ii. have you noticed i've been gone?
The communicator didn't work as well underground. That had been the assumption they had gone off with and that was why Rina was sitting on the roof of the trailer as they moved it. Taiga wasn't sure how it worked, except that it might have been one of the remaining electric vehicles, but it had working plumbing and sleeping space, so he went with it. There wasn't much else they could do. It was his half-baked plan carrying them forward.
Taiga sighed to himself. He couldn't be showing regret to them. They had, unofficially, elected him as the biggest dreamer, or derp leader. So even without a map, he had to decide what to do next. Well, the first thing he was going to do is yell out the window.
"Rina, get down! The wind's picking up!"
There was a groan of discontent, then she swung herself through the open pane, nearly drill-kicking Taiga in the face in the process. He sputtered and nearly crashed into the driver's seat. She shut the window behind her with a huff.
"I don't like dust storms." Sure, they'd been warned about them, but boy did these come on fast.
"I don't like you kicking me in the face," Taiga grunted, checking his nose. "I still need that."
"Consider it free facial surgery." Niko's deadpan voice came from the wheel. "How did we find and fix such a huge ass RV again?"
"Destiny." Yuuya's voice was soft from the bed up top.
Niko's response was a grunt.
Taiga looked away.
Akiho rolled her eyes over the steering wheel.
This was going to be a long road.
"Wake up!"
The little princess grumbles. There should be no voices telling her to do so. Her alarm didn't even talk. Why would anything tell her to wake up? And there certainly should be nothing shaking her arm.
"Oooh… wake up! You've gotta! We've got things to do!"
Maybe she was finally delirious after being in this room for so long without any voices. Maybe her mind was making up voices. But then, if that was the case they would have been here long ago.
So the princess opens her eyes.
Her limbs are heavy, her head hurts. She looks around and there is nothing there but the tablet, the pen, the bed, the lights, and the stuffed animal cat. Nothing out of the ordinary in the same old room.
She sighed. "I must have been imagining it."
"You were not!"
She jumped. Her plushie was moving. It had been on the floor when she last looked at it, but now it was on its back paws, staring at her with green, green eyes.
With cross pupils. But that's not the big deal right now. The big deal is that her plushie talked.
"Uhm," she manages to say. "Who are you?" Why can you talk? She feels like she'll get her answer to this once she knows who the plushie is.
The cat narrows its eyes. "You don't remember anything?"
"Like what?"
"What's outside of here, obviously."
She hasn't bothered to think of an outside in ages now. This room has no doors or windows. She's had to make them this whole time.
"It has a door now, here," says the cat and the girl realizes she has spoken aloud. This place is different. She jerks her head to the right and yes, there it is, a door.
The girl turns back to the cat. "Who are you?"
The cat sighs. "I'm Meicoomon. I was left to look after you, but you've been hooked up to that place for so long. I was starting to think you'd never come out."
"Meicoomon?" Okay so she had more questions. "Why was I asleep?"
"Your father hid you here." The cat's voice was very patient. "With me. Because the world was ending and he was afraid to lose you."
The world was ending. The girl knew what the world was. Or what a world was. She didn't know much about what one would look like or feel like or be. It was like there were a lot of neatly drilled holes in your memory with a lot of webs. Or something.
"Who am I?"
The cat sighs. "You know who you are." It places a paw on the tablet in the girl's arms. She squawks as light bursts from the screen.
The light shines brighter and for a moment, the girl remembers her name.
Mirei begins to cry.