Chapter 16: Akaku somatta ha (Leaves Dyed Red)

The next morning, the news quickly spread of Mira's burning. The previous human residents were not in town. No one knows what had caused it. Only half of the animals had survived since they were the closest to the slopes that led to the longer stretch of beach. Hopper, in particular, used the river to his advantage to get down faster. None of them know what had happened but had noticed the roaring and bright light that the flames gave off.

Unfortunately, the other animals weren't so lucky. However, the most curious thing is that their bodies were never found once the fire was out, which was another thing to note. It was oddly controlled for something that came out of nowhere. By the time any help had arrived, the fire was starting to die out, but some noticed that it ended on the hill that led to the Campground. Many theorize that whoever had started to put out the fire then had done it to collect the missing bodies.

"And in other news, the-" The radio was shut off, cutting whatever the animal reporter was going to say.

"Interesting, yet so full of crap," a young woman said, grumbling under her breath. Looking at her oneirology textbook, she rolled her emerald colored eyes, choosing to put off her reading for today. She had just gotten here in Astuce, and right now, she needed to work on getting a house. She could only handle the tent and cardboard mailbox for so long.

Speaking of which, she exited her tent to check on it, and was surprised to find two letters.

The first one held a picture of her and a boy smiling, their eyes showing their happiness. She flipped it over to see:

Solis Dōtoku and her twin brother, Umbra Dōtoku

The name sounded vaguely familiar to her, but any attempt of trying to remember was the equivalent of walking through a thick fog in the dark. Meaning it was almost impossible.

The other envelope held a letter that had some red stains, something that Solis wisely chose to ignore. Some words had the impression of taking more effort into appearing, as evidenced by the ink that bled through the unclean paper. It came with a picture of a boy who looked to be around her age, if not younger. His hair reminded her of normal apples. His clothes were clean, which stood out against the unclean surroundings. He also looked vaguely familiar. She read the letter.

Dear Mayor Solis,

I hope you're doing well in your new town. Arisu and I were quite worried about you when she had overheard that you had been chosen to reset. You wouldn't remember this, obviously, because that's the point of a reset. Anyways, I got side-tracked. But yeah, we took care of one of your little… issues today. It was a bit troublesome, but we did it. I hope that the three of us can talk face-to-face someday. Until then.

-From Mayor Hikari Akuma

So that was his name. Although that was third time…

She looked at the textbook, which was another gift that someone had given her. Like the previous two pieces of mail, this came with a picture, but it was a little girl, who was definitely the youngest, judging by her youthful appearance. She wore a school uniform, and a pair of mary janes. Her light green hair was in pigtails, and her blue eyes reminded Solis of pools of pure, clean water. And yet, her smile was broken, showing a pain that only people like her would understand. On the back, there was a name: Arisu Genki. The contents of the letter was simply explaining the book. Solis was very much confused as her now clean mind was trying to recall memories that no longer existed. But these three people were drawing a blank, no pun intended. Keeping her eyes on the book, she set her mail aside in a corner of her temporary tent, and slowly made her way to it. She had to look up what oneirology was, and apparently, it was the study of dreams.

'Dreams, eh?' There was something about the mind and the very concept of dreams that sparked a curiosity in her heart.

Oh, well. Maybe she'll consider it. But first, to build her new home up. It didn't matter what ground it was on, it was a part of her, and she would consider it a lifetime project. And in a way, it would eventually be the perfect mask to hide both within and behind.

Thank you guys for reading this. I am proud of this little project of mine. I plan of showing both Hikari and Arisu in their towns separately soon.

Once again, I would like to thank Windryder1 for letting me use her humans of Seaside in my story, as well as some other things from her town. I guess this is a decent way to end this gift.

Until next time.