The auditorium easily
slipped into a compact form of chaos.
The crowds were talking in excited whispers, some louder than whispers,
while others just left because the show was over. Paramedics were racing from their vehicles to
the triplets in order to safely transport them to better care, a.k.a. the
hospital. The actors and stagehands
couldn’t help but feel a mix of both confusion and curiosity. They were confused as to what could have
possibly stricken the triplets down in the way that it did. It was a curious thing to have the paramedics
come just a few seconds afterwards as well.
Benji caught sight of one of the paramedics
holding Haruna’s bracelet up briefly. He
noticed that it had been blinking a bright red before the official turned it
off. Was the bracelet specifically for
contacting the paramedics? If so, did
that mean Haruna was a regular patient?
This was utterly bewildering from every approach. Nevertheless, everyone hoped that the
triplets would be okay. They had yet to
hear the ominous report from the specialist.
#
The triplets opened
their eyes to find themselves spinning in a spiral-motion, surrounded by an
endless abyss of starry black. As they
spun for what seemed like hours, the girls started getting dizzy, heightened
with a sense of drowsiness. Fortunately,
sleep won over regurgitating impulses in the end.
#
Haruki found herself
waking up to several dozens of bookshelves, each and every one lined from top
to bottom with books of all sizes and lengths.
Staring in wonder, she stood up and slowly walked over to the nearest
bookcases, skimming over the various titles.
She easily found several classics, in several languages. She stopped to look at Little Women by
Louisa May Alcott and was mildly surprised that it was the complete edition–-the original, full manuscript--protected by a red hardbound
cover. As she looked, she found that
many books were translated to or from Old English, French, Spanish, Chinese,
Japanese, and even Egyptian, among several other languages. The more she looked, the more she wondered
just how long the bookcases went on, for she must have passed at least thirty
or forty bookcases with seemingly no difference in the surrounding environment.
As if sensing her perplexity, the next
bookcase she passed revealed a small clearing of sorts--a reading area. Amongst the array of beanbag, inflatable, and
leather chairs, Haruki’s eyes locked onto a sole
figure with their legs crossed and nose hiding in the pages of a blue hardbound
book titled Lost at Sea: Poseidon’s Rage. Haruki watched the person for a moment. When they turned the page, she cleared her
throat loudly to catch the person’s attention.
The figure visibly jumped as they dropped
the book on their lap. Haruki instantly
distinguished the person as a girl, perhaps in her early 20’s. Her thick, black bifocals covered her
aquamarine eyes. Her outfit comprised of
a bright orange shirt and black warm-up pants.
The light freckles dotting her cheekbones seemed to glow as the wind
from the open window rustled her brown--highlighted blond--hair, held up in a
loose ponytail. Before Haruki could
gather her voice, the girl spoke in a rapid dialect.
"Who are you? What are you doing here? Don’t you know that this library is
off-limits to commoners? And are your
clothes to signify your status, or do you just like to play dress-up?"
Haruki was temporarily held spellbound,
but her voice was calm and clear as she responded just as quickly, "My
name is Haruki Shouri. I was in a play before I found myself here,
so I didn't get a chance to change. I’m
sorry, I didn’t realize that this place was off-limits, as I have never been
here before nor do I know where ‘here’ is." Haruki stopped to take a
breath, but added, "By the way, I don’t believe I have I ever seen such a
thorough collection of books in one place; it is beyond extraordinary."
The girl said nothing while she gave
Haruki a scrutinizing look. An
enlightening thought must have hit her just then, because her expression
slackened slightly as she verified, "You...you’re new, aren’t
you?"
Haruki blinked. "Excuse me? What do you mean by ‘new’?"
The interrogator added, "I mean
are you new to this world, to Yumeka?"
The surprise must have been quite
obvious in Haruki’s expression, given that the
stranger suddenly relaxed her nerves completely and let out a hearty
laugh. The sound echoed throughout the
large room, in a somewhat eerie fashion.
On the last strings of her laugh, she put her hand up to gesture for
Haruki to wait a moment. Taking a deep
breath, she finally introduced herself.
"I’m sorry, really, I am.
Let me start over. My name is Polilla Pregunta,
but please, call me Polly. I
suppose I should tell you a bit about this world before anything else. Please, have a seat, any seat will do."
Bewildered, Haruki glanced from Polly
to the numerous seats, and slowly made her way to a nearby leather chair. While she did so, Polly put a bookmark in the
book she was reading and set it down on a nearby table.
Once Haruki was seated, she began. "Where should I start? Well, okay, how about the purpose of Yumeka? To put it
shortly, this world is meant to make all of your dreams come true. Anything you wish, desire, hope, want, and
yearn for can become real, but only as long as you stay here. All you have to do is say it aloud or think
it in the form of a statement, and it will be granted."
"Anything?"
Haruki questioned in disbelief.
"Well- Okay, not anything
exactly, but it might as well be. If
someone with stronger DP than you wishes for something that contradicts your
own, before you even think about it, then yours is revoked and theirs is kept
intact."
Haruki couldn’t help but interrupt
with, "What’s DP?"
"Hmm? Oh, sorry again. It stands for Dreaming Potential. The more potential you have to dream big, or
if you already dream big, the stronger it is.
Also, if you have a lot of experience dreaming unique dreams, your DP
increases as well."
When Haruki slowly nodded at this, she
continued. "Where was I? Oh, I’ll give you an example. Take this room. A long while back, I wished for a place that
contained every single book ever made, in its perfect state and categorized
very well. Since it’s a remote place,
nobody contradicted it. That’s a good
thing. On the other hand, say someone
suddenly came here and wished that he/she could rule the world. Since that position is already taken by the
creator of this world, their wish is refused."
"What happens when your wish is
refused?"
"Oh, nothing much.
You just feel a little pressure on your symbol, and that’s your sign
that it didn’t go through. All of your
wishes that do come true are written into your book."
"Um...What symbol and what
book? I don’t think I have those
yet."
It was Polly’s turn to be
surprised. "You haven’t? No, I'm sure you have. Your symbol is usually located in an
inconspicuous place, so it doesn't draw attention if you don't want it to. It’s generally on your right or left
shoulder. Can you take that tunic
off?"
"Huh? Oh, sure," Under her breath she added,
"I have a shirt underneath anyway."
Haruki took off the tunic and was immediately caught off guard by the
faded blue symbol on her right shoulder.
It was a picture of a scratchy line graph within an open book,
surrounded by the common outline of a water drop. Haruki brushed her hand over it softly,
feeling its texture. The picture
reminded Haruki of a tattoo, though she had never recalled it hurting.
"Does it come off?"
"Well, once you’re established as
a visitor here, it stays with you, even when you return to the real
world."
"Return?"
"Yes, you return to the real world
every time you exhaust yourself to a state of sleep in this world. However, if you or someone else wants you to
stay longer than that, then it is done; you stay ‘overnight’. Also, if you have a mind to return here,
you will come back when you fall asleep in the real world. Simple enough, no?"
Haruki nodded. "It all sounds very organized and
regulated. Wait, what about the book?"
"Oh that? Well, it won’t do much good now since this is
probably your first day, but here’s the procedure. Just hold your hand over your symbol and say,
‘I am a disturbed dreamer.’"
"What kind of saying is that?"
Polly shrugged. "Don’t ask me--I didn’t make it
up."
Before Haruki could even try to
uncover her book, a blaring alarm suddenly went off. Both girls clutched their ears to make a
feeble attempt at nullifying the ringing of their eardrums. Wincing, Polly shouted to Haruki over the
intervals, "IT’S THE NIGHTMARE ALARM!
COME ON, WE’VE GOT TO GET TO SAFETY!"
Surprisingly, Haruki heard it and
nodded. She followed Polly down a trap
door in the middle of the seating arrangement.
Down...down...down... until they came to an abrupt stop on a huge
pile of cushions. As Haruki looked
around, she found that it was a small cavern, lighted by a single, huge torch
on the wall with only a single computer on a desk to decorate the room in the
least. As if this were nothing but a
game of casual hide-and-seek, Polly walked over to the desk, and sat on the
rolling desk chair that appeared. With
lightning fast fingers, Polly typed away at the computer. Several instantaneous beeps and clicks were
heard as the information was quickly computed.
Taking her time, Haruki walked over to her, and looked over Polly’s
shoulder.
A whole bunch of pop-ups were showing
up every other second, bombarded with computer-language information. Finally, a full-screen pop-up appeared in
English. It was a live TV video and was
recording the actions of the ‘nightmare’.
Without realizing it, Haruki scoffed at the sight of the nightmare in
question. A Godzilla-sized pink bunny
with demon red eyes and huge buckteeth pillaged the city buildings. Polly frowned at this. She continued to watch as she reprimanded,
"Yes, I know it looks rather silly, but never underestimate the power of a
nightmare. A creature that is fueled
from the desire of a dreamer is nothing to scoff about--especially if the
dreamer has a lot of DP, but is completely unaware of the rules."
Offhandedly, Haruki asked, "Is
there any way to defeat a nightmare once it is manifested?"
"Generally, if a Day Knight--the
equivalent of a sheriff to a burglar with the ‘nightmare’ being the burglar--is
in the area, he’ll take care of it. But
if not, the only way to get rid of it is to outsmart it, to trick it into being
intimidated. Of course, it’s pretty much
impossible for anyone in this area since there are only newcomers here. I’ve stayed in this town for a long time, but
I don’t have nearly enough DP to take down a nightmare, even if it’s a small
one."
"Ehhh..." Haruki murmured with slight interest. She stroked her chin as she contemplated the
situation. A few moments later, Haruki
broke the silence by asking, "Just so I know, once a nightmare is created,
what makes it ‘run’?"
Polly glanced at Haruki suspiciously in
the corner of her eye, but answered, "It thrives on the fear and
negativity that its presence creates. The stronger the fear, the stronger the nightmare."
Haruki thought about this a little
before confirming, "So, if you show it no fear, then it’s powerless
against you?"
Polly blinked in surprise at this. In a daze, she repeated it, as if getting
used to the concept. At last, she let
out a combination of a sigh and a scoff.
"You make it sound so easy, when it’s not. Naturally, this nightmare is weak because its
dreamer is weak. Since nightmares are
formed by a person’s subconscious, the nightmare is only as powerful as the
creator. Which means, compared to the
other nightmares out there, ours are weaker than weak. You know what I mean?"
Haruki nodded. With a deep exhale, Haruki tugged at her
collar. "Is it me, or is it a bit
hot in here?"
Polly raised an eyebrow at this. Slowly, she answered, "Well, I suppose
the torch does give off pretty warm heat--I’m used to it, so I didn’t
really notice."
"You mind if I go up to the
surface to get some fresh air?"
"Go ahead. Just think or say what you want in a
statement and it’ll be--wait. You
can’t-"
But Polly was too late; Haruki had gone
to the surface, teleporting only a few meters away from the monstrosity of a
rabbit.
Slightly overwhelmed by using her first
wish, though small, and seeing how large the nightmare really was, Haruki
staggered backwards a few steps. In a
rough approximation, the young girl only came up to the nightmare’s heel. That gave her an idea. Taking a deep breath, Haruki made her second
wish. "I wish I could be taller
than this nightmare rabbit."
The dreamer was immediately surrounded
by a swirl of white pixie lights. The
circle of lights around her expanded as Haruki grew taller. Once she was about five times as tall as the
rabbit, the glow dissipated, disappearing slower than it had first appeared.
Her wish did the trick, for the
nightmare looked up at her, eyes squinting and mouth quivering in fear of what
was to come. Haruki looked down on the
rabbit with her hands on her hips. She
gave the nightmare a very clear, delightedly sweet smile. At this, the poor nightmare looked like it
was going to be sick with cowardly fear.
In an attempt to protect itself from Haruki’s
especially sweet, fearless, smile, it covered its eyes with its ears, holding
them down with its forepaws.
Unfortunately, now that Haruki had started, she thought she might as
well finish the job.
In her gentlest tone,
coated with five or six layers of poisoned honey, Haruki chided the
nightmare. "Oh,
Mr. Rabbit. That was a very bad
thing for you to do. Why would a sweet little
bunny like you want with being mean to people and buildings who were minding
their own business? You aren’t a meanie, are you? No,
you aren’t, my sweet, furry, cuddly little
bunny."
As if the words were an
incantation of destructive witchcraft, the rabbit suddenly started rolling back
and forth on its backbone, paws at tugging at its collarbone. It appeared to be in great mental disorder;
its speech was garbled up until it began to gargle, and then stop altogether. With a burst of black pixie dust, the rabbit
was disposed of, nice and neatly. Haruki
exhaled deeply in relief before wishing to return to her normal size. Upon completing the shrinking procession,
Haruki looked around in dismay. The
cobblestone road was totaled with stones cracked and piled up all over the
place. The buildings, mostly two or
three stories tall, were partially caved in or humongous piles of crumbly
rubble. Mumbling to herself, Haruki accidentally
wished by saying, "I really hope this place gets cleaned up soon; more
people could get hurt if it stays like this."
Like magic, a wave of
glowing white spread over the town, leaving a sparkling, prosperous town in its
wake. Upon seeing her wish granted at a
remarkable speed, Haruki was stunned. As
a delayed reaction, Haruki let out another sigh of relief.
"Your DP rate is
phenomenal. You could be useful to
us. Come, follow me."
Haruki instantly turned
around to face the voice, and was met by a lower torso. Slowly, Haruki followed the torso up to the
face, which was hidden by a thick mustache, beard, and sideburns. Haruki gulped nervously.
#
Haruka groaned. Whoever was responsible for her splitting
headache was in for a killer beating.
Constant bleeps and sound effects did not help the case whatsoever. Slowly, Haruka managed to grip a nearby
surface and hoist herself up. She forced
her weary eyelids open and looked around.
The first word that came to her mind was "arcade". All around her were rows upon rows of
Japanese-style arcade machines.
Scattered all around the big room were clumps of kids, young adults, and
adults, some playing, others watching.
As Haruka walked around
the room, she saw that the games varied greatly with every row. She recognized a lot of the games as ones she
had played in the past. However, quite a
few of them sported characters and plots that she had never seen or heard of
before. One game in particular caught
her interest--a one-on-one fighting game with bizarre creatures for
fighters. One looked like a knight in
black armor with red trimmings; he was winning, though the other, dressed in a
white robe with gold trimmings, was putting up a good fight. To Haruka’s vast
surprise, the fighter in white suddenly summoned a large golden ball of energy,
and demolished the knight. He was
declared the winner.
Intrigued, Haruka asked
the winner who those characters were based on.
The boy and his friend looked at Haruka as if she were an alien that
caught had ambushed them and was prepared to kidnap them. The player slowly asked, "You...you
don’t know?" His friend added, "I thought everyone knew about Devaki and
Haruka blinked as the
information registered. Chuckling
slightly, she rubbed the back of her head as she responded, "I guess
so. Where am I anyway?"
The first boy answered
as he gestured towards the room. "Where else?
You’re in Yumeka, the world of Dreams. This building itself is for game-aholics like us. You
like to play games?"
Haruka blinked
again. Shrugging, she replied,
"Well, I’m here, aren’t I?"
During the next pause, Haruka looked around in awe. Catching sight of a boxing ring in the
central area, she smirked and excused herself.
The two boys exchanged glances, nodded, and followed her.
Two people, no, creatures
were fighting within the ring. Haruka joined
the crowd of spectators, and watched a humanoid tiger use brute force and
mouth-induced flames. A man with
pterodactyl characteristics retaliated with wind attacks and severe pecks. In the end, wind put out the flames, and the
tiger was barbequed by its own attack. A
rather normal referee in comparison, a man with a black and white striped
shirt, announced the winner, and the crowd grumbled, unsatisfied. Haruka caught wind of a nearby conversation
that mumbled about Raubvogel always winning. Nobody could beat him; he was unstoppable.
Grinning once again, Haruka walked over
to the referee and asked him about the terms of the matches. He answered that anyone could challenge the
previous victor in an anything-goes match, but the loser, whoever fainted
first, would have to forfeit 100 DPP to the winner. When Haruka asked what "DPP" was,
the boy she had met earlier, who had won the game, told her. It stood for "Dream Potential
Points". The more you earn the
stronger and more powerful you and your dreams got. The newcomer couldn’t help but ask what
dreams had to do with it. The boy’s
friend answered that, in this world, all your dreams could come true; all you
had to do was wish it in a statement.
Upon understanding, Haruka nodded, and asked that she be the next
challenger.
The referee, and everyone else who
heard, was surprised beyond belief. A
mere child, new to their world, wished to challenge the great Raubvogel? The referee asked if she even had 100 DPP to
spare. Haruka shrugged her shoulders,
not knowing how to check. The referee
showed her in a demonstration. First, he
asked her to bare her shoulders. Caught unawares, Haruka did as
she was told, taking off the knight’s chain mail, and ripping her sleeves
off. She didn’t much care for them
anyway. As she ripped off her right
sleeve, Haruka was surprised to find a red emblem apparently tatooed on. Upon closer inspection, she identified the
design as a blue and gold shield in front of crossed swords. It reminded Haruka of a medieval kingdom’s
symbol.
The referee only
nodded and told her to place her left hand over it and repeat after him. Haruka did so, chanting the same spell that
Haruki had learned at that same moment in the library. Immediately, the emblem glowed a brilliant
crimson as the referee guided her hand farther from her arm. Then, with a small pop, the glow disappeared,
and a tiny book the size of her fingernail lay in the palm of her hand. The referee told her to place her other hand
over it, and say, "I, (input first and last name), am this book’s owner,
and wish for access to its information."
Haruka shortly complained about how long all this was, but she did as
she was told. The book made another
*Pop* and a medium sized blue book appeared in her hands. Feeling particularly curious, she opened it
to the first page, and read a small inscription.
This book was formally made for Haruka Shouri
on this day.
Anyone besides the owner who dares to open
this book, shall be punished. Severely.
I sincerely hope that you enjoy your stay
here.
~Lady of Dreams
~LoD
Half
to herself, Haruka asked, "So how do you check DPP?"
In answer to her
question, a simple command of "Please turn the page ~>" appeared a
few spaces below the dedication. Almost
mechanically, Haruka did just that.
"Please Wait" blinked repeatedly on the next page before it
changed to, "Process complete. You
now have 8000 DPP."
When
the boy read it over her shoulder, his eyes widened remarkably, as he
exclaimed, "8000 DPP?! That’s crazy
for a newcomer!"
Instantly,
murmurs and gossip were spread amongst the crowd. Meanwhile, Haruka held her ear with
discomfort as she hissed, "Geez!
Not so loud! You shouted right in
my ear, kid!"
The
boy backed down and calmly said, "Sorry, um..Haruka. Oh, I forgot to tell you before, but my
name's Kenta. My friend here is
Garte."
Haruka
waved him off. "Whatever. I could care less what your name
is." To the referee, she asked,
"So how ’bout it mister? Can I
fight?" The referee sighed.
"I
suppose there's nothing stopping you.
Just keep in mind that any request previously granted cannot be granted
again by someone of weaker DP.
Understand?"
The
challenging fighter began to do warm-up stretches. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Ok!
I'm ready to go!"
In
a triple flip, Haruka jumped into the ring; she smirked when she saw that
Raubvogel looked slightly surprised at this.
"Ready to rumble?"
Raubvogel
said nothing in response, but got into a fighting stance just as Haruka
did. The referee held up his hand and
declared, "Ready? Begin!" as
he brought his hand back down.
The
bird man was the first to launch an attack.
With sharp claws on his feet, he launched a spiral jump kick. Continuing to smirk, Haruka silently wished
to have rawhide gloves, and caught his foot in them. Haruka then proceeded to spin him quickly
without seemingly any effort before throwing him down like a lumberjack would
chop wood with an axe. The arena rumbled
with the sudden impact; Raubvogel rebounded slightly before coming at a rest on
the floor. Many ooh's and ah's were
echoed from the crowd. While Raubvogel
slowly got back to his feet, the crowd grew larger as rumors of a newcomer
standing up to an elite fighter were broadcasted to the far reaches of the
building.
Raubvogel
called up some saliva, and spit it to the side, eyes glaring at Haruka. "Not many people can do that to me, even
less so by newbies like you."
Haruka's
smirk widened. "Well, when you've
had as much physical and emotional training as me, it isn't all that hard. Your past opponents must have just been
really weak."
Growling
in frustration, Raubvogel charged Haruka with his head bent down like a
bull. Half to herself, Haruka murmured,
"When will you learn? Rushes won't
work against me." She prepared
herself well, and seized him by his pointy blue ears. Before he had a chance to react, she sent a
mind numbing blow to his stomach with a thrust of her knee. Groaning in pain, Raubvogel crumpled to the
ground, clutching his bruised stomach.
But he refused to give up. When
he thought Haruka was offguard, as she believed she had won, he grapped her
ankles from under her, and soon toppled her.
Haruka had quick
reflexes though, so she caught herself with her hands, arms locked straight,
while forcing her feet up to kick him in the chin during a backflip. Her feet hit their mark, but since Raubvogel
did not let go, he was slammed once more into the ground, face down behind
Haruka. The impact loosened his hold,
and she easily slipped out of them. As a
deciding factor, Haruka bent her legs and jumped at least ten feet into the air
before hurtling back down, elbow extended.
As her elbow cracked the small of his back, his body curled into an
arch, electrified with pain. Upon
standing once more, Haruka replaced her elbow with the heel of her shoe,
pinning him down. But that didn't
matter, as he was knocked out cold.
When the referee
announced that Haruka was the new champion, the large crowd erupted in
cheers. Haruka smiled and gave everyone
the victory sign before jumping back out of the ring. Kenta and Garte led the crowd that surrounded
her as they congratulated the new victor.
It took at least half an hour for the crowd to disperse with the help of
the referee, but once it did, he came up to Haruka to tell her that she would
need to go into the back room with the unconscious Raubvogel in order to get
the DPP transferred. Haruka agreed, not
knowing what was in store for her.
#
Haruna was in for a rude
awakening as she landed with a loud *THUMP* on the dusty, dirt road face-down. She groaned softly as she clutched her face
in pain. Rubbing her nose ruefully,
Haruna adjusted to the light before taking in her surroundings. Haruka had always told her that it was a good
idea to know your surroundings before you started moving. Haruki had helped her learn to identify the
actual objects early on.
Upon thinking these thoughts, Haruna
realized with a start that she was no longer beside her sisters. In fact, as Haruna searched her surroundings,
they weren’t anywhere to be found! She
herself appeared to be in an alley of some sort, the obvious scent of dank rain
combined with a distinct smell of garbage within overlapping shadows was too
overwhelming for the anemic girl. When
she slowly stood and turned around, she found herself watching an ever-moving
stream of people power walk across her line of vision. The people were of assorted heights, widths,
skin colors, genders, clothing, and appendages.
Some rather interesting characters, in Haruna’s opinion, were a pair of
catlike human girls, complete with black markings, orange-coloring, clawed paws
for hands, and protruding ears and tail.
Almost self-consciously, Haruna looked down at her own wardrobe. She still had her princess ballroom dress on.
Haruna looked back at
the crowd, and considered joining them.
Taking into account their own looks, she judged that they wouldn’t care
much if she walked among them dressed like she was. However, as she took a step forward, she
silently wished that she could change her clothes to something a bit less
extravagant.
As if her fairy
godmother were shining down on her, Haruna’s dress began to glow, and separated
into trillions of tiny blue particles.
Those particles started to change their hue, as well as their shape. When the glowing faded, Haruna looked down on
a pale blue cloak which hid a dark blue long-sleeved shirt and faded
jeans. The outfit as a whole appeared
old, worn-in, even ragged. The black boots
on her feet were covered in a thin layer of dried dirt, giving her the look of
a long-time traveler. When Haruna took
off her hood, her naturally wavy black hair was tied back in a low
ponytail. She thought to herself, 'This
is certainly less extravagant, that’s for sure.'
With a sigh, Haruna
stretched her muscles a little before collecting herself and stepping into the
streets. Haruka always stretched after
sleeping; she reasoned that it would be of no use to anyone if you formed
cramps with the smallest exertion of energy towards exercise. Haruna was immediately swept up into the line
of motion, and pulled in the direction that the people were moving. Stiffly, she managed to face forward and
start walking on her own. It was harder
than she thought, to walk that fast.
While she was forced to
move forward quickly, she managed to catch glimpses of shops and buildings on
either side of the road. She seemed to
be in a marketplace of some sort, because there were signs and stalls for
assorted vegetables, hung-up meat, clothes, gadgets, pets, farm animals...it
seemed that anything sellable was being sold here. Every few stalls,
there would be a fairly large gap before the next set of stalls. In these gaps, there would be a side road
which helped empty and fill the main road with people. Since Haruna had been pushed to the middle of
the flurry by newcomers, she could no longer get out. Her heart told her what she already
knew--that she needed to find her sisters--but that was virtually impossible
with the way things were going now.
Therefore, Haruna resolved to follow the main road until the pack
dispersed enough to walk normally or the pathway ended...whichever came first.
Absently, Haruna noted
that the sun was going down just below the rim of the horizon, when both
occurred at once. By the time she
reached the end of the road, the exit gate for the city, the crowd had
completely dispersed. When the sun was
replaced with the moon and stars, all of the city lights were
extinguished. No trace of the
inhabitants could be seen; Haruna was alone in a desolate ghost town. At least, she thought she was.
"Girl, what are you
doing outside at night?" A strong
hand gripped her wrist and held her by it easily. Haruna instinctively closed her eyes when she
felt her feet leave the ground. Her
captor shook her vigorously when she said nothing in reply. "Answer! What is your purpose?"
Haruna yelped, but
couldn't find the courage to answer. She
sensed the approach of another figure. A
younger, female voice protested, "Onii-chan! Don't be so rude! She's probably just new here!"
Her captor's deep voice
reverberated in Haruna's ears. "Is
this true? Are you simply not aware of
our rules?"
Haruna swallowed
nervously, and nodded. She slowly opened
her eyes when she felt her feet touch ground again, and the grip released
her. In the moonlight, she could now see
the one who apprehended her. He was a
giant of a man, towering over her by at least a foot or two. He wore a simple silver cloak that looked black
in the night. He wore no gloves on his
callused hands, but golden bands hugged his wrists. Haruna was so intrigued by this figure that
she jumped when the other girl asked if she was alright.
The girl looked to be
about as young as Haruna, as well as the same basic height. Her glossy black hair cascaded around her
shoulder as she repeated her question.
Haruna shook herself out of her trance and smiled. She answered that she was fine, just a bit
startled. The girl nodded and stepped
forward. She introduced herself as Nisou. Her brother
was called Kuno.
Taking her turn, Haruna told them her name as well.
In a much kinder way than Kuno, Nisou asked Haruna what she
was doing out so late. She merely
replied that she had been separated from her sisters upon arriving here, or
this world, she supposed. Nisou asked if she'd like to come back to headquarters with
them. If she was extra polite, their
seeker might allow them to use the crystal ball to find her sisters. Haruna was very elated at this prospect and
instantly agreed. She naïvely followed
the pair to a distant dome building.
<End Chapter>
