Quote:Yeah, exactly like Ifurita.
Plus, you sound like I did back in the day when I first laid eyes on the El-Hazard OVAs and saw Ifurita. So, yeah, I think I know where you're coming from.
Quote:That honestly hadn't occured to me, but now that you've mentioned it, hell yeah.
Meaning that Tate!Nate is going to be sporting a stylishly Sergei-esque scar on his mug, yesno?
Quote:*blank* Herbert?
Edit: *snicker* 'Golden Millenium? Sounds vaguely Herbert-ish, and we all know how well _that_ turned out, don't we?'
Anyway, I think that the 'bad influence' thing is pretty much certain, since this'd never've gotten beyond the daydream stage if you hadn't provoked me. ^_^
It was a door opening that woke me up, but after the first moment or two, my mind had cleared enough to recognize the steady beeping inside the room with me as being a heart monitor.
There was a faint rattle, the kind a rolling cart makes, and I raised my head - which felt far heavier than it should have - a little to get a look. The nurse was a frumpy looking oriental woman with short hair and a mole on her nose, and was quite surprised to see me looking back at her. "Oh, you're awake!" she said. "How do you feel? Dizzyness, nausea?" She hurried over towards me and started checking the machine on my right.
"Weak," I told her, "and maybe a bit lost. But other than that, and having a needle in my arm, I feel fine."
She grinned, a surprisingly impish expression to see on someone who looked maybe forty-something. "Good! I'll go get the doctor, then."
She was about halfway out the door when I realized that both of us had been speaking Japanese.
*****
In the long run it turned out that, despite having inherited his brain, I had actually lost most of Tate's memories. The ones that had stayed, though, were definitely the one's that'd be most useful. The language, of course, was first and foremost, both spoken and written, followed closely by physical skills. Given that the bullet that had hit me - him - had actually taken out enough of my head to leave a five-centimeter long exit wound running down my forehead from the scalp line, I had absolutely no problem explaining the fact that I didn't know a damn thing about a lot of the stuff that 'Tate Yuuichi' should've known backwards and forewards.
The reason I had been so weak on waking up was that, contrary to what I'd been told going in, 'I' had actually spent better than a month and a half as a vegetable, and had needed nearly as long to reach a 'full recovery'... which was another way of saying that I was in better shape than I'd ever been in my original life, and thanks to the things I'd learned during the therapy, it looked like I'd be able to stay that way.
With any luck, I wouldn't need to do any fighting myself, but counting on that would be an idiot's plan. Machida-san, the therapist, was a big help in digging up a teacher whose lessons were aimed more at practical application than perfection of the self, and I managed, somehow, to be consistent in keeping up with the lessons.
I'd been shot in early January and woken up a little over halfway through February, which meant that I had just barely had time to get as ready as I was going to be for the start of school - and the 'Festival' - in April.
Honestly, the hardest part about that period was dealing with Shiho. As a character, I had never regarded her as anything much better than an unjustified brat, but she actually wasn't that bad, in person. 'Not that bad' is strictly a relative statement, though, especially since she swung back and forth between hating me for not being 'her Oniichan' and flat-out denial of same.
Still, she had her moments, and in a lot of ways reminded me of my real sister - a lot shorter than she'd been at that age, and neither as smart nor as athletic... Which wasn't actually saying anything much about Shiho, since Sis'd gotten an equal share of the family brains and both our helpings of athletic and social skills.
I don't think of myself as a sentimental person, most times, and if I'd just been able to let my family know that I was okay and likely to stay that way the lack of contact wouldn't've been a problem. As it was, though, I missed all three of them, and worried about Mom - my Uncle had died only a few years past, and my Grandmother and Great-aunt, the only family in that generation I'd had a chance to know on either side of my family, only this last summer, so my... death... would leave my sister and younger cousin as her only living kin.
I lost more than a few nights' sleep hoping that she'd taken it okay.
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"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."