Chapter 3: Past Step Second Memory

"The truth is that I am Fancy Lala!"

"What?"

Akiru sat up and gave her full attention to her friend who trembled with some uncertain emotion under her gaze.

"I'm Lala," Miho stated again, though with less declaration as she dropped her eyes to the floor for a sense of support. Now that the truth was there, she had to support it, though to do so she first needed to explain herself as best as she could. "That is... I will be, in six years I—eh?"

Miho broke off as Akiru's feet entered her dropped field of vision and her friend's hand was placed against her forehead. She looked up to see a contemplative look on Akiru's face as she tried to compare Miho's temperature with her own.

"That's weird..." Akiru said more to herself. "You don't seem to be any warmer than usual... then maybe something you ate...? Hmmm,,,"

"Eh?" Miho started confused. "You think I'm sick?"

"Or something like that." Akiru stated simply. "I've known you for a long time and know you better than most... so your tendency to slip into your own world is there, so I thought maybe due to fever you were playing out your own imaginative thoughts into the waking world."

"Then... you don't believe me? Even despite everything?"

"Everything?" asked Akiru as she returned to her spot at the couch.

"That I was always running off to somewhere after school, or on trips, or always busy..." Miho started, counting off each point on her fingers. "That I was always disappearing and never around... or even at the Fancy Lala concert when everyone else was there in the audience, even my whole family... why I wasn't!"

Akiru put her hand to her chin as she settled into thought. "That is true... while everyone else was there... where were you?"

"On stage singing, of course!"

"But right there... I have problems with." Akiru stated simply. "Miho is nervous speaking in front of a small group of people, let alone singing to them. And to do so to a whole crowd of strangers... I just don't know."

"It's true I couldn't at first, but it wasn't like it was the me before now, it was more like a me with a mask and that in hiding behind it, it was my shield against nervousness. Not to mention that it was a slow process to get used to things, from modeling, to commercials, to public appearances, to everything else. It was just something I got used to!"

"That's certainly a convenient thing to have... anyways, if it is true, tell me how you did it!" Akiru declared animatedly, almost as though approaching the entire scenario like one of those mystery shows she liked. Regardless of whether the belief was there or not. "You did say something about magic, right?"

"Yes!" Miho answered enthusiastically. "Actually, I was given a pair of dinosaurs by a hat-wearing stranger I named 'Mystery Man' and those dinosaurs, named Pigu and Mogu, were actually like fairies from a different world called 'The World of Memory Time' and in exchange for letting them stay with me until they were able to return to their world they gave me a magic sketchbook and pen that could bring drawings to life for a short period of time and let me become the older version of myself whenever I recited a magic spell. There were also other things the magic could do along the lines of alternate views and perspectives, but those times weren't necessarily brought on willingly by me... and—"

Miho trailed off upon seeing dumbfounded Akiru raise her hand.

"Um, question Akiru?" Miho asked uncertainly.

"Yeah... dinosaurs?"

"Oh? Don't you remember?" Miho asked. "Those two 'stuffed' animals that I had with me, that were about," she motioned basic dimensions with her hands, "so big and both white, one pink, one blue?"

"Those were... like fairies?" Akiru asked for confirmation to make sure she was following the story right. "And actually alive and such? And they gave you the magic?"

"That's about right. If you look in some pictures, when I was Lala I carried them around from time to time, though most of the time they were with me as star earrings."

"I don't know, it sounds so unbelievable..." Akiru said, her thoughts wavering towards disbelief. "Right now I'm not too convinced. If it's true, you'd know all the things that only Lala herself knew. Just what to ask about is the question..."

"Ask me anything... anything at all." Miho said with determination. "I'll tell you everything you want to know."

"Okay."

And so it began. Over the next thirty minutes Akiru asked me everything from beginning to end. All of which was easy enough, from the drawing of clothing and the preassembled identity I had fashioned many years before the preview of my teenage self whom I most appropriately had given the title of my beloved designed character Fancy Lala, to first recording and public performance, both of which were heavily influenced by Yoshida Taro, given his nerve dispelling song to his being the first buyer of my CD, the revelation of which would surely result in a heavy dose of teasing years down the line.

Other aspects of evidence came from knowledge gathered along the way, and through experiences an ordinary 9 year-old just couldn't collect. Also the facts that both my acquired cell phone and bank account were both for Lala's business and benefit. Also, given that outside of the work place and in places I wasn't, Lala didn't exist. Such facts that backed it even better were the ones that she could only work on Sundays, which was the only time I could have off. With many other numerous and supporting arguments down the line.

I hate to look back like this now, but I had won my victory over the telling of the truth, and reveled in it silently as Akiru looked on with acceptance, though still partially in doubt.

I think...

Akiru settled back against the couch cushions with a dazed look. While across from her, Miho also sunk down in a chair a certain distance away. For a moment, both simply sat. After all the talking, it was Akiru who broke the silence first.

"Wow Miho... I don't know what else to say or think other than that what you've told me is real after all."

"I'd hope so..." added Miho weakly. "I don't think I could keep up with such a detailed lie without breaking first."

"Hmmm..." Akiru thought thoughtfully. Miho is Fancy Lala... at least you will be, right?"

"Uh-huh." Miho supported weakly.

"Eh... just one thing I don't understand in that case. What's with your hair then? I don't know too many people whose hair color switches so dramatically like that in just a few years."

"Really? I guess I didn't think too much about that... after all, the Lala I always sketched had blue hair too. Though since the magic only affected time, I don't know why it would affect color of hair as well."

"Then at some point your hair will change color?" Akiru asked aloud, though it was only her current thought. "That's slightly troublesome... I mean, aren't your voices the same? If you get the hair as well, and too early, even with Lala a memory, someone will notice, and then what?"

"Then what?" Miho asked sleepily. "Then it'll be like Lala has returned—ah!"

"Which may mean trouble down the line, eh?"

Not having thought that far ahead, Miho buried her head in her hands. "If that happens... what will I do?"

"There's only one thing you can do..." Akiru said thoughtfully as her voice dropped in volume. "Miho... I'm happy that you apologized to me for moving ahead, but I can't accept such a thing now." She looked up at Miho and smiled. "After all, you only managed to move ahead at a time six years ahead. If by the time we're fifteen, and I'm past where you were here with Fancy Lala, then I'll be the one ahead."

"Akiru..."

"Miho." Akiru said decisively, her passion for acting rising in her chest. "If you want to apologize for something you haven't done, then you better go make sure that you make that something you want me to forgive. Don't let your time as Lala in the spotlight fade as the magic did..."

With that statement she reached out and clasped Miho's hands tightly within her own.

"Akiru? What—?"

"Miho, though I don't know what you wrote in your class essay for the future, I think I can guess! If it's what I think it is, then realize that that future starts right here in this living room!" She rose to her feet and pulled Miho to a standing position as well, though Miho carried a much more uncertain look as though she wasn't really sure of what was going on.

"Together Miho, we will walk that path, here and now on equal ground. Though I know you think you've severed ties with Lyrical Productions, I think you'd be better off to reattach them."

Miho started to recoil and then stopped herself as her friend's words rang inside her. "You can't mean...!"

"I do."

I'm not sure if I remembered exactly how I felt as of that moment of declaration, but looking back now, I think it was a thought thinking that the road I had anticipated waiting for me in the course of six years, was one that I could swear I saw moving beneath my standing feet.