APRIL 8 - MONDAY - AFTER SCHOOL

“Snow?”

Okay, it wasn’t June’s most intelligent musing ever. But nothing else came to mind.

The school yard was smothered in pure white. Half a foot of it lay on the ground, the rooftops, the bicycle racks- it blanketed everything in sight. Sharp icicles glinted in the sunlight as June moved her head, hanging down from ledges, some reaching almost two feet long.

She could hardly see further than a few dozen feet. The soft but dense snowfall was reducing visibility; she could just about make out the way to the hillside path, but past the valley entrance was nothing but a flurry. It was eerily silent apart from the gentle blowing of wind across her face, like Aihaba had been plunged into the sleepiest, deepest of winters in the two minutes it had taken the girls to get down the stairs.

“Wh… Did… Huh? What’s going on?” Aoi rivalled June's advanced analysis, struggling to get the door open a bit more to get a better view.

“Uh, I should be asking you that! Is this a normal occurrence here? Flash blizzards? In April?!” June nominated to remain inside the building, stepping back a few paces and shivering as the wave of biting cold flushed in through the open doorway.

“No, of course not!” Aoi responded, “I haven’t seen anything like this in my entire life! And where is everybody? I don’t...” Her voice faded as a snowflake landed on the bridge of her nose, at which point she too retreated back inside the school building.

The two girls, both dressed in flimsy summer uniforms, stared out to the arctic scene in front of them, speechless. They shivered, hurrying further back into the foyer, but it didn’t help; since the door had been opened, the temperature was steadily dropping inside.

June’s mind was racing, trying to connect the dots and come up with some reasonable explanation for what she saw in front of her, but couldn’t do it. She crossed off natural disaster from her mental list, climate changed seemed a bit of a stretch... Time travel, maybe? No matter what, she couldn’t make what she saw make sense. Her cheeks flushed red in frustration despite the cold, but her train of thought was interrupted when she turned to ask Aoi again, and saw the state the girl was in.

She was only wearing her thin, short-sleeved school shirt, and a skirt. Her hands were clasped around her sides, shivering in place- the much smaller, skinnier girl looked like she could pass out from the temperature. June immediately scolded herself, feeling guilty; she slid off her jacket, sliding it around Aoi’s shoulders. Aoi opened her mouth to protest, but June quickly shook her head.

“No chance. I’ve got this blazer as well, see? You need the jacket. Wear it.”

Aoi quietly pulled her hands through the sleeves, silent but breathing a soft sigh of relief as she gained some protection from the cold. Once she had warmed up slightly, she turned to face June, tilting her head. “T-T-The p-police? W-We could call the p-police. O-Or I can call my mom. Maybe it’s just a storm…”

June clapped her hands. “Oh! Of course, my phone, I can’t believe I didn’t think to... I have somebody I can call…” Thinking of Mariko, she rummaged through her pockets for her phone, pulling it out and pressing the on button- nothing. She pressed down on it harder, and several more times, but all that showed up was her own disappointed expression in the screen’s black mirror. Not even the symbol it usually shows when out of power.

She frowned, slapping the side against her palm a few times.. “It’s broken. I-I think I must’ve hit it against something, what about your-”

Her face paled. Aoi’s phone, clutched in the girl’s white fingers, was pitch black, too. Aoi looked at June, eyes searching for some sort of explanation, June’s doing much the same. She wanted to punch something. What the fuck is going on? Both their phones, drained, useless bricks? She shook her head, annoyance heavy in her voice. “I-I don’t know. I don’t know what’s going on.”

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The two waited in the school as long as they could, but it eventually got too cold to stay still; and after some deliberation, decided to try and head for the town. They stuffed their hands in their pockets, pulling their clothes as tightly around them as possible before heading to the door. In the time they had stayed inside, the flurry had worsened into a full on blizzard, the windows of the school building rattling in their frames as the two girls prepared themselves to leave.

A gasp of shock escaped her mouth as she stepped foot into the snow. If the school had been cold, then this was sub-zero. Snow battered against her relentlessly in the blizzard, carried by wind that felt like it was slicing her face with how fast it swept by, her hair a writhing mass behind her. She almost convinced herself to turn and walk back into the school- but upon hearing Aoi wrestle the door shut behind her, she knew they would have to forge forward.

Her morning stroll to school through Aihaba’s grassy plains was unrecognisable on the return journey. The warm view of the sprawling fields and farmland had been replaced, everything in sight blanketed in still sheets of white, a moment frozen in time. It was hard to get a good grip in worn, rubber-soled school shoes, and multiple times the girls had to catch one another when an unseen sheet of ice was stepped on, and after ten minutes of silent hiking, June was desperate to distract herself from the frost in any way she could.

“S-So… Do you have any family here, Aoi…?” She almost had to shout to be heard over the wind, but Aoi seemed to hear okay.

“Yeah, my… m-my mom. And my little cousins. And… no, that’s it.”

June could’ve sworn she saw the younger girl’s face darken slightly, but it was tough to tell through the layer of snow separating them.

“What… What about you?” Aoi hurriedly spoke, quick to turn the attention back to June. “You mentioned somebody you could call.”

“I… no. Not really. My family are all back in… well, it doesn’t matter. They’re not here. I have a… caretaker.” She hated the word, but it was true. “She's this... uptight middle-aged woman. Shit, I hope she’s not trying to call me… the last thing I need right now is her mad at me too.”

Aoi was quiet for a moment. “What happened, then? Why are you here?”

June sighed, shaking her head. “It’s a long story, it- oh, look!”

In front of them, a few buildings had come into view, then the path split into two. They had reached town.

The walk, only five minutes long that morning, had taken the girls fifteen to trek through in the blizzard. Their faces were drained of colour, hands trembling, and as they stumbled onto the road, June let out a shout of frustration. She couldn’t see a single person. Doors were snowed in, windows were pitch black, there were no footsteps or movement down the road that led to Central. Both had no energy left for conversation by the time they stumbled against a shopfront, taking shelter from the blizzard.

A few minutes passed of silence, June staring out into the blizzard as her limbs warmed up. "Okay... L-Let's try and get to your house, Aoi... how far away is it?... Aoi?"

With a start, she realised the younger girl was unresponsive next to her. Much like by the lockers with Jitsuko, the timid girl now stood straight, wearing a thousand yard stare, as if June was invisible. And a few moments later, with a quiet sigh, she tumbled forwards, eyes fluttering shut, her fall cushioned by the snow.

June’s heart sank. She dropped to her knees, urgently turning her limp body so her face wasn’t buried, nervously shaking her to try and elicit a response.

“Come on, not now, Aoi… seriously, y-you’ll get sick… Fuck!” No response. June punched the snow next to her, frustration tangible in her chest. Coldness penetrated her body. She didn’t have the energy, or strength left in her arms, to drag Aoi anywhere, so pushed herself up to her feet, stumbling to the edge of the alleyway, cupping her mouth and yelling.

“HELP! If there’s anybody here, I need help!” Her voice croaked out of her constricted throat, muted by the snow piling the walls and road. She wandered out into the road, repeating her call, careful not to wander too far away to where she’d lose Aoi. As she wandered, she noticed the ground beneath her as she moved; as she dredged her feet in and out of the snow, the ground rippled and waved, like a reflection disrupted by thrown pebbles. “Just… What the hell is going on?” She muttered between shouts.

Then, she finally heard it- voices! She immediately quietened, straining her ears- she could hear two voices through the buildings. She squeezed herself through a gap between a corner shop and a bar, shuffling down the thin alleyway, pulling herself out to end up in some backstreets. She scanned up and down for the source of the voice, and she almost choked when she saw what was talking.

Standing in front of her were two… monsters. She couldn’t find another word. Humanoid was a very loose description- they were seven foot tall, easily, with lumbering, top-heavy forms atop almost comically small stick legs. Their faces were- well, they didn’t have faces. Their heads were round and blank, with a red and black swirl, like a balloon filled with two liquids that wouldn’t mix.

She couldn’t make her eyes focus on their faces- she had to divert to looking back at their torsos. They were wrapped in a blue and white guard uniform, a security cap sitting misaligned on each of their heads. And where their legs touched the floor… it almost looked like the floor was being melted, flowing upwards to form their bodies.

The two had stopped talking, now both turning to face June, staring her down silently. She got a better look at them- each held an assault rifle, and each had a holster in which sat a baseball bat, long steel nails ungracefully hammered through the wood to create a deadly weapon. The blood drained from her face.

“This c-can’t be real…”

The two turned to each other, and started to speak.

“Well?... What should.. we do?”

Its voice was distorted and garbled, like speech being listened to through four phone calls, the age and gender of the speaker completely undeterminable.

“She is… in… a prisoner’s outfit…” The other mused, running a horrifically disfigured hand over the shaft of its gun. “An escapee…”

She heard a sound behind her, a stomach-turning gurgling, and turned to see the ground bubbling, merging upwards to form an identical third creature, its bat in its hand. One word was playing in her brain, over and over, adrenaline pumping into her veins as her mind screamed at her- run.

“What are you two doing?! Get her!”

Gunfire exploded behind her as she ducked back into the alleyway. Bullets bounced and smacked against the concrete walls. She dropped into a duck as a stream of shells flew past where her head had been a second prior, before bursting out of the tiny alleyway, her heart thumping in her chest. She had to get back to Aoi.

Another guard formed a few metres away from her, swinging its spiked bat madly- she dodged it clumsily, her feet getting caught in the under snow, quickly pushing herself back to her feet and sprinting away. It gave chase, but wasn’t as fast as the girl, and she quickly shook it off as she dipped through another passageway. She turned the corner to where she’d left Aoi: it was empty.

“No!” The outline of Aoi’s fallen body was still in the snow, along with tracks showing her having been dragged for a couple of feet, before being pulled up and taken away. She angrily kicked the snow, preparing to give chase, when the building beside her exploded in noise. Holes were ripped and torn through the wooden boarding as gunfire rained down on her approximate position- she shrieked in pain as a bullet caught her ear, intense pain jolting through her head as the bullet ripped through the roof of her earlobe.

A second shot of adrenaline pumped through her, but it was too late- she turned only to bump into a guard. She could’ve sworn it laughed- a strange, uncanny noise- as it spun the baseball bat once, twice between its fingers- before bashing her forehead with the handle. Her vision blurred as she fell backwards, blacking out as her body hit the snow.

APRIL 8 - MONDAY - ???

June’s eyes shot open with a gasp. Her head throbbed with dull pain, a bright white blinded her, she reached a hand up- wait, down? She blinked a few times to clear out her vision, and realised she was upside down. Her hands dangled by her head, her left leg suspended in the air by… some sort of rope, her right leg bent awkwardly beside it. By some miracle, her bag strap had caught on her right foot, but the swinging bag was frustratingly just out of reach to unzip. Not that anything useful was inside anyway, unless English textbooks could cut rope.

She turned her eyes towards the ground several feet below, where a small patch of snow had been coloured red. She raised a finger to her ear, softly touching it, and with a grunt of pain confirmed it was sure enough still oozing blood. She strained her neck forward to try and get a look at where she was, but her body protested, blood rushing to her head and forcing her to close her eyes, her hands massaging her scalp. She felt sick.

June sincerely hoped she didn’t throw up.

She listened to the quiet dripping of her blood onto the soft ground below every few seconds, breathing out heavily and focusing on the metronomic sound. She couldn’t hear the wind anymore, but she was still very cold. She could hear a haughty voice in the distance, although couldn’t make out the words. She heard several sets of footsteps, crunching through the snow back and forth several metres away from her.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

After a few more moments, she slowly opened her eyes again. She was in a courtyard of some sort; the open sun filtered through an orange, evening sky, illuminating the area in a gentle glow. The snowfall had stopped completely, leaving nothing but an eerie silence.

She was being suspended from an overhang, tucked away against one of the high walls, and wasn’t alone. Rows of people clad in black and green- Shizuka students, she realised with furrowed eyebrows- hung from the overhang like her, a couple metres between each of them. They were all seemingly unconscious, and each of their bags lay beneath them, soaking in the snow.

They were being patrolled; those same creatures from earlier, those… things, marched back and forth, giving her a passing glance as they crossed, leaving purple footprints in the white snow, which faded after a few seconds.

Her eyes quickly scanned the rows, which was challenging upside down, but- there she was! She spotted a sprawl of red hair, standing out against the dimly lit blacks and greens, half buried in the snow. Aoi was here, too. If she could just get her attention without alerting-

“Stop! Stop it, stop-!” A scream echoed out across the courtyard, reverberating against the walls and snapping June from her analytical trance. Her chest clenched. It didn’t matter she knew where Aoi was- she couldn't move. She still didn’t have a clue where she was… she desperately wanted to leave, to go home- even her empty, old bar would do now. Tears of frustration welled in her eyes, running up her face and pooling beneath her. Stop crying. Get it together. She quickly pulled up her sleeve, wiping herself dry and blinking the tears away. Focus.

She twisted her body, awkwardly spinning her hips to turn to the open courtyard, and saw yet another thing on the list of things she didn’t understand, and didn't want to see.

In the centre of the courtyard, a boy, a first year in an oversized blazer, was being suspended by two guards, whimpering quietly. He had been the source of the screaming earlier, she was certain. She realised that wasn’t all- all the students that she could see suspended with her all toted that same green first year badge, leaving her and Aoi the only third years. Her heart dropped a little further.

In front of that boy stood a woman, posing in the snow with her hands on her hips. She wore a huge dress, blue and silver with icy highlights, multi-tiered and, June couldn’t help but think, beautiful. The girl glittered in the evening sun, standing out like an ice sculpture against the dull greys and whites of the courtyard. Her face was framed by white, full curls, and she opened her mouth to speak.

“I hope you understand how… dire the consequences will be, should you continue down this path?”

The suspended boy initially stayed silent, glaring at the princess in contempt. But as the guards on either side of him slowly started to pull, tugging at his limbs…

“Okay! Okay, okay- stop! I promise!

“Very good,” the woman’s lips curled up into a smirk. “Bring him inside.” The guards obliged, and the first year was thrown over one’s shoulder, and marched away, out of June's vision.

That voice was familiar. It was the haughty voice she had heard a few seconds ago, definitely- but something else was tugging at her brain. Someone she had heard recently… oh god, wait…

“Jitsuko?”

She blurted it out without thinking. Immediately, the two guards closest to her spun on their heels, facing June, their strange voices emanating as they paced towards her. June’s heart pounded in her chest. Why was she so fucking loud?

"This one is awake!”

"And knows the princess’ name!”

Jistuko? Princess? The idea made her want to puke. Or that might have been the fact she had now been upside down for five minutes. The two guards approached her, and seemingly Jitsuko's attention had been caught- the dolled-up girl hurried over to check on the commotion. She looked like Jitsuko, June thought (at least from her upside-down vantage point), but something was off... the girl's hair was a pure white rather than the blonde she had seen yesterday, and her irises were an incredible purple.

“Let me down!” She shouted, wriggling, which earned her nothing more than a chuckle from her tormentor.

Jitsuko approached, grinning. “Oh. The exotic new girl. I had honestly forgotten we found you. Yes, yes, we’ll get to you soon. Although, I’m sure we already know what the outcome will be." Another haughty laugh escaped her lips.

June narrowed her eyes. Confusion at her situation slowly turned to rage. Questions about where they were and what was going on faded. This girl was the reason she was stuck here? Her hands slowly clenched into fists by her waist, her nails digging into her palms, and she started to writhe. She swung her body back and forth in rage to the apparent amusement of Jitsuko and her guards as she shouted.

“Let me down! Let me fucking go!”

A guard stepped closer to restrain her, and June’s mindless contorting suddenly turned into a plan. She swung away once more, and then thrust her body forwards, swinging right next to the guard, her long fingers reaching out past her head and swiping the spiked bat from its holster, something the guard had not been remotely expecting.

It stumbled back as she swung the bat wildly in front of her. She heard Jitsuko scream, backing up, but she managed to catch the oblivious guard with a swipe to the chest, lodging the weapon inside it.

It stumbled back, releasing a gargled cry of pain, bumping into Jitsuko as it did. Her voice reached a high squeal. “F-Fools! Restrain her, now!”

The remaining faceless guard paced towards the now weaponless June, snarling. It didn’t react to punches or slaps, maneuvering behind her and grabbing her by the small of her back. It was over. She couldn’t reach behind her, and she was held in place- forced to watch Jitsuko.

“Idiot!” The princess lifted her dress and kicked the guard June had managed to injure, sending it to the ground in another gurgle of pain. “Idiot! Idiot! Idiot!” Each shout was punctuated by a high-heeled stomp to the face, and after the third, its face burst like a water balloon, sending out an explosion of black and red mist with a hiss. When the smoke dissipated, the guard was gone, leaving a disfigured snow angel behind with a spiked baseball bat laying inside it.

Jitsuko, purple eyes contorted in disgust, leaned forwards to retrieve the weapon. She stared at it for a moment, before she turned her head towards June, and started to approach her. "Well... This will definitely be a faster solution..." Jitsuko sported a comically evil grin, running her palm up between the nails of the spiked bat. "My other self will surely thank me for nipping this problem in the bud..." June squeezed her eyes shut, blinking away tears. This was it. She was going to die. She watched two more guards, clearly alerted by the commotion, line up beside Jitsuko. The grip on her clothes from behind tightened.

Jitsuko paused beside June. The composed princess of five minutes prior was gone, and June now only saw the girl from the corridor, Aoi's tormentor, any positive quality nowhere to be found. Jitsuko snarled, out of breath, raising the bat above her head. The nails driven through it glinted in the evening sunlight, the princess’ silhouette stark against the orange sky.

Then the earth shook as if it had been struck by a giant. A low growl permeated the air. Jitsuko lost her balance, toppling back into the snow, her dress floating up and entangling her, the baseball bat landing a couple of feet away. The growl evolved- it thundered through the walls, through the rope that held her ankle tight, through her body, echoing relentlessly about her skull.

”Impressive.”

The growl took form, punching through her, as if the shuddering walls and floor and sky itself were talking to her. She could see the guards backing off and holding their heads through blurred vision, likely experiencing what she was- she felt the grip on her back loosen as the voice continued to speak.

”You… will perform well. You will be made an offer.”

And that’s when June’s heart throbbed up to her chest. She was being spoken to. She choked out a response in a hushed whisper. “Offer?!”

”You will be given a second chance- an escape from a situation in which you would otherwise surely perish. Power over the cognition that forms this world."

“Escape…? Y-Yes! Please!” The earthquake was intensifying, each tremor feeling like it would crack her skull in two, each word bouncing down her spine and up.

”You will sow the seeds of self doubt in your companions. Reach out, contact the earth, and accept your gift.”

Touch... the earth? Her eyes flicked down, to the shaking ground a foot or two below her head. Was this safe to do, accept a deal from... whatever was talking to her? She timidly reached her hand down, recoiling as her muscles protested, pain shooting up her arm.

Her eyes then turned up, watching as the two knocked over guards slowly got to their feet, gaining their bearings in the earthquake, hurrying over to help Jitsuko and retrieving her bat.

No. She had to take this 'gift', whatever it was; she would not be killed by a school bully dressed as a princess swinging a baseball bat through her brain.

She grunted, ignoring the pain, as she watched Jitsuko get to her feet she pushed further, stretching her arm out...

Her fingertips grazed the snow, and her body shattered. Purple energy shot through her arm, throwing her back as if she had touched the detonate button on a bomb, her body crumpling up against the overhang before dropping back down, snapping the rope and sending her crashing into the wet snow, a crumple of white and black fabric.

The world stood still, although June felt no different, her ears ringing and her bones shaking, as if she had stopped the earthquake by taking it into her. She panted heavily, head spinning from being properly oriented once more.

She felt… good. Her eyes were drawn up- to a Jitsuko just getting to her feet, apprehensively keeping her distance from the collapsed June. A glint caught her attention- something had fallen out of her bag. A curved tip, sparkling silver, partially buried in the snow. She reached out, wrapping her black gloved hand around the handle, and…

This was her dagger.

She was sure she had never seen it before in her life.

But this dagger was hers. Her fingers ran up and down the hilt. There should be two of them. She reached her second hand into her bag, pulling out a matching blade. She didn't know why, but it felt right. As if she'd been holding these her whole life.

She threw herself to her feet, dual daggers in hand, turning to face the guard who had been securing her from behind. It was still incapacitated, struggling to stand up- she slashed twice across its back, and it burst.

She turned quickly, fast enough to catch Jitsuko's two guards approaching her. Shit, she couldn’t fight two at once!

She dodged the first one's strike- she felt like she was dancing on air, willing it to move whichever way she wanted beneath her feet, the snow that had hindered her before folding to her will, purple footprints marking her path as she dodged past the second one's bat, whistling through the air, coattails flapping behind her as she shoulder barged her assailant, sending it into the other, causing them both to topple. Two quick dagger slashes to each turned them into mist.

“W-What is- agh! Your clothes…! G-Guards!” Jitsuko’s posh voice faltered as she backed up, her fearful eyes meeting with June’s. She quickly backed up, torn and tattered dress dragging through the snow, until she got far enough away to turn and run. June could now see one of the courtyard’s exits, huge doors that led into a tall stone building obscured by low clouds.

She stared at the daggers in her hands- small and curved, light and perfect for dodging. Was this what was meant by... gift? But then...

She turned her head to the sky. "You... you never said what my end of the deal was!"

Silence, initially- then, low rolling thunder in the distance, like laughter. Okay. She'd think about this later, but right now she had to focus on...

“Aoi,” she muttered to herself. Aoi was eight or nine students away in the direction Jitsuko had run off.

She took a step towards her, and as she did, the doors burst open. Dozens of guards flooded out, each of them bumping and jostling into one another, spreading out across the courtyard and advancing towards June.

You can't beat that many. Run.

"Sorry, Aoi." She took off, running for the other set of doors, assumably the exit. The snow was hardly a problem anymore- if she didn't look down, it almost felt like she was running on nothing, and as she approached the door, almost a dozen feet tall;

Don't think about it. Just do it. Jump.

The floor bent to her whim- as she compressed her legs and jumped, she was pushed from below, soaring over the door and landing in a heap on the tarmac outside, rolling a couple of times before coming to a stop.

She almost threw up in relief as she lifted her head to see the snowy landscape of the dark Central Street. She spun- the courtyard behind her was placed right outside Central, for some reason, but she wasn’t being pursued. She slid down against a shopfront, letting her daggers drop to the floor, placing her hands to her head. Ominous God voice, very unspecific deal, Jitsuko was a purple-eyed princess, the entire Shizuka first-year student body had been abducted… It was all too much.

Okay. One step at a time.

She calmed her breathing. First of all; what the fuck was she wearing? She stretched her hands out and her brain registered for the first time what she had been seeing for a while- she had black gloves on. Black gloves, with white sleeves that covered her arms… She stood up shakily, stumbling to the shop’s dark window to examine her reflection.

A white, thin trench coat wrapped around her arms and back, two coattails dangling to just below her ankles. It was embroidered with gold material, light chains and jewellery embedded into the fabric. She wore black boots, leggings, and... some sort of fancy black button-up she stuck her tongue out at. Two leather holsters strapped onto each of her thighs, which she slid her daggers into quietly. She didn’t remember putting any of this on- it looked like cosplay. Not cheap- she ran her fingers up and down the material of the coat, which felt quality. But still. It wasn't exactly subtle.

In fact, she remembered being in Shizuka uniform when she was strung up. When could she possibly have changed?

She frowned. Leaning her head forwards, she realised something she hadn’t noticed; on top of her nose was a pair of glasses.

“What the…?”

She definitely didn’t need glasses- she never had. They had no rims and were rather stylish, her eyes peering back at her through sharp lenses. She reached two fingers up to her face to pull them off, and three things happened at once.

A wide-eyed child’s face appeared in the shop window- staring right back at her from the other side.

Somebody bumped into her, muttering a “Watch it,” as they shouldered past her.

Dozens of voices abruptly starting echoing around the street.

She jumped, backing away from the child, her eyes sweeping across Central. It was warm, and busy, with a gaggle of students grouped up next to the Chinese restaurant, a salaryman shouting into his phone as he wandered up the street. Mercury stood in the distance, open 24/7, neon lights illuminating the dark sky.

There was no snow.

She had to wrap a hand around her mouth to stop herself from cheering- a quick look down confirmed she was back in her Shizuka uniform, her blazer wrapped around her, her skirt in perfect condition. She sighed in relief. She eyed a group of Shizuka students leaving Mercury, all wearing first-year badges. Not abducted. Maybe… it had all been a weird hallucination. Maybe Aoi was okay.

Except for the pair of glasses clutched in her fingers. She turned them back and forth in her hands- they were minimalistic, made of sleek silver steel, with no frames and thin lenses. Thin purple lines were etched into the arms. She spun them back around one more time, and gave out a small gasp as she raised them to her eyes.

That place… she could see it. Through the lenses was the cold, abandoned Aihaba she had just escaped from, as if somebody was drawing it over the real one… She lowered and raised the frames a couple of times, watching Central Street change in the frames as they sweeped past. She couldn’t help but laugh. She considered dumping them in the nearest trash can, but something tugged at the back of her mind… What if Aoi really was stuck there? She wouldn’t be able to forgive herself if she had left the girl behind to...

She sighed, sliding the glasses into her breast pocket, next to her phone. Oh shit, her phone! She hesitantly slid it into her fingers, tapping the screen apprehensively to bring it to life. It had been set to silent, but… missed calls and texts flooded the screen, all from Mariko. Her heart sank as she realised it was 10 in the evening on her first day alone and she hadn’t contacted her mentor a single time, effectively disappearing off the face of the earth for a couple of hours. And she doubted an alternate dimension would be an accepted excuse.

She turned hurriedly to leave, before something caught her eye- the child in the dark shop window was still staring directly at her as if she had seen a ghost. June raised an eyebrow as a voice emanated from the back of the shop. “Come on, Miya, we’re closed for the day! Come back upstairs!”

“Mom, that girl just appeared from nowhere!” The child gestured wildly at June, before her mother grabbed her arm, dragging her away from the window, shaking her head and muttering.

June took a few steps back, before shouldering her bag and running off.