AND THE PEOPLE WHO GAIN THE WORLD

[strangerpeople]

AND LOSE THEIR SǪ͞UL̨̡͢


[The time goes down to zero. Vyce's fists clenched.]

. . .You fools.

[He raises a hand, and suddenly, Lala lets out a gasp as she begins to grab at her throat. Green lines begin to glow from within her body as she starts to writhe, before falling to the ground into convulsions.]

For all of your claims and bravado, you still voted to condemn her! You claim to care, you claim she is innocent, you claim to want to take her place, but in the end it never mattered!

THIS is why I cannot trust anyone with my mission! THIS is why YOU would fail in MY shoes! THIS IS WHY I ALONE MUST--



[Suddenly, everyone is thrown to the side as something violently jostles the whole house, Vyce included. Immediately, Lala collapses to the floor, and the glowing lines disappear.]

WHAT THE-

[It actually felt like the house was rammed just then.]

Comments

[carryabigstick]

Thank Aidios—

Inaba!!!

[dereban]

Uh.

Um. . .

[ She tries to collect herself and recall things but it just isn't working. Confusion and slight panic sets in her voice. ]

What happened, I can't— I can't remember what happened after—

[whatsmytalentagain]

[Woah, woah! Wordlessly trying to get her to calm down!]

[dereban]

[ it won't work very well, but you tried ]

[carryabigstick]

You scared the crap out of us, that’s what!!!

You... you idiot.

[It’s okay, she’s really happy it’s just. A lot of emotions to have at once.]

But it’s gonna be okay now. We’re gonna be okay.

[dereban]

I know. I know I am. . .

[ She's been told that repeatedly but it's kind of bad that she's having a panic attack here. ]

But I can't remember — I was able to see things that last time —

Am I really. . . me?

[carryabigstick]

Woah, hold on— deep breath.

[For herself too, really.]

Listen... it’s kinda complicated and I’m not really good with the whole technology thing— but it’s okay. Don’t push yourself too hard. You’ve been through a lot you know. And whatever you can’t remember— we’ll fill you in.

[dereban]

[ Right.

Deep breaths. Try not to panic, Inaba! Although the mention of technology concerns her yet again. ]

The last thing I remember was dying. Thinking that if it really wasn't a bluff, that I'd be okay if I died again. . .

[ Emphasis on 'again'. ]

. . .since the body I was in was just a gigai body. And if someone found a necromancer, or Ichigo- they could at least put me in a replacement. Since I can't go home, or even back to my original body right now.

[carryabigstick]

Again...? Geez...

Well for starters, you did die. We were dragged down to the basement to figure out who killed you among the five suspects. Vyce tried to make it seem like it was Lala’s fault because she found your phone and tried to get it back to you.

So we kinda yelled at him and it was a whole mess.

But then the Champion he was talking to rammed the house and we escaped with you! And I guess they transferred something so you could be in a new body? I don’t know a lot about that, I just carried your body here for the process. But— it worked! So. Yeah.

And there was some busting stuff down and fighting and crazy stuff in between— it was real satisfying to be able to swing my hair at that jerk. But yeah!! It’s real good to have you back. Don’t do anything stupid like that again okay? How ever many times is just that many times too many.

[dereban]

Yeah, I figured. I was the one who set up my whole death and all that. And it sucked.

. . .I'll have to ask about that process, since it seems to be technological rather than spiritual. It might mean that I'm a "copy".

[thiscomicsucks]

INFORMATION: THIS UNIT TRANSFERRED THE NANITES PLACED IN YOUR BODY BY LORD VYCE INTO A NEW BODY. THE NANITES COPIED ALL OF YOUR BODY FUNCTIONS, INCLUDING BRAIN ACTIVITY, UP UNTIL YOUR MOMENT OF DEATH.

INFORMATION: THIS UNIT CANNOT ADVISE ON ANY EXISTENTIAL OR SPIRITUAL CRISIS THIS MAY CAUSE. HOWEVER, FUNCTIONALLY, AS A RESULT OF THE NANITE TRANSFERENCE, YOUR NEW BODY IS THE SAME AS YOUR PREVIOUS BODY. THE CURRENT PRIMARY DIFFERENCE IS THE OUTWARD APPEARANCE.

cw fourth wall stuff

[dereban]

I'm fine with existential crisis stuff, I already know I'm a fictional character in this universe too, after all.

Spiritual will just have to be dealt with when I can find someone versed in that sort of stuff.

[ A beat, and then-- ]

Nobody show me a mirror or else I'll punch them.

[starswink]

Vyce tried to pin everything on Lala. But we stopped him, and now you're... you're in a body like mine. I hope that was okay. We really wanted you back...!

[There are more tears of relief in his eyes. also he has a gun now but that's not important.]

[dereban]

It's—

[ The panic is soon replaced with something else. Tenseness. ]

What do you mean by that. Explain everything to me.

[starswink]

Where should I start...

[there were three major plot points here, he gets it]

[dereban]

Preferably in chronological order.

[starswink]

Okay. Well...

Lala tried to bring your phone back to you and Vyce decided that counted as withholding your anchor or something stupid like that. After we heard what happened... most of us thought it was BS. I don't know who did it, but some people still voted. Then Linkara interrupted her execution by ramming into the house. THEN, we all started messing with stuff in the house to annoy Vyce, and he teleported in to attack Lithia and Lala. A bunch of people were fighting in there, then I got his weapon, and he teleported back out. Linkara blew up the ship he was on... beamed us on board his ship.... and there are a couple of people here who have offered to collect all of our hostages and get the nanites out of them.

That just left you to bring back... umm, I know you might think you're just a copy, but apparently there's a thing called 'living data', and that's what we are. I'm not sure, but I think it means our soul is tied to the data. Or maybe is the data? That whole log about the Entity mentioned something about life and the universe being made out of something code-like...

And they told you about the body you're in, so that's all, I guess.

[dereban]

Ugh.

If it deals with numbers, there's someone I know who's better at that sort of thing. But that might just be in this world? So maybe it's following the rules of that, I'm not sure.

[touchsensors]

Inaba-lun!

[RUNNING OVER]

[dereban]

. . .hey.

[ It's a rather quiet response, but one nevertheless. ]

[touchsensors]

I'm really sorry-lun.

[Is that appropriate? It feels appropriate, at least.]

[dereban]

You have nothing to apologize for. I'm the one who should be saying sorry.

[touchsensors]

But I...

[No, actually she sees where this is going. No infinite apology loops allowed!]

...I'm really glad you're back-lun.

[dereban]

Depends on what you mean by "back", though. I still haven't gotten the full story of what's up with the body I'm in.

Or confirmation that I'm not a copy or doppelganger of the original.

[touchsensors]

I mean Inaba Himeko is here in front of me again-lun.