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Yeah. And hey, we’re both alive, and I made it back to Caleb okay.

[He did it, he managed to not get himself killed going up against Aoko! Yay. He pulls up a chair now and just kinda slumps into it with a tired sigh. It has been a long-ass week.]

…I saw Aoko off. She asked me to tell you she was sorry, and said goodbye. And that she wanted the ballerina charm I got her last Christmas on her grave.

I would’ve texted all that, but uh. Your phone’s kinda. Broken. [A pause.] If I make a sad enough face at Sam, I’m pretty sure he’ll talk Gil into getting you a new phone. Or I can just get you one, but it’ll be a lot cheaper.

[It sure has, and Ragna's got many weeks of recovery in store. But hearing what Noctis shared of Aoko's message... Ragna wasn't sure how to feel. It was a weird sort of emptiness. One that came with closure, but Ragna has never had that in his life. All he'd sought was revenge and fully expected to meet his end with that unfulfilled.

Krusnik can have their bases destroyed. It wouldn't bring his mother or siblings back. It wouldn't make the suffering Harumasa and the others went through go away.

He went quiet for a while. Not sure how to process this for himself... but still relieved that Aoko finally has her soul at peace. Finally... she's free.]

... Thanks, Noctis. For doing that for her. You're probably the nicest anyone's been to her, it must've meant a lot.

[He meant that. With all his heart. It was the older brother in him maybe, but he was relieved a teenage girl finally gets her second chance, even if she made his life hell for all those years.]

It was the phone or the town and I can get a new damn phone. Just need to remember how to text with my left hand again. What a pain in the ass.

[He shrugged his right shoulder and let out an irritated sound.]

[Noctis shrugs, a little bashful and awkward.] I just. You and her, you'd both been through a lot of hell. I just didn't want her to go alone at the end.

[Somebody had to be there, in Noctis's opinion, and he'd figured, hey, might as well be him. Ragna would be all right. Harumasa had been escorted out by that girl and those two robot rabbits. Aoko...needed someone to encourage her to move on, to finally find her peace, and maybe someday to find a new, better life.

Maybe Noctis wasn't the best choice for the job, but he was there, and he had the ability to help. So he did. He's never been able to not help.]

Yeah, you can get a new phone, can't get a new town. [A quiet little hum.] Eh, it'll be an adjustment, but at least you're alive to adjust at all. Oh, hey, if you want, I can send YouTube videos of how to do stuff like cook one-handed.

[Well don't you also get bashful on him now, do you know how not often Ragna thanks people!!! Now he's rubbing at his neck with his remaining arm, but he'd rather leave things at that. Noctis was there and Venti was there. Now she can finally have another chance... but god, Ragna didn't want to think about what they must have seen from both his past and Aoko's.]

Pretty much. I'll take being alive and struggling for a couple months over the opposite. Send whatever you find, I'll take it over hospital sounds and these crappy TV Shows any day. [Not to mention the internal silence. He might only have a few years left despite it all, even with the BlazBlue gone but they don't need to talk about that part.

Though on that thought of short lives...]

... How's Harumasa? [He wasn't sure how much Noctis knew about Harumasa's condition, but he couldn't help asking out of habit anyway.]

Sure. You using your cousin's phone in the meantime? [He glances at the hospital TV, and immediately makes a face.] Wow, they have not improved at all, yeah.

[Is Days of our Lives still going? Holy shit, he thought they'd have wrapped that up by now. How long has that soap been running again?

—then Ragna mentions Harumasa, and Noctis lets out a breath.] His friend, that woman who owns a video rental store, she came in to give him a ride to the hospital. So he's fine for now.

Not like I have a choice, but yeah. [Damn having people he actually needs to contact now.] The goddamn midnight infomercials are less fucking annoying than these drama shows. And why the hell would I wanna watch a show about the hospital while I'm in one?

[Worse, General Hospital and The Good Doctor re-runs still are.

Hearing that Harumasa was not just being checked out but with someone made Ragna let out a relieved sigh, leaning back against the raised bed.]

Good... [He dragged his hand down his face. He'll keep that veil of Harumasa's privacy up with the favorite trait of multi-linguals: Talking shit in his first language.] Fucking idiot, what was he thinking...

I'll send 'em to his phone, then, if he doesn't mind. [And he'll just send Kuni's phone the YouTube links he found.] Maybe they're trying to show you just how much worse you could have it. Your doctors could be having a breakdown in their personal lives leaking into their work. How lucky, yeah?

[Yeah, it really is a good thing. Noctis has been alone in the hospital before, he doesn't recommend it.]

I am worried about him, but I'll ask him at a later date. You're the one who had a good chunk of his past practically broadcasted, I'm more worried how you're feeling about that.

Yeah, "lucky". This town makes my life enough of a soap opera bullshit mess, I don't wanna see it in a hospital.

[Does he mean that affectionately or derogatorily? Yes.

God. That whole place was a blur, Ragna didn't know exactly what Aoko made. Or if she made it of her own volition at all. God knows the Spirit Realm is an asshole that would air all the dirty laundry a man has out for anyone who walks into it. He looked away from Noctis and made an irritated sound. What a fucking pain.]

I don't know or remember what was even in that whole place, but I'm gonna take a shot in the dark and assume "basically everything" cause God forbid something's easy.

You're telling me. I found out my DM's from another world just a couple weeks ago.

[All those excuses! God, does Noctis feel a little annoyed about it. A whole year he and Caleb spent coming up with plausible family emergencies to cover for getting involved in supernatural bullshit on Fridays. God.]

...yyyyeah, pretty much. For you and for her. [A silence.] Did you know someone who wore a hood and fought with chains? Because Harumasa and I, and the guy who runs one of the pharmacies around town, went up against him.

... You've been in this session for as long as I've fucking known you and you're only just now figuring out your DM's an isekai?! Why didn't you just ask the guy, they always have tells.

[Even the ones from other versions of Earth have tells of "yeah I know about this thing that's not in this world" or "I have this crazy magic shit".]

[Mentioning that man though, Ragna froze. In fear, in anxiety, in unspeakable anger. There was recognition in his eyes immediately and his one hand clenched into a fist as tight as he could wind it with his lack of strength right now.

He'd just about dig into his hand with his nails if he was stronger.]

Terumi...!

ic contact: kaisou

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