[Voice]

[collagehero]

Happy birthday, Homura! And a belated happy birthday to Elissa, too! I had to go save the world back home, but now I'm back! How's everybody else been? Busy? I heard I haven't been gone that long here, but I was home for a year or so, so it seems like a really long time!

[And then not long after she'd gotten back, the whole candy thing happened, so she really hasn't had a chance to chat with all and sundry over the journal yet.]

Comments

[voice]

[thethundersaid]

... you had to go save the world back home? [He sounds deeply skeptical.]

[voice]

[collagehero]

Yup! I'm a superhero, after all. It's my job to keep Earth safe from aliens!

[As dubious as it sounds, it really is exactly what happened. Towards the end of the day on Rin's birthday, some mysterious force caused her to fall backwards off a rail on the Koumyou and into a whirlpool. She reappeared out of nowhere about a week later, ready to pick up where she left off.]

[voice]

[thethundersaid]

A ... right. [He should really be past the point he's surprised by anything.]

What do you mean you went back home?

[voice]

[collagehero]

I mean I went back home! I fell off the boat and then suddenly I was right back where I started! And now I'm back here, so I figure the grumpy ghost pirate guy must have needed me to pick up Katze-san and come back.

[That's her story and she's sticking to it.]

[voice]

[thethundersaid]

So you don't know how you returned to your world? [If 'falling off the boat' is all it takes, surely someone on the Murderess would have managed it by now. Everyone has so far seemed adamant that people who disappear don't just trip overboard or something.]

By right back where you started ... you arrived back in your world at the same time you left it?

[voice]

[collagehero]

Exactly! Like I'd never left! Just BZZZZT! back in the same spot wearing the same clothes doing the same thing! The same thing happened to Clem, so I guess sometimes it just happens. It's not like when people's hearts just aren't in it and they go home, since we have to come back.

[voice]

[thethundersaid]

[That it's happened to one person is startling enough -- two is more than an anomaly. But when she says people's hearts aren't in it, he boggles at the journal for a moment before asking incredulously:]

Did you choose to come back? [She said 'have to', but ...]

[voice]

[collagehero]

Hmmmmm...no? He didn't ask, but he didn't ask the first time, either. I like being here, though, and there's still a lot of stuff to do, so now I'm back!

[She hasn't really had a chance to talk to Clem about it, but she has a feeling Clem would rather be here than at home. In her own case, she's perfectly happy wherever she is.]

[voice]

[thethundersaid]

[So they vanished from this world, returned to their own world, and then reappeared here -- but time has passed only here. It's confusing at the least, nonsensical at the worst.

He has to ask:]

What kind of world do you live in, that you prefer being here?

[voice]

[collagehero]

I don't prefer either! They're both a lot of fun! It's just that I saved the world already back home and we're not even close to getting all the shards here, so there's so much more to do here right now.

[voice]

[thethundersaid]

You've ... already saved the world back home. So you're just ... looking for things to do?

[He knows he's been warned that this one is a little nonsensical, but really?]

[voice]

[collagehero]

Gotta keep busy! 'Course when we go home, I'll just pick up where I left off, but it's like a way to have extra fun!

[Extra fun with Hajime. Katze is thrilled.]

Aren't you having fun?

[voice]

[thethundersaid]

No. This is the opposite of fun. Do you enjoy having your plans interfered with and your mind prey to control?

[voice]

[rebellions]

... You went back to your world?!

[What she did there is irrelevant right now; all that matters to Ragna is the suggestion that there may be some way out that isn't connected to the jewel everyone is looking for...]

[voice]

[collagehero]

Yup. I went SPLOOSH! right off the boat. I guess the grumpy ghost pirate guy thought he needed a Hajime who'd done more--

[She cuts herself off, since she's not really thinking about what she's saying so much as talking and then examining what comes out afterwards and so has just come to a new realization.]

--oh, or he wanted me to bring a friend!

[voice]

[rebellions]

[Guess what? HE DOESN'T CARE. The only piece of information he's interested in is the method she used to travel between the worlds, and he's willing to do anything to find out more about it.]

Tell me how that happened. In detail.

[voice]

[collagehero]

I just did, though. I was standing on the rail, then SPLOOSH!

[That's all she's got, really. She felt like she was being pulled, and then that was it.]

[voice]

[rebellions]

You fell off the boat? That's it?

[God. How much of an idiot is that girl really? Still, even if she did fall... Ragna refuses to believe that's where the story ends.]

... There's gotta be more to this than that!

[voice]

[collagehero]

Nope, that's it! SPLOOSH! and I was home again and then ZAP! I came back. Maybe the grumpy ghost pirate guy wanted me to bring a friend.

[It would make sense, because that's what changed. When Clem left, she was pretty little and then she came back much bigger. Hajime hasn't gotten any bigger, but she does have Katze-san now.]

[voice]

[rebellions]

[There's a pause as Ragna cringes at the word "ghost". He was so absorbed by the idea of a chance for escape he barely even registered it the first time she said it. Now that it actually hit him, it... does make him uncomfortable, sure, but won't stop the Grim Reaper from pursuing the subject.

That's how desperate he is.]

... How about you describe it without silly sound effects?

[voice]

[collagehero]

[You're bringing this on yourself, Ragrumpy.]

I was standing on the rail of the boat, then I fell off, then I was back home, then I saved the world, then I was here again, only now Katze-san is with me.

[voice]

[rebellions]

And? Try to remember, it's important!

[To be perfectly honest, Ragna doesn't expect much of her... but if there's even the slightest possibility of leaving this goddamn place right here and now, he's gonna do everything he can to find the way to do that.

... Except throwing himself off the rail. He's not that dumb.]

[voice]

[collagehero]

No more "and!" That's everything. You could talk to Clem about it, too, since the same thing happened to her. You want me to find Clem for you?

[voice]

[rebellions]

There are more people who went back and forth between worlds?!

[WHY WAS HE NOT INFORMED OF THAT oh yeah he's a douchebag and doesn't talk to anyone, that's why.]

... Sure, why not. Maybe she'll be more helpful...

[voice]

[bravelittlehero]

[Since Hajime tipped her off that someone wanted to talk to her, she opens the journal and answers.]

Hello? This is Clementine.

[She sounds young, since she's eleven, but serious.]