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“I’m home.”

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Epilogue. ~ Bluebell

When Himiko awoke, she found herself sitting down by a tree, her back leaning against the trunk. The sun was just rising, and in front of her was a small house.

It had been several days since Sakuya’s visit to the temple. Himiko didn’t know what transpired. She didn’t ask, but she felt that something had changed. Sakuya, who would often write a number of questions on their shared diary, had only been writing a few detailed notes as to what she had been doing and what she thought should be their plan next.

Their current plan: to find Mumei. Oneesama.

Almost a month has passed since they separated from everyone, though. They should head back to Elizabeth, to be cautious. But something about Sakuya seemed somewhat… restless. She insisted on finding this house in front of Himiko’s eyes now. She said that this was the house Mumei lived in, and where they spent a lot of their time together.

Himiko swallows a pang of petty jealousy, and lifts herself up, dusting her skirt. Sakuya was in the right: if they were to search for clues as to where oneesama went, this might be the first place to go. After taking a moment to stretch, she heads towards the house.

…

It’s old, and unkempt. It’s evident on first glance that it had been unused for quite some time. Muttering a silent apology, Himiko breaks the lock to the gate. She bows her head and quietly enters the empty garden, as if to excuse herself.

There’s just something… so familiar about the place. It might be Sakuya’s own memories. Taking a look around, Himiko decides to follow those memories. After repeating her stint at the gate, Himiko takes a step into the house.

She expected a dusty smell, perhaps some cobwebs, or just pure darkness. Anything desolate and lonely. Instead, it’s clean. Japanese paintings adorn the walls, looking anything but old. Stacks of books are neatly arranged against the wall. Himiko freezes in her spot, the guilt of trespassing suddenly draining her of all her blood. Not because of the signs of living, but the person in front of her, who likewise stayed frozen in place.

They hold each other’s’ eyes awkwardly for several moments, until the other person pipes up. “U-um, can I help you?” she asks.

Himiko bows repeatedly in apology, unconsciously signing sorry as she does. She eventually takes a proper look to the house’s resident that she so rudely intruded upon.

Himiko notes the elegantly painted tattoos of cranes and clouds traveling from her left forearm to her shoulder, and seems to connect to her face. Himiko imagines it also reaches her back. Her long black hair seems to be tied to a long ponytail, the fringes on her face long enough on her right side to completely hide the eye beneath it. The one looking at Himiko is a soft, hazel brown, with a gentleness about it that helps Himiko relax. Her clothes are nothing more than a loose shirt and shorts, evidently dressed for home. The relaxing mood seeps out of Himiko.

The woman seems to laugh, snapping Himiko out of her reverie. She must have been staring. The woman signs, Can I help you?

Now feeling calmer, Himiko feels the delight coming onto her without warning, and she eagerly signs back, almost forgetting her apology. Sorry! I thought no one lived here! I was investigating.

“Investigating?” the woman says out loud, although her hands follow.

Looking for someone who used to live here, Himiko clarifies, someone very important.

The woman smiles, and gestures inside. Let me help you, she signs. My name is… “Ko-ta-rou,” she says slowly.

Himiko points to herself and returns the introduction. Hi-mi-ko, she mouths.

She follows Kotarou into her home, taking an uneasy seat as Kotarou hurriedly cleans up around them. When she finally sits down with tea for the both of them, Himiko finds herself surprised at how familiar she feels around the stranger. How easily her story flowed forth, as she tries her best to give as much context as she can for her search. She’s gone beyond that, too.

Himiko tells Kotarou of how she woke without any memories of her own, in a body that wasn’t hers. She tells her of her beloved oneesama, who cared for her and protected her for as much as she could. Even the curse of her body, its clockwork heart.

But Kotarou took it all in. She listens without judgment, and acts interested in anything Himiko had to say, whether or not it was related. In fact, Himiko might as well have forgotten why she was here. It’s curious, considering how secretive she’s always been. And yet here she is, pouring her heart out to a person whose house she broke into, the tears forming at the edge of her eyes as she tells Kotarou just how much she misses oneesama.

Kotarou merely smiles, and reaches out to pat her head. She, too, seems to have hit off with her own level of familiarity with Himiko. Himiko wonders if this familiarity they’re experiencing with the other is due to Sakuya’s own memories. Is this Kotarou someone Sakuya knew? Someone Sakuya could spill her heart to? If so, did Kotarou see Sakuya in her?

Kotarou lets her take a break, and offers to cook dinner for her. While Himiko protests, her stomach growls at her lying hands.

Over dinner, Himiko starts telling Kotarou of the Endless Expanse, and of the colorful passengers she met there. She doesn’t know why she is anymore, but she couldn’t stop herself. Her hands start signing, and she even brings out her sketchbook. With each person she starts sketching their portraits, with expressions of how she remembers them.

Vamp, who promised to tell her about stars and the night sky. Vi, whose mysterious aura she thought was cool. Shepherd, the scary priest whom she was wrong about. Blythe, the girl who knew a lot about demons and different stories. They could have been friends, Himiko laments. Pumpkin, who she remembers looking so sad during the last time they met.

Himiko slowly comes to a stop, unable to talk of certain others. Of Nobody, who was kind to her and pretty much everyone. Likely a father to everyone in the ship. Of Tuesday… whom she killed…. Of Fairy… and of Fanta. Himiko catches herself before she starts crying, but the tears fell regardless, staining the paper of the sketchbook.

Himiko wipes her tears before Kotarou’s reassuring hand reached her, and she starts telling her about her friends who are still here. Like Lance, who she’s come to accept as something of a brother, although she’ll never admit it, especially not to him. The reliable Jude, who is likely more sensible than any of them. Her Auntie Renáta, kind and gentle, what she imagines a mother to be like. Toto… Max, who is lost, but she knows will find his way back to them one day.

And of Elizabeth. Her beloved Elizabeth. She doesn’t say much more about her, though. She couldn’t, lest she turn red. Kotarou laughs and calls her a tease, as it sounded so sweet, but leaves it.

But that wasn’t all. There’s also… Sakuya. The girl within her. The one closest to her, yet the biggest mystery in her life. Kotarou listens intently, watching Himiko’s hands as she tells of how she was scared of the other girl who suddenly came into her life, taking half of her days. She feared that one night, she would close her eyes and she would disappear, never to wake again as someone else takes over her body.

…

Sakuya never once told her of it. Never once reprimanded her, tell her that Himiko didn’t have the right to this body. That she stole this body in her sleep, and replaced her existence. Himiko knows she would, if she held those feelings within her, as bluntly honest as she was. But she never said anything.

What did oneesama think? What did Mumei think of the odd girl, the stranger, that replaced her beloved Sakuya? The questions that haunted her. The questions she wanted and feared to ask.

Himiko doesn’t say anything after that. Her clockwork heart feels like it’s being squeezed, and she blinks back tears with heavy eyelids.

She realizes that it’s already late at night when Kotarou suddenly offers for her to stay the night in her house. Sakuya should have woken up already, but Himiko’s selfishly stayed awake this whole time. Sakuya had a lot to tell Kotarou as well, she’s sure.

Kotarou, who suddenly is by her side, and letting her lean on her shoulder. Himiko does so, feeling perhaps a bit too comfortable in that position. She could even smell a familiar scent.

… This too, must be from Sakuya’s memories.

“If your oneesama truly is how you say she is,” Kotarou strokes her hair, her voice soft, “then she would not hate you for it. No, I’m sure—I know—that she loves you as much as you love her. She protected you because she wanted to. It must have hurt her to leave you, and it would hurt her hearing what you have been through in that ship.” She falls silent, but eventually speaks up again. “She misses you, I know. She seeks you, and wishes you happiness.”

Himiko snuggles into Kotarou’s chest, to hide her tears. She might have heard a tremble in the woman’s voice, but she couldn’t think straight. She wonders, just who is Kotarou, truly? Does she know oneesama such that she could tell? Or has she experienced similar things to oneesama?

“Well,” Kotarou laughs, “she might be jealous of Elizabeth. But don’t doubt for a second that she loves you.” She gives her a kiss on her head. “Now sleep, Himiko.

“Good night.”

Unable to keep her eyes open any longer, Himiko falls asleep on Kotarou’s chest. In her losing consciousness, she hears it. “Mumei,” the soft, distant voice, coming from her own lips. Her hand, taking Kotarou’s into hers.

And then, the darkness of sleep.

Yet the distant words keep coming. Himiko strains to hear them, catching only pieces.

I missed you…

heart…

Stay with me.

disappear again…

I won’t…

I want her to be happy.

…no more curses.

Stay with me.

…can’t…

…don’t disappear.

…

Silence.

She can see herself in the darkness. She can gaze into her empty, emotionless eyes, and hold her hand. “Sakuya,” Himiko calls.

Her reflection gives her a small smile. “I’ll be with you.” It then looks away, as if speaking to someone else in the black void. “You had better say good bye to her yourself. Don’t run.”

The hand in her own disappears, and Himiko wakes up.

She wakes with a start, the air cold and the echoes of thunder rumbling through the darkness outside. Suddenly, the tiny cottage feels so wide and empty. Himiko looks around, shivering silently and pulling the blankets close to herself.

Her eyes widen seeing herself in the mirror, and the important key laying in front of it. Oneesama, she mouths, jumping out of her bed and throwing the blankets aside.

Oneesama. Oneesama. Oneesama.

The only thoughts running through her mind as she slams the door open, searching for that familiar head of red hair, the rain soaking through her body.

“Oneesama!” she screams.

She stops in her tracks. “Oneesama,” she repeats, softer. Himiko runs a finger through her neck, shocked at the sound of her own voice coming from her mouth. “Oneesama,” she calls again.

…

“I’m here,” Kotarou appears, holding an umbrella up above Himiko. “I’m here, Himiko.”

Himiko couldn’t tell what happened after. She recalls sobbing, kneeling on the wet dirt, and clinging to Kotarou tightly. So tightly that she could still feel it. She didn’t want to let go. Oneesama would disappear again.

Himiko looks at herself in the mirror. Ignoring her tired eyes, Himiko lays her right hand over her heart. She can feel it beating. Her eyes fall on the key, the embodiment of her curse. It was the embodiment of her curse.

She’d been here for the past two weeks, Kotarou explained. She’s been asleep for two weeks.

Sakuya had insisted that Kotarou replace her heart. One that didn’t need the key. Kotarou rejected her request, concerned about certain fears, but Sakuya was persistent. Eventually, she and members of Kotarou’s clan put the girl to sleep and performed the operation after moving her to a better location.

Himiko’s eyes dart to her phone by the mirror. She turns it on, and finds a flood of messages from Elizabeth, even missed calls. She must have been worried. Quickly, she sends her a short message, and a picture of herself in the mirror to confirm that she’s alright.

“The new dress fits you good,” Kotarou’s voice calls to her. “Do you like it?”

Himiko looks to her, voice small. “Oneesama.”

Kotarou laughs weakly. “Call me Kotarou, Himiko. I can’t be your oneesama anymore.” Himiko shakes her head, and moves to hug the woman. She merely hugs, tight. Even with a voice, she can’t find the words to say. Kotarou hugs her back, stroking her hair.

“I’m sorry for leaving you, Himiko. I’m so happy you’re safe,” she kisses her head. “Stay here until you heal. And then… go home. Go to the home you’ve found for yourself. It’s waiting for you.”

Himiko nods, and draws back. She signs. Stay with me until I go. She looks down, silent. Until eventually, she opens her mouth. “P… pl… please.”

Kotarou looks away, scratching her cheek. But a look at Himiko’s face, and her resolve crumbles, very quickly. “Alright,” she signs, smiling.

It takes another two weeks for Himiko to heal from her operation. The keyhole on her back remains, but now only serves as a reminder of her curse.

More concerningly, within her days in the cottage, Himiko had found herself with much more time in her days. Her nights have come back to her. And when she awoke in the mornings, there was no new entry in her diary from her nocturnal self. It carried on until the day she’s to leave.

Himiko hands Kotarou the key that she used to wear around her neck, now only a memento to be carried around. A precious treasure for Kotarou to hold on to as she strived to carry on her duties as the new leader of the Fuuma clan.

I’ll see you again? Himiko signs, smiling for her beloved oneesama.

Kotarou grins. “Yes,” she signs, and then turns away to wipe her eyes. A sniffing sound before she pulls Himiko into a hug. “Take care of Sakuya for me, okay?”

…

…

This is the place. Himiko checks it again, the address written in her phone.

It’s an incredibly gaudy place. No, it does look quite cool. Just unusual. She never thought there could be houses by a beach. Oh, but it fits her perfectly. It’s all just so… her. So much like Lumi. So much like Elizabeth.

She missed her so much. Funny, it’s only been two months.

It’s been a few days since she flew from Japan.

Sakuya still hadn’t woken up, but just yesterday, Himiko recalls having less day time than was normal. She should have checked for it in the first place, but she takes out her diary and flips to the most recent entry.

I’m here. Written inside a heart, in incredibly formal handwriting.

Himiko giggles. Below it, she writes. We’re home.

She shuts the diary close, and walks up to the door. Fixes her hair. Fixes her dress. Slaps her cheeks, squishing them to wake herself up. A deep breath. She takes a moment to calm her beating heart… Another deep breath.

Himiko rings the doorbell.

“I’m home.”

[yumigahara-blog]

“Good bye, mother.

“For every horrible thing down here, there’s something far more beautiful.”

[yumigahara-blog]

Epilogue. ~ Daisy

This story had ended.

Soon after they had reached landfall, they had been taken in for questioning when Jude brought the story of what happened in the Endless Expanse to certain authorities. Sakuya told them little, eager to get it over with. Their next step, then, was to take care of Toto. “I don’t understand. Why did you adopt it?” Sakuya had even said, and truthfully, even until now, her view on the situation hasn’t changed. She’s confident she’s learned the emotion of disliking something.

Once they had him settled in a place that would take care of him until their return, everyone split up. After the fateful tale they had all just lived through, everyone was eager to return to their lives, perhaps with the resolve to change something. With a short farewell to everyone, and a promise to return, Sakuya and Himiko left on their own journey. Sakuya had found the resolve. She was to end a chapter of her life.

She thought of the girl within her, the one who had appeared when Sakuya started a slumber of five years. Himiko was the name Mumei gave her. Daisy. The girl, who, all this time, suffered in her place. Suffered a curse she did not in any way deserve, merely one that was handed to her by fate. How did she come to be?

...

It didn’t take long for her to find herself staring upwards, through the steps towards the temple of the Moon. It hadn’t changed at all. It was cold, dark. It was perfect. The full moon dominated the sky in its glory. It watched her, its pale light glaring at its prodigal daughter.

Sakuya had trouble recognizing her own wants; it’s a concept she was still working on. But she knew that she did not want to be here. Yet every step she took bore no hesitation. It could be that she hadn’t learned that yet, either. She didn’t understand why, but Sakuya felt that she had to confront her past.

The temple’s gates opened to her without a word. Her worshipers, the servants of the Moon, welcomed her back, a joy that shouldn’t be there recognizable in their faces. They bowed to her, showered her with gifts and adoration. They cleaned her of the impurities of the world, and dressed her in her ceremonial robes. All of it, done wordlessly. As if it was natural. As if it was expected. As if they knew, from the start, that the moon’s child would return one day.

Eventually, she found herself in a familiar room. The highest point of the temple, where the moon shone brightest. It’s empty, save for one figure. Under the moonlight, her mother. Her face cold, devoid of any emotion. In her eyes, an unmistakable wetness as she beholds Sakuya. But she stays where she stands, and her voice betrays no sentimentality.

“Sakuya, my child.”

Sakuya’s eyes gaze back at her mother’s, blank and unmoved. Her voice brings back vivid images, vivid memories. Within this room. The cold, pale light of the Moon. The chanted prayers of the servants. The wine trickling down onto a silver blade. The glint of moonlight on the raised weapon, coming down. The smell of blood.

“Honored mother,” Sakuya replies.

“You have come back to us,” her mother exclaims, the shaking in her voice undeniable, but she stands her ground, her shaking hands clasping themselves.

Sakuya can recall the smell of blood. Cloth, rapidly gaining red, being wrapped around her. The sound of flesh being cut and cleaned. The clinking of tiny porcelain plates, the whispered prayers of the servants. Their words of gratitude, and their bowed heads. The small sounds of chewing. The weeping.

“No, mother,” Sakuya replies curtly.

The shock in her mother’s eyes were not in the least veiled at all. Nor her anger that followed, nor the trembling lips. They try to curve upwards in an unsteady smile. “What do you mean by that, my child? Why are you here? Why have you returned?”

Sakuya hated this room. She understands this now. She hates every memory that plays in her head as her eyes dart around in the empty floor, bathed in moonlight.

“I’ve come to…,” Sakuya’s eyes lowered. With a simple flick of her left arm, Sakuya could take out the knife hidden within it. This is what she came here for. She came here to kill her mother. To kill her past. To end it. But why won’t the arm move?

She never liked the ritual. She wanted to be free. She was tired. She was angry. She was lonely. She was afraid. She wanted to be free. She was… a lot of things. But she could not feel any of these emotions. She could not feel anything. None of them reached her heart.

…Until they took it out. Until the clockwork heart beating in her chest replaced it. And Himiko was born. She took on everything she was supposed to feel. Her hate. Her suffering. Her heartache. Her… fear. Her fear to speak out against it, her fear to talk.

Her fear to talk.

Not even having realized they were closed, Sakuya’s eyes snap open, and she faces her mother. “I’ve come to talk.”

Her mother’s hands separate, and join together behind her back. “My daughter… we both want the exact same thing. Must we go over the doctrine again? Clinging to the world, we cannot go into the heavens.” Her eyebrows twitch, but she maintains her cold smile. “Clinging to the world, the emotions that belong here, the worthless memories made here… we can only stay in this hell, where we can only see hate, suffering, heartache, and death. Up there, beyond this world, none of those things exist.

“You, my child, are the people’s chance of salvation, do you not understand? A blessing from the heavens. You, a denizen of the moon, possess the flesh of immortals. If we are to ascend to the heavens, your flesh is needed!” She gestures to Sakuya, her hand shaking. “This is your duty, Sakuya. Your calling bestowed on you by your fate. You cannot fight your fate, and that is why you have found yourself here, once again.”

Sakuya lets a silence lie between them as she stares at her mother. Once more, she thinks of the knife hidden in her left arm. “You’re wrong,” she lets out a low laugh, barely audible. “You’re wrong, mother. You really are delusional.” Sakuya’s eyes spot her forehead, and she thought the vein would pop.

She steps closer to her mother, her mastermind. “I came here to kill you, mother. I hoped to cut off my past.” She flicks her arm, tossing out the slim knife and grabbing it with her right hand. Sakuya watches her mother’s eyes follow it, and then drops it on the floor. “But coming here, I’ve only realized the truth.

“I do have emotions. I’ve always had them. I could never feel them, but now that you have taken out my old heart,” she puts a hand to her chest, “I can now recognize them for what they are. My anger, fear, pain, and disgust of this place.”

Sakuya holds out her arm, a small smile on her face despite the monotone voice. “My love for Mumei, Daisy, and all my new friends. My desire to explore this ugly world and experience its wonders. My ambition to strive for my new goals in life.”

The smile disappears, and the hand drops. “My pity for my mother, and her worshipers.” Sakuya’s eyes, sincerely pitying, hold her mother’s furious ones.

“Thank you, mother. For taking my heart,” Sakuya states her gratitude in such a cold manner that were it not for all that she had just said, her mother might have swooned.

Her mother, all pretense of hiding emotion gone, screeching as she lowers herself, her hands grabbing at her hair. “Mumei! Mumei!” she screams through grit teeth. “That girl has poisoned you so far!?” she yells, pounding her hands onto the floor. “This shouldn’t have happened! I should have left you limbless! You ungrateful child! From whose womb do you think you came from!?”

She slams her fists repeatedly, like a child throwing a tantrum. “That Mumei girl! She has disgraced me, all of us! Upset the order! Of everything!” Sakuya’s mother looks up to her daughter, looking down at with eyes filled with vivid pity. “She’s poisoned you… Sakuya…” Tears flow from the mother’s eyes, and she grabs at the girl’s robes. “Sakuya…! Come back to us! We need you!” she cries.

Sakuya’s eyes remain unchanged, and her mother sobs.

“You want to be human!?” she shrieks. “You will suffer their humiliation! Feel their pain! You… the child of the Moon! You will be just like everyone else!”

“Yes,” Sakuya smiles. She turns away from her mother, curled up under the moon. “Good bye, mother.”

“For every horrible thing down here, there’s something far more beautiful.”

…

The following morning, Himegami Sakuya had disappeared. The servants scoured the temple’s every nook and cranny. And yet, no trace of their goddess could be found, as if it was merely a ghost that visited them the night before.

The ghost of the child they lost, leaving only memories in her wake.

[yumigahara-blog]

- CHAPTER 5 & FINALE LOGS -

- Game - - Investigation - - MACABRE THEATRE - – FINALE –

[yumigahara-blog]

We wanted to take a moment to thank everyone that participated and followed Echo Express and Endless Expanse. Without all of you, none of this would have evolved into what the series has become today and we are so grateful. The friendships formed, the stories we were able to tell, and the fun we have all had is really something we hold dear and hope you all do as well. This truly couldn’t have happened without each and every one of you. We love you guys.

So, to all of the EE/X family, we would like to say again…

THANK YOU FOR PLAYING!

[yumigahara-blog]

nobodyheardyou:

The convict listened through to the end of the passage with a twist about his brow and a steadily tightening jaw. Kaguya’s recital was strong, but that wasn’t all—it was true. And if it was true then he was Odysseus and Polyphemus both, for there was no one to blame for this curse but himself.

“You’re a… remarkable storyteller, Kaguya,” Nobody said, and breathed a laugh. “Wasn’t ill-natured—not at all. It was, uh… I needed to hear it, I think. Thanks.” He pulled on a smile. “May you make it back to your family and home too.”

Nobody’s gaze dropped to the floor. He scratched at the side of his neck. Leading up to the passage, this girl had said something peculiar. She and Daisy—where were they from? Wracking his brain gave him no answer.

“Where’s home for you? You’re not, uh… Well… You mentioned the moon, but…” Although he did so with a crooked brow, when he looked at Kaguya there was not a shred of skepticism on his face.

“You can’t really be from there, can you?”

Home...

She spends several moments in silence, her arms still crossed, as if trying to formulate an answer. “I suppose you could say I’m from Japan,” she shrugs.

“But I’m not sure where I’m from,” Kaguya starts when she opens her eyes. “I lived my childhood kept in solitude by my family. My family, Himegami, from what I know is an influential and important martial arts family. I was Sakuya, their youngest daughter. 

“In the shadows of this martial arts family is its true form as a church, whose members worshiped the moon.”

She looks to Nobody.

“Do you know what people from the moon are like? My mother says that they hold no love for the world. They were free from the chains of humanity’s ugly, bumbling emotions. Cold, hard, and perfect. Free from hate, heartache, suffering, and death. Immortal... ” 

Kaguya points to herself. “I’m sure you’ve already noticed, as well. My mother saw that her daughter had no such emotions.” She nods calmly, and studies Nobody’s expression before she continues. 

“The daughter then was no longer a Himegami, but a princess, a goddess...” She places her left hand over her heart. “...an offering. Their chance of salvation.”

“That was how the logic of my coming from the moon was like. Perhaps there’s some truth to it. That’s where the name Kaguya comes from, after all.”

peripeteia  :::  5

[yumigahara-blog]

nobodyheardyou:

“Crass and intoxicated by the ugly desires of the world…?” Nobody raised his eyebrows over a smile. “Hah. Sounds like we’d get along.”

It was strange, he reflected, to be holding a first conversation with someone this late in the game. She might have shared looks with Daisy, but telling them apart was as simple as drawing breath. This acquaintanceship with Kaguya was so fresh he almost introduced himself. As the seconds ticked by, this girl’s unfamiliarity grew on him.

“It’s, uh… not a big deal, really,” he said, and offered a sheepish smile. “You ever read the Odyssey? I never got to the end, but the scene with the cyclops… it really stuck. Odysseus calls himself Οὖτις—Nobody—so that when the cyclops calls for help, his stupid cyclops friends don’t come.” Nobody laughed a dry note.

“I’d had the tattoo for years already. Thought it’d make a funny name too.” He leaned against a panel of controls. His smile waned. “It’s kinda true anyway, these days.” Nobody looked at Kaguya, and his smile sprang back to life.

“But hey, enough of that, right? I wanna hear more about this demon of yours.”

The Odyssey... Kaguya nods. Mumei has told her the story before. She can remember the script for it clearly.

“Immortals are never alien to one another,” she quotes the script, with an uncharacteristic amount of... character. The small smile immediately disappears, though, as quickly as it came. “That’s what she had told my mother. I suppose it means we’re fated to meet the other one day.

“She had met her when she lost her way in Ooeyama.”

“I do not know much else, however,” Kaguya tilts her head, looking thoughtful. “Being immortal, does she also come from the moon, I wonder?”

“In any case, perhaps your choice of name has cursed you. Did Polyphemos not curse Odysseus for this trick?” She thinks back to the script, and a light twinkles within her blank eyes.

She puts a hand over her eyes, as if to clutch at an injury, and stretches her arm to the beyond as if to reach out and call to the sea.

“Hear me, Poseidon who circle the earth, dark-haired. If truly I am your son, and you acknowledge yourself as my father, grant that Odysseus, sacker of cities, son of Laertes, who makes his home in Ithaka, may never reach that home; but if it is decided that he shall see his own people, and come home to his strong-founded house and to his own country, let him come late, in bad case, with the loss of all his companions, in someone else’s ship, and find troubles in his household.”

She quotes, once more, with an uncharacteristic amount of character, filled with a vengeful anger that disappears with the last word.

Kaguya falls into silence afterwards.

“... Perhaps the joke was ill-natured?” She puts a hand over her mouth, but she doesn’t look guilty at all. “May you make it back to your family and home.”

peripeteia  :::  5

[yumigahara-blog]

pentury:

Three prosthetic limbs, a clockwork heart, no voice. Toto gave three emphatic nods as he read the list over. “I seeee,” he said, leaning in close. The fascination was clear in his eyes, but when he looked up from the screen he saw that Daisy did not seem so happy. His smile faltered, and then fell altogether at the mention of Kaguya.

“But then, she’d take your place, right? You’d go away again.” Toto didn’t understand. “I don’t want that. I want you to stay.”

The volleyball was quick to steal his attention, and he caught it in both hands. When he read what Daisy had written there, he perked up an inch taller; in an instant, his mood was lifted.

“Aah, the Pentury Migration Circle? Haha! OK! Mmm, what should I tell you?” Toto spun on his heel with the ball held tight to his chest and his eyes on the sky. His mind raced as it filtered through dozens of starting points. “It’s a place for people who know about the true life cycle,” he told her, as though the matter were simple—as though she should already know—but a second look at Daisy’s face made him doubt that those few words were enough. He took a step closer, letting the ball roll from his grip and onto the sand.

“Imagine that we’re caterpillars! You and me, and everyone else here.” His arms stretched wide to indicate the boat, the sea, the world beyond it. He wiggled his index fingers. “Right now, we’re all living like caterpillars. But some day … we go away—like Blythe and Fantasma did—and then we’re like cocoons. Our souls go to this other place. It’s dark and quiet. A lot of people call it ‘The Great Interim’. I was there once, you know! A long time ago. But I came back, so the whole world could learn the truth! It’s like teaching all the other caterpillars how to become a butterfly, you know? So, in that place—the cocoon place—there’s a ladder that only comes down every 500 years. Only strong souls can climb it to the top. And at the top … that’s the fully bloomed world. The final stage!” His eyes gleamed as he gestured left and right, beaming wildly.

“So the Pentury Migration Circle is all about letting the world know, and celebrating! We have big migration parties where everyone dances together before they go—I dance on a big stage,” he added with particular delight. Satisfied, he stepped back, plucked the volleyball from the sand and gave it a spin.

“How was that? You understand, right?”

No, she doesn’t really understand. Cocoons? Dancing? 

Daisy didn’t really understand Kaguya’s explanations of moon people and immortality, either. These are the... “cults” oneesama told her to be wary of. She can’t not be wary of them if they’re going to speak in gibberish. 

Though, that’s not exactly something she should say to Toto.

She crosses her arms, eyes closed, thinking, trying to analyze and put into sense whatever it was Toto had just said. The analogies are likely making it harder.

After a solid moment, Daisy opens her eyes and gestures for the ball back. Once she catches it, she dusts it free of sand and writes another reply. She serves it back to Toto.

you and kaguya are like each other i think. but kaguya wanted to leave and now they want her back. are there people after you too? why are you here?

They want her back, the servants of the moon.

↑ ALL TIME ↑ OPEN

[yumigahara-blog]

rebel-bandit:

He reassures her, “Nope! The lasers are harmless!” He then cocks his head to the side slighty. He then looks at the gun in his hand. “Well, they should be painless!”

Bandit smiles as he retrieves a second vest. After adjusting the size to fit Daisy, Bandit hands it to her and gestures for her to put it on. While she does that, he makes his way over to the laser tag system control panel.

The system was foreign to him. He’s never done this before, nor has he ever actually wondered how this stuff worked. Where’s the workers when you need them? He could call Dot, but he didn’t want to. Who wants to call upon Dot for help anymore these days? He’ll figure this out!

Whether it’s actually simple to do or Bandit’s luck, he manages to set it up correctly. He makes his way back to Daisy.

“So you aim the gun,” he aims his gun at the center of Daisy’s laser tag vest, “and pull the trigger!” He pulls and a the laser hits her.

“Easy enough, right? Now you try.”

Daisy lays a hand over where the laser supposedly hits her, watching as the tiny red line of light goes over her hand instead. She removes her hand, and it’s on her chest. 

She puts her hand back. It’s on her hand.

Daisy looks around, and then walks towards the guns, picking one up for herself. It’s small, and can be held with one hand. She observes it, turning it around curiously. 

She points it towards Bandit’s chest and pulls the trigger silently. 

...

She holds it there, her finger coming on and off the trigger, just slowly accepting the fact that they were not the same kind of laser guns one would see in movies.

...Well, that’s fine. 

She points at Bandit with her other hand. Let’s play, Daisy signs, relying on the hope that Bandit would get what she means when she turns away quickly and dashes for cover, disappearing in the shadows.

act VIII. ~ Cherry Blossom

[yumigahara-blog]

mrosterhase:

Judge had asked the question, perhaps, but he hadn’t been prepared for her to be so candid. Yet, despite her apparent bluntness, he felt as though he had gotten no information out of her whatsoever. He stared at Kaguya blankly as he tried to piece together what it was she was telling him. 

“Is that so…?” It was all he could think to say in the moment. “I have to admit, I don’t really follow what you’re saying. If Daisy is still human, how is it that you can exist in the same body as her?”

His brow furrowed as he stared down at the table, recalling the conversation he had had with Daisy not too long ago. She mentioned that this ship was supposed to be safer for her somehow. It still hadn’t made much sense to him, but it seemed like things were beginning to connect in a way. 

“…who is this ‘mother’ anyways? Is she the one Daisy’s sister is trying to protect her from?” 

There’s a thoughtful quiet from Kaguya before she replies to Judge.

“I only mean that she has the emotions and humanity I don’t,” she explains regarding Daisy’s humanity. “Physically, we both inhabit the same human body.” She nods, as if she’s successfully explained it to herself.

At Judge’s question about her mother, Kaguya nods again. “I assume it is,” she states, a-matter-of-fact-ly. “I gather that Mumei had stolen me away from my worshipers, and this had raised the ire of my mother, who led them.

“They seek this body as a chance for salvation and immortality, and as such I am of great value to them.” Kaguya taps a metal finger onto the table.

“However, that is odd...” Kaguya falls into another thoughtful silence. “Why would Mumei take me away? How much time has passed since she did...? Daisy claims there are even assassins after them. What’s Mumei thinking, leaving her here? Is she going to finish...” She shakes her head. 

“I apologize, I’m asking questions no one here would have the answer to...”

“...Oh! Perhaps Dot would.”

Daybreak || Open

[yumigahara-blog]

pentury:

The grandeur of the whales cresting the ocean surface was still so clear in his mind that Toto had barely noticed who it was standing in front of him. The hair, the mannerisms—could it be? He wiped the tears from his eyes.

“Daisy!” 

Toto rushed across the deck and pulled the girl into a tight hug, then spun her around for good measure. “You came back! Haha!” He set her down with care, as though she might break, and his tone dropped into something very matter-of-fact when he added, “I would have cried if you were gone forever.”

When he stepped back to meet her eyes again, he remembered her question—one he had yet to answer. 

“I’m OK,” he said, “now that you’re OK. Come, come with me!” Without a second thought or a word of warning, Toto took Daisy by the hand and ran. He had forgotten about the whales.

Once they had arrived at the volleyball court, Toto finally slowed his pace, releasing his tight hold on Daisy’s hand only when he needed his own to pick up a stray ball in the sand. He gave it a spin between his palms, bounced it off the ground, then turned on his heel to look at Daisy. His eyes were alight.

“A lot happened at the Theatre—aah, well, I guess you weren’t there, right?—but I’ve been thinking a lot. About you.” 

Toto tossed the ball to Daisy.

“Tell me more about your body!”

Before she could even react, Toto’s already pulling her to his whims, towards the volleyball court. 

Daisy had no recollection of what transpired here, but based on what Kaguya had told her... she doesn’t want to be here. Would Toto even listen, though? As quick as he is, he’s now already asking about her body. She catches the volleyball with her left hand, and holds it to her side.

What’s there to tell, though? She had three metal prosthetic limbs, a clockwork heart, and lacking in voice.

Daisy visibly sighs, and types her message listing those factors. She shows it to Toto. Once she’s sure Toto’s read it, she adds: You should ask Kaguya. She knows more about it. It’s her body, after all, isn’t it?

She even knows what happened... how she ‘lost’ them. The limbs and her heart. The voice, however, it seemed not even Kaguya could find a theory for it. Daisy takes the ball into both her hands, and she frowns at it.

It’s unfair. It’s unfair how she has to deal with Kaguya’s fate.

Taking out a marker, she starts writing on the volleyball. Afterwards, she tosses it high towards Toto. tell me about your pentury group, it asks.

↑ ALL TIME ↑ OPEN

[yumigahara-blog]

Upon hearing of what happened, Daisy’s first course of action, before she could even think of any, was to look for Lumi. Dot had seemed particularly upset, but it hardly mattered to her. 

She happens upon Lumi’s room, the door of which swung open to reveal a very much alive Lumi.

Chest heaving in exertion as she’s rushed on her way to this room, Daisy absorbs Lumi’s image into her eyes for a still moment. 

Her left hand comes up to touch Lumi’s cheek, and upwards to her hair, feeling around the older woman’s head as if to check on any injuries. A finger strokes the bandage on her forehead very lightly.

Are you okay? her right hand asks, but she doesn’t stop messing up the woman’s hair. Eventually, as if she never thought to hear an answer to her question, Daisy just pulls Lumi into a tight hug. She stays like that until her breathing calms, and her heartbeat slows. When she draws back, her expression is still one of concern. 

No reckless, she signs, I said I would protect you.

Dysphoria | OPEN

“So not cute…”

Lumi stared into the mirror, examining the wound Dot had inflicted on her. It certainly looked a lot worse than it actually was, but it shouldn’t have even happened in the first place. She acted rashly, and should have been more aware of her surroundings. As if she could even attempt to go against Dot though… She’s lucky she wasn’t dead.

She washed the blood from her forehead and placed a small bandage over the wound. The last time she had been hurt wouldn’t even come to mind, no matter how hard she thought. She would need to make sure it could never happen again. She came far too close to ruining her perfect face, and she couldn’t have that.

“Aha, much better. What was I thinking? Dot couldn’t ruin these perfect looks if she tried.”

Lumi giggled as she turned away from the mirror and threw on her lab coat. She exited her room and stopped dead in her tracks at the sight of another guest waiting outside for her. Well… she should have known this was coming. She was sure they had all seen her with that damn blood ruining her face.

“Ah… Hello, darling. May I help you?”

[yumigahara-blog]

rebel-bandit:

‘Sorry. Good luck on your development.’ —was that it? Bandit was expecting more of a response. While he thought she could only type so much, that didn’t make sense. Luckily for probably both of them, he restrains himself from prying further into the issue.

“You don’t know?” Bandit scratches the side of his head. “Huh, I’ve never had to explain it before but it’s basically just some game where you shoot people with lasers. The goal is to shoot those that aren’t on your team while avoiding get shot by them. Sometimes there are bases and you can shoot those too.”

Bandit waves her over to follow him as he goes to look at the equipment. He puts on a harness and holds the plastic gun with his hand.

“So aim here,” he points to the transparent spots on the vest as well as the gun, “to score points. It also deactivates their gun for a while but gives them a period of time where they can’t be shot again or shoot anyone.”

A smile, “It’s a fun game! Especially with lots of people!”

Shooting lasers... 

Her image of shooting lasers likely wrong, she looks around the place in wonder before turning back to Bandit. Is it dangerous? Lasers don’t hurt? the message on her phone asks.

She follows his gesture, eyeing the gun in his hand. 

It doesn’t look like a laser gun...

Eventually she steps back a bit, and points at the vest, and making a shooting motion with her left hand. Show me what to do, she seems to say. Distracted by a game, her grim mood might have improved a bit.

act VIII. ~ Cherry Blossom

[yumigahara-blog]

Where was the ship? Kaguya doubts she’d find any solid answer even in the so-called navigation room, but she chooses to investigate nevertheless. Maybe she would find something unusual.

Like the man called Nobody. She follows his gesture upwards towards the map.

“None,” Kaguya replies curtly without as much a second look at the map. “Were the sky not fake, maybe I could’ve made a guess.” The question of where they were when they entered the ship is likely pointless by now. She raises her eyebrows. “Oh... was I supposed to humor you with a joke?”

Her eyes go down to the older man’s tattoos. 

“My mother used to talk of meeting a demon with painted skin. An immortal demon. Crass and intoxicated by the ugly desires of the world. Immortal, but far from being the perfect being.”

Kaguya’s eyes move up to look Nobody in the eye. “The story doesn’t relate to you, of course. I’m only reminiscing.”

She tilts her head. “You are... Nobody. Why did you pick such an unusual name?”

peripeteia  :::  5

So there was an end in sight after all.

The inmate in him was begging to raise a little hell, and the thought alone left an itch in his good hand, but he knew how Dot reacted when the game threatened to spiral out of her control—Fantasma, may peace find her, had seen to that. Even if their meagre population managed to take her down, what then? Where in the world were they? Nobody’s eyes found the map on the domed ceiling.

“Christ,” he breathed, and dared to step toward it. He craned his neck. Between one prison and the next he’d hardly had the time to consider the scale of what laid outside his reach. Somewhere out there, all this time, the world had been turning.

Nobody’s features twisted. His throat felt tight. In his pocket, his hand was a fist, his knuckles white. He craved real sea air, the smell of bread in the streets, exhaust in his lungs—but if he was going to run for his life, he had his work cut out for him.

“Somewhere,” he murmured, “there’s a better life for me.” A weary smile cracked into place. The convict laughed, low and quiet. His eyes darted from one country to the next, but it was no use. On this map there would be no better life to find.

In all the best books, it was the characters who overcame their faults whose journeys were the sweetest to follow, but Nobody knew he was not one of those. It was a weakness to temptation which had led him to prison, and nearly two decades later that same weakness had led him here. He sighed through his teeth.

Some food would do him good, he decided—might as well take advantage while he could—but when he turned to the navigation room’s exit he discovered he was not alone.

“Ahhh, look who it is,” he said, and pulled a smile back on. He waved the other passenger over. “Come here, humour me a sec.” Nobody stepped back toward the map and craned his neck to study it. He gestured up at the continents.

“We gotta be somewhere on here, right?” He looked at the other passenger. “Got any guesses?”

[yumigahara-blog]

mrosterhase:

Judge wasn’t sure if Kaguya actually enjoyed the coffee, but she was certainly drinking a lot of it. 

“Er, there’s caffeine in there. You might want to slow down if you don’t plan on staying up all night.”

But by then, she had already downed a good amount and started on a string of question. Judge sucked in a breath and did his best to keep up.

“No, technically speaking, I’m not a judge. I have a job in law and that’s it.” His brow twitched in irritation at her next question. “Do I really seem like the type of person who would enjoy seeing how terrible people can be? I’ve had more than enough of my fill of that. My job is to keep criminals away from people that they might hurt.” 

He watched her expression carefully as it peaked over the rim of her cup. It only seemed fair that he would be allowed to ask her a few questions of his own, but there were so many it was hard to tell where to begin. But if he was already there with the chance to know anything, then he wouldn’t let it slip by him. 

“You and Daisy are obviously separate from one another. It almost seems like…a program, with the way you two switch off.” He thought to himself for a moment. “I guess what I would like to know is just how human you would consider yourself.” 

Kaguya blankly eyes Judge as she takes another sip from her mug. “I see, I see. I understand. You are sharp and quick to see wrongs so that you can help others avoid them,” she takes another sip.

She listens intently to his question, though her expression remains unchanged, as usual.

“Human...” Kaguya echoes, then puts the mug down, pushing it away with the thought of Daisy in mind. No more caffeine for her. “I do not know what defines a human, but I believe this body bleeds the same as you do.” She falls silent, as if to think.

“I am beyond a human, my mother claims,” she says after a moment. “I am... a princess. An immortal. A goddess. A perfect being. A chance for salvation,” Kaguya speaks these words as if she’s reading off a list. 

“An offering.”

Kaguya laces her fingers with each other. “Daisy is none of these things. She is... human.”

Daybreak || Open

[yumigahara-blog]

Daisy wakes to the pounding at her door. What follows is a pounding in her head. There were the words “upstairs,” and “hurry,” from a voice she assumed to be Toto’s. The annoyed thought that Kaguya might have chosen to sleep late is pushed back, replaced by a panic and anxiety.

Almost tripping in her hurry, Daisy dashes outside then upstairs in pursuit of the flashy boy, worrying about what might have happened.

He’s just there, though. Claiming something was there.

Eh? Daisy catches her breath, placing a hand over her chest to calm down her frantically-beating heart. Eventually, she faces Toto and tilts her head curiously. She points at him, and then points a thumb upwards, her face questioning and worried. Are you okay? she asks.

↑ ALL TIME ↑ OPEN

It was eleven minutes past midnight, and the Sleepover Suite was dark and empty. Pillows collected in heaps, folded and creased from when Daisy, Bandit and Toto had made beds of them. Wrappers from cookie packets and sticks of gum still littered the left corner, and in the centre of the room a game of Monopoly sat unfinished. Toto stood blinking in the doorway. Oh, he realized, the rooms were reopened—and then he was struck by a feeling of incredible loneliness. Toto lingered there for half a minute longer before he shut the door.

When the elevator stopped and he stepped out onto the sixth floor, Toto decided he was no longer lonely—there was so much to do and see that it left little room in his head for any thought but one, and it was a truth he had known all his life: the reasons to smile far outnumbered the reasons not to. And so he smiled as he moved down the empty hall, thinking that maybe, if his late night exploration stretched on long enough, he would cross paths with a friend. He never did—but he played soccer with the gym ball and danced with the human models in the lab, and after that he ate banana cream pie in the movie theatre until he felt sick. In spite of the nausea and an errant crumb on his cheek, Toto still managed to look dazzling in all of the pictures he took in the photo booth—he was sure that anyone would say so.

By the time he reached Paradise Deck, half the sky had already turned pink. Toto fished the pocket watch out of his coat to find that it was several hours later than he had thought; he did not consider how it might look should someone find him standing there, alone in the still-dark morning with the Killing Hour inches from his fingertips, but no one ever did, and he carried on—past the volleyball court that was now so clean, past the pool where he had once thrown Fantasma from his shoulders, and on another day found himself stranded with Daisy in a makeshift gondola. Toto walked to the very end, the bow of the ship where, at one time, fifteen passengers had stood. The deck seemed so much larger now. Toto spread his arms, teetered from one foot to the other, hummed a jaunty tune as he looked out at the sun on the horizon. It cast a glimmering orange line down the centre of the sea, where Toto noticed a spot of water that was several shades darker than the rest—and then that darkness moved.

“Ah–!”

The sea frothed around the shape as it broke the surface, smooth and grey, and two smaller shapes followed. From the first, a burst of water. From the second, a tail.

“Aaaah-! Haha! Les baleines!”

Toto tore from his spot at the bow and raced to the elevator in a clumsy sprint, jabbing the down button over and over as he descended to the first floor. The doors has barely opened when Toto shouldered his way through, screaming his delight into the hall.

“Whales! Whales, there are whales, wake up!” He banged his fists on every door in his path—Daisy’s, Bandit’s, Nobody’s, Lumi’s, Judge’s, Nightingale’s, even Dot’s. “Upstairs!” he called out. “Hurry!”

Toto did not wait for an answer; once his friends had been sufficiently alerted, he was back in the elevator, loosed onto Paradise Deck. He ran and ran until he reached the bow, but when he looked out at the sea again he saw nothing but a sheet of glistening water. A small sound escaped Toto as he opened his mouth to speak, but he stopped himself when he realized that whales would not be convinced by him. With his palms against the barrier, he watched the empty water, rooted to the spot until he heard the footsteps of a friend who had answered his call. He turned to face them. 

“They were here before,” said Toto. “They were.”