The Ludicrous Escapade Pt.4

The Other Half

"Let me get this straight." You has just finished listening to Ojiro's tale. "Yoshikage didn't like that you were a surfer since it meant you kept crossing over from the sea to the land. You took his insult to heart and... bit off your fingers?"

"All ten of them." Ojiro had removed his gloves to display the nubs he had left. "There's no way in hell I'll ever forgive that guy. He's the one who told me to!"

"It sounds like you may have had some preexisting doubts about yourself before you met him." You were struggling a little to sympathize with Ojiro. "Your response to him insulting you was to get drunk and do a bunch of drugs. That's not really the healthiest coping mechanism, is it? At that point, how do you even know if the Yoshikage telling you to eat your fingers was actually there and not the result of your own delirium?"

While your questions weren't entirely necessary, perhaps a part of you felt like defending this other universe Yoshikage. While you had met your fair share of villains and whatnot, you knew people weren't really so black and white. The majority of folks in the void room were testament to that, being ones you had originally cursed at and despised. While they weren't saints now by any means, you and them had managed to work your way to some kind of middle ground.

"I- Well-" Ojiro silenced himself, now starting to question his own story. Could this also be his fault and not just Yoshikage's? Nah. That'd be crazy. That would kinda invalidate this whole elaborate plan of trying to control Yoshikage. So he couldn't admit to anything like that. No sirree.

"So where is that Yoshikage guy now?" Gappy wanted to know.

"You're asking me?!" Ojiro wondered if the guy in front of him had actually been listening to anything he was saying. "I was keeping watch for him. I waited three days. Then you showed up. I'm looking for him."

Gappy grabbed the enemy by the collar again, ready to knock some more sense into the guy. Except he realized that what the enemy was saying did, in fact, make sense. "Oh." He let go of Ojiro and spun around. "Where'd that girl go? That one from the bathroom?"

"She must have left." Reasoned Yasuho. "I guess she was running away."

"I wonder if she's still naked." Gappy hadn't seen many clothes lying around and none of the other sailor uniforms were missing or anything. "I guess I can't blame her. Anyhow, even if that girl had seen Kira before, she probably couldn't remember enough to realize I'm different from the guy in the photos."

"Wait a second." Yasuho, currently in possession of the photograph of Yoshikage, waved you and Gappy closer to her. "I just noticed this. Look at the background behind Kira."

The wall eyes.

"If he liked to hang out around there, I guess we could take a look." Maybe then you could find some clues to locate the actual Yoshikage Kira. "Gappy," You couldn't exactly call him Kira anymore, so you'd stick with it for now. Gappy is what you had been mostly calling him in your mind, anyway. "Considering the similarities between the two of you, do you think you might be related?"

He had no clue. "But why'd you guys come back? After you ran out the bathroom, I didn't expect..."

Yasuho began to fiddle with the roses sewn into her skirt. "The dog I used to have, your face really does look similar to his, you know. His name was Josuke. That dog, this condo doesn't suit him at all. It's a totally different vibe. I'm sure he'd hate it. So I didn't think you could live here, either."

Gappy then turned to you.

Figuring out that he wanted your explanation, you obliged. "I just thought something fishy was going on that you weren't necessarily the cause of. Even if you were, I didn't have much reason to be worried." You held up the hand Kars had severed for you earlier. "You saw what I did, right?"