Just who was Kotori? Umi could feel the corners of her mouth quirking up as she the name crossed her mind, even though she still only had an impression of the girl.

They had been exploring, but that was nothing new. What was, was the extremely distant memory of a comforting hand on her back, matched with a soothing voice in her ear. Yes, she was certain could remember Kotori comforting her over something, could remember the smoothly textured voice and reassuring words.

Her pencil trailed off of in a spiral.

How, she wondered, was one to qualify that voice? It was possible to pile on flashy, hollow descriptors enough to express some semblance of what she remembered.

But instead she just wrote "silver bell".

Umi would have been lying had she said Eli's distractedness didn't amuse her a little. Despite a professed lack of interest in such things, she had, several times now, been weaned away from her work to listen to her underclassman and and vice-president conversing.

"I feel for you, though," Nozomi said, nodding, "a few months ago it happened that my island let me meet up with this girl named Hanayo. She was just so sweet and adorable; I was sad to see her go."

Umi frowned slightly, "Isn't it strange that we always seem to end up with other Japanese people?"

"I did meet one...potentially foreign girl. I couldn't tell if her name was Mary or Mari. It makes you wonder if you're really speaking to the person, or if it's some sort of, like, spiritual communication."

And the navy haired girl reflected on that once more.

It was a shame, Umi thought as the sand-slide jettisoned her onto the bridge, that she couldn't bring Kotori to her home island. The signs, the sky, the relaxing warmth of the sand, all had come into comforting familiarity to her, and she would have relished the chance to spend a night relaxing there with the other girl.

Oh well. Having her own little sanctuary was hardly something to complain about.

Although, it would have been nice to spend a little more time exploring these woods where they first met; she had since been hurrying through to meet the other girl.

And tonight again, she found herself standing at the riverside, where Kotori was splayed out in the grass, eyes closed.

Umi cleared her throat and got no reaction.

"Kotori...?"

Nothing.

"Is she sleeping...in her sleep? Is that even possible? Does that mean she's actually awake?"

"I was super relaxed there and not really paying attention, sorry," Kotori murmured, staring up with half lidded eyes and stretching. "What do you want to do tonight?"

Adventurousness was still a rather new emotion to the navy haired girl, but it was one she was coming to revel in. She looked across the river.

"Maybe there will be some new territory across the way."

Looking about revealed-

"K-Kotori!"

The other girl was already hiking up her skirt and wading in, shrugging off the lethargic flow. Hearing the other girl's call she looked back and tilted her head as though it were the most natural thing in the world, prompting Umi to join her before the question could even be posed.

On the other side, the ground incline upward steeply, the trees thinning out as it grew higher.

Her legs were beginning to burn.

They could now see the cabin over the trees below them.

Umi mentally began counting minutes.

Had she ever climbed a hill so large in her entire life?

Finally, panting, they reached the crest. A florid valley opened itself to them, with all the gentle splendor of an impressionist masterwork. The sun played over the crests such as to create a column of light down the center, flanked by drawn out cool-colors where the earth began to slope.

The pair looked at each other and Kotori sat down to overlook it without a word. Umi sat beside her and Kotori lied down without a word.

Then she stretched her arms over her head, and began to roll down the slope, still without a word.

The navy haired girl stared until the other girl was about halfway down before deciding it was in her best interest to roll as well.

Come to think of it though, she had never been partial to this as a child.

And then when she was about halfway down a single thought lazily, yet incredibly clearly, drifted though her mind, "Wow, I feel like I'm about to die."

She was going way too fast, she was dizzy, the world was a blur of colour, and no matter how she tried to pull her arms in, she couldn't get round enough to roll totally smoothly.

There was some sort of ugly, oscillating wail in air, and she really hoped she wasn't making it.

It went on.

And on.

She shouldn't have tried this on the tallest hill she had ever seen. The ground leveling out merely subjected her to a cruel and uncomfortable new gravity.

By the time her momentum was finally gone, her entire being had been reduced to nothing more than grass stains and terror.

But at least Kotori was lying next to her.

"Gosh, it's probably been at least five years since I did that last-

...Umi?"

She could hardly see straight, which probably lent a certain lack of conviction to her reply of, "I'm g-good. D-don't worry."

Kotori either believed that, or more likely, was too polite to say anything.

In either case, she resumed, aimlessly talking through childhood memories with the easy gait of a falling leaf. Eventually, she circled back around to her school life, her friends and the real reason she knew "the best maid cafe in Akihabara".

"...and everyone knows me as Minalinsky."

Umi contemplated how to say, "I'd like to see you in a French maid outfit" with being creepy.

Nope, not happening.

And after what seemed like only minutes, Kotori was blurring against the sky and ground before vanishing entirely.

The navy haired girl closed her eyes and waited.

Kotori.

She was smiling to herself through the early morning stupor reading the name.

We went...somewhere temperate. I remember doing something I regretted.

There's something I was supposed to remember about Kotori, or on her behalf.

She almost wanted to go back to sleep in hopes of meeting her again.

Nozomi was humming quietly to herself as she worked, and looking at her, Umi was struck by the thought that the older girl could have been an idol in another universe.

"Nozomi," she said, "if all this is really astral projection projection the way you described it, what does your body do without a soul?"

The council vice-president paused, looking out the window.

"That's a good question. We can try to figure it out if you wanna have a sleep-over with me," she said in a sing-song voice.

"I'll, uh, check my schedule."

"Oh, don't get the wrong idea," Nozomi said, eyes twinkling, "I'm not trying to come between you and your astral-girlfriend."

Some part of Umi knew that she was walking into the trap when she stood up and said, "She is not my g-girlfriend!" But that part was no match for the flustered side.

"What is Kotori then?"

"She's just my-"

"Your dream girl?"

Umi was faintly aware of Eli stifling a giggle at that as she replied, "No! Well, uh, sort of. But not how you're implying!"

"Yet it seems to me that you have her on the brain an awful lot."

"Well that's because..." the younger girl said, slowing down as it came back to her slightly, "I feel like there's something I'm supposed to be remembering about her, but I just can't manage to do it."

At that, the vice-president calmed, drumming her fingers lightly on the the deck of tarot cards ever present on her person and thinking. After a moment she said, "What I believe that means is either she requested you do something in this world, or you discovered something important about her that necessitates you acting here." Umi nodded before she continued, "In either case, there's something you're supposed to do, but I can't help you much regarding what that might be, or why."

"Something I'm supposed to do..."

She was staring at the ceiling, eyes unfocused, wracking her brain.

What she she supposed to remember?

She could see herself talking with Kotori, smiling, laughing.

What were they talking about?

Her intention had been to merely close her eyes for a moment to think, but she now found herself running her fingers over a Saturn sign in the desert.

It was time to see Kotori again.

She moved quickly, stumbling over the gaps and cracks in the bridge, ignoring her sense of wonderment over her surroundings.

The climb down the weeping willow remained daunting, but she was able, at least, to do it rather quickly now.

And before she knew it, Kotori was there with her perfect smile and gentle eyes.

"Tonight," she said, pointing to the river "I want to see where this goes."

Gradually, the trees thinned out and the earth become softer as they moved towards the end of island. Before them, the water branched out into the sky, dyed in its blue. One stream fell and bent leftward, presumably over to the beach island they had reached earlier. There were yet two more, and they took the one traveling relatively straight forward to an island slightly above them.

Umi swallowed her fear once more as she tried to focus on the shadow above her over the expanse below. Soon, though, she felt an unusual pull towards it; the water was flowing upwards. She felt herself pulled with it though a tunnel in the bottom and her vision was snuffed but for glimmers of light below and above her. Then, without warning, she was jettisoned into the air on a stream, landing in the soft soil around the geyser.

Kotori was seconds behind her and none too happy about her clothes being splattered in wet earth. Still, it only took a moment for her demeanor to soften as she took in their surroundings.

As they wandered through arches and tunnels the navy haired girl was reminded of her conversation with Nozomi from the previous day.

"Hey Kotori," she said, "how many other people have you met out here?"

The other girl paused for a moment before replying, "Only a handful. Let's see...there was Chika. She was fun. Tons of energy and she never stopped talking. There was this girl named Dia. She seemed really serious and cold at first, but she it turned out that she was a dork with a thing for idols. Really nice once you got to know her. I didn't end up staying with any of them as long as I've been here with you, though."

The other girl nodded as Kotori continued, "I think it's pretty uncommon to meet someone else out here. You must be really lucky to have run into me on your first day!"

"Yes...I really was."

Faintly, she could here Kotori reply, "I feel the same."

A/N: We're probably around the 3/4 mark here, and I swear the yuri will finally be here within 2 chapters. Anyway, this came a little late because of exams, but hopefully you guys enjoyed it!