Chapter Seven
The third week of dance starts, and with it a notice about the end of term dance recital. The girls in the class don't stop talking about it for the day. The inexperienced are nervous. Haru and Miwa are excited. Yume walks home that day, holding her two free tickets and the flyer.
She goes to knock on Ms. Eguchi's door.
"Oh!" the woman shouts, looking half crazed and startled as she stares down the girl. She readjusts the cellphone by her ear. "Nothing, I'm alright." She holds a hand over the receiver. "I'm sorry, Yume, but my daughter in-law is having her baby and I must be going. If you see Hitoshi, can you tell him to hurry to the hospital?"
"Ee!" Yume nods.
Maki doesn't seem to be paying attention as she locks her door. "Of course I'll keep trying his phone. If that boy doesn't show up to his godson's birth I'm going to…"
Yume stares at the empty stairwell, listening to the elder's threats echo as she goes. The girl's hand tightens around the flyer, and Yume turns to her door. She slowly walks into the empty room. Her tickets and flyer drop on a low table, and Yume can't seem to drag her eyes away.
She's going to her grandchild's birth, Yume mentally whispers. She tries to stop acting like a spoiled brat. She can ask Ms. Eguchi about the recital when the woman gets back. Don't be selfish.
Her eyes go to her open bedroom door. She slips in, slowly dragging her feet to the burner phone.
The decision to go to the other world...
Her eyes flicker from phone to computer.
Do something meaningful for once.
Yume flicks the lights on and starts up the monitor.
;;;
"You'll never see it coming~"
"What the f-"
"You'll see that my mind is too fast for eyes~"
"Does anyone else hear that?"
"A safe room has never played music, has it?"
"You're done in~"
"Hold on, it's coming from Spike."
"Dude, is that your phone?"
"By the time it hits you, your last surprise~"
"How is that working?"
"Never mind that, why don't you have it on silent?!"
"I didn't think it would go off in a castle! It's never done that before!"
"Well, answer it already!"
"I'm coming~"
*Click*
"Hello?"
"Finally!" a child-like voice shouts. "Your brother is having a baby."
That causes Spike to double take. "What?"
"Wait, sorry," the child apologizes. "Your brother's wife is having a baby! Ms. Eguchi has been trying to get a hold of you."
"Who is this?" Spike demands, pacing around the small room.
"…You forgot me?" the child asks quietly.
"What?"
"Er, nothing," the child says, slightly dejected. "You need to hurry to the hospital. Your mother has been threatening to mention your name around town, to get you a job, if you don't show."
Spike swears and hangs up, turning to the group with wide eyes. "I need to get out of here; I'm about to be a godfather."
"Then go," the leader of the group says. "Bones, go with him. Maybe you'll get to see the birth, get some early experience."
"Ha. Ha." Bones replies, heels clicking as she follows the panicking young man. "So, boy or girl?"
"They don't know," Spike admits, hands in fists to stop fidgeting. "I'm just hoping for ten fingers and toes."
Bones hums. "Do you think I can see the birth?"
"Bones, no."
"Doctor Bones, yes."
;;;
Yume lowers her phone, playing with the bandages on her arm. Maybe coming here when she's injured wasn't such a good idea.
I want to survive.
Good to kick bad habits now. No more unhealed injuries before doing something stupid. Even if the injury is road rash.
The girl goes to the ledge of her apartment building's roof. She sits and kicks her legs, content to watch the chaos around her.
The sky makes the world tints of red and black. Her neighborhood seems free from the crazy, which is comforting. Just red and black, and red and black, and… more red and black.
A few blocks away, the world starts getting weird.
Some kind of nightclub seems to take up three blocks. The spotlights twist and turn, but the light aimed for the sky never hits. Even when it aims towards Yume – who flinches in what she is sure will be blinding light – the light never actually comes. It's just a white dot, defying physics.
Also defying physics, there is a block where the nightclub and the extremely large hotel seem to overlap. It's like they are two separate things trying to exist in one space. The girl feels her mind hurt just trying to comprehend it.
There is a roar overhead, and Yume looks up. A large, fancy plane fly's sort-of low to the ground. It seems to circle the city, but its shadow doesn't appear on the… interesting buildings. Unlike when it went dark over her.
Then the airplane flies through a never-ending skyscraper and Yume gives up any pretense of understanding what is exactly going on.
A horn echoes and some kind of train flies through the air.
"Welcome to Persona," Yume mutters, gazing flickering to the moving shadows and milling humans. She brushes her bandages again, drawing in a breath at the pain. "It's a do-or-die world, and I'm not going to let myself die."
For another hour, Yume watches. It's crazy and chaotic, and dangerous and dark, and… she wants to be a part of it.
A small part. Like a pinky nail size part.
But that's more than she can say about what she wants in the real world.
"I wonder if the loot's good," Yume mumbles to herself, standing up and returning to her room. "Maybe I can start selling things." Instead of breaking the law every time she runs out of eating money.
Her phone bleeps at her when she's back in her room, startling Yume into almost dropping it. The little girl flicks it open, and hesitantly accepts the message.
*Error: Unknown Name* Safe Room Found!
"Huh," Yume mutters, toying with her phone a bit. "Is it an error because I live here, or because I went into the other world here?"
Or because it was never supposed to be a safe room at all?
Yume leaves the other world and writes down her questions on a piece of paper.
Questions like, 'what is a safe room?'.
Disclaimer: The song used for Spike's ringtone is Last Surprise, composed by Shoji Meguro, lyrics written by Benjamin Franklin, and sung by Lyn Inaizumi. I had nothing to do with it.
A/N: Thanks for reading!