As far as cities went, Maiko supposed that Tokyo wasn't too bad. Sure, it wasn't exactly Iwatodai, where she had several friends even in her own grade, but... it was tolerable.
Not that she had much reason to form a strong opinion, when she had yet to go outside. She had a book to read, a brand new one, which she hadn't opened until she'd gotten there, a gift from one of the friends she'd left behind.
When she suggested that Ken-senpai should write a book, she hadn't expected him to actually do so. Not until they were older. And yet, the truth sat before her, bound in a bright red cover and probably containing more words than she'd
ever read at a time before. The skies above the town were cloudy, now, more so than they normally were in Iwatodai, and the weather report said it would rain soon.
This was, admittedly, interesting. Despite being on the coast, Iwatodai didn't really
get rain, a lot of the time. Maiko knew that weather reporters tended to be confused about it, but she wasn't sure why. To her, that was just the way things were.
But rain couldn't keep a child's attention for long, no matter how rare of an occurrence it was. And so Maiko sat down with the book, opening it up to the first page, and the beginning of the prologue.
As the mysterious water from the sky splattered against her window, she settled into her bed, and began to read.
In a world with no light, a pair of bears with hollow stomachs walked down the streets of an unreal city. They patrolled a set path, at set times, as did others of their kind, and the other beings living in this world did not approach them.
It was hard to find anyone foolhardy enough to attack beings so powerful, let alone those who traveled in pairs.
Currently, this pair walked a plaza with a fountain in the center which had never provided water, and yet was still filled with coins. They almost sparkled, but didn't, because there wasn't any light for them to reflect. There never had been.
And, unless something were to change, there never would be.
There was another being hidden in the darkness, lurking in a nearby alley, gripping cold metal with fingers that had almost turned yet.
The bears turned the corner.
For the first time ever, that part of the world saw light, and then only one being stood in the plaza as the world fell to darkness again. "I did it," She breathed, hands still clutched close to her chest. "Did you see that, Aneki?"
"Hard not to..." Another voice grumbled, the window of the nearest building being pushed open. "I thought I told you not to come back here. It's dangerous."
"If it's safe enough for you, it's safe enough for me, too. And you told me those were the strongest monsters here, anyway." She crossed her arms, staring at the other girl in the window. "I've decided. I'm not
going home without you."
The other girl set a small box on the windowsill. "Why? If you went missing, people would look for you."
"People are looking for you already. The track team's been asking about you, Yuki's worried sick
..."
"That sounds like you're saying, if I go back, I'll never get a moment's peace."
"You won't get one here
, either. Like I said- I'm not leaving without you. You're stuck with me." She picked up the box from the windowsill. "If you're really worried about this, I can hold on to it. But you can't just stay here on your own anymore."
The other girl simply blinked. "You really want me to go back. Even after what I told you."
"Of course I do, silly! You're my sister! Come on, I bet you haven't had any real food in a while, now. I'll get you whatever you want, so long as you just come home."
At this point, the first bolt of lightning struck, and Maiko winced as the thunder made the ground shake. She wouldn't say she was scared of storms, she just wasn't really used to them yet!
...And, okay, maybe she was also a little bit scared, but she wasn't about to tell anyone that.
She hadn't gotten very far in the book, but she liked it so far. She knew that the major characters were, to differing extents, all based on one or another of the people Ken-senpai had been friends with when he started the project. So these were probably the ones based on Sanada-san and Aragaki-san, who were close enough that, if she didn't know better, she'd say that they were related. The idea that they actually would be siblings in a story was... well, it wasn't exactly hard to believe.
Honestly, it felt almost right, in a way, and she'd barely ever spoken to those two before, so she supposed that meant Ken-senpai had been on to something.
But then... how were they supposed to know? Neither of them had any siblings. How could they ever understand how this sort of thing worked?
Maiko put that thought, and her slight worries about the storm, out of mind for now. It didn't matter.
All things considered, it probably never would.
Summertime was a time of festivals. Maiko remembered how, last year, she had wanted to go with Ken-senpai and Akira-senpai, but neither of them could make it. Ken-senpai couldn't be there due to vacation, Akira-senpai because... well, because his parents were terrible, basically. She'd gone alone that year, hoping to be able to spend the next one with her friends.
For obvious reasons, that wasn't happening either.
She'd been told not to bring her book to the festival because she'd probably get food on it, which... probably wasn't all that off, honestly. But it meant she had nothing to distract her from the fact that she was in a place where she didn't know anybody.
What if we tried to meet new people?
She wasn't sure where it came from, but suddenly, she got an idea. If none of her friends were here in Tokyo with her, she could just go make new ones! But... she wasn't sure where to stop.
As if the world was listening to her inner worries, a pair of girls her age darted through the crowd, the only visible difference between them being that one of them had brown hair, and the other, red.
The two of them probably had friends of their own. She'd probably be intruding, if she tried to introduce herself now.
But... she'd thought the same thing, the day she first bumped into Akira-senpai. Maybe... maybe it was worth a shot.
Maiko nodded to herself, and followed after the girls she'd seen. This was it.
She was going to make at least one new friend today. No matter what.
