Having seen the outside, she became hyper-aware of her own world. The over-familiar haziness that had clung to everything was now replaced by a stark sharpness. Who knew getting outside yourself made you appreciate what you had?
This apparently counted as a revelation, for a small bird flew past her and landed on the ground. It cocked its head and tweeted, as if to say hello. Other than herself, the light and bugs; there’d been no living things in her world. She was so startled by suddenly seeing another living being, she actually jumped.
It would have been nice to enjoy this new aspect of her world but, alas, the heat was reaching sweltering levels. There was no way she could ignore it and it amazed her that the bird was completely unphased by the rising temperatures.
Luckily, finding Mister Light wasn’t difficult. All she had to do was walk towards the heat rather than away from it. On top of that, her new found awareness of her own world had also given her a surprising skill: if she concentrated, she could find anything in her world with pinpoint accuracy.
Once she knew where he was, she marched off in Light’s direction. When she got to him, she was surprised to find him zipping around in the sky. His behavior seemed almost frantic.
“Hey!” She called out to get his attention, waving the twig like a flag. “What are you—”
He immediately froze in the air and then landed with a thud in front of her.
“WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!” He roared, blasting scorching heat in her face.
Through her squinting gaze, she was surprised to see his face slightly twisted with angered worry. His face almost never changed, and even though the expression was still not in proportion to the emotion in his voice, it shocked her into temporary silence.
“I’ve been looking all over for you! Do you know how worried I’ve been? Your world became so cold and I thought— I thought— ah, never mind what I thought. You can’t just run off and hide like that, it’s dangerous!”
“C-calm down, I didn’t—”
“Calm down! CALM DOWN!? Your uncle calm down, your entire family calm down! If you want me to be calm, don’t just disappear without any word!”
She went rigid and yelled back, “THE SAME TO YOU.”
This time it was his turn to be stunned silent.
“I woke up and you weren’t here. I searched all over and couldn’t find you! All the light had gone out, so don’t you dare mention anything about the cold! Don’t act like it’s all my fault. You started this, you should be apologizing!”
They stared at each other; on her side angrily, but on his side blankly. Then after a bit, he got down on his hands and knees and bowed. His heat retracted and he became tolerable to be around again.
“I’m sorry.” He said with great sincerity. “I didn’t know you woke up while I was away. I will make sure that doesn’t happen in the future. But please, don’t hide like that again. I was really worried.”
“Do you often leave when I’m asleep?”
“..only sometimes.”
“Really?” Her eyes narrowed suspiciously.
“Truly! I wouldn’t lie to you. If I could, I would stay by your side always.”
“But you can’t?”
He shook his head, long hair tumbling down his face haphazardly as he did.
“I have responsibilities I must attend to at home. But I don’t like leaving you alone… so I left when you were sleeping, when it doesn’t matter whether I’m here or not. I planned on telling you eventually, I swear it.”
“Fine, but why the secrecy? Why didn’t you just tell me right from the start?”
Even with his forehead to the ground, she could see his shoulders slumping.
“It is hard to explain. I was not really trying to keep it a secret. It’s just… I must be very careful here with what I say and what I don’t say.”
“Careful? I don’t understand.”
“I mean no disrespect, but your world is fragile. If I am careless in what I say and do, I could break it. That is a risk I can’t afford.”
She rubbed the back of her neck.
“Is it really that fragile?”
“En.”
“…but it really doesn’t seem like it is…”
“It gets stronger every day.” He paused and added somewhat sheepishly. “Perhaps I have underestimated it recently though. For that, I apologize again. ”
He stayed in his kowtow, face down, while he was talking. Seeing that he confessed without any prodding and apologized for his own part, her heart softened. Kneeling down, she briskly patted his back (which was naturally a bit too hot to touch for long).
“Alright, alright, I forgive you. No reason to stay like that.” She then scratched her cheek, a bit embarrassed. “And I’m sorry, too. If it was wrong for you to leave without a word, it was wrong of me to do the same.”
He sat up, straightening his back. “Thank you and I accept your apology as well. But I’m curious, where did you go?”
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“I went to look at the outside.”
“…the outside..?”
“Yeah, where you came from.”
His mouth opened and closed several times before he managed to squeeze out:
“And… and what did you find there?”
“A tree! A massively huge tree, like nothing I’ve ever seen before!” She spread her arms wide as she explained and then held up her twig excitedly. “She gave me this!”
“The tree gave you…?”
“That’s right. She was sad… and lonely I think. She told me she misses her Master.”
“…this tree talked to you?” Mister Light’s voice was weak with disbelief.
“Yep.”
“Uh, how to say… er… trees, you know… they don’t talk so…”
“Ah ha! That’s because they’re too young! This tree was really old, so she learned how.”
She puffed up, proud to finally know something he didn’t.
“And… and the tree told you this…?”
“That’s right! Even though she’s sad and hasn’t been talking to people, she talked to me.” She patted her chest proudly. “She said she wants to be my friend!”
“Good… for you?” Mr. Light really didn’t know what to say to what he was hearing and muttered to himself, “..what on earth is happening right now..?”
“Anyway, since you’re here and I’m here and the twig is here; let’s plant it like the tree said.” She stood up and started walking. “I know just the place!”
Mr. Light followed her, a mixture of curiosity and concern hastening his steps.
Soon, they arrived at the spring and the apple tree. She found a spot on the other side of the tiny spring pond, across from the apple tree. She carefully dug a hole and placed half the twig in it before covering the hole back up and waiting; she eagerly, while Mr. Light with a great deal of skepticism.
After only a little while, the twig began to pulse with a clear light. A single spring green leaf grew and unfurled out of it’s top. It swayed for a moment and then stiffened, staying completely still.
“Hello Old Tree.” She greeted it eagerly. “I planted you just like you said. This is Mr. Light I was talking about. Now you can have two people to talk to, isn’t that exciting?”
The newly sprouted leaf seemed to shake slightly, but that was all.
She frowned. “Old Tree?”
Mr. Light looked away, feeling embarrassed by the whole pitiful scene. It looked like she willed the twig to grow and nothing more.
She scooted closer, holding a hand up to cover her mouth and whispered to the twig. “What’s wrong? Why aren’t you talking?”
But the twig remained silent, despite several minutes of her beseeching. Finally, Mr. Light couldn’t take any more.
“Look, I know you think a tree talked to you, but outside trees don't talk, much less twigs. So I don’t know who or what you met out there, but it definitely was not a tree.”
She bit her lip, annoyed but also perplexed.
“..that tree really did talk though and it really was a tree... Maybe… maybe things didn’t work as the tree had planned. She did say this didn’t always work… should I go find her again?”
“I think that would be a good idea,” Mr. Light agreed, “then I can talk to this… this tree… myself and see what misunderstanding caused all this.”
“Ha! Sure! When you talk to the tree, you’ll definitely have to admit I was right!” She said cheering up immensely, finally standing and dusting off her knees. “Let’s go!”
They both walked away. When they were long ways away, the twig bent itself (as if looking around carefully).
“…ooooh, heaven and earth! Phew! I almost had to deal with that stinky punk… again! Pah!” The twig acted as though it spat. “How dare he wear a disguise like that! I’ve been duped! Arg! Little Sister… Why? Why?! Of all the punks in the world, why’d you have to like THAT punk? Ah… Master, Master… you told me not to hold his faults against him, but look how that went for you? I vowed to never get involved with him and yet look at me now…”
The twig spent several minutes lamenting its bad luck before it calmed down enough to start observing it surroundings. Since it was used to being alone, and liked hearing its own voice, everything it thought it said out loud.
“Eh? Eh? Where is this exactly and what’s in here? Let’s see… Qi... yin based.... water and wood... and..." The twig made a gagging sound. "Why's it smell like sweaty feet?! BLARG! That punk stuffed the place with his yang! Since when did he add pervert to all his other crimes?! Everything reeks of him, uuuuugh! No way, no way! Poor Little Sister, poor little me! I'm gonna get this place cleared out even if it kills me!”
“Ok ok… calm down… what’s next? Oh yeah, what and where IS this place? Let me see… let me see… it’s no place I’ve ever been, everything feels… artificial and… small? Hm? Is Little Sister inside something? Can I see what’s outside without leaving? Maybe if I do this, and maybe a little of that…” The twig bent at odd angles and then went rigid.
“Oh!!!! Little Sister!! You’re inside a human— wait, are you a human? The spirit of a human? That human outside looks the same as you. What are you doing here inside this strange place with the pervert punk? How are you able to wander outside your body? No wonder I was confused! When do human spirits just waltz around the mountain like it’s nothing?!”
“Wait, wait… if this place is inside the body of Little Sister, while her spirit is also inside of it… huuuuu… is this place… not her spirit? A place inside her body but not her spirit yet somehow related? Like a unique world …uh… lemme think… this sounds vaguely familiar… pocket… pocket… cosmos? Is this a Pocket Cosmo thing? Inside a human body? I thought they put those in jade pendants and what not?”
The twig leaned to one side, ‘staring’ around as if deeply impressed.
“I didn’t know they could be grafted into the human body like this. It’s like a Pocket Cosmo but not really, it’s been modified somehow. What Doctor managed to pull this off? Haaaah... can I talk to him? Sir, can you sign a branch? This is some revolutionary stuff, sir! I want to be the first to say: amazing!”
“Still, when she said she was living in her own world, I didn’t think she meant it literally—” Before the twig could finish its thought, the entire world went from day to night, as if a bright candle had been suddenly snuffed out. The moon suddenly shown brightly and the stars seemed to burst into existence.
“Ah! Eh? What! Huh?!” It asked, completely confused for a moment and then tilted it’s upper portion, as if thinking. “Oh, the punk left! Wonderful! Now it doesn't smell so strongly of feet!”
“…”
“!!”
“Little Sister, did you seriously make that punk a LITERAL light to your WORLD?” It smacked the top of itself with its single leaf. “How much do you like that punk, Little Sister? Ah! How much! And he’s just a wrinkly old pervert, not worth your time!”
“…” The twig sighed, looking up at the thousands of stars. “I hope it works out better with Little Sister than it did for Master.”
——
Though she’d lead Mr. Light to the door, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t open it again. Baffled, she eventually had to give up, all the while suffering under the skeptical but concerned stare of Mr. Light.
Somehow or other they’d ended back at the poisoned lake. It was practically a habit at this point to spend a portion of her time awake getting rid of the poison. Mr. Light didn’t even need to encourage her, even frequently having to tell her to slow down.
Well, she couldn’t be blamed for being eager to get rid of it. Who would want a giant poisonous lake nearby? No one. So she put a lot of effort into pushing it out.
Before she dozed off from exhaustion, she looked up at Mr. Light.
“Are you leaving while I sleep?”
“Yes. I’m sorry.”
“You,” She yawned, “don’t have to be sorry.”
“But I am regardless…” He hesitated for a moment before saying, “I suppose you finding out I leave is well timed. This time I will be longer. But I promise I will come back, I will not leave you alone. Alright?”
“Sure, sure, I’ll be fine as long as I know in advance. I have the stars and the moon when you’re away… so it won’t be… so…lonely…and dark…” She nodded off as she was speaking.
As she lay there, oblivious to the world, Light clenched his hands into fists. This world that had been designed to save her was changing in ways that he hadn’t predicted. It made him feel deeply uneasy. He really didn’t want to leave, but he couldn’t stay either.
"Don't say you don't need me." He whispered in a lonely voice.
His image wavered even as he unclenched his fists, and disappeared.