Chapter Sixteen

Yume blinks, and then squeezes her eyes shut again. The red and black is too bright against the pounding in her head. Taking a few deep breaths, the girl moves an arm languidly over her eyes. Pain doesn't go away, but it helps keeps the nausea down for the moment. She'll just keep lying in the parking lot for a few more minutes, thanks.

"Sir?" asks a too-high pitched voice above her. Yume's eyebrows furrow because it sort of sounds like they're talking to her. "Sir, are you alright?"

Yume slowly removes her harm, blinking to adjust to the low light. At least her headache is slowly dissipating.

"Sir?" the voice says again. Yume's eyes snap up to see a woman looking above the girl's head. The woman panics and reaches down. "Sir-"

Yume slowly moves to sit up, and then slips and jars her shoulder on the ground. The woman recoils back, glancing left and right with wide eyes and a gasp. "What…?"

The girl slowly crawls away while the woman rambles on about disappearing people. Yume leans against a surprising cool sports car, sighing at the temperature. She digs through her backpack to make sure everything survived her blackout. She tries to think back to what caused it. All she did was go to grab a solid V.I.P.'s hand. Barely touched them at all. A brush at its finest, and then she was on the ground with a headache.

Her in-tact phone brings more questions. She has alert after alert of errors. Most have to do with 'unable to complete Trkstr_function' and list the variables active and inactive after a force exit. Once she's through almost every alert, the girl is left with two textboxes.

Yume Persona Status has reached: Permanently_Sealed_Away

She stares at the first one for a long time before exiting out.

The second and final box doesn't help her trembling.

Warning: Not all Trkstr_function is available for use. Confirm use of Trkstr_function?

Yume's hands shake. Her fingers slip until she has to put the phone down and breathe. All her planning and exercise for what? She won't be a Persona user. She won't be special. There will be no magic or buffs. No healing or dodging. The monsters will always have the upper hand because what can she do? She'll be a normal, boring human in a world for extraordinary people.

I am extraordinary.

Yume stills at the lightening-flash thought. She brings her hands up to tighten her hair bun, realizing she truly is extraordinary. How many people can say they're building an online, information network? How many people can say they hacked into another world's application system? How many four year olds can claim to have survived spending hours in the Metaverse?

"How many people get more than one chance at life?" Yume whispers.

I am extraordinary.

She picks up her phone. With frightening ease, Yume places her thumb over the accept button.

"I am in a world most people will only ever dream of," Yume pep talks to herself. "This is my life now. I committed when I started taking care of myself. I committed when I didn't roll over and die." She smiles at the textbox. "I am extraordinary."

Pep talk succeeds.

Yume hits accept.

Trkstr_function confirmed!

"And Persona or no," Yume smiles a bit evilly at the screen, "I am going to get as good as I can. I've already cheated your system once, Igor.

"Let's do it again."

;;;

Tetsuya feels a shiver go up his spine, and it bugs him because he can't think of why.

"What's wrong, Ace?" asks the teenager in a black mesh mask.

"I'm not too sure," Tetsuya answers, glancing around the safe room. "It almost felt like… you know what, never mind. I've been spending too much time reading about Fools in the Library. It's making me paranoid, I guess."

"Dude," the teenager in a solid grey, half-face mask, sighs and rolls his eyes. "When was the last time your intuition was wrong? Come on, tell us what you think."

Tetsuya shakes his head, hand brushing the pocket where his journal rests. "It's nothing. Maybe I'm just cold."

A bottle of mysterious liquid slides over to him before anyone can say anything. All eyes turn to the teenager with a small beaked mask. She glances up from her textbook, ignoring everyone but their leader. "Guess who gets to be the rat for my warming elixir."

Tetsuya swallows hard at the foreboding feeling he gets from staring at the bottle. He, unfortunately, knows what to do here. "Bottoms up."

There are a few seconds of peace after the drink. Then he catches on fire.

"What the frick?!"

"Bones, what did you do?!"

"Hmm… less stimulant next time."

"Don't just sit their calmly!"

"Can someone please put me out already?"

;;;

"Are you going to Mr. Enomoto's get-together, Mr. Sakura?" Yume asks that Tuesday night.

He sighs and slouches further into the booth. "Seriously, Yume, it's just Sojiro." He turns his head away and grumbles. "Don't give Wakaba a reason to get on my case again."

Yume, having absolutely no idea what he is talking about, just tilts her head. The silence starts to stretch, so she asks the question again.

"He better be," the café owner says, delivering them their food.

"I'm supposed to take Futaba Sunday," the government worker glares at the man. "So I won't be here then."

"Oh," Yume says rather dejectedly. "No Futaba visiting?"

"We'll come by Monday evening," he assures the girl. "And I'll be here Saturday, just so you won't feel mobbed by strangers."

She sends him a bright smile to express her relief. She can't stop the foreboding feeling that tells her this is all a bad idea and she should hide in her room until everyone is gone.

"They're arriving Friday." Mr. Enomoto entices the younger man. "You could show up and meet them then.

"Not a chance," Sojiro pushes his dishes off to the side and flattens out the newspaper once again. "Some of us have things to do on the holiday. Yume, the answer here is Cingöz. Can you read out the clue?"

Yume leans over her food, squinting and slowly reading it. "A fictional thief from books by Peyami Safa's."

"Very good," he nods. "How about this clue?"

And so continues the evening.

;;;

Yume has a pretty good idea what the blue dot beside Tetsuya's name means.

There's one beside her name now too.

A/N: Thanks for reading!

Thank you, ARSLOTHES, for your review! Hope you enjoyed the chapter!

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