Hungover

**Hungover** is the twenty-ninth episode of Tales of Dikuda. It is also the fifth episode of the third season.

## Summary

Following the incident on the night before, something appears to be not quite right with Yuw, as Ryahno and Gwady have to discover.

## Episode in Detail

In the morning, what appears to be Yuw, gets out of bed, happy to have snapped awake from the state she had previously been in and now seeing clear. She doesn't know exactly who the woman was, that made her come to her senses, but using the gigantic photo-capture of Kuraz Ryahno, which appears to be close enough, she tries to first remember who the person is, then to find her.

At the same time in the Quiet Corner Café, Gwadeweido and Ryahno are spending time together. The latter had shown up in the sewers early in the morning to compliment the rat for a job well done when she had blown up a sector of old buildings. As Gwady was offered a reward, she demanded money, as well as milk and cookies in combination with spending time with Ryahno in the Quiet Corner Café.

Gwady reminiscences about the past, such as when training with Ryahno, until said woman interrupts her by bringing up how the rat had "lost it" and "jumped off a roof." The topic turns more sour and depressing between the two fast.

Bueh meanwhile finds the tea cans empty as she cleans up Ryahno's apartment. The goat decides to leave the home then and head out to restock. Though the moment she steps outside she feels an aura hit her, something that feels familiar and scares the goat into panic, causing her to run back into the building.

When Ryahno and Gwady, who is hiding away as a rat in the woman's hood, leave the Café, the aura too reaches them, with Ryahno being the only one of the two to notice it. It appears to be similar to the way Yavei gives out messages to guild members, but this message was blunt and inexperienced in the delivery. The rat dragon decides to follow the message to the source, which leads her to the park, where she bumps into Yuw.

The second Yuw notices her, the energy ripples that were the message delivery come to a stop. It is revealed that the woman was the cause of the message, as she openly states so. Ryahno is irritated by the open display of happiness on the woman's face, which is unusual for Yuw. Gwady remains hidden away in the hoodie. The more Ryahno interacts with Yuw, the more suspicious she gets about the giant's behaviour, which is not like what she is used to seeing, much more confident.

As Yuw gets closer and closer, she forced the bouquet of flowers she brought along into Ryahno's face, something that is deeply unsettling the rat dragon, as for higher dimension beings, such as guild members, flowers represent obsession and lust. Not to mention that nothing Yuw said so far makes sense to Ryahno. She asks what the woman means, who then explains that she is still in pain from last night, after what happened. Ryahno asks about what exactly she is talking about, as she is not completely sure if they're thinking of the same thing.

Gwady at the time is listening to the conversation, knowing exactly what the giant is talking about, as it was actually her that interacted with Yuw last night, cutting her from the noose during the incident with the kidnappings. It was also Gwady who told her to "wake up," which the giant had referred to moments ago, which of course left Ryahno puzzled.

Yuw continues to explain the last things she remembers, before falling into a deep sleep, only to vaguely wake up after an amount of time that she herself doesn't know, and how she spend countless days trying to get a clear look on what is going on around her. How she was observing another person act, more or less, unable to fully wake up, trapped in the person's mind.

The uncomfortable Ryahno keeps backing away with every step that the giant takes towards her. It is then that Gwady decides to intervene in her human shape, stepping in between the two. The sudden appearance sends the giant into a state of confusion as she appears to be unable to tell the two women properly apart, being confused about their identities.

With her head spinning, she grabs Gwady by the throat, choking her as she tries to get a good look of her. Ryahno, now seeing Yuw as a threat makes a move to attack her, though is stopped by the giant, pulled closer as well. Before the situation fully gets out of hand the three are interrupted by a giant needle falling down from the sky and piercing the ground between them. When Yuw looks around for the source of the needle she finds Derbri, who asks her to let the two go, as she can provide all answers the woman would need.

The giant, mesmerised by the woman's appearance and the shining brightness of her energy, does as asked, dropping both Ryahno and Gwady. As the two engage in conversation, the giant asks the woman how she ended up as such a horrible person. Instead of providing an immediate answer the environment around them changes to a completely white state. It is then revealed that it wasn't actually Yuw acting the whole time, but Rutbouc, whose appearance in the surroundings is glowing red.

When Derbri explains that her mindless obedience was the first thing that caused everything to snowball into this mess, Rutbouc recalls her past and all the things she's done, coming to ask if there is anything she can do to fix what she caused. Derbri replies that Rutbouc has an opportunity not many have - interacting with what they have become, interacting with the end product of millennia worth of rotten Karma.

In order to clean up the mess, Rutbouc, and per extension Yuw, need to change. Derbri hands her an Agate Ball and tells her that if she needs help, she can ask her for advice, as well that Rutbouc will have to guide Yuw through the change, as they are both one.

The world then returns to the previous, coloured normal state and Derbri takes her leave. Rutbouc watches her disappear from the park into the city, with Ryahno and Gwady still on the ground.

At the bus meanwhile, LingDang and Bayroff are having a conversation on the way to the mall. The girl is staying with him over the weekend instead of staying home to maybe get to know him better. As it appears, the two are talking about a friend Bayroff wanted to meet in Dikuda. When LingDang asks him about her appearance the man founds himself confused, actually unable to properly recall her appearance, as it as been a long time, since he last saw Falehi.

He does admit to not remembering her face to LingDang, while he tries to not panic over the newly acquired knowledge, that he cannot remember the face of the woman he promised to kill. LingDang is surprised to hear that the friend is female, assuming it to be a crush the man had at a young age. The two have a bit of a friendly bicker about the man having female friends.

The bicker is interrupted when Bayroff notices a girl stepping into the bus and trying to find her bus card in a panic. He gets up and approaches her and the bus driver, paying for the girl. When a few stops later the girl gets off the bus she offers him a gentle smile. It is then that he remembers LingDang's question about Falehi's appearance and an image flashes in front of his inner eyes, where he recognises Falehi thanking him. He then makes the connection that perhaps the girl he helped was in fact Falehi, though when he jumps from his seat to look out the window, the girl is gone.

## Characters

The following characters appear in this episode (in order):

* Rutbouc
* Kuraz Ryahno
* Gwadeweido
* Bueh
* *Paci Ahrow (mentioned)*
** Hwong YiFung (mentioned as Autumn)

* Sheenyai Yavei (mentioned)

* Yuw (mentioned)** *Pheybis (mentioned)*
* Dahvius Derbri
* LingDang
* Bayroff

## Trivia

* "Until you lost it, and jumped off a roof." - Just like episode 28, this episode too hints at something that will be further revealed in a picture of episode 31.

* In explanation of "jumped off a roof", Gwady mentions "Baski-lobbentons", which is a word she uses to describe bullies.

* It can be assumed that the aura Bueh felt was Rutbouc's. Given the past relationship between Rutbouc and Pheybis, this would also explain why Bueh was so upset and hid away.

* The "bump" that Rutbouc is referring to when stating that she was vaguely awakened, is the moment when Yuw bumped into Bueh in episode 17.

* Until Gwady appears in front of her, Rutbouc is actually not aware that Ryahno and Gwady are two different people.

* The white covered world was both a different dimension as well as running on a different time, hence Rutbouc being able to talk to Derbri for a longer moment, without Ryahno and Gwady even so much as getting up from being dropped to the ground.

* Bayroff and Derbri crossing paths on the bus was planned by Derbri.