Side story 5.1: Interpenetration, Side: A
Edited by ArchmageNaoki, Bunny, Deathbricks, and Arthur300000
"Cocoa, wake up. Cocoa! Wake up!" The voice of an unfamiliar girl disturbs my sleep.
"Five more minutes." Said me, yet I don't think I did. This feels strange, it’s like I was watching a movie, but my five senses were there too. I could even smell the unique scent of my pillow warm from the sunlight.
"No can do. I just grew another tail! You have to help me Cocoa!" Suddenly, I felt my blanket being taken away from me. It felt cold. "Oh, you also grew a second tail." She turns silent. Ahh, peaceful sleep finally. I don't know what all this is about, but the sleepiness is real. Maybe all of this is just a dream.
"Wait! I have second tail!?" Oi! My body jumped up and shouted on its own again. It's very disorienting that my body makes sudden movements without my consent. Then my head turned and what I saw flabbergasted me. Why the hell do I have two bushy tails on my butt? Is this a Halloween costume? ... It's moving.
"Doesn't it talk to you yet?" As the unknown girl asks, my head turns towards her. She looks young, but there are two triangular ears on her head. Those ears look real, and they're also moving.
What the heck is going on!? I can't find any scientific explanation to my current predicament besides I'm just dreaming. However, no matter what I tried I couldn't wake up.
Let's try something simple first. Who am I... I'm Cocoa, 22 years old, third daughter of Sierra, a member of the nine-tailed fox clan. Wait that's not it. Something is not right. As far as I recall I’m not any kind of fox. I don't know who I was though, but I believe the nine tailed fox is just a myth originating from Chinese mythology.
Let's see what I know. According to legend, the nine-tailed fox is sometimes depicted as the goddess of immortality, sometimes as a mischievous trickster or sometimes a man-eater with the ability to disguise itself as an attractive woman. Have I been eaten? No! I have to go back to... back to... Where? Panic welled up in me as I realized that even my memory was tampered with.
[Calm down. I know it's disorienting. Everyone in your position would be the same.] A voice said in my mind. Who are you? Come out where I can see you!
[I'm you, and you are me. You can think of it as multiple personalities if it helps.] Me? You? The same person? The view suddenly raised and my body walked to the dressing table, I felt nostalgia like I used it every day. Some of our memories seem to be overlapped with each other, and it feels like we are sharing emotions. I began to realize who is the other girl currently standing in silence, Vanilla, my sister who was born at the same time as me.
While my new body flattened her bed hair in front of the mirror with my hands, I observe the girl in the mirror. Her face is cute, very HD, much wow. Meme aside, she is- I look very young despite being already 22 years old. Wait, what was "MY" age? I can't seem to remember much about myself. Then my panic rose up again. Who am I? Or, actually, who was I?
[It's alright. No one can remember their past life.] My other-self tried to console me. My past life? Was I dead?
"Have you reconciled with your new tail yet?" Vanilla asked quietly.
"He needs a bit more time." I whispered back... I? For some reason, it felt like whatever my body did were my own actions. This's really confusing.
[You’ll get used to it.] The voice said as I open the door and walk out of my room holding Vanilla's hand.
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"Today, four of our younglings have become adults. They will leave us to go on their own journey. Whether it be for power, gems, or fame-" A few weeks after my second tail’s appearance, I stood in the old shrine listening to the long-winded speech from the village elder with the other young adult foxes to attend the rite of 2nd tail. She looks like she's in her prime, but she has nine tails. From my recently gained memories, she just passed her 200-year old mark a few weeks ago.
To summarize her speech, they kick me out from the village, and I can only come back to it when I either get rich enough to pay the entrance fee of 18,000,000 gems, strong enough to defeat a village guard in one on one combat, or old enough to grow the ninth tail on our butt.
The former is very difficult, in the village history there were only a few people earned that much. The second condition happened more frequently, but it comes with the condition that the returner must work as a village guard. For the latter is the simplest of all, you just need to live long enough. However, I don't think I will live that long.
According to Cocoa's memory, Cocoa was born without a tail. Then 10 years later her first tail grew. It came with a first personality, a housewife. She disappeared a few years after that. Leaving only the tail. I hope I’ll fare better than her, but from what I learned my prospects are quite grim.
"Each of you will be provided with a storage device, a combat device, and 3,000 gems as starting resources. May your journeys prove to be fruitful ones." The elder's speech ended, and the village guard leads the four of us to a room filled with interesting weapons arranged in an orderly fashion. Wow, I wish I had a year to look at all of them.
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After that fateful day, four years passed by quickly. I concluded that I liked this world. At least this world’s government is much much more sensible than the one from my previous life. They let their people protect themselves appropriately and not do something stupid like banning long knives or blow darts.
The great news is that I'm still alive and kicking inside a 26-year old girl. Since I like this world, I won't go without a fight. However, the boundary between us faded to the point that it worried me. Our minds and emotions have interpenetrated with each other almost completely. Nowadays, our actions seem to be in synch. Most of the time, I can't tell which one of us was the one who did it.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Anyways, my life is peaceful. I was never attacked even once. Well, a drunkard tried to trespass into my apartment, but that was just a misunderstanding and was resolved peacefully. Moreover, my weapon collection began to grow as my other personality began to understand the happiness of collecting them. So overall, it's not a bad life.
"Thank you, little missy." The elderly man thanked me as I pointed him in the right direction. Recently I've been working as a town hall receptionist in a border village called Vibranthill. In a few more years, I will have enough savings to open my own weapon shop. To make things happen quicker, I also took a side job making video reviews of the weapons I collect and upload them on the internet. It went even better than my past life. Cocoa's cute face draws significantly more people, and that translated to more sponsor money.
As the old man walked away, I readjusted my posture while waiting for the next customer. After a while the door opened and I was greeted with the sight of my favorite customer.
"Hi Cocoa, thanks for your suggestion. The TD-981 you suggested really helps." Nina, my best friend, greeted me. I’ve known her since I moved to this village, and I enjoy the time I spend with her very much.
"Hi, Nina. To the dismantling department again?" I handed the queue card to her, and she nodded. This girl often came by with some intriguing creatures.
"About that, I just got my first evil-eyes kill!" She shouted proudly. "You know, it's the big floating eyes that shoot lasers from its tentacles around the main body. It was still a baby though, but thanks to your weapon suggestion, I killed it without getting a single scratch." She brags a bit more, but her smile is radiant.
"Cool, I’ll visit the dismantling department on my break. Tell me all the details later, alright?" Well, it's not like people are waiting in line, but work is work. I shouldn't abandon my post just to see my friend's rare monster loot.
"Alright, see you there. But when will you decide to become an adventurer? It would be fun for the two of us to hunt monsters together."
"No, I don't think I will become an adventurer. I'm a peace loving person." I smiled at her.
"What!? With all those weapons in your house? I thought you were some kind of battle maniac or psychopath. Oh, sorry, I mean the good kind of psychopath." Nina, I don’t think there’s such a thing as good psychopaths.
"Still, I like to collect them and test them with inanimate objects, but that doesn't mean I want to risk my life. So, no thank you." I flatly rejected her idea. She looks crestfallen with her drooped cat ears, but I know that she will recover quickly.
After the break, I take a look at Nina's baby-evil-eyes-corpse. It's scarier than I thought. I have no idea how she defeated it. Her "Just keep moving around." explanation doesn't help much.
"Hmm, thinking about it, it seems the monsters around this area have been more active recently. Cocoa, maybe you should carry a bigger weapon than the one you have." Nina looked at me with worry. Hmm, she's right, the news just said a vicious immortal class monster appeared in this country. Even though it’s still far away, It might be a good idea to bring out my new halberd.
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*WHAM* That night, while I was sleeping, something rammed into my front door. *WHAM* Another loud crash. Cocoa jolted up in panic. It’s only in these kinds of situations that we still have some differences.
[Let me control your body.] I tell her. I know that she isn't good at this. When she let go, I grabbed a pistol from nearby. The front door was reinforced by Mr. Smith next door since that drunkard incident, so it should hold the assault at bay for a while. I run to my dressing room and picked up the buckler from the shelf and moved to the corridor. It's better to deter the intruder at a choke point so that I don't get surrounded.
I stopped myself near the place that I hung my short sword. I could use it as a backup weapon. *CRASH!* After several bangs, a huge mass of black fur went through the door. I emptied the cores into it, but it didn’t cause much damage. All my projectiles were deflected by some kind of shining membrane surrounding it. I drop the gun and draw the short sword in one smooth motion and prepare to defend myself.
The big-ape-like monster approached me with its open claws. Its reach is a lot longer than mine, so I can only hack its incoming hands and feet with my blade. Soon, it's limping has become noticeable, but suddenly it decided to lunge at me. I meet its maw with my buckler then I stabbed at what was supposed to be the carotid artery as hard as I could. The monster collapsed on the spot, crushed my expensive buckler, and took my short sword under its weight.
[Be calm, I can't breathe properly!] I yelled at Cocoa in my mind. I know that she’s scared shitless but in this kind of situation, staying calm is important.
*DING DONG* "All citizens please remain calm and stay inside your homes. Monsters have surrounded our village. Stay strong and wait for the military to come. All combat-capable personnel, please assemble at town hall. I repeat-" The voice of the village elder repeated from the loud speakers as I was trying to make sense of what was happening. The scene outside the door was chaos. Monsters everywhere, people fighting in the streets with multicolored lights of spells crisscrossing through the air. *BOOM!* A loud explosion nearby pulls me back to my senses. I turned around and ran to my collection room, I need to get something to defend myself!
*BOOM!* *CREAK* Another loud explosion shook the entire building, and the wall began to crumble. The crack quickly spread to the ceiling. Crap, that doesn't look good. I turned to the room nearby and jumped under the table. And not a moment too soon, the ceiling collapsed, and everything went dark.
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[Wake up, Cocoa!] I don't know how much time was passed, but my mind began to slip away.
[Wake up, Cocoa!] I keep chanting it repeatedly like a mantra as I felt colder and colder... I don't want to die.
[Wake... up...] Where am I? I try to open my eyes, but it’s all darkness except the centerview. There is a light at the end of it, then my eye lids fluttered open.
My eyes began to focus, but it's still too weak to discern things. I saw a black shadow in front of me. Is it that ape monster again!?
"Ouch!" My head hits something as I tried to get up too quickly.
"It's alright, I come in peace." It's the crystal clear voice of a young girl. I felt mesmerized by it for a moment. But when I was thought back, the phrase felt so familiar, something from my world. As my vision came back, I saw a girl give me a beautiful smile. I unconsciously took her hand and followed her outside.
"A-Are you alone?" All I saw is carnage out here, people lying dead everywhere. People mixed with some that I knew and not. I look at my workplace, the town hall was burning. I hope Nina is alright. My house is wrecked, and it seems all my wealth was buried under it. What should I do? How do I survive to the end of the month to receive my next income from my video channel?
"Yes." This girl has the most beautiful smile I’ve ever seen, but somehow I felt her smile has predatory nature. She scares me a bit.
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I ended up following the girl out of the village with the super expensive PX-560 close combat long blade pike in my hands. I can’t believe my luck to take a hold of this. But I still regretted that the town I lived in for almost four years ended up like that, along with everyone I knew. *Sniff* Stay strong, Cocoa. You can't break down right now. There is still much more to do.
[Cocoa? ... Cocoa, where are you? Cocoa!?] ... I just realized that she was missing. No matter where I called, she doesn’t answer. What does it mean? I never heard of the host’s consciousness disappearing like this, and I doubt that my home town would take it well if they knew.
For the time being, I will pretend that I'm Cocoa until I know what’s going on.