From ANOTHER STORY, by yasu
The boat the girl was riding cut through the sulfuric acid seas at a furious speed. The brownish acid splashed up around the prow, a strong wind blowing the scent of it up to the girl's nose. The silver ship, like a living thing, sliced through the sulfuric acid on an unseen path.
"Aaah!" Something about it gave her a quite exhilarating feeling.
"Hey...qu...quiet down out there," came a kindly voice from the inside of the ship.
"Who's there?" The girl took a peek out of the steering room. Suddenly, something jumped out at her.
"Oh...that was a nice rest...hey, when did this ship start moving?!" This "living thing" was bright white, with a tiny face, and an appearance something like a daikon with arms and legs. Something about it was feminine, with deep-set eyes, but even more of a change was that it seemed to only have the left side of its body.
"Who are you?" the girl asked this "living thing".
"Who am I...well, same to you! But even more importantly, why is this ship moving? Quick, stop it! Stop it right now! I don't want to go anywhere. I don't want to move," this strange guy said, shoving her along impatiently.
"But you see, we've just left, and we can't stop now. And then, and then, we're on a very important quest, you see."
"Wa...wait just a minute! When you say "we", who are you referring to?"
"Well, it's been settled, hasn't it? You and I. Unless there's someone else here too?"
"Ah, geez, stop joking around! All around us, the sea is sulfuric acid! If you don't turn back quickly, this ship will fall apart!"
Daikon-kun looked at her with thin, emotionless eyes.
"Ah, that's not a problem, since I have the map to show me the safest way to go." The girl produced the faded map, and showed it to him. Upon seeing it, the daikon violently snapped his neck backwards.
While they were talking, the boat pitched up into the acid sea.
"Oh no! This is the end! But, it must be the doing of the mysterious map. Oh, I don't know for sure, but to my eyes, this thing looks different. Isn't there anything we can do?"
"Ah, but I know things you don't. Only the Messiah who can save this world can see what's on this map. So, it's okay not to worry, since I am the Messiah."
"As I thought, you're an idiot. I've been tricked into traveling with a fool. Ah, God, why do you have to be so cruel? Oh, God, what is your will? Even though I could have done it well enough not going anywhere. Oh, God, what have I done? What could I have possibly done to be forced to depart on a suicidal journey with this idiotic little girl? Oh, God..."
"You'll be fine, if you just put up with it...I'm sure God's sick of you by now."
"Me, at this point I'm more sick of you."
"Anyhow, I'm not giving up. We have no choice but to go on this journey together."
"..."
The Daikon fell silent once more.
"Hey, can I ask you something? Why don't you have half of your body?"
"Ah, that, huh..." he said, resignedly.
"I don't really want to talk about it, but...aaah, I guess I can tell you. For some reason, when I boarded this ship, I let it go." With that, he began his story.
"In the beginning, I had a normal body. Can you say that the Left-Sided Servant lives by curiosity? Or perhaps he is reckless? He approaches things without fear of failure, going here and there, anxious to just be going somewhere. But, even though he's not doing anything important at all, the Left-Sided Servant feels that it's most important to just be focused on whatever you do end up doing. Because that's just how things are, aren't they?"
"Are they?" The girl tilted her head.
"That's right. If you just do that, you won't hurt anyone else, and you won't sustain any wounds yourself. So, if I were to move my right side ahead, the left side would draw back. In the end, I couldn't be ahead anymore. Forever returning to that day, and completely despising that right side of myself, I separated myself completely from it...ah, to say I'm alone now is strange, isn't it? I split myself willingly into two halves, you see. After that, thinking that no one should come to this ship, I lived in peace here. Ah, then...I got rid of that other half. Get it?"
"I get it."
"Ah, yeah, I guess you do. So, end this dangerous quest, and just leave me on some island somewhere!"
"Yeah, yeah, I get that you're a coward."
"A coward? No! I want to call it being prudent."
"Ah! Behind you!"
"Eh? Wh...wha...wha...what? What? What?"
"Ahahaha, I'm joking. As I thought, you're a coward after all."
"...you...you're terrible!"
He tried to rest his cheek against the right hand that he didn't have, and with a bitter smile that seemed to light up his face, rested it in his left hand, gently this time.
"Hey...isn't only having half of your body really inconvenient?"
"...well, I guess that's true..."
"I think the right side of you feels the same way."
When the girl said this, he let go of his cheek, and tilted up his chin. "It doesn't work that way. The right side of me thinks that I don't exist anymore. To him, the Left-Sided Servant isn't important at all."
"I don't think so. I'm sure he thinks that it would be nice if the left side and the right side were together again," the girl said encouragingly, "that's right, you may be able to meet with your other half again on the course of this journey. So, together, we'll search for that other part of you, okay?"
"That's okay. It's really fine. In any case, I can't go. After all, the next time we hit land, you're going to do me a favor and leave me there," he said, falling off the girl's shoulder so that he could not see her any longer.
Just then, a large black mass appeared off the prow, still kicking up the brown-colored sea.
"Wha...what's that!" the girl cried out.
"Hah, you can't eat anything with the same hand twice."
"Really, well in that case, I'll use another one!"
At the same time, the Left-Sided Servant looked back. With an ominous sound from the inside of the ship, it shook with the strong shock of impact.
"This isn't good. We might be stranded."
"That's why I said I hated all this. Outside of this ship is a sea of sulfuric acid, so what will you do?" The Left-Sided Servant's white skin was shaking.
"It's okay. We'll keep going around this side to that cliff, disembark, and walk."
"Wh...oh geez!" Not having much of a choice, the Left-Sided Servant followed to that side of the cliff. Once arriving there, he held tightly on to the girl's hand, his hand covered in sweat.
Suddenly, the red moon that had been watching them all this while was covered by dark clouds, shrouding the sky and all around them in darkness...