Yayaka
Trapped in a burning world… Red and grey filled my vision. My eyes were burning. There were a couple of shining red rocks at my feet…
I held onto them, and then, somehow, I was taken back to Earth…
Going to Pure Illusion with Uexkull was… weird. I wanted to keep a tight hold of him, to make sure he wasn't going to drift off and get lost in the void between dimensions, but that was kinda hard for me to do. He started growing in size at an alarming rate, and it wasn't long until my arm that held him in place when he was a small green blob, ended up wrapped around his neck, nearly choking him. I loosened my grip, just as we were dumped in a new world.
I know it was two Flip Flap days since I'd last seen Yuyu, but it was a bit disheartening to me that we didn't land in the puppet world, and I couldn't help getting worried. How do we know she's not still in there, and we've landed in the wrong world entirely? Just because I was able to influence that when I went with Papika doesn't mean the same thing's happened here. I probably don't have a bond with Uexkull at all, or at least, not one strong enough to determine where we landed…
Although that chain of thought was one I'd rather not be having, it did give me an idea to try and work out if we had, indeed, landed in the same world as the others. I closed my eyes, focusing on the bonds I had with the three missing girls, trying to reach out for them. I knew my bond with Yuyu was pretty weak, so I didn't really expect that to go anywhere, and I wasn't surprised when I got no response. Cocona and Papika however… There was something faint as I tried to make some sorta connection with those two. It felt like they were in the same world as we were, which was a good sign, but I was getting worried again. Even though they're probably far away, I don't think it should be that weak… I wasn't picking up any hints of a direction they were in, only that they were somewhere in this world.
Speaking of which, this place was… a little oddly shaped. I wanted to say that if you were looking down on it from above, it'd look like a fish, with a large oval body, which shrunk towards its 'tail', which looked like it opened up into a bigger room again… The floor of this place was almost like an optical illusion. Shimmering, rippling tiles, like a constantly moving mosaic, swirling out from the middle gave the impression of the room getting bigger. Looking at the floor made me feel a little dizzy, so I focused on the walls instead, and saw bookshelves that ran all along, in a great unbroken line. It looked pretty normal, but something about it was bugging me.
Curious, I stepped up to it to get a better look at the books. Uexkull, the now humanoid rabbit, didn't follow me, instead staying in the same spot, and looking around the room, his ears twitching. I had a look at the titles of the books, but most of them were in other languages I couldn't even dream to read… and they seemed to be shifting a little. I'd look at the ones on the right, go and look at the ones on the left, turn back to the ones on the right, only to see the ones I'd been looking at had shifted along a few places. Frowning, I tried walking along to get to one of the ends of the bookshelves, only to find the walk taking a lot longer than I thought it would have. Is the room actually growing?
I looked back to Uexkull who was standing in the middle of the room. He seemed a lot further away than he was a little while ago. I should get back to him. If this room grows too much, we might not be able to reach each other again.
In fact, we should probably leave this place as soon as we can. I made my way back towards him, and lifted Yuyu's arm up in front of me, so I could get a better look at it. Can this thing track Cocona somehow? I was pretty sure when Asclepius put a tracker in Cocona they did the same thing for her, as they did for me: fused the thing to the bone, so you can't get rid of it. Since my bond wasn't really telling me where to go, I figured this was probably my next best bet at finding everyone.
I lifted Yuyu's arm to my head, like I was using an over-sized cellphone and said, "Hey, Toto, are you there? Can you hear me?" into it, hoping it'd just activate from a voice talking into it. He gave me this thing for interdimensional communications after all, I should be able to contact him easily…
"Yaya… ka?" I heard Toto's voice on the other end. It was crackly, but we could talk. I let out a sigh of relief.
"Hey, Yuyu's arm can track stuff, right?" I asked, thinking about how she and Cocona managed to find me in the blue-scale world. Or I'd guess that's how they found where I was at least, unless that was just a really small place…
"Yes…"
"Cool. Can you activate the tracking stuff from over there, so we can find her?" I felt a little dumb asking him to do that, but I didn't really have a choice. I couldn't see any buttons on Yuyu's arm, and even if I could, Asclepius made sure I didn't have much experience with technology, so I doubted I could figure out what to do, or not without wasting more time than we already had.
I waited for a reply. I thought I heard Toto take a breath and begin to say a word, only to be cut out by static. I frowned. "Hey, Toto? Are you there? Can you hear me?" No response. I held the arm away from me, and looked carefully at it. Nothing was wrong, or not that I could see at least. All I could guess was either the sap had worked its way into the limb and crapped up some of the inner workings, or that it didn't have much power, not being connected to Yuyu any more. Either way: something had happened, barely five seconds after trying to talk, and there didn't seem to be any way to fix it. "Damn it…" I cursed out loud. I'd almost made it to Uexkull, who was watching me intently… Or rather, he was watching Yuyu's arm intently. His mouth twitched, and I thought I saw a line of drool at the corner of it.
"No, you're not allowed the chew the arm," I said. His ear flicked towards me as I spoke, but that's the only real reaction I got out of him. Getting a little paranoid, I held the arm close to me, and looked around the fish-shaped room again. It looked twice as big as it did the last time I was standing in this spot. I spun around, to look towards the little room at the 'tail'. If we want to see what's over there, we'd better do it now, before we have to run a marathon, just to get there. "Come with me," I ordered.
I didn't have a clue if the rabbit could really understand me, but as I ran for the fish's tail, I heard a steady thumping, and saw a flash of green, as he overtook me. "H-hey! Wait up!" I yelled, "You're meant to be following me!" Stupid rabbit… He probably thought I wanted to race him…
I wouldn't be able to tell you how long it took us to reach the fish-tail room. It felt like it should have taken ten minutes, but with the rippling floor, which seemed to be pushing outwards against the walls and forcing them to grow, it probably took twenty. Regardless, we made it (eventually), and seemed to be in another room of lined with bookshelves—
"WHO'S THERE?!" A voice roared, making me and Uexkull jump. The rabbit hopped backwards, away from the direction the sound came from, and crouched down low, looking like he was ready to pounce if the voice came any closer. In the meantime, I'd turned to look that way myself and noticed a thin doorway between some of the bookcases, that I hadn't realised was there before. "I CAN HEAR YOU!" The voice yelled again. I ran over there, quickly, not wanting to risk the room growing too fast for me to get back to Uexkull, and kept hidden just around the corner of one of the shelves, curious to see what was going on.
"Just my imagination…" the voice mumbled to itself. I waited a while before risking poking my head around and peering inside.
There appeared to be another, smaller, room tucked away in there, but this one was very dark. There was a dirty yellow bulb hanging from the ceiling, casting a murky light over what looked like a guy hunched over a desk. Suddenly, the guy got up, and walked quickly towards where I was. I ducked low, hoping I hadn't been spotted, but it seemed like I wasn't even noticed. As the person got closer, I saw it was a man, with long black hair, a tattered black coat, and wearing sunglasses. Is that Salt? It looked a lot like him, but his face quite didn't look right, and I couldn't work out why.
I watched as the man reached up for a book above him. Literally above. There were bookshelves all around the top side of the tunnel that lead to his small room. He took one, and a new book which hadn't been there before, seemed to slide into place, filling the gap as if it never existed. The man either didn't notice, or didn't care, and returned to his desk, mumbling away in a gruff voice, "I need to find the answer… I must be close by now…" He walked as if they were trying to carry the weight of the world on their shoulders, each step an urgent, but heavy, plod. Yeah, that's definitely Salt, even if it doesn't quite look like him… But he doesn't sound right… Is he sick?
"Doctor Salt?" Another voice came from the small room inside the bookshelves. One that filled me with anger, just from hearing it. Hidaka? I frowned. Wait a second, what the crapping hell are those two doing in Pure Illusion in the first place? Why aren't they helping me look for Cocona?! I was about to wander in there and yell at them both, when I stopped in my tracks.
I hadn't been seen, (neither of them was facing me) but that wasn't why I ended up standing and watching. I was shocked because Hidaka looked concerned. Genuinely concerned. It… confused me. A scientist that… cares? I'd seen a moment of Hidaka being kind before, in a memory of a younger Papika, but this… This was starting to make my head hurt.
"Doctor Salt, it's just me. You should rest—"
"I CAN'T REST, HIDAKA!" Salt screamed at the magenta-haired scientist. It was odd, seeing his face from the side, and it was then that I realised why he looked odd to me: because he was younger here. Is this another memory of someone's?
Salt continued talking, "Mimi's trapped in Pure Illusion," he said, turning back to the book he'd taken from the shelves. "My father has to have left something here, some evidence that can help me bring her back… Her and my daughter, and Papikana…" Suddenly, Salt broke out into a coughing fit.
"Doctor Salt!" Hidaka cried his name, worried, and placed a hand on the other man's back. A… comforting touch? The pain in my head got a little worse, having trouble accepting the images of a scientist trying to be nice to someone. "Doctor Salt, please!" Hidaka said, "You need to take a break! You're working yourself to death!"
"Just a little longer, Hidaka…"
"No, Salt!" Hidaka grabbed Salt's face, roughly, and turned him, so they were looking at each other. "I know you blame yourself, for not leaving with Mimi and Papikana in the first place, but this isn't the right way to fix things! What's happened in the past has happened, and you can't change that." I was surprised to hear Hidaka sounding so… forceful, but so concerned. Salt seemed to be reacting to the Magenta-haired man's words similarly, his face seeming shocked. "You need to stop blaming yourself. I can understand that you want to save them, but you can't save them if you end up so sick, you can't carry on your work. Don't forget," Hidaka gave him a small smile, "we're all here to help you, Salt. You're not alone in this. It might take a long time, but we'll save them one day. Mimi has powers in Pure Illusion, doesn't she? And you know she'll protect Papikana and Cocona, and keep them safe."
Salt's face changed again, looking tired and defeated, but he seemed to accept Hidaka's words, nodding reluctantly. The scientist gently coaxed him up and away from the desk. Oddly, although they were both walking, the room itself seemed to be the thing that moved, as if they were scrolling the world along, rather than they themselves, being the ones moving. Hidaka led Salt over to a couch, and Salt flopped down on it. Soft snores could be heard from him barely seconds later. A third person entered the scene (Sayuri), looking down at the black-haired man on the sofa. "Is Doctor Salt okay?" she asked.
"He'll be fine," Hidaka said, "Just needs a rest for now." He sighed. "Well, honestly I think he needs to let go of Mimi and move on. I admire his determination with his work, but this isn't healthy. I know he still feels guilty, but I don't think there's anything we can do."
"Hidaka, his child, his best friend, and the person he loves are in there," Sayuri said, blushing and stumbling a little over that last point. "How can you say he should just move on, after losing everything like that?"
Hidaka didn't speak for a while, as if he was thinking carefully about Sayuri's question. "Maybe it was a harsh thing to say… I can't imagine what it's like to go through something like that..." he sighed, "I don't know what to do. I just wish there was some way I could help him…" The scientist remained in the room a little longer before walking away, although this time he did disappear, and the scene stayed exactly where it was hovering over Sayuri and Salt. Sayuri's hand was hovering in the air, as if she wanted to try and help too, but she pulled her hand away. She looked around for a moment, and left the area, before coming back with a pillow and a blanket. Carefully, she lifted Salt's head, and placed the pillow under it, and draped the blanket over him.
The scene ended there, the whole area fading into darkness. I barely had time to blink, and all of a sudden, the bookcases in front of me had snapped shut, as if there was never a hole in the wall to begin with.
What the hell just happened? I mean, I was pretty sure that was a memory, but as far as I knew, there was nothing in here to influence the fact it'd happened in the first place. If Mimi was behind this, I felt she would have appeared by now, but she never showed up. I puzzled over that, staring at the wall for a while, before I shook my head. The room is growing Yayaka, and there's nothing more to look at here. Just go back to Uexkull.
I turned, and saw the rabbit-man was a lot further away than I remember him being, and got mad at myself. What the hell am I doing, standing around watching things? We've wasted more than enough time! I quickly scanned the room, and saw a door in one of the corners, that my brain must have somehow skipped over entirely. "Hey, Uex," I called, and pointed at the door. I wasn't sure he'd understand me, but his ear twitched and he looked, and ran over to where I pointed. It wasn't long before I charged off to go join him.
Of course, there was no way to know for certain what was on the other side of the door. It could have been more rooms that grew even faster than this one, or it could have dropped into a pool of acid that'd melt us down to the bone in seconds… But there's not exactly anywhere else to go in here unless one of those books hides a secret passageway, like in Cocona's stories… I wasn't gonna go and test that theory though. By the time you checked ten books in that room, another hundred would have been spat out onto the shelves.
I put my hand on the doorhandle and flung it open…
…To reveal a room that at first glance, looked like it was made up of stacks of coins. Well, not all of them. Some looked like they'd just been carelessly splashed all over, in little mounds and hills. And the piles were growing too. Small discs of metal, in all sorts of shapes and colours, were dripping down like sparkling rain, some landing neatly on the little coin towers, and others adding to the great mess on the floor.
Cautiously, I stepped in. Nothing happened. I tried to call Uexkull into the room, and he followed, but his ears were flicking in all directions with the clattering coins falling from above. The only other noise I could hear was him sniffing, as if there was a scent in this room he was trying to pick up. "Can you smell something?" I asked.
The green rabbit gave no answer. I swept my gaze around the room, trying to keep an eye out for any danger, when one of the coins caught my eye. I knelt down to get a better look, and found myself looking at a Japanese yen coin. Only 100 yen, so it wasn't really worth much, but the fact I saw a coin from Earth in Pure Illusion puzzled me. How the heck did it get here? Then I felt a little burst of energy. Cocona probably still had tons of spare coins on her from that day in town. Maybe it's one of hers! I dashed around the piles of coins, trying to see if there were any more there and… Well, it was hard to say. There was more than just that 100yen coin, but there were also American quarters and dollars, English pence and pounds, Euros and cents… Actually, all of the coins in here were from Earth. I looked up at the ceiling. How the hell are they all getting here? I wondered, watching the glimmering discs fall from the ceiling.
There was a sudden metallic clatter as Uexkull hopped over the piles of coins to another part of the room. "H-hey!" I said, surprised, and ran along after him. "You could at least answer my question before you run off like that!" I scolded him as I caught up. Not that he could probably understand me anyway, but still, it annoyed me that he just wandered off with no warning. But as my eyes trailed along the floor, and caught sight of what he'd smelt, I couldn't blame him.
"Papika?!" I exclaimed, surprised. Sure enough, the pink-haired girl was there, barely visible under a stack of coins, only a tuft of hair and a closed eye exposed. I clawed some of the coins aside, trying to dig her out. Uexkull saw what I was doing, and helped. Together, we'd managed to get her out of there a lot quicker than I would have been able to if I was here alone, or even with Nyunyu. I barely had time to be grateful I'd ended up being sent to Pure Illusion with the rabbit-man, before worry overrode every other thought I had.
"Hey, Papika, wake up!" I said, fear starting to spike. How long has she been here? Assuming the amount of 'rain' from above never changed, it could easily have been a week. Shit, is she even still alive?! "Hey! Papika!" I cried. I turned my attention away from her, and went for the pocket in my weapon belt that contained my collapsible water bottle. Like everything else on me, it hadn't really been 'refilled', so there probably wasn't much left, but it was all I had. Carefully, I put a hand under Papika's head, and tried to lift her up, so… What should I do? Should I splash some on her first to try and wake her up? Or should I try and force some down her throat? …Is she even breathing?
Cursing myself for not thinking to check that right away, I leant down, putting my ear to her head, and heard light breaths. I felt some relief at that, and tried to gently shake her. "Come on, Papika, you're tougher than this… You can get up," I said, trying to convince myself she was fine, as well as try and encourage her, if she could somehow hear me.
There still wasn't any reaction from the pink-haired girl. My mind began to run a little wild with unwanted thoughts. If she even wakes up, would she want to see me? After I wasn't there to protect her from my shadow? Hell, what if she was attacked by it again and it left her here? I'd be the last person she'd wanna see… As much as I wanted to hold Papika up, the strength was leaving my arms as more and more guilt began to weigh me down. I've been so horrible to her… Memories came back to me of the times in Pure Illusion when we'd been enemies. She has to hate me after everything I've done… My mind then drifted to the memories of Papikana as she grew young and old inside the tree, over and over. She's been alone for literal lifetimes, with only Cocona for company in fleeting moments… And I've just been there, wishing Cocona would be mine, for not even a fraction of that time… Wanting to keep the two apart, just so I could have her all to myself…
I thought of the memory of her at the hospital, chasing Buu, only to see me and Cocona hanging out. How she looked genuinely sad for both of us, even though she'd never met me at all. She cared before she even really knew me…
"Please, don't hate Papika." Mimi's words echoed in my head.
"How could I ever hate you?" I whispered, tears rolling down my face and onto Papika's. "You're so kind to me. Kinder than I deserve… I could be in the desert dying of thirst, begging for a drop of water, and you'd find me a whole oasis…" My arms had tightened around the pink-haired girl's body. "Come on you softie, wake up… Don't you wanna see Cocona again?" My voice lightened up a little, mentioning the blue-haired girl's name, but it wasn't enough to get rid of the sadness that weighed on my heart at the thought of losing one of my friends. "Come on, Papika. Wake up, and we can find her together. She'll want to see you again." I squeezed her a little tighter. "I'm sorry, Papika… I'm so sorry for everything I've done to hurt you… Just please…" I could barely talk any more. My throat was tight and my voice breaking as much as my heart was.
The movement was slight, so I thought I'd imagined it, when I felt her stir in my arms. But there was a small groan from Papika, followed by a very weak voice "Ya… ya… ka?"
I jumped up at the sound of my name, and looked at Papika again, but her eyes were still closed. But she has to know I'm here. She said my name. I wiped my eyes, and swallowed hard, trying to muster whatever commanding aura I could. "We're gonna get you out of here. I might have messed up before, but I ain't gonna mess up this time. We'll find Cocona and Yuyu and get you all back home safe," I said, trying to sound a lot stronger than I felt. After my speech, I passed Papika over to Uexkull, who carried her easily, and once again, I was thankful to have the rabbit on my team. Maybe I'll find him something to chew when this is all over.
Suddenly, his ears pricked up, alert. His nose was twitching. "What's up with you? Can you smell something?" I asked. I wasn't expecting him to move, but he nodded, and stared, oddly focused on looking in one direction. I felt a tiny spark of hope. "Cocona?" I guessed. The spark of hope became a flame when the rabbit turned to me briefly to nod again.
"Then what the hell are we waiting for? Let's go get her!" I said, suddenly feeling a lot more energetic than I had a minute ago. "Lead the way!"
He hopped off, keeping a secure hold of Papika as he dashed through the piles of coins in the huge room, and I followed after him. If Hidaka's map was right, then we'll run into Yuyu before we run into Cocona in this world. We can rescue all of them nice and easy.
As we ran through, I noticed that there was a lot more in this place than just the coins. The next thing we seemed to be running through was heaps of old socks. Mostly odd ones, rarely pairs. Most of them friggin' stunk of ages old sweat, from having been used. Thankfully, the smell didn't seem to knock Uexkull off the trail he was following, but running through there made me wanna reach for my breathing mask.
After the Valley of Socks, were keys in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Modern house keys, to older medieval keys, to comically oversized 'keys to the city' you see in American cartoons sometimes. Like the coins, most of them were just in great huge heaps on the floor, but some were arranged, hanging from rings, neatly on the far-away walls, in-between all sorts of paintings. I vaguely recognised one of the art styles as a Vincent van Gogh one, but I wouldn't be able to tell you what it was. Are all of these paintings meant to be famous? I felt like they could have been, but at the same time that just made me wonder more. What the heck are coins and paintings (and possibly socks and keys) from Earth all doing in Pure Illusion?
Past the keys was a ton of ancient pottery and statues, and planks of wood all resting against them, parts of it looking like an old market place. A couple of stray weapons were propped up all around too. I didn't really know much about swords and crossbows and all that stuff, but a fair number of them gave off this aura of craftsmanship, as if they were carefully forged to do great things. One of them that stuck out to me looked like it'd spent centuries at the bottom of a lake and had the English letters 'EXCALIBUR' on it.
And then… things got weirder.
After running through an area in this massive room (which I was starting to think was some sort of corridor) which was filled with all sorts of rugs (old, new, woven, knitted…) Uexkull kept running ahead without stopping, with Papika bobbing on his back, but I started to slow down a little running through all this mess. There's so many things in this place, but there doesn't seem to be anyone around… So, how did they get here?
I knelt down next to a tapestry, which had been neatly folded on the floor, and felt the rough fabric under my hands as I brushed my fingers over it… something about it bugged me, but I wouldn't say what it was exactly until I pressed down lightly, and felt a hard, circular shape underneath. Dropping Yuyu's metal arm, I put a hand into the folds of the tapestry. My fingers closed around a wooden disc, and pulling it out revealed white cloth snapped onto it and a pattern that… confused the hell out of me. Unlike everything else in this corridor, this thing wasn't from Earth, no… but I recognised it. Hell, I was there when I saw it being created. Day after day, trapped in a time loop for three weeks…
I was looking down at Yuyu's embroidery of the yuri-hell-school. How the crap did THAT get here? I don't quite know what happened to me, but I got an urge to root through the tapestry again. I stuck my hand deep inside, and my fingers touched another circular wooden frame... And another. I grabbed each of them and pulled them out, only to find more and more buried in there. Twenty-one of them to be exact. They were identical, complete with a carefully stitched monotone recreation of the same building. One for every day we spent trapped there… But… these can't be here. That world was destroyed, these shouldn't exist anymore. They can't have just gotten lost and found their way here… Someone must have moved them, or something…
I stopped thinking for a moment.
'Lost'… That word hit me. The ever-expanding bookshelves that kept filling themselves… a vision accompanied that of books being tucked away and forgotten in attics, somehow being sucked into the floor before being spat onto the shelves in the fish-shaped room. The coins that kept raining from the sky… As if they fell down the side of a couch in one world, and somehow were pulled into Pure Illusion. Odd socks… Cocona was normally a neat and organised child, but she said to me a few times how her grandma could sometimes only find one of Cocona's socks when it came to laundry day, and the other was nowhere to be seen… of course, it'd be pretty damn hard to find something that'd strayed into another dimension. The sword with English letters… Cocona had told me about a story once of a guy called King Arthur who had a sword called 'Excalibur'…
It was weird… Not just the physical things either, but that memory I saw in the room with all the bookshelves too. I'm still not really sure how that worked, or whose it was, but if lost items could be in Pure Illusion, why not a lost memory, someone had long forgotten?
A World of Lost Things…
This was… something new. I knew you could encounter worlds with almost anything in Pure Illusion, but the idea of a world like this… It was a place I'd be tempted to explore on any other day, just to see what I'd find. Lost items, lost memories…
And lost people.
I leapt back up to my feet, running as fast as I could, and cursing the fact I got distracted. I shouldn't have stopped. What if I end up getting lost in here too? Where the hell are Uexkull and Papika?
I didn't quite take as much notice of the things around me as I tried to find the rabbit-man. My heart leapt anytime I saw green or pink together, but half of the time it was just some cloth, or a painting or something. My vision began to swirl and sorta blur, with how fast I was trying to move my head, trying to look at everything at once, so I couldn't possibly miss any signs of the two of them… It didn't really occur to me to try reaching out with my bond to Papika to try and work out where they were. By the time that thought even crossed my mind, I tripped up over something and landed flat on the floor.
"Fraggin' hell..." I muttered, trying to ignore the pain in my ribs, which had flared up again with the impact. It's a lot better than it was, and Yuyu's dragon-hide repairs helped protect my damaged side, but it still hurt, to the point of being agitating. I put my hand flat against the floor and was about to push myself up, and turned to look and see what I'd tripped over. Something encased in a silver wrapper. That looks like an Asclepius ration... My stomach growled at the thought of food, so as much as I didn't really want to, I reached around and grabbed it. Tearing open the wrapper, I saw it was pretty much just a cluster of crumbs in there, but I wolfed it down anyway. I had no idea if Flip Flap got some nutrients or food into my system with a drip or anything in the time I'd spent in their medical room, but I felt it was probably an idea to eat while I could.
I swallowed the last mouthful, and got myself into a sitting position, figuring I should rest while I had the chance too. I didn't feel tired, but I did promise Toto I'd try not to push myself too much. There didn't appear to be any enemies around, so this was probably a safe time to take a break. I thought for a second about contacting him, and went to grab Yuyu's metal arm, only to remember I'd dropped the damn thing when I found all the embroidery and forgot to pick it up.
"I probably couldn't find that again if I tried…" I mumbled, thinking out loud.
"Have you lost something?" Asked a chirping voice. I nearly leapt out of my skin in surprise. Where the crap did that come from? My hands drifted down to my weapon belt's grappling wires, and I stood up, suddenly alert. It sounded like it was close… Although the chirping tone of the voice appeared friendly, there seemed to be an underlying hint of menace to it that my paranoid mind wouldn't let go of. Before I knew it, I was running again.
I didn't really have a direction in mind, but even if I did, I don't think that would have made a difference really. No matter where I ended up there were countless objects strewn all over, blocking my path. In my hurry I'd probably upset some of the objects and started some sort of chain reaction, I could hear something that sounded like I'd angered a bunch of sentient church bells. Echoing clangs and clatters, all coming from at least 3 different places…
I jumped heaps of letters and parcels, ducked under an archway of crumbling stone, and just about managed to hop out of the way of a stray skateboard, nudging a rusted suit of armour as I did so… Wait, did something move? I thought I saw a corner of something metalic glint through a gap a short distance away. The noise of bells ringing seemed to be getting closer. Is it heading towards me? I stopped, ducking down for a second, as I scanned around, looking for a 'busier' part of the room I could hide in.
The direction I'd settled on took me through what looked like an antique store, if a herd of rhinos had trampled through it. Broken, dusty tables, wardrobes, and wooden chests, all jutting in a haphazard maze of chaos. It was difficult to worm my way through all that, sure, but if I was being hunted down, whatever was following me would have a lot of trouble getting through that… Or I hoped so at least. I turned to look over my shoulder, to see if my pursuer was still after me, and soon regretted doing so. Not because I saw anything, but because it was dumb, and meant I wasn't looking where I was going. In my panic, I wasn't thinking right. Amongst a gathering of mouldy armchairs all hunched in a circle, an umbrella stand suddenly fell over, spilling its contents in front of me. A spotty yellow umbrella caught my leg as I tried to run past, and I landed flat on the floor again.
"Craps sake…" I cursed, irritating my ribs again. I need to stop tripping up…
"Aww… did you fall down?" The mysterious voice asked, which what I assumed was mock concern.
"Shut it," I growled in response. How the hell can I hear a voice so close, when I can't see anyone?
"My, my, that's not very nice. I'm only offering to help you, and you're being very rude. Let me see if I can fix that…"
The sound of bells, suddenly seemed closer, and a lot louder. As I pushed myself back up, my arms feeling a little wobbly under my own weight, I saw a flash of bronze through the forest of furniture. It was then that I began to realise that the 'clattering' bell sound wasn't quite as random as I thought… If I focused, I could make out the fact it seemed to be in a sequence.
CLANG! (One,) CLANG! (Two,) CLANG! (Three,) CLANG! (Four…) and then a slight pause, before it started all over again.
Each sound bounced off everything around it, disguising the fact it belonged to one being. As if it were animal, stalking me on heavy metal feet… An image came to me of a blocky, metal monster made of bronze, about a second before I lost the ability to think, due to the deafening din. It was powerful enough to make my body begin to feel numb, and I could hardly move to try and cover my ears, in a feeble attempt to block out the noise. Maybe it was muscle memory, or some habit that'd been ingrained in me, but I unconsciously activated my visor as my hand went to my head. The damaged screen appeared in front of my eyes showing a clash of yellow, pink, blue and red.
Although it was hard to think, the colours managed to strike a part of my mind that hadn't been shut down by the cacophony. I'm here for a reason. I need to find my friends!
It was tough to move, when I could feel the noise vibrating all the way in my bones, but somehow, I found the strength to stand up again. To lift one leg, and then the other. I kept my hands up over my ears, trying to combat the noise and shouted as loudly as I could to try and power myself up. "I need to find my friends! Flip flapping!"
The only hint I had that any of that was said out loud at all, was the fact my mouth opened and closed. I couldn't hear a word I said, no matter how I tried to fight sheer volume of the bronze monsters. I didn't have any amorphous on me, so yelling 'flip flapping' wouldn't have really had any effect…
…or so I thought.
On my broken visor screen, the red stripes seemed to glow.
The most I could do was frown to express my confusion, before I ended up heading for that direction.
Even though my vision was filled with a rainbow of coloured slashes, I somehow still found a way through the endless mess, avoiding the bronze monsters (which were the yellow things that showed up on my visor). There was a close call, where one just merrily stomped through ancient artifacts, crushing them to powder, just an inch from my own foot, but by some miracle, that was the most dangerous encounter I had.
It turned out my destination, ended up being a building. How one had gotten into the World of Lost Things, (also making me wonder, 'How the crapping hell do you lose an entire building?!') I had no idea, but the pink, blue, and red dots were all in there. I clicked my visor off at that point and… didn't rush in right away. Something about the building seemed really familiar to me, but I couldn't quite place my finger on what exactly. It wasn't the yuri-hell-school, I knew that much. If it was, I probably would have just strolled on in, not questioning how it got here, because that would have at least made sense to me, but this… this just looked like a plain old house…
It puzzled me for a while, until a vague memory of an identical one in a jungle made up of pencil-sketched lines came to mind. One of Mimi's houses? That seemed plausible. She could have ended up here at some point, too…
I paused for a second. I can hear my own thoughts again.
I turned around. The three bronze monsters that had been trudging after me, and hunting me down had stopped moving. They sat; heads bowed all looking at me intently. As if they were trying to herd me to this one place… And now they're standing guard, so I can't run away from the house…
I swallowed. My mouth felt as dry as tree bark, that'd been out in the sun all day. At first, I was terrified by the thought of being trapped like this… But then I just got suspicious. The monster's behaviour seemed too… organised for my liking. Has someone planned this? I scowled; my fear being pushed aside by my growing anger, as I thought about how these monsters, yellow dots, seemed to have led me to the red one. Am I just another part in someone else's experiment? My body began to feel hot, and my blood started to roar. I've been trying to follow that damn dot all this time… Was it just somebody messing with me?
Pissed off, I slammed a heavy kick to the front door. Toto said not to push myself in here, but I didn't care about that any more. Has this all been just a part of some game? What felt like the scent of a million wild flowers cam wafting out the house, but as overpowering as it was, in my fury, I was able to dismiss it. First Asclepius, and now this? That didn't stop me from going over to the teapot and smashing the thing against a wall. Am I just a toy for the damn universe to play with?!
I didn't really register if the smell was going or not. I was too busy dashing through every room in the house, trying to find the spot those three signals came from. And it's taken my best friends too! Any doors that were closed were promptly met with a steel-capped boot, as I made my way through the building.
There was nothing downstairs. I skipped every second step, pretty much flying up to the next floor of the house, stomped on the final step at the top, ready to charge off… only to end up standing there, bewildered.
I'd been upstairs in Mimi's house before, to go to the bedroom Papika stayed in when she was attacked, and… it looked nothing like this. Here, there was pretty much just a corridor. The walls and ceiling were a deep black, giving the impression of an endless space, with the only visible thing in it a wooden walkway leading to that one door… My anger was burning out a little, and anxiety began to grow in me again, not expecting this change. Instead of running through here, like I had every other room in the house, this time… I walked slowly. Carefully. Feeling a little shaky, I stuck an arm out so I could steady myself against the wall, only for my hand to meet with empty air. There are no walls…The darkness around me began to feel overwhelming. Like I could drown in here… I took a deep breath, but it felt like I wasn't getting any air.
And that was when the path behind me began to crumble.
I felt it, more than saw it. There were creaks, and cracks, as the wood behind fell away, and the path I was standing on became less stable. Instantly, I was running for that one door at the end of the room. The only chance I got to look back, was when I opened the door, and slammed it behind me. Not only was the path I'd just been standing on gone, but the stairs that'd taken me to this place too. I was gasping for breath in this new room, trying to calm down and make sense of what had just happened. I turned to get a look at my new surroundings…
And my fear only grew…
For I was standing in an entirely enclosed room. No windows, doors, no source of light around at all, and no way to see into the outside world… Yet in the middle, there was one object, very clearly highlighted, easy to see… and impossible to avoid.
One that filled me with utter dread.
"What's wrong?" Asked the chirping voice from before. "Are you afraid to face yourself?"
"Shut it!" I shouted, my voice shaking. That can't be real! I can't be here, I'm not dreaming! Panicked, I tried fumbling with the handle of the door which I swear I was still holding onto, only to tighten my grip on thin air. What?! I turned to face the door, preparing to launch a kick and break it down…
But there was no door. No way out, and nothing else I could do. I have to look at it…
Reluctantly, I turned…
And faced Cocoro's Mirror…
Authors note: I sorta cobbled this chapter together from 9k words worth of scraps I was going to have happen a little earlier in the story, but had to discard. I felt the timing for the World of Lost Things was better now, and I'm happy I didn't have to throw that idea out completely… even if it ended up a little messy, sorry about that. I also wasn't quite planning for chapter progress to be so slow, but I'm still sorta trying to work out how to put a few things in the story. There should only be 2 or 3 chapters left after this one… No idea when they'll come out, but hopefully some time.
Speaking of Flip Flappers projects though, I may be a part of another one soon that isn't writing related. I don't quite wanna say too much, about that though as I REALLY don't wanna jinx it, but I'm super excited about it, and I super hope it gets going soon. If something comes of it I'll post more details in a future chapter.
