Hallucinations

Hotaru always wondered what else she could ask for, besides wanting Mikan back, of course.

"I see, so this is the way you override the rule of having to kill the Madé Faierie personally, pretty ingenious if I may say," Hayate commented and nodded his head.

They - N, Hayate, Rui - were discussing strategy on the far side of the room. She was wondering what she should do about the five human slaves she had obtained from winning at the other side.

"Yes," N replied. "We found out by accident when we defeated the first team. Imai wanted to experiment with her power, so this is what we did. She controlled me with her soul-sucking power and killed the Madé Faierie. She used the same power to control the human to speak about her wish and I was able to enslave her into a contract."

"And after that, you two went to get a nice little house for yourselves and this dwelling place to keep the human slaves," Rui inferred. "So, what are Imai's powers currently?"

"Oh, it's-" N began.

"None of your business," Hotaru interrupted, irritated that they have been doing nothing but talking. "If you want to know, it is for you to find out."

Rui glared at her and warned, "Remember it is to your disadvantage. We are a team now."

"Haven't you heard before? Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer."

"You-"

"Alright, understood," Hayate soothed before Rui could roar at her. "You don't trust us. Got it. Chill, people. I mean, faieries. Eh, wait. Whatever. But chill."

She rolled her eyes and made her way to the basement, where all the slaves lived. The three immediately broke into a hushed argument. She sighed and shook her head. Sometimes, she wondered whether the Shadow Faieries came to help them or deter them. No one had left the dwelling house for 10 days. Only one team was kicked out during the time frame of their – what Rui would call – "strategy discussion". But really, they seemed to be just digging information out of them. There were only four teams left, excluding herself. They should just start stalking the other teams and get rid of them.

Hey, maybe she should just do it herself.

"Hey," A deep, threatening bass called. She looked up, meeting a pair of intense eggplant eyes. He had maroon red spikey hair and a pair of dangling spear earrings. Him, she recalled, something about redemption of himself.

"What?" She never mistreated her five slaves. The food cabinet was always filled with edible stuff and they do have nice mattresses. Not that it was her responsibility, but N had made sure to keep them alive.

"How long do you plan on keeping us here?" A bright shrilly snapped. She had tyrian purple hair and a pair of slate grey eyes.

"Until I think of something I want you to accomplish for me," Hotaru answered matter-of-factly. The five of them were all sitting on their respective mattresses. Hotaru went on and made herself comfortable, sitting on the only couch in the whole basement. She remembered the girl's wish quite clearly. It was to sent the girl who killed her boyfriend to hell. Not exactly important.

A guy turned and grinned widely at her till his eyes disappeared. Shaking his head, he questioned, "So, what are you doing here? This is your first time."

Now that she thought of it, that guy had an interesting wish about time-travelling, but it's not significant. After all, she will be inventing one in the near future.

"I'm not obligated to answer you."

"Well, after a long time without newcomers, I'm surmising that you haven't been out for days," The asian-looking boy with dark raven hair and onyx eyes guessed. Oh yes, the boy who sought to kill all women who had cheated on their husband.

"I'm still not obligated to answer you."

Silence roamed the room and the girl who interest Hotaru was the girl she first defeated. She remembered her vividly: dancing magenta-wavy-long hair and determined burgundy eyes. It seemed to her that she was the only person who seemed to have a real reason to fight. The others' reasons were just superficial, or just plain insane. What was it again? To resurrect her fiancé.

"I have just thought of something I want one of you to do."


A plan. They need a plan. He needed to know the powers of Koko and whether he could trust the both of them.

"I'll let you in on another secret," Sumire began. "An Elder Faierie is requesting your death."

At this, the pair stared at her in shock and froze.

"What?" S questioned. "Why does he want us dead?"

"How would I know?" Sumire snapped. "You don't ask questions when an Elder tells you to do something. Since I apparently failed, I am pretty sure they have engaged some other Good Folk to do it. Actually, I am sure."

"So, what should we do now?" S asked.

"We have two ways of winning," Natsume deduced. "One, to stay hiding until only one team is left and then we defeat the-"

"That's not agreeable," Koko interrupted. "If we don't defeat teams, Sumire and I will lose more memories. Besides, if the last team defeated all ten teams, their human would have ten powers. It isn't a very ideal situation."

"Don't cut. Two, we devise a sure-win plan."

"Before we go into any of that, I want to know about my past," Sumire whined.

"Oh, right," S answered as she smacked her own forehead. "Let's see. You went to school with me and Hotaru, remember?"

"Hotaru?"

"My best friend."

"Wait, I went to school with you?"

"Yes, and you know your little French curls at the side of your head? Well, we derived your nickname 'Permy' from there."

"Well, continue! That can't be it. I am only left with very few memories and I don't remember you any longer. Keep talking."

"Erm, you're rich and you do quite well in your studies. And erm…"

"Can you speak about something more substantial?"

"We went to different high schools. As you know, Hotaru had always been the genius and I didn't do very well, so, I haven't seen you much ever since you were in high school."

"That's it? You can't tell me anything else? My parents, my life, whether I even had friends or boyfriends?"

"Hey, I am your friend. From what I know, there was this boy. I can't remember his name right now. It was Yo-something. You never let us know his full name since you were afraid of Hotaru blackmailing you. But I think Hotaru said she will investigate. Anyway, you were quite close to him, despite just meeting and hanging out in the first year of high school. He lived a few doors away from you, but he moved away recently. Then, you got yourself into some rather ugly rumours like sleeping with everybody and your parents were angry. Your relationship with them became quite strained afterwards."

"And?"

"And I don't know what happened after that."

"Why?"

"Well, I just don't know. I am sorry, I wish I could tell you more, but I really don't know."

"How could you not know?"

"Enough, she has told you what she knows," Natsume intercepted, seeing that S was beginning to squirm about uncomfortably. Her fingers were playing with each other and her palms were sweaty. Her usual smile was gone and her head was bending lower and lower.

"Sumire," Koko hushed gently.

"But-"

Koko didn't say anything else but dragged her into another room, leaving the pair alone in the living room.

"I really don't know," S sighed, clearly upset.

"I know."

"How do you know?"

He didn't say anything for a long time, as though as he was contemplating his next few words very carefully, "I just know."

Well, you're a Madé Faierie, you probably died not longer after.


"What do you think about the likes of that team?" Tsubasa asked.

"Why are you asking me? You're the one who wants to look for a team," Youichi answered grumpily.

"I'm not the one with the power of foretelling! And you can ask your ghosts whether they'll see the Madé Faierie alive in a month or something."

In sight, was a team. The human girl had a long fringe with shoulder length inky hair and a pair azure eyes. Her Madé Faierie was on all fours while she was sitting on him. The Madé Faierie was a young brunette boy.

"I see that she'll lose by our hands," His tone turned grave and deep.

"Really? Why don't you do a prediction for me? Maybe we will find out who we are joining."

"I don't control what I see."

"Come on."

"This is plain stupid."

"No, it's not."

"You are stupid. Fine. You will..." Youchi's voice changed once more. "Find the person you love."


"I don't want to go back."

"You actually want to stay in Fay?" Hotaru questioned.

"I rather. There's nothing left for me to go back for now," The girl with magenta-wavy-long hair and burgundy eyes responded. "I wish you good luck."

"You don't have a choice."

They were out of the house. The girl was controlled by Hotaru to move for she had refused to budge.

"Where are you going anyway? You, with the power of soul-sucking, explosion, ice, intuition, teleportation and telekinesis, shouldn't need my help."

"I just wanted to get rid of another slave, and I chose you."

"At least tell me where you are going!"

"To the next nearest pair."

"I can't help you, because obviously you have my power."

"Maybe I want to help you, you would never know."

"What?"

"All you have to do later is to pretend to be my Madé Faierie."


The four of them gathered in the small room once again, this time with Natsume leading the discussion.

"What is your power, Koko?" Natsume probed.

He gave him a lazy smile, "To read minds."

"Wow, that's so cool!" S exclaimed. "I wish I thought of that."

"That makes things easy," Natsume continued. "I have a plan on how we can defeat teams."

Knock. Knock.

All of them stopped dead and stared at each other. Koko shook his head to indicate that there was nobody else who knew the hiding place.

Knock. Knock.

"It's not a ghost, right?" S whispered fearfully, tears brimming in her eyes.

Completely ignoring S, Natsume asked, "Can you read the mind of the thing outside?"


"Crawl," The lady with inky hair and azure eyes commanded.

"Yes, my lady," The young brunette boy answered and began crawling forward.

"You stupid boy! You're in the wrong direction!" She shouted at him as she spanked him. "Left, not forward."

"Yes, my lady. I'm sorry!"

He changed his direction as nature paved a smooth path for him, on their own. As he continued, he inquired timidly, "Erm, my lady, where are we going?"

"Did I ask you to talk? Keep quiet and move."

"Yes, my lady. I'm sorry!"

She sighed. Everything about her Madé Faierie is horrible, except for the fact that he had chosen a smart power. He was so cowardly, it took him forever to bind the humans she defeated into a contract. Maybe that is why she isn't on a killing spree. He was so slow that some other powerful team has taken out a more than half the teams in the game. She was supposed to be owning. With her power, they were practically unstoppable, but no, she was stuck with this stupid fool. The more she thought about it, the angrier she felt.

"Hurry up, you fool! Why are you so slow?"

"I'm sorry, I'll speed up," He muttered but he turned right instead of continuing forward. Two beings were walking towards them; he felt their footsteps on the ground.

"Why are you changing direction, you idiot?"

"I sense a team in that direction."

"What! Go back, go back! The purpose of the game is to defeat teams and you're running away? You fool!"

"But-"

"Go back now!"

"Yes, my lady. I'm sorry!"

"It's time to test the new powers I have gotten."


Alcyon Moire