Memories of Old

Chapter 54: Unexpected Encounters

Chapter 54: Unexpected Encounters

The next memory opened up to a montage of loop after loop after loop. Feliciano's silhouette was running throughout the scene. He gradually started to slow down, and eventually, he stumbled and fell. The scene then faded out.

"What was the point of that?" Prussia asked, confused.

"I believe it was a representation of Italy's will to go on." England spoke up. "After so many loops, it's only rational that he'd start to give up."

I chuckled humorlessly. "Start to give up? Arthur... I'd given up after the very first loop." The others turned to stare at me in disbelief.

"Italie?" France turned to look at my guarded expression.

"I went on, originally, just to get the nine of you out alive. That's why I died in Loop 2. I didn't expect to escape. Loop 189 showed me that I needed to escape with you all, but Loop T-two twenty-two..." I shuddered lightly. "It reminded me why I was unnecessary. Why I didn't need to escape. However, I made Japan a promise, and needed to keep it."

"You felt unimportant... unnecessary... betrayed and guilty." Luciano steadied me with a look.

"Yeah. I suppose I really started feeling it back then, but... the longer the looping went on, the less important I felt. The less... nation I felt. I really felt insignificant, like a human. Like I would fade away as soon as we left that place." I sighed.

"Well... Nearly becoming human didn't help either." Yang shrugged, and Romano choked on his spit.

"WHAT?!"

"Well... It's still merely a theory, but... I honestly think that if we'd taken much longer than we did to escape, then I would've permanently become human. After all, it took nearly six months for my Nation Connection to return enough for me to stop aging and regain my immortality." I shrugged.

"S-Six months?!" Romano looked faint.

"W-wait! You mean you were mortal for six months?!" Flavio cried out, sharing a disbelieving look with the other 2Ps.

"No." I stated, and some of them relaxed a bit. "I was human for six months after our escape." I amended, and several became deathly pale.

"Wait..." Louis started slowly, "you mean you weren't just mortal, but human after escaping that place? That it had the potential to make you human permanently?"

"Si. Or at least long enough for me to age and die of natural causes like a human." I shrugged. "I mean think about it! If something had happened in those six months, I wouldn't be here at all right now. Even something so trivial as, say, a stab wound. Something that every nation can just shrug off and move on from—it usually doesn't even kill us anymore."

"Oh yeah!" Yang snapped his fingers in realization. "When a nation is killed by something enough times, they slowly start to gain an immunity to it. So the time between death and revival becomes shorter and shorter until they just stop dying, right?"

"Yep. Pretty much." Flavio grinned. "Most of us 2Ps don't even die when stabbed, thanks to Luci over here."

"They should've learned to dodge better." Luciano shrugged.

"And most 1Ps don't die when shot, either!" America proclaimed proudly.

"That might just be you, mon cher. Most of us avoid getting shot." France pointed out blandly.

"I'm like that, too." Canada pointed out.

"Well you two do enjoy fighting on the front lines during wartime. Most of us just sit back and delegate, or fight in the important battles." South Korea tilted his head in thought.