Final Stress of The Day

"How am I supposed to... help you go into your own soul?"

An important question to ask as Rem and I sat down, just in the middle of the floor, flanking one side of the unfinished Ark Valus.

"Taki, can you make sure no one bothers us? I have a feeling someone might come and spy on us."

"...Sure... if it helps..."

Taki had answered, and then went to a couch, near the still in a trance Xetalona, and nearby the actual entrance. I could see her hood shift a little, and knew hear ears were listening for any and every single sound.

Seeing this, I then looked out the one missing wall of the building, where the ship was meant to exit, and where the elevator was. It was getting closer to night, and the light gray fog outside was slowly becoming more black.

Turning back, Rem was visibly apprehensive, her legs crossed, and worry written all over her face.

"... Rem.. do not worry. I'm going to try to help you through this."

"How? You don't...."

"I know I don't have the devil fruit that you are a part of. But, soul devil fruit? You don't know how much I can do with just the word 'Soul'."

It, very obviously, didn't Instill any confidence in her, causing me to sigh.

".. you... you're just gonna come up with.. something?"

"Yes."

"... just like.. with a snap of your fingers?"

"Not that quickly, but pretty close."

I saw out of my peripheral vision that Taki shook her head a little.

'I think she knows how fast I can grow, just by.. well, showing off my power to her, and then the second time when I nearly accidentally killed us all.. yeah, she should be able to understand.'

".. No one should be able to do that.. I mean, even Ro-Ro, I think, took years to learn.. or maybe make?... some of the 'Soul Commands'. How could you do that quickly?"

"Do you not think that I can? Do... do you not trust me with this?"

Rem raised her hands and shook them in front of her.

"No! No, no, no! It's just.. I want to... but can you? Really, can you?"

"Of course I can."

"I-if you're really sure... Um.. where should we start then?"

"I would think by imagining. Now.. this is gonna take a while.. so just.. relax..."

I watched as Rem, in front of me, facing me, closed her eyes.

'How do I do this? I mean.. how would I be brought along? How would someone enter a soul anyway? I mean, it's just projecting your conscience into someone's soul.. but how do you know where to land? Or.. what a soul looks like inside? How do you bring someone along with you, especially if it's the person who's soul your entering? Hmm, this is actually gonna take longer than I thought.'

"Okay.. I'm gonna have you.. how about you imagine... an orb."

"... Oh-kay..."

"This orb, that you see, is a soul."

"...sure?..."

"Just keep with me, don't question the process."

"...uhm... O-okay..."

"Now, imagine that this orb is me, or rather, my soul. This orb, that you are imagining you can see...."

I cut myself off from continuing.

"Can't you.. already see souls?"

Rem shook from that question, slightly curling in on herself, just slightly, opening her eyes.

"..."

"Can't you?"

"... I.. I-I mean....y-yes...?"

Just from taking a look at her, she was panicking, and so, the only thing I could think of was to give her a hug. As I moved towards her, she shifted and curled more into a ball, holding her legs, and looking at me in terror, tears starting to well up.

And so, I just went up to her, and as she squinted her eyes shut, I just hugged her.

Clearly, this surprised her, as she shook a little when I first hugged her, but I didn't do anything else. I just sat next to her, wrapping her up in a hug, and doing nothing else.

"Rem?"

Shivering, she opened her eyes slightly.

"Rem.. nothing's gonna happen to you."

"..."

'I.. what... hmm.. I can't form thoughts, apparently.' I sighed. 'Well, I didn't know just how much the apparent trauma she had was gonna affect her. Good to know just how much now.'

"Hmm. Okay, Rem?"

She barely moved her head to look slightly up at me.

"Let's... not do anything else for today, okay?"

I tried to give a reassuring smile to her, but she looked back down, still quivering. She did, however, lean a little towards me, farther into the hug she was stuck in.

And for a couple minutes, it was just me with my arms wrapped around a curled up Rem, sitting on the floor.

Of course, it was interrupted, but by Rem herself.

"D-.. do you think.. you could.. let go?"

".... Sure..."

And so, I let go, and she uncurled to sit down next to me, still holding her legs to her chest.

".. I-.. is.. is it really okay?"

"For what?"

"To not do anything.. the rest of the day?"

"Well, *sigh* it's not like I haven't pushed other things to other days. So, yeah, it's fine."

"..."

"...."

"... Thank you...."

I turned to her, and she was slightly crying, so I went in to hug her again, as I still had no other idea what to do. She didn't retaliate, so for the second time, I was holding Rem in my arms.

A minute passed, and she stopped crying, and wiped away her tears with her hand.

I finally processed what she had said before.

".. You're welcome."

I then let go, and stood up.

"Wha.. whatre you.."

"... You should probably go and rest."

"Huh?"

"You should go and rest.. I can tell that was stressful.. for you.. and for me. So, you can do whatever you need, just know, no one's gonna do anything to you while I'm around."

And with those words, I walked away to the open end of the building. I was a couple feet away, but I wasn't near enough to the edge to have any vertigo.

I sighed.

'Such a short interaction, and I'm tired. Actually, no, today had a lot happening. I accidentally get us stuck here, I learn of a way off, meet the leader of.. something, and then have a slight freakout with Rem. Damn you observation, being advanced enough to have empathy.'

'Are you troubled?'

'Ah, me. Yes, of course I'm troubled.'

'How are you troubled then?'

'Well.. there's so much.'

'Then find a point and start there. Maybe you'll remember everything if you talk.'

I internally sighed this time.

'Well, there's a massive, and I mean MASSIVE checklist of things at this point. I'll just start with this: Rem's trauma. I want to help, but I can only do so much with such little knowledge. All I really know is that she really has issue with people even touching her art. I mean, traumatized by someone destroying her art in front of her, not giving her a fighting chance at all. I mean, I would understand what she's going through too if I just had my own creations destroyed in front of me, but I have to help her without any idea how!'

'So, why are you wanting to help her?'

'Because I need her to help me, and if her issues aren't worked out, then I can't get Lucifer to stop doing.. whatever he's done!'

'Why does Lucifer.. need to stop?'

'BECAUSE! I MAY HAVE SCARED THE ONLY PERSON ON THE ENTIRE ISLAND, ON MULTIPLE OCCASIONS, MIND YOU, TO NOT!'

'and yet she trusts you enough to be asleep while you are in the same room.'

'Huh?'

I turned around to look at the room, and found Xetalona, asleep. At first I couldn't tell, but with observation, it was obvious.

'Wait.. she trusts me?'

'Apparentally.'

'Why?'

'I don't know, ask her later.'

I sighed once more, looked out at the aost entirely black clouds in front of me, and walked over to the couches and chairs.

Taki, who was facing the door, had fallen asleep as well, so, with her hood almost falling off her head, I fixed it before noticing she was slightly curled up, like how she normally slept, except with a cloak over part of her. I then turned to Xetalona, asleep on a chair, sprawled out, having fallen over to sleep, leaning slightly over the armrest. And then, out of my peripheral vision, I saw Rem, on one side of a different couch, looking as if she had leaned back into it, and started to contemplate everything, not without having fallen asleep first.

I then quickly realized that there was only these three places. A couch facing the door with a partially uncovered Taki, a chair with a sound asleep Xetalona taking it up, and a Rem taking up only a third of a three section couch. The answer was obvious.

So, I then went and lifted up the couch Taki was on, and rotated it as softly as possible as to not wake her up, and tried not to make a sound, and turned the couch to face the other way, away from the door. Once I set the couch down, a breeze came in from the massive hole in the side of the room, giving me a slight chill. I noticed all three of them shook slightly from said breeze, and looked around to find blankets. I then thought about it, and grabbed them, then putting one over Taki, another over Xetalona, and I put the third one on Rem. They all didn't shake when another gust blew in, and I just stood there.

There were no other blankets.

I sighed.

'I'm cold, but at least I'm not as stressed anymore. Thanks me for pointing out Xetalona trusts me. I hope.'

'Yeah, no prob. How about you relax, and think about stuff tomorrow?'

'.. Yeah, sure.'

With a short thought, I then layed down on the other end of the couch Rem was on, without a blanket, after realizing it was getting slightly colder within the room itself.

I closed my eyes in hopes that I could just fall asleep, and sat for a while, trying not to think about anything important.

'... Maybe I can make cars real. I remember dials were a thing.. would then work as a supercharger? Hm. Probably. Hmmm. How do you do a gas engine here?'

Lost in my thoughts, I then felt someone put part of a blanket over my body, followed by them then leaning on my shoulder, nestling up to me. The rustling of blanket and body moving stopped, and I looked over to find Rem was the one against me.

'Ah, I guess I can just try to sleep.'