Hello everyone and welcome back to the start of chapter 125 of the story!
Had quite the good week break from the story as I hope all of you have had. It's amazing how during this break the fandom in general got obsessed with an NPC from the recent event in JP. But hey, I understand thou. Omii-san's design is overall great. Hope she becomes playable in the near future.
And, will this chapter be the beggining of Babylonia? No. Instead, this and the next 3-4 chapters will be a 'mini-arc' of sorts, bridging between Camelot and Babylonia. Not really on the levels of Heian-Kyo and Traum lenght when it comes to in-between main story chapter arcs. I'll explain more at the end of this chapter.
For now, enjoy!
DISCLAIMER: All of the Nasuverse characters belong to Nasu and are property of Type-Moon, with the exception of the OC's that belong to me, the author
"Oi! Oi! Are you not going to eat that apple?"
"..."
"Humph! I already knew you'd look as alive as a zombie when you decided to spent majority of the night awake."
"Please, Nala...Can you please shut up a bit?"
"No I won't, dummie! This fruit is all mine for the taking now! Learn to sleep earlier!"
"Uff! Honestly, you someti-"
"Fufufufu. It's fine. Nala, please, be a bit more kind to your brother."
"!"
Opening his eyes lazily, Peko woke up to see himself in a different place that wasn't his and Nala's bedroom. Instead, he was back to that place. The lighthouse on the floating island with its small garden, navegating across the bright day clouds. Blinking his eyes in confusion while staring around desoriented, Pelo saw himself seated at a simple, rectangular, wodden table in the middle of the small floating island, Nala being on the seat to his right.
"Here again?" Peko asked to himself, still a bit addled.
"You don't have to take away his food like that. At least ask to share." The same female and maternal voice speaked again. It felt familiar to him.
"This is payback for having eaten the last ice cream without warning me, mom!" Nala replied back to the voice, looking forward, all within Peko's vision.
It made something click on the boy's brain as he turned his gaze away from Nala to look at the same person his sister was staring at. "That's right! This voice is-"
"But don't stay up late at night again as well, Peko. Do you hear me?"
Peko's eyes darted to the barely visible figure of a woman sitting on the other side of the table, right in front of him. Her face and good part of her head covered in a white and bright blur, Peko's fragmented memory of her still unable to remember the full picture of her. However, he was still able to get some details such as the clean, soft and short white dress of black buttons and flower designs of smooth purple lines sewn into it that she was wearing. A black headband with a purple flower alongside the long and wavy purple hair. That was all the characteristics he could make out of her.
"Mom..." Peko replied, staring at the woman almost mesmerized. If only he could remember of her face the same way he got a sketch of his dad's face to remember him. But there was no doubt that the woman in front of him, was highly likely his mom.
"If you don't sleep the right amount, you won't have energy for the day." The mother told him sweetly as she stretched her arm torwards Peko, poking her son's nose. "Got it?"
"Y-Yeah..." Peko responded, the subconscious inside of him only able to relieve this dreamful memory the way it happened, unable to move or change any actions of the Peko from that memory. He tried to see if there was more to observe to the left side of his mother, but it was all in the same blank blur.
"Sorry for my delay. The session took longer than expected."
Hearing another familiar voice, Peko turned his head to the left at the same time his mother turned her head to her right, smiling to the person arriving as the sound of footsteps on the grass was audible.
"Not at all. We were all waiting for you." Peko and Nala's mother smiled to the arriving man.
Staring to the same direction, Peko was about to see the figure step out from the white blur, taking shape. Was it their dad joining in to eat at was presumably their family launch table? Was the boy reliving a memory of them all eating together?
"Ah, what a pleasure to hear. Today is truly a good day." The dad speaked gently, his appearence about to take form.
"No. Is this really dad's voice?." Peko questioned upon hearing the new voice again, noticing there was a slight difference in this man's voice to the one of his dad. Altough, the voice of the man wasn't strange to him as well. Peko had the sensation that he had also heard it quite the handful of times before.
"On all that is sacred, nothing beats spending time with family. I am grateful for these moments of union." The man said, about to take a seat at the end of table, right next to Peko, the boy about to see the face of this person. About to come fully into vision, he was wearing-
And it was gone.
"Huh?" Peko was no longer amidst his family. The sunny floating island. The small decorated garden. The lighthouse. The table. It all had vanquished in a split second that it almost felt as a blink of an eye. All of the warm and bright scenario had been replaced with a bleaker one.
The boy now found himself seating on the same chair as before, only that this time, his feet weren't touching grass or earth, but snow on the end of a narrow, dim alley of grey brick walls as it rained the same substance in the air. "Where did they go to? Where am I?" Peko asked, puzzled as he got up from the chair, looking to his surroundings to try and understand his current location. Near him, there was just broken wodden furniture buried under a snowdrift. Apart from that, there really was nothing inside the empty alley, prompting Peko to get up and explore the area he was in.
"There must be a sign or an indication somewhere." Walking torwards the entrance of the wintry alley, Peko came to the realization that despite wearing his normal casual clothes when walking against the cold wind, his body temperature didn't seemed to feel affected whatsoever. He wondered if that had to do with being within a dream. Leaving that thought aside, once Peko finally left the alley, what he saw next surprised him.
"Is this..." Looking to the scenery in front of him, Peko saw rather a lively square full of people walking around. Everyone dressed in their winter clothes, the victorian buildings around the square with festive lights and decorations as small christmas trees were easily visible nearby. And to complete the area, a water fountain in the middle of the plazza, a very different imagery that Peko was expecting when still in the alley. The buildings and the way people were dressing made Peko have memories of a different place he had visited before. "Am I back to London?"
Going around the place to investigate and try to comprehend where he was exactly, it didn't took long for Peko's attention to be grabbed by an event occuring nearby.
"M-Matches. Fresh and c-cheap matches to keep the body warm. Buy them while you still can." From the other side of the square, a timid young girl with dark hair and light red eyes was trying to sell matches to the people passing by. She was wearing a simple light blue dress with a red apron and red cloth on her head serving as a hood. The only thing unnatural about her, was the oversized match she was carrying on her back. The girl seemed to be having no success on her job. "I-Interested in any match sir, p-please?"
Wanting to know what was the deal with her, Peko walked torwards the match girl. "Hi there. What are you-"
"Oh! A c-customer!?" Getting a bit hopeful, the girl immediatly turned around, almost hitting Peko unintentionally with her large match. "A-Are you interested in buying a match by any chance?"
"Humm, not really?" Peko said while scratching the back of his head with a sheepish smile, not really liking to bring the poor girl's hopes down like that. "I just got curious on what you were doing. You're selling matches to people?"
The girl sighed once she heard about Peko's motive. "Figures. You're just a kid as well after all. Much likely that you don't carry any coins to buy a match in the first place." Finished with the short lamentation, the girl then proceeded to answer to Peko's question. "But overall, yes. I do sell matches to people. What better product to keep people nice and warm in holyday season than matches?" The girl did her best in smilling positively. "Don't have any at home to set on fire and throw at the fireplace? T-That's when I show up to give you one! No b-better business in town!"
"That sounds like a great idea in order to make money around here." Peko replied, finding the match girl's job interesting. "However, looking at it, your business doesn't seem to be doing well. At least for today." He commented, having taken notice beforehand that it seemed the girl was having no luck in selling a single match to the people in the square.
"D-Don't mock me. Competition in the m-match market is just that strong." The match girl sulked while staring frustratingly cute to the ground.
"Wha? I-I wasn't mocking you by any means!" Peko immediatly tried to clarify the possible misunderstanding. "I'll even buy you one right-..." But going to the pocket of his pants, Peko found out that he really hadn't any money with him, looking like a fool now. "Ah...It's empty."
"I already counted for it." The match girl replied sadly. "But I don't blame you. It isn't like anybody's willing to just waste seconds of their important busy lifes on some random girl on the sidewalk begging for coins in exchange of matches."
Shifting his gaze down, Peko noticed that she wasn't wearing any shoes. Just her bare naked feet stepping on the snowy ground. Peko couldn't even imagine just how unbearable and agonizing the cold pain of the snow was at this point for the girl. Even judging by the appearence of her slight dirty and poor quality clothes, the girl was definetly from a very impoverished household. "Doesn't that bother you?" He asked the girl, mentioning her naked feet.
"N-Not really. I eventually g-got used to-achoo!" However, the sneeze ended up betraying her lie.
"It does!" Peko exclaimed, not a fan on how the girl was trying to devalue her bad health conditions. "You shouldn't walk around like that in this wheather! It could give you some serious illnesses!" Peko scolded her. If someone like Nightingale was here, she would go ballistic by the mere sight of the girl's lack of healthiness. "You should head back home and rest before you get a disease."
"No! I can't go back home!" The girl exclaimed in response, almost frightened.
It earned an eyebrow raise from Peko. "Why not? You don't have a home?"
"No, it aint t-that." The match girl said in an apprehensive tone, clutching her hands together. "It's that if I return back home with no money to show...my father hits me."
"..." Peko stood silently speechless to that information, being almost hard to process in his mind. He could admit that throughout his journey of completing Grand Order alongside his companions, Peko had witnessed many terrors and horrible acts perpetuated. Yet, a world where parents beat and mistreated their children was something that never sat right with him. How could such thing exist? Eitherway, it was now Peko's goal to help this girl out. "Then let me help you in getting some money. That way, you can return home."
The match girl's eyes brightened a bit, feeling some hope reignite inside her. "Really? You'll help me?"
"I sure will! And hey, if we're lucky and do it great, we can use some of the money to buy you something to eat! You must be starving as well, no?" Peko proposed, deducing that she also probably didn't had much food at home to eat. "I could use some of my magic to craft food and give her to eat. Unfortunately, it's winter and there seems to be no fruit seeds or cereals around here for me to pick up and transform into actual food."
The girl's smile became even more optimistic. "T-Thank you! Thank you so mu-achoo!" She sneezed again, her body shivvering a bit as she rubber her own arms. "T-T-This c-cold really i-is no joke!"
Getting pity from her situation, Peko had a quick solution that would help her against the cold. "Here! You can have this!" Unzipping his jacket, Peko removed it in order to give the piece of cloth to the match girl, who accepted a bit dazed.
"T-Thanks but, what about you?" The girl asked to Peko as she received his jacket, a bit concerned about Peko getting a cold too.
"Nah. No worries. I don't feel cold so I'm gonna be fine." Peko said, not stopping there as he also begun taking off his shoes. "Have my shoes as well. That way you don't have to walk barefooted."
"T-Thanks." The girl accepted, looking at Peko's shoes with mild intrigue. They were very different from any kind of shoes she had seen before, quite original. Yet, some seconds passed and she was still glaring at the shoes.
"So?" Peko speaked, wondering why the match girl was still observing his shoes.
"...I don't know how to put shoes. Could you do it for me, please?" The girl revealed, being totally honest about it despite a bit embaressed.
It resulted in Peko to blink some few times with an oblivious smile on his face as he heard that. "Ah. Okay then. I'll help you put them on." Grabbing the shoes back, Peko crouched down to gently and nicely fit the girl's feet on his shoes. Luckly, it seemed she wore almost the same shoe number as him. Once in place, Peko tied up the shoelaces, finishing the job. "Done! See how much more comfortable walking is now."
Giving it a go, the match girl begun to move her feet, now with the shoes on. "Ah!" In that moment, it felt revolutionary for her. The steps, became more softer and padded. Stepping on the snow didn't seemed as cold as before. The shoes sole felt cushioned and mellow. This was a sensation she had either never felt before or hadn't in ages. "T-This is...This is amazing!" She said, stepping more on the snow.
"I know, right?" Peko smiled to her. "It doesn't feel more harsh anymore."
The match girl absolutely loved it. Way more than Peko was counting for. "So soft! Softsoftsoftsoftsoftsoftsoftsoftsoft!" She said, excitingly stepping on the snow multiple times at an absurd speed, the giant match on her back firing up a bit.
Peko even had to intervene, grabbing the girl's shoulders. "Okay! It's clear enough that you liked them!" He said, simmering her down. "How about we get to collect some money for you to eat now?"
Calming herself, the girl nodded her head, agreeing with Peko's idea. "Hm hm! The river zone is full of people passing by. We might g-get some money there."
"Kay! Let's go then!" Peko said, before stopping himself from already heading out of the square. "By the way, name's Peko! What's yours?" He asked to the girl, presenting himself to her.
"Oh? M-My name? Well..." Once again, the girl looked dispirited, not knowing exactly how to respond.
Peko however seemed to figured it out. "You don't have a name?"
Shamefully, the girl shook her head, confirming it to him.
"I see..." Peko said, trying to come up with an idea. "How about we give you a name then?"
"Giving me a name?" The girl looked at him as if this was the first time she was earing about such concept.
"Yes. Lemme come up with something." Peko closed his eyes, trying to think about a name to give her. "Hmm, I know! What about 'Match'?"
"M-Match?" The girl replied, not sure what to think of it at first.
"...Yeah, it isn't that great of a name." Peko smiled a bit embaressed, rubbing his head. "Sorry for that. Let's try another na-"
"No. It's perfect." The girl said, a little smile on her lips. "Match. I like it already."
Seeing that she looked happy with the given name, Peko found it amusing but depressive as well. To have lived all these years without a name that having such positive reaction to not the greatest name he could've come up with, was telling on how miserable her life probably was when adding the other details. But the boy shoved those thoughts to the side for now, grabbing her hand. "Great! We shall head to the river now!"
A bit surprised initially by his sudden action, the girl, now named Match, couldn't help but feel his radiance to be contagious, smiling back to Peko. Never she expected that a stranger would end up showing her kindness. "Yes!"
Reaching to the river zone, Peko and Match saw a bunch of people walking on the area just as expected. It was there they planned to get enough money to get some food for the girl to eat.
"Alright, we're here." Peko looked around, him and Match fixating on a place that would have lots of people walking through. "Supposedly, we must try and get people to buy our matches. How many do you have in there?"
An answer that Match was more than happy to reply. "Ta-da!" Removing her apron, Match revealed at least a dozen pockets inside the piece of clothing, each one full of match boxes. "This are all the matches we have to sell!"
"That's absurdly many! Do you live near a match factory or something?!" Peko yelled in bewilderment.
"Like I said, c-competition around here is tough!" Match sulked, putting back on her aproe before smilling. "B-But yes, I do have loads of matches, teehee!"
"Well, and how many does a box of matches costs from you?" Peko asked to Match, wanting to know the price of the box matches.
"How much? It is, uhhh..." Match looked up, murmuring while counting with her fingers, ending up staring at Peko with a smile. "I have no idea."
"That's dire." Peko replied, a drop of sweat falling from his head. "But I suppose that at least one sold box match must be enough to buy a fruit or something." He said, looking to the prices of some fruits in a food store nearby. "So we better get started! What you usually do to try and convince people to buy your matches?"
"I ask t-them nicely." Match replied with a dumb smile. "Begging a-also may work."
"Not very good strategies as expected." Peko replied with a bit of concern. "If we want them to really buy the matches, we have told sold them the idea that they want the stuff!"
"S-Sold the idea? How so?" Match asked, not having a concrete business strategy in mind.
"Easy. We have to give them the impression that matches are essential to them." Peko said before ending up grabbing Match by the shoulder. "That they want it badly! Really want it! That a world without matches is a world not worth living in!" His grip on Match's shoulders got tighter, as Peko was getting very railed up about it. "That matches are as important as oxygen and water! A fundamental human need for survival!"
"Eeeeh..." Getting a mix of scare and confused, Match's eyes swirled, the girl not having any idea on what Peko was talking about anymore. "T-That sounds way over the top."
"But you got the idea, didn't you?" Peko asked her.
Match nodded with a bright smile. "Yep! I fully did!"
"Then time to get our hands to work!" Peko said, requesting for some box of matches. "We're gonna get some coins!"
Starting their goal to earn money through the selling of box matches, Peko and Match begun going around the river zone, trying to convince people to buy them through what Peko had previously told. They hoped it would work.
"Box matches! Get three for the price of one!"
"M-Matches are the future of w-wealth! Invest in them early!"
The really hoped it would work.
"With a single match, we can ignite a whole house!"
"A-All the cool people of today u-use matches!"
They really hoped...
"These matches are of the best quality! It can last hours!"
"I-It can dry all of the s-snow off of your clothes!"
But alas, no success in sight as well as a single purchase. Eventually, Peko and Match did a break from their incessant pleading and promotion of the box matches, going back to the same place they started, sitting down on the ground.
Match was utterly exhausted. "Uff, it was of no use..."
"Are we doing something wrong perhaps?" Peko pondered. He knew that people normally ignored beggars, but there was no way they would also ignore two kids offering matches. Were they simply not cute enough? Thinking about it, Peko tried to come up with a solution. "What if..." Looking to his own hands, Peko tried to conjure some light magic, only to find out that he was unable to. "Hm? My magic...It ain't working!"
"I don't know if it would be more successful to just steal food." Match pondered, leaning her back against the wall. "At this point..."
"No. There must be something else that we can do." Peko said, believing that if they tried to steal food, things could end up bad for them, even more for Match. So he tried to think on something else. "If Ritsuka, Mash and the others were here, what would they do?" Peko thought as his eyes spotted a toy store on the other side of the river, seeing all of the wodden and plastic toys lined up in the showcase. The boy then stared down to the box match on his hand, seeing all of the matches inside it. That was when he had an idea.
Hearing some noises to her side, Match opened her eyes and turned her head to see Peko messing with the matches. "Hm? What are you doing?"
"Something that will make people buy the matches." Peko responded, putting the matches in specific geometric positions and on top of one another, building a cube out of just matches. "Here it is!"
"Wow! How did you do that?" Match asked, amazed by the talent.
"Eheh, a little out of the box thinking." Peko chuckled. "Now give me more box matches, Match. We're not stopping here."
Doing as told, Match offered Peko another box match. "H-Here."
And so, Peko this time made a small pyramid and hyperrectangle out of matches as well. "This is a good start! Next one will be a house of cards but with matches instead! It will be innovative, don't you think too?"
"..." Match was once again in awe of Peko's determination. Seeing such dedication in his hands to try and get the matches in place no matter how many times they would fall. All that effort and persistance, just so she could have something to eat. A random person he had met barely an hour ago. Was her well-being really that important for him? It made Match feel valued inside. So, she decided to help him out. "Let's build this one together! There's also some other toys we can build with matches that are in my mind."
During the next two hours, Peko and Match spent the entire time making shapes and toys out of matches, their hard work starting to get some attention and traction from the onlookers in the streets. The duo constructed trains, figures and even houses out of matches, utilizing almost all of the box matches they had at their disposal. And it ended actually achiving great results, with many giving in to the desire of buying the match toys and constructions, giving their coin money in return to the two. Once it begun to get late and the streets more emptier, Peko and Match had just sold their last product to one more person.
"It must be good now. There's also not alot more people passing by." Peko said, calling it a day for them as he happily inspected the small bag coin in his hands. "This should be more enough." He then gave it to Match for her to see.
Peeking to its inside, the girl saw all the amount of coins that were in it, getting a bit emotional. "I...I..."
"?" Looking at Match, Peko saw her tears running down her cheeks, crying.
"I've never had this much money in my life!" Match sobbed. At long last, she could come back home and not get beaten. She could eat something. Perhaps her father would start loving her for it.
Peko let out a compassionate smile on his face, happy that Match would get to eat something. "The food store is still open." He said, checking the lights if the building a few meters away from them. "Let's buy something to eat."
"Hum!" Match nodded her head, she and Peko about to be on their way to the store. But things could never be that simple.
As they were walking torwards it, the two ended up bumping into a drunk man.
"Oi oi oi! Watch where ya goin' ya two brats!" The man said angrily, bottle of beer in hand.
"Sorry! It wasn't our intention." Peko quickly apologized, not wanting any trouble with the man, urging Match to ignore him and keep walking.
"S-Sorry..." Match also said, about to pass through the man. Unfortunately, he had noticed the bag of coins in her hand.
"Hm? Wait a minute there! What do you have there?" The drunk man smiled despicably as he grabbed Match by the shoulder and the other hand tried to pick the bag of coins. "A nice lil gift for me?"
"N-No! That's ours!" Match exclaimed, struggling against the man to not take away the bag of coins.
"Hey! Don't try and steal us!" Peko exclaimed, about to intervene. "We spent hours to win all that money!"
"Really? Aww, how nice of ya." The drunk man mocked as he was about to forcefully take the bag of coins away from Match's hands. "What are pipsqueaks like you going to spent all that money on anyway? These coins are meant for adults to spend on booze and hookers!"
"You can't do that! W-We won't allow!" Match strill tried to struggle and maintain her grip on the bag.
Unfortunately, being only a child, she hadn't any advantage against a full grown man who angrily pushed her away. "Grr, unhand me already you nuisance!" He shouted, agressively throwing Match to the ground, the poor girl hitting her head on the floor.
"HEY!" Indignated and furious by what he just saw, Peko immediatly jumped the man, trying to fight him off and recover the bag of coins. "Give us the money back, bastard!"
"Ghngh!?" Surprised by the unnatural strenght Peko seemed to possess, the drunktard stumbled back as he tried to back away from him. "Annoying brat! Let me go!" Eventually, Peko ws giving the man such a fight that he ended up falling and hitting with his back on the rails that separated the streets from the freezing waters of the river.
"Give us our money back or you'll get some!" Peko grabbed him by the collar, his fist standing as a threat to punch his face if the man didn't returned their bag of coins.
"Tsk! Stubborn kid..." The drunktard hissed. "Ya want yer precious coins back? Here you have them!" Being cruelly petty, the drunk man threw the bag of coins into the river instead of giving them back, much to Peko and Match's shock.
"The bag!" Match exclaimed appalled.
"Now go and fetch it yourselves assholes!" The man said, running away as he freed himself from Peko's grab, the boy leaning over the rails and gazing at the river.
"What a jerk!" Peko insulted as he was trying to find the bag of coins in the middle of the water.
"W-What are we going to do now, Peko?" Match asked him as she got close to the boy.
Having no time to think, Peko decided to do something that for any sane person would be risky. "Wait here! I'll retrieve our money!" He said, climbing over the rails.
"What?! But the water must be extremely cold! Don't do it!" Match tried to warn him but to no effect as she witness Peko jump straight into the cold river. "Peko!"
Now swimming on gelid waters of the river that was at a negative temperature, Peko was doing the best he could to find the bag of coins in the middle of it before the current could take it too far away. "It mustn't be that far!"
Peko opened his eyes underwater to try and catch sight of the money. It was great that his body didn't suffered any reaction to the extreme cold temperatures that these waters were at. If it was for a normal person, they would certainly die of hypothermia the day after or less. Still swimming for a minute or two, Peko's eyes squinted hard enough that the boy was able to find the bag of coins just a few meters in front of him, catching up to it. "There it is!"
Doing an effort to swim faster, Peko stretched his arm and was able to grasp on the bag of coins. "Got it!" Unfortunately, as he did that, the bag ended up opening and majoriy of the coins fleeing, being dragged away by the river's current. Quickly, Peko snatched the bag to his chest, having a firm grip on it as he submerged from the water.
"Peko! Over here!" Match called him, being next to a ladder that connected the river to the sidewalk to his left.
"I got the money back!" Peko replied, showing the bag to the girl as he swimmed torwards the ladder, getting out of the river.
"Are you okay?" Match asked him, using her own headband to help drying Peko.
"Yes. All that matters is that we have the money back." Peko said, despite not showing much joy. "Altough, majority of the coins ended up slipping away."
Match took a look at it herself, being disheartened. "There's almost nothing left in here..."
"But it must be enough to buy an apple at least, isn't it?" Peko said, trying to be optimistic.
"Y-Yeah." Match replied, also wanting to remain hopeful as both the two walked their way back to the food store. Unfortunately, once they arrived, all of their hopes were immediatly stomped.
The food store was closed. All of its food kept inside and locked from the two's reach.
"It can't be..." Peko murmured. All those hours of effort in doing their best to sell matches and gather money. It ended up being all for nothing.
"..." Match was absolutely silent, totally heartwrecked on the inside.
"No. It can't end like this!" Peko got closer to the showcase, staring to all that fresh food that was kept away from them. Kept away from feeding a starving Match. "There must be an opening somewhere that we can use to infiltrate our way in. Or-or another food store nearby that isn't-huh?" Hearing rummaging noises nearby, Peko turned his head to see Match scrabbling for something. "Match? What are you doing?" Getting a better view, Peko ended up seeing that the girl was searching for food on a trash can, looking desperate.
"Eat..Eat..Eat...I need something to eat..." She said to herself, refusing to spend the rest of the day on an empty stomach after what they've went through. Grabbing something, Match took out a rotten apple from the trash can. Even if it was putrid, unhealthy and spoilt, there was no other option as she was about to take a bite from it.
"Don't eat that!" Peko shouted, immediatly preventing Match from eating the rotten apple. "Doing so won't kill your hunger! It will only make you sick!"
"To hell with that!" Match shouted, pushing Peko's arm away in retalliation. "I survived almost every single day alone on these cold streets eating scraps of mold food! What difference does it make now?"
Peko was clueless on what to say in front of the girl's pent up frustration and sadness.
"I've done nothing but beg and eat scrap to survive! That has been almost my entire life for what I can remember! I am sick of it!" Match vent out, tears streaming down from her cheeks. "B-But no matter...no matter how sick I am of it...or if my luck seems to change...things always end up the same!"
"Match..." Peko muttered, the girl's pain being almost palpable from how angry she was expressing it.
And that was only but the start of the unfortunate event that soon followed. Suddenly, an immense cough attack striked Match, her entire body feeling down and ill as she felt almost all of her energy leaving the body.
"Match!" Peko quickly grabbed her before she could hit the ground. "What's wrong?" Quickly, Peko was able to identify the problem as the girl coughed some blood into his hand. "Crap! You're getting utterly sick! You need to see a doctor!" Lifting Match's body while still holding her, Peko now had a new goal in mind. "There must be some sort of clinic nearby! Don't worry, Match! You'll be alright!"
Made in Abyss OST- Radio Requiem
But very soon, Peko would come to realize the cruel reality of the dream he was living in.
"Sorry. I am on break. Take the girl to somebody else."
"Someone..."
That no matter where he went.
"I already have a patient scheduled for today."
"Someone please..."
At which door he knocked to.
"You think I can accept that few money as payment?"
"Someone please take care of her!"
Not a single person would show to help him out.
"It's New Year's Eve. The hospital is closed off."
"Why?"
"The orphanage is full already. We can't accept anymore stray kids."
"What's wrong with everyone?"
"Lend you money? Eeeh, you see, it is that I already donated to charity the past week..."
"Why does nobody want to help us?"
With every place he had went, Peko in the end was unable to find a place that coukd either shelter or treat Match from her illness. Such helpless situation as Peko could do little to nothing about it to change. Resigned with the stone hearts of the people that didnt accepted them, the boy went back to the same alley at the beghining of this 'dream', carrying the feeble and ill Match on his arms. Reaching to the end of the alley where there was nothing but a snowdrift and window behind on the wall, Peko sat on it.
"I'm sorry." Peko told sorrowfuly to Match, the girl's body starting to feel colder. "I tried but...no one came." He said in such depressive manner, still holding to the girl's hand while he could still feel life in her.
"It's alright...I-It ain't...your fault..." Still with some vitality within her, Match tried to console the downcasted Peko, doing her very best to try and reach for his face with her hand, Peko suporting it. "I've known for a long while...that the universe doesn't care about me...Nobody does. Then it's fine if I die...No one will be sad or miss me. It is better this way..."
"No, Match. That's just..." Peko tried to come up with something to tell her. Even if she lived on miserable conditions, he thought that she shouldn't just devalue her own life like that.
"But at least, I'll die happy now..." Match's eyes moved, staring to the greyish sky that didn't stopped snowing above them. "Even if it was in my final hours...I got to receive new, warm clothes, a name for myself and do something funny...that someone at least cared about me." Weakly, she took out a box match from her apron, her fingers scrambling to take out a single match. "When I thought I'd have to spent another night alone...you've appeared." Match shifted her gaze to Peko, smilling at him. "You made me feel a warmth I hadn't felt for so long...That my life perhaps could've been more than just a beggar girl trying to sell matches..." Giggling, Match was about to light up the flammable item in her hand. "Now...I think I won't need them anymore..." She set the match ablaze and proceeded to throw the box into the ground before throwing the fiery match at it, igniting the box as well, creating a small bonfire. "They really keep...a person warm, don't they?"
"Yes." Peko responded, the overall snow that fell around them now dropping from the sky at a more melancholic and slower pace, the light of the flames reflection on the falling snowflakes. It made everything felt so much calmer overall. "Do you want to light them all up?" He asked to Match who nodded in confirmation. Carefully lying her body on the snowdrift, Peko received all of the box matches from her and dumped them on the bonfire, making it larger and hotter. Not being finished there, Peko also grabbed up the oversized match from the girl and sticked it right on top of the snowdrift, in line with a window from behind. And with the last spared match, Peko utilized it to light it up, now serving as a torch. With the job done, Peko then sat down next to Match, the two gazing at the bonfire in front of them, waiting for the minutes to pass.
"In all of this...I'm still a bit sad that I didn't got the opportunity to eat food." Match lamented a bit, getting closer to Peko, feeling her skin getting gelid.
"What would you've liked to have eaten?" Peko asked her, wanting to make these last moments of Match as comforting as possible.
The girl thought for a bit. "I've heard...that during this time of the year, people usually have a delicious roasted goose for dinner...Every family eating it together next to a Christmas tree. I wished to have experienced that too..." Match replied, the light of the large match behind them reflecting on the light of the bonfire, creating projected images of what the girl had exactly wished for. A visualization of it.
"Eating dinner with family must be great." Peko said empathetically, staring at the projections created in front of them. Seeing the hypothetical materialization of the girl's desire, made him more saddened than amused, his mind going back to the remembrance of being at the table with his own family. While he couldn't exactly remember of that shattered memory to its fullest, at least he knew there was a moment in his life where things felt nice. When they seem to feel simple and at ease. Probably, the same couldn't be said for Match. Not everyone could have the same luck.
"I do think so..." Match said, looking up the moment the projections faded away and the fire diminuished. The clouds had stopped snowing and dispersed away, showing them the night sky where a celestial body run across it in a flash. "Ah...a shooting star." She smiled fantly as the image of it got etched on her mind. "Say, Peko. Do you know...what that means?"
"No. What does it mean exactly?" Peko questioned, wanting to hear what was Match's vision on shooting stars.
"That someone...is on their way to heaven." Match responded, the color of her skin getting almost as palid as the snow around. "That's what my granny used to tell me...Every shooting star comes down...to pick up a soul and guide it on an upwards journey to heaven. Every star in the sky...for every person in there."
"Ah, I see." Peko said, doing his best in mustering a smile, as he was witnessing Match's very final instances of life as he could sense her rigid and glacial skin all the way through his bones, not having much vital energy left in her. "I also have my own interpretation of the shooting stars." Peko looked up to the sky. "I was told, that shooting stars are the realization of someone's dreams. They come down as a sign that someone's prayers have been answered and their wish granted."
"Then...does that means my dream became true?" Match asked to Peko, a bit of hope in her tender voice.
"Depends. What was your dream, Match?" Peko asked to the girl, embracing her closer.
"To have a person that cared about me..." Match responded, a gentle warmful smile on her lips.
"!" Peko slightly gasped. A sharp agonizing pain beggining to develop on his chest and throat. The flames dwindling and about to flicker away, the light dissapearing. If there was something else he could do for her...
"How ironic...It would seem...that makes both our views of a shooting star correspond in some way." At a point of being almost as frozened as an ice statue, Match, the poor beggar girl that sold matches for a living, gave one final look at the gentle and kind person she had met at the end of her life, making company for her nigh departure. At least, she wouldn't die miserably alone. Had she met Peko or someone like him earlier, how much happier her life could have been? Eitherway, she said goodbye to the boy with a pure and warm smile amongst her bleak and wintry body. "Who would've thought...that my last day would be my happiest?"
And then, her eyes closed and the flames extinguished.
A single tear falling down from each Peko's eye, staring silently to her lifeless body, no more feeling any remnants of heat within her. A sad tragic ending that he was unable to avoid. "Sleep well, Match." He murmured, clinging tightly on the deceased girl's frozened hand. No child should have died abandoned like this, much less so her.
From the sky, an ethereal figure materialized, coming down to pick up Match, standing right in front of Peko.
"Thank you for consoling my granddaughter. Heaven shall welcome her with the warmth she has been missing."
Nodding with his head, Peko handed the corpse to the ethereal figure of Match's grandmother, ascending torwards heaven with her. No longer, would she have to suffer.
Alone, Peko laid back against the snowdrift, his head low, thinking about Match's fate. How no one came to help her.
"What has this world come to?"
From behind him, shadows had creeped in, crawling into the walls of the alley as the voice came from the man sitting at the window's railling, looking up to the bleak greyish sky that had returned.
"One where even the pleas of help from a child are ignored. Is there a flaw more egregious than the lack of empathy?"
"..." Peko remained silent, his mind still thinking about Match as the man, covered in his dark ragged cloak continued to speak.
"Earth hath become a place for the deceiving, untrustful and impure. A cold world, with no longer a margin for improvement. This is a planet unfit for those who strive to make it better."
Stepping down from the window with grace, Man of Sin approached Peko has the demonic creatures accompanied him as shadows on the walls.
"Every death. Every tear. Every tragedy and blood. It all stains what could have been an otherwise beautiful canvas. One for children to explore it fully without fear of lurking dangers."
Continuing to look down to the snowish ground, Peko didn't even looked up when the shadow of Man of Sin towered over him, the Beast suddenly standing in front of the boy.
"We must start anew. Only then, can we prevent more suffering from happening."
As the chill breeze runned through Peko's body, his hair waving to it, he recalled his goal alongside, Nala and all of Chaldea. How they've went through so much and fight to their limits to reach this far with a chance of surviving and saving the world. The world he wanted to see with his sister, Ritsuka and Mash. It was just many important things to simply give up on. Specially with one more Singularity left.
Seeing that the child refused to speak to him, much less so stare at him, Man of Sin accepted the silence as Peko's answer, knowing that changing his mind on such topic wouldn't be easy.
"Fighting for a broken world in order to salvage it is wrong. Needing to fight at all should be wrong."
Walking away into the snow that was starting to get more stormly alongside his shadows, Man of Sin speaked one last thing to Peko. They had yet to meet up with one another properly.
"Better days shall not arrive that way."
Finally lifting up his head, Peko stared forwards, no longer hearing the voice, any traces of the man gone. Being all by himself for real, Peko laid his back against the snowdrift and rested his head in it, aware that possibly soon, he would wake up from the dream. But as that was yet to happen, a thought entered into his brain regarding about what Man of Sin had just told him.
"Is the need to fight, wrong?"
"Hmm..nghmm...Eh?"
Blinking her eyes, Nala begun waking up from her sleep. Except, she didn't found herself in her bed or bedroom at all.
"W-Where am I?" Confused, she looked around, seeing that she seemed to be in the middle of a forest. As soon as she got up, the girl heard some noise nearby. "Hm? It seems there's sounds coming from there."
Walking torwards some bushes, Nala moved the leaves away with her hands, getting the sight of an amusement park entrance right in front of her, all of the energetic and lively sound of children playing and partying coming from there. "An amusement park in here? Alright, this dream is already better than the last one!" All excited to join in on the fun, Nala get out from the bushes, joyful to see there seemed to be no one in waiting to enter the park. Reaching torwards the gate, the girl was about to step in when she was stopped by the battle axe of a guard in red and blue knight armour standing right next to the entrance, scaring Nala. "Ah!"
"Greetings and welcome to Pleasure Park, where the children's fun is infinite." The guard, that had a clown mask and hat as head and face, told in a deep and echoish voice to Nala. "To enter, do please show the entrance ticket."
Nala gulped. "T-Ticket entrance?"
"Without ticket, there's no allowing entrance for you." The guard explained, looking down at her. "Thus, do you a ticket? Yes or no?"
"Eeeh, well that's-hummm..." Poking her fingers, Nala giggled nervously as she gave a timid smile to the guard. "Am I allowed to freen entry if I came here without prior knowledge that I needed a ticket to enter?"
"..."
"..."
"Leave." The guard said menacingly, positioning himself in front of the gates.
"Pff! And?" Nala smirked, remembering of the other option she could always pick. "Are you going to try and make me-...huh?" However, shock came into the girl once she realized she wasn't being able to summon her sword. "What?! My magic! Why can't I use it?"
"I told you to leave! Immediatly!" The guard said more agressively, positioning his axe.
"Wait! Wait! Wait! Can't we at least try negotia-" Nala tried to speak with the guard but was met with a swing of his weapon that almost hit her. "Okay! Okay! I understood it already! I'm leaving!" Nala grumbled as she quickly walked away from the entrance, going back to the tree line of the forest. "Tsk! Stupid walking piece of metal..." She murmured while gnawing at her nails, looking to the entrance. "How do I get into the park now?"
Fortunately, as luck would have it, someone familiar showed up to aid her on that topic. "Oh my, what's this? Do I smell an inconvenience for little bunny here?"
"You..!" Turning her head to the left, Nala saw the pink fox with glasses that had appeared in a previous dream of hers.
"Aww, I see that you remember me. How nice of you." The fox said with a false loving tone, sounding more mocking than everything. "Are we doing well today?"
"Yes, I do indeed." Nala eyed the fox with caution and some slight animosity. "Wasn't the police chasing you and your pal last time I saw you? By the way, what happened to him? The cat?"
"Who are you talking about? My partner in business?" The pink fox took out her glasses, cleaning the lenses with her other paw. "Let's just say he wasn't as lucky as me."
"So you admit you're criminals after all!" Nala exclaimed, thought to have caught her redhanded. "I knew it!"
"Now, now, young lady. Don't jump to conclusions just like that." The fox said with refined composure, putting back her glasses and adjusting them. "What you saw back then was just a misfortune of me and my colleague being victims of a very awful targetted harrassment done by our competition and rivalries in the business."
"Wow! And you still have the courage to lie!" Nala replied, not believing any word of what the fox had just told her. "You're lucky I don't have any way to contact the authorities right now!"
"Okay! I already see that you're a smart kid that doesn't end up getting fooled by the words of strangers that easily. I'll give you that." The fox said with some annoyance before going back to put a more normal expression. "Either way, it doesn't matter if I am speaking the truth or not right now. What does, is that you can't seem to enter the amusement park." The animal gave a cheeky smile to Nala. "I thought you were reluctant of going here. What happened about going to school, hm?"
"Not like I deliberatly came here on my own. I just happened to wake up in here all of a sudden!" Nala explained. "Also, are you really planning to help me?"
"Of course I am! Helping potential customers that are unhappy or in trouble is the motto of our company!" The fox said with a freeloader smile. "Which by the way, in case you're asking, no, you don't need to pay a penny for my services the first time. Doesn't that sound like a genial proposal?"
"Eeeh, I guess so..." Nala said with a tired and skeptic face, thinking this fox could be pulling a fast one on her at any moment. "Then, how do you advice me to enter the amuse-"
"Got the ticket right here." The fox said, holding the ticket on her paw and showing it to Nala.
"Just like that?! That simple!?" Nala exclaimed, purely bewildered.
"Fufufu. I told you. My services do not dissapoint." The fox walked torwards Nala, proceeding to place the entrance ticket on her hand. "Here you have it."
Looking down to it, Nala saw how detailed and vibrant it was. She couldn't hold her lips into forming a smile.
"Like what you see?" The fox speaked alluringly, passing her fluffy pink tail on Nala's face.
"Knock it off!" Nala replied, immediatly brushing away the animal's tail. "Not gonna leave a five star review!"
"Aw, your opinion on it doesn't concern me, little bunny." The fox said with a mischiveous smile, beggining to walk back into the forest. "All that it does, is that you have fun, ehehe." She giggled, about to dissapear into the bushes. "So go now and have fun as much as your heart's content. This park can be quite 'abrasive'."
Looking addled to the fox going away, Nala could only think how she was a very suspicious character before staring back to the ticket in her hand. Whether it was the fox that gave her or not, she would make sure to party as much as she could, grabbing the opportunity.
Smilling smuggly, Nala was about to reach the guard. "Hm hm! Guess what I have in my hand now."
"Hey you!"
"Eh?" Nala turned around as she had the impression someone called for her, only to a group of kids push her to the ground and snitch the ticket away from her hands at the same time. "Uff!"
"Bye bye loser!"
One of the kids said as they all laughed, heading torwards the gate, utilizing Nala's ticket to enter.
"Wait a minute! That's mine!" Nala exclaimed, getting up from the ground and trying to go after them, only to be stopped by the guard. "You have to let me in! That was my ticket! One of those boys stole it!"
"..."
Seeing that he didn't cared in the slightest, Nala ended up sighing. "Great! Just wonderful! How do I enter now?" She said, a part of her kinda expecting that the fox would magically appear again to help her out.
Instead, it was someone else that appeared this time. "Hi there. In need of a hand?"
Turning around as she felt a hand on her shoulder, Nala met a girl with short blonde hair that was behind her. "Yes, kinda." Nala replied. "Some jerks stole-"
"Stoled your ticket." The girl completed what Nala was about to say, a cocky smile on her face. "I saw what happened. Boys are just the worst. But no worries, I can get you a new one."
"You will? How so?" Nala questioned her. "Do you have a spare ticket in your pocket or something?"
"Not really." The blonde girl said. "Just wait right here." She told to Nala while walking torwards another kid, a nerdy looking girl with glasses.
"Wow! A load of other people popped up all of a sudden." Nala noticed, seeing how many children had magically appeared in the entry zone of the amusement park compared to when she first arrived here.
"Hey there. What's that on your hand?" The blonde girl asked to the nerdy girl, eyeying her ticket.
"M-My ticket? Why do you ask?" The nerdy girl replied.
"Oh, I dunno, for nothing really genius." The girl said condescendingly. "How about you give it to me?"
"N-No way! G-Get one yourself!" The nerdy girl stuttered, trying to stand up for herself.
Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to stop the other girl's bullying. "Okay, and?" She put a rough grip on the other girl's shoulder, giving a threatening smile to her. "Do you also want to get a new pair of glasses?"
Fearfully shaking her hand, the nerdy girl ended up giving to pressure and hand her ticket to the other girl.
"That's what I thought." The blonde girl smirked. "Don't worry. I'm sure someone of your intellect will find joy in playing with leaves, branches or something." She taunted her before walking away, returning to Nala. "Here it is! Just as promised."
"Did you honestly had to do that?" Nala replied, not staring at her with a very friendly face.
"What?" The mean girl asked, bothered.
"Stealing that other kid's ticket? Seriously?" Nala called her out for that. "I mean, if you were to steal someone's ticket, couldn't have it been from one of those boys that stole mine?"
"And get my hands unnecessarily dirty? No thanks." The girl responded nonchalantly. "I said, I would get you a ticket, didn't I? And you got one, didn't you?"
"Yes, I suppose..." Nala speaked with little enthusiasm, not feeling all that great about having taken the opportunity of an innocent girl to enter the amusement park.
"Then quit with feeling bad and let's head in!" The girl said, pushing Nala torwards the entrance, the guard this time letting her in now that she had a ticket.
And once inside there, Nala's small sense of guilt really evaporated once she stared at all the attractions and fun rides, games and other things that where at the amusement park. "Woah!" All the lights and colors felt like an overload of joy to her, pure dopamine to her brain. And by the looks and cheers of the other kids that were also in there, they seemed to be having fun as well.
"In here, fun has no limits. No dull things such as responsability or duty." The girl told behind Nala, getting closer to her. "Just the sounds of our laughter and the rush that is joy."
"All of this looks pretty awsome indeed!" Nala said with an happy smile, so many things to experiment and go to that she was even indecisive on where she should go first.
"Well, lucky for you, I've been on this place countless times before." The girl said, picking up some cotton candy, giving it to Nala. "I know exactly which attractions we should be heading first."
"Oh nice!" Nala replied with excitment, taking a bite out off the cotton candy, chewing. "Show me the way then!"
Thus, the next hour was of full party and entertainment to Nala who, alongside the unamed girl, was going to every ride and attraction point possible, every ride being better than the previous one. Even if it was just a dream, all of the fun felt so real to her. After everything she and her companions had gone through. All of the challenges, difficulties, trauma and hard times, it was good for her to finally feel somewhat free from her duty and just fool around like an average kid, going on the rollercoasters, winning prizes, eating sweets and even getting to destroy and wreck objects and buildings that were just there for havoc. Seeing the fireworks going off in the distance at the shiny skyline of the amusement park, Nala just closed her eyes, feeling well with herself as she smiled sweetly.
"If this is a dream, I don't want to wake up from it then!" She thought to herself. Perhaps the only thing that would change, was that her friends and Chaldea could also be here to enjoy the fun as much as she was enjoying.
"Hehehe, wow! I gotta say, you really are a fun person to be around with." The girl that has been accompanying her this whole time said. "Who thought you could party like that?"
"Hey, hey now. Destroying things, jumping and running around ain't exactly foreign to me." Nala giggled, getting up from the platform she was currently lying on. "I am quite athletic y'know?"
"You sure seem to be." The girl replied, taking an amused liking to Nala. "I gues you are 'interesting' enough to be my friend."
"Uhm, thanks? I mean, that's kinda of a weird way to put it." Nala replied, getting down from the platform and stepping on the ground. "So? Where to now?"
"Humm, let me see..." The blonde girl thought about it before giving a playful smile. "I know. Let's go to the circus at the center of the park! Heard that the show in there is about to start."
"Great! Lead me there!" Nala exclaimed.
The other girl giggled. "Sure. This way!"
But as Nala was following her, she detected some commotion happening nearby.
"N-No, sorry! Sorry! I didn't meant to-ugh!"
"Hm?" Moving her vision. Nala caught sight of a trio of boys kicking down another boy on the ground.
"You're telling us you didn't meant to cut the line right in front of us?"
"What a stupid bad liar you are!"
"B-But I didn't know there was supposed to be a line-agh!"
"You think we're stupid! You're messing with the wrong people here!"
Watching it a bit incredulous, Nala thought about intervening.
"Hey, where you going? The circus is this way!" However, the girl stopped her, grabbing Nala's hand and her attention.
"I know." Nala replied. "It's just-"
But the girl didn't let Nala finish, dragging her to the circus. "You want us to miss the show or something? No way I'm letting that happen!"
Nala tried to say something but she was already going away from the place, looking back as she saw herself getting further from the trio of boys mistreating the one in the ground. It didn't sat well with her.
Alas, the two were already at the circus, entering it. Nala tried to make her mind forget of that small unfortunate image on an otherwise pretty great dream. The interior was spacious, the stands shaped as a colosseum. In the uppermost rows, Nala and the girl entered the circus, taking their seats.
"Looks very crowded today." Nala said, proceeding to smile as she noticed a bag of popcorns in waiting for her. "Sweet!"
"It's always crowded. We get to have some good laughs in here." The girl said, taking a sip from her drink. "I wonder what the number will be for today."
"First time in here. So hope it's good!" Nala said, enthusiastic.
As the lights went out and the spothlights on, a purple cloak that seemed to be covering a big cube, appeared in the middle of the arena, gaining an eyebrow rause from Nala. "Hm? What's that for?" Soon, she had her answer as the veil was removed, revealing a giant cage with no ceilling. In it, there was a kid chained to its railings, unable to move out of there, making Nala even more confused. "What is he doing there?"
"Oh oh! So is that one!" The girl next to Nala laughed, seemingly knowing what was about to happen. "Very nice! Very nice! One of my favourites?"
"What?" Nala eyed at her, oblivious.
"You don't get it, do you?" The girl looked at Nala with some botherness. "Here, let me show you." Crouching down, she pulled out a box full of tomatos that had been placed under the stand. "You're seeing how the cage doesn't have a ceilling? It's technically a game we're playing here." She told Nala with a wicked smile. "We throw these tomatos at that kid and whoever hits him more, wins a prize. We mock and have fun at his expense. Doesn't that sound fun to you?"
"M-Mock and humiliate him?" Nala replied, not sure if that was the correct thing to do here. Once she looked back to the other children at the stands, she saw all of them beggining to throw tomatos relentlessly at the poor boy's cage, taunting and laughing at him, having little to no concern about his pleas to stop, distressed as some of the tomatos would hit his body. This was starting to feel wrong to Nala. "Hmm, I-I dunno. Is it really that funny?"
Noticing the reluctancy, the girl tried to convince Nala to join in. "C'mon now. Are you seriously going to develop pity for some random bully? Before him, other kids where in his position as well and he didn't complained when he was the one having fun. So all in all, it is nothing but a little payback."
"You sure?" Nala questioned, not knowing if she was being completly honest about that.
"I am. Look how everyone is enjoing this? There's no harm in teaching a lesson to a bully, right?" The girl offered a tomato to Nala. "As long as we're the ones having fun, all is well!"
Getting a bit pressured and presuaded by the words, Nala ended up accepting it. After all, was it that bad throwing some tomatos at a person for just a minute or two?. "Okay. I'll give it a try." Nala said, picking up the tomato and launching it, incredibly hitting the boy at the first time.
"Wow! You hit him first try! Truly amazing!" The girl complimented Nala.
"Eh, sure am!" Nala smiled, laughing a bit contained, still not toally on-board with the idea. But the more she begun to throw the tomatos, the more the joy inside of her begun overlapping the feeling of guilt and pity she was having for the boy, slowly starting to get amused again.
"Hehehe, I think you've hit him more times than I did. You must be a pro in this!" The girl continued to praise Nala as both the two have continued to throw their tomatos at the chained kid alongside the entire circus.
"I can already smell that golden medal!" Nala replied enthusiastically before looking to her own box of tomatos. "But it seems the tomatos are about to run out."
"Well, then better make the last ones count!" The girl said, grabbing one.
"Heh, don't think I'm gonna let victory slip my hands!" Nala replied, grabbing another tomato and ready to throw it. "I'll-"
But suddenly, she stopped. She had stopped all of a sudden the moment her eyes catched a stone being thrown at the chained kid, hitting him in the head.
"Ow! That hurts!"
"!?"
"S-Stop it! Stop already! I don't want this!"
But once again, the begging of the kid fell in deaf ears as all the other kids at the circus begun being more ruthless, starting to throw stones at him instead of tomatos.
"Ahahaha! Look at how he cries! Not so tough anymore, are you?"
"See? He's crying like a baby!"
"Hitting him with stones gives more points than the tomatos! Make sure to not miss!"
"Haha! Look up! Here goes another one!"
Amidst the cruel and scronful laughs of sadism and cruelty displayed in the stands, Nala just stood there, in utter shock as her eyes could barely believe on what she was seeing. The kid was no longer being humiliated but harmed and tortured as well. Where exactly was the fun in this? It made Nala snap back to her consciousness. "This...This is just plain wrong."
Looking at her own hand, Nala saw that she was no longer holding a tomato, but a stone instead. Disgusted, she dropped it from her hand and immediatly begun walking away. She wouldn't partake in this anymore.
About to throw her stone, the girl noticed Nala walking away. "H-Hey! Where are you going? Don't you have a prize to win?"
Outside the circus, Nala was walking now on the more deserted amusement park while cursing herself in the head. "Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! How did I let myself get into that?"
"Hey! Hey!" Having come after her, the girl had also exited from the circus, quickly reaching torwards Nala, grabbing her by the wrist. "Why did you just abandoned the circus at the middle? If you need to pee or something the bathroom was already insi-"
"Shut it!" Nala abruptly told her, taking her hand away from the girl. "I am all for fun and that type of stuff! But that? That wasn't fun!"
The girl looked at as if Nala was some idiot. "Really? I think otherwise. It was amusing."
"Stoning someone to near death is amusing to you?!" Nala exclaimed, incredulous. "Don't you get how awful that sounds?"
"And? What gives? He's a bully and deserves it. He got to laugh at others and now we get to laugh at him." The girl said coldly and nonchalantly, seeing the problem but not feeling off put by it.
"Bully or not, that doesn't excuse the treatment he was getting." Nala said with an intransigent glare. "That's completly sick!"
For the first time, the girl looked at Nala with mild annoyance. "You're weird."
"Better be 'weird' than do what you were all doing inside there." Nala said, not caring with whatever thing the girl labeled her as, walking away. "I'm done with this place."
As she was walking away, Nala passed through the trio of boys again, noticing they were still beating down the other kid.
"And there goes another one! Have you learned the lesson already?"
"Hm...Nghn...S...S-So-ugh!"
"Ah? What did you said? I didn't quite heard you!"
Looking at the poor boy being beaten, it messed with Nala to the core, the girl tightening her fist as she couldn't stand seeing this injustice happening right in front of her and do nothing. "Leave him alone."
"Eh? Who's talking?"
The trio stopped kicking the boy as they all turned their gaze to Nala.
"I said: leave him alone." She repeated, this time a bit louder and more agressive.
"Keh! You said it? A girl?"
"Hahahaha! Watch out dudes! I'm already scared and shaking my knees just at the look of her!"
The three boys begun mocking her, getting closer to Nala, surrounding her, ignoring her warning.
"W-what are you gonna do? Paint our nails? Hahahahaha-URGH?!"
Having enough, Nala thrusted her knee deep inside one of the boys face, resulting in broken teeth and bleeding nose. "LEAVE HIM ALONE!" She yelled, knocking out the boy she had just attacked, proceeding to punch the second one and kick the third one at the same time, knocking them out as well. With that done, she rushed over to the beaten kid, helping him getting up. "Here! Can you walk? If so, follow me!"
"Y-Yes..." The boy said, grabbing Nala's hand and following her through her guidance, the two distancing from the amusement park's main area, reaching to some carnival tents, hiding in there.
"Good. It seems we weren't chased." Nala said, verifying the perimeter, an important thing Mash always did. With that checked, she then turned around to see the boy. "Are you hurt?"
The boy shook his head.
"Alright. At least we know you aren't bleeding." Nala said, trying to cheer him up. "What's your name by the way? Mine's Nala!"
The boy kept silent about that, prefering not to speak.
"Don't wanna tell? It's fine. I won't force you to tell me." Nala said, wanting the boy to feel at ease and out of danger above all else. "Sorry, but the kids around here seem to have some loosen screws. Best to just outright ignore them." She told him, starting to search for some food in order to give to the boy.
"I just wanted to have fun..."
"Hm?" Nala looked at him, as it seemed the boy had finally decided to speak.
"I wanted to have fun. Be cool, party, have friends...just like the other kids." The kid confessed, rearing up "I thought...that I would get approval that way."
"..." Nala heard in silence, paying attention to what he was saying.
"That everyone would get to like me and be my friend!" He said, trying to clean the tears from his face. "Because of that, I dropped school, stopped listening to my parents and fled from home! I-I didn't even considered how worried I'd make my parents get on my way here! I'm a total idiot! A waste of life!"
"Hey! Snapped out of it!" Calling him, Nala grabbed the boy by the collar, looking directly to his eyes. "A total idiot never admits that they're an idiot themselves!" She told him. "If you know what you did is bad, and regret it, then that's already a step to the right direction! Being cool and having friends doesn't mean skipping school or do crazy stuff because other kids tell you to! You can still get friends and be cool in your own way!"
"H-How so?" The boy asked her, having stopped crying.
"First, you got to leave this place. You will just be a subject of mockery to assholes in here. Then, you'll get back home and apologize to your parents for having runned away." Nala said, working as some sort of 'scold' as well. "After that, find some hobby to do and people that share the same interests as you. Those will end up being your real friends. Do you understand that?" She placed both her hands on his shoulders.
"Y-yes, I did. I've learned my lesson." The boy replied, getting up from the ground. "From now on, I'll try and be a better person!"
Nala smiled proudly. "That's the way! Let's see if we can find an exit for you to leave the amusement park." Walking out of the tent alongside the boy, Nala was quick to find a ladder resting just next to the walls of the park. "Well, this will come in handy. Climb it up as I hold it for you." Nala told to the boy, picking up the ladder and getting in position so that the boy could get over the walls.
"Thank you! Thank you so much!" The boy thanked Nala before climbing the ladder. "I don't know how to repay you this."
"I know. By getting out and living your life as a more wise person." Nala smiled to him. "Think you can do that?"
The boy smiled back to her. "Yeah. I can and will! Thank you for the second chance. I shall never forget this."
"Just climb the ladder already, okay?" Nala told, altough she still felt happy for helping the boy retaking his freedom. She hold the ladder and watched him go all the way up to the top, dissapearing over the tall fence. Nala deemed it as her job done, letting go off the ladder and happily walk away. That was until she got tripped and fell with her face on the ground. "Ghg!"
"Well, well, well. What a surprising turn of events."
Looking up, Nala saw the blonde girl in front of her alongside a group of kids.
"Not liking to be in this place anymore? No problem." With a snap of her fingers, the three boys Nala had attacked previously appeared, picking her up from the ground, grabbing her by the arms. "We can't take care of that." The girl said, holding a pipe in her right hand.
"Hey! Unhand me!" Nala struggled against the boys holding her, ending up receiving a blow right in the stomach as the girl swinged the pipe on her. "Urgh!"
"What a shame. And I initially thought you were cool to hang around it." The girl said with a look of resentment. "But it would seem that in the end, you're just a loser who can't handle being around here."
"Pff! I got that the moment I saw you and all the other kids frequenting this place." Nala smirked, throwing the insult at the girl and the others. This amusement park revealed to not be a dream in the end. Far from it.
"Ah ah. How witty you are." The girl said sarcastically with tedium, lifting up the pipe. "Let's see if you keep saying that once I open up your head!"
Watching it descend torwards her, Nala quickly moved her legs and crossed them around the pipe, stopping the attack. Having gotten the boys holding her by surprise, Nala easily took her arms away from them, elbowing the boys right in the temple. She had fought against servants, monsters and been on life threatening situations more dangerous than this. Beating up some deliquent kids was a walk in the park for her.
Free, Nala proceeded to kick the mean girl right in the face, knocking her down. "And you better stay-" Yet, Nala ended up being surprised once she saw the girl quickly get back up, her entire body moving and cracking unaturally, the skin of her face off, revealing the face of a demonic monster behind that screeched at her. "What a...!" From behind, she saw the three boys that she had beaten, transform into the same type of monster as well. Very soon, all of the children in the amusement park mutated as well, now all of the imps with their targets on Nala, prompting the girl to try and run away from there. "Crap!"
"Truth is most of the times, a sharp bullet hard to swallow. One of those truths being that even the young and juvenile art not immune to sin."
From the top of the ferris wheel, Man of Sin stood darkly in contrast to the amusement park's lights, watching Nala running away on below.
"It can be however, more complex. While some younglings whose souls hath not the awareness that what they practice is wrong, others do come to obtain that consciousness and yet still decide to practice wrong."
He kept monologuing as the chase continued.
"If the fledgelings have the capacity to be corrupted as well...To lie, manipulate, harm and kill others for the same impious motives as their veterans, then this is a world where evil hath already polluted its very roots."
Reaching to a seemingly dead end, Nala tried to use her powers to try and fight, but her magic was still unavailable. "Really? Even in a moment like this?" Upset with her current situation, Nala saw the demons gather in front of her, having no chance to escape. Seeing that the things were getting drier, Nala still refused to give up. Hopefully, if this was really just a dream in the end, she could rest easy knowing that most than likely, she could end up waking in her bed. "Well, it's either fighting or not!" Looking at her own hands, the girl closed them into fists and charged torwards the demonic monster that was the closest to her. "Take this!"
However, as soon as she punched the enemy, Nala's fist went right through the creature, ending up on its body fading away in a black liquid matter, much to Nala's confusion. "What?"
"But a solution shall be found. All the children of Earth deserve a life out of impure thoughts and actions. For that, a cure to mend the world will be needed. One through rebirth."
And as subtle as he had appeared in the dream, Man of Sin went away, leaving Nala alone in a not utterly deserted amusement park.
"Hm?" Looking up, Nala tried to see if what she had just heard wasn't only her mind playing pranks. "How weird. Thought I heard someone speaking." Walking now torwards the entrance gate, she begun feeling sleepy again once she passed through the entrance. Heading to a tree at the tree line of the forest, Nala sat down and laid her back against the tree's trunk, feeling she was about to fall asleep in the dream and wake up in real life at any moment now.
"I wonder who was speeaking all of that..."
"Nghmm...Hmmmm..."
Being on his very own dream, the last master of Chaldea, Ritsuka Fujimaru, woke up from his sumbler to the sound of the waves hitting against the coast.
"Hmm...What...time is it?" Opening his eyes, Ritsuka felt he was no longer lying in his soft cushion of a bed, but on a soft and relaxing green grass. It immediatly made his entire mind and body jolt as he got up from the ground. "Eh? This ain't Chaldea!" Looking around, Ritsuka could observe that he was in another place. Somewhere that wasn't neither a Singularity nor a simulation in Chaldea. It was a totally new place. Standing on the grass, the last master of humanity saw that the entire sky around him was completly dominated by grey. Even with some of the fog hovering in the air, Ritsuka was able to tell he seemed to be in a small island, basically an islet with nothing.
Nothing but the green grass, the eerie wind breeze, the sounds of the waves hitting against the rocks and an enormous abandoned and rusted chateau of daunting appearence towering in the middle of it, completly grasping Ritsuka's attention.
"What is this place?"
To be continued...
And that was all for chapter 125!
So, if you read the chapter till the end, specially the last section, yes, you guessed it correctly. The next few chapters will be adapting the Prison Tower event!
Now, I know that some, if not majority of you, were all eager and expecting that this chapter would already be the first one of Babylonia. However...I think the Prison Tower, while an event, it is, on my opinion, an important and basically fundamental event for FGO's narrative of this Arc. Like, I'm not saying that is the case with all the events in the game, but we know that there are some that are like almost essential to play because they are in some way tied with the future of the story, and then the other side of the spectrum were you can 'kinda' consider some events to be filler.
And Prison Tower is an important event because it introduces us to Dantès, a.k.a Ritsuka's mental bodyguard as well as some infos about Solomon (Which in this version, I'll take the opportunity to flesh out Man of Sin even more and his motives) So yeah, while not still Babylonia, it will be an important mini-story arc before we head into that Singularity. So perceive this as some 6.5 of sorts.
And once again, I'm sorry if you were expecting Babylonia to start with this chapter. We will only reach that Singularity in March. For now, the story will dwelve on some other aspects first. We already got the experience of Peko and Nala's dreams in this chapter, so now it is Ritsuka's turn (which will obviously take more than just one chapter in this mini-arc)
Anyways, that's all that I wanted to say, and see you next time on chapter 126! Peace!
P.S:
Nala (Pouting while carrying boxes in the halls of Chaldea): Uff! Transporting these boxes from one place to another is the most tedious task ever! Director Goredolf always has to come up with something for me to do during my breaks!
Calamity Jane (Appears): Heya there kiddo! Need some help carrying those boxes?
Nala: Oh, yes please! Thank you very much...eerrr...
Calamity Jane:...
Nala:...
Calamity Jane:...
Nala (Thinking to have remembered): Cowgirl from Red Dead!
(Calamity Jane's smile completly fades away, replaced by a depressed look devoid of life)
Calamity Jane: I don't even appear in those games...
Nala (Desperatly trying to apologize): Ah, sorry! It's just too many servants in Chaldea that at a certain point I start forgetting some of you!