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Grief-4

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I don't know how much longer I can keep doing this. They all come to me now, and I have to tell them everything will be okay, even without her, but I can't keep this up. I don't want to eat, I don't want to sleep... Working on the farm helps a little, and fighting monsters too... Anything so that I don't really have to think about what happened.

Venti was like... like a security blanket. As long as she was here, it was okay. But Venti's not here any more, she's gone and it's all my fault! How can people
not blame me for this?

I blame me. If I'd been faster, or stronger, I could have won sooner, and Venti would still be here with us. I'd still be arguing with her and having late-night talks when I couldn't sleep...

I wish I had someone I could talk to...

I want Venti to come back.



Reesa opened her eyes wearily, feeling the chilly wind of the Floating Empire washing over her. She had come up here a few days ago, wanting nothing more than to jump from one of the edges; maybe if she fell again, she'd fall on Venti and she'd find out that all of this had been nothing more than a very bad nightmare.

Of course she'd changed her mind after seeing how very high it was. It had been one thing to survive falling out of the airship, but it would be another thing entirely to survive a fall from this height. And as depressed as she was, she didn't really want to die... she just wanted things to return to how they'd been.

It was impossible, of course. She knew it was impossible, and that just made her heart hurt all the more.

She looked around the empty area, the site of that last, heart-wrenching battle. She'd tried so hard, with the help of everyone in the village, to get Venti back. And she'd let them all down with Venti's death.

Tears pricked at her eyes as she huddled in on herself again, against a chill she couldn't escape. Maybe if she stayed up here, in this place, life in Selphia would go back to normal.

0o0o0o0

“We'll split up into teams of four,” Arthur said as he anchored the airship next to the one that had been missing. “One of us will stay behind just in case Reesa comes back from wherever she may be.”

It had been hard to refuse the whole town, but the airship could only hold so many, and even with most of them gone, the town still needed to function on some level. It had meant telling others such as Porco, and Blossom that they should probably stay behind and wait, but others had volunteered to stay, just in case Reesa used her escape spell and came back without the airship. Volkanon had been one such person, and Dr. Jones as well, though Nancy had come along, in case Reesa had been hurt. Even Margaret had come, though she was shaking with nervous tension; heights were not her thing, but for her best friend, she would overcome that fear.

“I'll stay,” Nancy volunteered. “I owe her a big scolding as it is.”

There was some quibbling over who would match up with whom in a team, but eventually things were settled. Arthur was with Dolce and Pico, Doug and Forte; Dylas had Amber, Vishanl, and Margaret, and Leon was with Clorica, Kiel, and Xiao Pai.

“We'll take the south path,” Leon said.

“West is going to be tricky,” Arthur nodded a little, “but we'll take that one.”

“Which leaves us with east,” Dylas said.

“Good luck, everyone,” Nancy smiled.

There were glances exchanged all around, determined ones. They would bring Reesa back, and show her that no matter what she thought, they were there for her.

0o0o0o0

It was getting dark by the time all three teams returned to the central area. They were battered and bruised, and some were carrying things the monsters had dropped with the intent of selling, keeping, or crafting with them later. But none of them had seen Reesa.

“That just leaves that northern area,” Dylas said.

“And we should probably go to it before it gets much darker,” Margaret added with a shiver. “And colder.”

“Agreed,” Arthur nodded, nudging his glasses a little more up his nose. “She has probably spent more nights cold and alone than we can count, and it is time that ended.”

Leon had to grin a little. The prince was getting impatient, and was undoubtedly as stressed out and tired as the rest of them were.

“Enough with the speeches. Let's got going!” Doug urged.

The norther path was hardly long or winding, but it wasn't wide either. There was just enough room for two people to walk side by side, with only a little room to slide by a railing if one wanted to switch places. Naturally they ended up more strung out than they'd meant to as various quiet conversations sprang up. Doug was complaining about the annoying circular transportations of the west path, Margaret was clinging to Forte in an effort to not get frozen by her fear of heights, Xiao Pai and Pico were chattering about the differences between all the paths, and so on. It was actually a fairly comforting buzz given the situation.

As before, Leon spotted her first, and stopped abruptly. Unfortunately the abruptness of said halt meant that the people behind him had no time to compensate, and the result was a rather comical pile up of people with Leon trapped on the bottom. And that was the scene Reesa turned around to see.

She blinked at them, at first unwilling to believe that anyone had come for her. The only person not in the pile up was Nancy, and she came straight for the princess, who was too surprised to even back away.

“My goodness, you've led us all on a merry chase,” the nurse scolded as she proceeded to check Reesa over. “And caused no small amount of worry. You really shouldn't run off like that, Reesa dear.”

Immobile in her surprise, Reesa just stared blankly at the pile of people attempting to untangle themselves with only a minimal amount of success.

“Wh-what...” her voice was rusty, as she hadn't really spoken to anyone in almost a week now. “What are you all... d-doing here?”

“We came to find you, of course. Did you really think we wouldn't?”

“I....”

She winced a little as Doug and Dylas, both tangled with people above and below them, started bickering. Nancy just shook her head, and pulled an onigiri out of her pocket, offering it to Reesa.

“Here. You don't look like you've had much to eat in a while. Then we should probably hep them get untangled.”

Reesa obeyed automatically, and had to admit, the rice ball was delicious to her very empty stomach. She was more uncertain about following Nancy to the pile up, but went anyways. In truth, it was... well, it was almost amusing to see. And part of her heart that had been wrapped in despair started to warm.

Slowly everyone managed to untangle from everyone else, and within moments, they had surrounded the princess. Reesa shark in on herself a little, then squeaked in surprised as she was hauled into a tight hug from Leon.

“Idiot,” he murmured in her ear. “You know it's okay to lean on us when you need to, right?”

“...Leo...”

He hugged her a little more tightly, then passed her to the right, where she was immediately yanked into another tight hug, this one from Dylas.

“I swear, don't you ever scare me like that again,” he muttered. “We'd be useless without you.”

Reesa found herself blinking back tears at his voice. Before she could say anything though, she was passed on to Arthur, whose hug was much more gentle, if no less unyielding.

“My lady...”

And on around the circle of her friends. Some scolded with tight hugs, others apologized for not seeing how much pain she was in, or failing to comfort her when she needed them. By the time she reached Leon again, she was crying.

“Come on,” he said, laying an arm around her shoulders to steer her gently. “Let's go home.”
Different people mourn in different ways, but when grief leads one to dangerous neglect and disregard of personal safety, others must step in to help. Post Arc 2 Spoilers for Rune Factory 4. TW for self-harm and attempted suicide.

Next: Part 5
Previous: Part 3
First: Part 1
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IllusionsOfInsanity's avatar
This is a really cute fan-fic!

Only thing I want to tell you is that on the Chapter 3, the link leading to Chapter four is messed up. It takes you right back to chapter 3. Keep up the great work, it's great to see fellow fans of Rune Factory 4!