The streets were chaotic. Players were crying in corners, begging others for help. Others were putting on brave faces and distancing themselves, setting simple goals that didn't consider far into the future.
Yuuki wasn't sure how to react.
She'd spent her entire life trapped in a hospital bed, and she hated it. Then, should she have hated her current imprisonment? At the same time, this 'prison' was open, and gave back what her diseased body had lost.
In the end, though, she still had her sister. For that, at least, she was happy.
Ran had led Yuuki away from the square that had turned into a crucible. If the city didn't protect players from harm, it could have turned into a bloodbath. Instead, the two sisters found themselves walking down a street lined with silent, defeated people.
"Where are we going?" Yuuki asked after a while.
"Dunno," Ran replied. She seemed somewhat dazed, though Yuuki wasn't sure if she was tired, defeated, or was just taking some time to process what had happened. Yuuki wasn't sure that it mattered; Ran was always someone who could pull herself together at a moment's notice.
They continued wandering aimlessly through the city. This place would be their home for a while; it was better to begin exploring now.
"Do you think we should find some place to stay?" Yuuki asked.
"I'm not really tired. Are you?"
"No. But it's still better to find some place to sleep sooner rather than later."
"We'll be fine."
The evening wore on, the last remnants of red light disappearing with the sun. Fewer and fewer of the panicked players were visible around the streets, though that might just have been because of how far the two girls had wandered.
A shadow flitted across the street in front of them, so fast that neither sibling could discern anything about the image. Another followed it, a black blur in the dark.
They continued walking, occasionally spotting another black image dart around the rooftops or the periphery of the streets. Still, the sisters kept walking.
"Are you sure we shouldn't have found somewhere to stay?" Yuuki asked.
"Don't worry about it," Ran said.
"I am worrying about it. You're normally rushing around to accomplish something or other, but now you're not doing anything."
"Just give me a while," Ran said with a frown.
Yuuki decided to remain silent.
Something was definitely wrong. Normally, Ran would have recovered by now. She would have given a suggestion on what they should do. Instead, they just kept wandering aimlessly about the city. Yuuki was beginning to think that they were tracing a large circle; they'd certainly made enough turns in the same direction to turn them around at some point. Something had to happen for Aiko's sake, but Yuuki didn't know what.
The next black shape that appeared on the street stopped. The outline of a tall man tilted its head, regarding the two sisters standing otherwise alone in the street. Ran just continued walking to meet the man. It took a moment for Yuuki to realize what had just happened.
Ran hadn't been wandering aimlessly. This person in front of them had seen them before. He might have been one of the first ones to dart across the street. Yuuki wasn't even sure how her sister had managed to follow them across the city, but now she felt relieved; Ran hadn't lost direction.
The figure standing before them stood still for a moment, still half-hidden in the shadows of the city. When Ran had drawn a bit closer, he disappeared down a narrow side street.
Ran followed him. Yuuki wasn't sure how, but she followed that man's trail without ever catching sight of him again. They continued at the same leisurely walking pace, but Ran always knew which turn to take, even after Yuuki was convinced they had lost the man entirely.
Finally, their system of alleys widened out to another main street. Yuuki's eyes darted around to take in her surroundings. Down the street to their left, she could make out a portion of the string of arches that lined the central plaza. They'd just traced a long loop around the city, coming back to where they'd been.
The man Ran had been following was gone. However, there was someone else on the street, a man slowly making his way from the plaza down the street. He hadn't noticed the two sisters, as his back was to them.
As if expecting to meet this person right then, Ran turned and followed the man without a moment's hesitation, a surprised Yuuki in tow. The man took a few moments to notice the approaching sisters, but when he did he turned around hurriedly.
"Yu - hello," he said, somewhat surprised. "Ah, I thought you were someone else."
Ran smiled. "No, I'm Ran. The quieter version of me beside me is Yuuki."
What was she doing? Yuuki thought to herself. They'd just come across this person by chance, but Ran was talking comfortably and trusting him.
"A pleasure to meet you," he said. "I'm Inkling."
Everyone was silent for a while. This Inkling person didn't seem to be the very talkative type, but Yuuki had the feeling he had something else to say.
While she waited for Inkling to pull his thoughts together, Yuuki quickly glanced around their surroundings again. If Ran was the sister that lead them through unfamiliar situations, Yuuki was the one who watched her back. Normally, there was nothing wrong. This time, however, she spotted something.
Someone else was watching their exchange. In a shadowed alley across the road stood a thin old man, pale as the moon and with a hooked nose and bald head that gave him the appearance of some kind of monster of the night. He noticed Yuuki's glance, and raised a thin finger to his lips. There was a regal or perhaps commanding presence about him that gave Yuuki the feeling that she should comply.
All that had happened in about a second. The man, Inkling, had finally taken a deep breath in preparation to speak. Yuuki returned her attention to him, though she kept the old man in the corner of her eye.
"Some friends and I have found a place for players to get some rest. It's a safe place. If you haven't found an inn yet, they're all taken, so if you want…"
Ran nodded. "Are you sure?"
"We set the place up just for people like you." Inkling had a somewhat guilt-ridden look on his face. Either he was trying to make up for something, or he was about to do something terrible to them.
Yuuki stealthily glanced back to the man in the alley while Ran voiced her agreement. The man nodded to Yuuki. He seemed to be trying to tell her, 'it's okay.' Yuuki wasn't sure if she could trust him either. It was Ran's judgement that made her agree with going along with Inkling.
While they were led across the city to the safe place, Inkling brought something else up. "Actually, there's something that I could use some help with."
"Go on," Ran said.
"Well… My sister is also in the game, but I haven't found her yet. I just want to make sure she's okay, and not totally lost."
"Could you describe her?"
"She's a bit shorter than me, with long orange hair. Her name is Asuna."
"Asuna. Got it," Ran said. "I haven't seen anyone like that, but I'll keep my eyes peeled."
Inkling seemed to shrink a little. Yuuki could sympathize with him; if she'd lost Ran, she'd be totally lost as well. Inkling gave the impression of being as quiet as herself, but here he was trying to be as brave as Ran for the sake of his sister. He was struggling, and he was much older than the sisters. Yuuki wasn't sure she'd manage to do nearly as well herself.
They walked much of the way in silence. Yuuki looked around them some more, but there was no one moving. The black shadows and the pale man were nowhere to be seen, though Yuuki felt they were still rushing about the city, embroiled in their own lives and conflicts.
Eventually, they came to a place that was slightly brighter and had a few more people. Inkling led them to a warehouse with two other people standing on either side of the door, one shielding a candle from any wind that might blow through the city. They nodded to Inkling in a friendly manner as he led the sisters in.
The inside of structure was large enough to fit Yuuki's old house three times over. What little light came from a few candles illuminated several people working to make this place into a shelter of sorts. The warehouse was largely empty of goods but for some old, empty crates stacked around the perimeters and piles of grass collected from the fields around the city. People of all ages were shifting crates around into makeshift walls and piling the tall grass into makeshift beds. Many children around Yuuki's age were already asleep in their own little stalls.
"You could probably get right to sleep," Inkling said, gesturing them toward an empty stall.
"No, we have to contribute to the effort," Yuuki said, breaking her silence. Ran nodded her agreement.
Inkling agreed, and had them go to an older man who was organizing a few people to distribute the tall grass to different stalls. Yuuki and Ran were quickly put to work, making a few more stalls for those that were too tired to continue. It had been a tiring and stressful day, and it was already quite late; Yuuki wasn't surprised that even some fit people were already burned out.
As they carried armfuls of the grass along, Ran said to Yuuki, "What did you see?"
"Huh?"
"You always go quiet whenever you see something. What was it?"
Yuuki looked around to make sure there was no one nearby to overhear. She wasn't sure why she was so worried about that, but she did it anyway.
"When you were talking with Inkling, there was someone else watching us," Yuuki explained.
"Go on."
"Some creepy pale guy that told me to stay quiet."
"You took that a bit too seriously," Ran laughed.
Yuuki shot her a glare.
They continued with their work for a while. Yuuki was already feeling drained, and though Ran wouldn't admit it, she definitely was as well. They carried on, making however many beds they could, but they were told to stop pretty soon. It was obvious they were tired, and no amount of hiding it would get the adults to agree to let them go on.
As they collapsed on their last impromptu bed, Yuuki laughed.
"What is it?" Ran asked.
"I was just thinking how this is just like how it was a few years ago. We'd always try to convince mom to let us stay up a few more minutes, to prove we were grown up."
"We are grown up now. We decide when we fall asleep."
Yuuki shrugged indifferently. Even if Ran couldn't see it in the dark, she could probably tell from the rustling of the grass.
"It's funny how you can feel that way now and here. This is nowhere like home, but… I agree with you. It is just like home," Ran said more quietly. Yuuki could tell there were probably tears in her eyes.
Back then, Yuuki and Ran would always carry on talking with each other after the lights were turned out. Mom didn't like it, but they could always hear her footsteps approaching the door. It was their dad, who walked quietly up to the door without them noticing, that reminded them to go to sleep. Now, though, there was no one to remind them to go to sleep, to tuck them in even if they claimed they were too old for that. Their conversation tonight would just peter out with one last reminder that this wasn't their home, that their nightly ritual would never repeat again.
Trying to keep them talking, Yuuki asked, "By the way, how did you lead us through those alleys?"
Ran shrugged this time. "After I saw a few of those guys in black, I was reminded of something Andy said."
Andy was a friend they'd made once in the hospital. He was much older than the sisters, but he always made the time for them. He was someone Yuuki always looked up to.
Ran continued, "It was… 'whenever you're totally lost, faith will guide you through anything. You just need to discover what to place your faith in.'"
"I remember that. We'd asked him if he believed in god."
"He never gave us a straight answer," Ran laughed. "Anyway, I remembered that."
"You just followed wherever you thought those guys were going, then?"
A rustling of grass; that must have been Ran nodding. "It paid off, too. That last one, who stopped in front of us. He got us back to the central square, and we met Inkling."
"We lost that guy in a few seconds," Yuuki accused.
"It was the straight line approach."
"While that instinct of yours got us through all that, I'm really beginning to question your methods."
Ran laughed. "Don't you always?"
Their conversation trailed off a little. Suddenly, the sisters were reminded of how something was missing. They weren't home, and there was no one here to complete their old nightly routine. The bed, the stall, the ceiling all seemed to grow more foreign as Yuuki's consciousness slowly ebbed away. She was suddenly aware of how much colder the air here was. This wasn't how her day should have ended. After being able to relive just this one moment, her heart ached at being reminded that it was just a moment, a fragment of the past.
As Ran had said, they were grown up now. They made their own decisions, they didn't need support.
Then, Yuuki heard a voice. "Get to sleep, you two. Tomorrow's another big day." A heavy cloak fell over them.
Yuuki and Ran were grown up now. They didn't need someone to tuck them in. If that was true, then why did Yuuki's face feel wet?
