Chapter Twenty-Two
Monday morning.
She's going to do it.
Just…
No, definitely going to do it.
Yume glances around the parking lot of the cabaret.
She is… absolutely going to do it.
One hundred percent.
…
"Stop being a baby," Yume mutters to herself, bolting behind another car as she searches for a way into the building. "The window is wide open."
She was hoping for some secret pathway that would lead her to the boss of the dungeon. Privately, Yume's happy there doesn't seem to be one. Not even a large arrow pointing on her map. It makes everything feel more real. This is real life, not a game.
Which also means the only unguarded, open window is too high for a short four years old to climb.
Yume waits for the crowd of high-society dressed people to pass before she darts towards the window. From what she can see, it leads to a private room under maintenance. Still, this is better than the front door. Yume psyches herself up, and then takes a running jump.
She flops backwards on the ground.
"You are better than this," Yume grumbles, rubbing her sore arms. The cabaret wall is concrete and hurts, no matter how brightly coloured and pretty it is. "No wall is impassible." She doesn't want a cliché push-object-under-opening-to-climb, though. Yume gets back to her feet and tests how far she can go. She grunts at the strain on her toes, but she can reach about two feet below the window. Good enough.
This time, her face hurts when it meets concrete but she holds on to the windowsill by her fingertips. When the stinging fades, she tries her hardest to twist and pull and grapple herself up. It takes longer than it should, and she collapses on the other side, face smashed into plush carpet.
That was so uncool.
She's in, and that's what matters. Now, to find a safe room so she doesn't have to do that all over again. Yume quietly walks around what is a powdering-room in the making. She's lucky the half of the room she flopped on it the carpeted half. Yume frowns at the concrete, and then at her running shoes. She'll bring her ballet shoes next time. They'll be easier to sneak around in.
The door is locked, no surprises. There is an air ventilation shaft next to the table mirror. After much humming and hawing, the girl resigns herself to the fact that it's secret-agenting through the vents or going back outside to look for another entrance. What's worse is, after a few attempts at being quiet before giving up altogether and just starting her army crawl, that there isn't any of the dust or grime she expected.
It's almost like this vent is a thoroughfare. And, as a trespasser, that is a terrifying thought.
The vent spits out into a hallway. Yume waits until the sound of footsteps is gone and slowly works her way out. Next time, she'll wear long sleeves. Who knows how many more cold vents she'll need to crawl through?
Yume gasps and ducks behind an abandoned serving cart. She hears the footsteps pause as they round the corner, and then continue down the other end of the hall. Carefully, she edges out and moves to peek. In the darkness of the hallway corner the girl leans around, Yume bites down another gasp because holy serving staff batman that is not a waiter!
The tall, lumbering man looks both ways before turning the next corner of the desolate hallway. Yume catches sight of an upside-down crown mask over the void-black face of the waiter. She almost starts freaking out because that is not normal. Like many times, the reincarnated girl is screaming her disbelief in her head. This… craziness is suddenly much more real. Again.
She's not a hero.
"Find a safe room," Yume barely breathes the words. She swiftly, silently, makes her way down the opposite hall, ducking behind chairs and couches and staying to the shadows. She passes a few more of those masked waiters, none of them noticing her wide eyes watching their every move. Finally, a set of large, double doors with a sign 'Main Hall' come into view. With nowhere else to go, and every previous door locked, Yume waits until waiter comes through before slipping into the next area.
The small girl keeps to the dark areas, and there are many of them here. All the lights are on the ballerinas on stage; the women twisting and twirling and leaping gracefully through the air. The people seated in round tables clap politely at the end of the dance. Yume dives behind the wall and nearest empty table when the lights of the room flicker on. Her eyes keep moving, but even the not-people waiters and waitresses have stopped to look at the stage.
Madam Himura's shoes click her whole way on stage. She looks like a hawk, feathered crown attached to stern-librarian reading glasses. Her red stained lips are pulled to an amused smile as she looks to the attentive audience. Feathered coat drapes around her shoulders, hiding the fact her sleeveless cocktail dress isn't held up by straps.
Then she speaks, voice loud and assuring… and distorted. "It's so wonderful to see everyone today! My ballerinas are joyous that you've come to see them once again. They are here for your pleasure, so please remember to show your appreciation after every dance. My name is Madam Himura, for those who don't know. Enjoy yourselves with wine and dining, and let these beautiful ladies tell you a story of love and heartbreak through dance. Thanks you for-"
Yume's attention draws to one of the masked waiters coming up and whispering to a man. "Sir. It is your time for the special event."
The human nods and gets to his feet. Yume debates following, but a couple masked waitresses fall in behind the man. She watches the man go through a guarded door in the far corner of the room, and wonders how she'll ever get to this 'special event' because if that's not a plot clue what is?
The lights fade back to dark as Madam Himura leaves the stage. The ballerinas behind her start their routine, one of the ladies a tremble in her steps. Yume uses the darkness to go around and check the unguarded doors for a way out. One gives, leading to a bare storage room. With the amazing idea to poke around and freak out here, she shuts the door-
- the world changes to the changing room-
-and freezes at the sight of the bare storage room. She could have sworn it was the changing room off the side of the main dance hall. It even had the ballet shoes no one claims hanging in the first cupboard. She can feel her phone vibrate with an alert, now that she's still. Yume checks the room before sitting at the table in the center. She digs through her backpack, unwraps her phone, and goes through the multiple updates. Apparently, the Metaverse Navigator does have a map per dungeon. It updates automatically as she moves through the halls, with an option to take a photo of a map.
And this room is a safe room. No more window climbing. Yay.
Very interesting is how little time has passed since she's been here. It's felt like an hour at least, but her phone says it's barely been a few minutes. That's going to get confusing fast.
And… she doesn't know what to do. Risk her luck today, or try again tomorrow? A map should be first priority, but she can't think of where one would be. She doesn't really want to go any further. No map, no guide, no help, she's alone here with no one and no team and this isn't how games are supposed to go.
But she spent a lot of time doing things herself last life. Now that she has an idea of what this is like – a way in and seen what's inside – she can look through the app's code for a map. There may be one, there may not. What she does need is another phone, so she can keep track of where she is without risk of her current phone being broken or stolen. And maybe start password protecting; get a phone with a keyboard and not one that flips. Not like she hasn't saved enough spare credit for a 'high tech' device.
With that decided, Yume takes a relieved breath and fast-travels to her living room. She quits out of the app, and then pauses; phone still on. She is psychically itchy for some reason. It's fading, but it felt the same this morning when she first started the app, and when she fast-traveled to the palace. Switching the app back on, she gazes around her living room.
It's almost like she's missing some… thing? Someone? It's nothing horrible. It's not a feeling she'd give a second thought. It's just that it feels like she should be… supporting? Covering? These aren't the right words. It fades as fast as it comes. It's just… weird. Yah, a weird feeling. She can ignore it. If she can't place it, it's likely not important.
Still, Yume doesn't turn off the app. If she focuses, it's almost like she can feel something pulling. Again, it's completely ignorable. But… she has time… and maybe it will explain how to find a map? She's doesn't actually want to crawl through a dungeon again, especially not blind. So, Yume readjusts her things and quietly leaves her apartment.
Caught up in staying hidden and trying to focus on the feeling-that-isn't, she barely stops turning the corner in time to not hit the snowman.
No, her mind whispers as she looks up in horror. Not a snowman. Jack Frost. The mascot.
"Ho?" He is clearly as startled as her. "Who are you, hee ho?"
What's truly unfair, Yume thinks as she backpedals, is that I'm shorter than him.
And then she's running, ignoring his calls for her to wait. What she can't ignore is the ice appearing in front of her. Yume lets out an undignified shriek as she stumbles. Her foot twists as she tries to dodge, and she goes sprawling across the empty street.
"I told you to wait, hee ho!" the demon says crossly. Yume's sucking in greedy breaths, on her back, and staring with wide eyes as he stops moving towards her and puts his hands on his hips. "What do you think you were doing, running towards a Sin Palace?"
Yume subtlety moves her arm back, sitting up slowly. Not a word comes from her. What can she say?
Jack Frost falters, a frown starting on his face. "Er… you do spea-hee-k English, right, ho?"
Still nothing to say.
He looks abashed. "Well, gee-hees. My Japanese is a bit rusty-hee ho. Ugh… You. Talk. English?"
Shock fades and turns incredulous. Yume almost wants to reply in Italian, just to see if she can get away it. But, ugh… is this a demon negotiation? Isn't she supposed to appeal to the demon so it doesn't try and kill her? And aren't negotiations supposed to be hard and only done by special people who persona properly?
Someone explain to this guy that she's not a protagonist!
"Frost, ho!" an almost familiar voice says, startling Yume from her thoughts and Jack Frost from attempting anymore broken Japanese. The floating pumpkin head demon blinks at the sight of the girl on the ground before he's a flurry of action. "You're alive, hee ho! That's who I was talking about, Frost!"
"Wait," Jack Frost sends repeated looks between Yume and the other demon. "You went into a Sin Palace and came out alive, hee ho?! Er, you. Palace. In. Out-"
"Ee," Yume nods and then switches to English. "It is low threat level, so I go in while I can."
"You can spea-hee-k English, ho!" Jack Frost exclaims, posing with a shocked expression and a finger pointing at her.
Yume blinks. Looks between the two awed demons. Leaps to her feet and sprints away.
"No!" the pumpkin guy calls. "Not again!"
Yume dodges the ice appearing from the ground and takes a corner. She can hear the clank of a lantern and the patter of feet following her. A few more turns, and she ducks into and alley. Behind a trashcan, Yume holds a few holes in her mouth scarf up to try and better catch her breath.
"Where'd they go, hee ho?" comes from further up the street.
Yume slumps against the wall and closes her eyes for a split second. She opens them to a grinning white face.
"Found 'em!" Jack Frost shouts, grabbing her arm. Then he recoils, letting her go.
Yume doesn't question, just jumps up and runs out of the alley. The pumpkin demon exclaims something about Frost as it sees her, but doesn't chase when Jack Frost stumbles out of the alley, looking at her with wide eyes. Yume's gone from sight within seconds, racing for the cabaret.
A reflection she doesn't want to believe makes her twist around in horror. But no one's there. Yume slows, keeps looking around, but there's nothing. No one is in the red and black street but her. Slowly, ever so slowly, she steps in front of a whole window to see her reflection.
Jack Frost stares back at her.
Yume looks down at her very human hands. The reflection-Frost copies the movement, a bit awkward as their heights don't match up. Yume can feel her breathing pick up a notch at the reflection that's not hers follows her movements. At the moment she's sure her body is hyperventilating, she follows the last action her friend did when she had a panic attack after her older sister's death last life.
Yume slaps herself.
"Ow," the girl whines, clutching her cheek. Through watering eyes and evening breathes, she sees her reflection is back to the normal four year old it's supposed to be.
"There she is, hee ho!"
Not again.
Yume dodges ice and some fire balls – who is the pumpkin demon that he can throw fire – as she finishes running to the cabaret. She ignores their calls for her to stop and dives through the border.
The feeling-that-isn't barely flares up, but she still notices it in between every desperate breath she wheezes on the ground. The demons don't follow her through, which… yay. Plan succeeded.
It's almost an hour away from her nap when she finally gets home. A nap sounds good right about now, what with all the running and possible breakdowns.
When she wakes up, it's raining. After a long moment of consideration, Yume goes to beg Ms. Eguchi for an umbrella instead of testing to see if anyone would notice her appearing from thin air if she took the Metaverse.
Ms. Eguchi isn't home. Yume's walking in the rain.
It's been such a great day so far…
;;;
"Why are you doing that?" asks the girl, Jenny.
Yume looks up, not pausing in pressing her hand's heel into her leg. "Massaging my leg?"
"Yah. That. Why?"
Yume's impressed the girl her age is brave enough to come over and chat, especially since the others in the background are whispering furiously. Marks off for taking about a month to ask. So, her answer is true, in a sense. "It's to keep my muscles loose after a workout."
That's true, but it's really about old habits and dying hard. She used to – in her last life – have to massage her legs to keep the unused muscles from atrophying. Once a day at the least. It's made her rather good at leg and foot massages. Now, she does it after every work out.
With the answer satisfying enough, Jenny returns to her friends and Yume goes back to quietly taking up a bench to stretch.
Haru finds her once Yume's just finished packing everything away. They chat about their weekends and Haru's upcoming activities. Tennis and cooking, as it turns out. Haru gets a professional, teaching chef to give her lessons once a week starting in June. Yume asks if she can try some food, or get some recipes, sometime. Haru is more than excited to share.
When the limousine pulls up, Haru hesitates to pull her umbrella away and leave Yume alone in the rain. "Where do you live?"
"You don't have to drive me," Yume says easily, a little surprised. But Haru keeps her eyes on the girl's still-wet hair and insists. Yume gives her the street easiest to drop her at; the one near Sojiro's house.
Yume gives Haru a large hug and thanks her profusely before they go separate ways. If Haru wrinkles her shirt, making fists as she hugs back hard, then Yume just makes sure to squeeze back just as tightly and reassuringly.
Sojiro comes out of his house as she passes, urging her to come in out of the rain. Futaba scrunches her nose up at Yume's wet clothes, and throws a towel at her. Then she's coerced – but is it really forced if she wants it so bad – into a family dinner with the two curtesy of Sojiro.
"This is really good," Yume says, blinking at the curry that's almost better than Mr. Enomoto's.
"I've been experimenting with recipes," Sojiro says with a shrug.
For some reason, Yume doesn't believe he's been doing it for kicks and giggles. At the rate Futaba inhales the food, it's probably to try and get the non-vegetables on her plate eaten. The older girl makes a note to try Sojiro's sneaky ways of curry if she ever wants to treat Futaba to food.
"Can't Yume stay tonight?" Futaba whines, holding onto the older girl with all her strength. Yume's glad she doesn't have to worry about the flip phone breaking when it's surrounded by bubble wrap; Futaba is strong.
"I have to get back tonight," Yume answers Sojiro's questioning gaze. She doesn't exactly want to, but she needs to do some research. "Maybe next time…?"
"How about this Saturday," Sojiro says with a watching look in his eyes. His smile if welcoming, though, and Yume wants to be accepted here. "Wakaba and Futaba will be here for a sleepover."
"I would really like that," Yume says, smiling hesitantly at him.
"Then I'll pick you up after your dance class," he says curtly. "Do you need me to talk to your sitter?"
Yume shakes her head. "Iie. She'll understand. Do you want me to write the name of the dance studio?"
He says a name, it she agrees it's the correct one. "It's on the ticket." He explains.
And little Yume glows with happiness.
The night takes a dip when her search for information doesn't reveal anything. She can't find a map. She doesn't know who the pumpkin demon was. There is nothing to help her in the Metaverse. She's on her own unless she wants to throw herself at a main character. Which she doesn't want. At all.
But she may need help. She'll give it a few more days of this recurring panic of what-am-I-doing before she really gives thought to Tetsuya and his group.
The phone rings.
"Ishii residence. Ishii Yume speaking."
"Yume," is the relieved reply.
"Hey Akira," she replies, biting her lip at the frown forming. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," he replies too fast. "How was your Monday?"
Yume bites her lip a moment longer before realizing she'll need to wait to get the real answer out of him. "It was alright. I saw Futaba again today. She wants to know you saw today's episode."
"Er, no," he replies quieter.
"Well, maybe you could watch one episode sometime this week?" Yume wonders out loud. "I'm meeting her again this Saturday and I have no clue about what happens with the show. Maybe you could keep me updated?"
"I can try," he responds seriously.
"Thank you," Yume says when it seems like a silence is beginning. She scrambles to think of something to say next. The silence feels relaxing, but she doesn't want to drop there yet. "Akira?"
He hums back.
"If you don't want to talk about your day, that's alright, but you need to tell me straight. Do you want to talk about today?"
"…No," he admits. "I…"
She waits, humming to let him know she listens.
"Can you talk. To me. Can you talk to me… please?"
"I don't have any stories…" Yume hums, eyes travelling to the books on her table. "But maybe I could read one? My sitter never reads to me, but I can read them."
"…please," he whispers.
Yume agrees and goes to her parents' bedroom. She finds a familiar story in Japanese, has to drag a stool over to get it, but can understand it and knows the English version well enough that she settles on the couch and starts to read without pause. Akira never interrupts, and somehow she knows he doesn't fall asleep even when it nears midnight. A kind of peace – confidence – falls over the girl as she reads the familiar story to a friend over the phone. It's nothing she's ever done before, past life or not, but it makes her feel… better. Whole. Even just for the first few chapters.
She'll have to get the English version, now that she knows it's in this world too. For nostalgia if nothing else. Yume's glad she won't have to give up J. K. Rowling's boy-who-lived just because she's in another universe. She just wishes her parents could have read it to her this life, like her mother did last life.
…but she would never change this phone call for that.
A/N: That chapter gave me a lot of trouble, but here it is. Thanks for reading! I'm interested on thoughts on her arcana. And any thoughts on the chapter?
Thank you, Avatar . NIX, for your review! I'm glad you liked it! As for timeloop!Akira, definitely more on him later. Just have to see if the two ever meet… Thank you again for your review, and I really hope you enjoyed the chapter!
Thank you, CureCaligraphy, for your reviews! It really was about time for Yusuke. I'm really glad you're enjoying the story! Thank you so much for your reviews, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter!
Thank you, Guest, for your review! Great choices and reasoning's! It won't be revealed quite yet, but it's coming. Thank you so much for your review, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter!
Thank you, InnocentSerenade, for your review! "Ee" is a more formal way to say 'yes' then "un", but less formal than "hai". It started out she didn't know which version of 'yes' to use, and turned into a sort-of tick from there. Thank you for asking! Great reasonings and choice! Her arcana reveal won't happen quite yet, but it's getting there. Again, thank you for your review, and I really hope you enjoyed the chapter!