Like Old Times

Another chapter of my life had come to a close. I must admit, I didn't get out of this one unscathed. In fact, I was brutally trodden upon from all sides. I yearned for rest, there really wasn't anything I could have asked for back then. But Valhalla was always in a turmoil.

I had limited myself to my chamber most of the time, other times I rigorously trained. These honing sessions weren't short of torture but no one dared interfere and say anything to me. In fact, I rarely spoke a word at all to anyone. To me it seemed, no one else conversed either. Through my small circular window, I could view Lady standing at Prophet's grave everyday. She'd be emptily staring at the sky.

The sky hadn't been very bright for such a long time, at first it was a terribly dull gray but now it had found a hint of crimson which seemed to be contaminating the gray exceedingly with every passing day. No one knew what was causing such a red sky and many people conjectured it to be the end of the world. I couldn't care less about it either way. To me, this was just the world returning to the norm I had gotten used to all those years.

One such day, Chopper returned to the chamber which we shared. He was almost never home so I'd forgotten that I was supposed to have company in that small lonely chamber.

"Oi", he poked his head inside before letting himself in. I remained indifferent to his coming inside. He stood in front of me, staring at me long enough to make me lose my patience. I returned his gaze, somewhat coldly.

I was certainly annoying him, I knew what ticked him off the most. Naturally, my attitude was not beneficial to me, but I simply refused to be tolerant.

He was pissed off rather soon. He grabbed me by the collar and plugged one in my face. I didn't look back at his face anymore, which irked him even more. He proceeded to drag me outside of the chamber. I hadn't returned or resisted his punch but I sure wasn't going to be that easy if he took it outside.

Unfortunately, he had something else in mind. He dragged me all the way out of Valhalla, we were headed somewhere pretty far apparently. Finally, he did let me go but only so he could pick up his stuff. He'd just returned and hadn't unpacked whatever it was he was carrying. I do suppose he replenished his supplies for the journey.

He instructed me to get moving. I had every intention to deny him that pleasure but for some odd reason, I didn't. I suppose a part of me just wanted to be away from that place as well. We passed by Lady as we were walking down the road that exited towards town.

"Keep your eyes on the sky, boys", she said as she continued heading towards Valhalla.

It was then that I realized that I hadn't heard her voice for days. It made something inside me turn so bad, I felt like I might hurl.

"You nixed Ebony", Chopper spoke, firmly, "so I'll be using you instead."

His statement was rather creepy and frightening but I couldn't have been more calm. My system simply rejected to be agitated in any way then. I suppose with Ebony gone, half of Chopper's powers were gone. Now that I thought about it, it was my fault he lost his arm too. I had never managed to bring him any good.

On our way, we stopped to catch up on sleep, have some protein and recover our energy. I noticed, when we took a bath together, there were more scars on him than I remembered. How many of them had he gotten while trying to save me? How many times had he bailed me out anyway?

We continued our journey on a road that seemed all too familiar to me. I felt like it was so easy to traverse, I wasn't falling behind Chopper anymore. I wasn't feeling weak at all.

"Remember Azag? I bet you do", he said one night.

I nodded.

"I found him. You are sure you remember everything?"

"Most everything, I suppose."

"Think on it. This time we're finishing old business."

He poked the fire, emptily staring into it.

"Why did you bring me?", I hadn't felt like talking for such a long time. Perhaps it was for old times sake, but I didn't mind speaking with him.

He remained silent. I was disappointed. I rolled on my side and shifted away from the fire, closing my eyes.

"If we get out of this alive, if...then I'll tell you everything you wanted to ask", he said and then sighed, "You grew up, kid...I wasn't expecting that."

I didn't move a bit. I don't know if he went to sleep that night.