Chapter Twenty-Seven
"Hi Yume!" chirps the cashier, leaning over the counter to see the small child. The young woman, absolutely bored this bright and sunny Saturday morning, motions the girl over to talk. "Haven't seen you running in a while. How have you been?"
Yume greets her by name and stands just far enough back she isn't in the way if anyone wants to use the till. Not that anyone would. She can see maybe three people over by the glass section. It's probably going to be a slow day for all the shops on this strip. "I've been practising for my dance recital next month."
"Oh, dancing," the woman smiles and eyes gleam, thankful for a distraction. "I had a friend who did dancing classes for a few years. And a younger cousin who's top in her school's club. Do you think you'll do it in school?"
Yume hums and shakes her head. "I enjoy it, but I don't think I want to continue."
"That's fine," the woman nods, gaze flickering to the side as someone hesitantly inches towards them with a shopping basket. "Maybe you'll pick it up when you're older. Lots more options then. Nice seein' you!"
"You too!" Yume waves as she moves backwards. Once in the threads section, she sees the perfect shade of black to patch up her tights. Too bad it's two shelves higher than her. She gets on her toes with a hard sigh, clawing at the air just below. "Oh, come on."
"Dream," says a voice behind her.
Yume blinks and falls back on her heels. She can normally tell the difference when someone says her name versus someone saying 'dream'. While the word was definitely said as an afterthought, the blue haired kid leaning a bit too close beside her is staring like he addressed her. Also, how did he get so close?
The girl blinks owlishly and points a thumb at herself. "Yume?"
He nods and narrows his eyes, leaning more towards her head. "Red and black."
Oh. She remembers him now. "How are you, Mr. Kitagawa?"
The ward of the painter dude. The kid with a big, untouchable inheritance left by his grandparents after they learned their daughter died. The disappointment daughter, if the fact she was kicked out of her home is any indicator. He'll be loaded when he's an adult, because he's their grandchild nonetheless.
That was a fun night of research.
"Well," Kitagawa answers with the short word. He carefully pokes her hair, making an interested noise. "Black and red."
Yume chuckles and leans back a little. He lets her only because she shows him how she can hide the red strands by pulling back her hair. "Now, black."
"In-ter-sting," he nods sharply. "Now red?"
Yume fiddles with her hair so it becomes mostly red. Almost half. Most of her hair is in front of her face, and she sticks out her tongue and huffs to get the hairs out of her mouth.
Kitagawa hums and steps back. "Thank you."
"You're welcome…?" Yume says hesitantly, pushing her hair back to normal.
He looks over to shelves and, with an ease that leaves the girl in envious disbelief, hops up and grabs the black spool of thread two shelves higher than them. He hums distastefully at the cheap stuff and holds it out to her. "Sowing?"
"Sowing," Yume nod, taking it with a small bow and a 'thank you'.
"Paints," he says, grabbing her hand and dragging her without warning. Yume yelps but goes along. She greets the boy's guardian with a nod as they pass to the expensive side of the paints' isle. The man, giving a sigh of relief, nods back and watches them, amused. "Best paints."
"They look nice," Yume comments, absolutely not wrinkling her face at the price tag. Those things are expensive for such small tubes. "Have you used any?"
"No," Kitagawa shakes his head, lips turning down into a small pout. "Want to though."
"Not until you're older," the kid's guardian says with a chuckle. "Say goodbye to your friend, Yusuke. I've got some new water colours for you to try."
The boy perks up, back stiffening, and nods seriously. He shakes the hand he dragged her around by, and then releases with a step back. As he bows a bit, he utters his, "Goodbye."
"It was nice seeing you again, Mr. Kitagawa," Yume says with a slight bow back and an amused smile that just looks like she's dimpling at him. "Happy Saturday!"
He nods and half waves, stepping back to grab his guardian's free hand. Yume hums and goes back to the sowing isle. She wonders if the kid will grow up to become an artist like his mother wanted to be, like his guardian is. He certainly seems interested in it. Maybe she'll ask if they know any good needle-and-thread techniques; because no matter how much the kid frowns at her cheap purchases, the amazing patch jobs on their clothes don't have any higher quality thread. Maybe if they meet again.
Yume takes a step back from the shelves and hisses. How dare the spools she needs be on the even higher shelves.
She looks forward to the day she doesn't need a stool to reach everything.
;;;
"Everything's in my bag," Yume assures Sojiro while she practically skips next to him. The last time she had a sleepover with someone was a couple weeks before she got sh- died. Before she died. So sue her, she's excited. "Will you need help with dinner tonight?"
He gives an exasperated look tinged with fondness as he tells her, "No, I can handle it."
"Is it curry?" Yume smiles wider when he scoffs but doesn't deny. It's the man's favourite to make, or so it seems since he's made it for dinner two out of three times now. "Your curry is the best, Sojiro. I could eat it forever!" Just as long as you keep mixing spices.
"Thanks, kid," he grunts with a smile.
When they reach his house, Yume is tackled by a blur of orange and green. Only with the help of Sojiro do the girls not go tumbling as Futaba clings to Yume's middle. The man slips the red and black haired girl's shoulder bag off her when he thinks she's not looking and then goes to greet his old friend.
"I brought a Console Cube!" Futaba says excitedly. "We can race and party and smash!"
"That sounds like fun," Yume smiles and pries the girl off her enough to loop arms with her. Futaba drags her in the house and to her mother. "Hello Ms. Isshiki!"
"Hello, Yume," Futaba's mother smiles indulgingly and pulls her purse back when her daughter tries to grab at it. "I'll help you set up the console in a minute dear. How are dance classes, Yume?"
The girl makes a small grimace and shrugs. "The teacher we have now is kind of mean, but I really enjoy dancing with my friends! And I can do the splits!"
The woman asks a few more questions before she and Sojiro go to his guest room and set up the television for them. Futaba bugs Yume to show them some moves, and everyone 'ooh's appropriately when she does the splits. The adults leave them as Futaba puts in the first game and gets her friend set up.
"I call aliens," Futaba huffs, handing over the second player controller. Yume nods, blinking and trying to get over the fact the game is so similar and yet completely different to a game in her last life. Futaba makes a grossed-out noise at her friend's first pick. "Don't choose the princes! Choose the handywomen!"
Yume twitches to hide her smile and does as told.
Futaba nods and goes for the beginner racing course. "The princes are liars and always are in trouble. The handywomen always save them."
"Thank you," Yume says, glancing down at the controller and wondering if it the same as a previous life. "What about the aliens?"
"They are boss fights!" Futaba cheers, throwing a fist in the air. "The aliens are super strong and defeat everyone!"
Yume doesn't have the heart to mention it probably isn't good if the bosses keep beating the heroines. "Um, Futaba?" She blinks as the racetrack comes up on screen. "How do I play?"
"Just follow me!" the little girl cheers and her characters shoot forward on their race car.
Yume learns quickly that what is accelerate in one life is reverse in another.
;;;
Two adults, a man and a woman, stand on either side of a large, empty, grey room. Both look like a rainbow threw up on them, as not one piece of clothing is the same colour. The taller of the two, the woman, raises a purple gloved hand with her fingers ready to snap. The man grabs the edge of his white top hat. A silent beat counts down, and then music blares up – in English.
"Cleopatra!" the woman snaps her fingers and calls her Persona.
The man smiles cheekily and tilts his head. "Flamel!"
They shout out their attacks, letting the test of magic continue until the song ends. Then they meet in the middle, adrenaline fueled smiles on their face as they reach out and shake hands.
"Are you feeling better now, Sof?" the man asks.
"Much," the woman, Sofia Robles, replies. She lifts her blue winged, white crescent moon shaped mask up to show her expressions to her follow Librarian. "Thank you for this. The last message really rattled me."
"Well, you have reason," the man lifts his blue swirls marked, white mask and follows her out the doors of the training room. "I'm sure I'll be offended too when I read the missives."
"I just- how dare they?" Sofia snaps, face twisting in a tired anger as she moves to the bookshelves. "We're trying our best with what we've got. It's not like we can just up and move the Library whenever we feel like it."
The man snorts. "They're on about that again? Who was it this time?"
"England," she hisses, grabbing the too-thick book labelled Treasure Hoard – England. "It's like they think we can just pop over to a dungeon infested territory and create tarot groups willy-nilly. We're not a room, we're a building! It's not our job!"
"I'll contact the Libraries in the U.S.A.," the man says, leaving her for the front desk. "Maybe I can convince one of them to deal with whatever problem England's having."
"If you're sending a message, make sure to contact your family," Sofia calls back, making him grimace. "I can feel you pouting! I'm sure your aunt misses you! Why not take a vacation to see her! Get out of the other world for a while!"
"Maybe later!" he calls before turning to the missives and muttering, "or never." He pauses after five minutes of shuffling and skimming. A three sentence sheet of paper has him running for the history books.
"What?" Sofia asks, following him in his rush. "Tristan?"
Tristan Alan blinks in disbelief as he reads through last April's dates. "It's fixed."
"What?" Sofia frowns and looks at the page he opened to. "What's fixed?"
"The date," Tristan breathes, pointing to Wednesday two days before Showa Day. The Wednesday without a date. "We're back to following the proper calendar."
"What?" the woman snaps and glances over, flipping through pages. "It's, but no… We would have noticed. And we might still be wrong. When does it change back?"
"May 31st is blurred this year," he replies, pulling out and scanning through the book that should be the notes for this month. "So it's just thirty-three-ish days."
"That's the longest it has been," Sofia says with a small laugh. "So, what? Did a demon try to fix our fractured timeline again?"
No, Tristan thinks as he stares at the blurred out date. The rooms stopped trying, and when they tried before they could barely get a few days in the correct timeline. Besides, they are so far ahead of the correct dates it's impossible to line up everything. The proof is here, as no matter the correct date they are still in the wrong year.
"Why thirty-three days?" he mutters, grabbing and flicking open the book for June. He pauses on the fifth. There's a note from their current Trickster: 'Important'. "Hey Sofia, do you know what's on June fifth?"
"Hmm?" the woman looks over from glaring at the April book. "There's something in June already?"
"According to Tetsuya, yes."
;;;
"You know what they told me when I asked again for her research?" Wakaba says sourly, glaring at her glass of wine like it caused her every problem. "They told me it is only for those on the research team. That just because I work in the same building, and am on a higher clearance level, doesn't mean I can touch anything of hers." She sighs heavily and runs a hand through her bangs.
"Hey," Sojiro says, rubbing a hand on her shoulder. "You will be able to get what she wanted you to find. I can always start asking around, too."
"No," she shakes her head. "It really isn't worth it, Sojiro. And I should give up. I should give this up."
They fall silent for a long while.
"When you two were rivals through school," Sojiro brings up, "I remember, after that really awful boyfriend of yours, that she would swear every day if you didn't get the same mark or better than her, then she would drag you through tutoring hell with her."
"And she did," Wakaba snorts, cracking a smile.
"She did," Sojiro agrees, toasting to the dead woman. "You never got lower than her again."
Wakaba smiles a bit more and chuckles. "Ticked her off to no end."
The silence is better this time. Wakaba breaks it with a knowing sigh as she watches her wine swirl in its glass. "Some days I wonder how her kid's doing." Sojiro hums questioningly. "Futaba asked about him on her birthday, you know? I felt awful, but it helped that she stopped bringing Goro around before her death." Wakaba lets out a harsh breath and buries her head in her hands. "Oh, I hated saying that. I shouldn't ever say that. If I had been around more- if I had known-"
"Don't," Sojiro says, prying a hand from her face so she can at least meet his stare as a lifeline. "No one knew. No one even suspected. Akechi showed no sign of wanting to commit suicide. She was holding strong against everything. We and her other friends were there for her. What happened is not your fault."
"I can't help feeling this awful," Wakaba says logically. "Even if it's been more than a year. And I can't feel any more awful knowing that I am unfit to take care of her child, even if I knew where Goro ended up."
"Then we hope he ended up with some loving relatives," Sojiro says, releasing her. "That's all we can do for him. And you can decide whether you want to pursue obtaining her leftover research or not."
Wakaba shakes her head with a smile. "If it was anyone else, I'm sure I would have stopped trying ages ago."
But she doesn't mention they offer her full access to the files as long as she takes over the job her dead friend left unfilled. The job that pays less, with less flexible hours. The job she would have taken, but she loves her daughter too much. She won't get lost in research. She won't distance from her friends and family. Not like her friend once did.
;;;
Yume is afraid. Not for herself, though. She has nightmares frequently and she's used to them by now. A plus of not sharing a space with another person means no one notices her waking up terrified, scream just barely making past her lips or cheeks stained with tears. It's always good to be mindful of who's around.
So, she's afraid for Futaba, who sleeps curled up to Yume's back. She's afraid to wake up her friend. She's afraid to fall asleep. It's why she can be awake for a few more minutes than normal.
Sleep puts her under when she goes to blink and never quite makes her eyes open.
Instead of the usual – the phone call/ the interrogation room/ her sister's prison window/ the gunman coming into her workplace/ the phone call – it's sand for miles. A desert, where the sun beats too hot and the air holds mirages of palm trees and pyramids and – is that a walking-talking sphinx?
"Don't just stand there!" a man who looks suspiciously like Sojiro shouts. "Subdue the apparition, men!"
"She killed me!" howls the sphinx. It has… Wakaba's head? The heck? "I will get her! Do you hear me?"
"Don't let it near the queen!" the Sojiro look-a-like shouts as his men tighten the ropes around the sphinx.
Yume blinks in the dream, but doesn't actually feel the need to get involved…? Or go near the giant sphinx that's turning its captors into mist with one hit…? And no one seems to notice her there so… Yah. She's going to explore the amazing looking city. Hopefully the problem she leaves behind is just a weird dream on her part.
No need to think too deeply on it.
A/N: Hey look, some fluff, angst, and plot. Hope people enjoyed!
Thank you, kalmaegi, for your review! Tetsuya and co. are definitely going to busy, especially since only a few of them can go to their next dungeon. Yep, that was Akechi; glad his little mention wasn't too sneaky. Alice, Lucifer… whoever else they can drag to Japan… it's going to be great fun for little Yume. Thank you so much for reviewing, and I really hope you enjoyed the chapter!
Thank you, Avatar . NIX, for your review! Stay tuned for some actual answers, because I'm sure this brought more questions. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and thank you so much for your review!
Thank you, guisniperman, for your review! Yah, she might not take it well seeing her teacher's mental cognition of the young girls. Sorry if the reflection wasn't clear, she saw the actual VIP until she slapped herself. Maybe when she figures out what exactly happens it will become clearer… Thank you so much for your review, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter!
Thank you, Mia, for your review! I really appreciate it! Thanks again, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter!
I've been thinking about posting the, somewhat spoiler, AU drabbles I've written for this story. They're based off of 'what ifs' and old notes that I've changed through Source Code's progression. Is anyone interested in that?
Have a great week.