Places to Go
For Kyoko, most of the following morning was spent in a daze. She hadn't been able to sleep much, and the news that Momo was here, alive (or near enough. Kyoko was still working her way around the new terminology) and looking for her, pushed all other things out of her mind. She was dimly aware that she had eaten breakfast, but damned if she could remember exactly what it had been. She knew that they must have gotten into one of Mami and Charlotte's boats and taken it to Freehaven, but that was only because at one point she looked up and realized that they were walking through the warehouses that clustered around Freehaven's industrial docks.
There was someone walking with them. It was that girl from the docks, the ex-Void Walker with the horns. Vanessa? Was that her name? No, there was an "I" in it. Vinny, maybe?
"…hard to tell, with him, really" said Vinny, or whatever her name was. "Maybe he's telling the full truth, maybe it's all a lie, maybe it's a little of column A and a little of column B. But whatever it is, y'all better be extra careful. That little shithead really knows how to screw with a person."
"Believe us, we know," Charlotte said in a low growl.
Kyoko idly wondered why the dock-girl was accompanying them. She wasn't coming with them, was she? While having another pair of hands along would be useful, she would prefer it not to be one of the Freehaveners, or anyone in the Alliance for that matter. They couldn't be trusted, and as much as this person might like Mami and Charlotte and hate Reibey and Oblivion, Kyoko didn't know her, and that alone made her untrustworthy.
Suspicion reared up insider Kyoko. Just why was the dock-girl coming with them anyway? Was she a spy, sent by Corrie or another one of those Alliance tools to keep an eye on Kyoko? Or maybe she had never left Oblivion's service to begin with, and was acting as a double-agent. Would she turn traitor, and hand them over to whoever she was working for? What were her capabilities, anyway? Kyoko was confident in her abilities as a fighter, but considering what was on the line, she did not want to take any more chances than was absolutely necessary.
Kyoko glanced up from her brooding to glower at the dock-girl, only to jerk in surprise when she realized that said dock-girl was no longer with them. Not only that, they had apparently left the warehouses far behind and were passing through the houses, partway up the hill.
"Wait a minute!" Kyoko said, coming to a sudden stop. Icy fear gripped the heart she no longer had.
Mami, Charlotte, and Sayaka all came to a stop, though given that she was once again being pushed by Charlotte, Sayaka really didn't have much choice in the matter. They all turned to look at her in worry. "What's wrong?" Mami asked. "Did we forget anything?"
"Vinny," Kyoko said as she looked around wildly. "Where's Vinny?"
Charlotte's face scrunched up with confusion. "Vinny? Who's Vinny?"
"You know! The girl from the docks, the one with the horns!" Kyoko moved her hands over her head, indicating their shape.
"You mean Vickie? What about her?"
Vickie, that was right. "She was just here!" Kyoko said. "Where'd she go?"
Mami and Charlotte exchanged looks of bafflement, and Sayaka cleared her throat. "Uh, back…at the docks?" the wheelchair-bound mermaid said. "You know, where she works?"
Now Kyoko felt completely lost. "So, she's not coming with us?"
"No, not last time I checked," Charlotte said. "Why, do you want her to?"
"Kyoko, she's staying here," Mami said. "She's also watching over the Nautilus Platform while we're gone. Remember?"
Kyoko stared blankly at her. Then a light went on in her head. That was right, Mami had said something about that the night before, during their strategy session. Apparently, it was customary for Vickie to have some of her employees stay at the Nautilus Platform and care for it, as well as keep up with the kelp farming, whenever Mami and Charlotte went on an extended trip. Admittedly, most of that night was a hazy blur, but she still felt a little embarrassed over her wild assumptions.
"Oh, right," she said, recovering. She scratched the back of her head and flashed a disarming grin at them. "Sorry, I guess I was thinking about something else."
Her companions didn't look especially convinced. Sayaka fidgeted uncomfortably in her seat, clearly ill at ease. Charlotte raised an eyebrow and made a "Mmmm-hmmm," sound, whereas Mami just kept looking at Kyoko, concern written all over her face.
Crap, this wasn't good. "Hey, come on!" Kyoko said, walking briskly past them and slapping Mami and Charlotte on the shoulder. "So I made a mistake! It happens. And we've got places to be, right? So let's keep moving."
Mercifully, they did, though the unease didn't leave their faces. Well, that was fine. So long as they were moving. Letting out a heavy sigh, Kyoko let herself drift to the rear again. Man, she was really out of it. Granted, she had good reason to be, but she really needed to get her head back into the game. Now was not the time to wig out.
However, now that her memory had been jogged, something else from the previous night came back. According to Charlotte, if they were not back within a year, a time-sensitive document would be released, one that would pass ownership of the Nautilus Platform and all of its assets onto Vickie. And, if the dead look in the pink-haired witch's eyes and the flat sound of her voice when she had told them this were any indication, Charlotte already saw this as an inevitability. To her mind, they had spent their last night at the Platform.
A fresh stab of guilt jabbed at Kyoko. A couple of weeks ago, she wouldn't have cared in the slightest, provided that she got what she needed. But now, after all that had happened, her conscience had been revived and was growing ever stronger. There was a certain irony to it, considering that it had taken her death to bring it back to life.
Okay, so maybe it had started to stir a little bit before that, but the point still stood.
It'll be worth it in the end, she told herself, hoping to quell her uneasy conscience. I'll find a way to make it up to them, after we've saved Momo. To her mind, it wasn't a question of if they were going to be successful, but when and how. There simply was no other outcome; failure was a possibility she couldn't even entertain. Sure, there were plenty of hardships ahead, monsters to fight, enemies to defeat, and rules to break, but in the end, she was getting her sister back, even if she had to burn the damned place to the ground doing so.
And then everything was going to be better. They would find some place to live, if not Freehaven than somewhere else, and the five of them would be a family, a real one. One that wouldn't hold any secrets from one another, one that wouldn't be torn apart by shortsighted selfishness, one that would never leave her, never turn on each other, never die. They would make their own Heaven here, and everything would be-
"Kyoko!"
Kyoko snapped out of her longing reminiscing and saw that the others had turned onto a branching path while she had just kept going forward. Damn it, she had done it again!
"Whoops!" she said as she jogged back to them. "Sorry, took a wrong turn."
"Well, that's not incorrect," Charlotte said. "Maybe you'd better take Mami's hand until we get there."
Kyoko's eyes snapped wide open. Then they narrowed in anger, her countenance darkening. "Say what?" she demanded. "Do I look like I'm five or somethin'?"
Folding her arms over the top of Sayaka's wheelchair and leaning forward, Charlotte said, "No, you look like someone who is under an incredible amount of stress, and is so preoccupied that you can't even see where you're going."
"Hey, cut her some slack," Sayaka to the pinkette hovering over her head. "She's kinda going through a lot right now."
"I know, I just pointed that out."
Her face bright red, Kyoko opened her mouth to start yelling, only for Mami to get between them. "All right, that's enough from both of you," the blonde said. She held out an open palm to both Kyoko and Charlotte, keeping them separated. "We have problems without you two dissolving into pointless bickering."
Kyoko fumed, but she acquiesced, stepping back and unclenching her fists. Charlotte's eyes lingered on her for a moment longer, but then she glanced away.
They started moving again, Kyoko still bringing up the rear. Damn it, I did it again, she thought ruefully. Gotta snap out of it. Gotta start paying attention. Can't afford to let them think I'm losing it. Have to be aware. Have to think. Have to…
She shook her head violently. Have to stop talking to myself, because that's what's making me zone out. Okay Kyoko, focus. Wait until we're on the plane or whatever. Then you can shut down.
Kyoko forcibly snapped out of her internal monologue. Fortunately, she was still with the group this time, and they had yet to reach the top of the hill.
However, it seemed that her earlier outburst had attracted some attention. A couple of black girls, neither of them looking to be older than eight, were staring openly at her.
Kyoko stopped walking to glower at them. "What?" she snapped. "You want somethin'?"
The two girls exchanged a look, and one of them said, "You're not…drunk, are you? Because there are laws about disturbing the peace."
"Drunk? Do I look drunk to you?" Kyoko demanded. "And who are you to talk down to me, you snot-nosed little-"
A hand fell heavily on her shoulder, cutting her off. "Kyoko," Mami said, wearing her scary face. "That. Is. Enough." To the girls she said, "I'm really sorry about this. She's newly arrived, and isn't adjusting well."
The girls blinked at that, and to Kyoko's utter disgust, she saw pity wash over their faces. That was the last thing she needed, for a couple of kids to feel sorry for her. "Oh," said the other. "We…understand." Then she did something worse. Smiling a comforting smile, she reached over to pat Kyoko's hand. "Don't worry, dear. It's hard, I know, but it does get better."
Kyoko blinked. She might have started yelling and cursing then, but Mami apparently anticipated her reaction and literally dragged her away before she could explode.
"Kyoko, please control yourself," she murmured. "If you cannot even make it out of Freehaven without losing your temper, how do you expect to make the rest of the trip?"
"Get off of me," Kyoko snarled. She wrenched her shoulder out of Mami's grasp. "And like I need to be talked down to by a couple of dumb kids. You'd be pissed too!"
"Those 'kids' are old enough to be your great-great-great-grandmothers," Charlotte said. "And they've been through a fair amount themselves. Plus, Mami's right. Making a scene will just make things worse for us. If you want, we can arrange for you to have some time alone with a Reibey doll and those spears of yours once we get to Cloudbreak. They have places where you can do that. But keep yourself under control until then, okay?"
Before Kyoko could snap back, Mami stepped in. "Save your anger for whom it is due, Kyoko. We are not your enemies."
Instinct told her to turn her verbal aggression toward Mami, but reason managed to assert itself enough to remind her exactly how much Mami and Charlotte were giving up for her sake. That was enough to for her guilt to return, snuffing out her anger in the process.
Her face turned red, and she looked away. "Right," she mumbled as she took a couple steps back. "Sorry." She awkwardly scratched the back of her neck and muttered, "Maybe I could use a little guidance." She held out her hand.
Mami looked thoughtful. Then she put her arm around Kyoko's shoulder, which made Kyoko feel relieved. Okay, this was an acceptable compromise.
The rest of the walk up was spent in silence. Sayaka especially seemed to be in a sour mood, one that Kyoko noticed even through the haze of her own emotions. The wheelchair-bound mermaid was far from her usual cheerful, teasing self. She sat quietly in her seat, barely reacting when her friends had almost come to blows. Maybe she was just tired; after all, she had also gotten very little sleep, as she had spent most of the night trying to cheer up Kyoko, an effort that was appreciated but rather unsuccessful.
However, if Kyoko were to place a bet, her money would be on Sayaka being disgruntled that she couldn't come along. Kyoko empathized; she would have been pissed off too. Unfortunately, they would be traveling over some very rough terrain, and Sayaka's tail meant that there was no way they could take her along. Some friends of Mami and Charlotte, the Nautilus Platform's original owners, had agreed to look after her, and would be meeting them at Cloudbreak in a couple days to pick her up. Charlotte had said that they didn't know exactly what was being planned, but were smart and loyal enough to not ask questions, which in turn would protect them should the plan go sour.
While Kyoko certainly understood why Sayaka was upset, she didn't know what to do about it. She was pretty lousy at offering words of comfort; helping people confront hard truths were more her thing, something she grudgingly admitted that she shared with Charlotte. And given her own current mental state, she probably shouldn't be trying to encourage anybody. It still rankled her though. She hated being helpless, and knew that Sayaka did too.
But then, as they finally reached the top of the hill and got their first look of the other side, all of Kyoko's dark thoughts were driven from her mind when she beheld the most beautiful thing she had ever seen.
The slope on the other end was far gentler, and extended for a fair distance before evening out completely. On it was a complex that looked very much like an airport, though obviously not intended for planes. It was rectangular, with square, three-story building with blue windows at each corner. A thin tower topped by a blinking sphere reached out from each building. In the center of the complex was a grid of square landing pads, each of them glowing red, green, or blue. As Kyoko watched, the grids switched from one color to the next, and the activity of the people within changed accordingly.
However, it wasn't the skyport that attracted Kyoko's attention, but the aircraft. These were no airplanes or helicopters. They were long and serpentine, with segmented bodies made from gleaming precious metals and studded with gems. Just behind their triangular heads extended two bow-shaped arms, from which stretched a shimmering white membrane made from pure energy, all the way to the second-to-last link of their tails. They flowed gracefully through the air, gliding along on their wings, until they reached the skyport. From there, their wings would wink out of existence, the arms would retract, and they would gently corkscrew downward until they came to rest on a blue pad.
Dragons, Kyoko thought numbly. There are actually dragons here. I'm going to ride a dragon.
"Beautiful, aren't they?" Mami said. "They were created from technology hybridized from four different species, and fortified with enchantments. We call them elysians."
That broke Kyoko from her stupor. "Wait, not dragons?" she said in disappointment.
"Eh, they're close enough if you ask me," Charlotte answered with a shrug. "You're not the first person to make the comparison."
Kyoko's disappointment dried up, and she nodded. Close enough indeed. "So, the whole thing is enchanted?" She thought back to the small items she had enchanted herself in her time, for one reason or another. Each time, their composition had changed into gold or silver, and had become adorned with jewels, much like the elysians were. However, doing so came with a magical price, and was never permanent. "Isn't enchanting something that big kind of…hard? I mean, your boats are all normal."
"It is," Mami said. "But they can afford to keep those skilled in magic employed just to keep the enchantments refreshed. And there's really no point in keeping our boats enchanted. If we need them enhanced, we can do it ourselves on the spot."
Indeed, after an elysian had come to rest and its passengers had disembarked, Kyoko watched several people scampering over its hull. There was the occasional flash of light as they repaired one enchantment or another.
Neat.
"Wait, so we're going to ride one of those things?" Sayaka said suddenly. Unlike Kyoko, she didn't seem all that enthused about the prospect. Her face was now pale, and she was tightly gripping her armrests.
"Well, yeah," Charlotte told her. "Unlike that Void Walker friend of yours, we can't fly without help."
Sayaka stared as an elysian spiraled into the air, sprouted a pair of wings, and soared on its way. She swallowed loudly. "Uh…yeah. Hey, what say we go by a different way? Like a boat!"
Charlotte gave her a look. "So…you want us to take a boat…to a city…that's in the sky?"
"Well, we could go part of the way," Sayaka said weakly. "Like, to right under it, and go the rest of the way on one of those elitist-"
"Elysian."
"Right, those things."
Charlotte shook her head. "Wouldn't work. For one, Cloudbreak's currently over a landlocked territory. For another, it would take us way too long."
"What's wrong, Blue Tuna?" Kyoko smirked. "Afraid of flying?"
Sayaka scowled at her. "I'm a fish!" she declared, slapping her scaly thigh. "Fish weren't meant to fly! It isn't natural!"
Charlotte let out a bark of laugher, but, upon seeing the look Mami was giving her, quickly covered it up by coughing. Kyoko didn't bother hiding her own snickers.
"Yeah, uh, if it's 'natural' you want, you're really in the wrong place," she said. "Besides, fish fly. There's flying fish."
"Oh, very funny," Sayaka snapped. "Look, my personal memory may be gone, but that doesn't mean I'm gonna believe every crap story you make up about the world of the living."
A blanket of awkwardness descended on the group, during which Charlotte and Mami exchanged looks of discomfort. Kyoko, however, just cracked up.
Then Mami cleared her throat and said, "Ah, Oktavia? She's telling the truth."
Another silence followed, and then Oktavia slowly turned her head to stare at the blonde. "What," she said in a flat tone.
"There really are…were…are flying fish," Mami clarified. She spread her arms. "They have specialized fins that allow them to glide through the air after leaping out of the water. In fact, they looked a lot like those elysians."
"Seriously, you've never heard of flying fish before?" Kyoko chuckled. "Come on, that's just sad." Then something occurred to her. "Hey, we got flying fish here?"
"Not that I've heard," Mami said. "At least, not of the Earth variety."
"Bummer." Kyoko shrugged. "Ah, whatever. Come on, we've got a flight to catch!"
With that, she eagerly bolted down the hill toward the skyport. Despite everything that had happened, a silver lining had just appeared. This place may not have dragons, but they had the next best thing.
…
Annabelle Lee hovered alone in the small cell she had shared with her sister for the past fifty-three years, staring at herself in a smudged, cracked mirror.
The scanty outfit she had worn as her uniform had been discarded. Replacing it was a much more modest plain white cotton t-shirt and a leather flight jacket. The headdress was also gone, letting her hair fall freely. The only part that remained was the long, black skirt. Given her unique physiology, it only made sense, as any form of pants were straight out and she absolutely refused to wear anything resembling a diaper.
Annabelle Lee took a deep breath and slowly let it out. She reached up with one finger and tapped the glass. She was not at all pretty, she certainly wasn't beautiful; she wasn't even attractive. Her body was far too thin, her limbs stick-like, and her joints knobby. She had no breasts to speak of, her face and neck were far too long, and her nose protruded to the point where comparisons to certain fictional witches were not uncommon. But that was fine. There wasn't much to be admired about her anyway, so it was only fitting that her appearance reflect this.
If there was one claim to beauty in her possession, it was her hair. Long and lustrous, it flowed nearly to her hips in natural waves, and was the same brilliant amethyst as her eyes. Normally she kept it covered so it wouldn't get in the way, but now that it had been exposed, she found herself studying it in full. It was very lovely, she had to admit, almost as if it had been intended for someone else but ended up on her head by mistake.
Her wrist-blades sat on the rough wooden dresser before her. Seizing one up, she slashed away at her hair until it hung unevenly, reaching just past her ears. Then she cut a strip of black cloth from her abandoned headdress and tied it tight around her brow, drawing her hair up into a rather punkish style. After a moment of examination, she nodded in satisfaction. There; now at least everything matched.
Then the door swung open, and Annabelle Lee's breath caught in her throat. Then she relaxed when Nikki ran into the room.
In comparison to her sister, Ticky Nikki was very pretty; with a softly plump body, adorable chipmunk cheeks, and curly blonde hair that bobbed when she walked. It was easy to imagine that she would have become a real stunner had she been allowed to mature fully. Given that they looked absolutely nothing alike, Annabelle Lee often wondered if they were really related; after all, she had naught but Nikki's word that they were sisters, and the trustworthiness of anything Nikki said was tentative at best. But in the end, it really didn't matter if they were blood-related or not. Genetics didn't hold much value in the afterlife; in the Withering Lands even less so. They were the Tick-Tock Sisters, and that was that.
Of course, as cute as Nikki was, any attractiveness tended to end the moment she let out one of her mad cackles and exposed her crumbling-tombstone teeth with a sadistic smile. Despite being over fifty years old, Nikki's personality had not matured in the slightest; if anything, she was now even more childish than she had been when they first had joined the Void Walkers, and considerably more deranged. All those patrols through Genocide City and the other spawn sites were probably to blame. Those places had a bad energy.
"Ready to go?" Nikki asked as she skidded to a stop. "Scary Matrarichy lady is gonna-" She cut herself off in midsentence and goggled at her sister. "You cut your hair!"
Annabelle Lee shrugged. "So I did."
"But your hair was so pretty! Why'd you do it?"
"If you think real hard, you'll find that you've just answered your own question." Annabelle Lee looked Ticky Nikki up and down and frowned her disapproval. "You're not seriously going out dressed like that, are you?"
To complement her deceptively childlike appearance, Nikki's new outfit was, well, cute. She now wore a kneelength pink skirt, a white-and-yellow striped blouse, white stockings, and a pink jacket. She even had a couple of pink hair ties, decorated with tiny plastic flowers.
Nikki looked down at herself. "What's wrong with it?"
"You look like a pedophile's wet-dream, that's what. All you need is a big red backpack and you'll be ready to go skipping off to the elementary playground."
Nikki grinned her horrid grin. "Silly Annabelly, there's no playground here!"
"No shit, there fucking isn't. And don't call me Annabelly." Annabelle Lee shrugged. "Well, fine. If you wanna go out like that, don't let me stop you. But I think you're gonna regret it, pretty soon."
"Huh?" Nikki said in confusion. "Why?"
Instead of answering, Annabelle Lee just grinned wolfishly, leaving Nikki to fidget.
Nikki went to work packing up what meager possessions she had; Annabelle Lee's were already put away in a small shoulder-strap bag. They had never owned much anyway, as they had never planned on staying.
Then the door again swung open as someone expected and, for the first time, actually welcome arrived. The huge, robe-shrouded form of Harlonga loomed in the doorway, while Zealand bobbed over her shoulder like a ghostly familiar. Under normal circumstances, having those two show up at anyone's door was met with plunging stomachs, stammered pleas, and evacuated bowels. But today, Annabelle Lee could not be happier to see those two monsters. It meant the beginning of the end of her imprisonment.
Though neither Harlonga nor Zealand possessed faces, Annabelle Lee could sense the sneers they were sending the Tick-Tock Sisters. But before either of them could open things up with one of their customary disparaging remarks, she slipped her wrist-blades on, adjusted her shoulder strap and said, "Ah, good timing. Shall we be off?"
Harlonga reared up in surprise while Zealand's luminescence dimmed dangerously, the calliope's version of a frown.
"Well, someone's eager to be thrown out like the trash she is," Zealand chimed. "Looking forward to returning to your natural habitat, are we?"
Annabelle Lee favored the pale calliope with a malicious smirk. "Absolutely. Any place that's not here is automatically a step up."
"Annabelly, no," Nikki whimpered as she hid herself behind her sister's skirt.
Zealand dimmed even further. She started to move forward, but Harlonga raised one of her disturbingly long arms. A couple dozen thin, inky appendages with far too many joints emerged from its folds to touch the surface of Zealand's body.
"Peazzzze, Zzzzzealand," Harlonga buzzed. Then she turned her faceless countenance toward the Tick-Tock Sisters. "Mind yourrrr tongue, sssssscum. The Masssssster only ssssssaid we were to ezzzzzzcort you to the palazzzzzz. He ssssssaid nozzzzzing regarding yourrrr condizzzzion."
Which was an excellent point, making Annabelle Lee regret her flippancy. Upsetting one of the Elite Guards was foolish, upsetting a dockgaut was idiotic, and upsetting Harlonga was unquestionably insane, even when judged by previous standards. Zealand may be the more inclined to petty cruelty, but Harlonga's wrath, when roused, was the stuff of nightmares. Reibey knew this, and was not above using her as a method of motivation when he felt one of his servitors wasn't pulling her weight. Annabelle Lee had seen the results, and had no desire to become a cautionary tale.
Bowing her eyes, she cleared her throat and said, "You're right. I apologize. No offense intended."
Angry sparks crackled over Zealand's body. "If you think this pathetic, cowardly retreat is going to spare you our-"
"Enouvvvvfff," Harlonga warned. She pushed Zealand back and commanded, "Come wizzz uzzzzzz."
Again Annabelle Lee and Ticky Nikki were led through the barracks and toward the stormlines. Again they were followed by contemptuous stares and mocking whispers. This time though they simply washed right off her, and it was all she could do not to return the sneers they were receiving.
That's right, ladies, she though smugly. We'll be gone within the year, while you'll remain stuck in Hell. So laugh it up while you can. She spared a couple of quick glances to Zealand and Harlonga and had to resist the urge to smirk. And you two will just keep on delivering Reibey's mail and intimidating little rookies until he gets tired of you. Good thing you love your job, because you'll be doing it for a long, long time.
Despite her feelings of devotion toward Oblivion and her guarded respect for Reibey, Annabelle Lee had no illusions about how they felt about her. She was nothing to them, a disposable resource, to be cast aside once she had served her purpose. It was just her good fortune that being disposed of was exactly what she wanted, and as cruel as Reibey's punishments could be, she knew he bore her no personal malice; again, she was nothing to him, and it was one and the same to him if she and her sister were to be released or not. And that most certainly worked in their favor.
Once again, they entered the stormlines and were whisked away to Palace Omega. And once again, they were led through the halls. This time, however, instead of being taken to Oblivion's citadel, their escorts took them to a small side room, furnished only with a long, featureless table made from the same stone as the building, surrounded by uncomfortable looking chairs.
Like yesterday, they weren't the first ones there. The Twins stood hand-in-hand in the far corner, and to Annabelle Lee's astonishment, that was as far as their physical contact was going. Apparently, being within Palace Omega where Reibey could watch them was enough to dampen even their libidos.
Unlike the Tick-Tock Sisters, The Twins had elected to remain dressed in their customary short skirts; stripy stocking; corsets; and pointy, wide-brimmed hats. The only change Annabelle Lee could see, save for the added color to their skin, was that they had washed out the dye in their hair, returning the color to bright yellow.
As Annabelle Lee and Ticky Nikki entered, The Twins looked up from their hushed conversation. When they saw who had arrived, identical scowls formed on their identical faces.
"Ah, good morning Annabelle Lee," Arzt said. "I see you've traded in your barbarian nun look for…what would you call that?"
"Biker-dyke chic," Nie murmured.
"Exactly so." Arzt looked Annabelle Lee over and nodded. "Well, the more of your hideous body covered, the better. I approve."
"Thank you," Annabelle Lee said icily. "And I see your sticking with the pseudo-Victorian prostitute look. It's very you. I approve."
The scowls on The Twins' faces darkened, and Annabelle Lee knew she had scored a hit; not by coming back with a more biting retort, but simply because Nie and Arzt's egos were more easily bruised than hers.
"Given that we're all about to spend a great deal of time together, I'd watch myself if I were you, Annabelle Lee," Nie warned. "Though given what you'd have to look at, I can't fault you for not wanting to."
Annabelle Lee rolled her eyes. Why did they keep attacking her appearance? That was like insulting a career chef for being a poor accountant. She was about to fire back, but then Arzt interrupted their insult contest with a squeal of delight.
"Oh my God!" she cried, releasing her lover's hand and pressing both palms against her own cheeks. Her golden eyes were now focused on Ticky Nikki, who was tentatively peeking out from behind Annabelle Lee's skirt. "Look, Nie! She's adorable!"
Nie looked. She saw. And she joined in the squealing.
A moment later, both of them were rushing forward, arms outstretched and grasping. Nikki stiffened, her face losing its newly regained color as her eyes took on the look of a hapless animal about to be bowled over by an oncoming train.
Fortunately for her, The Twins found themselves halted by two pairs of sharp blades digging into the flesh of their throats.
"No," Annabelle Lee growled. "Back off. Now."
Nie let out a low hiss. "You wouldn't dare. Not here."
"I'm banished already, ladies. I mean it. Leave her alone."
Despite the sharp points ready to lay their necks open, The Twins looked like they were about to press the matter anyway. After all, they had Annabelle Lee outnumbered. But then a knife appeared in Ticky Nikki's hands. She bared her teeth and snarled.
Sighing, The Twins withdrew. "Such a shame," Nie murmured as her hand found Arzt's. "We really must see to her reeducation."
"Oh, most definitely."
Annabelle Lee shook her head. She looked down at Nikki, who was bristling like a threatened cat. "Told'ja so."
"Do we really gotta go with them?" Nikki whined.
"'Fraid so, short stuff. But hey, if they ever bother you, you have my full permission to poke them full of holes."
"All exiled failures accounted for," remarked the Matriarch. "Is everyone prepared to depart?"
"Yeah, I think so," Annabelle Lee, casting one last venomous glare The Twins' way. "We're just about-" Then the Matriarch's sudden and unannounced arrival finally registered, and she went stiff. "Holy shit," she whispered.
The Twins and Ticky Nikki had similar reactions. All four of them warily turned to face the Matriarch, who was now standing (hovering? It was hard to tell) at the head of the table.
The Matriarch surveyed the dumbstruck ex-Void Walkers with her covered eyes. "You will all be transported momentarily," she said at last. "Do you remember your instructions?"
A heavy silence descended upon the group, one that made the back of Annabelle Lee's ears itch. After a moment, she realized that everyone was staring at her. Right, she was technically the leader, after all.
Moving forward, she cleared her throat and said, "Uh, yeah. You're, uh, taking us to, to Bertha's Brothel. And once there, someone will, uh, someone will meet us and…give us…further instructions, I guess."
"Correct," the Matriarch said. With that, she moved away from the table and spread her arms. The floor before her warped and twisted, spiraling down into a vortex, the stone moving as fluidly as water.
"Now," she said to the condemned. "Who would like to go first?"
…
The interior of the elysian was almost as cool as the outer hull. The floor was carpeted with soft blue velvet, with several rows of rectangles embroidered in with gold thread. The walls curved gently upward and seemed to have been molded from liquid gold. The ceiling had actual chandeliers, ones shaped like spinning tops, with glowing diamonds on their bottom, large sapphires on their sides, and tiny rainbow gems along their circumferences. Along the walls were round windows with a slight turquoise hue.
Kyoko took one look at the splendor, grinned, and asked, "So, where's the slot machines?"
One of the other passengers, a short girl with spiky brown hair, overheard her and snorted. "I think they go for Blackjack here," she said.
"That's it?" Kyoko shook her head. "What'd they do, blow their money on the glitz? Lame." She looked again and noticed something else amiss, this time for real. The cabin seemed to be lacking seats. "Wait," she said. "Where's the-"
Then she noticed the other passengers heading toward the golden rectangles and intuition struck. "Oh, wait," she said, pointing. "The seats come out of those, don't they?"
Charlotte raised an eyebrow. "Hey, you're catching on." Indeed, as they spoke, every time someone entered a rectangle, the ground within would glow a soft blue, and shimmering energy of the same color would then rise up and form into the shape of a chair that was part airline seat, part throne. Once complete, the simulacrum would then solidify and become real, allowing the passenger to sit comfortably.
But chairs weren't all that were formed. The rectangles seemed to recognize the species of the passengers they were serving, and react accordingly. There was a scattering of ai'jurrik'kai, and instead of seats, they got a sort of overhanging apparatus that allowed them to grip on with all nine hands. There was also a couple of those midget yeti, those jotts, and for them, the energy became squat little igloos that they simply climbed inside of and curled up.
Now that, Kyoko decided, was quality customer service.
Selecting one of the rectangles near a window, Kyoko let her seat form and plopped back with her arms behind her head. Mami sat next to her, Charlotte took the next one over, and Sayaka's wheelchair was rolled into the rectangle bordering the aisle. In her case, the wheelchair itself was changed, becoming a stationary seat like the others, only with extra support for her tail. Despite this, she still looked dissatisfied.
"What's up with you?" Kyoko called over to her. "Expecting an aquarium?"
"Kind of, yeah," Sayaka muttered. Now that they were actually in the elysian, she was even more unhappy. "And just we're clear, this thing does have proper safety…thingies, right?"
"What do you care?" Kyoko said before Mami or Charlotte could answer. "We can't die!"
"Crashing still hurts, doofus!" Sayaka shot back. "Do you like pain? Because I don't!"
"It's okay," Charlotte said, patting her hand. "There are plenty of safety systems and enchantments. We're perfectly safe."
"Yeah, and what happened to Miss Super-Knight anyway?" Kyoko said. "Come on, don't tell me that the girl who fought off every beating I gave her and still tried to kick my ass is scared of a little…" It was then that she saw the dark glares Sayaka and Charlotte were sending her way and came to the conclusion that continuing that thought was probably not in her best interests. "…ah, okay then."
She quickly cleared her throat and looked away. In the uproar finding about Momo had caused, Sayaka's "special condition" had been nearly forgotten. It was understandable, all things considered. But now that she had accidentally stumbled upon it again, maybe it was time to start trying to figure out that little problem.
Except the problem with that was that she wasn't sure where to begin, and part of her doubted that anything she came up with would do any good. She thought of Marisa, and what she had said about Kyoko being far from the first to have reservations about the Alliance. No doubt the same principle was at work here. There had to have been hundreds of people who wanted to find the secret for turning witches back to their former selves; hell, there probably were entire research facilities devoted to the problem. And given how much slower time flowed here with nobody dying, they'd already had plenty of time to find a solution. And yet, there still was no viable solution. How could she hope to succeed where everyone else had failed?
Still, it was possible. Some girls had come back. Charlotte had told her so. There was a way; she just had to find it.
Then she heard a chime, and a melodic voice said, "Thank you for choosing to fly with Elysium Skylines."
"Like we had any alternative," muttered the girl sitting in front of Kyoko. "Friggin' monopolies."
"Oooooh, dooooon't yooouuuu staaaaaart," said the ai'jurrik'kai hanging suspended next to her, its voice a thin whistle.
"This is your captain speaking. Looks like we've got the all clear from the tower, and are ready to depart. Just a reminder, should you require a stewardess, simply slide the pink gem, located on your right armrest for humans, topmost grip for ai'jurrik'kai, and directly above the entrance to your dome for jotts. Furthermore, bathrooms are accessible by sliding the blue gem right next to it."
Kyoko supposed that there wasn't any non-Alliance species aboard that day. She lifted her hand and saw the gems in question. Okay, pink one called a stewardess. That sounded pretty standard. But the blue one took her to the bathroom? How did that make any sense? Couldn't she just get up and walk?
Her curiosity got the better of her, and she placed her finger on the blue stone and pushed up.
Then she let out a squeak of surprise as her seat sank into the ground, taking her with it. The next thing she knew, she was in a tiny room, smaller than a closet, staring at a circular mirror with a gem-studded frame. Directly beneath it was an ivory sink with a golden faucet. A small bar of pale lavender soap sat in a small tray next to a silver hand-sanitizer dispenser, and a toothbrush hung on a tiny hook on the wall. Around her, the captain kept talking through unseen speakers, but Kyoko wasn't paying the slightest bit of attention.
As Kyoko gaped at this unexpected development, her cushioned seat irised open up beneath her bottom, making a hole. It took a moment for her to comprehend what had just happened, but when she did, it took nearly a full minute for her to stop laughing.
When she managed to regain control, she grinned, flipped off a salute to her reflection, and flicked the blue gem back down. The hole closed up, and her seat rose back up into the passenger cabin.
"I have my own private bathroom," she told Mami.
The blonde looked amused. "It's nice, isn't it?"
"I'll say. And it's fancier than some of the hotels I've broken into."
"Somehow, this doesn't surprise me in the slightest," she heard Charlotte mutter, only for Sayaka to punch her in the arm and whisper, "Knock it off."
Ignoring this, Kyoko said to Mami, "But talk about a culture shift. I know enchantments are tough to maintain and all, but Freehaven could use a little of this!"
"If you want enchantments doing everything for you, go live in Arcania," Charlotte said, folding her arms over her chest. "We prefer to do things for ourselves."
Mami tensed, clearly expecting another spat, but her fears were unwarranted. "Eh, I can get behind that," Kyoko said, slouching back into her chair. "Still, a little first class is nice every now and then."
Then she glanced out the window and saw, to her surprise, that they were already spiraling into the sky. Wow, she hadn't even felt them take off. Kyoko straightened up and stared in fascination as the elysian made its graceful loops higher and higher. Then it straightened out soared on.
Kyoko was transfixed. She had never flown in a plane before. Certainly, her daily patrols as a Puella Magi had allowed her to see the world from great heights, but she had always been focused on others things. To be able to just watch the landscape pass underneath was rather nice. Pity that the cabin had such perfect control over its internal atmosphere. A little vertigo would have been nice.
Then she heard the sound of hydraulics. She looked away from the window just in time to see Sayaka's chair descend into the ground.
Her brow rising, she said, "So, I guess she had to go?"
"Nature calls to us all," Mami said.
"Uh-huh. And, ah, they do know that her, ah, anatomy has…special needs, right?"
"Yes. The enchantments will make the necessary adjustments."
Kyoko tried to imagine what a mermaid-friendly private bathroom would look like. All of the images conjured up by her imagination looked really unpleasant, but she supposed that the enchantments would figure things out. She looked at the ai'jurrik'kai hanging in front of her and wondered what passed for a bathroom for her species. That was probably why Elysium Skylines relied so heavily on enchantments; trying to figure out accommodations for so many different species would swiftly become a royal headache.
And suddenly, Sayaka reappeared. What was more, she was sopping wet.
Kyoko, Mami, and Charlotte all turned to stare questioningly at the soaked blunette, who, for her part, looked as happy as a clam. Then the air around her shimmered as if hot, leaving her perfectly dry.
Sayaka turned to grin at her friends. "Found my aquarium," she said.
…
If there was one thing that everyone, Puella Magi and witch alike, could agree upon concerning the afterlife that they now shared, it was that the geography was certainly interesting. Twelve sentient species were represented and settled in, and each and every one of them had brought a piece of their homeworld with them, and as soon as more of the newly arrived Savians started to take root, a thirteenth would be added to the mix. A newly arrived human could be walking through a normal looking pine forest one moment, only to turn a corner and find themselves in the homeworld of the ai'jurrik'kai, surrounded by impossibly tall spires of dark glass jabbing at a sky filled with dirty brown clouds. The endless expanse of brilliantly colored clouds and gigantic tumbling crystals of the calliopes' homeworld sat side-by-side with the black jungles, maroon plains, and silver deserts of the Kotoss Intendrent and the viridian oceans, puffball forests, and salt-storms belonging to the Vaskegoros. And in some areas, there was a fair degree of overlap, as neither animals nor plants are known respecters of boundaries, leading to a fair amount of cross-breeding and fertilization. The results have been of great interest to scientific communities and freakshows alike.
Other areas were notable for wholly different reasons. Those who are unable to bear the traumas suffered in their past lives and/or the weight of their unasked for immortality often went mad, and the ones who couldn't or refused to be helped tended to be driven out of civilization to wander the wild paths. And as the land molded itself in accordance with the baseline subconscious of the locals, places with a high concentration of these madwomen seemed to go mad themselves, with the worst of them being nearly indistinguishable from witch's labyrinths.
And then there were the actual witch's labyrinths. Most of the time, mad witches simply went feral and wandered alone or in packs, attacking anyone foolish enough to enter their territory. However, some descended back into to the dark depths of their own physiology, and returned to being the twisted monsters they had become in the last few days of their earthly lives. Full witches were rare, yes, and it was true that they were easily dealt with when they popped up in more civilized places. But the ones who came into being in the wilder areas were far tougher to root out, and there were plenty that stuck around for a good long time, ruling their labyrinths like the nightmare queens that they were.
Which wasn't to say that the whole of the afterlife was a waking nightmare. In fact, the fair majority of it was quite pleasant, as its more determined denizens managed to cooperate and force civilization on the suggestible landscape. There were many territories with their own established forms of government, thriving cities, and various peace treaties and trade agreements with their neighbors. But even so, the land was still stitched together from the subconscious minds of magically enhanced and spiritually traumatized adolescent females of twelve extremely different species from all parts of the universe, which made for a great deal of strangeness.
But even so, despite the incredible variety of climates, regions, landscapes, flora, and fauna, nobody was willing to claim credit for the Fezzinigo Swamplands.
Oh, it was certainly a swamp, and an impressive one at that; nobody was going to deny this. The trees were appropriately thick and gnarled, with their canopy blocking out the sunlight; there were foul bogs aplenty, filled with all sorts of interesting beasts; the flowers were quite exotic, and did interesting things to those who got too close; and there seemed to be more hungry insects per square kilometer than grains of sand.
But while it was definitely a swamp, no one was quite sure whose swamp it was. The plants didn't seem to match those found on any of the planets, and while there were a fair amount of identifiable animals, there were also several species unique to Fezzinigo, including some very aggressive rodents that grew to unusual sizes. Plus, the swamp had its fair share of nasty quirks that weren't found anywhere else. The gasses produced by years of rotting plants and carcasses combined with high levels of sulfur had a tendency to produce bursts of flame that would erupt out of the ground. While these bursts were preceded by a distinct popping noise that made them fairly easy to avoid, there still were a number of unwary travelers that had been set alight. Also, the soil was of an unusual composition in places, taking on a consistency similar to powder snow. Like quicksand, it would gobble up the unaware, but did so in a flash, as a single misstep would cause the unlucky fool to be swallowed up in the blink of an eye.
Popular theory held that the Fezzinigo Swamplands were a hybrid, born from the swamps of several different worlds. And concrete fact held that the Fezzinigo Swamplands were extremely dangerous. But even so, they were not uninhabited. There were several small camps, fortresses, and towns that had managed to hold their ground against the beasts and the elements, the residents of which were renowned for their strength of will, prowess in combat, and highly suspect moral quality.
The largest of these settlements was Bertha's Brothel. Located on the northern border, where one of the bog's many foul rivers emptied into the Auburn Sea, Bertha's Brothel was notable for its extremely large seaport, its ties to various criminal empires from other territories, and for being the home of the Brothel, from which it took its name. "Order," as it was, was enforced primarily by the Madam, who was indisputably Fezzinigo's most powerful figure, and her rules could be summarized as such: "Don't fuck with me and my people, and watch out who you screw with, because you'll probably get screwed right back." This made Bertha's Brothel a natural haven for mercenaries, smugglers, pirates, and their ilk. And thanks to its close proximity with the Withering Lands, many of its more powerful cartels had standing business agreements with Reibey, and the Madam herself was said to be a personal confidante of his. The Void Walkers even had their own embassy housed there.
However, that was not where the Matriarch deposited Annabelle Lee and her companions. Rather, they found themselves standing in the fog-shrouded docks, surrounded by rusty shipping containers. This didn't surprise Annabelle Lee in the slightest. After all, their mission wasn't exactly official.
Upon emerging from the Matriarch's vortex, she looked around at filthy metal crates, the soggy and poorly maintained docks, the heaps of trash and leaky barrels, and found herself liking the place already. Sure, it was a shithole, filled all sorts of scum, but at least it made no pretenses. Its ugliness was out there on full display, and it laughed at anyone who dared to criticize it.
And then she took her first breath of the fog and started coughing. Ugh, the air here was foul. It was thick, cloying, and seemed to stick to her throat. Which made sense, given that it was on the edge of a bloody swamp, but that didn't make breathing it any easier.
Judging by the hacks and wheezes coming from The Twins, it was clear that they agreed. "Oh, my God," Nie gagged. "Haven't these people heard of air purification?"
"They probably tried it once, only for it to run away screaming," Nie replied as she covered her nose.
Out of all of them, Ticky Nikki seemed to be the least affected by the stench. She cocked her head to one side, sniffed the air in catlike fashion, and wrinkled her nose. "It smells like dead farts here," she announced.
"Well, when you're right, you're right," Annabelle Lee said. She waved a hand in front of her nose. She hoped that their contact would arrive soon. Spending any amount of time surrounded by this horrible smell was not something any of them fancied.
But then she was struck by a troubling thought. What if there was no contact? What if this was Reibey's twisted idea of punishment? Just drop them off in the bad part of a bad town and instruct them to wait for someone who was never going to arrive? If that was the case, then they risked being targeted by thieves, rowdy thugs, or worse. It was not unheard of for the unwary to find themselves caught by slavers and sold as meat-slaves to dockengauts. Immortality or no, Annabelle Lee's tolerance for pain was not especially high, and that was a fate she wished to avoid.
Clearing her throat, Annabelle Lee said, "Um, hello?" Her eyes darted back and forth, looking for any kind of response. "Is…anyone here? Hello?"
The only sound was the low babble of voices of the town's residents, the cry of seafowl, and the distant bell of a buoy, all coming out of the fog.
"Well, that accomplished nothing," Arzt observed.
"Maybe we got dropped in the wrong place?" Nie suggested.
Nervous sweat prickled on Annabelle's skin. "Hello? Hey! There was supposed to be someone here! Can you hear us? We were sent-"
And then she felt four sharp points dig into her back, piercing even through the tough leather of her jacket. "Shut up, stupid girl," hissed a strangely familiar voice. "Didn't they tell you anything? 'Shut mouths bring no harm, but loose lips light the way for a multitude of trouble.' That's the fourth rule of survival here at Bertha's Brothel! Stupid, stupid girl!"
Annabelle Lee froze. She tried to look over her shoulder to see who it was that was threatening her, but the angle was all wrong. She could see The Twins though. Judging from the looks on their faces, they could see this new person just fine, and were not planning on intervening on her behalf any time soon.
"Okay, gotcha," she said, carefully arching her back away from the blades' points. "And, uh, you would be-" Then she caught sight of the look on Nikki's face and felt a sudden rush of fear. "No, wait, Nikki! Don't!"
Too late. The moment her sister was threatened, Ticky Nikki's instincts had taken over. Letting out a low, predatory growl, she immediately bolted forward, her previously empty hands now clutching a pair of wickedly sharp knives.
The blades pressing against Annabelle Lee's back disappeared, but before she could feel relief, a new problem presented itself. Nikki had been snatched off the ground and was held up by the neck, courtesy of a blue-sleeved arm.
The arm's owner was eccentric, to say the least. She was Asian, like The Twins, with long dark hair that needed washing and pale yellow eyes. Her outfit was…well, the first word that came to Annabelle Lee's mind was "foppish." She wore a frilly white shirt under a peacock coat, one with coattails of all things. Her pants were of the same color and so tight that it was a wonder she could move around in them comfortably. A green ribbon was tied into a messy bowtie around her neck, and a top hat sat on her head, to which was pinned what looked like a plushie eyeball.
That was interesting enough, but of greater concern to Annabelle Lee was the fact that long, sharp metal claws were fixed to each of the fingers on the girl's right hand, and these claws were now pressing against Nikki's front, ready to tear her open.
…
Kyoko wanted an elysian. She didn't know how she was going to get one. She didn't know how she was going to maintain the enchantments if she got one. She didn't know if private ownership was even allowed. She just knew that she wanted one.
And honestly, who could blame her? Not only were they flying golden mechanical dragons made from alien technology, not only did they provide her with a sweetass chair and her own private bathroom, but wonders of wonders, the food didn't suck. In fact, it was actually pretty damned good. From what she had been told about airlines, this was a rarity.
Kyoko bit down into her hamburger and chewed thoughtfully. They had been in flight for about fifteen minutes. Mami was dozing next to her, and Charlotte was reading a paperback book she had brought along. As for Sayaka, she had lowered herself into her bathroom/aquarium and seemed content to stay there. Apparently it was a small room filled up with water that had an amazing filter. It sounded incredibly gross to Kyoko, but Sayaka assured that it worked wonders, able to remove waste instantly while keeping the water fresh. The images conjured by that piece of information had also been gross, but rather hilarious. Still, if it kept her happy during the flight, Kyoko saw no reason why Sayaka shouldn't stay in her little fishbowl.
Still, once they were in the air and on their way, her mind returning again, not to the Momo situation, but Sayaka. Yesterday, after they had made up, Mami had told her a few more interesting tidbits about the afterlife. Apparently, witches were the people they had been birthed from, a complete continuation of their consciousness instead of a near-copy. Which meant that "Oktavia" really was the soul of Sayaka Miki, just reformatted and…somewhat altered. Which in turn meant that Sayaka could be retrieved from her. If people had been able to change back in the past, no matter how few, that meant that her memories were locked up somewhere inside that mermaid. There had to be a way to find them.
But the more she mused over the problem, the more uncomfortable she became. Though Kyoko hadn't known Sayaka long, she had still seen enough of her at her worst to know what kind of person she was at the core. And though Oktavia was very similar, she was still different from Sayaka in a way Kyoko couldn't put her finger on. The gung-ho hotheadedness was still there, so was the mischievousness, and so was the unwavering loyalty. But even so, Oktavia was a bit more easy-going, more confident (genuinely so, instead of that overcompensating "leave it to me!" attitude Sayaka had been burdened with), more at peace with herself. That in itself was a small thing, but it still niggled at Kyoko. It was somehow significant, she just needed to figure out how.
And then the pieces came together and she understood. Sayaka had been driven to prove herself to everyone and everything: her friends, her enemies, and herself. It had kept her going when most people would have lain down and quit. It had caused her to keep fighting without the aid of grief seeds, far beyond the bounds of sanity. And it had driven her mad and buried her in despair. It had destroyed her humanity.
In contrast, despite her lost memory and major physical handicaps, Oktavia didn't seem to have the need to prove herself to anyone. She was who she was, and she was fine with that. Sure, she seemed all too eager to spring to Kyoko's aid back during the talks with Reibey, but that had seemed to be for Kyoko's benefit rather than to prove herself to be some kind of hero. She was happy with herself in a way Sayaka had never been, and simply wished to enjoy her life and be with her friends.
And that went a long way to explaining Kyoko's discomfort. She wanted Sayaka back, yes, but if Sayaka was happy being Oktavia, would forcing a return of her memories ruin things for her? After all, her final memories were nothing short of horrible. Would they bring back the same self-esteem issues that had destroyed her?
Kyoko scowled. She grabbed up a fistful of apple chips and shoved them into her mouth. She thought back on all the traumas she herself had endured, all the pain she had suffered. She wondered what it would be like if she had also been turned into a witch and then woke up in the afterlife with everything swept away. The tragedy of her family's death would be gone, and the horrible person she had become would no longer haunt her. Would it be better to remain happily oblivious to the kind of person Kyoko Sakura had been, and all she had gone through?
After some consideration she came to her decision: no, it would not. True, the pain would be gone, but she would be too. She would cease to exist as a person, with someone else driving her soul from there on out. Her memories, her experiences, both good and bad, made her who she was. They were hers, and no one had the right to take them away.
But the question still remained: did she have the right to force Oktavia to remember Sayaka?
It was a hard question, one that she would have to give more thought to. Kyoko sighed and finished up her lunch. Even though she was trying to move away from the bitch she had become in her last few months of life, she had to admit that she missed the simplicity.
Then, as she leaned back and munched on her last few chips, she looked around and noticed something odd. A few of the other passengers were missing, along with their seats. And it wasn't as if they had descended into their little bathrooms. Quite the opposite, as a long metal pole stuck up where their seats had been, connecting the floor to the ceiling. It took a moment for Kyoko to realize that their seats had ascended through the roof.
What in the world? Kyoko thought, twisting her face up in confusion. She reached over to give Mami's shoulder a shake.
"Hey," she said. "Hey, wake up."
"Hmmm, what?" Mami said sleepily. She rubbed her eyes and yawned.
Kyoko pointed. "What's up with those?"
Mami glanced at the poles. "Oh, thrill seekers. They bought Windrider tickets."
Kyoko sucked in a sharp breath. "Mami, does that mean what I think it means, and if yes, can I upgrade right the hell now?"
Charlotte, who had not put down her book, snorted and shook her head, but Mami laughed. "Well, I should have expected this. All right, just a moment."
She tapped a gem on her left armrest, and a holographic screen appeared in the air before her. It looked similar to a company website, with several different promotions, advertisements, and ticket information. Mami touched a few links, made some kind of payment, and banished the screen.
"Okay," she said. "You'll be protected by your own magical field, so there's no chance of falling off or losing anything. Just-"
"I'll still feel the wind and the drops and everything though, right?" Kyoko pressed. Butterflies of excitement danced in her stomach, and it was all she could do to sit still.
"Of course. But try not to jump off on purpose."
Kyoko blinked. "Uh, is that possible?"
"Barring a full magical failure, no; there are far too many failsafes. But it annoys the crew."
A white gem appeared on Kyoko's seat and started blinking. Without hesitation, she mashed her finger down on it, and her seat started to rise, and a recorded voice welcome her to the Windrider experience and provided her with a list of rules, unheard over Kyoko's whoop of delight.
"Have fun!" Mami called to her. "Looks like we're headed through calliope territory, so you should be in for a wild ride."
Kyoko's fingers dug into the armrests and she grinned furiously. Overhead, the ceiling opened up, allowing the chair to rise through.
And then she emerged onto the back of the elysian. Before her, she could see the beautiful aircraft stretch before her, its golden back gleaming brightly in the sunlight and its shimmering wings spread wide to either side. The wind tore at her face, sending her ponytail trailing behind her.
And then her seat changed, standing her up and transforming around her. The next thing Kyoko knew, she was standing on a circular platform surrounded by a chest-high railing. She gripped tight, threw her head back, and let out a scream of furious joy. Her scream was answered by another, and Kyoko saw the other Windriders dotting the elysian's back. Each of them looked just as overjoyed as she was, and why wouldn't they be? They were riding on the back of a giant golden dragon-thing, hundreds of meters up. This was by far one of the coolest things Kyoko had ever done, and that was saying a lot.
Plus, Mami had been right about the world they were traveling through. The sky around them was deep amber, and the clouds rolled swirled around them, playing host to an ever-changing kaleidoscope of colors; much like the sky above Genocide City, only this was beautiful and awe-inspiring instead of nightmarish. Sparkling dust glittering along the surface of the clouds, adding to their splendor.
"Look!" she heard someone cry, barely audible over the wind. "There's a dance coming!"
"A what?" Kyoko shouted back.
"A dance of calliopes! Over there!"
Kyoko looked, and saw that there was indeed several of the multicolored spheres shooting through the sky. I guess a "dance" is what they call a bunch of calliopes all together, Kyoko thought as she watched the creatures keep pace with the elysian. Seeing them nip to and fro playfully around the majestic machine, she could see how they had earned the name.
One of them, a large red one, soared close to where she was standing. "Hello!" it called to her in a friendly tone. "Where you going?"
"Cloudbreak!" Kyoko called back. "And is this what your planet looks like?"
"Yup! It's pretty, isn't it?"
"It's awesome!" Kyoko agreed. She was about to ask for more information, but then she was interrupted by the captain's voice.
"This is your captain speaking," she said over the speakers. "Looks like we're approaching a thick crystal cluster, so things are going to get a little rocky. All Windriders are reminded to stay within their protective fields, and should you experience motion sickness, simply return to the cabin and signal a stewardess, who will be by with medication."
"Oh, this is going to be good," her new friend giggled. "Ever been through a crystal cluster before?"
Mystified, Kyoko shook her head.
"Then you are going to love this."
The elysian rose up above a cloudbank, and Kyoko eyes went wide and she let out a small gasp. There, just over the clouds, was what looked like an asteroid field. It reminded her of that scene from those Star Wars movies, where the spaceship fled through a swarm of stones of every size, narrowly being squashed as the asteroids tumbled and smashed against each other. Only in this case, the asteroids were huge sparkling crystals that displayed the same range of colors as the clouds. The large ones were the size of skyscrapers, while the smaller ones looked like field of flying gemstone; which, she realized, was exactly what they were.
But as wondrous as the sight might be, Kyoko was struck with a surge of fear. How were they going to pass through that without getting torn to shreds? The big ones would be easy to dodge, sure, but the little ones would rip through them like tissue paper.
But the elysian plunged into the field regardless, and Kyoko got her answer. The smaller gems simply disintegrated with tiny yellow pops as they impacted the energy field surrounding the elysian. Okay, now there were legitimate force-fields. This was just getting cooler and cooler.
And then the elysian soared up, filling Kyoko with the thrill of vertigo. It was like being in a rollercoaster as it ascended the track, only a thousand times better. And, just like a rollercoaster, as soon as it reached the top…
The elysian's wings folded and it plunged straight down, darting skillfully between the building-sized crystals with all the agility of a dragonfly. Kyoko shrieked in delight, as did the Windriders who had elected to remain. The calliopes hugged close to the elysian's body, enjoying the ride as much as the passengers were.
And, just for a moment, all of Kyoko's problems were forgotten. The obstacles they still had to overcome, the enemies that would surely rise up to oppose them, the issue with Sayaka and that damned legal mess they were going to cause. She was riding a golden dragon through a field of flying jewels, on her way to get her sister back. In that moment, Kyoko was happy.
…
Why, Annabelle Lee thought wearily, why does nothing ever go right?
"Dumb, dumb girl," said the newcomer as Nikki squirmed and snarled. "What were you thinking? 'Don't ever attack anyone before you know what they can do!' That's the seventh rule of survival here at Bertha's Brothel."
Though Annabelle Lee had never seen this girl before, she finally pegged the reason why her voice sounded so familiar. The girl was crazy, in the same way Ticky Nikki was crazy. It was a common enough problem, especially in the rougher territories. With things like cancer or Alzheimer's no longer an issue, something had to take their place.
"Duly noted," Annabelle Lee said. "Though if I may, you might want to add an amendment to that list of yours."
The girl stared at her blankly. "Huh?"
Annabelle Lee pointed at her sister. "Never put your arm so close to Ticky Nikki's mouth when she's pissed off."
In demonstration, Nikki opened her mouth full of jagged teeth and chomped down on the crazy girl's arm.
There was a squeal of pain, and the girl lurched back, citrine vapor seeping from a number of tiny punctures. Ticky Nikki squirmed free and darted to her sister's side.
"Ow!" the girl shrieked as she clutched at her wounded arm. "Why'd you do that? You…you…" She looked up at the former Void Walkers to see all four arrayed against her. Annabelle Lee's arms were held up in a fighter's stance, blades gleaming; Ticky Nikki had scaled one of the cargo containers and was poised to pounce, a mad grin on her face; Nie had taken position on a crate across from her, both pistols drawn and aimed at the girl's head. Of Arzt there was no sign at all, but Annabelle Lee knew she was close.
"So, finally decided to join in, eh?" she said to Nie while keeping her eyes on the girl.
"Of course," Nie said dismissively. "She may do what she wants to you…"
"…but no one harms our darling little Nikki," Arzt's voice finished for her.
"I'm touched," Annabelle Lee said dryly. To the girl, she said, "All right, wackjob. It's four against one, and you've pissed us all off. If you're the person we're supposed to meet, then fine; let's talk. Otherwise, beat it."
The girl looked from one determined face to the other. All expression left her features. "You tore my coat," she said, holding up her arm.
Annabelle Lee tensed up immediately. She had lived long enough with Ticky Nikki to know what that look meant. "Brace yourselves," she hissed to her companions. "She's gonna-"
And then the girl was gone.
Before Annabelle Lee could figure out what was going one, a piercing shriek sounded to the right of her. Nie had fallen to her knees, four stabbing blades protruding out of her front, golden smoke leaking out from around their edges. The crazy girl was crouching behind her, having stabbed her in the back.
Oh crap.
Before she was next, Annabelle Lee rocketed into the air, snatching her sister as she went. They powered out of the fog and emerged into sunlight. This gave her a clear view of the entirety of Bertha's Brothel.
Located directly on the mouth of a wide but ugly brown river, a full third of Bertha's Brothel sat upon the water itself, with joined platforms connecting the two banks and extending a fair ways out into sea, where the docks stuck out like teeth, to which were moored a diverse collection of disreputable watercraft. The town itself was a motley collection of high wooden towers, most of which stuck out at odd, sometimes impossible, angles and had other towers sprouting from their corners, connected by numerous platforms, bridges, catwalks, ramps, and ropes. Buildings bulged out of the towers like tumors, again seeming to defy the laws of physics, and thin tin chimneys stuck out everywhere from the pointy rooftops, smoke flowing from them as if from a hundred cigarettes. The entire lower level was shrouded in fog, and the Fezzinigo Swamplands flared out behind it like a reeking infestation of mold, occasionally lit up by flame bursts. The city's residents scampered over the multistoried towers like ants in a farm.
Nikki giggled as she took her customary place on Annabelle Lee's back. "It's Dr. Seuss land!" she sang happily. Annabelle Lee had no idea what that meant. To her, it was reminiscent of the treehouse villages she had seen pictures of, only minus the trees.
But as interesting as the sight may be, her concern was on the crazy girl that had attacked them. She wasn't sure of the girl's capabilities, only that she had an insane manicurist and had a nasty habit of popping from Point A to Point B without actually traversing the space between. Maybe she could teleport, like the Matriarch, though Annabelle Lee doubted it. Teleportation was an extremely rare ability, and those who could do it were often in the employ of the rich and powerful, who guarded them jealously. More than likely the girl was just blindingly fast, which came with its own set of problems.
Especially, Annabelle Lee thought grimly, with this damned fog in the way. She could barely see the silhouettes of the cargo containers, much less the girl herself. She did note that Nie had stopped screaming, which meant that she was probably down for the count, at least for the time being.
And then, as Annabelle Lee screwed up her eyes to pick out some sign of movement, the strangest thing happened. All of the people moving about Bertha's Brothel suddenly seemed to kick into overdrive. They didn't change course or notice the flying sisters, they just went about their business at incredible speeds, as if they were a recording been fast-forwarded.
Annabelle Lee jerked back in surprise, making Nikki yelp and cling tighter. What in the world was causing that? Did people here take specialized stimulants that worked in synchronization? Was time itself being messed with, with the Tick-Tock Sisters being the only ones unaffected? Or was everyone moving at normal speed, and they were the ones being-
A blur shot up from the fog, so quick that it might have been imaginary. However, a sudden weight appeared on Annabelle Lee's back, sandwiching Nikki between them. Before either of the sisters could react, four razor-sharp blades cut straight through both of them. Annabelle Lee's head snapped back, and she screamed in agony.
…
Exactly one month after Resonance Days' birthday comes my own. So, special update time! Weeeeee.
And even though this chapter didn't really do much to advance the plot, it was a real treat to write. As some people have noted, I really love surreal Wonderland fantasy, with my reasons pretty much boiling down to "It lets me do whatever the hell I want." And this is the first chapter since the first where I've really go to cut loose, so to say. It also gives a nice look at what the rest of the afterlife world is going to be like, both the good places and the bad.
Also, Kyoko really needed some happiness. Poor Annabelle Lee though. That girl just can't catch a break.
Anyway, for those of you familiar with PMMM's side material: yes, the crazy girl with the claws is their contact. And yes, she is who you think she is. Three guesses as to the identity of the Madam. XD
On one last note: the calliopes' homeworld was actually inspired by a dream I had, only with big pieces of ancient temples instead of crystals, and pterodactyl men instead of living Christmas tree ornaments. But the spirit of it is the same.
Until next time, everyone!