Omake: Little Garden
This story is a lie. It takes place a few years later, to the degree it takes place at all, but it's out of continuity.
"Kyaaaa—!"
With a large enough splash to rival a waterspout, a trio of teenagers announced their presence in their new world. There'd been a number of watery shells standing in their way, in mid-air, so they didn't hit hard enough that she needed to do anything.
But really, the designers of this world had no common sense. That was her first thought; otherwise, why would their entry point be kilometers up in the air?
It had been obvious right from the start that there were designers. Her song magic had snagged, on the way home, and she'd been pulled off course—something like that had happened, so here she was. She hoped it was an accident. She'd only been away for a day, and already she was starting to get homesick.
Half an hour, then she could try again. In the meantime, she might as well see where she'd ended up today. After all—
The stars shone brightly, nothing but points of light at the edge of the universe. An edge that was less than a light-hour away.
She'd paid careful attention when she was pulled here.
The horizon curved, but only slightly, suitably for a planet the size of a star.
And it'd be a pity to not look around while she could.
She flew down to join the other three, who were just pulling themselves out of the lake. As she did so, the corners of her mouth curved upwards.
Probably, in a situation like this, she ought to be scared. A third universe, one clearly artificial, and one that had pulled her in while she was passing by. Probably she should be hiding, waiting for her chance to escape, but if someone capable of building a place like this was out to get her, then (she reasoned) she was probably doomed anyway.
Nothing jumped out at her as she touched down, and the rabbit-girl hiding behind a bush didn't look very dangerous. Well, maybe she could make some friends while she looked around?
———
"—And you, the one floating in midair? I hesitate to suggest it, but are you the one who called us here?"
She'd seen no reason to hurry, so she arrived in the middle of their self-introductions. Flying patiently was slower than falling, after all.
The one who was asking was a dark-haired teenage girl wearing formal clothes, whose imperious look didn't seem out of place despite the drenched state of those clothes. As Hana touched down, she found that they could look each other straight in the eyes; they were the same height, despite their differing age. The same went for the other, less flashily dressed one.
They were both visibly older than her.
"I'm not. Asuka, right?"
The girl nodded. "I didn't think so. You have good ears, to hear us from all the way up there."
Oh, so they'd noticed her.
"Hana Vanis Bartel. It's nice meeting you—and Izayoi and Yō, of course."
"Likewise. Same situation as the rest of us?"
"If you mean, did I get a letter inviting me here…"
Asuka nodded. Yō looked indifferent. Izayoi was tossing a coin from hand to hand, and had completely left the conversation.
"Even if I had, I wouldn't have come. I have some questions to ask of the person in charge."
A bush in the background seemed to shrink in on itself. Although, to Hana's eyes, the cause was obviously that the rabbit hiding there was clutching her head and shaking it in denial, all the while mouthing 'no'. She might not need to go very far.
"Hmm." Asuka frowned. "It's all fine and dandy that we got summoned, but kidnapping little girls is a step too far. Speaking of which, why isn't there anyone around? In this situation, shouldn't there be someone here to explain what that 'Little Garden' mentioned in the invitation is all about?"
"Without getting an explanation, it doesn't seem clever to leave this place."
"At the same time, I don't think being too calm is good…"
Neither Asuka nor Yō seemed very comfortable. Izayoi looked between them, then let out a sigh.
"I guess there's no other choice than to ask the one lurking over there."
The bush jumped.
"Oh, you noticed too?" Asuka asked.
"Of course. I'm undefeated in hide-and-seek."
"If they stand upwind, I'll notice even if I don't want to…"
"I saw her while I was coming in for a landing," Hana said, blinking once at Yō's admission. Smell was one sense she was okay with not having optimised.
The three of them all glared at the rabbit, while Hana wondered what she'd gotten herself into. The chat had been interesting, but she'd expected something more. The one who'd made this universe would hardly be hiding in a bush.
———
"I'm sorry! I'm very sorry!"
The one apologising was Kuro Usagi, who had knelt on the ground and was prostrating herself to Hana. She looked absolutely mortified.
"I only meant to summon people who wanted to come! Rather, that's the only thing that should be possible… and I only had three letters…"
Kuro the rabbit was now biting her lip. (Shurelia would love meeting her, Hana thought, feeling an urge to pull her ears.)
That aside, Izayoi had stepped behind her and was grinning—though, he wasn't looking—which didn't stop Asuka from glaring at him at all. Even Yō let out a little sigh.
"Stand up, or I'm the one who'll get embarrassed," she said quietly. When Kuro still made no move to get up, she braced herself and dragged her to her feet. Finally, noticing Izayoi at last, Kuro squeaked and blushed red.
"U-uhm." Kuro cleared her throat. "Then, let me explain…"
Yō had wandered off to a nearby tree, and was trying to coax a bird down from its branch. Asuka was wringing out her pants as best she could without taking them off, and Izayoi was simply looking towards the horizon, where the world seemed to end in a gigantic waterfall.
Kuro slumped.
"There, there." She felt an urge to pat the head of the rabbit-girl, who was now sitting seiza-style on the grass, and did so. "I'm still here, so please go ahead and tell me."
"Before I do so, how old are you?"
She sighed. Well, at least she looked the right age right now. Hopefully Kuro wouldn't be like Sono and try to protect her because she was young, but Hana still didn't want to lie.
"Twelve," she said. Kuro nodded, and started explaining.
A world of nothing but games. A world where your possessions, your skills, your very life could be traded through "gift games"—that was how Kuro Usagi described it to her, over the next little while, and if Hana hadn't expected to leave again very soon, she'd be feeling some trepidation over that description. She tried to make it sound entertaining, but she'd clearly been thrown by Hana's appearance, and her heart wasn't in it; even when the other three appeared beside her to listen, she still spent more time emphasizing that she'd take care of Hana, than that she should do anything.
Which was silly, especially if she'd be the oldest one there. (Other than the three other newcomers, whom she felt didn't count; they'd wanted to come.)
Eventually it turned into a more detailed explanation for the other three, then an impromptu game of find-the-queen on a table full of cards, which Izayoi won through the rather eye-widening trick of first flipping every card simultaneously. There hadn't been a rule against that.
Hana spent most of that time resting while enjoying the sun, though. A few too many things were going on for her to want to interrupt, and they all looked a little hard to get along with. Except for Asuka, maybe, but she was too formal.
About as soon as the game was over, she walked over to make her goodbyes. Somewhere inside her, a number of generators started running self-tests in preparation for the next couple of minutes.
"Well, it's been nice meeting you—"
Izayoi and Kuro Usagi were arguing loudly about something. To be precise, Kuro Usagi was being loud, while Izayoi calmly stated his points whenever she ran out of breath.
Yō was talking to her cat. Hana hadn't even noticed she had one.
None of the three of them looked bothered at all that they'd been torn away from home. Well, with Yō she wouldn't have been able to tell.
"It's been nice meeting you, but I really must be going." She smiled. "I kept waiting for you to say something, but the reason I got caught up in this is that I was passing by the universe when the other three flew by. Yō, Asuka, Izayoi—Kuro Usagi—I wish you all the best, and I hope you'll find something to care about here. I'm going home now, otherwise Mom will be upset that I stayed out for too long."
The look on Kuro's face was quite amusing, and her grin grew a little wider. She wasn't above teasing people when she had the chance. Izayoi merely raised his eyebrow, though. She might have pouted.
"You—Leave?—What—"
She probably wouldn't see them again, but she did hope they would do well. None of them seemed like bad people, really.
Hana blocked out any further distractions by the simple measure of twisting space in a knot around herself, which also ensured that they wouldn't get hit by the radiation wave from her departure. Now, how did this go? Ah.
"lAnEcNaU wAwYAjEnYEc sphilar…"
Mom. She could almost feel her already.
The song went on for a little while, building an interlaced pattern of positive and negative gravity along with other, more exotic elements around her. The direction she was going was one that didn't exist on a map, because the direction itself couldn't exist until she made it.
She was just about ready to go.
Crunch.
Hana flinched, her connection to home trembling as something tried its damndest to turn her into paste. Her protective bubble nearly collapsed under the immediate impact, then trembled for long seconds as the two forces fought each other to a stand-still.
Nothing else happened. Nothing else needed to happen.
She couldn't make headway. She was stuck, and she was rapidly depleting her capacitors just from trying. Another two seconds—
One—
She felt a horrible sense of deja vu.
Zero. And even if she'd gotten through at that very moment, she no longer had the energy to make it all the way home.
The force that was trying to crush her… disappeared, the moment she gave up and stopped trying to leave. Feeling hollow, she slowly began dismantling her spell.
A/N: And this is what happens if I read too much Mondaijitachi. It's not even slightly canon, and anything in here that's not yet established can be changed. Rather, I made it up on the spot. So take this with a large pinch of salt.
Also, on second thought, you might want to be careful about motivating me.
