Alright, I've gotten this question from a lot of different reviewers/commenters, so I'm going to explain the naming choice here. I decided on the name Hinum because I will be based on the Microsoft Snapdragon in this fic, and since I'm the protagonist of my own story, I've decided to go with Main Character naming conventions (unlike types memory, like the rest of the little sisters aside from Nepgear). Going along that line of thought, I decided to incorporate part of my origins in our world, and since the scientific name of a snapdragon plant is Antirrhinum Majus, I decided on Hinum as a name, even if it sounds weird.
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"I'm not sure this is a good idea," Chika crossed her arms. "We have no idea where she's from, or if she's with the ASIC, or some other group."
Chika's point was fair, in all consideration. But the girl had pretty much passed out in Vert's arms. And it wasn't like she could just leave her there. Or drop her off somewhere. Not without knowing more.
Most people know not to wander without a weapon, and she didn't have one. There was the stuffed animal in her backpack, but its lack of use either meant she panicked, or it wasn't a weapon.
"I know. Which is why we should try keeping her close until we know for certain what's going on," Vert shook her head. "I think the best way to do that, at least, is by helping her."
Chika sighed, relenting to Vert's point. It was far more likely that the girl was either from some distant nation or an immigrant who was either unlucky or foolish.
But the back of her mind whispered that there was something more.
Just a few days ago, the sharcite crystal had begun to go wild, as shares had begun to spike drastically. Chika wasn't sure of the cause, but she had heard of similar events through the other Oracles.
A sister. Something that filled Chika's heart with equal parts warmth, and dread.
Out of all the things Vert wanted, a little sister was at the top of the list. She was jealous of most of the other Goddess's that had their own. Blanc even had two.
Vert getting a sister would fulfill her wildest dreams.
But for Chika, it would mean she could spend less time with her darling Vert.
She hadn't been certain though. So she waited and observed. After all, letting Vert get her hopes up, only to have them cruelly dashed, was the last thing anyone in Leanbox needed right now.
However, it looked like that had been the case. One day, it looked a crystal of some sort had formed, but the next day, it was gone. Shares had dropped down to more normal levels afterward, so Chika thought nothing of it.
Until today, when Green Heart carried in a girl that she claimed to have found outside the city. That was something Chika had no problem believing, as she looked like a complete mess. The name Hinum was a bit odd, but that was almost normal compared to everything else.
Her nightgown had been torn, and several scratches had to be cleaned before they got infected. Water revealed it to be green. In Leanbox, such a color was fairly common, but it wasn't until Chika finished cleaning the girl's hair that the whispers returned.
Blonde hair. That trait wasn't uncommon in Leanbox, either. But in association with green?
The similarities only added up from there. Chika didn't check the girl's eyes, but it wouldn't surprise her if they ended up being blue. But if this strange girl didn't simply look like a younger version of Vert, Chika was willing to eat a hat.
It could have just been her mind imagining things, and yet.
Something told her it wasn't. Any number of things could be at work. If she was working for the ASIC, then keeping her close, as much as a double-edged sword as it could be, could work out in their favor. But what happened if she wasn't?
Unless she had a family to return to, Vert would be more than willing to let the girl stay, at least for a time. Chika hoped the girl did have somewhere to return to. To be lost in uncertain times was not pleasant.
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I stirred, rays of light shining into my face. Grumbling, I turned my head away, taking the blanket with me as I went.
Wait. Blanket?
I bolted upright. Had it all been a bad dream? Was I still at home, safe and sound?
The answer to the first two was a responding no. The room was this light green, and looked impeccably clean, even more so than my standards. There was a desk with a computer, which wouldn't have been out of place in my room. Baring simply how impressive the PC tower looked.
But the TV would have been a sign, even if the room's color and the balcony outside hadn't. I didn't keep a TV in my room, much less had several counsels for that TV.
So, I was in a completely strange place. It was better than a field. Maybe. The fact I wasn't chained up in a dungeon was probably a good sign, but that didn't exactly stop the possibility of this being some type of gilded cage.
I shook my head, trying to piece together the last thing I remembered. I was being chased by those walking, plant, things.
Okay, I still wasn't uncertain about whether or not I had been on drugs. That was not normal. At all. Neither was the flying lady.
I couldn't stop the resurgent blush at the memory. I had no problem with her having her tastes and all, but. That was a bit excessive.
Was she the one that brought me here? I assumed so.
Wherever this was here.
God, where even was here? With everything that had happened, everything I had seen, it was safe to say I wasn't in Kansas anymore. I guess Fuzzy was playing the role of Toto in this messed-up rendition of Wizard of Oz.
I gave the stuffed animal a tight squeeze, as it had found its way into bed with me. Slowly, over the protests of my body, I pushed myself up. The nightgown I had worn yesterday had been replaced by one that hadn't been torn to rags.
That certainly made sense, and I was thankful for no longer look like I'd been kidnapped, but.
I'm not sure how comfortable I am with a total stranger changing me. Hell, even I wasn't that familiar with this body.
This body. This body.
This wasn't mine. I clutched Fuzzy against my chest. This couldn't be my body. It had to be someone else's. I shouldn't have the body of some teenage girl.
I shouldn't belong here, in this body, in this skin that wasn't mine. I was in the body of the opposite sex. I should feel wrong.
So why didn't I?
I shook my head, scattering the thoughts from my head. I was a long way from home, and if I was going to find a way back, I was going to need to focus.
For the moment, that meant finding out where there was. I gazed out the window. From my vantage point, the city sprawled out below, a combination of brilliant whites and vibrant greens. It looked unlike any sort of city I'd ever been to in my life. It looked like one of those cities of the future.
But it was time to start looking for some answers. I quickly double-checked the room for any spare clothes. I'd hoped for something or another, even a t-shirt, no matter how baggy, and even maybe sweat or pajama pants. But I had no such luck. It wasn't like the nightgown was that bad, honestly. Going all the way down to my knees, and coming up up to my neck.
It was modest enough, by my measure. But actual clothes would be nice because I had no idea what to do. Was I supposed to find someone? Or was I supposed to wait?
A rumble came from my stomach, ending that dilemma. I needed food and needed it yesterday.
The only problem was, that I had no idea where to go to solve it. I was in someone's apartment, at the very least. Raiding their pantry without permission was a fast way to get myself kicked out onto the street. So I wasn't looking for the kitchen.
But that probably wouldn't be the worst place to start, depending on what time of day it is.
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This place was massive. Was this even an apartment, or were these things so big that each floor was its own apartment space? I refused to believe whoever it was that saved me owned a whole tower, just waiting to be used.
Then again, something, something, gilded cage.
Wasn't Repunsal a blonde, or was that just a Disney invention?
"Do you think I should get her up?" A voice came from down the hall, fairly faint, but still loud enough for me to hear the speaker. It sounded strange, familiar, for a lack of a better way to describe it. Though for the life of me, I couldn't remember exactly where. That wasn't exactly odd for me, however.
"She's been through a lot, Vert. She'll be up when she's ready to be," a second voice came from the same direction. This time, the voice was louder, likely because I was following the sound of the two voices.
This one didn't sound familiar. While the first seemed almost, excited, like a child about to open their presents on Christmas day. Something I didn't exactly feel comfortable with, as I was likely the present in that analogy, but that she, at least, the voice sounded like a she, sounded the like the older of the pair.
The younger one is the voice of reason?
That wasn't exactly bad but at the same time?
Maybe I was just being paranoid about this?
Honestly, I had no idea what time it was. The first voice simply could have been concerned about how long I'd been out. I didn't even know if I had been out for the night, or possibly longer.
It didn't take me long to find where the voices had come from. While they had stopped talking, food lingered in the air, and the clang of utensils against dishware found its way to my ears.
I paused at the door. What do I do? What should I say?
How exactly do I approach this? I mean, I'm literally in the house of two people I didn't even know. Now that I think about it, why didn't they take me to a hospital or something? Wouldn't that make a whole lot more sense than picking up a girl you found in a field and carrying them to your apartement? Who were these people, anyway?
Great. Now I've made myself even more paranoid.
But the prospect of a fresh meal swiftly overwhelmed such concerns. I was, so damn hungry at this point. I just needed to get something, anything in my stomach.
I knocked lightly on the door, the noises stopping for a brief moment. After nothing happened, I slowly peeked my head through the door, taking care to move as little as possible.
"Hello?"
I looked into the kitchen slash dining area. Or, more specifically, the two young women sitting at the table. One had light green hair, almost like neon, but even a few shades lighter. It ran down her back, practically reaching her hips despite the black bow perched atop her head. She wore a neckless, maybe a choker around her neck. The symbol was suspiciously familiar, a green X, placed in the center of a pair of circles. An out white one, and an inner black one. Her dress was black. It showed most of her stomach.
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I turned towards the blonde, hoping that what I had seen was part of her dress, rather than anything else.
Speaking of her, the girl with blonde hair seemed like the oldest of the two. Her hair was just as long as her counterpart's, something I was almost jealous of.
Her outfit seemed like the most modest of the two as well, with a green top, along with a thin layer of lace reaching up to a green and white cloth loop around her neck. Off it hung a gold brooch with two red ribbons hanging off it and blue gemstone of some kind laided in it. The lower half of her outfit was white and peach colors, with gold trimming found throughout. Her eyes were blue, seeming to glisten.
The next thing I knew, she was on me, in a literal blink and you miss it movement. She pulled me into a very unwanted and even more uncomfortable hug.
"You're awake! Thank goodness! I was worried you weren't going to wake up," she said, clearly not noticing how she was going to make sure I wasn't waking up again if she kept it up for much longer as I uselessly flailed about.
"Vert, I understand your excitement, darling, but she does need to breathe," the other woman spoke, having yet to get out of her seat.
"Sorry, sorry," the taller woman, who was named Vert if what the other said was anything to go by, apologized as she let me go, no longer choking me out. "You must be Hinum, right?"
Hinum? I.
I had called myself that, hadn't I? I don't know why, but I had.
"Yes," I said softly, winging internally. "Sorry, I'm still a bit out of it."
A gurgling noise came from my stomach, causing me to blush. Vert let out a soft laugh, as even the other lady who seemed more busy poking at her omelet cracked a brief smile.
"Out of it and hungry," I amended, shuffling my bare feet against the cool tile floor.
"Then, by all means, feel free to help yourself. We can talk once you've gotten your fill," Vert gestured over towards the kitchen, which was stocked full of various breakfast foodstuffs.
My stomach let out another rumble, as I opened my mouth to say something about how I didn't need this much food.
Okay, I probably needed a bit more food than I thought I did.
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My meal was, well, just about everything. Eggs, pancakes, bacon, the whole deal. I even snagged something that looked like a waffle to make sure I was topped off.
"Thank you," I wiped my face with a napkin, hoping to retain some measure of dignity and civility. "That was a very good meal."
"I can see that," the green-hair girl muttered, and I couldn't tell if she was being snarky with me, or she was in shock about the amount of food I had put away.
"Sorry, but I haven't eaten since before yesterday, so," I blushed, rubbing the back of my head, doing my best to avoid giving away how dejected I was to no longer have curls.
"Really? At all?" Vert asked as I shook my head. "Did you simply, run out of supplies?"
"I didn't even have any. I went to sleep in my apartment, then I woke up in a forest," I said, shuttering at the thought.
"You just, appeared, in a forest?" the green-haired girl gave me a look. "I'm sorry, but that sounds hard to believe."
"Sadly, reality is stranger than fiction," I shook my head. "I completely get it. It sounds impossible, but it's what happened."
"After briefly freaking out, because I had no idea where I was, how I'd gotten there, what had," I paused for a moment, no, no, this is already crazy enough. They don't need that piece of information. "If I had been kidnapped or not, I decided to use what survival skills I had, and followed the river I woke up near."
I noticed the two of them share a look as if wondering what exactly the river had to do with it.
"Water leads to civilization, as it's pretty much a necessary part of life," I waved my hand in a circle. "Moving on, it behaved, strangely."
That caused the two of them to give themselves another glance.
"But I stopped about, midday, I think, and rested in some shade. Then I came across this weird, wolf, I think?" I still had no idea what that animal even was, but given how walking plants were a thing, a wolf equivalent, was the most likely. But the ecology here was, probably, all sorts of messed up, at least compared to what it was like at.
Home.
"Weird how?" Vert looked as if she had jumped out of her seat, or just about near it, leaning partially over the table. Even her roommate seemed a bit concerned with her eyebrow raised.
"Well, it was blue, it had a horn on its head, its tail had a lot more fur on it than it should have," I shuttered, the full weight finally beginning to sink in. "It could have killed me."
I slumped forward, letting my head rest on my arms, doing my best to fight back tears. I nearly died yesterday! I nearly died twice! I was so close to having my body used as a chew toy, and literally, nobody would have known that I was dead.
A warm hand found its way to my shoulder. Probably Vert's.
"I'm, okay," I pushed myself back up, wiping away tears from my eyes. It was, Vert's hand, with the other girl, while not moving, gave me a soft look.
"If you need a moment, it's fine," Vert said, seemingly trying to restrain herself from giving me another massive hug.
"Though, if you can, a drawing would be appreciated," the other woman said, pushing a piece of paper and a pin towards me.
"Chika!" Vert gave the now identified girl a stern look as if trying to displace the green-haired woman. "I don't think that's necessary!"
"It's fine. Drawing it out might help, anyway," I grabbed the pen and paper. "But I'm warning you, I'm a fourth of good of an artist as I am a writer, and I'm only a decent writer."
I began drawing the creature from my memories. Not that my drawing was anywhere close to good, but I was able to get all the things critical in the thought process of 'wolf, but weird'.
"It was blue, but that isn't going to convey well," I offered, showing them the finished product. They both stared at each other, confused.
"That's, just a normal wolf enemy type," Chika said, giving me a strange look, but seemingly a bit calmer. "Well, it's good news that it doesn't have a virus."
"Normal?" It was now my turn to get out of my seat.
"A normal wolf is grey, and doesn't have a horn," I said, etching out another poor picture. "Something more like this, not, that."
"That looks more like a Fafnir cub than anything else," Vert said, stretching her chin as if lost in thought. "However, I think I might have an explanation for what's happening here, so please, continue."
I raised an eyebrow. She already had an answer? This should be good.
"Well, after I scared it off by yelling at it, I continued to double-time it along the riverbank until I got to the edge of the forest in the evening. From there I tried to make my way towards the city, which, I must say, is quite beautiful. Never seen any like it," I said, Vert growing a very satisfied grin on her face. "That's when I ran into and started running from those walking flowers, got rescued by that flying woman, and then, I'm here."
Okay, what exactly had happened to that woman? I hadn't seen her yet, and by this point, I'd expected to have seen her. This was her apartment, I assumed. So I thought she'd be there when I woke up.
Maybe she's out saving more people from monsters? Like a superhero of some sort.
That would almost explain the clothes, actually.
"And where exactly did you say you came from?" Vert was tapping her finger against her chin.
"Kansas?" I honestly didn't realize it's finished my sentence, wait a minute. No, that couldn't be the case. There was no way Vert and the mystery woman were the same person. One was taller, with green hair. Maybe she just told Vert or something.
Yeah, that made more sense.
"Correct. A place I've never heard of," Vert nodded her head. "Have you ever heard of Leanbox?"
"No, I can't say that I have," I suppressed my initial reaction of what type of place would be called Leanbox. Seriously, what type of name was that?
"Well, I have two pieces of bad news, and two pieces of good news," Vert was thankfully being honest. "Which do you want to hear about first?"
"Bad news, I guess," I shifted my feet. Generally, hearing bad news first made the good news sound better, but would that be the case this time?
"Well, the first piece of bad news, is that I think you're in an alternate dimension," Vert said with a degree of normality, it came across like she was reading the weather. I wanted to call bullshit, I really did. But.
How could I? I ended up in a forest without any rhyme or reason, swapped genders, weird river physics, flying women, wolf-rhinos, walking plants, and just. Everything. I was either still having a fever dream, or alternate dimensional travel actually made the most sense.
"The second piece of bad news is, the possible solution is in another nation."
"I'm sorry. What?" There was a possible solution? What tech level were these people on?
"Right, should have started with that," Vert rubbed her head sheepishly. "But there is someone working on the matter, even if I understand things, they haven't gotten too far along. Even though there is peace right now, I'll probably have to pull some diplomatic strings."
I stood there, completely flabbergasted. There, might already be a solution? Even if it wasn't far along, and in another nation, that's, good. Really, really good.
"Thank you!" This time, I was the one giving the hug, giving Vert a tight hug out of gratitude.
Vert let out a noise of surprise, taken off guard by my sudden display.
"Don't thank me quite yet. I don't think there will be any issues, but given the situation, it still might take some time," Vert's face looked a bit flushed as I let her go. Had I been squeezing too hard by mistake? "In the meantime, Chika, do you think you can help Hinum get some clothes, and maybe take her down to the guild headquarters? I'd do it myself, but you know how Neptune can be sometimes."
I turned to face Chika, unable to read the expression on her face.
"Of course darling, I'm happy to help."