After...party...?

[diesifkilled]

[SO THAT SURE WAS AN EXECUTION, HUH

Shirou's just been kind of staring off into space, still holding on to Usagi's hand, ever since Kon and Natsume's deaths. Just when it starts to look like he might stay like that all hecking night, he suddenly blinks and looks around.]

I'm going to go get some food.

[And indeed, he disappears off to the lodge and returns a little later with a huge pile of beautifully made sandwiches and other snacks. Did he have them prepared, or did he just make them really fast somehow? Who knows.

Anyway, there are now sandwiches. And the shack might still be on fire. This is fine.]

Comments

[fallbymyhands]

[Lenka you are a mess]

We don't. You're right.

But we need to keep searching, isn't that correct?

[she knows what it's like to be at the bottom of the barrel. to have lost all hope and reason for continuing on. and although that was a long time ago. . .]

. . . I'm sorry. I wish I could say something more helpful than "we must keep going." That's what I believe, truly and deeply, right down to the depths of my heart. But. . .

Ultimately, the decision to keep fighting rests upon your own shoulders. As does your reason for fighting.

[soylentprotag]

[Someone will have to mop him off the floor eventually.

Or at least the muddy trail he's leaving, pulling himself along in the dirt. It's ungainly and unsightly, but it's all he can do right now.]

We'll keep searching. We'll keep going.

[This was... a critical blow, an unneeded one (but someone had deemed it necessary, and when he has the ability and the presence of mind he'll remember that); but there are still enough of them left to weather it. They haven't lost all of their momentum. They won't lie down and die yet.

He won't lie down and die yet. He can't. He never can.

It's easy to have a reason for fighting when it's the sum total of your existence, every breath you've taken for years and each day that goes by with you still here. Somehow. No matter how much you stumble or how much you fall down or how much you crack it drags you forward as though on strings, the hook sinking deeper and bloodier each time. At some point, he remembers, he'd had hold of the strings. Maybe.]

Yes. Sorry. [for his wavering hopes, for relying too much on her, for all sorts of things] I'll do what I can.

[fallbymyhands]

Yes. I believe that you will.

[regardless of the conversation, regardless of the many true-yet-harsh things Lenka has pointed out during it, she believes he'll do what he can. that determination, though dampened, isn't gone yet]

If there is anything I can do to assist you, Utsugi, don't hesitate to ask. I'll do what I can as well.

[soylentprotag]

... Okay. You, too.

[There's always that tug-of-war.

There are things he genuinely can't carry anymore, but he doesn't know where to put them, doesn't want to add to the burdens of others. None of them can shoulder the enormity of everything inflicted on them here, and the road ahead has always been long and now seems fathomless.

For now, they walk together. He adds, much softer:]

Thank you.