deathsdoctor | 006 [Written]

Entry tags:

006 [Written]

[Today seems to be the day for announcements like this. And this? He confirmed the morning of the experiment’s end. Written in a starkly elegant hand is this simple message:]

For those who knew him, Uchiha Itachi has been returned home.

[The message is anonymous and untraceable – though there are people out there who will recognise his handwriting. He doesn’t really want to reply – he’s too drained. He’s still striving for emotional equilibrium – rage and bloodlust and pain surging repeatedly and then ebbing away to leave him spent and hollow. His powers are a choppy sea – unstable – and he needs to find his center again.

Bil’s in the village. Untouchable. He’s read the Malnosso’s post a hundred times, and all the conversations that he could access… gleaned what could be gleaned, drawn new conclusions, confirmed and discarded old ones, and made unsettling new projections. And these means for uncertain ends? He doesn’t care if he had the purest of intentions (he did not) or the best of reasons – this is not something to be forgiven. Or forgotten.

… this threatens to make a smoker of him yet.

But the experiment’s taught him the importance of memories and how important it is to remember. Even if no one else cares to… even if he doesn’t want to for many things – he must. Memories are important things. And in the end, memories are sometimes the only proof of existence. He shall not forget.

Goodbye, Uchiha Itachi, for now. Trafalgar Law will remember you for as long as he is able.

… for as long as he is here.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ This is an announcement that takes Chouji by surprise- and then he wonders if it should have at all.

All things considered, he would have gone on having no idea for a long while before figuring it out. And he's not entirely sure what he feels on the subject, as tends to be the case with almost anything right now- anger, regret, relief, nothing? Plenty of options, and nothing that seems to fit perfectly (because he can still see Itachi as a perfectly nice kid, and a murderous missing nin, and the guy who asked about vegetable gardening, of all things, who hadn't acted against any of them since he'd turned up-).

He can figure all that out later, too. For now he can stick to knowing that this will probably be more relieving to Shikamaru than not, and who is he to be against his best friend having a little less stress? ]

... Thanks for letting us know.

[No answer. Law'll let that reply stand on it's own.

But.

You are welcome.]

[Shikamaru has only been giving cursory glances to the journals as of late, with much bigger things on his mind, like most people this past week. Unlike them, it had little to do with the last experiment, which only bothered him so much as to the questions it brought up.

These are questions and information he processes in quieter moments, when he's not bust with other things. Because yes, right now, he's busy with other things. Chouji nearly died three weeks ago when he was kidnapped, and now Shino and Temari are missing too. Anything he can do from here won't be enough to help them, but eventually it will be. Not this time, no, but he'll make it count someday.

It would go to figure that between all of that, and between everything else that's happened that he'd forgotten something. How stupid of him; completely careless. Even before everything that happened, he'd seen little of Itachi anywhere.

...we never did have that shogi match.]

[His own reaction surprises him - the nagging frustration of a puzzle being packed away before it can be solved. He only lets it last for a split second; it's a meaningless feeling. Itachi's disappearance presents a much bigger problem, after all.

Because who the fuck loses track of a nuke-nin when they knew exactly where they were?]

How do you know.

[His voice is even; a question that isn't entirely a question. Because this? This could be very, very dangerous.]

His rooftop garden was overgrown with weeds. He was always looking after it.

[A ninja, or in this case, a pirate must read what's underneath the underneath. There were clues.

And then it switches to voice, and it sounds so very, very weary.]

I knew then. Stopping by his apartment only confirmed it. Nothing there, and no wear and tear from habitation. Nothing.

The man is gone, Shikamaru.

[So tired. Even dropped the Mister. It's been so much in the last little while. Your friend nearly dying, being attacked (you remember that), the experiment and that fallout.

Just. So. Much.]

[He can second that, and it's what keeps him from replying back immediately. He's not stupid. He knew Itachi and Law knew each other, and from this that Law probably thought of him in better terms than Shikamaru did himself.

But he knows more about him than you did, Law. And even then that's nothing at all.]

The man is good at disappearing when he wants to. Abandoning some cilantro wouldn't be much of a sacrifice.

[He tilts his head, considering.]

Then try to filter something to him on the journal. If the filter breaks down... or doesn't, conversely...

[He learned this after stalking one of Nami's posts.

And yes, he knows very little about him. But he knows just enough to be sure now.]

... then you know.

[He's thought of this - it was a method he'd used to see if Sasuke had really gone like Itachi said he had. He could probably prove the same here.

But can he really settle it like that? If there's anything an Akatsuki member is good at, it's breaking the rules.]

I will.

[But he's not going to argue it; it'd be too troublesome even under normal circumstances. There's other things he should talk about anyways.]

...how's your head?

[Neither is he. Argue it, that is. Law knows all the evidence in the world isn't going to make much of a damn right now. The hooks are too deeply in right now - the thought, the idea, the suspicion that Mister Uchiha is out there and lurking. Waiting. Letting go of that is... hard. Being duly diligent (or properly paranoid) is survival. It's something that has saved them more often than not.

Someone on the outside just wouldn't understand. Call Shikamaru obsessed. It's not that. It's just how it is. ... it takes time.]

[Glancing to the side...]

It's fine.

[Fine, of course, meaning he's alright now. Fine, meaning he was knocked out until Katara mercifully healed what she did and nursed a concussion until the experiment. Fine, being surprised like he was, choked, strength drained from his body, head smashed around, and then being pitched aside because beating his head in wasn't finishing the job. Fine... he thought he'd last longer against the droids - nevermind their strength, speed, or the fact that they were on him, distance closed (not that there was much distance to close) before he could do more than draw. No excuse.

Fine, because the anger at the Malnosso and their droids on this particular matter is nothing towards the fury he feels towards himself on this issue. Such an end? It is shameful. He is better than this. He should have...

Fine. He is fine. His head is fine.]

Edited 2011-05-03 03:11 (UTC)

[

It's not fine.

And Shikamaru considers it all; what he knows about Law, and what he knows about people - stress and encounters with your best not being good enough, and the way Luceti twists circumstances to show you that, and every feeling in the nasty aftermath that involves.

Which isn't even touching on the mess leftover from the experiment. There's only so much he knows about Law, but it's not enough to wonder even idly at his thoughts on that.]

[He does know enough though to understand that while giving people enough space to clear their head is necessary, you can't find balance when you stand alone on a scale.]

That's good. So I won't have to go easy on you next time we play shogi then.

[... heh. That wins a smile.]

Oh? Easy, huh? Perish the thought.

[No really, perish it. It wouldn't be fun for either of them if one of them had to hold back.]

... a match soon, then?

You got it.

[He doesn't make plans - no pressure here. Take longer than a week though, and you might find a ninja and a shogi set outside your door.]

[This, on top of news of Capell, on top of the experiment, on top of everything else...

It's good news, for their sakes. Shikamaru had told her what Itachi did, who he was... and those are things Katara could never get passed. But she can't quite forget the little boy she first met him as. And Katara's heart's been stretched something painful for abandoned little boys recently.

...she hadn't known he'd had anyone close enough to him to notice, besides Shikamaru, and there's just no way he'd be making this announcement.

And she does take the time to make her very best filter - because she knows that asking after him could get her in trouble in more than one way.]

Are you sure?

[Katara...

Something in him bleeds anew. He feels like he's been through a war, all the aching and exhaustion that suffuses his being, and fragmented memories of his alternate life digging into his psyche. Just pieces, most of that other Law has faded away, but occassionally he will get flashes of what was, or more accurately what might have been. A faceless woman singing (he loves her, oh he loves her), the clash of swords and snarling winged men and women (Third Party. He hates them), and a sunny day, with him lying in the grass, watching the clouds set in perfect blue while the laughter of children (his children) and their friends echo around him.

It hurts. But he will not run.]

Yes. He's gone.

Edited 2011-05-05 05:49 (UTC)

[Oh.

She wasn't expecting it to be him. She wasn't ready to talk to him.

Dad...

And she closes her eyes because it hurts. But she can't let herself pause too long, because that's not fair to him.]

Oh. That's... good to know, then.

[Awkward. Pause. His name is awkward and heavy on her tongue, but it needs to be said. She needs to walk in the way things really are.]

Trafalgar, I'm - I know that this was a really bad one. But we should probably talk. Soon.

[Because the longer they wait, the harder it will be, and the easier it will be to put it off. She's not asking for now. But. Soon.]

...

[Talk. He doesn't want to talk. It's still so close. He hasn't been able to examine things objectively.

But. Still. He has to.

He will not run.]

Yes. We need to. Soon.

['Soon' is not 'now' and she wasn't asking for it to be - even so this feels...]

All right.

[She'll take what comfort she can in the fact that he agreed.]

Later, then. [A pause.] Take care.

[Quiet. So quiet. And he really means this.]

You too. Stay safe.

Thank you for the information.

[Shino is so talkative. But still, he is somewhat relieved Itachi is gone but it still leaves a bad taste in his mouth. It's a reminder of the fact that any of his friends or the associates he's made here could just vanish or disappear at any moment.]

[Again he lets the comment stand alone.

Again, you are welcome.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

006 [Written]

[ voice ]

[ written ]

[Nothing] 1/2

[Filtered]

[Filtered]

[Filtered]

[Filtered]

[Filtered]

[Filtered]

[Filtered] 1/2

[Filtered]

[Filtered]

[Filtered]

[ voice | private ]

[ voice | private ]

[ voice | private ]

Re: [ voice | private ]

[ voice | private ]

[ voice | private ]

[Written; forward date to whenever I bring him back.]

[Written; forward date to whenever I bring him back.]