"Alright this here room's yours for the night. Oh, also don't make too much noise, the guys in the next room over have to get up at first light to train tomorrow." Said the soldier who escorted us to our room. The room had separate beds thankfully so no more awkward situations. "And just a heads up, all these rooms don't have locks." He added."Ok…?" I said. I guess soldiers can't have privacy. The kobold left us by ourselves and walked away.
The room looked like some medieval barracks just empty. Bunk Beds lined up neatly in rows with small wooden footlockers at the front of each one. I took one bed and Elie took a different one. The beds were hard like stone. "I wanna wake up early tomorrow to get my stuff from my cave and move it into our new house!" Elie said eagerly. I thought of something. "Hey, I gotta ask. Why were you so on board with taking this job? This seems like it's gonna be dangerous." I asked Elie.
She looked at me and thought for a second. "Well…i know what it feels like to lose a dad. So when I heard that Princess Migni is going to lose her's I couldn't help but relate to her. Plus making friends with the kobolds could help me reach my goals." She told me. "Oh? Is that so? Well we better get some rest. I have some plans for tomorrow." I said. I waited for Elie to fall asleep. I don't want her to see me talking to myself.
Once Elie fell asleep I started my talk with a god. "Hey, Ruffy. So what was it that you wanted to talk to me about?" I asked quietly. ( Oh that…? Well… I don't want to alarm you but you may have two souls… instead of one…) He said to me like a doctor with bad news. "What!?" I whispered. (Let's take a step back. When you were reincarnated you were supposed to get a soulless body in which you would fill. But since you were the wrong person the god intended to reincarnate, plus the fact that they must be a new god, this must have slipped her mind. So you were stuck into a body that already had a soul but your human soul is stronger and more dominant of the two which leaves you with control of the body.) He explained. "That's crazy!" I yelled.
Elie tossed and turned. She almost woke up! "What!? So what's up with the other one!?"I whispered quietly. (Have you ever noticed anything odd about yourself? Like acting in a way you wouldn't?) He asked me. "Well now that you mention it I have been feeling calmer and more compassionate lately… I hate it!" I whispered angrily. (Well you're gonna have to get used to it because you're slowly merging with the rat's soul. It might have a less toxic personality than you, no offence.)he said. "Offence taken." I told him. (It also has a troublesome side effect. If you feel extreme negative emotions you'll blackout and pure animalistic instinct takes over.) He explained. "Ah, so that explains the rampage I had in the redlight district." I said. "And what will happen once I fully merge with this other soul?" I asked.
(That's the thing… I don't know. There's a chance you might lose your mind or worse!) Warned Ruffy. "Oh great! just what I needed! It's not like I already have a bunch of other things going on!" I ranted. Elie moved around a bit. I sighed. "Is there a way to stop it?" I whispered. (Hmm, well if we found my body I could Perform a ritual to separate the two of you.)He told me. "Again with the body stuff!" I whispered as I covered my face with my hands and laid back. (Hey it's the only way I can think of!) He shouted. I stood back up.
"How much time do I have?" I asked him. (At the rate you're degrading? I say about a little more than a year… but the symptoms will get worse as time passes by.) he told me. "Fine, Let me sleep. I need to think more about this when I'm well rested. This stuff is confusing!" I told him. ( I understand.) Ruffy told me. I laid down. I tried to keep my mind calm and eventually I fell asleep.
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When I opened my eyes I found myself in a dark empty room. I noticed that I Had modern looking human clothes on! I looked around and the room seemed to stretch on forever! "Hello?" I called out. I got no response. "Ruffy? Are you there?" I looked around some more and saw that a free standing door had appeared out of nowhere! I inspected it. It was just a door that led nowhere?
Out of curiosity I opened the door slowly. I saw a small bit of light coming from the inside. I looked inside and to my surprise it was my old apartment! I walked inside. I could hear something playing. Is that my old T.V!? I walked into the main living room to see my T.V on!
"Ey Rat there's no way you can finish the whole bottle of tequila by yourself!" Said a familiar voice on the T.V. "Watch me!" I said as I saw myself on T.V chugging the whole bottle! Wait… is it playing my memories? In front of the T.V there was an office chair that was facing towards the T.V.
The chair slowly turned around to reveal a small black rat sitting on it. The rat looked at me with its glowing red eyes and spoke. "Well, well, well. We finally meet mr.-" I ignored what the rat had to say and charged right for him! "AHHHHH!!! WHOA WAIT!!!" He pleaded as I pounced on him. I picked him up and pinned him against a wall. "Wait, you don't want to do this!" He pleaded. I started squeezing him as hard as I could. At the same time I felt as if I was getting squeezed too! His eyes looked like they would pop out of his skull! "Pleath! Thop! If I die you DIE!" He managed to say. I quickly let go of him and the crushing feeling stopped.
He was on the ground and gasping for air. He coughed and massaged his throat. "I was trying to be dramatic! but I should know by now you're the type to ask questions last!" Squeaked the rat angrily. "So you must be the other soul right?" I asked. "Yeah! and I don't like it when you look down on me like this so put me back on that chair!" He demanded. I begrudgingly obliged And picked him up by the tail. "Ouch!" We both cried. "Don't do that!" he shunned. I picked him up gently and placed him on the chair.
"Now we can talk." He said. "So… you're the poor soul that has to deal with my shenanigans?" I asked him. "I couldn't have said it better myself!" he laughed. "So there must be a reason you dragged me here, what is it?" I asked him.
"Well I just wanted you to meet me." He answered. "Why?" I asked. "To show you that I'm sentient! And to tell you that not only can you feel everything that I feel, but that I can also feel every time you get hurt out there! Every time you got cut, punched, stabbed or BURNED I felt that! On top of that I now know that I have a year till I essentially DIE!" He ranted.
"That sucks." I said. He looked at me furiously. "Sucks…SUCKS!?No,no,no it doesn't just suck it FUCKING HURTS!!! So I'm asking you… begging you to cut that to a minimum!" He pleaded. "Alright, I'll try not to get hurt on purpose anymore. But I have a question… if you can feel everything I feel does that mean that time in the red-light district did you-"
"Yes." He answered quickly.
I looked away and nodded my head in acknowledgement. We both stood in awkward silence. "So… Do you have a name?" I broke the silence with a question. "You're literally the first person I've ever talked to. I really haven't considered a name for myself." He told me. I thought for a second. "What about 'Joey'?" I suggested to him. "Sure if it makes it easier for you to refer to me." he said
"So what's with the memory playing T.V?" I asked him. "Oh that? It's where I get most of my general knowledge from. And it doesn't just play old memories, it's also how I see the outside world!" Joey picked up a small controller on his chair and changed the channel. The feed switched to a black screen. "You can't see anything right now because you're asleep but you can still hear stuff if you listen closely!" He pointed. I got closer to the T.V and sure enough I could hear both mine and Elie's breathing.
I looked at the Rat. "Do you hate me for taking what should have been your body?" I asked him. Joey sighed. "It's not like you had much of a choice right? Plus you're doing a better job than I ever could!" He cheered me up. "Yeah! I guess I am doing a fine job!" I said proudly. Suddenly we both heard the sound of a door open! We looked at the apartment entrance but saw no one at the door! We heard footsteps and that was when we realized the sounds were coming from the T.V! Someone's in our room!
"Oh Shit!" we both said in unison.