Mwahaha.
.
.
.
.
*A darkness, a silence, and then:*
[BGM- Monstre Sacre, Stereolab (lyrics)]
*Just a darkness.*
.......
Very Smooth, Male Voice: Well, hello madam... you seem to be waking up after all.
....ugh...
V.S.M. Voice: Try not to move too much. The splints keeping your fractures in place aren't quite as solid as we'd like...
.......nnf.
V.S.M. Voice: That Yuuryou really did a number on you.
........ *moan*
V.S.M. Voice: Yes, it's really hard to believe that man was once Sencha Ailith Yui...
*The pile of blankets that is the RL-Chatty shoots upright with a cry of anguish. Fortunately, this is not accompanied by the sound of any cracking bones or such.*
*It is, however, accompanied by the discovery that the very smooth, Toshihiko Seki-esque voice belongs, in truth, to a four-foot tall rat in a labcoat.*
Rat: *wide-eyed* Mind the splints!
*huff*.... *puff* ...who the hell are you?
Rat: *L* Oh, nobody. Just the man that saved your life.
...you're a rat.
Rat: I'd noticed that myself.
...uh... no, that's not what I mean... *muddled* ...ugh, thank you? Wait... my life? You saved it?
Rat: In a manner of speaking. If you'd stayed with Yuuryou, he definitely would have killed you. *cheerily* And I stole you from Yuuryou, so... yes. I did.
....Ailith...
Rat: Best not to call him that anymore. He's a full Miyuka Midori now.
You... actually know what that means, don't you?
Rat: *nods* Why yes, I do. The Midori are a "race" of souls, all of them green frequency patterns-- thus the name. The lower intensity Midori are called Chatties; the higher, Miyuka or Miyu.
How is that Ai... that Yuuryou is alive? I... remember killing him... and the roaches burned his corpse...
Rat: Well, it's very simple-- that wasn't his corpse. The Midori, in their kind, kind foolishness, retrieved his body and replaced it with that of... ah, a different corpse.
And then they resurrected him, fixed his form problems, and he's lived among them ever since?
Rat: *squinting smile* Precisely.
...and all this time he's been training, to the point that he's now Miyu-level in power.
Rat: *nod* Under the bizarre battle cry of "Soul Blue", no less.
Tamashii Aoi?
Rat: Yes, that's it exactly. Very strange. Grammatically incorrect, or should I say, backwards...
Tamashii Aoi is a girl.
Rat: Oh. *blink, lightbulb* ...oh! I see. *smirk* Girlfriend?
First love.
Rat: How sweet.
.....where am I?
Rat: You're aboard an interdimensional craft called the Curry Scuttle, which is bound for EGC as we speak.
*tensing up* EGC.
Rat: Yes. EGC.
I don't want to go back there. Not while there's Snow.
Rat: *sigh* I'm afraid we don't have any choice.
I don't think you understand. If I go back there, I'm powerless. I could die. PERMANENTLY.
Rat: Have you taken a good look at yourself beneath those blankets? If you don't go back, you WILL die "permanently".
*The Pile of Blankets shifts a little in puzzlement, and then in distress.*
I'm... covered in sores?
Rat: Yuuryou had you "possessed" into the body of a leper.
I have LEPROSY?!
Rat: Very Biblical of him, I know. The idea was that if you escaped, no one would help you for fear of being infected. Unfortunately, the only way to save you is for you to repossess your own body, that one back in EGC which one of your five selves still remains in.... knowing your track record, "you" might even be back up and running around by now...
.....leprosy... I'm a leper...
Rat: ........
*sniffling* ...why? Isn't being mazoku bad enough..?
Rat: *concerned look* ........
*beginning to cry* I don't want to die... I don't...
*The Rat looks straight into the makeshift hood in the blankets for a short while. And then, very carefully, he pokes his snout in and licks a sore on the end of her nose.*
! *Yellow eyes wide with shock*
Rat: *quietly* You won't die. I promise you that.
*embarrassed babble that sounds much like a disintegrated "arigato gozaimasu"*
Rat: Dou itashimashite. *gingerly backs off and pats what's presumably her shoulder* You should get some more rest, now. You're going to need it when we're in the City.
....h-h-hai.
Rat: Sleep well, my Demiurge.
*She faints.*
Rat: *blink* ...huh. *L* Well, that works.
*The Rat stands up, very carefully putting the Leper Demiurge aside, and leaves through an airhatch door that quickly seals shut. He passes through another auto-hatch door straight onto the bridge (apparently the Curry Scuttle is a very small ship), and chortles very loudly at the one assistant at the helm.*
Rat: OhohoHO! Did you see that, Mouse?
Mouse: *deadpan* Yes I did, sir.
Rat: *preens* I think she likes me. What do you think, Mouse?
Mouse: I think you're hitting on a leper, sir.
Rat: Che. You're just jealous.
Mouse: *a little ticked-off* Sir, this is a complete waste of our time.
Rat: *suddenly serious* Is it? And would you rather I let her die?
Mouse: Why should we help her?
Rat: Why shouldn't we help her?
Mouse: ...there's absolutely nothing scientific about this.
Rat: *sigh* Great, now you're reminding me of Dillinger Gerbil.
Mouse: *confused* Dillin..?
Rat: Old partner. We broke company a long time ago because of philosophical differences. The fellow didn't have a drop of compassion in his soul. Not one. Science was its own justification, and nothing else mattered.
Mouse: That's carrying things a bit far.
Rat: Exactly. The poor bastard had no sex life to speak of whatsoever.
Mouse: *flustered* Wh-- that's meandering off the topic!
Rat: *impishly* Well, it is and it isn't...
Mouse: His sex life has nothing to do with anything!
Rat: *on a roll* Ah, but you can say that, Mouse, because aside from me, you don't even have a social life... hell, in that way, you're quite a bit more pathetic than he was...
Mouse: *takes off his 1950s Buddy Holly glasses and hurls them at Rat*
*THUNK*
Rat: Ow.
Mouse: *yanks out a few cigarettes and a lighter, jams them all in his mouth at once and lights them* Bosses... *puffpuff*
...I like Rat. Though not as much as Kyouki Shinmyou Kyuuen.
Rat: Ah, but can Kyuuen do THIS? *spasmodically twitches his ears and nose in an unbearably cute fashion*
AWWWWWW... don't do that. A.A
Rat: *preening* I so have it...