What We All Are

"I don't suppose that to be a trick question", was the response Chopper gave me after a rather long pause, "...'cause I'd rather not."

He'd finished getting dressed as I emptily stared at him, awaiting an answer. I ended up throwing a rally of questions at him instead, absolutely not the way I'd intended this to go.

"What about them? Corsen and Wolfe...what exactly happened there? And how'd she die? Why didn't you go back?"

He glared at me, perhaps a little taken aback at my sudden curiosity, but gave no answer. Instead, he proposed that we should go sit by the fire. Soon as we'd accomplished that, we started dinner. It wasn't much to go on but we figured since it was our last night out, this much would suffice. We might go hunting in the morning then, I supposed.

"Are you thinking about something?", I asked, as we had laid down.

We'd been silent for far too long and knowing that neither was getting any sleep like this, I just had to ask. Although I'd been exhausted, the supposed answers my earlier questions could invite wouldn't let me relax.

"No", he plainly lied.

I called him out on this, naturally.

"I'm thinking about a good answer", he admitted after a while.

I didn't find it amusing that he was needlessly making this into such a big awkward deal.

"No better answer than the honest truth."

"Then you've lost me there", he answered, turning his head towards me.

"Chopper-san...", I looked back at him, rather impatient. I wanted to go to sleep already.

"Well, if you want it raw and honest, there ain't much, really. I can't remember it like I should. I can't even tell if its true...am I real or just a fragment of something unreal. If I'm more than just this, more than just one person. And y'know, if I didn't know any better, I'd have thought Corsen didn't exist at all. If what I do remember is real at all, it barely makes a difference", he paused before continuing in a grave shallow voice, "I left the real Corsen to die. Wolfe must have loved her enough to hate me like this, even after all those years. Though...I honestly can't tell you how long ago that was. Now they're both dead, so there is no need to chase after the truth. About what was and what wasn't...I can just run from it all now."

"Is that really how you want to design the rest of your life?"

"I don't see why not. I've always been good at that. Running...Wolfe said its a curse, he thought he was the one that cursed me out of his hate. He's dead wrong, the damned idiot", he chuckled, as unexpected as it was for me, "Corsen did it way long ago. And she didn't even hate me."

He then fell silent, perhaps in some thought. I could feel the sleep demon creeping in, my eyes were drooping, almost lost to my exhaustion when I heard him mumble.

"Even if you need to run away...you have to keep on going. Just never stop and you'd be fine."

I knew these weren't his words, but something that had been given to him by someone. Perhaps the curse, he was talking about.

That, once again, stole away my sleep. I wondered if he was going to go to sleep now. I had nothing else to say.

"Seraph", he spoke in a stern voice, "if you really want to know the truth about everything, you should see what power all of us hold. Once you know the role everyone plays, you'll finally get to realize the answer."

I had never paid much attention to everyone's powers as such. Magic never did intrigue me after all, partially because I couldn't use it but also because it didn't seem to me to be especially concrete. I began to classify all the one's I'd seen so far.

Chopper had Ebony and Ivory. One could slash through everything and the other could instantly disintegrate everything upon contact. I later learned that his real power was that Ebony could cut through space and Ivory could cut through time. He was the most lethal blade there ever could exist, although I couldn't say I completely understood the mechanisms of his abilities.

Deli was a vampire. She could tap into people's minds, control them, and create illusions. She had monstrous strength. She could manipulate blood and magical weapons. Still, I had never seen her use any weapons, nor possess any. In fact, she hadn't used much of her vampirism at all against her father.

Sight could put up magical barriers and bring them down. That was about all I'd seen of him other than being absurdly erratic, distrait, and languid.

Prophet had Lucifer. I didn't know much about Lubbock, Grim and June.

As for Lady...well, now that I got down to thinking about it, I couldn't pin down what her ability really was. Despite the fact that I'd seen her in combat, I wasn't sure what kind of magic she had. We used to joke that she was a vampire, since she neither ate, nor slept and had a terrible red glint in her eyes. But seeing Deli, that claim was dubious.

As I lay there thinking about all this, I realized Chopper had gone to sleep. I was too restless now, and despite being exhausted, ended up keeping watch all night.

The next morning, we set off for home.