Episode 23.5

Part One

Hi everybody, good buddy Kyo here... uhm, I'm not really used to this sorry for the nervousness. I'm not really sure about how to go about this. I mean, it's sort of out of the blue but I want to at least put what happened out there for other Hetalia fans like myself. I guess I'll just, talk... type or whatever and just get this through. As much of an interesting experience this was, I'd rather not remember it and continue on with my derp life.

All right so, this happened a while ago, before school started, that it went down. But I should probably go back even further to when it really first started. It was when Axis Powers Hetalia was in full swing; second season was still bounding through the fandom and giving out new glorious episodes every Monday.

My older sister and I were both very involved in the series, which was a rare occasion since she often didn't share interests with me. Oh sure, I would force myself to get into whatever she was getting into so we could at least have a reason to hang out, but this was the first she came into my fandom without me working for it. It was really nice. Considering it was still unknown in our small town, it was even nicer to just have someone to relate to.

She and I cosplayed it together, watched episodes together, got merchandise together, you know the whole kit-caboodle. Though she was always able to get more stuff than I was because she actually had a job. At some point, she actually bought a bootleg DVD of Hetalia so she could be able to watch it at any time, (Whose picture I've provided here thanks to my mother lending me her camera for a second before she had it sold the next week) of course all the episodes just being ripped from the internet sites that had them subbed. I watched one or two episodes with her but really I was content with watching them online so I left her to it.

About two or three days after she got the DVD, she acted really... weird, is the best way I can describe it. In a drop of a hat, she dropped the whole Hetalia series, setting aside her merchandise and shelving her Hetalia cosplays, even selling some of them. When I tried to ask her about what was up, she just said she didn't want to talk about it to the point that she'd glare at me if I mentioned it to her. I was extremely disappointed at losing my sister when it came to sibling bonding and the fandom, at the time just figuring she 'grew out of it' or found something even better. That mindset especially fit in when she started to read Homestuck soon after it to have something to do.

Now here's where it got even weirder, now it's been a while since then probably like about a month or so. I'm not sure why, probably a phone call from my best friend, I got the urge to watch some episodes with just some classic good ol' Italy. Though currently the internet was being worked on by my father, since he was changing phone providers and all that mess, so I decided to look for that Hetalia DVD my sister had.

It took me a long while but I found it shoved in the back of the DVD cabinet, not sure exactly why she shoved it back there... well at the time. The bootleg wasn't that bad really; it had fan art of the everyone as chibi's around the world with the title on top, same for the disc just printed on fan art. I popped the DVD in the player in my room and decided to look through the episodes to find a really fun one, maybe the one when Romano is first introduced.

As I went through the 'Episode Choice' option though, I found something really weird in between episode 23 and 24; for those who don't know it's the 'Liechtenstein and Switzerland' episodes, very cute indeed~ and the 24th has the conclusion of the Axis on an Island arc.. thing. But there was another square choice like an episode, but there really wasn't a title next to it, saying what number it was or what the episode was about. Though it wasn't that it was untitled that caught my interest, but the screenshot of it. It was Italy smiling, looking upwards in a content daze (his eyes actually OPENED mind you!) with glistening eyes and what looked like sand, like perhaps he was laying on it.

This blew my friggin mind, for this was something new! I craved for new things in a fandom, always! Perhaps this was a hidden chapter I wasn't aware of, like a bonus episode! I bit my lip and trembled with excitement, and I knew I had this all to myself. Wait until my friends heard about this! I was going to be more knowledgeable than anyone else! Of course... when I look back, I wish that I wouldn't have found it.

Without much ado, I clicked the 'select' button on my remote to watch it. The title animation appeared as always, the large orchestra blaring out for a few seconds to show the Japanese katakana of 'HETALIA' with 'Axis Powers' next to it. Soon after it shifted to the view of the island that the axis were stranded on, Japan and Germany sitting against a shade of the tree while Italy just laid in the sand, soaking up sun with that cute dumb look on his face.

Now before I go on, I've read stories like this before about lost episodes of cartoons (stories that I didn't believe in until now honestly), and I know how they went off about it being in extremely bad quality, but this actually wasn't too bad. Sure it wasn't the *best* quality, it was still quite pixelly from being ripped from a site then burned onto a disc, but it was okay, the sound just a tad muffled nothing too out of the ordinary. Of course, this just kinda made it creepier later on when it was able to be seen better... but I'll get that in a bit.

Back to the episode, while Italy was sunbathing in his jacket and shorts, the camera cut over to Germany and Japan, though they both looked a tad... upset, if not a bit worried. And then they started to speak... two things through me off. One, there was no subtitles, so I had zero idea what they were talking about, and two... their voices were actually those who voiced them in the series. I was extremely impressed of such raw footage, though I was a bit miffed there were no subs. Oh well, as long as Hiroki Yasumoto (Germany's seiyuu) kept talking, I was happy all of the way.

The two seemed to be chatting about something serious, Germany clutching his stomach from time to time in pain as Japan would nod and set a hand on his stomach as well. My guess was that they had run out of steady food on the item so they were starving. That was kind of a downer to start the episode on, but it was only the beginning there was probably a fun way to get food later on! Just then Italy had called out, having the two of them look up to where he was, which was now currently running around in the ocean. He waved to them, and the two of them waved back unenthusiastically before the other went back to just playing in the sun and water.

I didn't notice this until then, but the only thing playing in the background of this was the ocean's waves, something not uncommon but it certain kept the atmosphere kind of stoic, especially when the focus was to the hungry and worried nations in the shade. But either way I was too sucked up in just the beautiful new material I didn't question it. I didn't even care that I didn't know the bulk of it; I mostly cared for the actions anyway.

The nations were quite for a while, before Japan had seemed to ask something and Germany look to him in shock, almost exclaiming before being quietly hushed by the island nation, making him whisper the line instead. Ooh what was Japan thinking, I thought~ But Japan had repeated the Japanese statement in a more quieter and clearer tone, not taking his eyes off Italy in the water. For a few moments the two of them discussed the issue, obviously talking about the Italian, though soon enough the two of them nodded in agreement. At that moment, even though it was just for a few seconds, Germany had made the saddest face I had ever seen... like he could burst out to tears at any moment but kept it back. Honestly I inwardly flipped my shit at such emotion, even if it was short, though it made me wonder even more what brought it on!