Through the Looking Glass: Chapter 4-A
Another one hundred laps had gone by that morning, and bear and bird were a little more fit than the day before. Banjo was feeling just a little more than invigorated by what he and Kazooie had learned about the world of Sonic the Hedgehog the day before. It was unusual, to be sure, but at the same time Banjo felt there was no other way he would want to feel about the day before.
Kazooie's set of laps seemed to go by far, far too short, and when Banjo found himself in control of his feet again he sighed. When the breegull noticed this, she leaned in closer to Banjo's head.
"What, afraid of giving those files back to Pong face?" asked Kazooie teasingly.
"Kinda," was the bear's reply. "I just want to hold on to that picture of Rouge..."
"Well, Banjo, we've gotta return those files soon," she said. "Especially seeing as how we're done with them. I don't know what you see in heart chest that's so important other than that you're seeing her in your dreams, anyways."
Banjo scratched the back of his head nervously. "I think she's hot...?"
The bird was stock still for a brief second, silence pervading Spiral Mountain. Kazooie then reeled back, trying her best to stifle a laugh. Banjo blushed slightly as he saw this, the red showing through his brown fur as Kazooie tried even harder not to laugh.
"Hm, looks like somebody's in love here!" teased the bird.
"W-what?" cried Banjo, turning his head to Kazooie, the blush on his cheeks only intensifying. "I don't think about her like that! I think she's hot, but I don't feel it like that!"
Kazooie shook her head at Banjo's torment. "Banjo, Banjo, Banjo," she said, patting his head with her wing. "That's what most would call denial. Now move your behind before I taunt you more with it!"
The bear could not think of a better way to get him moving. He then ran back to his house, firstly to avoid the bird's taunting, and second to keep her from noticing his blush that intensified ever so quickly.
Banjo opted to ease the cart with the files down; he knew as well as anybody that the combined weight of him and Kazooie riding on a cart down the slope into Showdown Town would result in a crash that was much worse than what he did to T.T. the other day. This ended up going badly, though; it turned out that easing a cart down was much more difficult to do in the talon trot than either of them thought. This was evidenced when their cart rushed down the slope without them, almost hitting several people before being stopped by one of the walls of Mumbo Jumbo's warehouse.
"Crap!" cried Kazooie, rushing for the files at a ridiculously fast speed down the rest of the slope. As they approached the cart, the breegull had barely retreated into the blue rucksack when Mumbo's garage door opened, and a mysterious pink man with a skull on his head peered out.
"Who make loud bang sound?" he asked as Banjo found himself on his feet again.
"Sorry, Mumbo!" exclaimed Banjo, taking his cart back. "Wheeling carts down that slope was harder than it looked!"
"It all right," replied the pink man as he tugged on his overalls. "Bear and bird always welcome here."
"We almost trashed your house, hut boy!" exclaimed Kazooie. "What would you have done then?"
"Not so hard to build house back up again," replied Mumbo as he pointed at Banjo. "You have strong magic object that Mumbo use to build house back up again."
"Oh, this?" asked Banjo, removing his Chaos Emerald from his pocket. "I found this three days ago. It's supposed to be a Chaos Emerald or something. Apparently, they have the power to do anything. And before you ask, no, you can't borrow it."
This bout of snarkiness surprised Kazooie a bit, but she didn't have time to expound on it before the conversation continued.
"Mumbo very curious," said the shaman as he leaned in close. "What bear need from strange jewel?"
"It's a long story," said Banjo. "And I'm kind of short on time. Do you know if Mr. L.O.G. is in his factory?"
The shaman nodded briefly. "Mumbo think so. I don't know, though."
"Well, he's probably in there anyway," said Banjo with a shrug. "But it's nice to have someone else speaking for him."
"How did you know we had that thing anyway, skull face?" asked Kazooie as she folded her wings on top of Banjo's head. "I didn't think you still could detect magical things without seeing them!"
"Bird be right," replied the shaman as he crossed his arms in front of him. "But Humba also say something to Mumbo."
At this, both bear and bird gave very confused looks to Mumbo. They had to look at each other first before looking back to the witch doctor with disbelieving eyes.
"What?" they asked at exactly the same time, Banjo leaning in and Kazooie craning her neck.
"What?" asked Mumbo with a shrug. "Humba and Mumbo rivarly in past. Now we friends."
Kazooie's eyebrow raised up, her wings going to her hips as she grumbled. "And you didn't say anything about this earlier because...?"
"Bear and bird no ask," was the shaman's reply.
Banjo and Kazooie both looked to each other, wondering what Mumbo was getting on about, before they both shrugged simultaneously and looked at Mumbo.
"Well, that's... Uh..." Banjo said, not quite sure how to reply to that as he scratched the back of his head.
"Good... I guess..." said Kazooie, who had also been rendered slightly speechless by the mechanic's words. "I dunno. Anyways, we should probably get going."
Banjo, taking a cue, went over to the cart that had all of L.O.G.'s files in the and nodded to Mumbo. "I guess we'll see you later then," he said. "Sorry about the house!"
"Bear and bird no worry!" exclaimed the shaman as he waved to the figure of Banjo carting the folders away. Kazooie looked back at him from her perch in Banjo's backpack, slightly unamused as she saw the fuchsia man waving at the two of them in farewell.
"Damn it, Kenzo, for the last time, M. Bison does not do a Hadouken! Yes, yes, I know you're under a lot of pressure here, but the market won't respond well when they find out that the villain of the Street Fighter series has somehow learned a technique that exactly four people in the entire franchise know how to do! What? Yes, I know I'm stressed here, but I'm not telling you why. Now tell the programmers that I will not allow M. Bison to somehow learn how to do a Hadouken under any circumstances. Well, if you want him to do a projectile attack, have him steal from Guile!"
The phone promptly slammed down on the reciever, the L.O.G. letting out an angry sigh as he thought about his day. His day had not gone well; he arrived late to his office, Gruntilda Winkybunion almost caused enough havoc to escape the night before, Grace quit her job in an angry rage, and his pet mice almost spilled his coffee right before--
"Oh, shut up!" cried the L.O.G., looking up. "You know as well as I do that I can't drink coffee!"
Hey, if it's good for the flow of the story, I'll do it. And it also works because it puts the 'and' in a more suitable place. Just be thankful I'm not painting a last supper with 28 disciples and 3 Christs.
"Just go back to narrarating the story," replied the computer before looking in front of him again.
So naturally the L.O.G. was very angry. He just hoped that Banjo and Kazooie wouldn't come in to return the files, because then he'd have to deliver some grave news.
And unfortunately for him, the buzzer on his desk rang, and he pressed the button.
"Yes, Andy?" asked the omnipotent computer into the microphone.
"Uh, yes sir," replied the new secretary nervously. "You have a Banjo and Kazooie to see you, sir."
The L.O.G. groaned in sheer frustration at this before depressing the button with his mind.
"Send them up," he sighed, really wishing that his pet mice would stop scurrying around frantically on his head.
It was only a few minutes before he heard a signature knock at his door.
"Come in..." replied the computer, his rage still simmering down ever so slowly.
The door opened, and bear and bird paraded into his office carting the files he had lent them into view.
"Here are your files, Mr. L.O.G.!" said Banjo cheerfully.
"Ah, thanks," he said, his voice drooping slightly as he teleported in front of the cart and began putting all of the manila folders back in their places.
His tone of voice did not escape bear or bird, though, and Banjo leaned over with a look on his face signalling slight confusion.
"Mr. L.O.G.?" asked the bear worriedly. "Is everything all right?"
The computer sighed softly, pausing in his reorganization of the folders before teleporting in front of the honey bear, shaking his head softly.
"What is it, computer head?" asked Kazooie, trying to spur the computer on.
"It's about Tooty," replied the computer slowly.
Banjo gasped at this, and quickly he grabbed the edges of the L.O.G.'s long royal cape and knelt down. Sapphire orbs shone in great anticipation as he looked up to the Pong game that was eternally frozen on the computer's face.
"Oh my God!" he said. "What about her?"
"You're not going to like it..." replied the computer solemnly as he teleported out of Banjo's hands.
"It can't be any worse than years of not knowing her fate, Pong face," replied the breegull flatly as she crossed her wings in front of her.
The lord sighed before floating in front of his desk. He looked down at the kneeling bear, monitor seeming to have lost some of its brightness.
"That's... kind of the problem," he replied. "I've had agents check the entire world, and so far only one has returned. He told me that all of the other agents didn't pick up their transmissions, so he ended up scouring the world for her by himself."
"And what did he get?" asked Banjo eagerly as he knelt at the game master's desk.
The L.O.G. sighed again before looking directly into Banjo's indigo eyes. "He wasn't able to find her," he said. "I would've expected something like that if all the rest of my agents went missing in action. But he says he found... this..."
And at this point, a torn crimson shirt with a bloodied yellow star levitated into view. Recognizing the object almost instantly, Banjo grabbed the shirt from the air, inspecting the many tears in the fabric and the dirt that was nestled in some pieces in disbelief. He also felt the incredibly hard feel of... some strange kind of clear stain in the shirt. He looked up, hoping his fears were not correct.
"Where...?" asked Banjo, voice shaking as his eyes burned holes into the L.O.G. "Where did he...? This was her shirt! Where did he find this?"
"The other side of the world," was the computer's reply. "It was put in a landfill around five years ago. He says the shirt was already half rotting when he got to it."
"And what the hell is this wierd... stain thing?" asked Kazooie, jade eyes hardening themselves as she steeled herself for the reply.
"Kazooie..." began the Lord of Games, looking at the shirt with a strange hint of sadness glinting from the monitor's screen. "The agent thinks Tooty might have been raped over and over again by many different men."
Banjo's eye's widened, tears threatening to slip out as he heard this. "Raped?" he asked disbelievingly. "W... what makes you so sure? How are you so sure? How do you know that she was raped? How?"
The computer shook his head sadly. "That stain... that clear stain is semen. My agent says there was no other stain like it in the immediate area around. And plus... it was torn. Rapists tear clothes if they cut their victims... And plus, he found DNA in the stain, so it had to come from something. When my agent pulled a quick DNA test, most of what was left from all those years of decay showed the marks of at least five or six different people. Banjo, I don't know what the ultimate fate of your sister is. But whatever happened to her... It must have been... I just hope... I..."
Here, the L.O.G. stopped speaking, his pong game moving for the first time so that both of the 'paddles' folded into view and were invisible as he slowly floated to behind his desk solemnly. Even Kazooie was left speechless, the breegull stock still with her verdant eyes widened in shock. She could not even fathom what the computer had just said, and even as she processed the information in her head she still found a hard time believing it.
But nothing computer or bird were able to feel could even compete with the swirl of emotions that Banjo was experiencing. There were so many questions that popped up in his mind and were promptly swept away. His gaze was fixed on the ripped shirt of his sister. He still did not know her ultimate fate, but suddenly the bear wished he had never asked about what had happened in the middle.
A single tear travelled down his face as he asked one final question.
"And... And why wasn't there any body there?" he asked, closing his eyes as he held the shirt in front of him like an offering to a god.
"People don't throw bodies in the trash..." said the game master. "I don't know... But... I don't have enough words to express how terribly this pains me..."
Kazooie was so shocked by the events she could barely even bring herself to say a sarcastic comment to that. "My god..." she said. "Why--?"
Just before the breegull could bring any words to her mouth, Banjo hugged the torn shirt that belonged to his sister and sobbed profusely into it. Without another word, he stood up and bolted out of the office, narrowly knocking the cart with the manila folders as he ran out of the office in tears.
The L.O.G. was speechless, and he looked down at his desk dejectedly.
Banjo was later seen crying by the Jiggoseum. Even the bright colors of the Jiggoseum were nowhere near enough to lift the bear's spirits up as he clucked at the red shirt that used to belong to his sister. Kazooie was not about to talk to Banjo; she knew that they had been best friends, but she also knew that anything she would say would most likely be taken the wrong way. So she just wrapped her wings around his shoulders, having stepped out of the blue rucksack right when they got to the Jiggoseum. Thankfully, nobody had really talked to them.
Kazooie looked up every so often to find nobody approaching them, and honestly, she felt this was best for the honey bear she cared so much for. She just let the bear cry everything out, and hopefully this would be enough for them. The bear was still sobbing even an hour after he had heard of what had happened to Tooty, and Kazooi could only begin to imagine how he felt.
When she looked up one time, however, she found a mole with goggles on his head looking at Banjo. Slowly, he strode forward, orange checker jacket providing a stark contrast to the color at the Jiggoseum.
"Goodness!" exclaimed the mole. "Kazooie, Banjo, what happened?"
Kazooie shook her head, Banjo making no move towards the mole. "Bug off, goggle boy!" she hurled insultingly. "It's something you wouldn't want to know about!"
"What, something like a scraped knee?" asked the mole. "I can take care of that, you know. It's nothing--"
"Shut up, Bottles!" said the bear, flinging the torn shirt at the nicely dressed mole as he cried into his paw. "Just... leave us alone..."
The mole instead examined the torn shirt recognizing every detail even as it was erased. He then looked back at Banjo and Kazooie with a disbelieving look on his face.
"No..." he said in awe. "This didn't... It..."
Kazooie shook her head. "Pong face gave us that," said the breegull with a greater deal of solemnity in her voice than the mole was accustomed to, even when Kazooie was being nice to him. "He said that that's what turned up in one of his agents searches. Bottles, Tooty was raped."
The mole known as Bottles simply shook his head sadly, walking over to the bear and bird duo and putting the shirt back in the honey bear's lap before putting his hands on Banjo's shoulders.
"I'm so sorry..." he said softly. "I... I don't know what to say..."
Banjo shook his head sadly, and for the first time in quite some time he opened his eyes. Bottles and Kazooie were both surprised at how bloodshot they were from the sheer amount of tears the bear had shed.
"Why...?" he asked, his tone of voice emanating a strange kind of sadness alien even to himself. "Why did she have to be raped? She was the sweetest, most innocent thing in the world! She didn't deserve that kind of treatment! Why? Why would anybody do that to her? Why would anybody let them get away with this? Why...? Why Tooty?"
The honey bear shook his head, resting his elbows on his knees as Bottles looked Banjo straight in the eye.
"I can't tell you that," he said simply. "Actually, nobody can. It's not anybody's fault that those people did the things they did. It could've happened to anybody."
"Yeah, but why Tooty?" asked Banjo sadly, slightly aggravated by what Bottles was saying. "I don't care about why they would do it to anybody else. Damn it, Bottles, he said that it was left in a landfill for five years! She would've been fourteen back then!"
Bottles simply shook his head.
"Again, nobody can tell you that," replied the mole. "Hell, if I knew, I would've stopped crime a long time ago. But the thing we should ask ourselves is, what now? Maybe she's still out there."
"And how do you know that she's still alive?" asked Banjo softly, still sobbing. Kazooie, despite being generally irritated by the mole's intrusion, decided to see if Bottles could actually make Banjo feel better.
"I don't know how to tell you that," replied the mole as he patted Banjo's shoulders. "But we can always hope that she's somewhere safe now, where somebody is watching her and helping her. There's still that. If you let go of that hope, you've got nothing left. He said he didn't know her ultimate fate, right?"
Banjo nodded, sniffling a little as he did.
"Then she might still be out there," continued the mole. "Hell, I'll bet she wishes you were by her side. Banjo, as long as you don't let that hope go, there's nothing to lose. It's hard to hear this, sure, but that's passed. Maybe Tooty has gotten over it by now. Maybe she hasn't. I don't know. But there's still hope that you have to hang on to. If not for yourself, hang onto it for her; I'm sure she'd never forgive you if you gave up what hope you had because of what happened to her. Don't give it up until you really know that she's dead. And if she is in fact dead, hold on to the hope that the worst has passed."
Banjo nodded, sniffling slightly. Almost without warning, he pulled Kazooie and Bottles close to his person, and then he spent the remainder of the time sobbing into both of their shoulders. As he did, he sniffled slightly and looked at Bottles.
"I'll try," replied the bear, eyes puffy and bloodshot from the tears. "I can't honestly say anything, but I'll try..."
The mole nodded slowly, the breegull in disbelief that his talk actually worked.
When bear and bird had returned to their house later that evening, Banjo plopped into bed immediately after taking off the blue rucksack. Kazooie could not blame the poor bear; the news that had been delivered by the Lord of Games had hit both of them very hard, especially Banjo, so for once Kazooie was not in a yelling mood.
When the bear looked to the night table, he placed the Chaos Emerald down on it. His eyes then wondered to the family portrait that had been taken the week before Tooty had dissapeared. With a strange sense of nostalgia taking over him, he picked up the portrait and looked at it in the twilight. As the happy memories of the bear's younger sister flooded back into his memory, the news of her rape came back.
And once again, he cried. This time, he cried himself to sleep, holding the portrait in his arms as Kazooie looked on from the blue rucksack.
Kazooie shook her head sadly, wondering the same thing that Banjo had wondered earlier that day. She thus kept a vigil over the bear until she herself fell asleep in the blue rucksack, a rare tear being elicited from her own emerald eyes as sleep overtook her person.