor-rrege. And then I wour-rd join you in taking over cr-rinic when Ojisan and Obasan re-tire. And someday-- probabr-ry after we finish schoor-r and before cor-rrege, we wour-rd start famir-ry to-gether. And we wour-rd be happy."

She said absolutely nothing about love-- but love was not an important aspect of an arranged marriage. It happened eventually. If both parties were kind to one another, they were likely going to fall in love and stay in love, but romantic love was in no way a requirement for the start of an arranged marriage. This was something Etsu had come to terms with long ago, back when she even heard about the possibility. When her mother explained it to her, it made perfect sense, and Etsu sincerely had no issues with the concept.

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld started chuckling about halfway through her story, which spilled over into laughter he could barely contain by the time she finished. It wasn't at her vision, however, or even the fact that she had it so clearly planned out. "S-Sorry, it's just...the last part sounded like my parents' story. They weren't in an arranged marriage or anything, but they fell in love and ended up going to college together."

If nothing else, he'd succeeded in lightening the mood, at least for himself. "It'd be kind of nice to go to college with someone I know. As it is, I'll probably be the only one going where I'm going." Sarah was definitely not going to college, and he was fairly certain Kyo wouldn't as long as he was haunted. Maya might, but he wasn't sure. Emily almost certainly would but he'd be finishing school by the time she even started.

[Nayt]

As Etsu finished her story, she found herself feeling a mixture of embarrassment and anger. She thought at first that Eld was laughing at her. That . . . that was an absolutely horrible feeling. Here she was, essentially telling him something she'd never actually talked about before, and he was laughing. It didn't matter if it wasn't all that important in the long run, or if these were just nothing more than a young girl's fancies all wrapped up in one hefty rant. It was something she valued and he was laughing.

Etsu averted her eyes from him and frowned. She was blushing intensely by then, long after Eld apologized to her. Was an apology going to be enough?

Probably not.

They were walking side by side around the lake. The sun was out and it was particularly warm today. Still frowning, she looked at Eld, then down at the water. They were just walking by a deep spot, where the ground on which they walked didn't taper off like a slope, but instead dropped down a good ways. It was probably eight feet deep. Neither of them would have been able to touch bottom.

Requiring no further convincing from herself, Etsu stopped abruptly, and with all of her weight, shoved Eld off of the ground and into the water. This, of course, was followed up with the dusting off of her hands, before continuing to walk with Eld no longer by her side.

[Zach Kaiser]

"Hwa-!" Caught entirely off guard, there wasn't much Eld could do but flail helplessly as he tumbled into the water. When he surfaced, Etsu was already walking again, and thus didn't see Eld's glare.

He wasn't sure why she did it, but she was most certainly not going to get away with it!

He climbed out of the water and started sprinting after her. "Hey Etsu!" he called as he started getting close. And then he ran right up to her, wrapped his arms around her waist, and jumped back into the water.

[Nayt]

Etsu half-turned around by the time Eld caught her. The last thing she expected was for Eld to climb out of the water and run at her! Honestly, what kind of mad-man would do that? She froze up, though. Normally, she'd have just punched him in the gut or something to that effect, but still Etsu lacked the will to seriously hit this boy. Throw him into the lake, maybe, but not actually hurt him.

Her state of temporary paralysis was only worsened when he wrapped his arms around her waist. It was like . . . a hug. A close hug, where he pressed his body against her and held her tightly against him. She was caught in a moment, left frozen and blushing, unable to do anything but feel a whole-body warmth wash over her. And then she was left to question: why would he do that? She'd just thrown him in the lake! What had she done to deserve such a random and . . . kind of welcomed show of affection? It was confusing.

At least until Etsu realized that Eld was lifting her up. She let out a meek cry, and was ultimately helpless to stop the inevitable: Eld jumping back into the water and bringing her down with him. The most she could possibly do was hold onto him for dear life, and absolutely hope for the best . . .

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld was laughing as he broke the surface. Startling Etsu enough that she was practically clinging to him was totally worth jumping back into the lake for. With one arm still around her, he reached up to hold the side of the shore to steady them. He couldn't really swim while holding onto her (or vice-versa)

"Guess we're going for a swim earlier than we thought," he said cheekily, but made no move to do anything else until Etsu was at least comfortable enough to tread water on her own.

Though it would be a lie to say that no part of him hoped she continued to hold onto him as tightly as she was...

[Nayt]

Etsu gasped for air once she was above water again. None of this had been expected, and by the time they were airborne, she had only a split second to hold her breath. She hadn't taken a gasp of air or anything of the sort, and without much air in her lungs when underwater, the need to breath became increasingly necessary!

She could have shouted about how Eld could've killed her just then, but it was probably a similar experience for him when she pushed him in the water, so he'd probably use that to justify revenge. Still, she was not pleased with this turn of events. She was not pleased with it at all! Etsu let go of Eld and tread water just before him. She took a moment to wipe the water from her eyes and breath as much as she felt she needed to when she was under.

Yes, apparently they were going to go swimming a lot sooner than expected-- except swimming officially meant shoving Eld under the water disdainfully. Which she did. With pleasure. She glared at him once, only to put her hands on his shoulders soon after and shove him down with all of her strength.

Of course, Etsu was going to let up. She was going to hold him down for a couple of seconds, yes, but she wasn't going to try to drown him. Instead, she fully planned on letting go of him and high-tailing it out of there-- swimming away from him to avoid what he'd probably consider revenge part two.

[Zach Kaiser]

Eld's mirth was cut tragically short by Etsu placing her hands on his shoulders and pushing down. His grip on the shore slipped and he fell under, gurgling in surprise from the move. Belatedly, he remembered that Etsu (well, girls in general, really) didn't believe in the concept of "even" if they started something.

When he resurfaced after a few seconds, she was already hightailing it away from him. She was fairly good at that, it seemed. Unfortunately, while he might be able to outrun her, he could most certainly not outswim her. He did not let that deter him, though; he'd continue to harry her with the threat of catching up until they reached where the shore became a beach again.

[Nayt]

Etsu reached the shore as quickly as she could, only to find herself on the same side as they were on last night. She'd have to run the course of the lake again if she wanted to get back to the path, and since she couldn't go much further than beyond the lake . . .

Of course, that depended on Eld chasing her. Etsu slowly climbed to her feet once at shore and turned to check on Eld, if he was just floating around or making chase, and--

Oh, no . . .

He was practically right behind her, about ready to surface at shore. Etsu looked left hastily, looked right, and made a quick decision. She darted to the left: the quickest possibly route to the graveyard. That path did not wrap around the lake quite as much as what was her rightmost path, and she figured that if she could get back to camp, she could be relatively safe.

Hopefully.