Chapter Fourteen

Her back to the roof edge, Yume glowers at her cellular device. If it wasn't her only phone at the moment, she would have thrown it off the edge ages ago. She still might, when she finally buys a couple backups. A few more years until the proper touchscreen phones and she can't wait. Then, maybe the navigation app can actually work.

When activating the navigation function of the Metaverse Navigator, it only shows the current area around the phone. Only the block around the apartment building comes up. There is no zoom function, no get-directions button, and no this-way-to-a-dungeon sign. A couple red dots come and go in the corners of the map, but nothing else changes.

Yume sighs and exits out of the other world. She re-bubble wraps the phone and shoves it into the middle of her backpack. Once making sure her snacks and first aid kit are still un-crushed, the little girl hurries to the apartment stairs. Then she starts her decent.

"Oh," Yume stops short on her room's floor, unable to hide her hesitance for a split second. "Hi, Ms. Eguchi."

"There you are," the woman sighs, making her way to the stairwell. "Where are you going today, Yume?"

"The park," Yume says with ease, her real looking smile forced. "How about you, Ms. Eguchi?"

The older woman smiles wryly. "I was thinking of going to the park as well. What do you say we go together?"

The little girl can feel the real smile crossing her face. She almost tries to stop it. Don't be petty. Yume holds up a hand, the self-doubt and faint irritation being shoved to the back of her mind. "Hai!"

The woman gently takes the small girl's hand, letting herself get pulled along to the elevator. Yume starts chatting about the boy she's supposed to be meeting there. She talks about the mother that put bandages on her injuries and picked the boy up last Sunday. The adult in Yume protests the word vomit, so the girl quickly asks the woman about her family and then falls silent.

The woman fills in the silence with stories from the hospital.

Yume 'ooh's and 'aww's in all the appropriate moments. The adult in her is satisfied. The child she is is disappointed. She wants the attention and ear to chat off. It's almost therapeutic to talk to someone who really listens.

Ryuji pauses the first time she stops her word flow. She asks him something, and he rolls his eyes. "Yah, it was fine, but you can't just leave a story there! What else did that teacher do?"

For a second, the words get caught in her throat, all wanting to be spat out at once. Yume's real smile stretches painfully. She takes a deep breath, and continues telling him. Her eyes flicker once to Ms. Eguchi and Ms. Sakamoto on the bench, and then she doesn't turn away from the boy. She can't.

"This is why you shouldn't dance." Ryuji groans angrily. "You should just baseball with me. We get to throw things and hit things and run, and the teachers aren't mean to us."

"I can't just switch now," Yume pouts. "And I have some friends I want to keep safe until the teacher isn't there anymore."

"Well, you better come this Wednesday," Ryuji says. He shifts over and lightly pushes her. Yume squeaks as she falls into the sand castle. "Come on, say you'll come!"

"Ryuji!" Yume laughs at the crushed gate to their castle. "I am coming! You didn't need to hit me!"

"I didn't hit you!" Ryuji says hotly. Yume pauses and looks up because he actually seems offended. She lunges off the ground at him. "Hey- wha?"

"I'm sorry," Yume says, trying to be reassuring. "You looked like you needed a hug."

"Whatever, shorty," he scoffs, patting her shoulder. "Now get off."

Yume smiles and backs off. Then she frowns. "I'm not short."

"Uh, yah, you are," Ryuji taunts. He smirks and backs up, hopping out of the sandbox. "What'ca gonna do about it, shorty?"

The girl relishes in the moment: the childlike indignation, the thrill of someone challenging her, and, best of all, a friend who doesn't mind spending an afternoon with her. Yume lets out a battle cry, and lunges. Ryuji laughs evilly and runs away.

"Ryuji," the soft voice of said boy's mother calls as the sun starts to set. The kids stop and look up at her. "We have to go."

"Aw, mum," he whines, but dutifully trots towards her. He turns halfway, waving like crazy at his friend. "See you Wednesday!"

Yume smiles and waves back. Ms. Eguchi waits until she has the girl's hand before asking a seemingly odd question. "Did Ryuji have any bruises?"

Yume nods, "ee." But she can't think of why the woman would ask. "He said they were from baseball. That he needs to catch the ball more."

Ms. Eguchi hums, eyes unusually sharp. "Thank you, Yume."

Yume nods. There is something niggling in her head though. It wonders why Ms. Eguchi would ask that. People bruise in sports all the time. Ryuji seems competitive. It wouldn't be remiss for him to get injured throwing his all into the game. Even if it didn't seem that he liked the actual sport all that much…

Her mind jumps tracks. She already looked for the coaches for Ryuji's team. One has some low-leveled thing in Mementos. In real life, they seem like good people struggling for extra credits or volunteer hours. So that isn't the likely problem.

After dinner with Ms. Eguchi, Yume starts her computer looks up Ryuji's birth certificate. "Masaru Sakamoto," Yume says out loud, writing down the name. It's interesting he took his wife's last name. She writes his previous name down too, just in case. Going to the dungeon list, Yume types in his current name. Nothing comes up, so she switches last names.

"Masaru Maketha," Yume says, stunned. Her fingers quit moving and she can barely bring herself to read the rest of the list. "Tokyo: Under the Earth." She swallows hard. "Mementos: Path of Adyeshach: 10th Area."

Yume stares.

Swears.

And then starts crying.

Haru's father doesn't have that strong of a dungeon. Madam Himura has a mid-low level dungeon. Ryuji's father? His dungeon is high leveled.

The bitterness of her own inadequacies twists at the sight of something currently unconquerable.

Ryuji has to live with the man.

And Yume doesn't know if she can help him any time soon.

A/N: (I'm so sorry, this turned out to be a lot more angst than expected). Any thoughts? Thanks for reading!