The Undesired Second Chance

Chapter 45: Falling Action

Axel picked up the notebook he had been drawing in earlier and opened it to a blank page, not sure what else to do in this situation. The pair of unexpected visitors were speaking to each other in hushed tones, but he had no idea what they were saying: he wasn't sure if he just didn't know the words they were using, or if they were talking in code.

So, left to his small cot and feeling rather alone despite the fact that he technically wasn't, Axel decided to put his thoughts to paper. Writing or doodling, either way, it always helped him clear his head.

He needed that right now.

It all felt so surreal. But then again, everything these past few days did, really.

(Everything this past year did, really.)

Looking at things objectively—having been kidnapped and subsequently locked up by a mad scientist—by all rights he should probably be scared out of his mind at the moment. But instead of being properly terrified when faced with his warden, his brain would just randomly chime in with stuff like 'purple eye shadow is a bold look' and 'huh, guess my sister was pretty spot on with that cosplay'.

Or maybe it was just the isolation and general captivity getting to him, either way.

The cosplay point was particularly thorough in derailing his sense of self preservation, though thankfully so far he'd managed to keep those complete-nonsense-in-this-context comparisons to himself.

He sighed, glancing around for his one wooden pencil.

"Blacksmith-san?"

"Hm?" Smoothing out his thin sheet with his hand—the uninjured one, of course—revealed the pencil had snuck away into one of the folds. Axel grabbed it and looked up. "What is it, Shee... er, Shizune?"

She held out her hands. "Do you mind if I check as well?"

It took him a minute to connect what she was asking for with the cut on his palm, and when he did he reluctantly set his notebook aside. The young apprentice ninja took his hand and her fingers lit with a green glow—as fascinating as ever, even though he'd seen it quite a few times in recent days.

He simply watched, holding very still as the weird itchy-scab sensation passed through his palm. And, once again, nothing else really happened. That's five non-starters out of five on attempting to heal him.

"That is so weird," Shizune murmured. "It's like you're a ghost..." a suddenly nervous pause, and she added, "er, you're not, right?"

"No," he replied, trying to remember if the word she'd used meant 'ghost', 'spirit', or something more like 'demon'. Not that the distinction really mattered, since he's just a garden-variety human.

Actually, given the whole alternate dimension situation, by some standards he might technically qualify for a few of those labels. Weird thought.

"You know," Tsunade spoke up, eyeing him with curiosity, "you were interrupted earlier, before you could give us a good answer."

It took him a second to remember what had been asked: "Why I am here?"

She just nodded.

Axel opened his mouth to reply, but stalled out when it came to actually choosing the words. In part that was because he wasn't sure how much he should say, but to be honest the bigger sticking point was that he still only had a vague idea why himself.

Then, deciding it'd probably be best to just jump into it, he matter-of-factly said, "It's because I don't have chakra."

Tsunade's expression pulled up into open surprise.