Ketsuraku Sekai

Apples

Apples. Apples are a curiosity. None of us remember what they taste like but I think Ryuuko liked the apples, while Nui decided to play with hers before eating it. As the oldest of the three, I knew what apples were, just not so much what they tasted like. It was better than, for the most part, nothing. They were brought by the strange girl who explores this hospital. How strange..... I think about this strange girl, yet, I'm too terrified to approach her. Then again, would we even understand each other? Perhaps not. Certainly, strange girl has to be so nice but I wonder what her business is here.

Before this, since we've escaped, we've never been around other people. No, we took refuge in a hospital that I recognized. I don't know how long it's been since I was patient but I know it was before Ryuuko was born. Then, the place seemed so fascinating, so many corridors. I think I recall playing in them like Nui and Ryuuko do, unaware of the chaos outside. Some part of me was pained in bringing them here, as it also reminds me of where we escaped from but I knew more beyond the Glen, while Ryuuko and Nui only knew the Glen.

As I mused, Ryuuko tugged at my gown, asking, "More?" to which I told her, "No, Ryuuko, I don't have any more. We each got two." She expressed her frustration with a warble before spitting. I was never keen on her doing that but that was how she expressed frustration with something, while Nui indignantly swatted at her. I'll concede that the display was amusing, as Ryuuko can talk but she hasn't enough words to better express her feelings, much less what said feeling are, while Nui hadn't really learned how to talk, other than saying, "No!"

I don't prefer to think of our time in the Glen or what came before that. If anything, I often mused about life since we've left. So far, it was uneventful, aside from Ryuuko somehow swiping a raincoat, that she's attached to, and the girl who brought us apples. Sure enough, the apples were the subject of Ryuuko and Nui's conversation, as they talked, inasmuch as they could, about they are. Ryuuko called them something based on their shape, while Nui just shook her head, indignantly perplexed.

"Red round, oblongs."

"No....."

"Yes!"

"No!"

"You don't got words, Nui!"

The exchange devolved into a slap fight until I broke it up and told Ryuuko the fruit we ate were apples. She was perplexed, as she tried, to the best of her abilities, enunciating, "A-ppuhls." I would have made a point to, perhaps, spell the word out for her but I know it wouldn't have made any difference as Ryuuko isn't very literate, while Nui can't read or write at all. If things were different, I'd have rather they'd have gone to school or, at least, have learned some bit of literacy. Well, learned more beyond what I could teach them and what I can teach is limited.

That night, as we settled, I found myself lamenting how things turned out.

Notes: For some extra context, Satsuki's the most civilized as she remembers her life "before the Glen", while Ryuuko and Nui aren't, with the Nui being the most feral and Ryuuko being somewhere in-between. As will be elaborated on later, Ryuuko's being feral stems more from that she's illiterate, as one can glean from her vocabulary (she knows what words are/what they mean but can't otherwise express her feelings as well without them), while Nui's is because she's a toddler.