“!!”
Lawkey quickly opened his eyes in a panic as beads of sweat vigorously trickled down his face.
After a moment of realization, he let out a long sigh and calmed his heart down.
Having somewhat relaxed and come to his senses, he took another glance around the room that looked more like a storage room, rather than a prison.
He quickly looked up and began to pull on his chains, testing them.
CHINK-CHINK-CHINK!
The chains rattled as he twisted his left hand left and right to check their durability. The chains themselves were nothing special, but the shackles around his arms were made of some blue-ish wood, instead of metal. A flourish pattern spanned across the surface, giving the whole thing an uncomfortable feeling.
Is this why I can’t use my sign? He tried to figure things out based on the available clues.
Stopping his testing, he looked down and began to analyze his situation.
To think I’d be back in chains after so long… Heh, what a disgrace. He criticized as a self-deprecating smile formed on his face.
“Wait-!” He quickly remembered something.
I’m sure I was able to get one key from that idiot before passing out, but where did it fall exactly-!
He immediately turned to the corner to his left to check, and there they were, the keys to his shackles!
Wait, how come all the keys are here? I only tried to snatch one. Lawkey pondered with narrow eyes, how come they didn’t notice them missing? Well, Either way…
He quickly realized the corner was too far for him to reach, his legs wouldn’t be able to get those keys even if he stretched them to the limit.
The only choice was to seek help from the new prisoner he had noticed from his peripheral vision ever since waking back up.
“...?”
He glanced their way, landing his eyes on a little girl that was chained beside him, with only the corner of the room separating them.
Although she looked down with swollen turquoise eyes that had lost all gleam, she still seemed much healthier than Lawkey’s present state. Her light blue hair was tied in a small ponytail with bangs dangling on the sides of her face. She had a small light pink dress on, with some kind of translucent cloth coming off the shoulders and the bottom of it.
Lawkey narrowed his eyes, but quickly resumed his task. This kind of situation wasn’t all new to him. He had lived the past six years in the Kage Clan, but before that, he was accustomed to encountering the horrible things people carried out while justifying it all to themselves with lies.
Besides, even if he wanted to help this little girl, he would still need to free himself somehow first.
The only problem was that this girl next to him seemed all too familiar to Lawkey for some reason.
This girl… Why does she look so familiar? I’ve never met her before-, Before Lawkey could finish his thought, he felt an immediate headache invade his mind.
“Dammit, my head! Why?!” He grumbled as he tried to reach for his head with his chained hands, but to no avail.
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Behind his closed eyes, or perhaps in the deepest layers of his memory, blurry flashes of unfamiliar scenes started popping up.
What are these…? Whose memories are they…?
That’s when the blurry flashes began to clear, revealing fond scenes of him, the little girl he had just met, and another unfamiliar siren.
“?!”
They took walks, ate, laughed, even dove and swam together. He saw himself playing and having fun with them as if he had no other care in the world.
But just when he was getting used to it, the scenes in front of him turned darker and darker.
He felt a deep rage boil up within him as everything weaved together to form the scene of the little girl crying over the siren’s lifeless body in her arms.
“Enough!!” He shouted as he opened his emerald green eyes with a flash, shattering the illusion spell he was under.
Although he hadn’t addressed anyone in particular, he knew this wasn’t something ordinary. It wasn’t like the usual nightmares he experienced, but something on a much deeper level.
He quickly glanced around the room again, and then rested his eyes on the empty cage on the far corner opposite to him. There were only two other entities beside Lawkey in the room at this moment, and after remembering the earlier words of the captain, he made a quick hypothesis.
“It’s you, isn't it?” He asked, glaring at the wooden cage, “I can’t see you, but I know you’re behind this!”
‘Not so loud.’
Lawkey’s eyes quickly widened as the unusual voice rang out in his head, “Telepathy?”
‘You seem to have experience with it, or maybe it’s an impressive will.’ The voice continued without giving Lawkey a break to think, ‘I’m sensing something different about you, but either way, my interest in you will have to wait. I’m too weak to investigate your past despite my peaked curiosity.’
I see, so it really was you.
Seeing as the voice was communicating telepathically with him, Lawkey switched to responding in his head instead.
Were those fake memories? He asked the voice.
‘In the beginning, sure.’ There was a break before Lawkey heard the voice continue, ‘but the last bit… let’s call it a prophecy to come if you don’t save this girl.’
Huh, what’s it to you? The chained prisoner couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow in exasperation.
‘You don’t seem like the person who would abandon her here, but I had to try and make sure you wouldn’t either way.’
By forcing fake memories into my head?!
‘It doesn’t matter, it didn’t quite work. It’s taking everything in me to communicate like this after all that.’
Heh, that’s what you get for trying to mess with people’s memories.
‘...Just make sure to save her. I took the initiative and erased the keys from their memories when you pulled your stunt earlier.’
!!
‘Well then, I’ll leave it to you.’
Hey! Don’t push this onto me, it’s not my problem!
‘No, but you’ll save her. Of that, I’m sure now. I’m cutting off my telepathy, otherwise I won’t be able to keep hold of my form.’
Stop right there! I’m not done, dammit!
“...”
Lawkey frowned as he looked towards the empty wooden cage. On a closer look, he noticed that it was made from the same material that was restraining him.
If his previous hypothesis was correct, that meant the owner of the voice was not only invisible in that cage, but they were holding on to some kind of form that prevents them from directly touching the inside of the cage.
They just weren’t able to physically get out since their sign would immediately deactivate at the slightest contact with the blue-like wood.
Realizing he would probably not get any more telepathic responses, Lawkey quickly gave up on trying to voice his grievances.
He sighed and glanced toward the girl. Despite all the commission and fuss he had made, she hadn’t even flinched this entire time. She felt more like a broken doll hung by her arms, her turquoise eyes not having a shred of light in them.
Seeing that, Lawkey quickly narrowed his eyes. He finally realized why he had been trying to avoid looking at her directly this entire time. Her expression, her current situation, it just brought up some bad memories for him.
Memories that he knew for certain were true.
He clicked his tongue and thought to himself, how am I supposed to do this? I’m not that guy… If it were him…
After a moment of contemplation, Lawkey sighed again and tried to force a cheerful smile on his face before turning to the girl.
“Hey kid! Did you know what the fairies and dwarves used to call humans back in ancient times?!” He said with an exaggerated tone.
“...” The girl stood motionless, not entertaining him with a reaction.
The improv jester gulped and forced himself to keep going, “They called us giants! Can you believe that? Haha…”
He nervously delivered his punch line, knowing full well of the low chances it had.
“...”
After a moment of awkward silence, he hunched forward, surrendering his head to gravity.
“Didn’t find that funny, huh? Yeah, I can’t blame you, I didn’t either back then…” He mumbled to himself under his breath then began to grumble, “Agh!! How did it come to this?! All I wanted was to visit the island of mermaids and get some pancakes from the beautiful sirens!”
“Pan…cakes?”
“!!”
Lawkey quickly turned to face the voice, not quite believing his ears.
He wasn’t just surprised because the girl finally reacted and spoke, but more because she only reacted after hearing the magic word he was looking for.
Is this… does she recognize them?! Will I finally get some after so many years?! The question after question popped into his head. His excitement was obvious on his face.
His stomach grumbled and had he not been dehydrated, he would be salivating right now.
“What are Pancakes, uncle?”
Dammit all! She was just curious!!
Lawkey’s screams of disappointment rang out in his own head.
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image [https://i.imgur.com/KQmIY8F.png]