I'm okay. Knowing Prompto-san is safe on the other side with others is enough. Monika-san, too. Humans... don't have very long lives. Sometimes, they are shorter than they should be.
[He turns his head to look back out over the sea and the ruins.]
Knowing I'm not the first to learn this feeling is okay, too. Chuuya-san... [He's quiet for some time, lips thin and eyes distant.] I shouldn't say. I think it was a secret, but...
Chuuya-san told me about his son, Fumiya-kun. So I understand why he had been sad. He had felt these feelings, too.
Tell me about it. [It's mumbled more to himself than Hizamaru, but death sure is a lot. He keeps his gaze out to the sea as well, but his head is turned enough to show he's listening.]
Grief is a funny thing. People always handle it differently, but the root of it is still sadness. What counts is what you do with the sadness after that. [He glances back at Hizamaru.] I won't tell Chuuya you told me. That can stay between us. But I'm glad he told you...there are others on this ship, too, who've felt those things. Even if they won't say it, it's not always the worst thing in the world to try and understand.
[Junpei looks his way, but he doesn't glance over at Junpei for now.]
Human life is... very difficult. [It's what he's finding out, slowly.] It was easy for me to be strong because I was only a sword. I lived for a thousand years through many things.
But being human... is even tougher than having elder brother cut away my extra length, or fighting a giant spider. Here, [He touches his chest.] you have so many feelings I've never felt. You all feel them, sometimes all the time, and continue living knowing one day you will die.
...you've lived a very interesting life as a sword. [He has so many questions, but he doesn't interrupt after that, letting Hizamaru continue to speak. There's a sigh because, like, he's right, but human life is confusing.]
In way I can see why you'd say that. Some people do give up and some can't go on living. But people are motivated by things and other people in order to continue living even knowing it'll end someday.
Then again, you have people who want to end those lives before they should be over. [...murderers are bad.] Do you think feeling those things makes you less strong than when you were just a sword? [He's curious about where Hizamaru's thoughts lie on this.]
[For a moment, he finally looks at Junpei again, expression contemplative and soft. He doesn't turn away so much as shift his eyes to look distantly over Junpei's shoulder.]
No, it is different... I am not less strong or more strong with a human body, but I am strong. It takes great strength to be a human. To want to live, knowing it will end. And even to end lives knowing that will make them short.
One of my more famous masters was made to take his own life after being betrayed by the son of a friend.
[The name Yoshitsune pops into his head, but nothing more about the master. Instead, he looks at Hizamaru even as he stares past his shoulder.]
You're stronger than some humans I know. [So that was the right answer. ] And I don't doubt that you'll continue growing the more you learn. It's not a lesson everyone learns early on, so...I glad to hear that from you. People...the longer we're here, the less brave they might become. To tell you the truth that's what I worry about.
[A frown thins his lips, and he straightens up, looking fully at Junpei for once.]
You think the others will be afraid... even knowing they will be safe on the other side? [Well... His brows furrow.] Ah, I suppose you're right. Even being safe, no one wants to die.
I don't know how to help stop it, Junpei-san. I'm sorry. This demon... isn't like the Revisionists. I don't think we can stop it before it tries to change things...
Exactly. I've died so many times and I still don't want to ever again. [He's not afraid, necessarily, but he sort of refuses to let things end.]
Don't apologize. Like I said, you did everything you could, but this enemy's different than anything all of us have faced. That's why we're stuck. [But he frowns.] It's going to keep coming after us, but we have to be ready to fight back in the way we know how until we get better. And that's in trial and exorcising demons as they're caught.
We will. [He's confident of that much, now knowing that they're out there somewhere. Of course, he kind of forgot he never exactly told Hizamaru what kind of a person he is, so he blinks in surprise at the question.]
I...[Hm.] Your missions involve traveling to different points in history, right?
Okay. So when that happens, it's all a part of the same timeline. History is one linear line and you can't change things too differently or you'll risk changing history forever. Your job is to make sure things stay the same.
[Or that's how he understands.] ...where I'm from, some of us have the ability to jump to different timelines. It's an ability called SHIFTing, which means that we can move to other versions of history and take the place of other versions of ourselves. Because of who we are, we have access to all of our old memories and the memories from other timelines we've lived in. But the only way to SHIFT is to be in immediate danger...like dying.
We found out the hard way, but we learned to SHIFT to save ourselves from the timelines where we died. That's what Carlos and I were working on before we came here. Getting to the timeline where all of us were alive.
[Surprisingly, he seems to get the gist of this despite never hearing anything like it. Time travel on his end helps. Though his lips thin, he wonders if this is toeing the line of changing history.
Does jumping around the timeline and continuing on that path... mean changing history? But they're all different. Different outcomes. Well, it's the same outcome--death--but getting there changes.]
Junpei-san... You...
[He shakes his head, feeling sad and... confused.] But if you were supposed to die... [No. That's ugly to say, he thinks. Junpei wants to live? Junpei is alive right now. But history...]
[...it doesn't take a genius to understand what Hizamaru's implying, and this time he's the one who frowns.]
We weren't supposed to. The Decision Game was a trap set up for us to figure out how to make sure history went the way it was supposed to. Secure somebody's existence. Set things into motion. Whatever. [He's pissed, frankly, but that's neither here nor there.] It was to force our hand and make sure things went a certain way, but we all died multiple times getting there. We were told at least six of us had to die, but that wasn't true. We could, and did, find a way to get out with everyone surviving.
And I can't die now when there are still things we have to fix and someone I have to get back to. [A pause.] The fate of humanity depends on us.
[The tension in his shoulders dissipates some, and they relax. It puts his mind more at ease knowing Junpei wasn't willy-nilly flying through space-time with the human notion of desperately changing history.]
You'll be okay, Junpei-san. We won't let anything happen to you. [Easier said than done; he learned this the hard way.] Do you think... that's what's happening here?
We are supposed to find the timeline when we all are alive?
[He can't guarantee that nothing will happen to him, but he manages a small smile anyway. Best to keep that thought to himself. Still, it's a question that's been on his mind, too.]
I've wondered that myself. This place was set up to learn from the mistakes of the group before us, so...maybe there's something we're supposed to figure out. I can't SHIFT here and Carlos couldn't either. You guys can't go on missions without orders from your saniwa, who also isn't here.
But that doesn't mean those skills won't be used later. Especially if we now know that those who die are still accessible somehow.
I wonder why... they are waiting. Prompto-san, and Carlos-san, and Polly-san. If they are on another side... They aren't returned home, almost as if we don't have a reason to die. We're meant to stay alive, but...
What's our mission? Is it really to get rid of the demon Polly-san released? It's happened before...?
[Oh. Uh oh. He's not sure what's going through Hizamaru's head, but there's a nod anyway.]
Of course. Most of what we talk about stays between you and me anyway unless I tell you otherwise. [He has to wonder what this means though.] What kind of secret orders...?
Before we came here, elder brother and I were sorted into a unit with Mikazuki-sama, Kogitsunemaru-sama, Iwatooshi-san, and Imanotsurugi-san. We traveled back to the Heian period, to protect the history of our former masters... Yoshitsune-sama and Yoritomo-sama.
But before we were deployed... [He glances at Junpei.] Our master called elder brother and I to him, and he asked us to keep an eye on Mikazuki-sama. He believed... Mikazuki-sama would try to tamper with the course of history.
Mikazuki-sama did... a little. And I wonder... if that is happening here, too.
[So it's happened in other universes, too. That makes enough sense to him and he takes this information very seriously.]
I think that might be happening here, too, Hizamaru. [It's an unfortunate truth.] I've been thinking from the moment we woke up that someone was here tampering with things, but I don't have any proof. [He tilts his head.]
Why did your master think Mikazuki would change things?
He is very wise. Mikazuki-sama... may not have meant any harm. He has a disposition like my elder brother. It is similar. He is carefree and laughs, but... He is like the moon, is what I think elder brother was trying to tell me.
You see one side, lit up, but there is still another side to the moon we do not see. The hidden side. Mikazuki-sama is like that. Elder brother, too, at times.
The dark side of the moon. [It makes sense, sure, but...] Hard to know what a person's real motivations are when they keep their true thoughts hidden, isn't it? Was that normal for him? To hide things.
I’m not sure, as I have only recently met him, but... I believe so, yes. If he is like elder brother... Yes, there are parts of them hidden from others. Though it’s difficult to know what the parts are about.
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[He turns his head to look back out over the sea and the ruins.]
Knowing I'm not the first to learn this feeling is okay, too. Chuuya-san... [He's quiet for some time, lips thin and eyes distant.] I shouldn't say. I think it was a secret, but...
Chuuya-san told me about his son, Fumiya-kun. So I understand why he had been sad. He had felt these feelings, too.
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Grief is a funny thing. People always handle it differently, but the root of it is still sadness. What counts is what you do with the sadness after that. [He glances back at Hizamaru.] I won't tell Chuuya you told me. That can stay between us. But I'm glad he told you...there are others on this ship, too, who've felt those things. Even if they won't say it, it's not always the worst thing in the world to try and understand.
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Human life is... very difficult. [It's what he's finding out, slowly.] It was easy for me to be strong because I was only a sword. I lived for a thousand years through many things.
But being human... is even tougher than having elder brother cut away my extra length, or fighting a giant spider. Here, [He touches his chest.] you have so many feelings I've never felt. You all feel them, sometimes all the time, and continue living knowing one day you will die.
It's very brave.
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In way I can see why you'd say that. Some people do give up and some can't go on living. But people are motivated by things and other people in order to continue living even knowing it'll end someday.
Then again, you have people who want to end those lives before they should be over. [...murderers are bad.] Do you think feeling those things makes you less strong than when you were just a sword? [He's curious about where Hizamaru's thoughts lie on this.]
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No, it is different... I am not less strong or more strong with a human body, but I am strong. It takes great strength to be a human. To want to live, knowing it will end. And even to end lives knowing that will make them short.
One of my more famous masters was made to take his own life after being betrayed by the son of a friend.
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You're stronger than some humans I know. [So that was the right answer. ] And I don't doubt that you'll continue growing the more you learn. It's not a lesson everyone learns early on, so...I glad to hear that from you. People...the longer we're here, the less brave they might become. To tell you the truth that's what I worry about.
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You think the others will be afraid... even knowing they will be safe on the other side? [Well... His brows furrow.] Ah, I suppose you're right. Even being safe, no one wants to die.
I don't know how to help stop it, Junpei-san. I'm sorry. This demon... isn't like the Revisionists. I don't think we can stop it before it tries to change things...
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Don't apologize. Like I said, you did everything you could, but this enemy's different than anything all of us have faced. That's why we're stuck. [But he frowns.] It's going to keep coming after us, but we have to be ready to fight back in the way we know how until we get better. And that's in trial and exorcising demons as they're caught.
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[His brows pull together again. He glances away, and then he looks at Junpei, somewhat bewildered.]
What did you mean by, "I've died so many times," Junpei-san?
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I...[Hm.] Your missions involve traveling to different points in history, right?
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[He tilts his head.]
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[Or that's how he understands.] ...where I'm from, some of us have the ability to jump to different timelines. It's an ability called SHIFTing, which means that we can move to other versions of history and take the place of other versions of ourselves. Because of who we are, we have access to all of our old memories and the memories from other timelines we've lived in. But the only way to SHIFT is to be in immediate danger...like dying.
We found out the hard way, but we learned to SHIFT to save ourselves from the timelines where we died. That's what Carlos and I were working on before we came here. Getting to the timeline where all of us were alive.
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Does jumping around the timeline and continuing on that path... mean changing history? But they're all different. Different outcomes. Well, it's the same outcome--death--but getting there changes.]
Junpei-san... You...
[He shakes his head, feeling sad and... confused.] But if you were supposed to die... [No. That's ugly to say, he thinks. Junpei wants to live? Junpei is alive right now. But history...]
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We weren't supposed to. The Decision Game was a trap set up for us to figure out how to make sure history went the way it was supposed to. Secure somebody's existence. Set things into motion. Whatever. [He's pissed, frankly, but that's neither here nor there.] It was to force our hand and make sure things went a certain way, but we all died multiple times getting there. We were told at least six of us had to die, but that wasn't true. We could, and did, find a way to get out with everyone surviving.
And I can't die now when there are still things we have to fix and someone I have to get back to. [A pause.] The fate of humanity depends on us.
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You'll be okay, Junpei-san. We won't let anything happen to you. [Easier said than done; he learned this the hard way.] Do you think... that's what's happening here?
We are supposed to find the timeline when we all are alive?
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I've wondered that myself. This place was set up to learn from the mistakes of the group before us, so...maybe there's something we're supposed to figure out. I can't SHIFT here and Carlos couldn't either. You guys can't go on missions without orders from your saniwa, who also isn't here.
But that doesn't mean those skills won't be used later. Especially if we now know that those who die are still accessible somehow.
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What's our mission? Is it really to get rid of the demon Polly-san released? It's happened before...?
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Our mission right now, I think, is to learn more about what our mission is. Sounds counterproductive doesn't it?
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[There's a pause. He looks away, brows creased. Something doesn't look settled right with him.]
Junpei-san, if I tell you something, will you promise not to tell anyone? They are... secret orders from our master.
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Of course. Most of what we talk about stays between you and me anyway unless I tell you otherwise. [He has to wonder what this means though.] What kind of secret orders...?
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But before we were deployed... [He glances at Junpei.] Our master called elder brother and I to him, and he asked us to keep an eye on Mikazuki-sama. He believed... Mikazuki-sama would try to tamper with the course of history.
Mikazuki-sama did... a little. And I wonder... if that is happening here, too.
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I think that might be happening here, too, Hizamaru. [It's an unfortunate truth.] I've been thinking from the moment we woke up that someone was here tampering with things, but I don't have any proof. [He tilts his head.]
Why did your master think Mikazuki would change things?
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He is very wise. Mikazuki-sama... may not have meant any harm. He has a disposition like my elder brother. It is similar. He is carefree and laughs, but... He is like the moon, is what I think elder brother was trying to tell me.
You see one side, lit up, but there is still another side to the moon we do not see. The hidden side. Mikazuki-sama is like that. Elder brother, too, at times.
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