The Bird and the Garden 2: Restart!

Chapter 41: Memories

Y/N braced himself for an attack. From what little Verde had managed to tell about the First Timeline, it was that Vao was murderous, cannibalistic, a master of slaughter. He readied his katana, terror filling his heart as Vao approached...

... And walked right past him. Y/N blinked a couple times, unsure what to think. He could've sworn he heard Vao's stomach growling. Didn't that mean he was hungry? But when he looked back, Vao wasn't even looking at him. He just continued to shamble through the trees, without so much as even a pause. It was as if he didn't even see Y/N.

He slowly sheathed his katana, cautiously following Vao. A stick broke under his heel, catching the murderer's attention. Vao turned around curiously, his single eye scanning the forest. Once again, his eye stopped on Y/N, only to keep moving. Was he blind? No, he wouldn't be moving around thornbushes if that had been the case. He couldn't see Y/N, even when he was right in front of him.

Y/N gulped, reaching his hand out shakily and trying to grab Vao's hair. But his fingers just phased through the strands. Y/N felt shock ripple through his body.

"... Hello?" Vao asked boredly.

"V-Vao?" Y/N responded nervously. But Vao couldn't hear his voice, either. The cannibal looked around for a few more seconds before shrugging his feminine shoulders, continuing on to wherever he was going. Y/N realized he hadn't breathed, gasping for air as he trotted after him. He dared to grow ever so closer, matching his stride with Vao's own. But as he drew nearer and nearer, he heard something he didn't expect; Vao was muttering to himself. He strained his ears, leaning closer to hear his pale, ice cold lips.

"... C-Cinder... C-Cinder... I'm coming..."

Y/N didn't know what to make of it. If he was thinking of the right person, then Cinder was an associate to Salem that he killed in Innsmaw. What would Vao have to do with her?

... Y/N felt like an idiot. He had to remind himself that this was the First Timeline's Vao - someone who worked directly under Salem as its weapon.

Y/N gazed around at the forest around them, trying to recall where he was. Given the flora, he knew he was somewhere in Vale. But the forest didn't look like the Emerald Forest; the terrain was too rocky, not thick enough.

Grrrroooowwllll...

Vao hunched over in pain again, his breathing becoming ragged and heavy. His pace quickened, his muttering becoming more frantic with each step.

"Au-Auntie... Auntie, h-help me..."

Y/N felt more questions rising. Summer was nowhere in sight. Yet Vao was talking to himself as if he was accompanied, talking so naturally as if he wasn't alone. Y/N had a bad feeling; Vao was hallucinating, and he didn't even know the context behind it. And suddenly, Vao collapsed.

Y/N stopped walking, staring down at his kneeling brother. Hot tears fell to the grass as Vao's thin, feminine fingers dug into the soil, his stomach growling louder, louder.

"Auntie... I-I'm s-sorry..."

His voice was hoarse and raspy, hiccups escaping his throat. Y/N reached out for his hand, wanting nothing more than to comfort his older brother. It wasn't Vao's fault he turned out this way. If Salem had never intervened in their childhood, then he would have been just as he was in the Second Timeline; a loveable, illiterate goofball with the maturity of a kid. But when Y/N's hand touched Vao's, he was hit with a horrible, painful shock.

He felt it. Everything Vao was feeling. The horrible pain. The overwhelming guilt that weighed on his shoulders until he thought his back would break. The awful, awful fear Vao lived in every day. He took a step back, his stomach screaming at him. He felt it rising in his throat, until the vomit spewed from his mouth.