Chapter.02 Elpeo Ple

Judau has made his way into the residential area of Axis. As he stands at an intersection, he’s amazed at how it reminds him of the mountainsides of Shangri-La. The only thing he notes that he doesn’t like is the lack of a sky. As he’s busy gawking at the rocky sky, someone calls out to him.

He turns around but doesn’t see anyone. The voice calls out to him again, directly below him. Looking down, he sees a girl crouched down, looking up at him. She asks him whether he came for her. Judau is perplexed, but before he could say anything, she jumps up and clings to his waist. She introduces herself as Elpeo Ple.

Still confused, Judau asks whether he knows her from somewhere. Ple asks whether he’s forgotten, to which Judau utters another confused what? As he bends down and stares at her, he tells her that she has the wrong guy. Patting her head, he stands up and walks away. Ple calls out to him, but he brushes her off by saying he’s in a hurry.

Dejected, Ple lunges herself at Judau, clinging to his neck from behind. She says she’s going with him and that he’s her big brother. Judau tries to pull away, but Ple has wrapped her legs around his torso and her arms around his throat. Judau tries to choke out that she’s killing him, but he just sounds like a crushed frog.

Meanwhile, a lone elec-car was zipping down the road toward the downtown area. In the backseat were Glemy and Leina. Leina grasps her hands in her lap and doesn’t move a muscle. Glemy asks her whether she thinks the cityscape is beautiful. She concurs but sounds hesitant. Glemy informs her that she wouldn’t be treated as a prisoner of war but as his guest. He tells her that he can’t forgive the adults for dragging someone like her into the war. He says he became a soldier because he wanted to do something about adults like that.

Relaxing slightly, she was able to take in the sights as they passed by. Then she noticed a boy who looked an awful lot like Judau, right down to the color of his jacket. Shocked, she stays glued to the window but was unable to see the boy anymore.

Judau and Ple are at a cafeteria, with Ple still clinging to his waist. Judau asks if she ever lived in Shangri-La, but she says that she’s only been born and raised in Axis and that it’s the first time she’s seen earth. Judau is still surprised that she somehow knows him.

A waiter arrives with a jumbo chocolate parfait. Ple licks her lips and climbs on his lap, and tells him to feed her. He can’t help but oblige and dumps a huge scoop into her mouth, only for her to get a brain freeze and slap the sides of her head as a result. Judau’s stomach growls. He ran out of money ordering the parfait. Since water was precious on Axis, they didn’t offer cold drinks. He could only sit and watch her eat in silence.

Angry, he tells her that she can feed herself. Looking to his side, he sees a young couple sitting nearby. They were both eating a large bowl of spaghetti. It was none other than Gottn and Chara… except their thick steaks had turned into spaghetti instead. In pure comedic fashion, Gottn wonders just what he did wrong: he took a shower, spritzed some cologne on, and even put on a new pair of underwear. Chara tries to tell him that he’s got it all wrong, and he wonders what her reasoning is. She says that she just didn’t have the money, to which he replies that she has a credit card. She flatly retorts that she’s a cash kinda gal.

Judau, in the meantime, sets off to find his sister again, telling Ple not to get in his way. Standing up, he asks Ple whether she knows Leina. Ple says that she thinks she may have seen her. Judau grabs her arm and tries to run off in the direction she indicated, but she yells that she hasn’t finished eating yet. Undeterred, Judau grabs the parfait and downs it in one gulp, much to Ple’s delight. The two set off running.

Gottn comments on how he’d like to recruit someone like him, only for Chara to say she hates kids, and older men aren’t her thing either. She reaches over and strokes Gottn’s chin as she says that she prefers young men like the one in front of her. Clearly embarrassed, Gottn thanks her and salutes.

Judau was carrying Ple on his shoulders and gasps as they approach the palace. He was astounded at the opulence of it. As they approached the entrance, the guards on either side pointed their rifles up and gave a quick salute. Ple returned their salute without much thought. The two went inside. He asks whether she is the princess, and Ple tells him that it’s not quite like that, but something close. That something didn’t make much sense to Judau, but if Leina was inside, he had to go in.

Haman was in her room, enjoying a drink to cool off from the heat, when she feels a strange sensation. Placing the glass on the table, she stands up. A fleeting illusion of her floating in the middle of space washes over her. She’s confused because the vibe she was feeling was quite familiar. She wonders whether it’s Char returning to Axis. She shook her head and sat down on the couch, dismissing the thought of it.

Ple leads Judau to her room on the corner of the third floor. The baroque style furnishings seemed completely out of character for her, so he assumes that she is probably just renting a guest room. Ple quickly settles into her antics, running around the room like an airplane, laying down in the carpet and spinning around and whatnot before finally laying on her stomach and looking up at Judau. Disgusted, he again asks where his sister Leina is. Ple is clueless, asking who Leina is.

Angered, Judau yells out, “My sister!”. Ple responds by saying she doesn’t know anything about her. Judau is annoyed that he came all this way because she said she knew something. Feigning ignorance yet again, Ple heads into the other room to take a shower. Convinced she’s a strange child, he slips out of the room. As he’s creeping around the hallway, he comes face to face with two guards who quickly demand to know his affiliation and ID number. Judau bolts.

Arriving at a staircase, he’s forced to run upstairs. He ran to the end of the hallway, shouts of anger behind him. He slips out the window to a ledge outside, escaping the guards. He slowly begins inching along the narrow ledge.

Ple, meanwhile, finished her bath and reentered the room, but there was no Judau. Confused, she removes her towel and lays on the floor, naked. She mutters to herself that she’ll find him wherever he goes and beings to picture him. Judau’s form comes to her, his back pressed against a wall as he slowly walks along his side. She ponders what he’s doing since it’s something strange to her.

He was, in fact, doing something strange. He was walking sideways, much like a crab, against the wall. He had no choice. If he lost his balance, it would be game over from the height he was at. He started to sweat, desperately looking over at the balcony near him. He struggled to make his way over to it. Just as he was about to reach the balcony railing, he slipped.

He quickly grabbed what he thought was ivy growing along the wall, but it turned out to be a rose bush. Completely off balance, he grabbed the handrail with both hands, but that too was covered by a rose bush. Cursing whoever planted that stuff everywhere, Judau flops onto the balcony, his palms full of wounds from the thorns. Just then, something chilling touched his soul.

Judau looked up and saw a woman standing by the window with a gun pointed at him. It was Haman Karn. As soon as they locked eyes, they were surrounded by space. Even through the solid rock of Axis, and an unfathomable dark void of space enveloped them.

It was the second time Judau had encountered that same scene, which was entirely too vivid to be a daydream. The first time was when he encountered Kamille Bidan on Shangri-La, but he didn’t feel the same warmth he did that time. The stars were sparkling that time too. The universe felt like a source of life, and yet now it was just a symbol of darkness.
Judau felt a chill run through his body as he wondered just who the hell this woman is.