Chapter 15: Farewell Mira (Omnipotent)
Solis looked away from the doctor, who was glaring at the mayor.
"You're quite lucky that Kosei got a two on both scales. He was close to getting a three on the corruption scale."
Solis nodded, acting like a little kid who was silently listening to a parent's scolding.
"You, on the other hand, have a five on both scales. You're officially the most severe case on this," the axolotl let out a sigh of regret. "We're going to relocate you to Kyōki."
At this, the mayor looked up with confusion.
"It's clear that you won't recover from this naturally. Your addiction to dreams has taken control of you."
Green eyes narrowed imperceptibly. "If I had a weapon, I would go for you. But then, everyone would know about their Shrunk, and quickly realize about their own animals. Although, that does sound like something entertaining to watch." The dream addict said in Japanese as her eyes showed a morbid fascination for something that could seriously destroy the sometimes stable cohesion of humans and animals.
"That is exactly what I meant. I may not have understood what you said, but I know a little bit to know that you need to be in a Containment Town." The doctor was frustrated, and didn't like transferring a human to a CT, but for the society that he, and the others, worked so hard for-
"I want a reset. I want my town removed." Solis asserted, making the axolotl look at the partially mad mayor with shock. Her report showed that that she never liked the idea of resetting, hence the lack of a Reset Center. Which was quite ironic, to be honest. The purpose of the Center was to prevent resets, after all.
"If Mira stays, all it will do is fester on the wounds that I made on both species. Even now, I wonder who was the one that instigated the attack. It could've been me, Torii, or Umbra since the animals were caught in it.
"However, by completely resetting my memory and abandoning Mira, I can turn over a new leaf," Solis chuckled at the last bit before continuing, "And Torii and Umbra can be together without my interference. I was the youngest out of the three of us. I ruined a lot of things for them. And if there is any worth in the entirety of Mira, then I want it to be split between the two of them. That is all I ask."
Doctor Shrunk stayed completely silent as the young adult mayor finally vented and voiced her requests. A bit lengthy, in his honest opinion, but he tried to see it in her eyes.
A sister that had fallen in love with her brother, who had a crush on their best friend. He could see why other humans could have a horrible reaction to that. He presumed that the animals would be a bit more mixed.
A sister who had a sibling love and twisted it, making it distort into something that shouldn't be. And she wasn't able to understand why she wasn't getting any headway until he told the truth, that they were related. To someone who didn't understand the situation completely, they would've thought Solis was, well, a creep. However, in a way, she had a right to love, much to one's chagrin. Comparing their memories side by side, the fact that they were related was the culprit. Umbra Dōtoku remembered that he and Solis were siblings, while she did not for unknown reasons.
And because of the sudden news, she thought the Dream Suite could provide an escape, regardless of how brief it would be. Over the course of a few weeks, however, her memories slowly became corrupted, and it showed in Mira's dreamy state. Even the animals of her town were ruined in some sort of way. Which was why Shokutaku was getting an slight influx of live Animals, much to the doctor's dismay.
Every town had a chance of sharing at least one animal with another. At first, the method wasn't really needed, considering how few humans were actually recovered from the other world. Even now, over a decade later, there weren't that many humans, but there was enough to recognize the issue of a lack of animals. So they began to work on a system that would, essentially, clone an animal, down to the exact detail. Their gender, personality, and speech patterns were perfectly copied. And what better way to ensure that everything goes smoothly than the Dream Suite. Each animal had a code associated to them. The first half indicated the personality, and the other was for the species. For humans like Mel and Kenshin, who had an MC of 1, they would see the name of the animal on the wooden post in front of their homes. For the humans in a Containment Town, and Solis, they would see a string of letters and numbers that the original animal was assigned before being cloned.
"Before I grant this, can Umbra and Torii talk to you about this? They should know."
Dull green eyes looked at the doctor tiredly before their owner slowly nodded.
…
"What?" Torii was understandably upset at Solis's idea of abandoning Mira. Umbra, on the other hand, was silent, understanding. They were twins, after all. In his head, a twisted thought entered his head, making him sick.
'It's like I'm the control, and she's the experiment. And as far as I know, we're the only twins here.' He shook his head, wanting to shoo the thought away as if it were a nuisance.
His silence made Torii realize that he was siding with his sister. The saddest part was the fact that, internally, she agreed as well. It was a hesitant unanimous decision.
That was when Umbra made his way to his sister's side, and hugged her time one final time before she was going to reset. Before Mira's existence was wiped away from her memory. Before he and Torii leave her for good. The doctor said that they weren't going to taunt fate after this reset.
Okay, maybe not exactly in those words, but it was practically the equivalent to them.
Completely stunned, Solis simply allowed her brother to hug her before she slowly wrapped her around him, returning the gesture and allowing tears to fall. She whispered something in her original language, something that her brother understood since they both spoke it. Which meant that Torii could very easily be lied to.
"I promise, sister." Umbra said, letting her go. As he and Torii exited her now empty room, she let a faint smirk appear on her face, twisting her weary expression into one of mischief.
'Blue is also an elusive color for roses. Normally understood as sorrow, but it is our morals and choices that allow everything to appear.'
...
Outside her room and heading to the hospital entrance, Torii and Umbra walked in silence until the blonde asked, "What did she say to you? You know that I can't understand you both completely, what with that weird language you two share. And apparently, so does Kosei and Kenshin." There was suspicion in her voice, but Umbra quickly answered, sounding perfectly fine to her ears.
"I'm sure it's just a coincidence that those two guys can understand Solis and I." His lie came out just as he thought it would, easily tossing her that suspicion, but there was the matter what Solis had whispered to him.
"Solis said that she hopes that we'd take care of each other while she's somewhere else in this world."
Torii nodded, accepting the lie as if it were true. It hurt Umbra's heart to lie to her. He loved her, after all. But, in order to carry out his sister's plan, he had to. Her delayed reaction to his hug proved something he had thought of before, but with the dream addiction going on, it was lower on his list of priorities.
But now… He had plenty of time to think.
She didn't care about the consequences of exposing the clones, nor did she originally care about Kosei's mental state of being.
And yet, she expressed her remorse and guilt of doing so. However, he did note how odd it was to see it in her eyes. Perhaps it was genuine, but there was a chance of it being of a perfectly timed ruse.
"Let's tempt fate, brother." Was what Solis had said in his ear.
He looked back, hesitant on his part before he steeled his nerves and continued walking in order to catch up to Torii, who was already at the automatic doors.