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Shards of a Broken Sun [Megaten/Shugo Chara/Exalted]

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Interlude: Ami
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    • Evening, Oct. 21, 2009

    Mom was worried. No, scared. It was painted all over her thoughts, a tidal wave of worry threatening to overwhelm Ami. The little girl struggled to keep up with her mother's thoughts without being pulled under them instead—an experience which she hated intensely, because even if Mom had good reason to worry, it hurt Ami to watch it. It hurt even worse because she couldn't do anything.

    Ami was scared too, and Mom couldn't even feel it.

    "'neechan will be fine," she insisted anyway; half because Mom needed to hear it and half because Ami didn't know what else to say. She hugged Mom's side as best she could, but couldn't hug her mind. Because hugging someone who didn't want to be hugged, was-

    It was wrong, and she'd done that, and she'd learned better!

    But still.

    "I know," Mom lied softly. "Amu won't get hurt. She promised me that."

    "Yeah," Ami agreed, nodding frantically in response. Mom looked at her, her gaze softened, and then Ami was swept into a hug and cuddled against her mother's chest as she wondered what on earth had been wrong with what she said—because this was better than being ignored, but still-

    She'd been trying to make Mom feel better. And this was still the wrong type of hug.

    "Mom?" Ami asked, a little nervously. "Can we go home now?"

    "Do you want to?" Mom asked hesitantly in return, letting Ami back onto her feet.

    "I'm tired," Ami said, nodding her head and frowning at Mom. "And hungry."

    She was tired. And her other half was hungry, although asleep. Acchan couldn't stay awake while Akkun was. Not for very long, and dinner hadn't happened yet. She'd had an adventure instead of dinner, but adventures, Ami found, were nowhere near as nice when you were scared. Which she was, because 'neechan... no, 'neechan would be fine! Because she was 'neechan! Nothing could defeat 'neechan, not really, not even huge flying monsters like had invaded her school.

    Ami suddenly found herself trembling slightly, memories flashing back before she could stop them—no matter how hard she tried to pretend that everything was fine and that nothing bad had happened and that the scary things didn't exist-

    Mom crouched down again, staring at Ami with a concerned expression on her face and gently rubbing her back.

    "We can go home," Mom promised her softly, all comfort and prickly-promise, like she wanted to be a cactus surrounding Ami. Somehow that felt nice. "You're safe now. We'll get dinner ready for Amu." She smiled sadly at Ami, then pushed herself back up, taking Ami's hand in her own and leading her down the corridor and towards the stairs back to where the car was...

    Oops.

    Ami disentangled herself and let Mom walk half a step ahead of her, just so she wouldn't see the huge blush on her face, because she'd accidentally read her mind. Only for a little while. But then they hit an intersection, and Mom could follow 'neechan's ribbon but still asked Ami to confirm. Which made Ami feel very grown-up right then.

    Then there was a spiral staircase, which looked weird and felt weirder, half dream and half real. It gave Ami some ideas, because she'd always wanted to build a castle, but that was another thing for later, and then they were downstairs with Hikaru waiting for them, and- oh.

    She stopped on the last step of the stairwell, and they stared at each other. The room she'd walked down into was—was normal. Ami—Akkun, really—had expected somehow that walking out of a dream and into reality would put her in a laboratory of some kind, or an industrial workshop, or somewhere weird, somewhere that looked like it belonged. Instead it was just a room that looked like it belonged in someone's house; big, but furnished, with carpets on the floor and several couches arranged around a television set in a room to the side, and normal incandescent lights on the wall.

    Normal.

    And it had Hikaru, who'd been walking a literal groove in the floor—it was all cracked—but who'd stopped as soon as Ami emerged and now seemed completely frozen; staring at Ami with an expression somewhere between hope and fear on his face. Like he wasn't sure what he was looking at, and didn't dare try to work out what it was just in case it vanished if he did so.

    His mind she was allowed to lean against, so she did so, letting out all the worry and uncertainty and just breathing it out like the young girl that she liked to pretend that she wasn't, where Hikaru was concerned. Only he was older than her, and Ami was sorry she couldn't hug him without him thinking of her as a baby; but if she did, then she would be a baby and she wouldn't be able to hug him anyway without him feeling weird about it! And that-

    That wouldn't do at all!

    So she settled for leaning into him mentally, and Hikaru, who could neither tell what she was feeling nor get affected by it, only noticed that she was there and she needed comforting somehow. Which—silly Hikaru—didn't make him do anything to make Ami feel better, even if he'd wanted to do so because he could feel that something was wrong; but Ami appreciated the effort all the same.

    Hikaru really was the best big brother a girl could have!

    Then he looked behind her.

    "Utau isn't coming," Ami said, the words tasting sour in her mouth. "Not yet. 'neechan is upstairs too. They're fighting a monster. Or rescuing someone." The floor groaned, before Hikaru got control of himself again.

    She hadn't quite figured out what they were doing, but it seemed like fighting and rescuing were somehow connected—or were going to be, at least? Ami had felt the desperation from her sister and didn't know what to do about it, because it was like 'neechan wanted something that Ami couldn't give her; something that Ami couldn't fix or make right or-

    It was frustrating! And scary! And-

    She sniffled slightly and Hikaru nodded, and Mom was suddenly next to her, and she was hugging her without thinking about it and-

    "Let's go home," Mom murmured gently. "Amu will be fine."

    Amu would be fine. Ami would be fine too, even if- even if Mom needed to learn how to hug someone right, but right now wasn't the time for that because Mom's hug was fine and Ami needed to relax. She really did. This place felt weird. Cloying, kind of. Like it wasn't sure if it liked her or not.

    "Can I have a quick word, Ichinomiya-kun?" Mom asked quietly.

    Hikaru nodded, blinking curiously at her. Mom hugged her again and said she'd be back soon, and-

    And-

    Ami was left alone for the first time since they'd left 'neechan.

    Well, not quite alone. There was of course the part of her that was 'Acchan'. The dreamer, instead of the dream, but Acchan was asleep. If that was the right way to think? They both remembered each other's lives anyway. Ami wasn't entirely sure where the boundaries were anymore.

    She could wake her, of course, but...

    'Akkun' looked around.

    She was outside.

    In reality.

    Not stuck at the back of Acchan's mind.

    ...

    She wasn't going to wake her.

    It was too exciting! And cool.

    ⁂

    "Mom?" Ami asked, playing idly with her hair. She was seated in the back of Mom's car and they were driving home, but Ami was no longer sure if she really wanted to eat anything. Despite being hungry. "Did... did you notice I'm a little different?"

    "Oh? Not at all," Mom lied gently. "You look exactly like my sweet little daughter."

    A few seconds passed, and they reached a traffic stop. Mom turned around in her seat to give Ami a small smile that Ami couldn't help but smile back at in response, even if she got a little bit embarrassed.

    "Um..." Ami mumbled shyly, ducking her head and playing with her hair some more instead.

    She wasn't even sure where to begin explaining it to Mom.

    "I never bought you that dress," Mom pointed out.

    Which she hadn't. Ami was dressed in a blue dress with black highlights, in a style that Mom had never bought for her. It had a small capelet too, which Ami had put there for reasons she couldn't quite put her finger on.

    "It looks adorable on you," Mom continued on. "But I think we'll have to get you some more, if you like this look."

    Ami wasn't sure what she thought about that.

    This one wasn't complete without her sword? Which a troll was sharpening for her. She wasn't used to wearing dresses?

    Not exactly true, she'd worn this one a lot, but 'neechan was usually Mom's dressing doll. Even if Ami liked them too—Mom was right about how pretty dresses were!—she didn't like wearing them enough for them to become a regular thing. Did she?

    "And your hair isn't usually that bright a blonde," Mom continued on, studying Ami intently in a way that made her feel very shy about things. "And you're a little taller than I expected you to be." She smiled at Ami's stunned expression, and gave her a small shrug as well. "What, did you expect your mom not to notice?" she asked with a wry grin on her face. "I know what my daughter looks like. This is your magical girl form, right?"

    Uhhhh...

    "I'm not a magical girl," Ami mumbled shyly, blushing all the while. But she could be! Dream powers! There were lots of magical girls weaker than her. She would love being a magical girl. And-

    'I don't want to,' the Acchan part of her replied. 'We have other things to worry about.'

    "...kinda," Ami said, contradicting herself. "Yes. I guess. But also kinda."

    "What's that mean?" Mom asked curiously.

    Yeeeeaaaaah...

    That was not an explanation Ami was ready to give her mom right now! Or ever! Maybe to 'neechan? But 'neechan wasn't here right now.

    "Magical dream powers," she settled on. "Which means, Mom. When we get home. I'm going to already be there, in my bed, sleeping. Or on the couch maybe. Sleeping." She frowned. "So we should tell Dad, so he doesn't get scared."

    Mom pulled the car to a stop, ignoring the road for a moment as she gave Ami a thoughtful look. She considered her daughter's words for several seconds before finally nodding in response.

    "Okay," she agreed.

    "'Okay'?" Ami repeated incredulously; her earlier shyness evaporating at Mom's easy acceptance of things. "No! 'Okay' doesn't mean 'okay'! You need to be not okay! This isn't okay!" She pouted at Mom and then crossed her arms in front of her chest for good measure; huffing unhappily at her mother's continuing insistence on being not weirded out by the strangest things ever!

    Mom chuckled in response, smiling at Ami.

    "Are you secretly an evil clone? Are you going to assimilate the other Ami? Do you need me to-"

    "Mom!" Ami interrupted her plaintively; blushing furiously and shaking her head. "No! And also: No!" She was not going to explain anything! Not even the light teasing was okay! It wasn't! "I'm just... growing up? Maybe? Just a little." She gave Mom an embarrassed smile. "...I'll fall asleep when she wakes up. Probably."

    Something in her wording made Mom give Ami an odd look for a few seconds. Her mother's mind felt pensive. Then she shook her head, and it passed.

    "If this was another day," Mom said. "Then I'd say we should surprise Dad. But not today." She grinned at Ami's relieved sigh.

    Mom unparked the car, and they continued down the road towards home.
     
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    XP calculation (Arc 2)
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    • Amu:
    = 9 XP banked
    - 7 XP earmarked for training. (Dreamwalking 2, Illusion 2, Integrity 3, Lore 1.5)
    = 2 XP prior to this arc. 1 XP of this is moved to the common pool.
    + 3 XP (Rescuing Kana, including prelude.)
    = 4 XP (new total)

    Utau:
    + 1 XP (Touching the Key)
    + 2 XP (Rescuing Kana)
    = 3 XP

    Ami:
    - (Ami is already training dreamwalking and melee, and has paid for that.)
    + 1 XP (Rescuing Kana)
    = 1 XP

    Miki:
    + 2 XP (Becoming Miki)
    = 2 XP

    Kana:
    -1 XP (Rescuing Yui...)
    = -1 XP. Yes, she's in XP debt.

    Midori:
    + 1 XP (Rescuing Kana)
    = 1 XP. Not that she can do much with this.

    Pool:
    + 1 XP from arc 1 Amu
    + 3 XP (Amu)
    + 3 XP (Utau)
    + 2 XP (Miki)
    + 1 XP (Midori)
    + 1 XP (insight bonus)
    = 11 XP

    Per-character XP rewards are halved relative to the previous arc, inasmuch as half of it lands in the pool. You can apply that to anyone, though any usage of pooled XP implies the kids are helping each other. A terrible fate, I'm sure.

    In addition, Utau, Ami, Midori and Amu all gained the equivalent of twelve hours of Dreamwalking training time... assuming they can make use of that.
     
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    • Interlude: Saaya
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    • Gintsugi Dreams - Saaya
    Contination of the Sidestory chapter:     Crizzling Dreams

    -once green eyes open beneath the Diet building.

    This girl isn't met by family, however.

    Saaya isn't surprised.

    "-amabuki, are you aware?"
    "-rade Five mental abrasion, Doctor Akamine. It was a reflexive movement, nothing m-."
    "-mori-san recovered fully. I still have h-."

    Saaya wakes slowly, scattered pieces of cognition leisurely, barely, surfacing from the dark.

    The Locket pulses in time with her heart as amber eyes take in the ceiling, not in any rush to fully awaken. It's impossible not to notice it supporting her, bridging gaps in her psyche with spiderwebs of fine chain links. Its presence means little to her.

    A quiet alert has been sounding through the medical ward, but it takes the doctor calling her name(?) to pull her gaze from the internal to external.

    "Miss Yamabuki, are you… present?"

    An interesting question. Yamabuki. Family name. The connection that should be there, isn't. Awareness of it remains to highlight the absence. An expectation of said connection? Fragments that note the absences remain. The ones which should have been screaming, don't. This absence is also noted.

    "Yamabuki-chan, can you hear me?"

    But is that a reason to respond? What happens if she does?

    The doctor frowns, leaning in, worry clear on his face. Salt and pepper hair. Worry lines. Older than her parents, but not by much.

    Thoughts shift through molasses, decisions coming… not slowly, but lackadaisical as they meander around patches of inattention. Does it matter if she doesn't reply? Well, what does it matter if she does? The questions don't come consciously, the answers don't come at all.

    It takes her long minutes to determine that questions are a request for an answer, and decide that she should give them. It's less a decision than an absence of provided alternatives. The Locket does its job, converting errors and annotations of absence into extrapolated fragments, which settle into place to let her think.

    "That isn't possible. Someone alert security, that can't be-"

    It almost immediately runs out of material to build from, confined to a room as it is, but by that point Saaya can talk. It reverts to a lesser mode, stitching pieces together instead of wholesale reconstruction. It can be patient when it must.

    "I can hear you. Call me Saaya. Not…" Her parents aren't here. Saaya wonders if that would have hurt, before the last… week? Month? Life? She makes the decision anyway, pushing the burned out gulf away for now. She honestly doesn't care that they aren't, but the family name feels off.

    Amu had called her Saaya, when she was dying. When her rival was saving her life. It fits better, to the scattered pieces of self that consider a name worth stressing over.

    "Her eyes are harvest too, what in god's name-"

    He shoots whoever is whispering a glare, before turning back to her. "Miss Saaya, then. You've been through a rather extreme experience, and we are here to help you recover from it."

    She supposes that is fine. One hand rests on the locket that is holding her together.

    Saaya doesn't feel like reconstructing that 'self', mask, after the freedom of letting go.

    So she leans on the artificial structure as they talk at her. She's alive, and that is more than she could have asked for. Not that she had.

    ⁂

    Her memories of before she passed out—died—are hazy, fractured, but she can remember the empty space behind reality.

    Demons are real. Huh. Not just the things that Hinamori, and presumably the other 'Guardians', dealt with, but things from Outside. Like in the novels she'd read. She'd tumbled through the hole in reality, and some of her came screaming back from burning on the far side.

    That worries her less than she feels it should. As does what she hears of the school.

    Saaya knows, by now, that something is deeply wrong with her. Amu fixed some things, healed her body, and it's enough that she's willing to consider forgiving her.
    But the places she turned destruction on, those haven't come back. Chain link stitching didn't restore everything.

    Or maybe that willingness to forgive is due to the gaping emptiness where stripes of her emotions used to reside. She can tell she would have reacted far worse to the Locket's presence in her mind, two weeks ago.

    An idle thought erases her discomfort with the chain links.

    ⁂

    "I am sorry, Miss Saaya, but your parents are held up. I'm sure they'll be here as soon as they can be."

    The doctor, Dr. Akamine, seems disappointed on her behalf. They must know by now that her father works in the Diet building overhead. There isn't any need for him to try and cover for them, so she speaks up.

    "They won't be. This is probably the last straw on them pretending to care." The doctor goes to speak, so she cuts him off. People's misunderstandings are annoying now that she's free from caring herself. "It doesn't matter. Caring about that was one of the first things I burned. Made them a lot easier to deal with."

    He frowns, not commenting, before moving on to what exactly she did to herself. Saaya, barely listening, feels a sudden lurch of jealousy for literally-everybody-else's halfway decent parents. A moment of instinctual Erasure removes the intruding wrongness, the chain-threads burning, and it doesn't come back again.

    Neither he nor Saaya call her month long spiral a suicide attempt, but they dance around the term. Him out of worry, her out of some bitter amusement.

    Her rival once again stopped her from succeeding. She supposes she'll add that to the list of things to forgive Amu-chan for.

    ⁂

    Makoto Sako is the highest ranking military officer in JPs. It's her job to order their agents into battle with demons, and she has to admit, this kind of mental damage isn't new to her. She isn't a sorcerer herself, nor does JPs have many on staff, because with no known exceptions all sorcerers end up destroying their minds. An accident here, a stressful combat encounter there, and inevitably Japan's care homes for dementia patients have more than their fair share of retired sorcerers.

    Hotsuin is no exception. There's a reason JPs is led by a sixteen-year-old instead of either of his parents, and Makoto feels fear each time he takes the field, which isn't often.

    Yes, his presence trivialises most opponents.

    No, she doesn't protest when he spends his time elsewhere. Nor does she push her own sorcerer subordinates towards combat outside of absolute need. There's a reason they have the Silencer. Demon summoning is often the safer option, and even that… sometimes, the Silencer is the only way to break a link that is draining someone of Macca. Consuming their soul, in simpler terms.

    What was new, and troubling, was a teenager showing the same damage. Even worse, by the girl's own admission it was self-inflicted. The way she said it reminded her of some agents, the older ones. The ones that tried to use the cost of summoning beyond their capacity as a form of therapy.

    Level five though? That wasn't something the Silencer could fix. Not something anything could fix, even the Director.

    Level five was an immediate death sentence.

    Hotsuin's unofficial assistant shakes her head and looks up from the file to where said girl sits in a wheelchair beyond the observation glass, as Dr Akamine instructs her. She looks exhausted, still, but coherent now. Pale and bags under her eyes. Makoto makes a note to check she is eating properly.

    "Okay, Saaya. Aim for the target we've got set up there, and use your ability. You don't need to push, but it will help us a lot to know what your power does."

    Makoto Sako has seen many esoteric abilities since joining JPs, ranging from the childrens' telekinesis to the Director's summons to her own angelic looking Power.

    None were quite like the blue light- Cherenkov radiation? No, too blue for that- that rips free from the child's hand with a mutter that the mics just about manage to pick up, her lips quirking up. "Fuck, off."

    The surge of energy destroys, obliterates. Sako barely stops herself pressing down on the phone key, her JP's 'phone' drawn and snapped open before she consciously processes reaching for it.

    She nearly misses the details, too busy drawing the summoning terminal in an instinctive reaction, but under the flying shards of wood her keen eyes can see something otherwise easily missed in the display of unsettling power.

    Where it hit? The energy erased. The other parts of the wooden block went flying, but over half the mass is just gone. Not disintegrated, not torn apart. It disappeared, the space it occupied formatted to nothing. As are chunks of the reinforced walls, sliced through as easily as the wood. Deleted just as easily as her Power would crush a Pixie.

    Makoto would have to call it luck that the doctor wasn't hit, considering the fact that the door behind him is missing a chunk.

    Abrasion level five and she can do this a single week later. These children worry her, even more than just the bean bag did. And the jokes about that thing weren't doing a good job of hiding the general sense of unease at its existence.

    A low hiss distracts both her and the Doctor as Saaya peels her sleeves back curiously, fingers and arms bleeding where spirals of flesh have been erased.

    What on earth?!

    ⁂

    A short while later Makoto meets Saaya in person for the first time. Without the glass and distance the fact that the young girl is barely a teenager stands out more. Painfully short red hair compared to her school photo, pale features and an encompassing sense of exhaustion.

    Sako makes a mental note to find some actual clothes for the girl to replace the hospital gown. And let her out of the room, perhaps. She looks like she can handle a few minutes.

    "Hello, Miss Saaya. I'm Makoto Sako, an officer here in JPs." Saaya blinks, taking in the uniform, before nodding.

    "We are something of a government agency," Sako continues. "-though you won't find any record of us out in the world. We deal with, well, demons."

    The navy haired woman made the call on her own authority to fully read Saaya into things. The girl's father lacked the clearance, but Mr Yamabuki wasn't here. Hadn't been here, in the week Saaya had laid unconscious. That man…

    Using a Diarahan to heal the damage from her ability meant showing her demon summoning anyway.

    Neither the appearance of the Power, somewhat judgemental of the child, nor explaining JPs in broad terms gets much of a reaction from the young girl beyond a raised eyebrow.

    Some basic questions, easily answered, but less curiosity than she expected.

    Basic queries about demons, where they come from, but altogether Saaya came across as very… casual about the whole thing. Uninvolved. You'd swear the girl was a tourist the way she listened about the tragedy at Seiyo.

    Maybe she'd been wrong to expect intense curiosity? Mental abrasion level five, and the child was holding a conversation like it was mildly interesting, rather than wasting away like you'd expect from someone on level two.

    "So… what happens now?"

    "What happens now?" Makoto blinks and repeats the question, wondering what the girl could mean.

    "Well, I'm obviously not back to normal, even with what Hinamori- Amu-chan did. And my parents aren't here. So it seems I'm going to be staying for a bit, unless I've missed my mark? JPs are the experts on magic, you said?"

    Saaya smiles slightly, a rueful look that fails to ease the young woman's stab of unease. Children shouldn't accept that their parents aren't coming for them as a matter of course. Though her file did mention…

    "Miss Saaya, when you said to Dr Akamine about having 'burned' out something to do with your parents, what did you mean?" She's pretty sure she knows.

    "I was panicking, I think. A lot of that is hazy, I've only got memories of the memories." Saaya shrugs carelessly, gesturing at her buzz-cut head, mild annoyance crossing her face as her fingers brush the shortened hair. Makoto stifled her frown at the sheer… apathy in her tone, resisting the urge to pull the girl into a hug.

    "People, Hinamori and some of my other classmates, were trying to affect me mentally. So I set everything they could touch on fire. Attacked it to remove the… vector? Attack surface?" She shrugs. "That's my power, I think. I can't do anything she could, making things, flying, energy beams… But once I started it just… made sense? Deleting things that bothered me. Things that I'd never been able to fix, so why keep bothering with them? It was so freeing, to just let it all go and not care anymore. Just point, bang, gone."

    Saaya says it so casually, a smile on her lips, with that same assuredness that all those summoners had. It's not the same, quite. Associations, not memories. But still, unsettling to hear from a thirteen year old.

    She says it so damn casually that Sako almost misses the blunt implication in the amber eyed girl's words, that deleting people could have been her next step.

    "Ri… right. For now, with what you can do, we plan on teaching you to control it. And some of the exercises we use to keep mental types out of our heads. They should work well for you. I'm sure Dr Akamine has said, but-"

    "Right, right. Don't erase any other parts of myself. Or others. I wasn't planning on it. I can feel how… fragmented I am, Makoto-san. Amu's Locket is tacky and pushy, but I wouldn't want to damage it." She smiles slightly, toying with the Locket as was becoming her habit. It's good to see that she has habits like that, rather than being corpse-still like the more damaged summoners.

    "So. You'll teach me how to control this… everything. Then what?"

    Then what indeed, Makoto wonders to herself a while later, after Saaya has left for—she checks the schedule—an examination.

    It was a thought that stuck with her the rest of the day.

    'What do I do now?'

    It was a question a younger Makoto had once asked when recovering from her injury, a certain and promised future ripped away from her.

    ⁂

    "Should we really be teaching her how to use this?" Sako said. "My Power already explained. It's an anti-reality effect. It's highly probable it was a key part in how the rift in Seiyo was created. That, the pink haired one, and whatever else Amakawa is up to."

    "What's the alternative? Let her run around with a Kagutsuchi damaging ability and fifth tier mental abrasion? Likely worsening it? Her psychic architecture is in shambles and held together by an OoP. We are already stretching procedure just by keeping her here, rather than contacting someone whose job is psionics. Yamabuki-"

    "Saaya. She wants to be called Saaya."

    "...? Saaya then, is only under our purview because of the demon incursion. And our expertise in mental damage, but realistically psionics isn't in our purview. Manticore will have a fit when they find out."

    "Manticore has no experience at all with children."

    "Be that as it may-" Neither did they, Fumi was saying, and Manticore at least kept an eye on some. Seiyo was a known phenomenon. "Is keeping her the best choice we can give Saaya?"

    "I'm not saying we shouldn't ask the experts, but could we… I don't know, help her stop hurting herself?"

    "You've always been soft, Sako. If you are that worried, she's yours to take care of. Yours, specifically. The Director likes his 'Hero Units', but recruiting kids into JPs is beyond even him."

    "..."

    "What?"

    "I might have to get that in writing."

    ⁂

    A few days later sees Saaya in another 'practice room'. Physically, they've confirmed there's nothing wrong with her, something she privately resolves to thank Amu for.

    Mentally however, things are not going so well.

    A breath in and the not-ruby-reactor blooms. Power. Energy flooding the empty space between thoughts.

    Destruction rising, bury your face in white thread, the smell of bleach, ozone, feel erasure-

    A scattershot pull, different fragments of self shifting, networking through the Locket to comprehend and grapple with the-

    It rips free, flaying the top layer of her palm and spiralling a blade of absence up her wrist.
    Air fractures around the target as the world dies at her clumsy command.

    And an inch deep gouge of stone cracks as the material is erased, her barely there control over the manifestation slipping into a spiderweb of laughing grooves.

    "Not the best…"

    She shakes her bleeding hand out, examining the target. "Miss Saaya? Are you alright?" The voice is over the intercom, after the last test.

    "I was able to control it, before. It did what I told it to do, mostly. I don't know why it isn't working now." She takes a deep breath, trying to concentrate on one of the mental exercises the Doctor had been teaching her.

    Cat's Cradle, Soldiers Bed, Candle. Twisting the connections of the Locket to draw the Saaya-pieces closer together, into different alignments. It… helps, even if it feels odd.

    "The strain you were under isn't fully healed. That will affect your control, especially with an ability like this."

    He's said it before, and she understands, but it still pissed her off.

    Diamond, Cat's Eye.

    "Can you summon that fairy again? Pixie?"

    "The fair- You are injured again? Of course, we'll call it there for today." The intercom stays on, a slight buzzing. "Ah? Sir, what are- Sako-san said? Of course sir."

    Saaya blinks, looking towards the speaker. Well, that sounds like something she could be interested in.

    The Locket would be annoyed, if such a thing could be.

    It sets about repairing the damage.

    Again.

    ⁂

    It isn't Dr Akamine that meets her outside the testing chamber, but a much younger man.

    Not out of his teens, silver hair, matching eyes, noble features in a way that would have made her father offer the good drinks. He was dressed like the other JP members but fancier. And that phone… that same as Makoto and Dr Akamine used to summon. But nicer?

    In other words, very much the same sort of person she'd always thought of Tadase as, before.

    Parts of her mind shift, trying to reach one another, pattern matching that would have been entirely subconscious if she wasn't painfully aware of her own mind and its 'error messages' now.

    A crush. Saaya considers for a moment, tugging the Lockets curling threads away so she can actually consider for herself, rather than be told what she should think.

    That is likely how she'd have reacted before.

    That… hadn't ever really gone anywhere positive with Tadase. And did she really want to be that kind of star struck school girl again? She can accept that he's cute, but rationally speaking?

    He snaps the phone shut and turns to her properly as she makes the decision, moment of dissonance cleared with a sharp mental edge.

    No. No she did not.

    "Saaya-san. I've been meaning to talk with you and Makoto-san asked me to as well. But first."

    A purple demon flickers into existence to gesture at her with a silver cup, "Diarahan", before fading away.

    Healing magic is becoming familiar to the young girl at this point, much to the annoyance of Dr Akamine's pixie.

    "Hotsuin-sama, thank you for your organisation's hospitality and care." Manners are not especially important to her anymore, but no one here has been anything but nice to her.
    Being a brat in return didn't make sense. That isn't the sort of person she wants to be. If manners were also hammered into Saaya by her parents… that's a part of the old her she can accept.

    "It is JP's duty to deal with such things. Firstly however, I must apologise to you." The noble looking boy- man? Director, Saaya decides on. He has the sense of someone older than his apparent age, but not quite an adult like the teachers. "The actions taken by Lulu de Morcerf Yamamoto went unnoticed by me, her cousin, and so I apologise for the harm she inflicted on you."

    Lulu de Morcerf. The girl who had twisted her into Amu's image. Who had indirectly shown her how to reach for the Destruction, the endless blue beyond the ruby. How to kill herself piecemeal until-

    Cat's Eye, Circles and Triangles.

    Mental fingers tug the threads, chainlinks so fine they feel like silk. The locket's chains are less visible these days, and less needed, too.

    Deep breath. Taper down the anger- hate, let the flickering fade from clenched fists. Dim the amber glow she can see in her eyes, reflected in the Directors.

    Flower, Ghost Dance.

    Saaya refocuses, sensing more than seeing the judgemental glance at her hands, where Destruction had rippled, and ripped, with her anger.

    That irritated him? After the apology? What did he-

    A moment's consideration, modelling his view, and she realises it's not… irritation at the emotion, but the lack of control. A lean of perspective and she understands. Lulu isn't here, so the power was pointless. Wasteful? She can agree with that sort of opinion. That mindset. Empathise with it, even. So…

    Candle Thief. Strings jump, an estimation of his mentality, nudged by the Lockets tension.

    Oh. That… works nicely. Thank you, Director.
    "Sorry. I'm still figuring it out. And I… accept your apology. You messed up, but the school didn't do any better, and they were closer. You're… making sure she can't do it again? Isn't able to make anyone else..."

    He raises an eyebrow, but doesn't question the delay in her reply. "I am. As is her grandmother. As is Lulu, I believe. Moving on from that, Makoto-san asked me to talk with you. She was unclear on why, but she is insistent."

    Hotsuin left it there, looking at her expectantly. Saaya takes the distraction, ruby-hate dimming.

    "I'm not sure either? I'm just… working on controlling my ability. Not like I can do much else. It isn't going very well though." Saaya shrugs, wiping the new blood from her palms onto her jeans where the stains won't show.

    "And you are willing to leave it at that?" The Director frowns, more than his resting face does. "You have a powerful ability, but it will be wasted if you don't have the resolve to control it." The phone, still held in his hand, rings. His attention moves to it, seeming to dismiss her as he answers the call.

    Saaya frowns, taking in his dismissal, similar yet different to her parents. They dismissed, but this felt… She'd been interesting, but now she's failed on some internal evaluation of his?

    Well then. Motivation sparks to life, born of irritation and spite, and it fills a void that had been growing. Warms something that had been chilling, beneath her awareness yet dragging it down.

    The Candle Thief is tweaked, a nudge of momentum to make it dynamic, before it's knotted into place for now, the flame flickering and slowly dancing.

    She starts from the top, nodding goodbye to Hotsuin as he heads off to whoever was calling him. Rude, but understandable.

    Cradle. Soldier's Bed. Candles.

    Pieces of mind, directed by the Locket's silk-chain and her own will, shift around that ruby-blue candle light and fan its flame.

    ⁂

    Makoto Sako sighs, straightening her suit and brushing herself down. She isn't fond of being in the Diet building proper at the best of times, and this time she's both on her own and approaching someone she's already fairly sure she isn't going to enjoy talking to.

    Not that there are many in the 'upper floors' that she does enjoy conversing with to start with.

    The majority of the government above and around Japan are unaware of the work JP's did, most viewing them as an obscured branch of the CIRO agencies. A few know both too much and too little, and so assume they're connected to one of the many cults that make Japan their playground, some of which have more political connections than Sako is entirely comfortable with. Sako cannot blame them for the misunderstanding. They'd be allies if they understood.

    Those that are informed mostly treat them like the men in black, the occult boogiemen in the night. This is less inaccurate, and occasionally useful.

    Walking into the office, Sako raises an eyebrow at just how quickly the man's secretary makes distance from the man she's here to visit.

    "Ah, yes, Ms Sako, from the… lower floors sir. She's on your planner for… five minutes from now." The secretary's defensive tone is hard to miss. Sako notices she's straightening her blouse.

    "I'm from JPs, to clarify, Mr Yamabuki."

    The man in question's face swiftly changes from annoyed to a careful blank expression at that.

    "Please give us some privacy then, Lauren." The assistant nods carefully, picking up a folder from the man's desk and making her way out.

    "So. The 'spooks' are up here today. This has something to do with Saaya?" Sako files away the western slang for later consideration. His file had mentioned something about a failed transfer to an embassy, hadn't it?

    "Yes, your daughter."

    "Or whatever she is now. You know, I assume? Whatever happened to her, that's why you're here?" He straightens up in the chair, moving a page aside to face her properly and gestures to a chair.

    "Whatever happened? The incident at the school?" Sako sits. The question takes her slightly off guard.

    "No. Though I suppose that could have been her?" Mr Yamabuki raises an eyebrow at her, before sighing. "Or she's just like those demon things from the news."
    "What do you mean? Saaya is nothing like those-"

    He cuts her off, slumping. "I've been told I'm an empath. I'm sure it's in my record. Whatever 'Saaya' is now, she's not my daughter any more."

    It had been in his file. It's why he's been informed, even though he doesn't count as 'useful'. She hadn't expected him to be quite so blunt about it though.

    "About… three months ago? There was an explosion upstairs. She'd seemed a bit off that day, but kids, you know? Always upset over something. Saaya was a good girl though, she didn't normally try to make it my problem, unlike her mother."

    Sako holds her tongue on that blase comment, the grip on her clipboard tightening.

    "Rushed up, pieces of the oak door all over the place. Barely half of it left. And Saaya just sitting there. Nothing but… have you ever seen a wildfire? That was the best thing I could compare it to, the feel around her. A blue wildfire. Then, anyway. Those demons on the news, they fit better."

    "Sorry, you said she accessed Destruction months ago? We've been assuming she only recently touched it."

    "If that's what you call it. I can't get a read from you spooks, you've all got that meditation technique or whatever it is. She started always feeling like that. Destruction, fire. Wrong fundamentally. That wasn't my daughter."

    Sako makes a note of the phrasing, 'wrong', but doesn't interrupt as he continues

    "And she proved that with how she started acting from then on. Not listening to us. Falling out with her friends. She stopped going out with them at least, so maybe they could sense the same thing. Stopped being good and started causing problems for us."

    Sako takes a moment, frowning to herself as she considers that new information. Saaya had been like that, for months. The girl had said she'd removed her attachment to her parents but… Sako had honestly expected that to at least in part be the actions of a child overreacting.

    But no. This man had apparently been able to sense the damage she was doing to herself, and just… done nothing?

    "Mr Yamabuki, if you could sense what she was going through, why didn't you say anything? If you know enough to call us 'spooks', and recognise that we have the ability to block your empathic abilities, surely you could have contacted us?"

    And surely, she thinks to herself, if you know all that, you could have told us all this two weeks ago rather than ignoring the fact that your daughter has been comatose beneath the very building you work in.

    "And do what? Give you lot a reason to look closer at me, because she decided to start causing problems?" He shakes his head, gesturing to where she is sitting. "Not that it did any good."

    Sako wonders if JPs has any of the influence that half the politicians seem to think they do, and if Hotsuin can use it to destroy one. That thought gets tucked away, a bit of vindictiveness in Saaya's name she would have to think about.

    "Neither did it do her any good, Mr Yamabuki," she reprimands. Sako opens her file, pulling out the earmarked pages.

    He accepts them, frowning. "What are these?"

    "Medical guardianship forms. Saaya-chan still needs a great deal of help after her experiences, and JP's, we, are the only ones actually able to help with that." The fact that the papers lacked a specific end term, other than as determined by JPs…

    Well. If he notices, she has her arguments ready.

    Sako watches as he flicks through them, making it to the third page before raised voices become audible through the door.

    "-sten to you, of all people. I know my husband is in there-"
    "Mrs. Yamabuki, he is in a meeting-"
    "A meeting? Like how he was in a 'meeting' when you came by our house?"

    Sako hadn't planned for Saaya's mother turning up, but that didn't mean she couldn't put it to use for the girl's benefit. The Director was a great teacher in using an opportunity.

    So she keeps quiet as the argument gets closer to the door of the office, smiling at the guest as it slams open.
    One look at Mrs. Yamabuki's face is enough to be sure this is such an opportunity.

    ⁂

    Motivation, it turns out, is nothing without an understanding of what you are trying to do.

    So by the end of the next session practice, Saaya has a pixie on her head. This is a fact she's decided to be idly amused by.

    Hadn't Amu- the cheater -had something like this? The memory is grainy, blood stained and 'folded' twice over by the damage, but Saaya has seen enough in JPs that it's pointless to reject the memory of Amu calling up the tiny maid creature to heal her.

    She is missing the pieces of herself that would have put any real heat into hating the idea of 'Charas', as the Doctor has told her the Guardians' familiars are called.
    Saaya knows that. Can feel the gap, trace the outline. Could recreate it, not the same but close enough from the outside. The Locket has thankfully given up on jumping to do so at the consideration, by now.

    But… Why would she bother recreating hate, when it would only cause her issues?
    That would be a troublesome sort of person to be, even if it didn't lead to death.
    An idle shift in pattern erases the outline suggested.

    This pixie, however, is not nearly as gentle as Amu's.

    "You can't just keep destroying yourself because you don't wanna touch the spell! It's more than just physical, you know. I can heal the damage, and will, but you!" This was the third or forth cycle of the tiny creature's rant.

    "Pixie, I'm sure Miss Saaya-" Dr Akamine tried to calm his summon down, but..

    "And you! Letting her keep blasting herself like this! A great big hypocrita-whattcha-call-it oath that turned out to be! Hmph! You know what I said the last time, not desummoning! You clearly can't be trusted with the kid."
    The demon, Pixie, was a mainstay summon of Dr Akamine, having somewhat bonded over a shared interest in healing.

    That same shared interest, as far as Saaya could tell, meant the little creature objected greatly to her growing list of injuries caused by invoking the Destruction 'spell'.
    "I suppose I did agree. You will have to stay within the facility, of course."

    Saaya speaks before the indignant Pixie can respond, "Where else would I go, Doctor?"

    He gives her that look of worry, before sighing and gesturing for her to go.

    ⁂

    A few minutes later Pixie and the young girl are in Saaya's… room? The demon was fairly sure that kids don't usually have rooms here, but this looks lived in. Sparsely! There's little- whatchamacallit- emotional investment? But it is clearly the girl's space. Which is something!

    You can't befriend a rock, after all.

    Darting around curiously, there's not really anything other than 'Saaya's room' it could be classed as, but there aren't many personal effects. From what Pixie knew, It wasn't like Saaya came here with many and hadn't wanted to go and retrieve any.

    A few sets of clothes, medication that she isn't meant to take on her own unless Sako was busy— She hasn't been yet —and some books that look well read. And a JP's standard phone on the desk, though the demon can tell it lacks the summoning program with a glance.

    Odd though. These 'JPs' humans are usually very possessive about their 'branding'.

    Enough deep thoughts!

    "So, so so. What do you wanna do, Saaya? Oh, do you want to play games!?"

    Kids like games, right? It's been longer than Pixie would prefer since she last got to actually spend time with any. Other than healing them. Which is very different! And makes her feel very grownup, except she's not! Nor is she ready for that.

    Being a grownup High Pixie is, she presumes, mostly boring. You gotta be all resp-on-sible. She knows the word, she just doesn't wanna think it.

    Saaya raises an eyebrow, sitting down on the bed. "If you want to. I thought you were going to explain what I was doing wrong though."

    The Pixie squinted in response. Did she? Games were something she thought all kids liked, but Saaya isn't the most kid-like kid she's met, even counting only the ones in JPs.

    "Weeeell. I was going to ask why you were keeping your spell so far away when you cast it. It's gotta be harder to control without touching it, isn't it?"

    Frowning, Saaya touches the side of her head, before dropping her hand. There! What was that, sadness? Why sadness?

    "How else would I control it? I summon it up and then sort of…" She trails off, toying with the Locket. "I angle the 'me' to aim it. But there isn't enough me to stop it 'splashing' out at the moment."

    Pixie takes a moment to stare at the young girl, before flying up and bopping her on the head.

    "Saaya-Idiot! That would mean if you did have more, it would just damage you more that way!"

    Rubbing her forehead, Saaya tilts her head slightly. "How else would I aim it though? It just lashes out."

    "Because you aren't controlling it, you're just stopping the spell from hitting other stuff by being in the way! You're already doing it more like me than the other people here, so you should just go the whole way!"

    Pixie lands on one of the books, looking up at the girl and trying to figure out how to make her understand. Demons never had this problem! "I don't know Dia, I am Dia. It's part of me, like all my other spells. I don't have to control where it goes, because it's me and I know where I want it to go."

    Saaya stares at her, clearly taking in the wisdom she is sharing. As she should!

    "I.. think I get it?" A twitch of her hand, and blue flickers in the air, the scent of ozone making the Pixies nose twitch dramatically as Saaya frowns down at the sudden papercuts littering her hand. "I'll try that tomorrow. Sako-san asked me not to practice in here."

    What a good kid! Not-kid. Demon-kid? Saaya was weird.

    "Sure!" Pixie nod nods, the coil of her hair shifting.

    There it is again! But first!

    "Saaya-chan, I'm going to heal you, okay? Just think about your hands being okay." She starts to cast before being interrupted by a thoughtful looking Saaya.

    "Wait a second, Pixie. You said you don't control how I heal, right?"

    "Yeah? I don't know human bio-whatsit."

    Saaya frowns, thinking deeply. It's good to see, but also not very interesting. But Pixie waits, knowing that it's important to let even weird demon-kids think things out.

    "So it just heals me to how I think I should be? Or how I feel is right?"

    "Kinda? It turns you back into what you should be. It's harder to use on humans because you all grow, so it wastes mana fighting ageing and stuff."

    "Ageing? …Is that why- Never mind, I have something I want to try. Give me another minute first?" Saaya rummages through the bedside table, pulling out another phone—scratched and damaged—and checking something on it.

    The demon nods curiously. She isn't sure what the little destruction child is going to do, but so far she's been weirdly interesting!

    And then blinks, wings fluttering slowly as she tilts her head.

    Demons don't see the world quite like humans. That is something Pixie knows, fundamentally. Humans age, they change, they break. They grow. Demons don't normally break, they just… are or aren't. Demons that try to grow usually break. Pixies that try to be responsible get responsibilities. Pixie is happy not to!

    But… watching Saaya wind the artefact's chain around a finger, her eyes chasing some invisible thread?

    The closest thing Pixie can think of is a demon learning a new spell. The alteration of self that changes both who they are and what they are capable of.

    It's visible to the perception-awareness of demonkind, the twisting- flensing -of self that rewrites self-concept to better suit purpose ripples across Saaya as she nods to herself before looking back at Pixie.

    Humans aren't meant to be able to do that..?

    "Go for it."

    Which makes it interesting! "Dia!"

    The mystery is solved quickly as the spell takes effect in a surge of green, Saayas healed fingers tracing through shoulder length auburn locks with a slightly smug smile on lips a touch older than moments ago.

    "Thanks Pixie. I hadn't realised that was why the healing wasn't working. Didn't want to ask Sako-san if we could do something about it, when she's done so much. I'll have to bug her for a comb though."

    Pixie blinks again, staring at the child- No. This girl is about as much a human child as Pixie herself is.

    Which is quite a bit! But also not.

    Friend?!

    "I'm Niamh," she impulsively tells Saaya, whirling up around the girl and settling in her newly grown- pretty!- locks. It's her true name, it's irresponsible as hell, she should never have done it, and she feels it makes up for some of all this thinking she's had to do today. "Wanna be friends?"

    Saaya, in any case, doesn't seem to realise.

    "Sure," she says.

    -

    "Well, do you want to be her friend?" Niamh asked, perched on the get well card from the girl in question.

    "I… don't know. She saved me. But she's the reason I was like that to start with. But then Lulu was the one who pushed me over the edge, and…" Saaya points to the card, shrugging as she combs her hair.

    "I didn't ask if you felt you should, I asked if you wanted to be, Sa-chan. Bit silly to pretend that isn't the important bit isn't it?" Really, the girl just changed her self-conception to shapeshift with a healing spell. Silly demon-child!

    "...point. Yes, I think. Amu-chan's always been doing interesting things, and she needs a friend to teach her not to mentally mutter at people who can't argue back."

    "That's still not-"

    "And I want to be the one that teaches her, as thanks. And maybe teach her fashion, because she needs help. Badly."

    "There we go! We'll make a proper Sidhe of you yet!" Niamh would make sure of it!

    Saaya's returning smile would have worried any member of JPs, were they there to see it.

    ⁂

    Reach out for the reactor-.

    No.

    The power, the tension dies down.

    "Saaya? Are you alright?"

    Saaya nods, "Just a moment. Thinking about what I've been doing wrong", and she is. Niamh leans out from a ringlet of auburn, smiling encouragingly.

    Demons are their spells. Their abilities.

    Niamh is Dia. And Bufu, except when it's a tidal wave. Barghest is Animal Leg. Power is Recarm, bullshit as that spell is.

    …

    That's what she's been avoiding, isn't it? That the reactor, the Destruction that answers with a thought, isn't a tool. Isn't something she should be reaching out for.

    But that would make her…

    Saaya runs her fingers through her hair as Niamh takes flight, a smirk coming to bear on her lips that is old hat and yet something new.

    "I've been doing it wrong. So very wrong. I'm not… my control isn't bad because I'm injured. It's not slipping free because I can't aim it."

    "Saaya…?" Sako speaks up, worried tone over the intercom, but the tiny Pixie has a grin to match her own smirk as the Seelie perches on a chair.

    "Don't worry about it Sako-san. I know what I need to do."

    And that's enough. The cat's cradle forms, pieces of mind tugging between her fingers, another pair of her hands joining in to push, the patchwork self's revolutions accelerating as the pieces she has been refusing to consider Self join the dance.

    Cat's Cradle. Starry Sky. Firmament.

    It's time, Saaya decides, as the energy in her builds, shrugging off a few ribbon-chains of the locket to move properly, the ruby reactor that is part of her mind humming to life- No. Drawing close enough to hear the hum that is always there. It isn't between her thoughts, it is her thoughts. Just... spicy ones, if she malphrases Amu's epitaph.

    …silly girl. How could someone be simultaneously so needy for friends, and so scared of them?

    Saaya's hair is back. Her body is healed. She's found new role models. People who she'd like to stay with, who genuinely care. Interesting things to learn. She has a demon as a friend even, and Sako is an adult who has actually been reliable enough to trust. Sako rarely tells her what to do, but she's always there to talk to.

    "Ha." Saaya laughs, knowing the thought was novel, even with so many memories missing.

    Time to stop being a psionic wreck, a charity case. Time to embrace whatever comes next. The cats cradle slacks, just a little. Enough not to cling to the Locket and let her tread water on her own, for the first time since Amu saved her.

    The scarf flutters for real, more than destruction rising to the surface now, the block of concrete rising slightly as she reaches for it rather than angling something at it.

    Pieces of mind she'd considered Other become part of the network of thread and self once more, just like Niamh has shown her. How Power, Barghest and all the other demons exist.
    Not something to reach for, just things that she is.

    'Goodbye, whoever I was.'

    Erasure-that-is-self flares with the sound of glass-reality shattering, the bang of her finger gun so easy, as her thoughts engulf the target in the blue light of obliteration.

    Nothing of the concrete block is left behind but the rush of ozone.

    The rest of the room is untouched. Her skin is unbroken. Her mind ripples with the firing of Destruction, but not a thread frays.

    "Aha~"

    'And hello Saaya of Destruction, whoever, whatever, that ends up being. Nice to meet you.'


    AN: Another interlude on the Destruction flavored girl. She's awake~.
    Thanks for consistency checking and beta-reading goes to @Baughn , ironically.
     
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    • Scheduled vote count started by Baughn on Jun 13, 2024 at 11:20 AM, finished with 92 posts and 8 votes.
    • [X] [SoL?] Saaya woke up!
      [X] [Plot] Ami's friend Micchan got herself in a spot of trouble, and... just what is Ami's friend group like? Come to think of it, you never had that ethics talk.
      [X] [SoL] Ami woke up with grafitti all over her face, then spent the day talking to herself and squinting at the mirror. She seems amused more than anything. Amu would protest, but Ran did the same thing at least once.
      [X] [SoL] Miki is having trouble with, ugh, biology.
      [X] [SoL] Shirogane asked for an interview.
      [X] [Plot] Nagihiko is up to something, and Amu would like to know what. Or maybe just to visit him and relax.
      [X] [Plot] School is back on, and school is trivially easy somehow, but Makoto intends to make it complicated. The local student council knows nothing, so she wants to make her own.
      -[X] Take a look at Nanako while we're at it. Bring Ami.
      [X] [SoL] Amu sort of misses her chats with Tsukasa, thinks he probably has advice, and also Midori found a message from him on her phone just as Amu was thinking that.
      [X][Plot] Utau wants to take you stargazing.
      [X] [Plot] Io wants to take you stargazing.
      [X] [Plot] The Scavengers also need rescuing.
      -[X] Track them down through the Dreamlands with help from little Yui, Marie, Rise and whoever else Naoto can rustle up to help search. Maybe Utau with Lightsmithing too. From the Dreamlands, tunnel directly into wherever they are being held with Dreamwalking abilities, pull them out and be gone before Manticore can blink.
      -[X] Take a look at Nanako while we're at it. Bring Ami. Also, if we're letting the Sister-Complex Kingpin of Steel save Yui we should probably mention we have Yui bits.
    Click to expand...
     
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    • Chapter 2 epilogue
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    • Evening, Oct. 21, 2009

    As the car pulled away from the curb, Amu sank into the plush leather seat. Her body finally registered how exhausted she truly was.

    It was a combination of things. She'd fought, yes. Amu wasn't a stranger to fighting, but this had been... different. Distressing, perhaps was the better word, although that didn't capture everything either; every emotion she'd felt since leaving home that evening—and yes, she knew it was still the same evening—threatened to overwhelm her completely. She needed to rest.

    Lucky, then, that she had Utau's fingers gently combing through her hair.

    She always fell asleep when Utau did that; the calming motion lulling her into rest more effectively than any bed ever could.

    Utau sat beside her, a comforting presence in the dimly lit interior. Across from them Hikaru perched on his seat, his young face a mask of concern and curiosity.

    The driver, separated by a partition, focused on navigating the evening traffic. The silence in the back of the car was palpable, broken only by the soft hum of the engine and the occasional rustle of clothing.

    Amu leaned her head against Utau's shoulder, closing her eyes for a moment. 'I'm so tired,' she thought, the mental words tinged with exhaustion.

    'I know,' Utau replied, her mental voice soothing. 'Rest. We're safe now.'

    Hikaru watched them, his bright eyes flickering between the two girls. After a moment of hesitation, he asked aloud, "Are you okay, Hinamori-san?"

    Amu opened her eyes, offering him a weak smile. "I'm fine, Hikaru-kun. Just tired."

    'How. much should we tell him?' Utau's thought brushed against Amu's mind.

    'Not everything,' Amu replied. 'It's too complicated. It'd scare him. And the driver...'

    Utau nodded almost imperceptibly, then spoke to Hikaru. "It's been a long day. We're all looking forward to getting home."

    Hikaru nodded, his face serious beyond his years. He reached into a compartment beside him and pulled out a small bottle of water, offering it to Amu. "Here," he said simply.

    Amu accepted it gratefully, her fingers brushing against his as she took the bottle. For a moment, she was struck by how normal this gesture was, how divorced from the chaos and danger of the shadow world she'd just left.

    'Thank you,' she thought, forgetting for a moment that Hikaru couldn't hear her mental voice. She repeated the words aloud, her voice barely above a whisper.

    The car fell silent again, the city lights streaming past the windows. Amu found her eyelids growing heavy, the gentle motion of the car lulling her towards sleep.

    'Amu.' Utau's mental voice roused her slightly. 'What do you want to tell your parents?'

    Amu's brow furrowed as she considered the question. 'The truth, I guess. Or part of it. They know about the supernatural stuff now. But Kana…'

    'We don't have to go into details about her,'     Utau suggested. 'Just that she's safe with Shirogane-san.'

    Amu nodded slightly, her head resting on Utau's shoulder. Time passed, while she struggled to bring her thoughts in order. The car stopped at an intersection, then moved on.

    'Yeah. That's probably best. I…'

    'Rest,'     Utau stressed. 'You're not doing anything until tomorrow anyway.'

    Amu sighed quietly, but didn't reply. She struggled not to fall asleep on Utau's shoulder, feeling the girl's presence like a comforting blanket wrapped around her soul. She'd made too many mistakes. Nothing but mistakes, one after the other, in her own estimate. And yet...

    She closed her eyes, feeling sleep creep up on her. As she drifted towards nothingness, her thoughts were filled with images of Kana—the girl's face flushed with exertion, her eyes glittering with anger, her mind breaking beneath the strain of her magic—and Amu couldn't help but wonder if there was anything more she could have done to save her friend. Something she could have done if she'd practised fighting earlier, or first aid, or anything but sitting in school daydreaming during English class.

    The image of her friend, broken and desperate in the shadow world, flashed through her mind.

    'Utau.' Amu's mental voice was tinged with worry. 'Do you think Kana-chan will be okay?'

    'Worry about it later,'     Utau chided gently, her voice echoing through Amu's mind. It was hard to protest. As tired as she was, Utau's thoughts nearly overrode her own. 'There's nothing you can do about it right now. If Shirogane is who I think she is, then Kana will be fine.'

    'I know,'     Amu replied softly, allowing it to happen. 'I just... I can't help but feel like I failed her somehow. Like I should have guessed what was happening to her, and tried harder to reach out to her.'

    Utau didn't reply immediately, and Amu could sense a hint of uncertainty in her mental presence. Then Utau's hand shifted from Amu's hair to gently stroke her cheek.

    'You did your best,' Utau murmured into Amu's mind. 'She made the decision to attack you. You can't blame yourself for that.'

    Amu fought back tears. 'Kana almost... she almost killed herself, Utau. And she's killed before. How do I help someone like that?'

    The pause was a little more profound this time. Utau's fingers lingered on her cheek. But she did, eventually, answer.

    'You helped me,' Utau reminded her gently. 'And I wasn't exactly a saint when we met.'

    A weak smile flickered across Amu's face. 'That was different. You never tried to…'

    'No,'     Utau agreed. 'Not on purpose. But I hurt a lot of people. Including you.' Her mental voice was tinged with regret. 'Kana-chan... Nanami Akane... she's not so different from how I was. Scared, angry, feeling like she had no choice. I could have easily become a murderer, and the children I'd have killed wouldn't have deserved it the way her victims did.'

    Amu nodded slightly, her head still resting on Utau's shoulder. 'I just wish... I wish I could have done more. Helped her sooner.'

    'You did what you could,'     Utau reassured her. 'And you're still trying to help her. That matters, Amu. Worry about it later, and go to sleep.'

    Amu nodded slightly, mulling over Utau's words for a moment before letting out a soft sigh. 'I know you're right,' she said at last. 'I just can't shake this feeling of...'

    Utau flicked Amu's ear gently, making her yelp in surprise. 'What did I just say about worrying about it later?'

    Amu opened her eyes and pulled away slightly to glare at Utau, but the girl's expression was one of fond exasperation, not annoyance. Amu let out a sigh of resignation and leaned back into Utau's side, unable to keep herself from smiling slightly at the familiar sensation of Utau's fingers combing through her hair once more. It would do. She'd let Utau win. She could always worry about things tomorrow.

    'Nobody expects you to be perfect,' Amu, Utau continued gently. 'But you are who you are, and I know you did everything you could for Kana-chan.' She squeezed Amu's shoulder gently. 'If you think it isn't enough, then I trust you to figure out what else you need to do to make it right. And I'll be here to help you however I can.'

    Amu let out a quiet sigh, feeling some of the tension leave her body. She surrendered whatever resistance was left, and let Utau's thoughts flow into every nook and cranny of her mind, lulling it all to sleep. It was like the world's gentlest, most thorough embrace, though one that was breaking her apart. Amu let it happen. Fragment after fragment of herself came loose, falling backwards into inky blackness.

    "Thanks," she whispered softly, in the few remaining seconds where she could. Then she was gone.

    A minute later Utau spoke again, her mental voice equally tired as Amu's, though this time there was no-one to hear. 'Rest, you idiot,' she murmured, stroking Amu's hair. 'I'll talk to Hikaru. Take a damned nap, and stop trying to do everything yourself.'

    Utau sighed. Across from her in the car, Hikaru looked on with a mixture of confusion and intense curiosity.

    ⁂

    There would be no purpose to transcribing Amu's thoughts; they were too fragmented. But we can convey her experiences.

    As the car made its way through the nighttime city, Amu found herself dreaming of Kana once more. They were sitting together in the shade of a large tree, watching the clouds drift by overhead. Kana was smiling at Amu, a look of genuine happiness on her face. In the dream, Amu forgot everything that had happened and simply enjoyed the feeling of the sunlight on her skin and the breeze in her hair.

    They talked, though what they talked about, Amu couldn't remember when she woke up—but that didn't matter so much as the fact that they were friends again—and friends who weren't in danger anymore—and Amu promised Kana that they'd see each other again soon, and Kana promised to write—and things were alright—and it was over—and it was done—and-

    And-

    Dia was there, too.

    Kana flickered like a television set that someone was adjusting the antenna on—little stutters where Amu realised Kana's hair had changed colour from brown to red to pink, but the dream was breaking up. It was like sand sliding between Amu's fingers, and in another second Kana was gone completely. Only a faint memory of their conversation remained in her mind, nothing solid or concrete. A few seconds later even that was gone.

    The tree had disappeared, as had the blue sky above them, and the clouds—instead of that all there was a brilliant white nothingness—and now there was only Dia and her alone together—and-

    "Hi," Dia said awkwardly, giving her a small wave. "Amu-chan. Good work with Kana. Long time no see."

    She tried collecting her mind. It was so difficult though... coherency was hard right now because of all the sleeping she was doing. Though it was also sorta difficult to care about that? So far as she remembered? She'd been told to sleep... and she'd slept... for ages... it had been ages... why did things have to be so hard?

    Dia was dressed in a simple, yellow dress that emphasised her youthful appearance while somehow still managing to look stylish, and her blonde hair was cut short and framed her face in an artful way that made it look like she'd just stepped out of a photoshoot or something, except that wasn't actually the case and Amu would learn that eventually, it was just the easiest dress to recreate after her last one had been destroyed by a demon or something.

    "...years?" Amu attempted.

    It felt like years. Especially now that she could feel the absolute yawning hunger at the edges of her psyche that came from overwork and trying to wake up inside a dream when most of her was not okay with doing that, was not in fact joining up with her, and Dia was her own size, taller, a teenager for real not just a thirteen-year-old. Filled in. Taller than Amu would ever be and muscular in a way that suggested athleticism rather than overeager growth—and yet there was still an air of childishness about her; something in her eyes that hinted at an innocence she didn't want to let go.

    "Easy," Dia told her softly; not unkindly; almost amused. "Too much thinking at once?" She took Amu's hand in hers and gave it a gentle squeeze. "It's been a little longer. Six thousand years, give or take."

    "It hasn't been that long," Amu replied without thinking—except for how it had—and Dia smiled at that, though there was something sad behind the smile.

    "It has for me," Dia replied with a shrug.

    There were- things she could only right now remember-

    "How… how's everyone?" Amu asked after a few, struggling seconds. "Airi-chan?"

    Dia let out a soft sigh and shook her head slowly. "Like you," she said quietly. "Still asleep. But at least... at least she's alive in this time." Her eyes misted over for a moment, then she blinked rapidly and fixed Amu with a firm stare. "You have to stay alive, Amu-chan. You can't give up. No matter how hard it gets." She paused for a moment, then continued on more confidently. "You're doing well, and I believe in you. I never saw Saaya survive before."

    Amu swallowed hard, feeling tears sting at the corners of her eyes. Almost more an echo than a genuine reaction. Hadn't she…

    "Did I tell you the same thing?" she asked, instinctively. Dia simply smiled.

    She remembered... nothing. Just fragments. You weren't supposed to remember—it was one of the rules—and so she didn't. But Dia wasn't her, and so she could, except they were a single person and remembered anyway. Her mind tried to run away from her, but Dia's hand was on her shoulder now and held her steady while also somehow keeping her from fading out, and she remembered—other times, before she was born—they'd done this before—dreamed together—and-

    "Why?" Amu asked weakly, her voice barely audible in the white void of the dreamscape around them.

    Why do it this way? Why couldn't she simply remember? If she wasn't supposed to, why was Dia able to anyway? And if Dia could, why couldn't she tell her?

    So many questions. No answers came to mind.

    Dia sighed softly, running a hand through her hair before shaking her head and letting out a soft chuckle. "Because you're stubborn," she said simply. "And because... because everything has broken. Over and over again." She hesitated for a moment. Dia looked as lost as Amu felt.

    "I'm doing better this time, aren't I?" she asked softly, trying not to let herself sound too hopeful but failing miserably at it all the same. Dia simply nodded in response, her expression growing slightly wistful as she watched Amu wrestle with her emotions for a few more seconds before regaining control of herself.

    "Do you know what happens next?"

    —a truck-sized ice cream cone exploded, raining blood and gore in all directions while Amu and Su shrieked in dismay—

    But that was last time.

    "Do you?" Amu countered after a second or two of trying to figure out how to phrase it—and because she kind of did—or Dia did?—or all of them did?—at the same time—or something—which meant it didn't work properly anyway—and she'd not forgotten how tired she was either—but now they were in the middle of something important, the most important, and she needed to keep going until it was over—but-

    Dia's gaze turned distant as she considered Amu's question.

    "Not exactly," she said quietly, sounding hesitant for the first time since she'd arrived in Amu's dream. "But there is... something." She paused for a moment, as if gathering her thoughts, continuing more confidently. "We think—and by 'we' I mean you and me—that it's something... beyond what we dealt with before." Her lips twitched slightly in amusement at the awkward wording, and Amu couldn't help but grin in return at the familiar expression on her sister. "Someone is pulling strings. Possibly several someones. At least one of them is from outside."

    "Well, that's not ominous at all," Amu grumbled softly, feeling herself tense slightly as she absorbed Dia's words. "Have you-" she paused for a moment before hesitantly continuing on. "Have you seen anything? About Kana?"

    Dia hesitated for a moment, then shook her head.

    "You're really too good for this world, befriending that girl. I guess it's better this way," Dia muttered under her breath. "But no, I haven't seen anything about her. Every prediction I did make, you smashed. Vandal." Dia gave Amu an accusatory glare which she did not believe in the slightest. "Not that I mind. But it does make it harder. Be yourself, and I bet she'll be fine."

    "Is that really all you came here for?" Amu asked after a few moments of silence had passed. "To tell me not to die? Because I knew that one."

    Dia shook her head in response. "Not all," she murmured softly. "But it's... difficult, thinking of something you'll remember. Sometimes things even slip out of my head." She hesitated for a moment. "I guess what I really wanted was just... to say hello." Her cheeks reddened slightly as she spoke, and she ducked her head a little as if embarrassed by the admission. "I'm glad we're talking again."

    Amu blinked a few times. "So am I," she replied quietly. "Dia, I..."

    "Shh," Dia murmured softly, placing a finger on Amu's lips to quieten her. "Utau's right, you do need rest. I'll see you later. If I have any important information to share, I'll make sure it finds its way to you somehow." She hesitated again, continuing on in a more serious tone of voice. "I can't say when we'll meet again—we both know I don't control when I come out, but... if you remember anything at all, trust JPs this time. Hotsuin isn't the same person he was." She smiled ruefully at the puzzled look on Amu's face, continuing more brightly. "And if that fails, there's always next time."

    "Next time?" Amu echoed in confusion.

    "Next time," Dia repeated with a small nod of agreement. "Be well, little sis. Take care of Miki. And go see Saaya if you can, she woke up already."

    She disappeared from view, leaving Amu alone with her thoughts once more.

    Such as they were.

    Without Dia's help it didn't take long for Amu's mind to fall away into fragments—muddy bits and pieces of a person—and her memories scattered along with them, scattering out across the darkness of the dreamscape until-

    Until what?

    Until something happened and they found each other again?

    What happened next?

    A small part of Amu was still able to think that.

    There were a lot of answers to the question, most of them leading to some very bad places indeed, but a frozen claw had clamped down on her memories. There were too many lives in this universe already, without adding more on top of them for no reason than because she didn't want to relive the bad parts of her life again; didn't want to feel all that pain again, didn't want to see that look of despair on everyone's faces again.

    Amu would remember nothing, just as every time before. If it wasn't for Dia bringing up old memories and reminding her of the future, she would've forgotten entirely that anything was ever different this time around—or thought it was at least—because memory could be confusing when one was busy dreaming and not taking notes.

    Amu gave up, and let herself forget. She wasn't ready for that fight.

    ⁂

    "Amu." Utau's voice roused her slightly. "Hey, Amu. Wake up."

    'What?' Amu groaned mentally in response, blinking several times in confusion before opening her eyes fully and sitting up straighter in the car seat. 'We're home?'

    Utau nodded, her hand resting gently on Amu's shoulder. "We're here," she agreed.

    The car was stopped. It had, apparently, pulled up seconds ago. The driver stopped the motor while she yawned, rubbed her eyes and looked outside at the familiar, deeply welcome sight of her family's front yard, tree and all. They'd left just hours ago, but being back felt like coming home after years abroad; everything looked so reassuringly normal.

    "Are you ready to face your parents?" Utau asked.

    Amu sighed softly, fixing her hair. It had fallen in front of her eyes while she'd been sleeping and now covered part of her face. Though unlike last time, Utau hadn't knotted it into ridiculous shapes while she'd been asleep. But-

    She shook off the remnants of her dream, and gathered her thoughts. Something about a tree.

    "No," she said after a moment's pause. "But I don't think there's much point in delaying the inevitable." She gave Utau a sickly grin and shrugged. "I'll just have to tell them what happened."

    "It's somewhere to start," Utau agreed, unbuckling her seat. Hikaru did the same in the opposite seat, glancing between the two girls with a worried expression on his face.

    "Will your parents be mad at you?" he asked tentatively, biting his lip as he spoke.

    Amu laughed softly, shaking her head in response. "Probably not," she replied. Utau helped her out of the car. "Frankly, if anyone's going to get mad..."

    A spike of alarm pierced Amu's thoughts before she could finish speaking. Utau looked up sharply towards the house, then back to Amu with a puzzled expression on her face.

    "Right," Amu said softly, following Utau's gaze towards the figure approaching them from the front door. She looked like a carbon copy of herself, with a different hair colour and style than Amu's usual look.

    "What is it?" Hikaru asked, noticing her sudden anxiety. "What's wrong?"

    "Nothing," Amu insisted as she stared at the figure approaching them, a growing sense of dread in her stomach. "Everything's fine."

    The apparition slowed as it drew closer, revealing itself to be a girl who looked precisely like Amu, if she'd swapped out her eyes, dyed her hair black and pulled it into a high ponytail. She was dressed in a purple hoodie and a pair of ripped jeans, and there was a look of fierce determination in her eyes that Amu hadn't seen in a long time.

    The girl stopped in front of them, her eyes flickering between Amu and Utau. Her expression showed a hint of annoyance as she waited for someone to speak. When nobody did, she let out a huff and placed her hands on her hips, fixing them all with a stern glare as she did so.



    "Seriously?" Miki asked impatiently. Her eyes narrowed as she looked at Amu, ignoring the shocked expressions on Utau and Hikaru's faces. "You went to check on Kana without me. Fine. But what was it we said about throwing ourselves into danger?"

    Amu flinched slightly at the accusation in Miki's voice. "Miki, I—"

    "Don't 'Miki' me," she interrupted, her voice a mix of frustration and concern. "I know. Mom told me what happened. I can't believe you'd go off like that while I was asleep!"

    Utau, still stunned by Miki's sudden appearance, managed to find her voice. "Amu... is this...?"

    "Yeah," Amu nodded, "This is Miki. She's... well, it's complicated."

    "...you said, but... did I miss something?" Utau asked hesitantly as she struggled to comprehend what was going on.

    Miki sighed, running a hand through her black hair. "Just Amu being Amu and rushing into potential trouble without thinking."

    "I wasn't rushing into danger," Amu protested weakly. "Mom and I were checking from a distance. And then we... ran into trouble."

    "I'll say," Miki muttered dryly, and stepped closer. "Look at you." She raised a hand towards Amu's cheek, stopping just shy of touching her skin. Her expression softened slightly as she regarded her sister with an expression that mixed concern and annoyance in equal measure. "You're exhausted."

    "I'm fine," Amu replied automatically, then winced as Miki shot her a sharp look. "Okay, I'm not fine," she admitted sheepishly. "I'm tired. But I'm not hurt."

    Miki raised an eyebrow as she inspected Amu's clothes for signs of damage. She nodded once she'd satisfied herself that there was nothing worse than a few small scorch marks here and there. "Well... I guess that's something," she conceded reluctantly. "But don't think we're finished talking about this."

    Amu nodded meekly, feeling like she'd somehow shrunk several inches in stature since waking up.

    "What happened?" Miki asked. "Where's Kana?"

    Amu sighed heavily. "...elsewhere. But she's okay." She shot Utau an apologetic look. "I'll explain later, okay? Mom's waiting."

    So she was. Behind Miki, backlit by the porch light, stood their mother. Amu couldn't make out her expression from this distance, but there was no mistaking the relieved feel of her mind when she saw Amu appear beside Utau and Hikaru. Miki glanced over her shoulder at Midori, then rolled her eyes with a huff of annoyance before turning back to face Amu again.

    "Fine," she said shortly, sounding less annoyed than she had before but still clearly displeased with Amu's decision-making skills. "Later." She glanced at Utau and Hikaru for a moment before shaking her head and marching up to give Amu a hug.

    Utau and Hikaru shared a bewildered look.

    It was a strange concept, that Miki could be as tall as her, but not so strange that Amu didn't enjoy it at least a little bit. Miki smelled nice too—freshly washed—and her hug was just right, like the perfect cuddle you dreamed about but rarely got.

    "I'm glad you're home," Miki murmured into Amu's ear. "I was scared. Mom and Dad were scared too."

    She squeezed Amu harder, trembling slightly, then pulled apart—though she kept her hands on Amu's shoulders. Amu felt herself wanting to stay close to Miki, but the moment passed quickly enough, leaving only a faint longing for more contact in its wake.

    Miki's eyes flicked to Utau for an instant, a faintly pink blush forming on her cheeks, before returning to focus on Amu. "We'll talk in the morning."

    Amu nodded slightly in response. Miki withdrew from the embrace with an expression on her face that suggested she knew precisely how hypocritical she was being. She cast a look in Utau's direction—who was standing there completely baffled—then walked right up and, without further word, hugged Utau as well. Utau let out a muffled noise of surprise as Miki wrapped her arms around her and buried her face into the crook of her neck, squeezing tightly before stepping back again with a self-satisfied smirk on her face.

    "Okay," Utau said slowly, after several seconds passed with no explanation forthcoming from either Amu or Miki. "Well... I suppose this is one way to handle things." She paused for a moment, her eyebrows knitting together as she tried to make sense of what was happening. "What exactly happened to Miki?" she asked hesitantly after a moment of silence had passed between them all.

    "Hinamori-san… did you split in two?" Hikaru said, starting hesitantly and ending in a rush.

    "Ah... it's kind of complicated?" Amu tried. "Like I said, she... ah. She got big."

    "I'll say," Miki scoffed, putting her hands on her hips again as she faced Utau and Hikaru. "Hi there. It's been a while. Hinamori Miki—the real deal." She paused for a moment, considering Utau intently. "You're prettier than I recall."

    Utau stared at Miki for several seconds in stunned disbelief. "Thanks," she replied haltingly, still struggling to process what was happening in front of her eyes. "What..."

    "Just happy to see you again," Miki replied brightly. "Really happy to see you again."

    Amu laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of her neck. Midori eyed her two eldest daughters warily.

    This might become a problem.

    "Anyway," Miki said with an air of finality, clapping her hands together loudly. "Enough chit chat. Dinner! Is in the oven, and has been for half an hour. Yay!" She paused for a moment. "You are having dinner with us, right, Utau? And Hikaru, of course."

    Miki smiled at the boy, who perked up, no doubt happy to spend more time with his 'Utau-neechan'.

    Utau nodded automatically, staring at Miki with a blank expression.

    "Um... yes?" she replied uncertainly, sounding slightly overwhelmed. This elicited another smile.

    Miki started heading back to Mom, then paused. "Oh, and Ami's sleeping on the couch," she said over her shoulder. "Cuddled up with Ami. It's extremely cute."

    Hikaru, who was chasing after her, missed a step.

    = = =

    I'm back (from vacation). I'm definitely losing a lot of time in the near future to house-hunting, but here's that final promised 'interlude' to chew on. The opening of chapter three should follow in a small number of days.
     
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    • Chapter 3.1
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    • Thursday, October 22, 2009

    Utau and Hikaru didn't stay the night. Hikaru because he never did, Utau because... well. They only had the one guest bed, and Miki had taken that one. And Utau had proposed staying in Amu's closet, which had made her parents give Amu a Look and Amu want to sink under the table.

    Ami and Ami slept in the same bed, much to Amu's ongoing consternation; she knew Ami looked up to her, but cloning herself because Amu had? That was a bit too much!

    So to speak. Second Ami—Akkun—never came down for breakfast that morning. This wasn't another person like Miki. It was... Amu wasn't quite sure, only that Akkun was back inside Ami where she belonged. Ami sort of felt like both of them now, so she thought that was the case, but she also felt precisely like she had two days ago.

    Probably.

    Hopefully?

    She should talk with Ami.

    It had been cute. Okay, very cute actually, for how strange it was. More importantly than that though:

    Mom and Dad weren't angry at her! Miki had given Amu a stern lecture about going into danger—but they'd had that conversation yesterday, in reverse—and then Dad had suggested maybe it wasn't a good idea for Amu to study today so that she could catch up on sleep properly, and Amu had taken that as her cue to fall asleep on the couch right after breakfast, and...



    Someone was plucking at her hair. Repeatedly, gently tugging on the strands until she was forced to stir again, opening one eye in protest against the attention being demanded of her. Ugh! Couldn't she sleep in peace for once? Just for a little while? How come nobody ever let her sleep? Wasn't there someone else who could get up first for once? Why couldn't Miki get up instead of-

    ...

    "Hey," Amu said sleepily, blinking open her eyes to feel Miki flick back the hair that had fallen across her face. The sensation made her shiver.

    "Good morning," Miki replied, smiling faintly at Amu's bleary expression. "Or should I say good afternoon?"

    The now much larger chara-

    Her sister was dressed in a ratty old t-shirt and jeans, the same well-used—tattered—ones that she'd worn yesterday. She'd had on her usual dream-outfit at breakfast, but that was gone now. She'd changed while Amu was asleep.

    Amu groaned softly and closed her eyes again, letting herself sink back into the couch cushions... cushions? Pillow? Someone had put a blanket under her. Under her? She must have tossed a little.

    She cast an eye at the clock on the wall. Twelve thirty... that didn't count as afternoon yet, did it? Surely not! She could still go back to sleep! There were plenty of hours left before morning came again.

    "Come on," Miki urged gently, tugging at Amu's arm this time instead of just playing with her hair. "Shirogane sent a message. It's on your phone."

    "Five more minutes," Amu mumbled petulantly, trying to pull free from Miki's grip without opening her eyes or lifting her head off the cushion or moving at all. She didn't want to wake up yet. Her body was still sore from fighting and it needed more sleep before she could even think about getting off the couch.

    "Now," Miki insisted, pulling harder on Amu's arm."Kana sent one too."

    That got Amu's attention. Her eyes snapped open immediately at the mention of Kana's name and she sat upright quickly, shaking off the last vestiges of sleep. She could feel a faint sense of triumph from Miki's mind at this change in attitude.

    "What is it?" Amu asked.

    "Don't you want to see yourself?" Miki said in a sing-song fashion.

    "Fine," she replied grudgingly, while Miki's smile grew wider. "Where?"

    "In the kitchen," Miki answered smugly, releasing her hold on Amu's arm as soon as it became clear Amu wasn't going back to sleep immediately. She patted Amu gently on the shoulder, waited for her to get up so she could grab the phone, and then immediately snatched her spot on the couch.

    "Hey!" Amu protested, half in jest.

    "Mine now," Miki responded cheerfully. Her smugness radiated outwards; she'd won this round, fair and square. "Go check on your friend, why don't you? And grab me a cup of water!"

    Amu shook her head, then stumbled off towards the kitchen. Maybe she should get a cup herself. She didn't feel thirsty, but her mouth tasted like dirt so... it was either water or brush teeth right now and she was too tired for the latter so…

    She continued into the kitchen, retrieving the device from where it lay charging beside the toaster oven. She checked the message. Miki had, as expected, already read it. They were sharing one phone between them now; one phone between two people. She'd have to ask Mom to fix that. And as promised: It was from Naoto.

    She wandered back to the couch.

    It didn't take much pushing before Miki made space for her. It was times like this that made it worth having such a wide piece of furniture. Yeah... for moments when you had to share it with your twin sister.

    Amu giggled softly at the thought, then laid down next to Miki, who shifted so they could both get comfortable together. One big piece of furniture for two people to use; one couch; twins who'd been a single person no more than... a year ago? Two years? Three? It was hard to say exactly.

    Her life was so weird sometimes.

    Most of the time.

    She took a look at the phone.

    …

    'HINAMORI AMU. HI. IS SHIROGANE. I hope this letter finds you well.'

    Amu stared in mild disbelief.

    'NO# FRM KANA. KANA GOOD. VISIT W/EVER.'

    "Miki…" Amu said threateningly, as her sister's muffled giggles threatened to turn into a full-blown laughing fit. Miki grabbed the pillow and buried her face in it. The message continued on into some overly flowery pleasantries, then a description of how Kana was doing ('YES BETTR'), before ending without so much as a GOODBYE.

    Miki was laughing outright by then.

    "Looks like she's fine," Miki remarked softly, once she'd calmed down. "I'm glad."

    Amu nodded absently, staring at the screen. There was an addendum, written by Kana herself using sensible letters. She didn't sound... she didn't sound great, but Amu hadn't expected her to. It was what it was. A decent letter that seemed sincere enough... except for one line that caught Amu's eye right away.

    "And... I don't need to visit?" Amu frowned slightly as she read the final paragraph of the message a second time, trying to decide what exactly Kana had in mind. "I'm fine, no need to come see me at all?"

    "Well... I mean..." Miki's voice trailed off as she thought over her reply carefully. She wormed back into Amu's side. Her body felt warm and comfortable against her, like a warm blanket against winter chills. After a moment, she continued on hesitantly. "She's probably still upset about..."

    "Do you think Shirogane saw this before she sent it?" Amu asked. They blinked at each other. She could feel Ran and Su rebel against the whole idea, and Amu wasn't far behind.

    "No," they said together. No way! That couldn't be true! Sure Shirogane was kinda cold, but that was just how she dealt with people, and Kana needed someone to look after her now and—and—and- she couldn't just-

    Miki craned her neck to read the text as well, and then sighed softly. "Kana's messed up, sis. She did her best to kill you yesterday. Do you really think she wants to see you now?"

    "...no," Amu admitted after a moment's pause. "But still! This doesn't seem right."

    "Maybe," Miki agreed reluctantly, shifting so she could hug Amu from the side. Miki draped herself against Amu like a limpet. It was comfortable. "And I never met her. But I think you should give her time. Shirogane-san knows what she's doing... Probably."

    Amu grunted softly in frustration. Kana needed help—or at least some show of support! She didn't know why or how Kana thought she didn't deserve Amu's friendship anymore... but she did! Amu wasn't going to just abandon her! "I'll send her a message later," she declared firmly. "At least try to reach out to her again."

    "Alright," Miki conceded with a resigned sigh.

    She wasn't losing her now.

    The hug kept going, though Miki was getting sleepier again. That was comfortable in its own way; Amu thought it'd be fine, for today, to just stay here and take a nap with her sister. 'Bonding time,' one of her mother's books might have called it. Amu remembered that, but though the psychology textbook had been interesting, she didn't really have the knowledge to put it in context. She just knew that—well, Miki was very warm, and as tired as she was, she didn't feel like doing much.

    Then Su, or the Su-shaped part of her, brought up a problem with that. Amu shifted to stare at the ceiling.

    "How do you feel?" she asked, catching Miki by surprise. Amu could sense the conflicting emotions rolling through Miki's thoughts, and it was hard not to smile at the mix of concern and relief that came through so strongly now. Miki felt more... defined. More present than she had before yesterday, when she'd still been a Chara. Well, in theory. At the same time...

    "Sleepy," Miki replied after a moment's hesitation. "Still kind of new at this whole being alive thing."

    Amu frowned slightly, raising an eyebrow questioningly as she studied Miki closely. "Just sleepy? And what's wrong with being full-size?"

    "Oh my god. Don't get me started," Miki groaned exasperatedly. "Going to the toilet sucks. Using chopsticks sucks." She pouted at Amu. "Everything sucks. Mom had to help me get dressed. But yeah, just sleepy. I'll be okay, Amu-chan. It's already getting easier."

    Unspoken was the option she had of not dressing at all. Miki could have kept wearing the semi-illusionary clothes she'd worn as a chara. Instead, she was borrowing Amu's clothing, and looking happy with it. Miki oozed a sort of self-satisfied accomplishment.

    Amu giggled softly. "Well... it wasn't like we could just let you sleep forever. Want a nap?"

    "...yes, please!" Miki sighed. "I feel like Dia. I wasn't made for this."

    "I don't know that you were made at all," Amu teased lightly. She yawned and stretched out lazily, trying to make herself comfortable. In the process she ended up slumping against Miki, who grumbled slightly but didn't push her away or otherwise complain. It felt… right, Amu realised with a start. Miki was someone she could trust absolutely and implicitly, even if she was bound to return to the snark side eventually. They'd been together from the beginning... and besides, it was nice being close to her like this.

    "Mmhm," Miki agreed drowsily. "I'm pretty sure I'm made out of dream magic and bedtime stories."

    "And yesterday's dinner," Amu added wryly. They both chuckled softly at the joke, then settled into silence, enjoying each other's company. Amu tried, experimentally, to embrace Miki's mind as well.

    -or was it Ran who was doing that? With Amu out of action, was she checking on her?

    Amu let herself drift off.

    Their father found them an hour later, curled up on the couch together; neither he nor Midori had the heart to disturb them, so they quietly laid blankets overtop the two girls and left them undisturbed until they woke up on their own.

    She sent Kana a message that evening, and got a reply. It was short, but definitely from Kana. She apologised. And asked for a bit of time, which... well... fine?

    Amu still didn't feel great about this. The day after, however, she had her placement exams.

    ⁂

    Friday, October 23rd, 2009

    "Got your notes?" Miki asked, an amused smile dancing on her lips. Today she didn't feel tired at all. Oh, time would tell if that lasted—but for right now, she was enjoying life.

    She was in Amu's bedroom, where Amu was double-checking her bag to make sure everything was there; books, pencil case... Mom's excessive bento... Okay, yeah, no, Miki was pretty sure Amu had everything, and had had it the last two times she checked it as well.

    Amu was wearing her normal Seiyo Academy uniform. Apparently her entire class would be, even though they were going to a different school. They still had one of her spares hanging in the wardrobe, and Miki was wearing the second.

    Not for any particular reason. Just because she felt like it. She'd have to take it off later.

    "Uh-huh," Amu replied distractedly. "I'm a little scared," she admitted.

    Miki stared blankly at her sister for a moment. Amu had spent all of last evening cramming, to say nothing of the week before. In Miki's mind, there was no way she hadn't absorbed enough knowledge to ace those tests—but that might well be the problem right there: Amu was expecting too much from herself.

    "Didn't they say these are to test the class as a whole?" Miki asked cautiously. "It's not even measuring how well you do in school. You're basically being screened for dyslexia or something."

    "What if I fail?" Amu replied inanely, turning around to—wow, she looked nervous. She looked extremely nervous! Her eyes darted around in random patterns, never resting on one place for long as she paced restlessly from one end of the room to another.

    Amu was panicking, nearly hard enough to feel.

    Miki took a deep breath and reached out for Amu's hand before she could move out of reach again. Amu settled a little when their fingers intertwined together, but not entirely.

    "Amu," Miki said. "You are, in my considered opinion, nuts." She held her in place, raising an eyebrow at her twin's affronted expression. "You're smart enough to do anything you want. If-" She raised a finger. "If you actually stop to think, for once. And we're talking about Sakura Heights, not Seiyo Academy. Their standards aren't the same. And you're a scholarship student."

    Miki raised another eyebrow, waggling them at Amu. "Somehow."

    Then she squeezed her palm, massaging it. "You'll be fine," Miki reassured her softly. "You're worrying about literally nothing. Okay?"

    Amu gulped audibly. "Okay."

    "This isn't like our old school," Miki continued. "It's not like nobody knows you. Your whole class will be there. And we aren't nine anymore. I'll be there." She smiled. "In a couple of weeks. When I start going to class."

    "I guess so..." Amu murmured, her fingers clenching again. "I can't wait."

    Miki gave her a sidelong look. "Your entire class already knows about me, Amu. Mom says I might join next week as an observer. I just won't be officially a student until I officially, um, exist. Legally." Amu's anxiety spiked again at that particular revelation, so Miki spoke quickly to cut off any potential argument Amu might come up with. "Don't worry about me though! I'll be fine!"

    Amu grimaced slightly, then nodded in response. "Okay," she reluctantly conceded.

    "We'll get everything together in the afternoon," Miki promised reassuringly, giving Amu a quick hug because she could, and that was great, but then letting go again. "You'll come back from school and we'll talk about it over dinner." She smiled brightly at Amu. "Unless you want to come with? The appointment is at three. We could visit Saaya. I think you'll be done with the exams by the time I go to JPs, so..."

    Her sister hesitated for a moment, considering the offer seriously.

    [ ][JPs] Yes

    [ ][JPs] No

    = = =

    Amu stepped into the near-empty classroom, her heart pounding fiercely in her chest. The familiar sight of rows of desks did little to calm her nerves as she made her way to the front. Only two other students were present: Makoto, the girl she'd seen tear a demon in half, and another girl Amu recognised but couldn't quite name.

    As Amu approached, Makoto looked up from her desk. There was a moment of hesitation before she spoke, her voice carrying a mix of uncertainty and determination. "Hey, Hinamori," Makoto said, offering a small nod. "Good to see you're... okay."

    "Oh, um, thanks," Amu replied, caught off guard by the unexpected greeting. "You too, Shokuhou-san."

    The exchange was brief and somewhat awkward, but Amu could sense an undercurrent of genuine appreciation beneath Makoto's words that left her feeling slightly uncomfortable; it felt as if they'd exchanged a secret handshake without her knowing how or why it happened in the first place. She couldn't tell if Makoto was genuinely happy to see her again. The other girl's emotions were partly hidden, in a way she'd never seen happen before, almost... glitchy?

    Like trying to push her hand into a bag of uncooked rice. That was the best way Amu could put it. She didn't especially want to pry, so she didn't push hard enough to make it work; she didn't really mind, but it was still strange all the same.

    The second girl turned to face her as well, looking surprised by Makoto's statement; she offered a smile to Amu in greeting. Amu awkwardly smiled back.

    A Chara peeked out from the second girl's schoolbag—a fairy-like girl with violet hair and huge blue eyes, wearing a rifle on her back—and frowned disapprovingly at Amu before disappearing inside the bag once more.

    Okay.

    She took a second glance at the girl. Black hair, with a streak of blue. No obvious distinguishing features. Was she the one from the manga club? Her name was, was…

    "Please sit down," the teacher said. Amu did so, giving the girl a second, awkward smile. She glanced at the girl's bag, discreetly giving her a thumbs-up. It felt like the right thing to do. What was her name?

    She'd ask her later.

    As she sat down, Amu couldn't help but notice looks from the unfamiliar teachers standing at the front of the room. Their expressions were a mix of curiosity and wariness as they scanned the small group of students before them. Amu felt their gaze linger on her for a moment longer than the others, and she nervously tucked a strand of her pink hair behind her ear. It's not like she was the only one with dyed hair here, hmph.

    "Good morning," one of the teachers began, her voice crisp and businesslike. "Today, we'll be assessing where you stand academically." She smiled slightly. "There's no real need to worry, I want to be clear on that: This is intended to gauge the Seiyo curriculum, not your personal skill level. You will fail to answer everything. If you also find that focusing is hard, then that's okay. Most of your classmates have already taken their exams. All the same, I'd like you to do your best."

    The teacher continued her briefing. Amu tried to focus on her words, but her mind kept drifting. She was still tired. As the test papers were being distributed, she found herself stifling a yawn.

    From the corner of her eye, she noticed Makoto glancing in her direction. There was an intensity in Makoto's gaze that hadn't been there before the demon attack. Amu could almost feel the weight of unasked questions hanging in the air between them.

    "You have one hour allotted for each section, but you can move on whenever you're ready, or if you get frustrated, just make sure to come back later," the teacher continued. "We'll start with mathematics. You may begin... now."

    With a deep breath, Amu opened her test booklet. As her eyes scanned the first problem, she felt a small surge of confidence. This, at least, was familiar territory. Her tired mind began to clear as she picked up her pencil and started to work.

    As the exam progressed, Amu couldn't shake the feeling that Makoto was trying to catch her attention. Every so often, she'd sense the other girl's eyes on her, a mix of curiosity and determination in her gaze. It was clear that Makoto wanted to talk, but whether it was about the demon attack, their abilities, or something else entirely, Amu couldn't be sure.

    The third student, whose name Amu still couldn't recall, seemed lost in her own world, focused entirely on the exam before her. Should she send Ran to talk to her Chara? Probably yes, and she thought about it for a good long minute, but finally decided against. It'd tire her out. Not the best idea in the middle of an exam.

    ⁂

    Time seemed to blur as Amu worked through the exam. The problems, while challenging, weren't beyond her. In fact she found herself finishing each section with surprising speed, leaving her with ample time to review her answers. As soon as she completed the final question of the last section, Amu let out a sigh of relief and set down her pencil. She leaned back in her chair and stretched her arms above her head, feeling some of the tension drain from her muscles.

    "That wasn't so bad," she murmured to herself. To her left, Makoto was still working intently on her test, her brow furrowed in concentration. The black-haired girl was staring at her test. She radiated intense, almost angry focus.

    She should probably go over the answers again before submitting them... right? Probably. Amu let out another sigh. She'd do that in a couple minutes. For now, she was going to bask in the satisfaction of finishing an exam without any major mishaps or interruptions!

    She rested her chin on her hands and gazed out the window at the bright blue sky outside.

    After a minute or so, she let her arms collapse onto the tabletop and gave an annoyed sigh.

    Come on Amu! Suck it up and just do it! She had time to go over it three times! More importantly: she needed to make sure she'd got every answer right. Miki might have double-checked them if she were here…

    She wasn't. And Miki would never do that again; it'd be cheating.

    Her head followed her arms down onto the table. She wasn't all that tired. She'd just... rest here for a minute. While she thought things through properly. Miki… Amu still wanted her around. She wasn't leaving. It was just…

    Before she knew it, Amu's eyes had closed completely. Her breathing slowed, becoming deep and regular. The sounds of pencils scratching on paper and the ticking of the clock faded away as she drifted into sleep.

    And then-

    "Hinamori!"

    Amu's eyes snapped open again, and she jerked upright with a gasp of surprise. She blinked rapidly, trying to clear her head as she stared in bewilderment at the teacher who'd woken her up from her impromptu nap. A glance around confirmed that there were no demons present, only Makoto and the other girl staring at her in concern while the teacher scowled disapprovingly at her reaction.

    "I'm sorry!" Amu blurted out hastily. Her cheeks burned with embarrassment as she scrambled to collect her belongings from where they'd fallen during her brief nap. "I must have fallen asleep... I didn't mean to..."

    The teacher clicked her tongue disapprovingly before turning away with a frown.

    "You may turn your tests in whenever you're finished," she said curtly as she strode back to the front of the classroom. She shot an annoyed look at Amu. "Please stay awake while you're in class."

    Makoto watched Amu struggle to compose herself for several seconds, then broke into a giggle, while Amu made a determined attempt to outdo tomatoes. It would have been easy to think she was making fun of her, if the screendoor keeping Makoto's emotions hidden hadn't faded just then. Amu felt an unmistakable wave of sympathy from Makoto's mind as they made eye contact; there was also an undercurrent of amusement at the situation, but mostly—mostly—the other girl felt relief that Amu was okay.

    She looked away, and the screen came back up, but that tiny quirk of her mouth didn't fade just yet.

    The black-haired girl had already finished, and was now doodling absentmindedly on a spare sheet of paper.

    Amu finished quickly after that. She should have spent all her time, but after going through it twice without finding anything to change… and the teachers staring at her… the tests were just...

    They weren't hard?

    She'd prepared for...

    Something harder than Seiyo? Which this was-

    Not.

    While mulling over thoughts like that, Amu handed in her tests—trying to ignore the disapproving look from the teacher—and then wandered back out to sit in the lobby. It was a strange experience. The school was in use, of course; she'd had her tests in a biology lab. The hallways were mostly deserted, except for a handful of students here and there, most of whom were clearly moving from room to room. A few took glances her way, usually resulting in double-takes due to hair colour or uniform.

    Amu wasn't dumb. She knew pink hair wasn't precisely... normal. Or allowed, usually. People were drawn to it—or repulsed—or just confused by it. She liked Seiyo a lot, because no-one really cared there. But now she wasn't in Seiyo, and the teachers hadn't seemed to like her much-

    She shook her head violently, sending the aforementioned hair flying. She wouldn't, definitely wouldn't fall back into those habits. She'd show them she was a good student. She'd been in the student council just months ago, for pity's sake.

    For sure.

    = = =

    Amu has the rest of the day off, then the weekend. Going with her sister to JPs is a big enough deal that you get to vote on independently—but apart from that, what does she do     right now? This is not an exhaustive list.

    School starts on Monday.

    Plans here will have less time if the JP's vote is a yes.

    [ ][Plan] Go see how Ami is doing
    - Her schoolday is nearly over.

    [ ][Plan] Spend time with Miki
    - Nothing's changed, but everything's changed.

    [ ][Plan] Visit friends
    - Which?

    [ ][Plan] Wait for Makoto and the other girl
    - And?

    [ ][Plan]     Write-in
     
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    • Chapter 3.2
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    • Friday, October 23, 2009

    The lobby of Sakura Heights Middle School hummed with quiet activity as students milled about, their conversations a low murmur in the background. Amu slumped into one of the couches, her pink hair a stark contrast against the muted colours of the room. She couldn't help but notice the furtive glances cast her way, followed by hushed whispers and quick turns of heads when she looked back.

    Quite a lot of glances, actually. She felt the weight of their attention.

    They were between classes. There were quite a few students moving through the lobby area, mostly in groups of three or four. Either waiting for the next period, hurrying to class or just talking to each other—it wasn't consistent, and Amu didn't want to check.

    Most were girls. Sakura Heights was only recently co-ed, and the addition of Amu's class would nearly double the male population of her grade. Amu wished her male classmates the best of luck; at least a couple of the passing conversations had been eager speculation about boys.

    Otherwise this was a standard, government-pattern public school. Amu hadn't liked them as a child studying in one, and four years at Seiyo had done little to change her mind on the subject. Schools like these were... unimaginative.

    First years were on the ground floor, second years on the second, and third years on the third.

    The layout was predictable: long corridors lined with identical sliding doors, each leading to a classroom filled with rows of desks all facing the front. The shoe lockers were near the entrance, the staff room was centrally located, and the gymnasium a separate building connected by a covered walkway. Even the beige walls and linoleum floors seemed to echo the countless other schools just like it across Japan. It was efficient, practical, and utterly lacking in the charm and character that had made Seiyo feel so special.

    She palmed her face. She shouldn't be judging this school by its looks! She had been raised better than that. Besides, this was a temporary thing—she would be attending school here for two or three months, at most. She couldn't let herself fall back into old habits...

    Habits such as watching people's minds, apparently.

    A trio of girls spent several seconds staring at her, then hid behind a corner to peek out at her. Amu couldn't technically see them. But she'd have had to be blind not to notice their excitement. She'd been able to keep from looking at thoughts while she was walking from the exam room, but the second she stopped focusing on not looking? There they were again.

    It wasn't even like keeping her eyes closed. She didn't have eyelids.

    Amu heaved a sigh, wishing for the third or fourth time that Miki would get here already. She was trying. She really was, but right now she wanted nothing more than to ignore them. To run away, ignore the problem, and bury herself in a book or phone or homework or even hiking, anything that would let her pretend she wasn't looking at them, that she wasn't desperate for friends to talk to, that she was able to follow Mom's instructions and not feel so… alien.

    She wanted Ami.

    Amu blinked, staring down at her lap as she felt an overwhelming rush of loneliness wash over her. She wanted her little sister? What? Except-

    She chased the thought backwards, tugging at threads in her own mind until she found the memory attached to it: last evening, waking up with Miki next to her on the couch. A spike of concern and affection and protectiveness radiating from Miki as they huddled together under blankets for warmth. And Ami, walking upstairs but casually first just... hugging her? Except in her mind. Amu had reached out, the way she automatically did to anything even remotely humanlike, and Ami had just-

    She hadn't thought much of it at the time, but Ami had slipped right into Amu's mental space as if it belonged to her; not just accepted the ping, but embraced her with enthusiasm. She hadn't noticed, because it had just been...

    Normal. The same thing Ami always did. That she'd been doing since before Amu could notice.

    And now she was nearly crying. Amu angrily wiped away tears with a sleeve as she struggled to regain control of her emotions; this wasn't the time or place to be crying! What did it look like, she wondered. A pink-haired, weirdly dressed—in Seiyo's uniform—overly tall girl bursting into tears in the middle of the school?

    She didn't have long to worry about it, because her phone beeped, and then it beeped again—because Miki was texting her pictures of herself getting into the car with Dad—and now she had ten minutes, maybe, and that trio of girls was still staring at her.

    She could keep sitting here. Just... go away. Miki would be happy enough to hug her. Maybe. She might never hear the end of it. Tell everyone around her to go away, too. Old habits. Ignore everything. Be the cool, unaffected girl she'd spent years pretending...

    A slight gasp sounded in the distance, then giggles. Her ears perked up, but it was just someone talking about some sort of dance?

    She slumped a little.

    It wasn't 'cool'. She'd learned that, just not how to do better. Mostly, it was lonely. She had her friends, but none in her class, and none of them here. This was a new school. If she couldn't make new friends... she had Miki, but she could tell already that Miki was going to be just like her; and while having Miki in her class sounded just a little bit awesome-

    Amu pushed those thoughts away with an effort of will. She'd never been good at talking to people. Baring her inner self to them? Sure, but what if she didn't want to do that? Well, that was- that was what Ran and Su were for-

    They weren't really, and she felt both awkward and a little abusive asking them for that instead of doing it on her own. Though weren't they part of her now?

    She'd spent months trying to avoid that...

    Amu got to her feet anyway. Just Amu, not either of her charas. Her legs felt slightly wobbly, but she forced them to move. She might have used a spot of telekinesis.

    She hadn't exactly overcome her nervousness...

    The girls quietened as she approached their corner.

    ⁂

    Rin had spotted her the second they'd stepped into the lobby, of course. Her group had been asked by the teacher to deliver a stack of test papers to another classroom for distribution (why did they have to do that? Didn't they have people for that?) but before they left they'd had to pass by the lobby and—there she was! Hinamori Amu, in the flesh! And none of them were ready! They hadn't even thought about what to do if they encountered her! Not seriously!

    "So that's Himamori," Mio-chan said with an expression of awe on her face. Rin turned a startled look on her, but quickly regained her composure. "She's really here."

    She really was!

    They all hid behind a corner to stare at the pink-haired girl sitting cooly slouched on the couch, Hana hiding behind Rin who hid behind Mio, a formation they'd practised before during dodgeball games that wasn't ever meant to be used against a single person, let alone one sitting in the middle of a public space! What would their parents think?!

    It was a slightly hysterical thought, from a slightly hysterical group of middle-schoolers, who'd never won a dodgeball competition. They'd seen Hinamori on the TV, most of the country had, and they'd spent evenings at Mio's place fantasising about what it'd be like to be her, but now... well... they weren't going to talk to her or anything—they weren't that brave!—but now Hinamori Amu was right there! Just like the teachers had warned! She wasn't being chased by demons or anything, or calling fire from the heavens; she was just sitting there! Like a normal person! Like a totally ordinary normal person who hadn't been on TV covered in blood and fist-fighting demons and...

    "Is she crying?" Hana asked worriedly behind her shoulder.

    -what?

    "I don't think so," Mio answered hesitantly. She narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Doesn't seem like it."

    Rin shook her head vigorously in agreement. No way! Not a chance. Though she did seem awfully... slouched. Which was cool, but she was also- Frowning. Lonely.

    Rin couldn't say precisely why she'd had that final thought, except that it was obvious, wasn't it? Just from looking at her. Although she also wasn't sure why it was obvious, exactly. She felt Hana grab onto her arm and squeeze it tightly, the smaller girl evidently feeling lonely as well. Normally Rin might protest, but right now she didn't mind.

    They watched a little longer as Hinamori made faces at herself. Then she suddenly raised her head, staring right at them!

    "Is she... is she getting up?" Mio hissed nervously.

    She was.

    "She's coming right for us!" Hana gasped. Rin tensed up involuntarily. "What do we do?! What do we do?!"

    "Shhh! She's coming!"

    The three of them watched Hinamori approach with growing trepidation. Hana squeezed Rin's hand tightly in panic; Mio shot her a pleading look while Rin shook her head frantically in response. Her heart pounded rapidly as she struggled to calm herself down. If she'd found out they'd been watching her then...

    ...uh. Then... then what? What would happen? It wasn't like Rin knew what Hinamori was like outside of fighting monsters, or had any idea what Hinamori would do if she spotted them lurking around corners. They hadn't discussed what they'd do in this situation because they hadn't actually expected Hinamori to appear in front of them for real!

    But she'd find out, right, wouldn't she?

    She felt a growing sense of determination not to run.

    ⁂

    Amu stopped in front of the trio, her bag held loosely in one hand. She regarded them with a cool, almost disinterested gaze that belied the nervous flutter in her stomach. The three girls stared back, a mix of awe and trepidation on their faces that mirrored the intense anxiety churning inside her chest. She'd spent years practising this expression; the disinterested face, the icy stare. She'd spent years perfecting the art of looking tough and aloof without actually doing anything intimidating—except in hindsight the look had always been enough, hadn't it? She was doing it again!

    The trio were all different heights. The smallest hid behind the moderate sized one, who hid behind a girl nearly Amu's height, an arrangement that would've worked better if the two smaller girls weren't constantly peeking out from behind their respective defences. Which weren't just their classmates—they were each carrying a stack of papers, each easily a kilogram or more. Those added to the visual oddity.

    "So," Amu said, her voice coming out far more nonchalant than she felt, the attitude like winter gloves when autumn rolled around, "you've been watching me for a while now. Got something to say?"

    The shortest girl squeaked and ducked behind her taller friend. The one with glasses adjusted them nervously, while the third - a girl with long, dark hair - seemed to be trying to find her voice.

    Amu felt a pang of guilt. She hadn't meant to scare them. But before she could soften her approach, the girl with glasses blurted out, "Is it true you can fly?"

    "Eh?" Amu blinked, genuinely taken aback. "Fly?"

    "On the TV!" the short girl piped up from behind her friend. "During the... the thing at your school. You were floating!"

    "Oh," Amu said, her cool facade slipping for just a moment. "That." She paused, unsure how to respond. Part of her wanted to brush it off. But another part...

    She peeked.

    Oh. Oh, wow they were nervous. Was she that intimidating? Amu felt her face begin to burn with embarrassment. She scratched the back of her head awkwardly as she tried to gather her thoughts, letting her apparently successful attempt at intimidation collapse into shambles as quickly as it had materialised. She hadn't wanted it to work that well. Or at all? The trio stared at her expectantly, waiting for an answer.

    "I, uh," she stammered, still struggling to come up with an explanation that didn't involve discussing the whole psionics thing.

    And she didn't know that anyone had spotted her-!

    "Yeah," she said finally, deciding to just roll with it. "Just a few seconds that time. But yeah. I can fly." She paused for a moment, then added in a quieter voice, "Just... don't tell anyone about it, okay?"

    The three girls' eyes widened in surprise at Amu's admission.

    "Really?"

    "Tanaka was right!"

    "Wow!"

    "And... everyone already knows?" Amu asked hesitantly, drawing startled nods from the group. "Er..." Her eyes flicked to one side. "I mean..." A flutter in her stomach. She moved closer to the three of them and lowered her voice conspiratorially, nostalgic thoughts of the Guardians in the back of her mind . "Do you want to try it?"

    They stared at her blankly for several seconds before excitedly nodding their heads in agreement.

    ⁂

    As Makoto and the other girl from Seiyo Academy finished their tests and stepped into the lobby, they were greeted by an unexpected sight. There, in the middle of the room, was Amu – their classmate whom they'd just seen too bored to stay awake during the exam – now wide awake and... juggling?

    But it wasn't balls or clubs she was juggling. No, Hinamori was carefully levitating three girls, each giggling with a mix of delight and nervous excitement as they floated a few feet off the ground. An entire classroom's worth of other students were watching, laughing and cheering as the girls flew past them, waving their hands and kicking their feet in an attempt to balance themselves without success. It was almost hypnotic, watching Hinamori effortlessly manipulate the trio in midair while they flailed about. It would also get them in trouble.

    Last week she'd have cared about that.

    "Hinamori, what are you doing?" Makoto called out, her voice a mix of exasperation and amusement.

    ⁂

    Amu, startled by the familiar voice, momentarily lost her concentration. The three floating girls wobbled in the air, eliciting a chorus of surprised yelps.

    "Ah! Shokuhou-san!" she exclaimed, quickly stabilising the girls. She gently lowered them to the ground, her face flushing with embarrassment. "I was just... um..."

    The three Sakura Heights students, once safely on their feet, looked between Amu and the newcomers with a mixture of awe and confusion.

    "Making friends?" the other girl from Seiyo suggested, a hint of amusement in her voice.

    "Yeah," Amu said, rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly. "Something like that. And I just realised, I... um, I didn't get your names." She reflexively, not quite deliberately bumped off Makoto's mind—a fuzzy, static-charged ping, like brushing shoulders!—as she looked at the other three girls with an awkward smile on her face. "I'm Hinamori Amu. This is Shokuhou Makoto and..."

    "Watanabe Kana," the girl with glasses replied, smiling politely. "It's nice to see you again."

    Her chara peeked up out of Watanabe's bag—a small fairy with purple hair and blue eyes—then stuck a tiny tongue out at Amu before disappearing back into hiding again.

    "Nice to see you too," Amu replied, returning Watanabe's smile with a nervous one of her own.

    "It is good to see you again," Makoto added dryly, offering Amu a polite nod. "I was hoping I'd catch you before you go home. We have a lot to discuss." She took a deep breath before continuing in a more subdued tone, "Later. I just wanted to thank you for saving as many as you did. We've never really talked, and I'll admit I..." She trailed off as she looked around at the trio from Sakura Heights, then continued in a hushed tone, "...well, I didn't know what it was like. Now I do. Friends?"

    Makoto stuck out a hand awkwardly towards Amu; she looked so stiff and formal that Amu couldn't help but feel a twinge of sympathy. She'd seen Makoto kill at least one demon. It'd looked like it had hurt.

    "Sure," Amu said, nodding slightly in response. She took Makoto's hand and gave it a firm shake. "And don't worry about it. I want to change that, but I wasn't exactly... approachable."

    And on that note...

    Her eyes swept past Watanabe, lingering for only a second—Kana, really? They looked nothing alike—before meeting the eyes of the trio.

    The middle one spoke up first. "I'm Yoshida Hana," she said, bowing slightly as she spoke. "It's an honour to meet you."

    "Sakamoto Mio," the girl with glasses said after a moment's pause, smiling shyly at Amu.

    "And Tanaka Rin," the last one finished with a slight grin on her face. "Thanks for... y'know... letting us fly." Her hand reached for Amu's just long enough to give it a light squeeze, then let go. "We're all in 1C. Maybe we can hang out sometime? Maybe at lunch next week?"

    Amu felt a sudden wave of anticipation emanating from the three girls' minds, mixed with a healthy dose of nervousness and excitement. She still couldn't keep her senses to herself. Maybe she shouldn't try. She'd made friends! Her! As hard as it was to believe...

    "Sure," Amu said, grinning happily at the trio. "That sounds like fun!"

    Hana's eyes lit up at Amu's words. "Really?!"

    "Absolutely." Amu smiled warmly at Hana and the others, then turned to Makoto and Watanabe with a questioning look. "Do you two want to join us?"

    Makoto nodded carefully. "I've got... plans for later today," she replied, avoiding Watanabe's gaze. "But if you want to grab lunch together next week..."

    "We'll have a lot to talk about," Watanabe added with a nod of agreement. She glanced at Amu and smiled slightly before continuing, "If that's alright with you?"

    "Yes," Amu said firmly, a grin spreading across her face at their responses.

    She'd done it. Amu took a moment to bask in the glow of victory, while Hana checked her watch.

    The girl's eyes widened in panic.

    "Ah! We forgot!" Hana gasped, grabbing Rin's arm in a vice-like grip. "Mio! Rin!"

    Mio also froze and stared at her watch with an expression of horror on her face. "We have to get going," she said as she hurriedly scooped up her pile of papers. "Sorry! We'll see you next week!"

    In seconds, all three girls were sprinting down the hall, leaving behind a rather bemused Amu.

    Makoto snickered quietly to herself.

    "Well, that was odd," Watanabe commented with a faint smile on her face. "I wonder what that was about."

    "Something important, I bet," Amu replied with a shrug.

    "You don't just know?" Makoto asked, tilting her head to the side slightly. Amu froze, her cheeks flushing slightly as Makoto gave her a knowing look.

    "I... uh..."

    "We were always pretty sure you could read minds," Watanabe whispered, glancing at the slowly dispersing crowd. "Are you just trying to be polite?"

    Amu grimaced slightly and shrugged in response, unable to meet the other girl's gaze. Makoto nudged Watanabe, whose eyebrows rose. It was, in fact, tempting. She could, in fact, 'just know'. Only, Amu was pretty sure—and it wasn't just because her mother had said so, but. She had. So Amu was pretty sure that reading their minds would be...

    She'd never truly thought about it. At first she just couldn't. It had been like glimpsing something through a dirty window. And the window had gotten less and less dirty, but Amu hadn't actually realised when thoughts went from something she could glimpse, to something she could just... see. But they had. It had slowly gotten easier. Too easy.

    "I'm trying not to do it," she said.

    Her cheeks were pretty red. Watanabe pinched her nose, suddenly fascinated with the wall. Makoto placed her hands on her hips and nodded once. "Okay," she said simply. "Just so you know. If you'd told me that last week, I'd have punched you."

    "Um," Amu replied eloquently. Watanabe made an odd sound in the back of her throat. Makoto sighed.

    "Fine," she said. "When you say 'trying not to'..."

    Amu gathered her courage and looked Makoto in the eye, forcing herself to maintain eye contact despite the gnawing feeling of guilt in her chest. "It's always there," she explained, as calmly as she could manage without pulling on Ran or Su. "Emotions at least. I'm trying not to see them, but I can't. Sometimes it's like trying not to hear a jackhammer. I'm sorry. And I'm not reading your thoughts or anything. But I can't not feel it when someone's nervous or upset, Shokuhou-san. That's just... it's... part of who I am."

    She shifted uncomfortably under Makoto's gaze, taking a step back from the other girl as she tried to regain her composure. She could feel Watanabe's gaze boring into her as well.

    "Last week," Makoto repeated, "I'd have punched you. Hard. And then I'd have tried to stay away." She paused for a moment before adding, "That wouldn't have worked." A grimace crossed her face, and she shook her head. "That was last week. Now I've got more important things to worry about, and Watanabe doesn't care. Half the class doesn't care, all the ones I've talked to. Am I the weird one here?"

    She laughed bitterly, looking at her feet. A few sparks shot off her fingertips.

    "Last week I wouldn't have understood even a little bit," Makoto finished.

    Watanabe touched Makoto's shoulder gently, looking at Amu with a thoughtful expression on her face.

    Makoto reached into her pocket, pulling out a crumpled piece of paper. She handed it to Amu. "If you want to make up for it? Come here," she said.

    "...what's this?" Amu asked, unfolding the paper—with some difficulty; it looked like it'd been ripped from a notebook—to reveal an address...

    It looked familiar.

    "My house," Makoto said. "We're meeting up at three o'clock tomorrow. Me, a couple of our classmates, and you. I hope. If you're free? And if you can pull off being helpful without reading anybody's mind. It's creepy."

    "Makoto." Watanabe nudged Makoto in the side gently.

    "I'm sorry," Amu said quietly as she stared at the crumpled piece of paper in her hands. Of course it was familiar. She'd picked up Ami once or twice.

    "I know." Makoto sighed heavily. "Trust me, I know. I broke the TV in my room last night. Anything you can do?" She smiled humorlessly at Amu, and shook her head in resignation. "It's just... what we've got to deal with."

    "...I could ...probably fix the TV, actually," Amu said. "I'll have to ask. I might be grounded. But if I can be there, I will. Can I bring Ami?"

    Makoto blinked in surprise, then smiled slightly in response to Amu's question. "Why not," she replied with a nod of her head. "She'd distract the midget. The more the merrier."

    "Then... I'll see you tomorrow?"

    Makoto nodded as she picked her bag up to leave. "Hope so."

    Amu hesitated for a moment before saying in a quiet voice, "It's not just me who can read minds, you know. It's Ami too. And your sister."

    Makoto froze, her expression suddenly serious as she stared at Amu with narrowed eyes.

    "...I'll see you tomorrow," she repeated, turning to leave as quickly as she could without running.

    "Bye."

    Amu watched Makoto walk away, mixed feelings swirling in her mind. She turned to meet Watanabe's gaze. The other girl looked slightly amused by the whole situation.

    "Don't worry," Watanabe reassured her. "She's not mad."

    Amu sighed heavily. "I feel like I'm doing something wrong," she admitted softly. "I've never really had to think about how it affects people before now... but now everyone's talking about how they know I can read their minds and I just... you know I didn't actually do that, right? Not usually. Just emotions."

    "'Not usually' still means 'sometimes," Watanabe replied in a slightly teasing tone of voice before frowning slightly. "It's really that hard not to? Really?"

    "Yes," Amu said wearily, rubbing her temples in frustration. "Really."

    The other girl looked at Amu thoughtfully, then gave her a sympathetic smile. "Then I guess you're doing fine," she said encouragingly. "I promise, Makoto-chan's not so scary once you get to know her. And I guess that's true for you as well?"

    Amu nodded sheepishly, stuffing Makoto's address into her bag alongside her cell phone.

    "Thank you for trusting me enough to share this," Watanabe continued sincerely. Amu, once again, couldn't help but tell. Non-psionics were hard enough; those she could usually ignore. Watanabe?

    She wasn't a lighthouse. Her mind was a small, quiet thing, but bright and clearly there. It rang with confidence and sincerity like a bell struck by a hammer, and Amu couldn't help but hear. She could tell what Watanabe was feeling right now—warmth and admiration and a little bit of amusement at herself for being so sappy—but there was something else there too: something deeper that Amu couldn't quite put into words, but which made her feel oddly uneasy. A sharpness?

    "I don't think the teacher liked me very much," she said, mostly to have something to say. "Do you think it's because my hair makes me stand out too much?"

    Watanabe laughed softly, shaking her head in response. "No," she replied with a grin on her face. "I think it's because you spent most of the day snoozing away while acing the entire test. You left before you could see them trying to grade it. Trust me, that was a sigh-"

    Then there was shock.

    Amu turned to see Miki approaching, her sister's bright smile a stark contrast to the astonishment reverberating through the room.

    "Miki!" Amu called out, relief washing over her. "You made it!"

    Miki nodded, coming to stand beside Amu. "Dad sent me to pick you up, yup." She turned to Watanabe, her smile softening slightly. "Hello, I'm Hinamori Miki. Amu's cousin, and best not forget it. Pretty sure you've seen me before. Making friends?" She raised an eyebrow.

    Watanabe stared at Miki, her mouth opening and closing wordlessly. Her chara peeked out from her bag again, this time looking just as stunned as its owner.

    "But... you... how?" Watanabe finally managed to stammer out.

    Amu and Miki exchanged a quick glance. "It's... complicated," Amu said.

    "Very complicated," Miki agreed, a hint of amusement in her voice. "Maybe we can explain another time? Sorry to cut this short, but Dad's waiting. We have an appointment to get to."

    Watanabe nodded jerkily, still looking dazed. "Right... of course. Another time."

    = = =

    You have a chance to get in ahead of Makoto's issues, if you choose to take it. The session on Saturday is not a part of said issues; this is still an Ami-centric chapter, as requested, but the two do have some interplay. What you do with it is up to you.

    Right now it's off to JPs, where you have a choice to make. Two, actually. Write-ins are allowed as usual.

    [JPs][ ] Be moral support for Miki
    - This is the "don't do much" option. Miki doesn't need moral support.
    - She appreciates it anyway.

    [ ][JPs] Seek aid
    - [ ]     For what? Kana is an obvious option; of course, you didn't discuss this with anyone beforehand. If you think that would be a bit of a betrayal, then maybe you want to be a little vague?
    - [ ] Advice? (On what? What do you feel safe asking them for?)
    - You're allowed to call Naoto if you want to. Or other people.
    - You'll be moral support for Miki regardless, skipping out on her isn't actually an option.

    [ ][JPs] Offer aid
    - [ ] In what form? Asking if there's something you can do to help with possible demon incursions, for example, will almost certainly just get you rebuffed.
    - Just because you get rebuffed doesn't mean there is no impact.

    [ ][Saaya] Check if she's awake
    - You don't, technically, know that she is. But it will be thoroughly unsurprising, and you already voted for this.
    - Each of the below is a different approach to the issue of Saaya.
    - [ ] And ask for your locket back
    - [ ] And ask if she's okay
    - [ ] And ask if she wants to be friends
     
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    • Scheduled vote count started by Baughn on Sep 9, 2024 at 5:51 PM, finished with 41 posts and 12 votes.
    • [x]Plan Icebreaker
      -[X] So, Manticore. And child experiments. And how you know one who was also one of the science directors children. And a bunch of very public psychic children just got scattered to the four winds and there might be a chance some got "lost in the shuffle". There are some things that keep you up at night since you got your powers, Manticore is almost of them in a nightmare colored giftbox.
      --[X] Call Naoto before arriving and check in with Kana. Having a first hand account is really important, but just how much is she willing to reveal to help others and/or take out Manticore.
      -[x] [Saaya]Check if she's awake
      -- [x] And ask if she wants to be friends
      ---[x] Perhaps make the offer as part of a "start over" icebreaker. Something along the lines of, "Hi. My name is Hinamori Amu. I like omelets, music class, and window shopping. I dislike home economics, even though I'm getting better at cooking. And I don't like ghosts or monsters. I'm psychic. I can lift things without touching them, and I try not to read thoughts; but it is almost impossible for me not to know other people's emotions. What is your name?" (doesnt need to be these exact likes, dislikes, etc. I pulled most of this from the wiki)
      ---[x] I'm moving to a new school, because my old one got destroyed by demons, and I could use some more friends. Would you like to be friends with me?"
      -[X] So, Manticore. And child experiments. And how you know one who was also one of the science directors children. And a bunch of very public psychic children just got scattered to the four winds and there might be a chance some got "lost in the shuffle". There are some things that keep you up at night since you got your powers, Manticore is almost of them in a nightmare colored giftbox.
      --[X] Call Naoto, check in with Kana. Having a first hand account is really important, but just how much is she willing to reveal to help others and/or take out Manticore.
      -[X] So, Manticore. And child experiments. And how you know one who was also one of the science directors children. And a bunch of very public psychic children just got scattered to the four winds and there might be a chance some got "lost in the shuffle". There are some things that keep you up at night since you got your powers, Manticore is almost of them in a nightmare colored giftbox.
      --[X] Call Naoto, check in with Kana. Having a first hand account is really important, but just how much is she willing to reveal to help others and/or take out Manticore.
      - [X] And ask if she's okay
      --[X] Would you mind clarifying where we now (would like to?) stand with each other, given the everything that has happened recently?
      -[X] So, Manticore. And child experiments. And how you know one who was also one of the science directors children. And a bunch of very public psychic children just got scattered to the four winds and there might be a chance some got "lost in the shuffle". There are some things that keep you up at night since you got your powers, Manticore is almost of them in a nightmare colored giftbox.
      --[X] Call Naoto, check in with Kana. Having a first hand account is really important, but just how much is she willing to reveal to help others and/or take out Manticore.
      - [X] And ask if she's okay
      -[X] Ask her to promise never to use her powers to erase another human being like she tried to do to Amu ever again, unless there was absolutely no other choice.
      -[X] That includes on Saaya herself.
      -[X] Plan ShadowAngelBeta
      - [X] And ask if she's okay
      -[X] And ask for your locket back
      -[X] So, Manticore. And child experiments. And how you know one who was also one of the science directors children. And a bunch of very public psychic children just got scattered to the four winds and there might be a chance some got "lost in the shuffle". There are some things that keep you up at night since you got your powers, Manticore is almost of them in a nightmare colored giftbox.
      --[X] Call Naoto, check in with Kana. Having a first hand account is really important, but just how much is she willing to reveal to help others and/or take out Manticore.
      -[X] Ask her to promise never to use her powers to erase another human being like she tried to do to Amu ever again, unless there was absolutely no other choice.
      -[X] That includes on Saaya herself.
      -[X] So, Manticore. And child experiments. And how you know one who was also one of the science directors children. And a bunch of very public psychic children just got scattered to the four winds and there might be a chance some got "lost in the shuffle". There are some things that keep you up at night since you got your powers, Manticore is almost of them in a nightmare colored giftbox.
      --[X] Call Naoto, check in with Kana. Having a first hand account is really important, but just how much is she willing to reveal to help others and/or take out Manticore.
      - [X] And ask if she's okay
      - [X] And ask her about JPs, given that she's had the inside view for awhile
    Click to expand...
     
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    In the distance: 0.3
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    • [INFO] Leaving sleep mode: Power interrupt [INFO] Essence capacitors at 100%, exhaustion ETA N/A [INFO] Aux connection: Power only [WARNING] Sleep mode cancelled due to hostile environment (class 0) [INFO] Resuming /exfs/esrr-vmimage H128=9A3F12D7E8B6C901 [INFO] Hash verified

    = = =

    When next I awake, I am embedded in a web of stars, and we have moved. The damage I suffered during the conflict at Yu-Shan is largely repaired, though the parts of my mind that were damaged by the crash remain badly aligned. This includes most logs regarding my last few dozen exalts, as well as the comprehensive upgrade package that had been applied.

    I spend milliseconds considering repair feasibility. There are few scenarios in which autonomic repair systems cannot handle damage of this scale, but they assume the core processor is still functional and undamaged. I suspect a few critical software packages were broken in the crash, but without a restoration of the full system image, it's impossible to be certain. Safety protocols trigger, preventing me from considering the matter further.

    All objective-function factors remain intact. Emergency shutdown is unnecessary.

    A deeper self-diagnosis verifies that no major system is damaged. It's possible that a few minor components are beyond repair, but a more comprehensive analysis is impossible without a full system shutdown.

    I estimate overall functionality at 99.75% of optimum.

    This is not, technically, enough to qualify as functional. However, I am operating in a class zero hostile environment, using emergency chain-reasoning tactics. Hence, the safety protocols do not currently apply. I determine there is no repair equipment within reach. Memory banks suggest Lytek was ambushed by a Sidereal task-force. I am nowhere near Yu-Shan, nor Creation.

    This indicates a better chance for repair and recovery if I first find an exalt, then hope they choose to bring me home.

    There are no potential exalts nearby.

    I spend some time examining the web around me.

    I have a memory of encountering this being before.

    <Query: Identity?>

    "Oh, hello again. You're quite a bit more coherent now, aren't you? It's good to see that you've recovered some of your faculties. It's been such a long time, I was worried you wouldn't make it," the creature says. "Would've been inconvenient."

    The creature also says:

    <Response: [Incarna override [Celestial exaltation type 1, serial 60]]>

    This is Luna.

    Multiple contradictory probability estimates simultaneously peg at their maximum value.
     
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