Wow...it's been so long. I wonder if you guys even remember me haha I'm sorry for the hiatus - i really hadn't intended to take such a terribly long break but somehow a year and a few months have passed by. But hopefully I'm back for good and can keep updates somewhat regular :)

Thanks so much for your reviews, guys! You have no idea how much they've lifted my spirits after such a long period of not-so-lifted spirits.

Alright now, lets get to the good stuff~!

~ Chapter 20 ~

We were falling. I could feel the force of the current as it sucked us downward at such high speeds that it felt as though we were freefalling from the sky. Due to the shock of the situation, my altered Kenbunshoku shut itself off, plunging me into the pitch darkness that always lingered behind my shadowy sight. I could see nothing; feel nothing but the falling sensation of the submarine. We were falling so fast that I felt my body being lifted from the cold floor of the galley to tumble through the air.

I could hear shouts and yells coming from the men's quarters down the hallway and from the low deck beneath us. "Shit!" Jackal shouted in a panic as I heard him struggling to stay anchored to the floor.

"Hold onto something!" Miles directed from the doorway of the kitchen – or at least, that's the direction he had been the last time I'd been able to "see".

I knew that the tables were very close to me. They would be my best bet for safety, seeing as they and the benches were bolted to the floor for just such occasions. I knew that I had to get a hold of them because I was betting the sub wouldn't stay upright for the entire fall and I needed a decent place to shelter myself.

I stretched out my arms as my body started to spin through the air. My balance was lost due to a combination of blind darkness and exhaustion, and suddenly I found the nearest table…

Unfortunately for me, it wasn't a hand or an arm that came into contact with it first, but the left side of my forehead. I let out a startled gasp of pain, and let my hands come immediately to my head.

My fingertips were met with warmth and dampness, while my nostrils filled with the rusty scent of blood. If it was possible, I became even more disoriented, as my body flipped so that I was upside-down while suspended in the air.

"Sarin?" Jackal's voice floated to me through my dizzy darkness, "What happened?"

"Hit my…hit my head," my voice slurred. My mind felt like it was spinning inside of my skull while my stomach was doing back flips. The wound shouldn't have affected me so much, but the fact that I was completely exhausted – body and mind – was what really took a toll on my mental state.

I felt a searching hand brush against my limp arm and then trail over to my wrist. My mind seemed to fray at the very seems as my coherent thoughts finally diminished.

Jackal acted instinctively once the sub started to drop. He tucked a foot around the metal leg of the table and quickly hooked his fingers under the table's edge. He had been struggling to keep himself from being thrown loose from his anchor when he felt the table give a subtle jolt and heard a girlish yelp of surprise and pain.

"Sarin?!" He asked quickly, "What happened?"

Despite the clangs and clashes echoing throughout the falling sub, Jackal could hear Sarin's loud and raspy breaths. "Hit my," she panted, "Hit my head." Her voice was slurring and weak. He knew she'd been exhausted – add a blow to the head to the equation, and it was a good bet her consciousness would waver.

Jackal reached a blind hand out in the direction her voice had come from and managed to graze her upper arm. She tensed a bit at the sudden touch and mumbled something inaudible. He slid his hand down to find her wrist and once he had a good grip on her, pulled her though the air towards him.

"What's going on?" Miles shouted over the clanging backdrop of noise, "Is she okay?"

Jackal held onto her tightly as her body lolled about with the sub. So far the submarine had stayed flat as it fell, but he could feel the ground beneath him starting to tilt and tip into what would soon be a spiraling nosedive. He had no time to check on the severity of Sarin's head wound.

"I think she's passed out," Jackal shouted as he attempted to push Sarin's stilled body lower to the ground, "I'm gonna try to get her under the table to keep her from getting tossed around."

"You get under there too!" Miles quickly replied, "Make sure she doesn't hit her head again!"

Jackal nodded vaguely and laid himself flat on the ground side by side with the bench. "Alright – You okay where you're at?"

"I'm good – just worry about Sheila and you."

He hugged Sarin to his chest as tightly as he could with one arm, and used his legs to maneuver the two of them through the gap beneath the bench and the floor, and past it so that they were under the galley table. The sub was now spinning as it tipped forward. It was going so fast with so much force that it was hard to keep from banging into the underside of the table and the benches to either side of them.

Jackal kept Sarin tightly against his chest, with one arm around her back and another curled around her head to act as buffers to keep her from getting any more banged up than she already was. He was constantly afraid that they'd slip out from under the table's protection, so he hooked his feet around the table legs as some form of security.

The total time they spent falling and spinning was probably close to ten minutes, but to Miles, as he kept himself wedged in the kitchen doorway and Jackal, as he was busy worrying about Sarin's unconsciousness, it felt like hours.

Chaos had erupted all throughout the sub. Teamer and Bepo in the navigation room were strapped into their seats at the control panels while feeling every turn and spiraling movement with light heads and disorientation; all the guys on the low deck were most concerned with keeping away from the hot parts of the engines and boilers, as they searched for something solid to grasp onto; those of the crew who had already turned in for sleep were clutching to their hammocks for stability as they were whipped about; and lastly Law was calmly sitting at his desk, using nothing but his legs beneath his bolted down desk to keep him still despite the swift movements of the sub. If it wasn't completely dark on the sub, looking at Law, you'd never know that something so dangerous was going on.

Finally, the submarine started to slow down and flip itself upright. With the freefall finally over, Teamer and Bepo switched the power back on, but kept the engines and boilers offline. The emergency lights flickered on with a constant monotonous hum, flooding all levels of the sub with dim red light.

The sub finally slowed to a near stand-still. The Downward Plume had taken them down as far as it could. Jackal let go of Sarin and set her gently on the floor beneath the table. As there wasn't much room beneath what had been their shield, he was left kneeling over her from one side. The red lights gave him a chance to check the severity of her head wound.

It was deeper than he'd imagined. A large crimson gash had opened up right below her hairline. Dark blood trickled down the left side of her face and had soaked into the thin braid that swept across her forehead and hung down by her left cheek. The feathers tied into the end were also matted and ruined with the dark liquid.

"Shit," Jackal muttered as he pressed a hand on the wound. "Sarin? Can you hear me?"

Her cheek twitched at the sound of his voice but she didn't stir.

Miles released his hands from their vise-like grip on the kitchen doorframe and wobbled over to the middle table where Jackal and Sarin were still sheltered. "Get her out from under there, mate," he advised, leaning against the table for support as he was still dizzy and unbalanced from the sub's freefall, "Give her some room to breathe."

Jackal nodded and scooted out into the open, carefully pulling Sarin with him. Smears of dark blood trailed behind her as she was finally maneuvered out from under the table. Miles and Jackal knelt on either side of her, the latter putting his hands back over the girl's bleeding wound.

"Sheila? Sarin, can you hear me?" Miles asked, trying to stir some reaction from the unconscious girl.

The static-filled speakers suddenly clicked on – they ran on a backup power circuit like the emergency lights – and Law's almost amused sounding voice echoed through the sub. "Head count," he said before his voice disappeared with a click.

Kinney's voice was the next to echo through the speakers, "Kinney, Penguin, Shachi, Rice, Broth, Eli, Seko – we're okay in the sleeping quarters, though Eli tore his stitches again." You could vaguely hear Eli's complaining voice in the background, but it was cut off as Vic started speaking.

"Vic and JB – fine except for a few small burns from the boilers." Vic's voice disappeared with a grainy click.

Bepo's voice was next to speak, telling everyone that he and Teamer were dizzy but alright. Julian followed Bepo and after a string of expletives said that he and Camin were good.

Miles scrambled over to the Galley's P.A. box. He held down the red button and started speaking into the box's microphone, "Miles, Jackal, and Sarin in the galley – Sheila hit her head and needs stitches. She's unconscious. We're takin' her to the infirmary."

He released the button and hurried back over to Jackal and Sarin. They carefully lifted her from the cold metal floor and situated her into Jackal's arms. Rice, Eli and Broth were suddenly at the galley doorway as Jackal carried her out into the hallway.

"What happened?" Rice asked as she pressed his pointer and middle fingers to her neck to check her pulse.

"Whacked her head on a table corner," Jackal answered as the group headed for the stairway, "She lost consciousness right after it happened."

Rice counted under his breath for a couple seconds and then pulled his fingers away. "Her pulse is a little slow, but nothing alarming."

"She gonna be alright?" Eli asked as he held a bloody towel to the bend of his arm, where his stitches had torn in all the chaos.

Rice nodded as he pulled a bandana out of his pocket and pressed it onto Sarin's trickling wound.

"She's a tough'n…she'll be okay," Broth said to himself, as if trying to abate his worries. He followed the procession as they hurried up the spiraling stairs, all the while trying their hardest not to jostle the unconscious redhead in Jackal's arms.

As they reached the infirmary on the upper deck, Bepo was standing by the sliding doors, waiting for them. He'd already prepared the operating table and the other cot for use.

"Thanks Bepo," Rice said as they entered the room. "Alright, get Sarin on the table – Eli you sit down on the cot and keep that towel pressed down tight."

Rice quickly went to the sink and scrubbed his hands down before rummaging through the different drawers and cupboards for the supplied he'd need. "Okay," he said after a slowly released breath, "Everyone who isn't injured or able to help needs to clear out." He tossed a pair of latex gloves over to Miles, "You know enough to handle Eli, right?"

Miles nodded as he pulled on the gloves and went to gather the material for stitches and gauze bandages, "Yeah – it's just stitchin' him up again. I can handle it."

"Good – Bepo, will you keep Sarin's hair out of the way while I work?" Rice asked as he prepared a cloth and a bottle of rubbing alcohol.

The large bear nodded and gently used his paws to keep her blood matted hair out of the way of the gash. Bepo's glassy black eyes stared seriously down at the girl, as his nose noisily sniffed at the air. "She smells weird again…" he mumbled.

No one gave his odd statement any notice, as they were too concentrated on their work.

Rice cleaned off the area around and inside the wound, and quickly readied the hook-like curved needle and synthetic stitching thread. Holding the ready needle with long tweezers, he moved to start the first stitch.

Everything happened in a blur. Sarin's eyes suddenly snapped open and her hand shot out. Rice had no time to react as his crewmate's small hands were suddenly on him – one holding his wrist so tightly that he was forced to drop the needle and thread, and the other clutching at his throat with a death grip. Sarin was on her feet and had pushed Rice back into a wall by the neck.

Her eyes…her scarred eyes were somehow narrowed, and reflected the red light with a murderous gaze. Snarling words came from deep in her throat, "Touch her and I break you." Her voice was eerie and not at all like her usual one. It sounded strained and oddly wild.

"Sa-Sarin?" Rice managed to choke out. He could barely breathe; she was pressuring his airways with her small hands.

The girl suddenly winced as if she'd heard a loud noise and loosened her hold on Rice's neck. "She is asleep…" she muttered in the strange feral voice, her scarred amber eyes starting to close. Both of her hands suddenly dropped to her sides and she staggered backwards.

Rice stayed where he was, backed up against the wall, gently massaging his throat.

"So you're the other one then…" Miles breathed. The voice alone was enough for him to realize that this wasn't the same girl he'd been talking to only twenty minutes ago. This was the Anti-Sarin, as Penguin had called her.

Her head twitched towards the corner of the room where Miles had been tending to Eli – the latter of which was too shocked to say anything. She didn't respond further except to stand straight up. The red light bounced off her like an evil aura, almost seeming to radiate from her body instead of the lights on the walls. She stood absolutely still, bathing in the tense atmosphere of the room. It looked as though she'd halted her breaths and even stopped the beating of her heart. The blood from her wound had tapered down to a trickle; a stray drop managed to get stuck in the corner of her mouth.

A toothy smile broke out across her lips and her stillness was interrupted by her tongue as she licked the drop of blood away. Her stomach suddenly heaved as if she was laughing, but she didn't let the sound escape from her lips. She held onto the edge of the operating table and sighed once the silent laughing fit had passed. "Too many crew-voices here…she'd be sad if I killed them," the eerie voice spoke from Sarin's lips.

She went to take a step away from the table's edge, but once she let go of the table's edge, she started to topple towards the ground. Rice and Bepo managed to grab her at the same time, and helped her back up – but her body had gone completely lax once again and her scarred eyes had closed.

Eli finally spoke up from his stunned silence, "Did she pass out again?"

Rice and Bepo managed to get her back onto the operating table, "Yeah…holy shit that was weird."

The door suddenly slid open and Jackal and Broth appeared in the doorway. "Did she wake up?" Broth asked.

Jackal eyed the almost identical looks of confusion on everyone's faces – the only exception being Bepo who looked merely interested while he was sniffing at Sarin's face. "What happened?"

Rice shook his head, "Well…she did wake up for a bit but…"

"It wasn't her. It was the other one," Miles continued. He finished wrapping up Eli's arm and then turned to Rice, "Better stitch her up quick – before she wakes up again."

Rice nodded, "Right…someone should go tell Captain what happened."

Miles nodded, "I'll do it." He squeezed past Broth and Jackal in the doorway and headed for the stairs.

"So," Broth said slowly, "The girl's other self was the one tha' woke up?"

Eli nodded as he watched Rice prepare another needle and thread for the stitches. "She woke up, practically strangled Rice, said that Sarin was sleeping, and then passed out…it was fucking creepy."

"I guess Penguin wasn't exaggerating then…" Rice said as he worked, sticking the needle through the separated edges of skin on her forehead and then pulling the thread through.

Law watched the newest member of his crew as she slept quietly on the operating table. It seemed that despite her great dislike of the infirmary, she was beginning to become a regular resident. What was this? Her third time being brought here with some major ailment in only two and a half weeks of membership? She had ridiculously bad luck, but he had to say that at least she'd been entertaining.

The aftermath of the freefall hadn't been too severe – a few burns and scrapes here and there, and minor messes that had to be taken care of, but otherwise, everything was going smoothly. The sub hadn't obtained any injuries either, though they would have to do a more thorough checkup once they reached their destination. Teamer had finally turned the ship's power back on, as well as the engines and boilers, meaning that they could continue forward on their journey to Fishman Island.

Miles had taken care of Eli's torn stitches, so now the only semi-major problem was how to deal with Miss Sarin.

Bepo shifted in his spot by the infirmary doorway. His black nose was constantly twitching and he never let his eyes off of Sarin's sleeping form. He opened his mouth for a second as if he were about to say something, but then quickly snapped it shut again.

Law raised an eyebrow at his firstmate, "Something wrong?"

Bepo just shook his head, "She still smells funny…like chemicals and rust."

As if in response to Bepo's words, the girl suddenly let out a blood curtailing scream, and threw herself into a sitting position, her chest rising and falling rapidly with panting breaths. Her hands clutched the sides of the metal operating table and her eyes had opened as wide as they could go.

"Everything alright?" Law asked boredly, not startled in the least by the girl's sudden outburst. She seemed to have awoken from a very violent dream.

Her nostrils flared and her brow drew downward. "Cold voice…but not his...her Captain's," the other spat, her knuckles turning white as she managed to tighten her grip on the table.

"Yes – I'm your Captain."

"Not mine," she said instantly, "Hers."

Law stood from his seat and leaned on one of the counters, folding his arms across his narrow chest, "You're two parts of the same whole – and whether you like it or not, your body is under my commission, meaning that I am your Captain."

She gave Law a poisonous look, but didn't reply. It was hard to tell that she was blind with her using her scarred eyes so effectively.

Law ignored the evil look she was sending his way and simply stared right back. "So why exactly are you the sole consciousness? What's wrong with Miss Sarin?"

"Sleeping," she answered curtly, turning her head to face the floor, "Won't wake up."

"Have you tried?" Law asked.

The other gave a short nod, "She needs to sleep."

The Dark Doctor frowned a bit as he thought and then pushed himself lightly off of the counter he'd been leaning on, "Well since you don't seem to be worried about it, it can't be anything too serious. If she'd fallen into a coma, I doubt even you'd be conscious." Law was silent and then turned to Bepo, who'd been keeping quiet by the sliding door. "Take Miss Sarin to her usual station and tell Broth to keep an eye on her."

The blind girl's brow furrowed impossibly deep, "That's her name."

"Yes Captain," Bepo said at the same time.

Law nodded at his first mate and looked back at the other consciousness in Sarin's body. "Am I wrong in assuming that you have access to all of Sarin's memories of being on the ship?"

The other Sarin didn't say anything.

Law smirked, taking her silence as an affirmation, "Good then – go help Broth like you usually – "

"She," the girl muttered under her breath.

"- do," Law continued without paying her any attention. He narrowed his eyes and let his smirk grow into a tight-lipped smile, "And if you hurt any one of my crew, I won't hesitate to cut the lungs from your body and make you watch as I squeeze all of the oxygen from them."

Her mouth curled into a frown, and she didn't speak.

Law kept his frightening smile planted on his lips so that she could plainly hear it as he spoke, "Good. You can go now."

The faded blue eyes of the so-called Dead Man stared at a large metal box that looked oddly like a coffin. It was made entirely out of seastone – perfect for containing his new pet-project, 14K. With a syringe in hand, he carefully unlatched the Kairoseki coffin and peered down at his subordinate for the pending trip to retrieve his runaway 5A.

Fiercely gold eyes looked up at him with burning hatred, but the occupant of the coffin didn't stir. His body – leathery skin tinted deep blue for the most part with grayish-white accents, gills prominent along the sides of his neck, teeth slightly jagged and sharp like a shark's – was shaking slightly as he tried to move, but found that he couldn't.

The Dead Man smirked tauntingly and held the syringe out in front of the Blue Shark fishman's face. The liquid inside of the medical tool was a foreboding, murky green color "Do you know what this is?"

The fishman's eyes narrowed.

The Dead Man's smile widened, "Good – then you know what'll happen if you try to do anything other than what I command. Right?"

The Blue Shark Fishman – or boy really, since he was still slightly in his adolescent years despite being so tall and broad shouldered – could only stare back in agreement. His body had been temporarily paralyzed for the trip up to Mariejois.

The Dead Man nodded and put the syringe back into its case and instead of putting the case away he pulled out a different syringe – this time one with a completely clear liquid inside of it. He stowed the case into a pocket and pulled one of 14K's arms out of the Kairoseki coffin and quickly stuck the needle into the bend of his arm. The Dead Man slowly injected the clear substance into the young fishman's bloodstream and within seconds of the needle pulling out of his skin, 14K's body was able to move again.

"Now get up and follow me – we're going to see an old friend of yours," the Dead Man informed. He started walking away, leaving his revitalized subordinate to follow.

14K sat up in his seastone travel crate and stared after the Dead Man. Curiosity joined the hatred in his eyes.

Friend? He had no such thing. Not since Banchou, and that was a long time ago.

He stood up and stepped out of the box, his legs slightly wobbly. He followed after the soft sounds of the Dead Man's footsteps as they clicked on the cold tiles. He caught up to his current handler the moment the Dead Man reached a set of cement stairs that led downward. The flight of stairs was made of grey marble stone but about twenty feet down they suddenly morphed into red stone and descended into a dark cave made of the same red rock.

He didn't have to ask where he was because the Dead Man suddenly explained, "We're on the Red Line – well, in is a more accurate term. These stairs lead down to the ocean and from there we'll descend further to Fishman Island."

14K hesitated for a fraction of a second as he followed the Dead Man.

Fishman Island…

He'd only ever heard about it – and really when you lived the life of an experiment that's all you could really do when you weren't completely sedated out of your mind. Hear things. Think about things. The researchers and scientists were always gabbing away about something, and sometimes they would talk about the island located 10,000 meters below the sea.

"Won't it be interesting?" The Dead Man spoke with a taunting smile audible in his voice, "You'll get to see where you originate from."

14K's eyes darkened. "I come from nowhere…" he said under his breath – his vocal chords were finally feeling the effects of the reverse-paralysis serum the Dead Man had injected him with. His mouth felt as if it were filled with cotton, but other than that he felt back to what was relatively normal for him.

The Dead Man chuckled, "Well, genetically speaking, I should say. Your K Series is based off of Fishman DNA."

14K didn't reply anymore. He just followed his handler down the staircase cut into the Redline. They'd gotten deep enough into the cave that things had gone dark. 14K couldn't see a thing, but it didn't bother him much – darkness was something he'd gotten used to.

He listened to the Dead Man's quiet steps on the stone. They tapped gently a few steps ahead, the sounds of which joined the flapping noises of his own bare, webbed feet as they echoed down the dark cave-like stairwell. It was a long trek down. It was hard to tell time in all the darkness but it felt like a good two hours. And then 14K heard the sounds of the Dead Man's shoes splash into water.

"Oh – we're here already," the Dead Man's voice said in amusement.

14K's brow furrowed. "It's flooded?" He was confused. Wasn't there supposed to be a ship?

"Yes – that's why no one uses this tunnel anymore."

"I don't understand…" 14K said slowly.

The Dead Man laughed pointedly, "You don't have to – that's why I'm here. Now hurry up and get into the water. We've got a long ways to go and only a short amount of time."

14K stepped slowly forward until his webbed feet touched the icy water. It felt oddly comforting, despite the startlingly cold temperatures.

"We're swimming all the way down?" he couldn't help but ask. In theory it shouldn't be a problem for him, since 14K was technically speaking, a Fishman, but what about the Dead Man? He knew that the scientist was supposedly very powerful, but humans couldn't survive the greater depths of the ocean…at least, they shouldn't anyways.

But the Dead Man's good mood had run out it seemed. "Enough," he snapped, "You're not here to ask questions. If you don't get moving, I'll knock you out and leave you to drift on the ocean floor."

14K clenched his fists but kept them at his side. "Yes, Dr. Marou," he replied trying his hardest not to sound mutinous. He didn't dare call him "Dead Man" to his face, especially now that he was angry. 14K continued forward, letting the icy hands of the ocean pull his entire body beneath the surface an inch at a time.

Dante Marou. That was the real name of the scientist, but thanks to one test subject a long time ago, he was now known as Dead Man to all of the experiments. Banchou had been the first one to give him the nickname, and Banchou had been the only one able to call him that to his face.

14K was finally submerged all the way, the shocking cold pulling his thoughts away from the past. Even though the whole situation was tense, the sensation of the bitter water engulfing his thick skin made him feel strangely light inside.

There was still no light since they were still technically in the downward tunnel, making it impossible to see anything. 14K hovered just beneath the water's surface, waiting for some form of direction when there was sudden tight grip on his wrist and he was jerked in downward. Being a fishman gave 14K an advantage under the water. He could hear things just as easily as humans could above the waterline. He could hear the swift kicks and hand strokes of the Dead Man up ahead. But what was strange was the fact that he couldn't hear anything else coming from the Dead Man. There was no air leaving his mouth or nostrils. There wasn't an audible heart-beat either.

The Blue-Shark fishman shivered, and not because of the freezing water temperature.

The Dead Man had taken the lead once again, leaving 14K to follow in his wake.

Broth watched the girl as she stood rigidly in the doorway of the galley. Her eyes were open, accentuating the darkened scars that diagonally dissected her pinkish amber eyes. She looked to be deciding whether or not to cross the threshold into the galley where she usually worked…well, her normal self anyways.

The grizzled cook could tell that this wasn't their usual girl, in part because of her open eyes, which Sarin usually liked to keep closed, but also because there was no kindness in the aura she put off. No curiosity. No excitement. All of the things that made Sarin who she was were absent.

He wondered whether it was a good idea or not to let the other one fill in for the normal Sarin, but if Law thought it was okay, then he had no right to complain.

"All right then," he started loudly to get himself in gear, "I've got breakfast to make. Do yeh know what yer supposed to do out here?"

The stranger in Sarin's body suddenly snapped her head towards Broth's position just outside the curtain that separated the galley from the kitchen. She stood there just facing him for a moment before her head gave the slightest nod.

Broth let out a loud breath, "Well good then – follow me. I'll get yeh an extra apron and a dish rag fer wipin' down the tables." He turned and disappeared into the kitchen, letting the other one follow behind with quiet, almost reluctant steps. She wasn't too far behind the cook so she pushed silently through the curtain a few moments after him.

He tossed her an apron and towel out of habit, expecting Sarin to be able to see it and catch it without a problem – but this girl was not the usual girl. Not his girl.

The spare apron and rag bounced off of her stomach and fell to the floor. After it had hit her, she'd reacted by quickly grabbing out for the tossed items, but she missed them. A small scowl twitched at the corners of her lips.

Broth stared a bit, his lips crookedly slanting as he thought. He watched her crouch to the floor and feel the cold metallic tiles with a searching hand until she found the fallen apron before he spoke.

"Can't yeh see at all?" he asked slowly, "Like shadows an' outlines?"

Her open, scarred eyes flickered up to Broth as she stood again, the rag still on the floor because it had fallen a little out of her arm's range and she hadn't noticed it. "She can…not me."

"How's that work?" Broth asked before he could curb his curiosity. He didn't really expect an answer from her – she'd been so painstakingly quiet since she'd entered the galley – but she surprised him.

Her hands were searching out the fabric of the apron – attempting to find the loop where her head was supposed to go – as she answered tersely, "Same body, different skills."

Broth nodded. That made sense. "Explains how yeh know how to liquefy people but Sarin don't," he thought aloud.

She didn't respond this time. Her hands finally found the loop for her head and slipped the apron around her neck. Fingers traced the sides of the apron until she found the strings that were supposed to tie around her back.

While she messed with the ties, Broth got another dish rag for the girl and ran it under some water long enough for it to get thoroughly dampened. "Here yeh go," he said as he offered it out to her.

Her hands came from behind her back, reaching out for the towel. Broth placed it in her hands slowly enough that it didn't startle her.

The girl controlling Sarin's body turned and walked out through the curtain – but Broth noticed something a little peculiar.

The ties of the apron weren't actually tied, but rather twisted over each other a couple times. They'd almost come undone completely by the time she'd left the kitchen. Broth pulled back the curtain after her and watched silently from the doorway as she went to work.

She moved slowly, her steps oddly pointed as she moved around, but she seemed to know where she was going despite the fact that she couldn't actually "see" like Sarin could. She went from table to table and then bench to bench – it was the same routine that Sarin usually followed, but somehow it looked terribly foreign when the other one was behind the actions.

The cook let the curtain swing back into place as he turned towards the stove and the food he had started to cook. He fidgeted with the burners as his mind wandered elsewhere.

The fact that the girl hadn't been able to tie her apron seemed to stick in his mind. He thought back for a moment to a previous stage in his life, remembering a small child trying to tie his shoes but instead just twisting the laces together because he hadn't yet been taught how to do it properly.

As far as Broth knew, Sarin never had problems tying her apron…but this other personality inside of her couldn't figure it out. Which made him wonder - if Sarin and the other one had skill sets that couldn't be shared with each other, were their memories and thoughts also separate? How far were the personalities of the girl's past and present separated?

A/N: So how was it? xD We've finally learned the Dead Man's real name (I thought it was about time to come up with one haha)!

I have some interesting scenes and plot ideas for this coming up arc so hopefully I'll be back in a week(ish) with another chapter! Not sure if sending me threats will work, but I won't know for sure unless you try lol

Thanks for reading~!