"To Yu & Rei's grave in the graveyard." Arle read the envelope again on her way there.
"Gugugu." Carbuncle said crawling out from underneath Arle's mailman cap.
"I don't know, Carby. They sound familiar but I don't really remember them. Weren't they contestants at that tournament? Were they that pink fish and that sensitive blonde guy?"
"Gu gu gu."
"You're right, they can't be."
Arle walked along the gravel path to one of the cheery Primp Town's most ominous places: The Graveyard. Carbuncle went to sleep.
Chapter 84: Arle, meet other Silvana
This graveyard didn't affect Arle's nerves at all. She's been to scarier places. It wasn't calming, but it wasn't uncalming either.
This was the second nicest graveyard she's been to since she got amnesia. And it looked great at sunrise.
"Yoohoo! Letter for Yu and Rei! All these gravestones look the same and aren't numbered! Where are you?!"
"Over there!" A skeletal hand undug itself from the ground to point the way.
Arle tipped her cap. "Thank you."
A crypt was blocking Arle's view of her destination, she probably wouldn't have missed it otherwise on account that little ghost kid glowing in the distance. Hovering around a gravestone.
Arle walked toward the little ghost. The ghost had noticed Arle's footsteps and turned around to solemnly greet the mailwoman. Arle motioned back. "Hi!" Arle said with a smile.
The ghost made a noise back, trying to be polite, but it came out as a disinterested moan. The dead the kid was a little sad, but with a lot of energy. A weird aura to have.
Arle spotted the gravestone next to the little spook. It read (amongst other relevant information):
Here lie Yu & Rei,
Twins from the start to the end,
Each other's best friend
Arle smiled at the cute if morbid poem. "Are you… Well… Yu or Rei?" She asked.
The ghost shook her head. "No. I'm their sister." She reached out her hand to shake in an unmotivated manner. "I'm Silvana Puzlow. But everyone calls me "Silly" now."
"Silvana?" Arle tilted her head at that one as they shook hands. "Any relation to the town's clown?" Arle was banking on her being the lost rational decency toward herself that was beaten out of her.
"No. But she made me realize I was dead…" She sounded so sad about that. But Arle couldn't place it if that was an actual bad thing. From what she can remember reading, ghosts that don't know they're dead are either benign or take their troublesome restless irrational ways to everyday activities.
"I see, sorry to hear that." 'I'll hafta ask a mutual friend of ours to judge if Silvana actually did the right thing here...'
"It's fine. So I died, big whoop, no big deal." The defeated ghost was certainly lying.
"Here's the letter, can you hand it over?"
"It's meant for me." The spook ripped the envelope open, gave Arle a little jump. Silly read it. "Aw!" She smashed the letter onto the floor. "My gravestone's delayed again…" She pouted.
'I can honestly say that's the first I've heard that sentence…' She picked up the letter. "We still need the poem on your gravestone." The mailman read from it out loud.
"Got lost in the mail again…"
"Hey, Miss Silly…" She tried to remember if that was the right name. She pulled out a pencil and a notebook and directed them to the ghost. "Write down the letter now, and I'll make sure it's sent."
"You'd do that?" Silly beamed a little.
"Sure." Arle shrugged. "Looks like you need a little peace."
"Oh thank you~" The ghost took the things out of Arle's hands and started scribbling. "Here!" And when she was done she handed it all over.
Arle read on the notes (alongside the relevant information):
Here lie Silvana Puzlow.
Child master thief.
Killed by a girl who had her face in a tower.
"This is not a poem." Arle felt the need to say, overlooking whatever else it said.
"Yes, it is! Puyo match now! If I win it is a poem!" Silly snapped into an insecure, defensive tone.
"I'd love to, but I still have to deliver to a looooot of blocks around town. I'll hold you to it when I have the time though!" Arle challenged her back.
The ghost gasped at Arle's friendly competitive attitude."You really wanna be my playmate sometime?" The ghost sweetly asked.
"Sure. Though I'm not gonna kill myself for it."
"That's Yu's thing. I'm not into killing…" The ghost rubbed her arm. "'Cause I've been killed… Haven't been myself since… It be nice if everyone could become a ghost though. It means no worries." Said the troubled ghost girl.
"Nice to know. See you sometime in the future." Arle turned around, still facing the ghost. "Bye." She waved as the ghost waved back a little peppier than Arle found her.
Far from the graveyard, Arle read the notes Silly wrote down again. She sat down on a bench in a quiet part of Primp Town. Carbuncle woke up and sat next to her. Arle brought him a little up to speed.
"Say Carby, does the name "Silvana Puzlow" sound familiar to you?"
"Gu."
"Hm… It does ring a bell to me. I just wanna remember something again. Wait… Wasn't she that girl that apparently snuck in and was killed by my Doppelgangers because she also looked like me?" She wasn't sure.
"Gu. Gugugu gu."
"Yeah, I guess that's a loaded question for you. You weren't even there." Arle affectionately nuzzled her fuzzy(?) companion. She went back to try and reopen the memory banks holding this info. Like with many memories she's lost since she returned it didn't come in easy.
Here lie Silvana Puzlow.
Child master thief.
Killed by a girl who had her face in a tower.
"Puzlow… I've only heard of that name in our old world. It has to have happened in our homeworld! And that tower… I need to remember more of my kindergarten exam. That's the most """Vivid""" memory I have of a tower… Most I remember are the Doppelgangers, bumping my head against every friggin' wall and slippery floors."
That's when she vaguely remembers a guy called Camoo… Or something. The Minotaur… Or was that someplace else? The Dark Prince's harem auditions. No those were definitely separate from that tower. When did she gain the ability to breathe underwater? Feels like she had at least two reasons for why. She chalked that up to being a 5-year old with an imagination.
"I'm useless." She gave a quick, pouty, matter-of-fact sigh. But as usual, Arle didn't spend much time feeling sorry for herself. "How did this exam end?"
"I got a perfect 100..." Arle wasn't so sure about that either anymore, but she sure felt like she got a perfect score. "Aggh." Arle stood up from the bench in frustration. "Come on, Carby. Break's over. These letters and packages won't deliver themselves." She tugged on her delivery wagon.
She slowly remembered more and more about her kindergarten exam over the course of her workday. So much returned about it it was getting intrusive, she hoped she didn't put in a letter from Streetname 13 into a similar-looking number by accident because of it.
The overall puzzle was still incomplete by the time she clocked out. But the conclusion she came to drove her up the wall up until she finally sat on her bed.
"Silvana Puzlow, that's indeed the kid who was missing from the town to the west, eventually found in the tower dead. The same tower I took my exam." Arle reiterated to herself. Some more memories came home to roost. Namely descriptions of Silvana when they both were five years old.
"Sticky fingered, always liked to play thief… So she tried looting all those merchants in the shop?" She figured that made sense. "And she looked like me, still looks like me as a kid, but with a tan…" She put two and two together.
Arle's muscles tensed. The anger directed at the Doppelgangers that plagued her long after that exam. They were the most likely suspects.
Arle slammed her fists and her feet against her mattress. "It's probably that one Doppelganger, knowing my luck." The most persistent one, the red-clad one.
"That red phony tried countless times to replace me, tortured Silvana that inadvertently made that clown about as hate-filled as that Doppelganger towards me! And whether it was the same one or not, one Doppelganger had to be the end of the more traditional just-happens-to-look-alike doppelgänger!"
It made Arle's blood boil. Wasn't it enough that they kept pestering her back home? They didn't need to bring these other people into it like the two Silvanas she knows. They both been traumatized.
And for all she knows, back home that doppelganger either succeeded in replacing her. Somehow fooling her astute mom. If Arle could find any solace in is that they can't follow her into this world.
Can they?
…
…
Arle made up her mind: Next time she sees the red colored Doppelganger, she'll make sure that she can't trouble anyone ever again. And maybe make things up with the Clown and help the Ghost rest in peace.
"Gu… Guuu…" Arle, a little surprised by it, turned her head to the sleep-talking Carbuncle next to her. Her mind drifted away from those nasty thoughts as she cuddled with him.
Little did Arle know that amidst the confusion in the past and amnesia in the present, she was the one who unknowingly killed Warle. Now better known as that ghost that hangs out with the ghost twins, Yu & Rei.
Author's Notes:
Still no notes. I think I had something to tell you guys, but I guess I forget.
So I'll guess I'll just plug my friend warelander's fic: 'Bonds That Last' again. (He's just told me that the next chapter 'The Tower Exam: Chapter 3' will be up soon.
And also, read warelander and I's 'An Ordinary Puyo Puyo High School AU'
Next up: Suzuran? What is a Suzuran?
