Opening his eyes felt like the hardest task of his life, and he wasn't sure if he really wanted to open them, at all. The last time he could glimpse at reality, it wasn't a reality he liked very much. In his ears, Wadanohara's desperate screams for help were still echoing while he was unable to move even a muscle to help her, forced to watch the bloody scene unfold in front of him while begging for the first time in his life so to just make this gruesome display of violence against her stop.
But it never did anything, and he had to watch her break apart until he couldn't bear it anymore, until he collapsed from the heavy weight of exhaustion on guilt. It was all his fault, after all.
And when he came to back then, the sweet girl he once knew had been replaced by something he couldn't explain to himself.
While he was in that cell, he spent his time thinking about the past when his momentary consciousness allowed him to, but more and more, he felt himself retreat back into his head, away from all the pain around him, from the witch in the red dress who sometimes looked as happy as her past self. At times, he would just go with the belief that she was happy, and delusional tears of joy would find their way to his eyes.
At least Wadanohara was happy, he would gladly take being tortured in that cell if it meant she was happy.
But he knew it was a lie, to make himself feel better. He couldn't do anything else, even if there had been a little bit of fight left within him. Her mind had been twisted into something that would fit the depraved urges his brother had, and he felt himself lose his grip on reality more and more.
Sometimes, the red witch would come to his prison alone, and it was those moments he was most conscious, he could observe her if his mind allowed it and see how she always came back to heal some wounds and talk to him, asking him if he finally felt better, and if he was happy now.
If anything came close to happiness back then, it must have been the fact that she hadn't completely forgotten about him.
But her face didn't look happy, as much as she always told him she was. She firmly believed it, but her features were those of someone in constant, invisible pain.
It made him hurt inside and retreat back into the farthest corner of his head, away from the evidence that would speak of his failure.
It wasn't supposed to be like this. He had hoped that, after she regained her memories,he could now spend his time at her side again, after the had driven the Sea of Death away. There were many things he had not told her, not explained to her yet.
The worst torture was seeing the only person in the world he loved in constant pain, caught in a reality fabricated only for her.
The last coherent memory he could recall was of her stroking his face, telling him she would do something for his tail but that she wasn't feeling well and couldn't do it.
And then there was darkness again, and after that there he was, struggling to open his last remaining eye.
That was right, he lost an eye. It had been cut and Wadanohara had not been allowed to treat it.
It felt like a far away thing now, like it had been an eternity since it happened.
Samekichi felt very conscious, something he probably last felt a long time ago, probably on a night with a full moon. And something was different about his surroundings, he could feel it, smell it. He hadn't smelled anything else than decay in a long time, but this was definitely different.
What was it? Some kind of plant?
His head also felt pretty light. Maybe it was one of the strange dreams his subconsciousness used to lull him back into his usual state of comatose uncaringness.
Something was off about it though, it felt too real, too nice to be just a simple dream. He would prefer to dream about the past anyway, not about some weird fluffy place with plant perfume all over it.
It smelled really, really strange.
He decided that maybe he should open his eye and see what kind of scene would house him this time, and upon doing so, and a moment to adjust to the new lighting, the first thing he noticed was that the wall was pitch black (so he concluded he lay on his side) and the room was tinted in some weird, orange light. And he definitely wasn't underwater anymore!
He stirred a little, his tail felt strained. Did something happen to it? He was under the impression that the Wadanohara in the waking world looked after it.
"Hey there, slow down. Finally going to wake up, eh?"
Oh sweet oblivion, no. If he had to be stuck in a dream, he didn't want to be stuck with that person.
Not after she suggested to fry him.
He moved only his eye to see who was talking, and he was right. Chlomaki was sitting in more or less ratty chair in a corner far away from him (he was thankful), sans hat but with a large tome on her lap. It looked somewhat familiar to him, but he didn't really care.
"No going to talk to me? After all, you're in my house, you could at least say 'hello' or some other pleasantries. Ah, whatever. Slept well?"
He groaned. Did he really have to hold a conversation with that witch to wake up? And why in the world would he dream of her. On the other hand, part of him was grateful for such a calm dream, even if that meant he would miss the next visit of Wadanohara.
His heart started beating stronger with the fear of being forgotten, or not being able to see her again. He was hopeless. Maybe dying would be in order at some point.
"I want out, wake me up already," he sighed almost inaudible, feeling like he hadn't used his voice in far too long. Which wouldn't matter, his real voice had not been used at all and soon he would be back in his cell.
"Hate to break it to you kid, but you are awake already and this is no dream," Chlomaki closed the tome with a loud thump , before carelessly throwing it on the floor and walking up to him, "Should mention, you have been here for weeks already, albeit you were a little lost in La-La-Land. How you feelin'?"
So he wasn't in the dungeon anymore? He had gotten out? How? And how was this witch even alive, hadn't she been in Deep Sea Town when the Sea of Death attacked? What about Wadanohara..?
His heartbeat was picking up and yes, he was quite sure he was panicking and hyperventilating. He could suddenly feel pain from sores and bruises he had never actively perceived, and his head was hurting.
"Obviously not so good. Well, time for some shut-eye, am I right?"
What was she even talking about? No, he didn't feel well, he felt like he was dying, and like he was dying at a rapid pace. And now his eyelids also started to feel heavy. Maybe he was going to die. At least he had been free for five minutes, that must be a negative record.
He still heard the witch mumble stuff - or maybe she was talking normally, but he was fading out of consciousness far too quick to understand what it was. Within mere seconds, the world around him had gone dark again.
He didn't really know for how long he was sleeping again, but sometimes, he would wake up sporadically, not fully aware, his vision would be blurry and unfocused, and he noticed that usually, he wasn't alone. The was another witch in the room, and Chlomaki was usually there too. He didn't know the other one, but she obviously took fashion advice from the cat-witch, as she was all clad in black. She was doing things with her hands, and he never heard her talk.
It was always the laid back voice of Chlomaki he heard, but the unknown witch remained silent.
Sometimes no one was around.
It felt awkward for the few seconds he spent awake.
He didn't want to be alone in a strange place without anyone he knew.
Why was he there, and why was he all alone? He didn't want to be alone, he spent too much time alone and hurting.
The next time he got to be in a fully awake state, he was alone with Chlomaki again, and he wondered why she was around that much. It wasn't like she cared about many things.
"Well, can't deny a good friend, can I," she shrugged, "Oh hey, stop moving there, Mackarel Man. That ain't good for you."
"What is good right now anyway, and stop reading my mind, I.." Samekichi stopped his efforts to get up immediately after feeling a sharp pain in his arms, "..I told, and I'm no mackarel!"
"Touchy like I remember him, nice. As to why, you may not like to hear it, but you are in your birthday suit and that fat blanket is the only thing shielding my eyes from all your fishy glory," She leaned back in her armchair, "Now, you will not go and hyperventilate again, will you? Was scary, I'm no doctor."
Naked in a strange house with a more or less suspicious witch. A witch actively likening him to a fish.
Maybe he should have died right there.
"I'm not.." he really didn't know what to say, "ergh, whatever."
He tried his best to pull the blanket up to his chin in an attempt to get comfortable again, even if it meant to have his tail fin poking out at the foot end. A price he would gladly pay to end the state of confusion he was in.
For once he saw how Chlomaki's face changed to a more neutral-amused expression instead of the fully amused one he got to know way back.
"Really now, this time you tell me how you feel, last time you just panicked like a little mouse and I had to put you to sleep," she grinned, "so how is it?"
"Like shit," there were no more truthful words right now he could find, neither for his mental or physical state. He had felt like that for a long time.
"Nah, that's harsh. I think you were patched up pretty well," Chlomaki's ears were twitching while she talked.
Samekichi had to think for a minute. Indeed, he did feel better than when he first woke up, his heart was not beating with terminal speed anymore and he felt more relaxed, but still couldn't get the dark overlay away from his thoughts. He may have been acquainted with Chlomaki through Wadanohara, but he still was all alone.
"The other witch in black," he suddenly said, directing his eye towards her, "who is she? She was here with you at times, but I couldn't see her clearly."
"Oh, her. Yeah, that's a good friend of mine, a nice kid. Might introduce her to you once she comes here again to look after your injuries, how about it? I think you would like each other," Chlomaki just grinned, but he felt sick to the stomach.
"No, I don't want her to come back - and I don't want her to do things to me, don't even think about bringing her back!" He felt sickened by the thought of some strange witch doing stuff to his body, a witch that didn't know how to handle a shark like Wadanohara did. If anything, he wanted her to treat him, and not some unknown witch. But Wadanohara would never heal him again, and so nobody else should.
"'tis a little mean to say such things, and think about your situation. You wouldn't be able to do anything about it anyway, right? So stop squirming and just accept that you will meet her soon," she streched in her ratty armchair, "If you like, I promise it's not even going to hurt. Sounds good to me, at least."
He really didn't want to meet her witch friend, there was only one witch he wanted to meet, and thinking about her just made him want to cry in shame. She was hurting far away from him, and he had no means to help her. Just like he couldn't help her all the other times he failed her.
"Where are we. Can you at least tell me that without forcing me into things I don't want?" He growled while hearing her amused snickers.
"Sure thing shark boy, we're in the Witch World. Where else, duh. And more exactly, 'tis my house you are sleeping in right now, but I guess I told you that already," she shrugged, "I know you want to ask how you got here kiddo, but that's a story for another time. Maybe you should go and sleep a little longer, how about it?"
"Yeah right, and then wake up again weeks in the future like last time?" He grunted, displeased at everything.
"Nope, I would guess in about four to eight hours, like normal people do."
Samekichi was quite glad she left at that point, as he guessed that he wouldn't be able to take any more of her sarcastic cheekiness for now - not that he could ever take any of it, and he knew they would never be friends, no matter how many times she supposedly got him out of that prison.
It was just an assumption. She had no reason to get him out of any sticky situation.
But he saw no other way this situation could have been resolved, he sure as hell knew it wasn't him who did an impressive prison break unknowingly.
Looking at his clawed (and unfortunately pretty scarred) hands, he wondered yet again what happened, and what still would happen now. He had no idea how he would be able to bear the knowledge that everything he had was lost for the rest of his life, until it would be ended by someone else.
Instead of going to sleep, he tried to move his tail, and to his surprise, it felt mostly sore and twitchy, but it didn't hurt anymore, and it was doing idle motions while he lay on his side. He didn't quite understand why he was testing that, but it felt like a good thing to do other than just conking out again. His legs hurt considerably more, and he just had to hope that Chlomaki didn't have a mirror in her house, because whatever he felt on his face over his eye was not nice, at all.
Maybe sleep was the right answer, because whatever he did, it just made him feel defeated.
It was eerie how this feeling had been a constant companion ever since the day the sea had changed, and he was sure it would never fully go away again.
Samekichi didn't dare open his eye when he heard Chlomaki babble again and felt someone poke his tail, sighing almost inaudibly. Even if he had to play dead, he would not get acquainted with this witch, no way he would. Not with someone who apparently enjoyed removing the clothes from passed out sharks.
So he just pretended to be asleep, ignoring the uncomfortable little voice in the back of his head telling him to just open his damn eyes already.
"Just look at him, isn't it cute. He's pretending to be dead," Chlomaki laughed, blowing his cover.
Well damn. Her tendency to snoop around in other people's thoughts was something he, yet again, had not taken into consideration. He wanted to bite something, preferrably something hard and unyielding.
"Open your eye fishy, I know you're awake," she chuckled again.
Well, it was like he had no choice.
Upon opening his eye, the first thing he saw was the floor. So he had been turned around.
Great, so they treated him like furniture right away. Not that he wasn't used to it by now.
In front of him he could see pair of tiny feet clad in a pair of black buckle pumps, adorned with ribbons and black tights. Or stockings. He didn't care either way, he was no expert in girl fashion anyway, and he had no idea why he was studying the witch's feet in the first place.
Those were some awfully tiny feet though, maybe there were more crazy short witches around than he knew, after all he had never been to the homeworld of the witches.
"Not going to say hello? And I thought you two would get along well, ah, plan busted," Chlomaki sounded disappointed, in her usual lax way.
"The only thing I want is for her to go away," Samekichi could see the legs of the witch quiver, as if she was ready to run away instantly, but apparently she was trying to pull herself together. He wondered if he looked scary, sounded scary or just was generally perceived as dangerous by her. Any way, he couldn't attack her anyway, and a smart witch would have known that. For that he felt far too heavy and crushed.
"Pity, and there I thought you were waiting for her to come back badly. You're a big sleeptalker lately, kid, no use in keeping secrets around here," The cat-witch sounded like she was biting back laughter, and he failed to see what was so funny.
He wanted to say something, but that moment, for the first time, he noted; the other witch in black was talking.
"I should just go Chlomaki, I'm sorry," she whispered, he almost couldn't hear it, but he knew that voice, he knew it well and he had been certain he would never hear it again.
The dull pain in his neck told him that he shouldn't have turned his head so fast, but he couldn't care for that right now - it was just a reminder of the fact that this wasn't a dream, as much as he still couldn't believe it.
She had already turned around, but the braids hanging over her back were already enough to convince him that this was indeed Wadanohara, and she wasn't wearing her red garments anymore.
He desperately stretched out his arm and grabbed her skirt, trying to stop her from leaving, and it even worked.
By now, he was hoping this was not a dream anymore. Sure, Wadanohara was wearing all black and her voice was almost non-existent, but she was there, and real, and not caught up in the corruption of the Sea of Death. That alone was enough to almost make him burst with hope.
He wanted to say her name, but his throat was jammed shut and he fear that if he tried to say something, he would just start crying in to most awkward fashion and ruin everything.
It wasn't necessary though, as she turned around without being prompted to do so, but, and he honestly wouldn't have expected anything else, her face was not sporting the sweet smile he dreamed about so much, it was showing her deep-seated sadness, and her eyes, while not red anymore, had taken the same dark color her clothes had.
He looked into those black eyes, and even if they weren't brown and cheerful anymore, it was comforting beyond anything he had ever imagined to have a more or less normal Wadanohara back with him, right where he was and not just as a product of his imagination.
But it didn't change that she didn't look happy. Not even the fake happy the red witch looked.
She gingerly peeled his fingers from her skirt, and he realized he'd been staring into her eyes for a long time. Wadanohara was holding his hand now, and he was sure he had never felt better.
"..forgive me," he croaked before pressing her tiny hand to his forehead, quelling the urge to cry his bitter tears right there.
But Wadanohara just cocked her head slightly, seemingly confused, and started to stroke his hair.
"But you didn't do anything wrong, Samekichi, why should I forgive you?"
"I don't want to interrupt this lovely scene, but don't we have a few questions to answer, because you know Wadanohara, your fish is pretty confused and has no idea what's up," Chlomaki didn't even bother to clear her throat before speaking up, instead she just blurted her concerns directly out.
Samekichi looked up at her and she suddenly stopped stroking his hair and instead sat down on the other bed in the room, across from him (had it been there before? he must have been completely out of it to not notice), after gently removing her hand from his grip. He deemed it unfair, he wanted to hold on to that hand for all eternity from now on, and never let go of it again.
But he wouldn't say anything. He had trouble forgetting the painful memories that were connected to the last day of the Blue Sea, and looking at her just brought back the realization that his depraved sibling had been hurting her in the worst, most disgusting way possible, and he had been unable to do anything, forced to watch her face during the whole, brutal act.
And now she was sitting in front of him again, and he swore he would never complain to her about anything ever again (or at least apologize if he ever did), to not make her even more unhappy than she was already.
"I brought you here, after retrieving you from the dungeon. You were able to come here because..you are still my familiar," Wadanohara's new, quiet voice was something he had to get used to, she sounded like all her energy had been drained at one point.
"Toooo be more exact, the agreement between witch and familiar resembles something like a contract, and it has to be broken by both parties before you can set a familiar free. Thus, you can see that Sal guy was an idiot, and never made Wadanohara break her contracts, probably thought himself as a winner, that moron. Well and that is why you are here, also why you never really stopped being a familiar back when you threw your tantrum about her leaving the sea. Get it?" Chlomaki pulled up her shoulder as if she wanted to signal that she had no clue, despite being probably the most knowledgeable in the room at that point, "And so little Wadanohara washed up here after picking you up, and was quite surprised to see me straight away."
"If you knew about it all along, why in the world didn't you come to help?!" He wanted to be more angry, but a mix of emotions that currently were more positive than negative, prevented a more violent outburst.
"Eh, why would I. I don't like poking my nose into the affairs of other worlds," Now the cat-witch shrugged, and he felt the strong urge to just get up and and least try to eat her. A good thought, something he hadn't felt in a long while. Even if Wadanohara was vastly different from her past self, being together with her made him feel infinitely better.
"Please don't be angry, I understand that Chlomaki wouldn't. It was very dangerous," Wadanohara whispered, "Besides, it would have been impossible for her to also get you out of there, you were..locked up and.."
"A Vegetable, just say it," The other witch crossed her arms, "No use in beating around the bush here."
Wasn't that just a blow to the gut right there. He knew he didn't remember most of the time he spent imprisoned, but he had no idea how bad it had been apparently.
"So why am I good now?" He suddenly felt very silly lying there on his side and getting the world explained to him.
"I tried my best to get your mind together again, but..you are not good Samekichi, it is..I am unable to make the dark spots of what happened disappear, and..." Wadanohara stopped talking at that point, casting down her eyes. He couldn't wait to talk to her without Chlomaki present, he could feel that something was pressing down on her and how she was unable to say it. And he wanted to tell her things and apologize for failing her when she needed him most.
"Well, her healing magic was pretty downtrodden, so I guess we can be happy everything is as good as it is now. Healing mental damage is no fun thing to do, kid, you should be happy that you won't have to be fed and washed for the rest of your life," Chlomaki laughed, "But hey, I think he wants to talk to you alone, so if you need to lift him again, just gimme a call, right-o? I'll be somewhere..in the west wing, or wherever."
And with that, she left the room in her usual spirited way, and for once maybe her mindreading had not been all that bad. Or, and Samekichi thought it more likely, she was just bored with the two of them and decided to bother whoever else lived in that house with her.
"Wait, did she say lift? Did you actually...move me around?" The realization struck like lightning.
"Yes..is it important..? Did we hurt you anywhere?" She asked, obviously completely missing the point.
"No, it's just because...doesn't that mean you..." Didn't that mean they had been the ones removing his clothes and maneuvering him around in his full state of undress? The idea filled him with shame.
"Oh..don't worry, it..it doesn't bother me, I mean it is really nothing new to me anymore," She pulled up her shoulders in a more awkward and telling fashion than he expected, she almost looked like she wanted to hide, simultaneously, she started scratching her arm through her sleeve.
He felt like gagging, not because of her, but because he obviously hit a sensitive spot just by asking awkward questions. And it was so dumb too, of course she would not react well to it.
"Samekichi, what should I forgive?" She repeated her question from before, and he was glad she moved away from the uncomfortable themes on her own, "You didn't do anything wrong, and right now, you are here, aren't you?"
It took him a few moments to realize that she obviously did not remember what happened that made her change, and he had no idea to what point she did remember that day. But she did know what happened to her during her time as the red witch, not that it made it any better.
He wasn't sure what to do. Was it magic again, blocking her memory, or was it just her? It still felt like a repeating process, if he told her anything, what kind of damage would he do, and what would happen if he didn't say anything?
Was this some sort of sadistic time loop, only in a different setting?
"There is something...I have to think about it myself," He wanted to hide. Get back what you want most, but not without the obligatory walk on nails before everything would be good again.
"Is that so. I'm sorry for troubling you so much," Wadanohara sighed before closing her eyes.
"Don't even say that, you have never been any trouble!" He couldn't help but snap at her and immediately feel guilty about it, "You shouldn't feel like you have to apologize to anyone! Not you.."
Her response was a sorrowful look from half-lidded eyes.
Of course, he knew. She felt like she had abandoned her world when it needed her, and probably many other things due to what had been imposed upon her afterwards.He wouldn't ask now, maybe later or even never.
For now it would probably be best not to bring it up.
"Samekichi," she spoke softly, "Is there anything you need? Because I think I should let you rest again."
"I think I had enough rest for a lifetime, how long have we been here anyway?" He may have sounded harsher than he intended, but the truth was that he just didn't want her to leave.
"..about four months." Wadanohara replied, and for the first time now, he detected the monotonous undertones in her voice, it wasn't too prominent, but she did indeed sound like someone in deep mourning.
"Great, and does that mean I have been asleep for four months?" It was quite a long time.
"I mostly kept you like that so..I could help you more effectively, don't be angry. The first time you woke up was a month ago, and I kept my distance so I wouldn't stress you as much," By now, her gaze was fixed on nothing, and she was staring blankly at a point on the floor.
He couldn't be angry, after all, it was Chlomaki who made him believe that she wasn't there at all.
"So what were you doing all the time you weren't hiding from me?"
"I spent all my time here, this bed here is mine and I had to keep watch over you. I have always been here, just like you always were around for me," She folded her hands in her lap and looked at him again.
He knew it wasn't true, he hadn't always been there for her, but it made him violently happy that she sincerely cared for him, and with that, his tail started to thrash left and right, a testament to his poor ability to hide his true thoughts.
"I'm glad it works again, it was so smashed, I almost had to give up again," Wadanohara suddenly got up again and circled him with her gentle pace, before coming to a stop at the footend, where his tail was poking out next to his feet, "I'm so sorry, you have so many scars everywhere, and I couldn't make them better, just like your eye."
If she kept apologizing for everything, he thought, he would probably get up and against better judgement hug her, even if the idea was nonsensical at best. He could never assault her with affection, ever.
"So? Don't worry, I heard some people actually look better with lots of scars, right? And there's only one in my face, anyway, so no problem" Samekichi did his best to sound blasé, and maybe a good shrug would have worked in his favor. He didn't really care about scars, just the way he got most of them bothered him, as they certainly weren't rewards from a good fight against some other predator.
"Ah..but..well, you may have to see it for yourself once you can get up again," Wadanohara wrapped her arms around herself, looking like she wanted to apologize yet again, but in the end, she must have decided against it.
"Yeah..hey, just because I'm curious," this time, he tried to choose his words more carefully, "what the hell happened to my clothes?"
"They were pretty tattered so I wanted to mend them with magic, but I had no time previously...you will get them back, don't worry," She definitely felt awkward, "I just assumed you would like them back the way they were before."
"..am I allowed to lie on my back?" He sheepishly asked, as the weird way he was on his side right now started to get mildly annoying, and not just because it limited his field of vision immensely.
Wadanohara eyed him awkwardly, before saying: "I guess you can...we just didn't want to fiddle with the placement of your tail, it's better if you do it on your own. Actually..I think you should be fine moving into any position you feel comfortable in, as long as it doesn't hurt anywhere."
Well, thank the Sea God that she didn't fiddle more with his tail than she did already, getting that thing to not get in the way while sitting, lying or doing anything was hard enough for him already.
It was bad enough that he apparently had been naked in front of her more than he remembered himself being naked.
"I will now go and look something up, so feel free to readjust yourself. I will come back when it's bedtime," Usually, he knew, she would have ended such a sentence with a smile, but today, she didn't.
After she left, he promptly tried to move into a position more comfortable for him, which included moving and bending his tail around (and it did hurt, but there was no way he would cry for Wadanohara now), until he was able to see the room more clearly, with his tail tucked between his knees and his back elevated by the numerous pillows he had moved from the footend with his feet.
As much as he was still in slight disbelief about the whole situation, he couldn't help but feel confident, even if he and Wadanohara were somehow awkward with each other.
It probably stemmed from the fact that she felt just as guilty, if not even more, as he did.
He didn't want that, but what had he expected?
He hadn't slept and when she came back a long time later, she wasn't even surprised about it, or at least she hid it well. She actually didn't look like she was concerned at all, and so Samekichi decided he wouldn't be either - he wasn't concerned about his health at all, but more about the effect it had on her, so if there was anything he could do, maybe it was getting better without her magic, and maybe get in shape again. It was far fetched to even think about it already, but he would see to it that after all the horrors she had to live through, nothing would ever happen to her again, not even a scratch. And if that meant that he had to peel all the fruit she wanted to eat and carry her on his back all the time, then so be it.
"I got some fish for you," She did indeed carry a large bowl in her hand, "the witch dealing with fish didn't have anything bigger today, or that's what Chlomaki said, so sorry, it's only herring. It's good you can eat by yourself now, mashing them was so messy, I didn't like it."
"Does that mean you fed me?" Samekichi gladly started to help himself to some fish after she sat down on her bed and put the bowl on the floor next to him, "What else, did you wash me?"
She twitched, "Yes, but only when I had to change the bandage around your chest."
He must have been a true vegetable, just like Chlomaki unceremoniously blurted out before. Getting fed and washed like a little pup, at least he didn't cry. Maybe he had limited himself to drooling, not that it was any more dignified.
"Herring isn't all that bad," he said, unsure what else to mention. He couldn't risk upsetting her with nonsense, he didn't know how she felt. But maybe...
"...Wadanohara, how do you feel?"
It caught her off-guard, and her eyes widened a little. He first thought that it was dumb thing to ask so directly, but soon enough, he noticed that her reaction was probably not a negative one. This new, sad Wadanohara was hard to read, and he tried his best to behave the way he did when they spent most of the day together, sometimes doing the dumbest things and not feeling weird about it.
The carefreeness was gone, but they still had each other now, and it was what he wanted since the day he was forced to leave her side in order not to hurt her, and when he finally got to be with her again he had already dared to hope for a nicer future, a pretty futile hope. And he certainly had not wished to achieve this future together in such a tragic way.
"I...." She hesitated, "I feel..."
Didn't she know? It would be okay to just say that she felt awful, he could understand, he felt awful to some degree, too.
"Can I tell you tomorrow? I need to think about it," Wadanohara sighed resignated, and it was obvious that she hadn't spend a second thinking about her own feelings since she came here.
He knew that she hadn't, she had this weird streak that led her to be more considerate of other people than of herself - she gladly neglected herself if it meant that she could help someone else. Which also included not thinking about her own problems, deeming them not important enough.
Wadanohara had always been that way.
"Yeah, whatever suits you, I just want to know. Tell me anything about this house for now?" Samekichi bit off the head of the fish he was holding, carefully chewing it as he remembered how she always scolded him for not doing that enough.
"It's a big mansion, Chlomaki said she claimed it a long time ago, but you should ask her about the way that works...she lives here alone mostly, but right now..she told me she has other guests too, but I never saw them. And we're in the world of witches, as you know," Wadanohara released a deep breath, "I'm so tired."
"Ah, no, sorry about that, I mean, I will hurry up," He decidedly stuffed the next fish into his mouth upon seeing her rub her eyes, but it only resulted in her gesturing in an attempt to calm him down.
"Don't worry Samekichi, eat in peace, you need your food. I will get changed so I can just go to bed right when you're done," She slipped out of the room in silence, while he was still busy with the mass of fish in his mouth.
She was gloomy, alright. But it felt strange and forced to him.
He looked down at the next fish he had in his hand, and he wondered about what she felt when she looked at them. It had been nothing strange to eat other fish in the past, nobody thought that it was weird - whatever wasn't a citizen of the towns and couldn't display at least a decent amount of intelligence got eaten. And he had seen her gut fish and prepare it plenty of times, but what was it like for her now? Did she think a lot about it?
The dead eyes of the herring were making him uncomfortable. Not in the sense that he felt repelled by his food, he never did, but he felt like they were questioning him, what he was going to do now, with an emotionally unstable witch and no place to call home anymore.
He quickly bit the head off and swallowed it hastily. He wouldn't get questioned by a herring!
And besides, eating felt like a new high of sensations to him, no fish should be allowed to make it turn sour. He was going to find a way to care for Wadanohara, like he always wanted, and especially now, after she had taken care of his beaten butt for months while in constant doubt of herself. He would ask her about that in the morning, when she wasn't tired anymore.
She came back wearing something similar to her old nightgown, barefoot, and for a second everything felt a little like it did back in the day when everything was still alright and she would crawl into her bed, telling him about the things she wanted to do the next morning excitedly.
But she just silently collected to bowl, which slowly started emit a fishy smell, and didn't say anything of her plans.
"What about tomorrow?" He blurted out once she was back, earning a confused look from her.
"Tomorrow?" She did indeed crawl into her bed, with seemingly heavy limbs, "I think I will try stretching your arms tomorrow, it should help you, and it will make you feel better. Maybe your legs, too."
Not really the answer he had hoped for.
"When can I get up again?"
"It won't be long, Samekichi. You will need to get in shape again, so really not that long," She yawned behind one of her hands, a cute little yawn like her remembered her doing all the time.
"Be honest here, do I have noodle arms now?" He started to turn himself around again, so he could sleep face down. Taking the risk of numbing his tail in his sleep was not in his plans.
And he did feel like his arms were a little shaky.
He landed face first in his pillow.
"I doubt it, it will be alright again. Sleep well, Samekichi," Wadanohara curled up under her blanket, much like he knew she would.
The lights went out by themselves and everything that was left was the slight orange glow of the never changing sky outside the window.