Disclaimer: Everything here is non official fan based work, original game ideas by Idea Factory and Compile Heart.
Note: The setting of the story takes place after Mary Skelter Finale, but before the Locked Up in Love True End DLC, and there will be spoilers.
Prologue
The past days of being inside the Jails were long over, and it would seem peace had finally set in. Instead of the ominous blood red sky there was actually regular serene blue stillness in the air, as well as the green grass environment on the ground, everything seemed to be good.
For the entire party of former Blood Maidens and their allies, this setting was the exact happy and hopeful lives they were looking to live after coming up to the surface. Even if things may not be completely perfect, it was definitely better without worries and anxiety. Or at least that was the idea...
Waking up in comfy bed in her own quarters is Red Riding Hood, who had a bit of a restless sleep. Normally this would not be an issue, but lately her dreams consisted of visions of a certain hill outside, nothing too out of the ordinary; however, as familiar as the hill looked with lush grass and warm sunlight, there would be other times where she seemed to be looking through the eyes of someone going around in an unfamiliar Jail Tower. Even though she had been through several Jail Towers in her time as a Blood Maiden, the images she saw were completely different.
"(The same dream again... Why do I keep seeing the same things?)" Red Riding Hood thought to herself as she readied herself for the day ahead with nothing particularly planned. It has been at least two weeks since settling into the new life after the final battle, but only recently did she began to see the visions from the dream intensifying.
Curious about the issue, Red Riding Hood did stop by to Miko to see if there was anything that could help with the recurring dreams. Though there was no concrete answers, Miko did give her insights on the matter.
"I don't think there is any wrong here, though I have an idea of what's going on," Miko said as she confirmed that there was nothing wrong physically with the former Blood Maiden.
"So what's wrong with me then?"
"I've only read it in some notes before, but there is a thing known as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. This is where after going through traumatic events in life and may have difficulty in adjusting back to normal afterwards. Given how you and everybody else were forced to fight Marchens and travel through the dangers in the Jail, it is not unusual for such a thing to occur. Also, you aren't the first one to bring this up, many of the others had brought this up with me. Thankfully, given our situation now, you should be able to naturally get better."
Seeing as Miko's explanation seemed to be reasonable, it was just best to do whatever in enjoyable to move forward away from the past. With this in mind, Red Riding Hood decided to keep seeking out the rather nice looking hill scene that she kept seeing. Perhaps there may just be something that keeps drawing her there, or maybe it is just a that, a dream.
The rest of the morning was as regular and normal as it could be, getting some food and then small talk with close friends. Most plans for the days involve resource gathering and trying to advance any technology to live life. Other times, the group liked to spend their free time with each other. For Red Riding Hood, the adventurous side of her keeps her wandering around the area from their small village. Out of habit, Red Riding Hood continued to wear her hoodie coat, even though no longer being a Blood Maiden also meant Blood Libido urges were also gone. Yet, this coat still felt comfortable to move in, as well as being a nice fit for her.
Throughout the day, Red Riding Hood mainly wandered around the clear fields of the new world, just enjoying the cool breeze and warm sun rays as she eagerly wanted to seek out the mysterious location she kept seeing in her dreams. Even if she did not find it though, it was not a big disappointment as everything else she looked at where simply beautiful compared to anything she had been used to seeing. After some time of traversing around, Red Riding Hood sat down for a small break. Even though the peace and comfort of this new world was nice, sometimes she had been thinking what could be next, as aside from her own village there were estimated to be no other humans due to how bad the Jails had ravaged the earth and depleted humanity. There could only be so much to do with filling time after all, and so at least looking for a seemingly non existent hill from her dreams seemed like a good idea.
However, then it came into view. The elusive hill in her visions. Unnoticed before from walking, Red Riding Hood finally noticed the familiar shape of the hill in the distance just not too far from where she departed from the village but also yet a tiny bit hidden from a few trees. Curious about the area, she finally approached her destination and while the sun was beginning to set, she could see something very distinct at the top part of the hill. From afar, it looked like some material or maybe just an odd patch that did not grow grass. Still, upon getting closer to the hill, Red Riding Hood could see that the spot was in fact, a person lying down. She quickened her pace upon realising this, perhaps there were other humans or even whole civilisations in this new world. With each step closer, the features of the person became more clearer, but when she finally got to close proximity of this person, a sense of apprehension grew.
The first thing Red Riding Hood noticed was that this person was herself. Not a perfect clone of course, as upon closer inspection she saw this girl had a few features that differed from herself: Lighter coloured coat, longer hair tied up in a small tail on the side, and a blue band instead of red.
"What... is this?" Red Riding Hood muttered to herself while observing this strange anomaly. Yet the body had no response, only stillness. To determine if the lookalike was dead or not, she reached out try and get a response out of the girl. Upon contact though, it felt like that time has frozen in place, and there was a huge surge of sensory information overload as Red Riding Hood saw a life time of memories.
The memories began very similar to what she remembers, the Dawn, the Professor and everybody else. The biggest deviation came was when in her younger days, Otsuu and Little Mermaid joined the Dawn and then slowly the memories went through the Jails and eventually climbing the Jail Tower and the slaughter of everybody delaying the tower's Nightmare while Otsuu and Mermaid escaped. Afterwards, there was a brief pause before a final memory came into view: The same tower walls that Red Riding Hood had seen in her dreams and this seemed like to be the other Red Riding Hood, not quite dead from the nightmare but fatally wounded and crawling on the ground. After what seemed to be a long crawl upwards, the vision lead right into White Core near the top of the tower.
"Damn it... I couldn't do anything right in the end... If only I was stronger... no, if only I had another chance to save everyone, I will definitely..." The voice from the fading Red Riding Hood uttered while slowly crawling up towards the light on instinct and reaching out with her bloodstained hand.
When the memories had all been processed, Red Riding Hood woke up breathing heavily at what she just saw. After a few moments to calm down, she had realised what she witnessed was herself from the world that Otsuu and Mermaid travelled from. From the different colours the Dawn wore, as well as her own viewpoints and voice that called out for help echoing in her dreams, and the Witchcraft involved it was obvious that she was called for help. There something that did not make sense though, because in her timeline, Otsuu and Little Mermaid were saved and the previous timeline should not exist anymore; furthermore, knowing that Otsuu and Little Mermaid used Witchcraft to turn back the world, it was very odd in her now inherited memories that her other self could crawl towards the same light.
After waking up from the massive flow of memories, Red Riding Hood had noticed the area around her had a slight yellow glow flowing upwards, and her other self that she saw earlier was gone. In an effort to calm down and process everything, she retreated from the area and back to her room to slowly think about what to do next. While it would be easy to ignore whatever she just saw, there was a huge feeling of unease. She also did not know whether to tell anybody or not, seeing how ridiculous the whole thing seemed. Furthermore, if she were to follow the light back into the supposed world she saw, without her Blood Maiden powers, she would be powerless to do anything.
Deciding that everything may have been just her imagining things, Red Riding Hood went about the day as usual without anything else significant happening. However, as time passed, her thoughts would not stray from thinking about the memories and feelings that she got from contact with her other self. With this strange day coming to an end, Red Riding Hood thought that she was just tired and perhaps going off to sleep and nothing will come of it by tomorrow.
Unfortunately, she was wrong. The hill where Red Riding Hood went to yesterday still had the glowing yellow aura flowing upwards, and seemed even more intense today. Now there was no denying the that what she experienced with her double was indeed very real and that the glowing area was most likely a way leading into that world she saw. Still, there was no way of confirming except actually going through and seeing what is on the other side. Just in case though, Red Riding Hood retrieved her giant pair of scissors before trying to venture out into the unknown.
Upon finally arriving back at the scene, Red Riding Hood could clearly see that the space around the area was ready to be ripped open, and that something had to be done, or else she feared something worse may happen. Once ready, she stepped into the area, and began to wait, as the fabric of reality seemed to rip open she could clearly see a White Jail Tower in full view. There was no doubt at this point that this was the parallel world that Otsuu was in with Mermaid, and for whatever reason it still seemed to exist.
Red Riding Hood had passed by Jack earlier in the day, and briefly told him where she was headed, but not the details of what she saw the previous day. In case that she really went missing that perhaps her friends would find a way to send help. After all, knowing anything related to the Jail and Marchens, it was too dangerous for normal civilians to approach. Taking a deep breathe, Red Riding Hood slowly passed through from one reality to another, and as everything went white she could feel what was like a falling sensation.