piratejournal | [Voice]

Entry tags:

[Voice]

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.]

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

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

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.]

... 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...]

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!

[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.

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.]

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!

Edited 2014-02-24 01:06 (UTC)

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.]

[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?

[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.

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.]

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?

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...

[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.]

[... Are all members of their crew little children? Ragna's hopes for getting some useful information are disappearing at the speed of light now, but he said he'd give it a shot, so...]

The loud brat over there says you went back to your world at some point. Tell me everything you know about it.

[Introductions? Explanations? Who needs those.]

[Fortunately for Ragna, niceties aren't really necessary.]

I went back to my world, they said it was about a month ago. I was swept over the side into the water. I couldn't really swim or do much of anything. The next thing I knew was that I woke up at home the moment I left it from, or not long after. I'd been here for awhile.

[She pauses, thinking about what else.]

I had a knife on me but it didn't make it home. I got back with only what I had on me when I left there. Then I was there two years before coming back, which like the first time I didn't really notice, although I wasn't asleep this time. It was just like where I was standing shifted to the Koumyou.

[Now that's what he calls cooperation. Much more useful than Hajime's SPLOOSHes and ZAPs.

Ragna listens carefully to the girl, noting all of that. It still doesn't explain how or why it happened, but if it's true, then perhaps there is a way out that doesn't involve gathering the gem pieces─]

... Hold it right there. You're saying you went back exactly to the moment where you left?

[THAT'S A NEW ONE.]

I don't know if it was the exact moment, but it was close to it. I was where I had been when I came here the first time, out by the rusted car.

[There's something akin to an irritated huff coming from his end. Ragna may be known for many things, but patience isn't one of them.]

Point is, it hasn't been as long as you spent here in this world. Is that right?

That's right. If it had been that long, Christa and Omid wouldn't have met up with me, they'd have assume I died.

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

What do you mean you went back home?

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.]

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?

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.

[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 ...]

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Page 1 of 4

[Voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]

[voice]