[week 12 - day 6] - video
[The hitomi blinks, resolving into a picture with a flutter of static. When it clears, a face is peering out, framed in a loose track jacket and some unnaturally-pleased bamboo. It's a face some might recognise; it looks like it could be nice enough if it tried-or more than nice: brown eyes, brown hair, fine, sharp features like a clever bird's.
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Marco feels equally split on this - on one hand, Marco's glad this guy doesn't seem to have any memories of this place. On the other hand, L isn't here to make sure this guy doesn't do something crazy or stupid or dangerous or all of the above. As far as Marco knows, the only people aware of the real deal with Light is Matt and M. And what of the notebook? When the first - old - whatever Light and L came, there was a notebook. When they disappear, did the notebook disappear as well?
More importantly, does Light have the notebook with him?
But the other question is should Marco even bother be involved with this at all? Marco is now not even sure what he was thinking when he agreed to be part of that entire Birthday Boy fuck-up. Either way, Marco needs to reconsider how he actually stands on this. Because if he gets involved or not, the fact remains is that Light can resemble some kind of threat to the few people he finds as friends. Maybe even more so than Joker all those months ago.]
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You've taken a wrong turn, alright. By the pan-dimensional sort of turn.
[There. See if he can take it.]
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[The small huff as he looks away sounds as impressed as you'd expect. Other than that, he takes it quite well. It's the second theory that had sprung to his mind; if a world like the shinigami realm Ryuk's described can exist, why not others? (Why he'd be in one of them, on the other hand...)]
Huh. You're real. How about that. [He's looked back at the hitomi, focused, attentive, but not all that hostile; why wouldn't I know? Or perhaps... He almost ( ... )
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Some people were already dead when they came here. I'm not one of them.
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[His lips purse, as he thinks that over; he doesn't try to hide it. If he takes that at face value for now, there are any number of people who'd like Light dead, and at least four who might have been able to do it. And yet - out of L, Rem, Ryuk and his father, he can't imagine any of them killing him in his sleep. Well, Rem might, but not now; not when Misa is depending on him... And that's a problem all its own, he thinks. What will Rem do, if I never come back? How soon will Misa be executed, if I vanish?..[Meanwhile, the conversation continues.] That's difficult to believe, though not more difficult than all of this. [The hitomi wobbles a little, as he nods around at the bamboo and the trees.] I suppose there's not a handy way to tell which you are? The dead ones aren't translucent or some such thing ( ... )
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And you were awake at the time? You woke up under the - [his eyes flick over towards it] - tree in, ah, Himorogi?
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Like I said, I was at home, doing my own thing, doing stupid school stuff and then the next I was here.
And if I were you, I'll go to the closest village I can get to. Crazy stuff happens here.
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When you say "crazy stuff" - [the question's delicately balanced, with any answer ready to be analysed six ways from Sunday.] - exactly what did you have in mind? The sort of thing we've been brought here for, is it?
[No, if I'm here, there have to be others. It's not possible that I'm here alone; even if all the messages were faked, I'd still need shelter of some kind. The idea of heading for one of the villages rests uneasily in his head, or he'd have done it by now.]
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The guy knows nothing, remembers nothing, of Marco at all.
Let him think of his conspiracies.]
On the second day I was here, I was checking things out, you know? Got into a village. Then out of nowhere, monsters came. Have you ever read that book, Where the Wild Things Are? With all those monsters with the teeth and the claws?
It's like that, but in the thousands. Like an army out of Hell. Those lucky to survive went to a few safe zones and waited out until the monster incursion disappeared. It hasn't happened again yet, but there's still weird animals out there. Dragons and such. The occasional tiger too, but those are normal, right?
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[...then he looks back to the giant tree, and the impossible waterfall that cascades down it, and the too-fast sun behind it-and he is clearly struggling with disbelief in his surroundings; he's not making too much of an effort to hide it. Fantasy. A fantasy setting. Tigers and dragons. The sorts of thing that would make him doubt his own sanity, if he was going to.]
In the book, the monsters were harmless. Is that how you're supposed to have survived thousands of them?
You must know that sounds an unbelievable story. Which village was it?
[The boy's little lie is nagging at him, but Light's almost sure it's a false alarm. Everyone has boring secrets they think are the end of the world.]
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In the book, they became harmless because some kid in his PJs pretended to be their king or whatever. This time, not so much.
And how I survived? [He makes a gesture with his hand, a peace gesture ironically while presenting two fingers.] Two words: Adrenaline rush. It's amazing just how fast you can run, doesn't it? [Which is more or less true - Marco spent more time running away from the monsters than fighting them while in morph.]
Hisato. And Raisato, Amesato, Kusasato . . . . it pretty much happened on all villages, except that Yomisato one. It didn't even existed until a couple of weeks ago. Or the natives for that matter - for the longest time, the only people were in this place were the ones with the Hitomi. Then these people arrived overnight and claimed they were here for centuries, that we are the newcomers.
Makes little to no sense whatsoever, but that's often the case here.
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[The memory's forgotten in less than a second, then he leans back on his rock, taking the hitomi with him. He doesn't buy it. An army of carnivorous somethings, and next to no prey for them if all the villages were as good as empty, and this kid outran them? On the other hand, children are fast; Light knows that better than anyone, as well as he knows what the instinct to survive can do. But on a foot or an elbow or something, he would have found it far more convincing if the boy had just said he'd hidden ( ... )
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[The way Light talks reminds Marco of the Andalite warriors back home - demanding of answers and refusing to give anything else in return. But then again, isn't Marco doing the same thing here, but without the asking?]
How many? I can't tell you that, man. I never bothered with a headcount, because the numbers are always changing. A person disappear and two appear in their place. And the other people I've gotten along with started to disappear and reappear, usually without their memories of this place. Not entirely sure if names can really help you, frankly, but I guess Lelouch would be your best chance.
[Lelouch, Marco knows, can stand on his own against Light's sociopath bullshit. Rin, not so much. Rin's strong and all, but she doesn't have the savvy like Lelouch does.]
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He taps his chin with his fingers a couple of times before speaking. ]
What do you think?
[ A quite simple question. Lelouch is choosing to trust you right now, Marco. ]
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That guy's is a freaking sociopath, that's what.
Maybe you haven't known this, but the only guy who can really keep him on a leash isn't here anymore. You know, that L guy? And I know for a fact that Light is going to dig through everything he can to get ahead. Sorry, Lelouch, but I am not interested in having Elfangor or Rin getting endangered as far as I can help it, especially if he decides it'll be better for him to have an interest in me. Besides, you are the only person besides Rin who actually did went home and return with the memories of this place in tact. Everyone else I know is gone or doesn't remember a thing.
I could have suggested Renji, but who knows what that guy will say?
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