*Smells familiar.

[dustless]

[warning for child death, gore, general trauma]

Chara's dead. Chara-and-Frisk.

Slice across the throat. Just the one. Still bad. It makes their own hurt like their scar's peeling open.

But they've got a job to do now, because--Frisk just can't leave them there. To rot. For other people to find.

So they don't.

Takes a lot of work, figuring out how to move their body. Dragging's horrible, even when they thought about using a blanket or something. Carrying them fails, because they're literal dead weight, even if they're pretty scrawny.

In the end, they manage to shift them around until they've got the corpse on their back. The most disgusting and macabre piggyback ride, and Frisk needs to keep being hunched over uncomfortably for it to work, but. It does.

It also leaves them completely covered in blood, especially the half where Chara's head ends up lolling, sending rivulets of red down that side and makes a trail all the way from the bottom of the stairs to the garden. Frisk's not really aware of that. Frisk's not really aware of anything except the steps they need to take.

Bring the body outside, to the garden. Not far from where their body and the first Chara's were buried, actually, though a little more concealed behind a stand of trees. Go get a shovel. Dig.

They won't be able to dig as deep as six feet alone, and they can't build a coffin. Doesn't matter. Frisk just needs to make it big enough for them to fit under the dirt.

Chara-and-Frisk will be back soon enough.






Addendum: one more body, one more burial.

Comments

[oldmantiger]

Kotetsu considers arguing further. He very, very much wants to argue further. But at last, he just shakes his head and sighs in frustration and defeat, keeping his eyes on the ground.

"...I'm not going to make you tell me who did this. But...I'm not going to stop trying to figure this out, either."

Frisk isn't the only one who can be determined.

"If you're trying to protect someone...if you're scared for them, I understand. But sometimes, the best thing you can do for your friends is to get them help when they need it." And he doesn't doubt that the one who did this needs help. Kotetsu still firmly believes, even now, that hurting someone isn't a natural state of mind for anyone to be in. Violence weighs on a person. Especially a kid.

But there's no point putting Frisk on the spot when they've already been through enough today. So Kotetsu means it when he says: "But we don't have to talk about this anymore right now."

[dustless]

"...Don't do anything stupid." Even if they're not sure how to quantify that--besides 'everything' if he's going to keep trying.

Help. Yeah, Chara needs help. But Frisk is sure they can do something first, get a better grasp on the situation and actually have a chance at trying. And besides, they can deal with the consequences if they fail, and whether Kotetsu gets hurt or Chara (and really, they can't easily imagine both being fine with that specific one), he doesn't deserve what might happen. Or them either.

"An' I think I helped and can more, just like I did the one I used to know." And that's all they're going to say about it for now.

They wave over the hole and him. Kotetsu's been working hard. "Need a break?"

[oldmantiger]

"Nope." He's been working hard, but he's only just starting to feel it. He's a couple of feet down, now, their height difference made less by the hole in the dirt. "If I have to, I'll use my powers. Don't worry about me." He'll give up a few seconds for this. This is important.

But Kotetsu is very focused on digging. And so he says something that, later on, even he'll admit might not be the best thing to say under the circumstances.

"You're really not good at...being a kid, are you?"

He doesn't mean it as an insult. He mostly sounds surprised, even now, after all he's seen from them.

[dustless]

Oh, right. He has those.

He says that, and Frisk...goes silent and still.

What does that mean? They know it's not an insult, Kotetsu wouldn't do that. But...what does that mean? They can't make heads or tails of it. Isn't it good not to always 'be a kid'? Isn't that 'being mature'?

They don't understand.

In the end, they don't say anything.

[oldmantiger]

Neither does he, for a long moment and another foot of soil.

"...sorry. That was..." What? "...stupid of me to say." It was a lot of other things, too, but that seems like a safe enough summation.

He's definitely starting to feel the ache of shoveling so much dirt. When did he get so old? But Kotetsu is equally certain that he'll be able to finish up without needing to resort to his powers.

"I guess, it's just..." He visibly fumbles for what to say, frustration mounting in his expression. "...people don't die all that often in Sternbild, you know? We're not even supposed to hurt criminals, if we can help it. It had its problems, but...it was still a pretty safe place to be." Even if it had turned out to be safe for all the wrong reasons.

"But you, I can tell you're...used to this. And I guess I just didn't realize until now how dangerous this place really is."

A man burned to death in his arms, once. He never even knew the man's name. Nathan still almost didn't let him go home alone that day, though.

"There were days where I even let myself hope my daughter would come here, too." He'll never make that wish again.

[dustless]

Death is an easier topic to consider. Ironically. (Proving his point.)

They turn their head--not to the body nearby, but to the grave further away. Chara-and-Frisk's. "'S not really...good when it happens, but it's not that bad." Because it doesn't last. "And it doesn't happen a lot, anyway. People're careful. It's the...new people you gotta worry about, and they usually calm down fast, even if they freak out at first."

[oldmantiger]

Kotetsu notes them looking away. Without entirely thinking, he turns his head to follow their gaze, and...oh. Oh, he hadn't noticed that before. Not in the shock of realizing what was really wrapped up in that rug. The dirt on that grave looks...very fresh. Oh boy. Did Frisk already dig that one, too?

...he needs to not dwell on that. Kotetsu keeps his eyes on the dirt. Even so, he's starting to realize that he might be missing something about all of this. Frisk is a good kid. Even if they'd seen a lot of death, he can't believe that they'd ever describe something like this as "not that bad" unless there's something Kotetsu is seriously missing.

He supposes that he's technically died once already, too. But here he is.

Even so, he's distracted from asking by the sound of his shovel striking a rock. He's halfway through digging it out when he realizes that this is probably deep enough. So Kotetsu tosses the shovel back onto solid ground, and then clambers back up to sit beside Frisk. He swipes the back of his hand across his forehead, leaving a smear of mud behind, and takes a deep breath.

"There. That should be okay, right?"

[dustless]

It's not six feet deep, but it's not like it has to be. They body'll fit.

"Yeah, it's gonna work."

Frisk pauses, looking at Kotetsu carefully. He's better than he was acting at first...he still doesn't need to do the next bit. He said his piece about them not needing to protect him, but they don't want it anyway.

"You don't need to help with this. I can do it. It's okay."

'It' becoming apparent immediately as Frisk moves to the bloody shroud, securing their hands over places that were already stained with their fingerprints. They'd dragged him this far, after all; they can move the body a couple more meters into the grave.

[oldmantiger]

It does not become immediately apparent, but Kotetsu realizes what it means before Frisk's fingers close around the carpet once more. Quickly enough for him to stop them, if he wanted to...but somehow, he can't bring himself to do it. He really is very tired, down to the bone, in a way that's more than the simple exertion of digging a grave hole should have left him with. He tells himself that it's because of the way his hands are shaking. If he tried to lift anything as...unwieldy as that carpet right now, he'd surely drop it.

It's not okay, but he appreciates them saying so. Even if they really shouldn't be the ones protecting him. He wonders where they got this determination to help everyone from. Maybe when they were even younger than they are now, someone held a gun to their head, too.

(Normally when he gets in this state, a drink is just the thing he needs to get his hands steady again. The thought is there, not entirely heeded but beguiling all the same. He'll deal with it later, possibly not entirely successfully.)

He won't take the job away from them. But once they get the body to the edge, he'll at least move to help it be deposited into the hole as gently as possible. And he feels a bit...better, perhaps, when that's done.

[dustless]

Gentle as the two of them try to be, the body still makes a noise when it's at the bottom. It sounds too heavy for the kid inside it.

For a minute, Frisk just stands there. One foot in the grave, literally. That shouldn't have been so tiring. But they've been doing a lot today, even if they didn't get to dig much of this grave in particular.

They breathe out through their nose before retreating back to the grass. "Dunno how they did it," they mumble under their breath. 'They' being whoever buried them and Chara last time. And then--oh. "Didn't make a...coffin. 'Ll need to say sorry 'bout that later."

Frisk turns back to the shovel, taking a step for it before pausing again. Should they finish the job, or let Kotetsu do it...?

[oldmantiger]

For a moment, Kotetsu kneels beside them. He stares down at the bloody bundle without really seeing it, his gaze distant and grim. He suddenly feels so, so old. He just buried a child who's name he doesn't even know.

He misses Kaede so, so much.

He turns away when Frisk does, but Kotetsu carries on to get up and pick up the shovel again. He's finishing the job. But it's only now that he's moving again that he realizes that Frisk spoke again. An what they said is...curious. The former hero tilts his head, staring at them thoughtfully as he leans on the shovel. "Ah...who do you need to apologize to?" Especially later on? Even if they mean the dead child's friends, it sounds like there are a lot of other things to express sympathy for besides the lack of a coffin.

Maybe it doesn't matter, but he doesn't actually want to "finish the job" that much, and so any distraction is a welcome one.

[dustless]

"That kid. I mean, 's not like it'll...matter, 'cause there's nothing to--feel there, but that's just...what you do, and stuff."

They decide to help, using their hands as a scoop this time. It's easy with the earth already loose.

[oldmantiger]

That is...not a helpful answer. Frisk seems to think it's a helpful answer, but it's not, not at all. It really only sinks in for Kotetsu then, as he tries to avoid dumping too much dirt on Frisk's head, that they're not on the same page on multiple levels. There's something he's missing. There's probably a lot of things he's missing - that's nothing new in his life - but it seems especially inescapable now. And especially relevant.

So he pauses for a break earlier than he might otherwise do, sticking the shovel back in the ground and looking over at the child.

"Frisk...do me a favor. Remember I haven't been here all that long. Is there something I'm missing about all of this?"

[dustless]

They pause in covering the blanket with dirt. Their hands are filthy with it, brown grains stuck to their fingers by the blood, but it looks less disgusting. Dirt gloves, not blood gloves.

Frisk's staring at him, blank, rewinding what they'd just been saying. "About the...coffin--?

...He was really upset, wasn't he?

He hasn't...been here. He hasn't seen this before.

A plethora of expressions fly across their face, too fast for even them to tell what they are, but it settles on a wide-eyed grimace they immediately smother.

But somebody must've said so. Somebody must've told him, it's important. And he'd been a ghost from the castle magic.

But then why'd he breathe like that? He didn't know this kid's name, so they probably weren't friends--just a kid. Just a dead kid, in front of a hero, from a place where people don't die a lot, and where there's no way to be used to it.

"This...this happened before, once," Frisk starts carefully. "A couple kids died--they were okay. Later. A few days later. And it'll happen again. There's...nobody told you about that?" they ask in a too-calm voice, waving at the graves nearby, fresh and not.

[oldmantiger]

Just a dead kid, though of course no kid is "just" a kid to Kotetsu. A dead kid in front of a hero from a place where the last time someone died in front of him, his friends were genuinely concerned about letting him go home on his own. He doesn't like to ever think about the possibility of getting used to the idea of death.

No one ever explained it to him. It never came up. He was a ghost during the time when they were all transformed, but he never left behind a body to be found, let alone buried.

His breathing goes strange again as Frisk tries to explain - his breaths coming in tight, shallow, quick. This news brings with it too many emotions, even when he fully processes just what's being said at all. That takes a few seconds, and what does it say about his time in the castle that it only takes a few seconds before Kotetsu realizes that he's being told that death isn't permanent in this place.

"People...people don't die forever, here?" He says it like a question, even if that's really the only way to interpret what they're saying. He's feeling too many things. Relief is still first and foremost, because that means that the child they're burying isn't going to stay dead. Shock is close behind, coupled with a fresh wave of old grief, because wouldn't it be nice if that were the case back home...

He actually sways on his feet a little beneath the enormity of this revelation, and has to support himself on the shovel again.

"Should we...should we..." He swallows, looking from the grave to Frisk. "Should we even be burying them at all, if they're just going to be...back?" It's clear by the look on his face that he's entirely at a loss.

[dustless]

Frisk takes a full step closer, in case--what, they need to catch him? They're tough but he's big, and there's enough churned-up dirt around he'd be okay.

"Nobody told you," they confirm, mostly to themselves, because--nobody told him. Not like it's important or anything, and their lips pull back again even as their eyes blur with tears and their breathing gets harsh. "No, they don't. It's bad and they remember it, but they'll be mostly okay."

Oh, there's a horrible thought--Frisk outright shudders. "No! No, 's not a--they're not gonna be zombies, they'll just wake up somewhere else, and the body'll be gone, but leaving anybody to rot felt really really bad and I'm really really sorry!" They jerk their head down, half hiding behind their hair. "I--I didn't, I didn't know nobody ever said!"

[oldmantiger]

Oh god. Oh god, Kotetsu feels like he's about to cry but Frisk actually is crying and oh god, he's not helping at all anymore, is he? He hastily tries to pull himself together...but winds up looking even more like he's about to fall apart.

"Frisk, h-hey, it's okay..." It's not, not at all. It should be okay, but it doesn't feel that way at all. He kneels down to their level and reaches out to rest a shaking hand on their shoulder. "You told me. That's what matters. And...and this is good news, right? They'll be okay." Physically, at least. He can't imagine that anyone who's actually...died...will be otherwise okay for a while.

He'll have to keep an eye out for Kubo. And whoever else is buried in that other grave.

"Leaving anybody to...to rot is a really bad thing to do. So this is a good thing you're doing, Frisk. It's okay."

[dustless]

A part of them wants to lunge forward and hold him, but they can still see the dirt on their hands and the blood crawling up their sleeves. Frisk resists it, along with the urge to scrub their eyes clean. It won't work.

"...good news. Yeah. It is. 'M still sorry. Didn't...notice, even though you were all...you were really...really...sad. Mad. 'Pset."

He's still upset, though they're able to understand it better now. Their shoulder twitches, and their voice steadies. "...let's get this done. And then clean us up. 'Kay?" Frisk's not good at being a kid, but that's okay, that's good. They don't want to be a kid right now.