be careful with the details of the war

[cyberblader]

Asuka doesn't remember much of Dark World. It all blurs together in her head after a point, like a dream badly remembered. She remembers the first month, and then some strangely degenerating thoughts, a whole-body sadness that had seized her. She understood "depression," a disease that belonged to other people, and the doctors said that some acute form thereof had seized her when she described it - but she's not so sure. She feels as though it had been some outside force that had poisoned her brain. But she can't say for certain. Her memories are rotting inside her.

Shou won't talk about it. He seems to know more than the rest of them. Asuka would beat it out of him if she could summon the anger, and the strength - but she can't, not for him. She can see, sometimes, a kind of horror behind his glasses. A horror, and a sadness, related to the brother that has vanished. She knows about brothers vanishing. She doesn't push him.

But Asuka has to talk to somebody about the things that have happened, or she's going to lose it. She can tell. She is on the verge of losing it. So she wanders around the hospital area until someone's visiting hours open up, when she ducks in.

It's Jim.

He's missing an eye. Well - he's missing the same missing eye. But she can see that it's bandaged up freshly, with fresh blood leaking into the gauze. Karen is sleeping beneath the hospital bed. Asuka sits down by the head of the bed. Jim's left eye flutters a little.

"Good morning," she says, a little unsure of herself. It's after noon, so she's already stretching it with the good mornings.