Only one fish. Looking at it, she realized that it was her fault if they went hungry today. But the hunter was too kind to not share. If she hadn't lost her footing on the way up and lost the haul, they'd have more fish. To think, after all those days of flawless labor, she'd make a mistake now. He saved her from falling to death but couldn't save their dinner.She'd sprained her ankle and possibly wasn't going to be moving around for a couple of days. Try as she might, she couldn't help feeling guilty. The hunter had put his fur coat on her. But his warmth only fueled her guilt. But what a stupid thing to feel guilty over. Hadn't she done much more horrible things than losing fish?Her scars were unveiled before the hunter again today. Scars she didn't even know existed. Now these peaceful days seemed as if she'd stolen them from someone."It will help", the hunter offered her some paste like medicine for her foot."How do you put this on?", she stared a

"Hey, how do you become a monster?", the little child in me didn't understand back then. So I held the book open in front of my father.He muffled my hair, saying I was too young to read books like that."He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster."He repeated that line from the book."How? How does it happen?", I didn't even know what a monster was back then."Truth be told, son, I don't know that either", he reclined in his chair, "But there are things only people that have faced a monster know."I wore the look of not having grasped a thing he said. For the child me back then, words alone were never enough. I had to have a feel for everything. If I read, I needed to know exactly what it meant, as if I was living it. And when I was told things like that, it didn't even cross me that there was a darkness lurking in them. Perhaps if I had waited a little longer and read the next line in the book, I would have stopped chasing the answer."T

"What are we going to do?", I wondered aloud, like a child.Chopper was holding Sight who had collapsed, although he was still conscious."What d'ya think?", he said, while helping Sight sit against a rock.I looked back at Deli and Lubbock. Nothing seemed to have changed with them. Grim was intently watching the Void. Lady was just a small figure now from where we were."How is she going to stop it anyway?", I asked, still in a sort of daze."Something that is opposite of a void...or perhaps a void bigger than this void. No, regardless of what it is, we won't know. She won't know either.""Chopper-san, are you really not concerned at all?""What are ya saying, kid?", he chuckled, putting a half burnt cigarette between his lips, "How is that possible?"He'd seated Sight and presently walked back to my side."I've been with her since the start. It's not possible for me to not be concerned. But she's been far weaker than she's ever been stronger. So I'm sure she knows her own limits bet

"When I was little, I once cut my finger. It was just a small cut, just a little skin. I stood with my hand under the running tap for hours. It surprised me that that little bruise managed to continue bleeding for such a long time. I did keep pressing it, though. Perhaps because I didn't want the blood to stop. Still, I thought that it would, even if I did keep pressing it. And so I thought that when that happened, I'd turn the tap the other way and be free. But it never did stop.""What do you mean?""With every little squeeze, my finger was smeared with blood. I thought that if the blood won't stop then maybe someone would come along and tell me to quit. That would give me an incentive to stop what I was doing. So I kept waiting. But no one came. And when it became apparent that I had no incentive to stop the blood, I began wondering if my heart would start beating faster, or if I'd have lost enough blood to make me dizzy. I kept waiting for it to happen. But it didn't. You know why

~Weep not for roads untraveledWeep not for paths left lone'Cause beyond every bend is a long blinding endIt's the ***** **** ** **** *** *****~The distant words got garbled over the wind. I'm sure they were swimming in my own head but I lost track. It was as if they'd just glitched out of place so I could no longer hear anything but static."Lubbock fawns over every woman, Deli. I hope you aren't getting fooled by him", I was the one that had said this a long time ago, seeing how kind Deli could be with Lubbock.She laughed."That kid doesn't have a clue on how to fool a woman. I'm way beyond his league."That was indeed true. She was barely in anyone's league. "He's never tried anything with June though. I wonder why that is", I said, while idly looking at June typing away her perpetual records.Deli laughed again."That's cause June hates him. Everyone knows that.""She hates him? Why?""She sure does. And she can get vocal about it too. 'What would a machine like you know?', i