"Oh, you're all back!" Sayuri said, aiming a friendly smile at the amorphous kids. Wait, since when did they know each other?

"Found Yayaka" Toto said, just as Sayuri's eyes fell on me. I was expecting her smile to die on her lips when she saw a potential enemy, but if anything, it grew a little bigger.

"You're looking much better now, Yayaka," she said. I wondered for a moment what the hell she met, when I remembered: I was in the medical room here for a while. Toto and Yuyu beat me up to make sure Cocona and Papika would take me to Flip Flap, where I'd be safe, as I would have been killed if I made it back to Asclepius without the amorphous... while I was thinking all of this, Sayuri was speaking to Toto again, "You should probably take her to Doctor Salt. He's the one who wanted to see her after all," before turning her attention back to the laptop in front of her.

The amorphous kids had already turned to leave, but I stayed behind a moment. Therre was something I still had to say. Nervousness crepy along my body and I could feel my face flush a little. "Uhhh... thanks for the flowers, Sayuri," I just about managed to mumble before I tagged along behind them. If Sayuri replied, I couldn't really hear her, there was a hum of machinery that grew louder the further we walked through Flip Flap's base. I didn't really want to hang around to find out either, being in this place made me feel awkward.

Despite that I couldn't help but notice how... different the atmosphere here was compared to Asclepius. Just Sayuri's little welcome alone was already a lot more warmth than I was used to. Although this place was still bathed in a cool colour, a computer screen blue, that alone gave this place a lot more life than the hospital-white of Asclepius. Maybe they don't carry out human experimentation here... Heck, they probably don't do that at all. I hadn't realised I was hunching over, until I found myself standing a little straighter, and my muscles loosened a little from the tense knots they'd managed to work themselves into. Maybe this was a place I could find myself relaxing in...

I had that thought before the chaotic clopping of wooden sandals began hitting the floor. The amorphous kids stopped as one, and Toto and Nyunyu both stuck their arms out, stopping me from walking any further until a very frantic Hidaka has passed by, carrying one of many cardboard boxes stuffed with robot parts to another place in the building. Uexkull peered around at the box of wires, and it looked like he was about to jump off Nyunyu's head to try and follow Hidaka, eager to chew them.

"Oh, no you don't!" I grabbed him from the air, just as he hopped from Nyunyu's head and held him in firmly, but gently, trying to bundle him together with my Cocona rock and metal leaf. He seemed dismayed for a second, before looking at the Cocona rock and sniffing it, curious. After a little while, he squished himself down into a green blob next to it, looking quite content. He must like it… Well, of course he would. The colours are pretty similar to Cocona's hair and eyes.

Eventually, Toto lead us to Salt's office, and we all entered without knocking. I didn't know much about Salt, apart from the facts that he was leader of Flip Flap, and that he looked… heavy. The last time I saw him, he'd managed to get to Pure Illusion, alone (I still had no idea how) and that he said he had things to atone for. Needing to atone for something would explain why he looked like he was always weight down by something. He watched carefully as we approached, his sunglasses hiding his eyes from us.

"You sent these three here to get me. Why?" I just got straight to the point, and the words came out probably harsher than they needed to, but I was still finding it difficult to trust Salt after our last encounter. Even though he knew Cocona was his daughter, he still had no problem sending her into Pure Illusion. Being Mimi's child might not have guaranteed that she'd make it there without burning up. He could have sent her to her death…

"Because we could use someone like you at Flip Flap," he said, not bothered at all by my apparent hostility.

"What for?" If he says experiments, I don't care if I'll be homeless, I'm out of here.

"You have experience in traversing Pure Illusion, and its many worlds."

At the start of the word 'experience' my hand went to my rocket belt, ready to let an attack loose, but thankfully, that word wasn't going in the direction I thought it was… Not that I had anything to fire anyway. Salt seemed to know that too, as he smirked upon my reaction. He pulled open a drawer on his desk, and pulled out…

"My rockets?" So, Salt had them all this time… That explains why I couldn't find them with the rest of my stuff. It also made me wonder… "I had a headset too, a visor. Did you take that?"

"Doctor Hidaka has that. He wanted to try something," Salt's voice sounded like it belonged to a bear. Rumbling, and slightly grouchy. There was a silence hanging in the air for a little while.

"So, what, we go to Hidaka now?" I asked, trying to break the awkward quiet.

"If you want to join our team, you should see him, yes," came Salt's reply.

"I did you a favour and saved Papika, can't you do me a favour now, and just sign me up?"

"Not a part of Flip Flap, no favours. Talk to Hidaka."

I waited a while again, waiting for more information, or more to be said, but apparently Salt was done talking. We all left the room.


"Well, that was dumb… We didn't need to go to Salt at all, we should have just gone straight to Hidaka" I'd began voicing my thoughts out loud, not long after we left Salt's office.

The amorphous kids had nothing to say about the subject, and showed no signs they were listening to me either. Well, I was fine with that, I just wanted to complain about it.

Did I really want to work for Flip Flap? I honestly wasn't too sure. I mean, Salt was right, I had plenty of experience in Pure Illusion, and I was one of few people who could go there. Flip Flap would probably need as many people to go there if they could, if they wanted to research the place, it only made sense. I wasn't sure how I felt about it. I mean, if I was here, I'd have a home and somewhere to go, and a purpose in life, and that alone was good, but at the same time eventually I'd probably run into Cocona and Papika here one day, and I wasn't sure I could handle that…

I caught sight of my reflection in one of the machines bathed in blue light as Toto lead us to Hidaka's workshop. I saw a red-eyed reflection looking back at me, with a smirk ((Switch with me.)) I snarled at my reflection, and blinked, and found myself looking back into my own purple eyes.

You know, I never had any strong opinions about mirrors or reflective surfaces before, but if they all spontaneously blew up, or became dust or something, I wouldn't be complaining about it.

"Why the hell isn't this working?" Hidaka yelled, cursing whatever he was working on. It wasn't long until we found him, bent over a desk, which was coated with various things, such as tools, screwdrivers, nuts, bolts, plates of metal, circuit boards and—

"My visor!" I got closer to the desk, and was ready to swipe it, but Hidaka had noticed our presence before I could do anything about it, and he curled over it completely, hiding it from sight.

"Oh, no you don't! You're not getting your hands on this!" he looked me in the eyes, giving me a solid glare. I stared back. Hidaka clearly remembered me from the last time we met. Even though I saved him from being held at gunpoint by Nyunyu, and hadn't done anything to harm him since, he still didn't seem to trust me. Well, I guess that was kinda fair, given the history of who I worked for in the past, but still, Asclepius was never quite this... enthusiastic about distrusting me.

"Hidaka-san. Request access to object" Yuyu said.

"No way! I'm not letting you Asclepius kids anywhere near my precious equipment!" He reached out his arms, and pulled all the various pieces of scrap and junk towards him, trying to shield it all from us.

"Orders from Salt. Request: Yayaka join Flip Flap" Toto said, as if trying to help Yuyu convince him to give me my stuff back.

"Doctor Salt might have let you all join, but that doesn't mean I trust you guys yet!" Hidaka stubbornly refused.

'Let you all join'? Suddenly Nyunyu calling me 'sixth kid' earlier made sense. They've all joined Flip Flap. I should have made that connection earlier, when Toto knew the code to get into Flip Flap's base through the elevator, rather than leading us through the tunnel Asclepius dug into their base, if this is the place he planned to take us to. I mean, I didn't know where he was taking us at the time, but still, I should have figured it out when we met Sayuri at least. Although I'm technically not 'sixth kid' yet...

"Hidaka! Request trade!" Nyunyu said, raising a hand into the air, as if she was trying to get a teacher's attention at school.

"You guys have nothing I wan—" Hidaka turned to look at Nyunyu then, when his eyes caught sight of the Cocona rock and the metal leaf in my arms. He took his glasses off and leaned forwards, knocking a few screws to the floor, trying to get a better look. I pulled them closer to my chest, trying to keep them away from him. Uexkull, getting a little crushed, wriggled his way out of my grasp and settled down on Yuyu's head.

"Did those come from Pure Illusion?" Hidaka asked. He suddenly seemed a lot calmer than he was before. The change in his personality was pretty odd, but at least he wasn't yelling at us now, or trying to send us away.

"What if they did?" I asked, cautiously.

"I need to study them! Please, let me take them!"

"No way."

"Come on!"

"Nope"

"I'll trade you!"

That made me smirk. Now we're getting somewhere. I made a mental note to thank Nyunyu later for saying the thing that'd get his attention.

"Okay, Hidaka. You want some samples of things from Pure Illusion? Let me join, and I'll bring some back for you. In return, I want my visor back." I didn't tell him that the silver chain on my belt, or that I had a jacket in my pocket both of which came from Pure Illusion. Much like the rock and the leaf he was begging to study, those things were some of the very few posessions I could call my own, and I didn't want to give them away to some half-stranger. Even if I told Hidaka about them, he may well have dismissed them, for looking too close to something you could get in this world, rather than something seemingly more impossible and exotic, that could be found naturally in Pure Illusion.

Hidaka looked up at me from his low position on the desk, like a suspicious dog. His eyes were narrowed behind his glasses. "Fine. I'll give it back when you return with the first batch."

I held my hand out for him to shake. "Sounds good to me"


We repotred back to Salt with what Hidaka said, that he'd accept me as one of Flip Flap (or at least let me join the team) if I got him a few samples from Pure Illusion to study. He didn't quite seem too pleased about it, or at least he hesitated before finally giving a nod of okay.

"So, how do we get to Pure Illusion from your base? You guys have a portal room or something?"

"We use the Thomasson"

"The what?"

Salt didn't explain or answer. I asked if he could at least tell us where to go, and got no answer. I felt a hand on my shoulder and turned to see Yuyu, who was looking outside Salt's office and pointing in a vague direction away from it. Toto was already walking in that direction, as was Nyunyu, who was still humming. Yuyu followed the pair of them out the doors, and I caught sight of Uexkull on her head again. I grabbed him, and handed him to Salt, quickly explaining that he was Cocona's pet rabbit and we found him, and that she probably wanted him back, before, like Yuyu, I left the room and followed Toto and Nyunyu.

Well, actually, I called for them to wait up for me. I quickly paid a visit to Sayuri and asked her if she could look after my leaf and my rock, and keep them away from Hidaka. She seemed a little confused by my request, but said she would, and I rejoined the amorphous kids.

It was a little bit of a journey to get to this 'Thomasson' Salt spoke of. It meant awkward sharp turns through corridors, and at one point, we had to walk along a thin uneven shelf which lead to a huge drop below. Nyunyu hopped along there, fearless, with no trouble, and Toto followed after her, completely unfased. Well, of course he would be, he's probably got his rocket pack in there. Nyunyu not even hesitating was probably a sign she still hasn't been to Pure Illusion at all yet. Heck, maybe she hopped along the thin path because she was excited to get a chance to go.

Yuyu, however, stood at the doorway and looked down, into the hole below. I knew how she felt. She'd saved me once from falling into a void in Pure Illusion once. At least I can see the bottom to this one though. I mean, it was still a pretty big fall, and would probably result in broken bones, if not death, but I've seen a whole lot worse...

I say that, it was still kind of a struggle for me to get on there, and balance without thinking about how one slip would be the end of me. I kept my eyes on Toto who was at the other end. He would catch us if we fell. I'm sure of it. The thought reassured me, although whether it was true or not, was another question. Thankfully, the platform we were all standing on now was large enough to hold all of us with no trouble, and I felt a bit better being there with Toto and Nyunyu.

There was still someone missing though...

"You okay there, Yuyu?" I asked, turning my attention back to the far end of the walkway. She broke out of her trance of staring into the pit below, upon hearing her name, and turned to look at me, her eyes a fraction wider than they usually would be. She's scared.

"You'll be fine. We're not gonna let you fall, and if you do, we'll all be there to save you" I said, trying to give her a reassuring smile. I ducked down on the platform and held out my hand to her, trying to be encouraging.

She looked back down at the land below and slid an uncertain foot forward about an inch. Her arm-backpack glinted in the light, and it occured to me then why she was more worried than the rest of us about crossing here. She'd need her metal arm in Pure Illusion. Well, she technically could come to Pure Illusion without it, but if she did, she'd only have one working arm, and no way to defend herself. And what if we had to climb somewhere? I've had thoughts once before, in Pop's world, with its towers and skyscrapers, about if it would be possible for Yuyu to climb up them at all if it came down to that in the hunt for the amorphous in that world. I mean, she may well have been able to, but again, I wasn't sure effective a climber she'd be, powerfist or not... She could unpack it and leave all the contents on the floor, but if Hidaka came across them... Maybe it was just the usual suspicion I got surrounding anyone who wore a lab coat, after my time at Asclepius, but I wouldn't put it past him to want to experiment on anything in Yuyu's bag. Even then, if she did come with us, she's wearing a cast on her bad arm, and that won't exactly help for getting across to us.

Maybe she'd be better off staying here.

"Hey, Yuyu," I called to her, withdrawing my hand, "You don't have to come if you don't feel up for it. We can go together another time." I had no idea if Toto or Nyunyu knew what was bothering Yuyu at all, or if it was indeed her arm she was worrying about, but it was my best guess, as she didn't much seem too happy about joining us if it meant walking along a thin ledge with something that could easily knock her off balance... Even if she did come across with us, and had her arm-bag converted back into its normal form, what would happen to all the things she packed in it? Would we just have to carry them around Pure Illusion with us? I really don't think it's a good idea if she comes along this time... But what could she do here at Flip Flap's base that'd help out? I thought for a moment, before coming up with a solution "Why don't you try and get on Hidaka's good side? Show him how my visor works or something. Maybe help him fix some of his robots?"

I wasn't too happy about Hidaka getting to poke around my visor, even though I was pretty sure there wasn't any personal or private information on it, but still, getting on his good side would help secure me a place here, and maybe he'd be more welcoming of the amorphous kids too. That and we'll probably need more rockets at some point. Hidaka won't let us anywhere near anything to make them with, if he doesn't trust us.

Yuyu stared at me, still wide eyed, for a moment, before she nodded and went back along the corridor to the main base.

I hope she's gonna be okay...

"Yayaka," Toto said, getting my attention. I turned to look at him, and he gestured with his head, walking along the corridor, with Nyunyu in tow. It wasn't long before I followed them.


Yeah, it defintely worked out that Yuyu went back to Hidaka, I have no idea how the hell she'd cram herself into the Thomasson with her friggin' arm. It wasn't quite as cramped as the mecha I piloted with Cocona and Papika in Pop's world, but still, it wasn't easy to fit the three of us in together. I wasn't entirely sure how the heck we were gonna get to Pure Illusion, basically being locked on a cupboard with two shelves, but if this is what Flip Flap used, we'd have to get used to it, I doubted Hidaka would ever trust us if we went back to Asclepius' base to try and use the portal.

I was crammed in the lower compartment with Nyunyu, who was watching me, intently, with her big orange eyes. Toto had clambered onto the upper shelf... And... Nothing happened.

How do they expect us to get to Pure Illusion this way?

"Hey! Anyone there? How does this thing work?!" I was hoping there were microphones or something in here that could pass a message along.

"Synchronise your impedance!" Came a sudden, shouted response. It made me jump, and I banged my head on the ceiling of the compartment. Crapping hell, Hidaka...

"How do we do that?" I asked. I received no reply that time, and began to get grumpy. Stupid friggin'... Why the crap do we have to impress this guy?

"Yayaka" I turned to the sound of Toto's voice, and saw him holding both of his hands down past a small gap in his shelf, and had a thought. Back at Asclepius, we all had to walk through the portal at the same time, and think about the same things... It wasn't quite physical contact we had there, but we weren't moving here, (there wasn't really any way to move here), and I guess it would help us...

Or maybe Yuyu had made it back to Hidaka and was typing a message to Toto's eyepiece. Heck, maybe that's how we heard Hidaka in the first place, they were talking through my visor to Toto's eyepiece. Who knows.

Either way, I took one of Toto's hands. It was... clammy, but not cold. You know, I'm not sure I've really made physical contact with either Toto or Yuyu before, I didn't know what to expect at all, he wasn't even warm. It was... weird. Nyunyu copied me, and took Toto's other hand, before reaching out for me. I was a little confused for a second, but I took her hand too, we should be as connected as possible to get to Pure Illusion... Her hand was basically just a smaller version of Toto's clammy, not cold... However, Nyunyu's did have some warmth to it. Must be because she was a recent creation...

We all sat there like that for a while. Toto's and Nyunyu's grips tightened on my hands. Still, nothing happened.

We need to synchronise our thoughts... but how can we do that in here? What're we meant to be thinking about? Somehow, I felt that if I spoke out loud about it, that it would be... wrong somehow... I closed my eyes in concentration.

Think... We're doing this so we can stay here at Flip Flap, because we have nowhere else to go. We're going to Pure Illusion to bring back some samples for Hidaka to study.

I felt a little spark at at that point. A little... connection, to something.

I'm doing this for Toto, Yuyu and Nyunyu.

And that was the moment when I was pulled from one reality into another...


Authors note: I think this is the shortest chapter I've written... The next one is kinda big though, and the one after that (Which I'm still working on) will definitely need to be split into parts (and may even result in kind of another fic posted full of 'deleted scenes' which didn't make it into this story because I felt there were too many opportunities to miss) so yes, kinda buying time for myself to write a little more of the 4th chapter. Thanks for understanding, and I hope you're enjoying the story so far!