I woke up on Monday with a grumble.

My extended weekend was over and it was time to go back to school. But that, although annoying, was far from what bothered me the most at the moment, though.

As soon as I walked into the kitchen, I spotted Mom pulling some milk out of the fridge while holding her head. There was another greenish blue spot on her elbow.

“Mom!” I yelled out in alarm.

She turned around and our eyes met.

“Oh, Renee. Good morning.”

Her smile was forced.

“You have another one of those things here…” I gestured at my own elbow. “Are the headaches getting worse again?”

“Huh?” She blinked in surprise and twisted her arm to get a better look, then blinked again as she spotted it. “I didn’t even notice this one…”

This one?

“Mom, did more of those things appear on you?” I asked, dread pooling in my stomach.

“... A couple of them, yeah. I’m probably just going to visit a doctor.”

“You can just drink the cure instead,” I suggested, my expression pleading. “I just… have a really bad feeling about it. I feel like I really might have infected you with something from one of the worlds.”

Her eyes widened in alarm.

“Are you sick too then? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“No, I… I don’t think I am. I haven’t seen any of these blue spots on me.” I frowned and thought for a second. “But I do use healing potions pretty frequently, so…”

Mom set her jaw and frowned before giving me a slow nod.

“In that case, we’ll both drink it. Even if you aren’t sick and I use the miracle cure, then I’ll just get sick again if you are a carrier.”

That… made sense. From what I remembered, the miracle cure only cured the illness, but didn’t provide any immunity or anything. Although… maybe I should get another flask then. I didn’t know whether drinking only half of it was a good idea.

Ugh, but I didn’t have time for that. I had to go to school…

“Alright, we’ll split it then,” I finally said after a brief moment of internal debate.

Mom went to fetch the miracle cure she had left in her bedroom while I pulled the cereal from the cupboards and poured myself some milk. When she came back, she went and fetched two glasses as well.

She was about to pour the cure into them but I stopped her.

“No, don’t do that! We have to drink it directly from the flask.”

She blinked up at me.

“Why?”

“It’s, uh, a special enchanted flask that prevents the cure from going bad. There was a whole section in the quest where I had to make it because the cure goes bad when it touches air.”

She frowned.

“But wouldn’t it touch the air when you open the flask?”

I shrugged.

“The flask protects it as long as it’s inside.”

She took a slow breath and sighed.

“Right… Magic.” She shook her head. “Well, alright. If you say so.”

Finally, she raised the cure to her lips, hesitated for another brief moment, and then tipped it over and quickly drank about half of it.

She let out a gasp as she handed me the flask and I watched as her body glowed for a second. Less than the sick NPC had when they had drunk the whole thing, but it seemed like it still worked even if you only drank part of it.

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I drank the rest of it. It tasted like soupy honey with a bit of a mint flavor. Much better than the healing potions. As I emptied it, I felt warmth spread from my stomach through the rest of my body, clearing minor pain and sore spots.

It felt amazing.

“Wow…” I muttered. “That was… different.”

As for Mom, apparently she had more of those weird blue things stuck to her and shedded them when the cure took its effect. She had to pick up a hand broom and sweep it all up.

“Well, I feel much better already. Thank you Renee,” she said, her voice ringing with much more energy than before.

“Yeah.” I returned her smile. “Hopefully, it’s gone forever now.”

“If not, the doctor is still an option.”

I nodded and we finally sat down to have our breakfast. The mood was light and we continued to chat about this and that.

Idly, I thought back to my brush with death back in Wiland and belatedly realized that the panicked dread I had felt back then was mostly gone now. It still felt terrifying to think about, but I didn’t feel like curling into myself and crying anymore.

I’d really needed these few days of mostly relaxing, hadn’t I?

After breakfast, I reluctantly got dressed and prepared to leave for school. But since Mom was still on her sick leave, she decided to drive me there instead, so we were free to chat for a few more minutes before I had to go.

Eventually though, I was forced to drop the true form and it made me realize that I hadn’t done so in several days. Being in my old body felt worse than ever before and not for the first time I wished that I could simply stay in my not-true form.

Mom must have noticed something in my expression because she gave me a hug and rubbed my head without a word before we got into her car.

I… felt a little better but… I couldn’t help but be annoyed that I had to keep returning to this awful form.

As Mom started up the car, my mind once again returned to the question that had been plaguing me since I’d learned the true form skill.

Did I want to be a girl?

I found myself answering ‘yes’ almost immediately. But then my mind caught up and I grimaced, remembering all the myriad of reasons why transitioning as I’d read about it would have been a bad idea. How costly and time-consuming it would be, how people would judge me for it, how I would have to undergo all sorts of surgeries… And heck, what if getting a surgery changed my not-true form as well? I didn’t want that to happen.

I mentally shook my head and forced myself to stop thinking about it. Looking for something to get my mind off of it, my mind latched onto the familiar portal near the supermarket as we drove by.

What could be inside? An urban legend? An idle daydream by one of the workers there? A… world based on an advertisement of one of the brands? I would probably never find out just because it was out in the open and I didn’t want people seeing me pry open the thing.

After arriving at school and saying goodbye to Mom, I entered the building and headed for my first class of the day. As I walked, I noticed that there were less people milling around than usual. Was something going on?

I passed by the toilets on the way to my class and couldn’t help but remember the portal I had sensed on the girls’ side. That one, I could maybe try opening at some point. I just had to do it when there wasn’t anyone around.

What could be inside that one? I’d always heard about girls going to the bathrooms together to do their make-up and gossip. Would it turn some of that gossip into reality? I probably shouldn’t open it then. Turning teenage girls’ gossip into reality didn’t sound like a great idea.

Finally, I arrived at my first class of the day and got seated. It didn’t take long for Frank to pop up as well.

“Welcome back, fox queen!” he greeted me.

“Don’t call me that…” I growled playfully at his grinning face. “Hey, what’s up? You look even more upbeat than usual.”

His grin widened.

“Ah, well, you see…” He looked around with an exaggerated suspicious expression before leaning toward me with a hand next to his face in a whispering gesture. “I went on a date with our novel’s protagonist!”

My mind grated to a halt.

What the heck?

Frank had gone on a date with… Wi? How had that even happened? The last time I’d seen her, she had been repressing anger and then had lashed out at us.

“It wasn’t a date,” a half-annoyed, half-exasperated voice corrected. Casey was here. “Elyssa talked to Wi and… well, I’m not sure what she told her, but Wi decided that she wanted to get to know our world.” Her expression fell. “And she didn’t want me guiding her, so Frank volunteered to show her around the city.”

Oh… That made sense. Although I really hoped Wi wouldn’t hold a grudge against Casey forever.

Frank then clicked his tongue three times and shook his head.

“No no no, my dear Goddess of the Foreverland! It started out as a simple tour, but the two of us bonded on the way! We went to the movies, visited an aquarium, and ate ice cream together! She loved every second of it! She even smiled at some point!” He beamed at us.

Casey and I were staring at him.

Briefly smiling shouldn’t be an indication of someone having fun… Although, considering what Wi had been through, I imagined smiling would be a notable event for her.

“Seriously?” Casey asked, incredulous. “She didn’t say anything when she came back… And she didn’t look any happier than before.”

“Ah, uh… That’s probably because of you…” Frank awkwardly scratched the back of his neck.

“Me…?” Casey’s tone had a lot of hurt in it.

“Yeah… She doesn’t really like you. I’m not sure why… Sorry.”

Ouch…

I winced at Casey’s upset expression.

“I… see. Yeah, it makes sense that she doesn’t…” Casey mumbled, before turning away and walking away from us to her own seat.

I was about to call out to her and reassure her that Wi wouldn’t hate her forever, but… I didn’t know what I would say. Casey had literally created Wi, so she would know better about things like that.

Which… thinking about it, was probably the problem here. Casey knew everything about Wi and that made the elven girl in question profoundly uncomfortable. That was my guess, at least.

I wanted to help somehow, but this wasn’t one of those problems I could slash with my katana or throw a shuriken at.

I just hoped the two of them got along eventually.