Paradox Record

Everywhere across the TV Room, screens burst to life from their posts. Images made of yarn and cloth flickered, as a narrator's voice crescendoed from faint to speaking volume. The Snake of Clearing Eyes was nowhere to be found. Footsteps were sounding, slipping in and out of earshot, behind the TV Room door. Dave gripped his sword just a little harder – when the steps faded again. Why go out if they could come back?

So the coolkid stood there, watching the digital puppet show dancing in front of his eyes.

This was how it went.

Scarlet silk rose up on a cardboard stage.

Once upon a time, there was a little monster who lived all by herself in the forest. She was lonely in her home of trees, so lonely that not even the animals gave her company. So she longed to see the outside world – a wish granted to her when a young boy came to visit.

The white-haired fluffball on that balcony couldn't be anyone Dave knew. Except Marry.

A switch of a stained-glass scene, and skyscrapers with tissue paper for windows towered over. The boy and monster stepped everywhere across their stage in perfect sync, gathering a party of kids in hoodies wherever they went. These kids were made of stained glass too, and with each new one Dave thought he knew them somewhere. Maybe they were whoever was standing next to him. Maybe not, and this puppet show was just to get on his nerves.

The monster felt herself happy surrounded by all these children, whom she had begun to call "friends". She was fond of them, and they were fond of her. However, as myths across the world will tell you, people and monsters are not meant to be together. A piercing sound split the coolkid's ears from every corner of the TV Room, dyeing the screen candy red. There was no gunshot, though. Only broken glass.

As it came to be, there were other beings in the world of the monster besides herself and humans. These beings had swallowed the hearts of the children long ago, and did not gather around the monster for "friendship", but unity. They were her servants, for the monster was a queen. Finally, they would come to serve her again, after being separated for so long in those human bodies.

Gunshots, impaling, so much death. Dave never thought he'd have to see that again, not after the Heat Haze so many years ago. What a shitty world.

This is the cycle that repeated itself a thousand times over, until the monster-queen was too taken with grief to do it again. But instead of realising the immaturity of her actions, she created more servants for herself to take human hosts, to make more so-called "friends". And so these friends came from across the seas. More stained glass figures, but this time Dave didn't think he recognised them. He knew who they were at the first glance he took. Four kids wearing blue, red, black and orange, made of crystal shards glued together. No one sane would do this, but Dave was sure by now that Clearing Eyes was one sick, sick person.

Though the new children were welcomed with open arms, they did not come from this world unlike the first children or even the monster. It is still unknown where they came from, but regardless of that, they do not belong here. They only came because the monster made them, and it is they who will suffer for her childishness.

"Cruel, is it not?"

The voice of an android, louder than the whoosh of an opening door. Grabbing John by the hood with one hand, holding a pigtailed girl's wrist with another. Minus the girl, Dave could almost call this sight familiar.

When was Konoha ever this alert? This couldn't be him. But by the looks of a fainted man back on the catwalk, when the coolkid remembered how possession meant a second life…God, no.

All the screens in the TV Room shut off. "It takes more than a locked door to stop me," Clearing Eyes continued. "And this one here, in the blue hoodie? I wonder how, my queen. I wonder how you ever thought making more anomalies would ever prolong these loops. Still, we are behind schedule. Shall we wrap things up now?"

"Stop it," said Seto. "You're not laying a finger on Marry!"

"And what does 'wrap things up' mean, anyways?" Rose asked. "But regardless of that, don't try anything. Two of us are armed and trained. Now what's the meaning of all this? And we want an explanation for everything."

"E-every single fucking thing," Dave repeated.

But Clearing Eyes only chuckled. "Ah, you children. You put so much attention on me, a simple servant, when your queen stands amongst you. But everything in the puppet show is true. I would have told you myself, but I couldn't have done that while giving this loop individuality, could I? Just as you yourself did, my queen. I'm only following suit. You can't fight destiny."

Some mouth this snake had. It was all Dave could ever hear, despite John's muffled struggles. Somewhere in that speech, though, the trickster's voice made it out a couple places. Trying to say something, just before he popped out of existence. Be really careful, did he say? Be really careful.

Careful wasn't going to cut it. The tragedy had already started.