Fool Bloom (A Magical Woman Quest)

"Since you mentioned story research, I'll be heading down to the library," Koyomi said, before trying to find wherever her wallet and cards were in this reality. I should get the lowdown on whatever this world is first before I meet with anyone specific, talking with Yumemi's been disjointed enough already, she thought.

"Really, so soon, and on your own? You haven't even had breakfast yet," Yumemi said, narrowing her eyes. "Wait, is this a way of leaving me to deal with your mother if she calls?"

The very thought of Yumemi having to put up with her mother amused Koyomi to no end. But she only said, "I'll get something on the way," until she somehow got the urge to add on something she'd likely regret, "Unless, er, you wouldn't mind coming with me." Purely for practical reasons. I haven't been this far into Tokyo for decades, and the city from memory it was hardly that navigable, so a 'local' might help, she thought but couldn't say.

"Oh, so now you want me?" Yumemi said, with a frown and hands on her hips. But then her frown turned upside down into a smirk with, "Of course. We'll stop by the usual along the way," her not bothering to ask Koyomi first.


Koyomi took the stairs down to familiarise herself with this place. When Yumemi pointed at the elevator, Koyomi told her, "I could use the extra walk." As she expected, the corridors and stairs were as coldly vanilla as her apartment had been. For anyone else, the window going all the way down to let in the most light would've been an attraction, but Koyomi just found herself hissing at it.

Upon walking out the front door, Koyomi came to a halt and could've collapsed. There it was, inner-city Tokyo, about as she had remembered it with adjustments for the decade and very much not encased in alien ice. Even seeing Tokyo again from the window earlier couldn't prepare her for setting her foot down on its pavement again. The whole experience felt more like a dream than most of her actual dreams, which did not bode well for escaping Yumemi's clutches. And speaking of her…

"Honestly, what is with you today?" Yumemi stepped out muttered, taking hold of the paralysed Koyomi's shoulder to drag her along. The Brigadier in another world had dressed herself in a Parisian trenchcoat and broad sunhat, both unsurprisingly coloured a stark white, with a green scarf and dark yellow leggings for contrast. Perhaps not as eye-catching as her black dress, but seeing Yumemi's fashion sense still intact made Koyomi more amused to think of her own thrown-together outfit embarrassing her.

Though Koyomi had her concerns about the streetscape now being a faded memory to her, it turned out her past knowledge of Minato's layout came back to her quickly, almost eerily so. It may not have been her neighbourhood, but she'd passed through this district enough all the way back then, as a civilian as well as in response to Frost Fair schemes, for déjà vu to strike her every other second. Beyond just the looming presence of Tokyo Tower, even things like intersections or bike racks stirred chills in her.

The bakery, or perhaps patisserie was the more fitting word given its classy ambience, that Yumemi led her to was all brand new though. But despite how fluffy and creamy its pastries may have been, Koyomi still insisted on "Just a coffee. Black."

Yumemi immediately looked down on her. "Koyomi, I am not letting you leave here until you've eaten a proper breakfast," she said, pressing closer.

"What, you know that stuff about it being the most important meal of the day is made up, right?" Koyomi said. But then not having an actual source for that handy, she instead sighed and went, "Alright, fine, I'll take a couple of croissants or something."

Only then did Koyomi stop to consider if she was being too harsh on Yumemi, or at least this Yumemi. True, Yumemi was treating her like she was still a schoolgirl, instead of the now forty-year-old woman she was, but it seemed like she meant well so far. Of course, this was assuming this was a separate RUNE-free Yumemi and not some elaborate dream act, and her slighting Ladder to Heaven still stung. But if the former really was the case, then being married to Yumemi as she was… it was everything Koyomi wanted, wasn't it?

Or married unofficially at least. Koyomi hadn't spotted a marriage certificate anywhere in their apartment, and if they had one Yumemi certainly would've mentioned it by now. Rather than wait till the library, Koyomi just used her phone to check if Japanese marriage equality had become a thing in this reality; said phone sleek whiteness suggesting Yumemi had also picked it out for her. Sure enough, marriage rights hadn't gotten any further here than they had in her own Japan. She suspected they'd be further behind if anything, as LBGT+ people were one of the main Japanese minorities the Dandelionhearts made Hanazakari.

"Your coffee and croissants will get cold, Koyomi," Yumemi said to snap her out of her musings.

Spying the creamy, caramel-studded éclair Yumemi had gotten, Koyomi smirked as she took the chance to nag back with, "Y'know, treating yourself to those can't be good for your weight." Not that weight was something Koyomi cared about, how stick-thin she was made her privileged like that, but anything to get under Yumemi's nerves for once.

It looked like it was working for a second, as Yumemi shot her a dark glare. But then, as if she'd caught on, she slowly relaxed herself, smiled, and said, "Thank you for your concern," in a tone you'd used for a disappointed customer and not your beloved, "but my figure has remained perfectly consistent, so really you fret over nothing." Koyomi starting to seethe in response just made the smile grow wider.

After breakfast, Koyomi was left embarrassed once again when, for as much as she surprisingly remembered about Tokyo, Yumemi still had to show her exactly where the nearest library was. And she was the author, not her. At least the library was a decent size, with rows of light brown shelves atop freshly vacuumed carpeting arranged around a central circle, hopefully enough for Koyomi to find out the basics of this other world if not more.

"I spotted you on your phone earlier. Is there any reason you couldn't have done your research on it?" Yumemi had to ask.

Given how well Yumemi knew her, Koyomi had to suspect that once again, she'd just asked her that to rile her up. "You know me, I'd sooner trust information written down than found somewhere online. And no paywalls either," she told her anyway.

But those words would come back to bite her, as after spending most of the morning looking up pre-Frost Decade history, Koyomi would find out everything was identical in this world till then. Nothing her phone couldn't have easily told her.
As for the Frost Decade and beyond, she first narrowed her search by focusing on Tokyo itself. A list of mayors the metropolis had had since was easy to find, Tokyo Tower had since been outclassed by the new Skytree over in Sumida, and the population had grown even further as more people fled the countryside. And sure enough, no mention of anything alien, unless one of those mayors had one serious secret. She also winced to see the LDP very much in power, and that the Sarin Gas Attacks and Fukushima meltdown further afield had still happened. Not that RUNE had been that quick to respond to the latter in her own timeline.

The flight from the countryside got her to look up Hinodeharu, but all even this library had on it was that it was a small town relatively near Nagoya. The last entry on it was from a while ago too, though naturally it mentioned the Kai family. And as for cults, she sighed with relief to find not a single mention of the Earthly Purified, or anything with Kamizono as the head, and of course no RUNE either. Well, unless they were even more secretive in this timeline.
For people she knew, Vasilisa Mirova was cited on a list of astronauts, and this world's Hibiki Izumi was not only alive but mainly a physical actress instead of just voice, without war wounds to put an end to her Takarazuka training. Any mention of Chigusa Kagamino though stopped years ago, which made sense now that she couldn't just send an image of her younger self in her place.

Drama queen, she wasn't that much older than I am, Koyomi instinctively thought, but had to consider that authors had an easier time looking however than singers and actresses did. Well, if she wanted me to sympathise, she should've thought of that before she pulled that plot with Sfira… wait, I'm thinking of my world's Kagamino again. My world's Sfira too, as would they have any reason to come to Earth without Hanazakari? Oh no, what would Miyako even be without Hanazakari, but still with those parents of hers?
And if Izumi's still alive, wait, could this be what the Dandelionhearts meant by the Resurrection? She quickly shut down that thought with, no, it couldn't have been. An alternate yourself still isn't really you, no matter what some quantum physicists would say.

All in all, this seemed to be a more detailed world than she expected, so either Yumemi or Blue Lotus or whoever had really thought through their setting… or this was no dream. But as for this being an alternate reality, then it made even less sense how she'd be here. There was only one Hanazakari Koyomi even knew of that had power over those, Padma in Full Bloom, and why would she, let alone the Pathragadan clan her powers came from, single out her of all people?

Oh yes, Pathragadans. Frustratingly there was no way of knowing whether they and the Frost Fair existed in this reality, or if they simply hadn't come to Earth, and travelling whole light years would be the only way she knew of finding out. Though if a Pathragadan clan was behind this, then from what she knew of their society, she highly doubted they'd send her to a world where they didn't exist. Unless they didn't want to deal with rival alternate Pathragadans.

Article:

The chance that this was something more than a dreamworld got Koyomi thinking that checking up on others might be a good idea, but whom?

[ ] Go check on Emi, she's the closest and has contact already established.
[ ] See how Hinodeharu's faring, with Tokyo sucking up the rural population.
[ ] Try to find Miyako, even if she had nearly no leads.
[ ] Any less famous Hanazakari, like Palmira or Maimi, that the library didn't cover.
[ ] Test Yumemi more to see if she's really behind this, or if she's just another alternate.
[ ] Write-in