"I was in my house near the start, and I think I was last time, too. I get in by falling into a desert; there was a cabin, a field of flowers, a giant tree. I remember there being a lot of water...and something about islands?"
Only a series of vague images actually made it to Umi's dream journal. Writing it was at least a little easier than she had expected, though, as she had been feeling remarkable well rested in the morning as of late.
"And the girl was there. I just can't seem to remember her name, but I'm sure I met her before. I know that we're fond of each other."
"Think!"
But that was all she managed to tie down from the glut of dissolving images and feelings swirling about from the night. She placed the journal back on the nightstand and went about her morning.
If there was one thing that she was now sure of, it was that she definitely needed to go back.
The student council room was actually a little livelier with Eli gone. Perhaps, Umi thought, she kept Nozomi in check to a degree and focused on work.
"Alisa is running a bit of a fever, so Eli wanted to leave early to be with her. Don't worry though, the other girls picked up the slack and got us a bit ahead before they checked out," the twin-tailed girl had explained upon Umi's arrival. That quickly led into her asking about the previous night with a gleam in her eye, with the younger girl obliging as best she could.
"...and what do you mean when say you 'land' in the desert?"
"Well," Umi began, "I seem to remember that at first, I was in my house and had to exit into the other world."
"Yep. It's the same with me," Nozomi confirmed.
"Well my front door opened out into the air, maybe, I don't know, five feet up? It was fortunate that the sand was there to soften the landing."
Nozomi blinked. "Mine opens out of a rock at the foot of this little mountain. I thought that was pretty normal, but I guess I've only spoken to a handful of people about this, you included. But speaking of people," she added, "I'm more interested in this girl you're apparently running around with."
The girl Umi was still struggling to remember the name of. A dozen sounds and name fragments danced on the tip of her tongue. She could picture the girl introducing herself, could picture herself addressing the girl, but could otherwise barely remember a topic of conversation, and not at all recall the sound of her voice. "...Her," Umi began, "Yes, I met her on my first time; she was there this time as well. I remember her showing me around, helping me out. I seem to remember that she's experienced, and that we get along swimmingly. We explore together."
"Oh, very nice, very nice," Nozomi nodded, "It must be nice to have someone show you the ropes from the inside. It's too bad there doesn't seem to be any way to arrange a meet up, otherwise I'd go with you myself. But who knows, maybe our islands will close in?" She paused for a second, staring out the window. "I'm by myself right now in a pretty boring place; I hope the islands don't take too much longer to get going."
"I wouldn't mind if they did."
Umi was laying spread eagle on the bed, hair half draped across her face, mouth wide open and drooling ever so slightly. Meanwhile, the Umi standing over the bed shivered, wondering in horror if she was always such an undignified sleeper. Did Honoka notice at their sleep overs? Perhaps some mysteries were better left unsolved.
She left post-haste, pulling off a serviceable landing and only ending up on her knees in the desert. This time, she neglected to stop and enjoy the scenery; she was too focused on first finding Kotori.
Gold sky gave way to blue as she met the sand-slide with only a short pause.
Chunks of stone dislodged themselves and spiraled down into the abyss as she hit the bridge running.
On the other side and firmly out of breath (which she confirmed to herself that she still needed), she allowed herself to drag her feet a little.
The vibrant woods welcomed her, but offered little that could have convinced her to stay a while. No sweet voice carried through the branches.
Before she knew it, she was out on the prairie, eyeing up the weeping willow again.
She sighed.
How many times was she going to have to do this? Was there really no other way?
Left and right revealed nothing useful connecting the islands until they peeled back from each other into space. But something else caught Umi's eye.
Come to think of it, hadn't Kotori said she had come from that direction? A palate of pure white and pale blue dusted the landmass, and the navy haired girl was nearly tempted to investigate there first.
No, no, she thought to herself, she couldn't keep the other girl waiting long.
Climbing down the weeping willow really wasn't so bad the third time.
Ok, no, it was still really bad. But at least this time Umi still had the strength to stand, however feebly, once she had reached the ground below. Walking did not come so easily. She was shaking her head once she finally got moving again, thinking, "inexcusable lateness" to herself.
People had told her that she was a "steady, deliberate type", but she still would have liked the opportunity to stop and smell the roses, in both senses, here. She wondered if it had been a fluke that Kotori had arrived before her the past two nights.
Did Kotori simply go to bed earlier?
They had to be in the same time zone if they were both speaking Japanese. Assuming that they were even really "speaking" out here to begin with, and had to know the same language.
"When you're out there, you're just the spirit without the body," Nozomi had explained, "So if you meet anyone, you two can get a real heart-to-heart going. It's almost romantic if you think about it."
Umi wondered where Nozomi had learned all of this, or how she had figured it out. Perhaps her spirituality had earned her a little insight into the matter.
The earth rolled down beneath the navy haired girl's feet, and below she spied Kotori resting on the riverbank. Droplets caught the light as she kicked her feet pensively in the water, not hearing her friend's approach. A gentle clearing of the throat and the ashen haired girl jolted to her feet, turning with a wide smile.
"Finally, Umi!" she said, moving in for a quick hug.
Umi seized up, mind racing. "Ok. Close your arms. Good. Uh, do I pat her back, or...? Am I supposed to squeeze a bit tighter? How come everyone but me seems to know how this works?!"
And just like that, it was over again.
"I a-apologize if I kept you waiting t-too long."
"Oh, no, don't worry! You're not late, really, it just always feels long, when, um," it was now Kotori's turn to be bashful, "When I'm waiting...for you."
They both spent a minute looking anywhere other than each other before Umi spoke again, "Oh. Thanks? Uh, wait, I meant that like I'm n-not glad t-that it feels-"
Kotori, equally flustered, began rambling in turn, "I know, I know! I j-just didn't mean for it to come out like-"
"-long, just that the fact that you were waiting for me-"
"-that and I p-probably weirded you out there-"
"-it was j-just a thoughtful t-thing to say-"
"-and I just meant I look f-forward to seeing you!"
"And I appreciate how much you c-care!"
"...Thanks."
"...Thanks."
And then neither was able to speak to, or even look directly at the other for a considerable amount of time.
"Here it is."
Umi stared. As soon as they were able to function around one another again, Kotori had told her she'd discovered a message inside the cabin. The thing had been hiding in plain sight on the door frame, one of the few places they hadn't thought to look.
"...Interesting," Umi said. What she did not say was, "That's some bathroom stall-tier nonsense," like she was thinking.
Proudly carved into the wood was the phrase, "Chika wuz here!"
Deciding to be gentle, the navy haired girl simply said, "I don't think we have enough information to really make anything of it, unfortunately."
"Yeah," Kotori agreed, "it's pretty mysterious. Oh well."
Umi was glad to get back out into the sun. Really, she thought, there wasn't much point to staying in there when they were afforded this vastness.
"Say," she began, "would it be fine to see your home island, Kotori?"
"Totally! But we'd have to find a way back up, or wait until next time."
They looked back at the weeping willow looming over the island. It went without saying that they wouldn't be climbing it.
"...I think I can wait," Umi murmured.
Instead they crossed the fields and let themselves tumble through the sky and into the water. It took them back to the beach, and the navy haired girl had to hold herself back from lying down and drifting away once more. She wanted again to experience that brilliant sensation of discovery.
How long had the secret of projection been known, she wondered. Did the great explorers of the previous millennium do it? Did it give them their first, fateful taste?
She followed that instinct through the waves, to where the water overflowed from the lip of the island into the sky. As she had hoped, there was indeed another patch of green receiving the waterfall below. This time she didn't allow herself to freeze in fear; she looked back and nodded to Kotori before letting herself get carried over the edge.
Moss green slowly began bleeding into the sky as the water slowed halfway. Its drunken stagger, it seemed, was also reflected in the swamp it deposited her into. The trees bent whimsically, sprouting at odd angles from the water and wrapping about each other. Looking out, she could discern little of the island, and not just because of the trees either; the way the swamp's palette blended with the sky served to mask distances.
A series of splashes sounded behind her as Kotori tumbled in. Waist deep and clearly displeased about it, she lurched towards her navy haired partner.
"It's nicer than a real swamp, but this is still super not ok," she said, pulling a sopping leaf from under her dress and pouting.
It definitely wasn't Umi's favourite island thus far, but she was trying to remain in a positive state of mind.
"Let's just see what we can see," she offered.
And so they slogged.
All things considered, it wasn't so bad once one got used to the muck between their toes. Still, it offered little in the way of enjoyment beyond the initial discovery.
"Umi?" Kotori said, looking to pass the time.
"Yes?"
"Is there any particular reason you project?"
Nozomi's grinning face came to mind as Umi replied, "I was keeping myself up worrying about the work I could have been doing. My friend Nozomi, the one who taught me, thought that I might get a proper amount of sleep if I had a reason to want to go to bed."
"She's right, Umi," Kotori replied, "it's no good to overwork yourself like that! Sometimes you just gotta get away from it all. That's part of the reason I'm so thankful to be able to come here, to be honest. It's hard out there in the real world, you know? It's hit me that my grades now are going decide where I'm able to go for the rest of my life, and that's really scary."
Umi could only nod to that. She had known that she shouldn't have been depriving herself of sleep, but idea of falling behind on her work and regretting it forever had been too frightening.
"When I'm here, all those worries just melt away. All I have to do explore."
"Out of sight, out of mind," the navy haired girl agreed.
The gray haired girl went silent behind her before adding, "There's an example just now; normally I'd feel the need to apologize over a little outburst like that, but here it's fine. It's just you and I, with all the time in the world."
"It's absolutely fine. We are in the same boat, after all."
A water hyacinth floated past the two and vanished into the trees. Suddenly, Umi became aware of the faint current in the direction they were going. There were getting close to something. The water levels descended around their legs as the current grew alongside the sounds of rushing and crashing.
Then the ground began to curve inward slightly as they came upon the clearing.
A circular hole had been punched into ground, and the screen of water draining over its edge glistened with light from below. With Kotori "oh"-ing and "ah"-ing behind her, Umi approached the edge and peered down. The water pooled below, overflowing from a pit out into the surrounding cave.
"Look at this, Kotori," Umi began, "do you think we should-"
"No more swamp, please!" the girl in question cried, throwing herself in.
The navy haired girl shook her head and followed a moment later.
Inside, it was nearly blinding. Moreover, she wasn't sure if it could even be considered a cave. It looked more like something had removed a slice of the island, leaving only regular pillars of stone to hold the top layer. The water flowed outwards in all directions towards to distant edges of the island, sending the light back to the center.
Kotori seemed to retreat into herself after a moment of staring out. Her eyebrows furrowed slightly as she said, "It's been quite a while now. I think it'll be morning soon."
"You can tell?"
"I have somewhat of a feel for it, now that I've been doing this for a while," she said.
"I see," Umi replied quietly, "it's never long enough, is it? It's unfortunate that we can't meet out there for real."
And then Kotori burst into a wide smile, glinting off the water ever so slightly.
"About that...who says we can't? We're both Japanese, aren't we? The distance between us can't be that great. I live in Akihabara."
Umi nearly choked. The unreal scenery around her faded into the background as she returned Kotori's stare.
"Y-you...you're in my area," she sputtered, "I attend Otonokizaka."
At this, they ashen haired girl surged forward and seized her hands and nearly shouting out, "That's wonderful! I go to UTX; why don't we meet after school some time? I happen to know the best maid cafe in town."
Umi paused for a moment before replying, "The only problem will be somehow remembering this and making contact for real."
"Oh, true," Kotori said, spirits dampened, but only slightly, "But if what we have isn't 'real', well, then I don't know what is."
And it seemed that on that day, she instead was the first to awaken. Umi watched, first in fright, then in amazement, as the other girl's outline seemed to blur against the light flooding in from behind her, smearing into indistinct humanoid colour, then fading out entirely.
What little time was left for Umi was spent wandering, wondering if this faint, aching loneliness was what Kotori had experienced the previous nights.
A/N: I intended to post this a few days ago, whoops. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy this one. Tell me what you think!