thirty crows (朱) action/video (time shift catch-all)

[yourhatred]

September 22nd - closed to Law

[Itachi leaves his bedroom as usual, but exits it at death's door.

The time shift, catching him moments before he would conclude a fight with his brother, moments before the time he was brought from into Luceti in the first place, dumps a bleeding, wreck of a man out the other side of the doorway. The ninja staggers, a bloody arm that had been held out in front of him catching onto the opposite wall of the hallway.

So ready. He'd been so ready. What's going on? Literal moments away from dying, prepared to give into the inevitable, Itachi now finds himself having to do his damnedest to keep himself breathing. The orange glow of Susano'o at first barely surrounding him as he arrived, fades away into nothing as he fights against the darkness at the edge of his vision.

Where is Sasuke?

Coughing, his free hand covering his mouth as blood ran through his fingers, the man leaned further against the wall, the last of his adrenaline leaving him.]

September 23rd - OTA

[Late in the day, after a fair amount of rest, Itachi finds his journal and spends a while reading through it. The other entries become too confusing after a while, but he at last tries to make one of his own. After all, it does seem to be a form of communication.]

I'm looking for Uchiha Sasuke.

September 24th - OTA

[After a failed attempt at trying to get up and make his own breakfast, the ninja will eventually escape the house by way of a substitution technique and wander the town. The clothing is slightly ill-fitting, as the Itachi that's been living in Luceti for the past four years is a fair bit healthier than the one walking slowly through it now.

Don't worry. The cough isn't contagious.

He can be found in basically any building around the town center, and eventually sitting wearily at the fountain.]

September 25th

[Officially banned to the house, but still this older self until he wakes up the morning of the 26th.]

Comments

[deathsdoctor]

Just thinking about the last few months and things. Everything that's happened.

[yourhatred]

... It's been difficult, I know.

[He brings a hand up, brushes a thumb against the side of Law's jaw.]

This can't have eased your worries any.

[deathsdoctor]

Mnn. One close call too many lately.

[In other words, yes, the cages have been rattled.

His fingers come up to brush Itachi's own.]

It'd been far too quiet for far too long after TERRACE. Like the quiet before a maelstorm. Now things feel like they're slowly building up again.

[yourhatred]

Such things are impossible to plan for, aside from hardening your heart - and that's too important here.

[He shakes his head.]

We'll do our best, but we can't dread the future.

[deathsdoctor]

Just be prepared as well as we can, I know.

[Worrying is pointless - Itachi's right to remind him. What will come will come, as there's little either of them can do to prevent anything.

But it's also human, and Law can't completely banish the fears that Zompania left with him, with its ranks of dead and being seperated from his husband from most of it. It's odd he doesn't fear Itachi dying so much. Not after so many years in Luceti.

It's Itachi being captured alive and sacrificed. Subjected to It. Unmade. The residual impressions and nightmares from that, imposing themselves again and again unexpectedly, renews that dread.

That is the worst demon to struggle with.]

[yourhatred]

[The ninja shares many of those fears, but shoves them aside as he has for a long time. A ninja can't allow himself to dwell on anything that might slow them up in combat or keep them from making the right decision.

But things are different here than they were back home, and he has more reasons to press on than just to die facing his brother. He has new people to protect.]

I'm here with you, and I'll do what I can for things to remain that way.

[deathsdoctor]

[Law breathes, and tightens his embrace momentarily. Trying to get recentered.

Same here, same here.]

I know you will, partner.

[... even if your options for doing so are limited.]

[yourhatred]

[Not too tight. He just got these lungs back.

Itachi smiles a little moving in to give Law a proper kiss on the lips. He has what he considers to be a better change of subject once he pulls away again.]

I should make you breakfast. It won't make up for all you did for me, but it will at least let you relax. Eggs, perhaps.

[The correct response to this is 'no'. The correct response to this is 'no'.]

[deathsdoctor]

[Aha, but Law has a better out.]

I think all my system can handle is yogurt right now. Maybe soup.

[He hasn't really been eating for days. His body can't handle it right now.

Admittedly, Itachi should be terrified when lunch rolls around.

Terrified.]

[yourhatred]

[Itachi frowns. While usually he'd pay more attention to his husband's eating habits, he'd been a bit too tired and distracted over the past shift to really notice.]

Was it that bad on you? I'm sorry.

I can get you some tomato soup at least?

Apparently this thread might be the reveal

[deathsdoctor]

Tomato soup's good.

[...]

... it just... [And it's obviously difficult to even talk about.] ... I let myself get too caught thinking...

[And it's been a long, long time thanks to Luke, but you have to wonder how bad the nightmares would be now if they weren't suppressed.]

[yourhatred]

[The ninja doesn't move to head down and get food started yet. He keeps a hand on his husband's shoulder, very concerned.]

... I won't pry, if you don't want to talk about it.

[He can only imagine if it brought up bad memories. He doesn't know as much of Law's history as the pirate knows of his, and he's never pressed the matter.]

[deathsdoctor]

[Law bites his lip briefly as he seems to come to a decision. It's not right for him not to know.

Not fair, especially in this place.

His arms curl around himself almost reflexively though. Even remembering this, much less talking about it, isn't easy.]

... no... I think you should know the things that happened.

[If ever Doflamingo comes to Luceti...]

[yourhatred]

[Itachi nods slowly. Gently, he begins to lead the pirate to the edge of the bed so they can sit down.

It's comfortable here, and less open and exposed than the kitchen. They might as well talk before heading down there.]

[deathsdoctor]

[You might not feel like eating either when he's done.

Law's eyes grow distant as the memories bleed in. The pirate sits and leans against him.]

You know I was born in North Blue, up in the polar climes. The nation's name was [Was] Flevance. ... or, as people liked to call it collectively, the White City.

Myself, my parents... [There's a moment when his eyes go utterly dead and his voice is hollowed.] my younger sister, Lamie.

[Yes, he was a big brother once upon a time too.]

[yourhatred]

[It's already disturbing to hear Law talk this way, worse still to hear him speak of a sister the pirate had never spoken about. All this time and he hadn't known anything about his husband's family.

It hadn't been in him to pry. Should he have?

He continues to listen, brows furrowed in concern, arm wrapping itself around Law's shoulders.]

[deathsdoctor]

It was much warmer there than you'd expect a place like that to be. [He's there in the memory. What it was before.] Jetstreams.

Everything was white. The ground, the plants, the buildings. Before, when people visited, they said it didn't seem real. Especially during the dark months, when everything was aglow under the auroras.

It was so... beautiful...

[The life continues to seep out of his voice.]

There was an ore in the ground that caused all that. A special type of lead known as Amber Lead or White Lead. This crystalline substance that was stark white. The World Government discovered it about a century prior to my birth.

It quickly became our main industry and export back then. The demand for high quality items made with Amber Lead was insatiable around the world. The World Government and the Royal Family worked out a deal... both reaped insane, never ending amounts of profits. What was left went to the nation. Everyone had a comfortable life. We were all happy to go along with the demands being placed on us.

[Bitterness leaks in. Betrayal.]

We had no idea we were being blindly led down the path to our own deaths.

[yourhatred]

[Government and profit working hand in hand never led to anything good. It's how Akatsuki had managed to get around as long as it had. Various leaders paid them to do jobs and then looked the other way if they caused minor incidents.

This was exploiting an entire town, though, and Law's voice made it clear that there hadn't been any happy endings here.

He continues to listen silently, not wanting to interrupt the narrative with unnecessary questions.]

[deathsdoctor]

... you see, even before the industry started a century ago, the World Government had done research into the ore. They well knew the truth about Amber Lead. While in the ground it was fine, once dug up and worked with, it acted like poison. Seeped into the body slowly and utterly ruined it.

With all the mining, there were fine particles of it constantly in the air.

[His voice softens as he stares at the wall.]

It was an insidious substance. It wasn't even that poisonous - it slowly built up and up in the body over decades, and the victim would notice nothing amiss. It was practically invisible, even to a skilled doctor. Until a threshold was reached and the symptoms exploded outward with a fury. The skin and hair would bleach white as the lead, an ever spreading vitiligo over the body. With it, would come agony. It would just build and build, until it couldn't be borne. That's when the fever would set in, and organ failure follow. Some would be dead in months after that. Some would have lingered for years.

[I lingered for years.]

The first living generation of children exposed to it, hit that mark at around age 70. But the next generation, due to the metal concentrating in the womb, would hit the mark at 50. The next generation - 30s. Mine? Ten.

Each successive generation had their lifespan reduced by about 20 years. There was a little variance there, but that was how it generally went.

[His fingers dig into the flesh of his arms.]

They knew all of this. The World Government, the King. But the promise of wealth was too great, so they suppressed all the knowledge of the danger. Continued to suppress it - other people learned the truth over the years, I would imagine, and they would have had to be dealt with. They knew one day a day of reckoning would come. But until then...

[Gold would flow like blood.]

It came. Thanks to the generational shift, everyone began to go down. No one was spared. You can imagine what it looked to the outside world.

[A plague.]

And that was the start of everything.

[yourhatred]

[The start...

He wants to offer some words of comfort, but can't think of any appropriate. Law has more to say still, and Itachi wants him to be able to get it all off of his chest.

The government, the hierarchy, all had to know that if things continued the people wouldn't last. It was poor planning on their part all around. If they had seen to the needs of the people, backed off and searched for a way to help treat or build up an immunity to the poison, the losses they would have undergone in research might have paled in comparison to what they would be able to continue to make over time. Everyone would have benefited - if they could find a way to treat it, of course. Ignoring any such methods and seeing only immediate profit hurt everyone in the long run, but greed could have that effect.

He knows all about people who can't see the bigger picture.

Law had clearly lived past age ten. There's obviously much more to hear yet.

The ninja gives his husband's shoulder a light squeeze, encouraging him to continue.]

[deathsdoctor]

[The start. The genesis of the Surgeon of Death.]

Two things happened quickly. The Royal Family abandoned the nation with the aid of the World Government. [They didn't care. They. Didn't. Care. They used us and threw us away.] And... quarantine...

The other nations thought we were a plague, so they blockaded us. Anyone leaving was killed.

[Quarantine, looking back, was one of the only things understandable about it. It still burns just as bitter.]

We weren't contagious, but no one would believe us. My father was Flevance's top doctor, and my mother, also a physician, was an expert in infectious disease. They quickly figured it out and tried to get their findings out to the World Government. But...

[The anger gutters out like fire starved of oxygen.

But.

You know what happened. The same thing. The facts ignored and hidden away.]

... nothing came out, nothing came in. When your main industry's mining... other things aren't given as much focus. Such as farming. Given our geography... it had always been difficult and we mostly imported. We did have a sizeable fishing and whaling industry, but soldiers held all the docks and no one could go out.

We all tried to stick together during those early days. My parents, naturally, were run off their feet, so I was the one mainly taking care of Lamie and making sure they remembered to eat and sleep. Things like that. ... it was always my role, and it just became... moreso.

[Never really a child. He had to be responsible.]

We only really got to spend time with them when we both helped out in the hospital. Which... happened a lot; we had always lived in the staff residences attached to it and medicine was something my family had always practised. Even then... we all kept Lamie from the worst of it. There was a lot...

She was six. She had already seen too much. She already knew what death meant. She already knew she dying.

She still could smile. We didn't want her to lose that.

[yourhatred]

[Itachi is completely drawn in by Law's retelling, trying not to compare it to his own situation and failing. It's just human nature to do that.

There weren't a lot of similarities when it all came down to it. Some, but on a very basic level. A corrupt government - Sasuke would say theirs was more corrupt than Itachi believed it to be. They still desired to protect the innocent, even if poor decisions had been made.

Yet he imagines his little brother's smile when Law mentioned his sister's. Something he should have been trying to protect but had forced away instead...

A brief distracting thought, because he can start to sense what's happens next and it's already painful to consider. He keeps listening, the room silent except for the sound of his husband's voice.]

[deathsdoctor]

... Lamie was going downhill fast, though. Her condition was progressing quickly. It was tearing my parents apart that they couldn't give her the care she deserved. Even if she was their daughter... she was just... one...

[He needs to stop. Just for a moment. It's getting harder.]

They had been really strong up until then. They couldn't allow themselves to break either but you could see the cracks. They... weren't... doing great either. They weren't progressing as fast, but faster than they should have.

... so I stepped up. [He's saying nothing about the strain on himself, having more and more piled on his shoulders. Nothing about his own condition. What was happening to himself was inconsequential.] It was a little weight off their shoulders and at least I knew she would be taken care of if I did it.

I managed to slow things a little - proper care does that - but it was still for the most part palliative. Tried to keep her spirits up. Keep her hopeful.

[... she was in essence his first true long term patient.]

The city was degenerating right along with Lamie. As everything dwindled, as starvation began to set in and more and more died to what everyone knew was poisoning and not disease, people were finally starting to get restless. Angry. Rumours started to spring up that there were more soldiers beginning to encircle the country. It was fact - there was a build up.

They had to know things were getting desperate.

[Itachi's instincts are right.]

Cooler heads kept things calm for awhile. The religious leaders kept reminding everyone that violence was no answer at all... that it would bring nothing but further suffering to the nation. One of the sisters I knew very well. She always liked to say that always a merciful hand would reach out when it was most needed.

She had been trying to convince the soldiers to let at least the children evacuate for care for months over the Den Den Mushi.

I think they knew though or at least suspected what was probably going to happen anyway. The soldiers kept building up. They didn't do anything. Waiting for orders... or an excuse, I suppose. They managed to keep the people quiet... for as long as they could. Eventually, as things got worse and worse, as the strain built up, a tipping point was reached.

Lamie hit endstage. A week later, Flevance declared war.

[yourhatred]

[War, when there was so little the town could do at that point anyway.

Why is it that it always came to that?

Though he says nothing, the concerned frown on his face says exactly what he thinks about the situation.]

[deathsdoctor]

[It was the only thing they thought they could do.

They would have all died anyway.

He closes his eyes. He sees the children. He sees the nun.]

Things moved fast. That morning... you could feel what was coming in the air. This heavy pall.

The Sister had gotten assurance from the soldiers that they'd leave the children alive. Allow them to escape the country on a boat. So she was collecting all the children that were left.

I saw so many familiar faces in that crowd. I saw even more missing. Classmates. Kids I had grew up with.

I wouldn't go.

Couldn't leave her. Especially not then. Lamie was days away from passing.

Everything about this seemed so wrong.

... the other children couldn't understand why I was refusing. I guess it sounded crazy to them.

The Sister understood about Lamie. Promised to come get me herself once she had arranged another boat for any stragglers. Then she assured me all was truly well with what was happening.

["You see, Law-kun? There is no need for despair in this world. A merciful hand will always reach out to those in need."]

It didn't settle me, but I wished them well and returned to my sister.

Maybe an hour passed, but both of us began to hear noise in the distance. I wasn't sure what is was at first and Lamie was confused as well. It sounded a little like fireworks...

... then it set in it was gunfire.