Hitoshira Nagi
Battleship S.L.E.I.P.N.I.R ~ Star's Cradle
Top of the Ship
It was easy for me to track him down, really.
I don't think he was 'hiding', exactly, but he wasn't trying to socialize. It's... understandable, really. Outside of me and Elizabeth I...
I don't think anyone would try to understand him.
I don't think anyone would forgive him.
So it's selfish of me, to seek him out, to drag him into this world he tried so desperately to save - even if it was in his own way, but I can't help it. He's... important to me, in a way that I can't possibly describe.
"...Everyone working together huh...? Brings back memories."
I laugh, quietly as I hop onto the handrail and dangle my legs over the edge. "Maybe for you. I'm not as lucky as you, you know." I turn to him, my red eyes crossing his own. "I didn't get to bring my memories back with me. All I have are... fragments. But the way you and Mark speak to me, sometimes I... I feel like I was far more involved then I was this time. And those fragments don't tell me any differently."
Fragments of a past that I don't know.
"Man, you're an idiot."
Mark's words to me in front of Yagami's castle echo through my mind. It's a reflection, in a way, of the words Yagami threw at me --
"Geez, what are you, twelve?"
They're also scarily alike, aren't they? It's true. But so are Yagami and I. I tuck a stray strand of hair behind my ear, and glance at him out of the corner of my eye, as we stare at a sky with red carving it in two.
"...You don't have to bet your life in every exchange, you know? Take care of yourself more."
It's his words I'm throwing back at him, but they apply to both of us equally. The way we fight is selflessly selfish, hurling far too much into exchanges that can only end with our own demise. The only reason we come out ahead is because we're both ridiculously, ludicrously strong. I don't know how it happened to me, but as I stretch a hand out and stare at it, flickers of silver fire dance between my fingers.
"How is it, Ryota, that of every single Esper on this ship, I'm one of the only ones who can turn this gathered starlight into a weapon? Could... could other versions of me do it to? The ones where I stood by you, even as reality fell apart? Or is this something that only the me of this time can manage?" A laugh bursts from my lips as I twist my hand, and a small dragon of silver flame wraps around my arm like a snake. "Auron did say I could never figure it out. Does that mean I'm different, or that I was simply drifting in a sea of seeming samelessness before?"
It's quiet here. The world is nothing but the sounds of the sky as I speak.
"...I want to win. I want to go on, to be stronger, to see that tomorrow is better then today. But... it's odd, being thrust into the position of so few. I don't consider myself better then other Espers; the ghosts in my soul and Lilith have always mentioned how utterly terrible I am at being a vessel. 'You're the worst of the vessels, but we'll take you'. How am I supposed to the take that, and twist into the passion that leads everyone to victory?"
It's a bizarre conversation, between two people who once worked to destroy all of existence.
"I'm not you. I'm not Mark. I'm not even Elizabeth. I'm just... a person, who was caught up accidentally in everything. Sometimes I was late, and was trapped in a conflict I couldn't possibly understand. Sometimes I wasn't, and Chronos' words seduced me. Is it... Is it truly the only difference for me, that this time I arrived early?"