Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Carmen regarded the Relic warily. Kali, the laboratory’s resident Grade 2 Fixer (read: incredibly high-quality mercenary) had left it in Carmen’s workspace after an expedition to the Ruins.

Well, it had a keyboard, so…

It couldn’t be that different from what she’s used to, right?

Carmen: init

Carmen: boot

Carmen: ?

Carmen: This isn’t a terminal, is it.

Akane: Nope! Good try, though!

Ayano: Hello…

Carmen:

Carmen: What even is this?

Ayano: You… don’t know what a chatroom is? It’s a place where you can talk to people all over the world!

Akane: I don’t know what this is either!

Carmen: …Oh, there’s two of you, with very similar names. That’s why I thought you were contradicting yourself.

Ayano: Found it.

Akane: Found what?

User ‘Ayano’ changed their name to ‘Red Scarf (0)’

Red Scarf (0): The nickname system.

Akane: You can’t have Zero! That’s my number!

Red Scarf (0): But… But I’m the 0th member of the Mekakushi Dan!

User ‘Akane’ changed their name to ‘Zero’

User ‘Red Scarf (0)’ changed their name to ‘Ayano’

Carmen: Ignoring that… ‘Blindfold Gang’? You’re a part of a Syndicate?

Ayano: Um… What’s a Syndicate? I’m dumb, so please use small words.

Carmen: In layman’s terms, a group of people who commit crimes together.

Ayano: No, not really. We’re heroes! Like in the stories! We have codenames!

Zero: Ha. Yeah, right.

Carmen: How do you not know what a Syndicate is? That’s basic City knowledge!

Zero: What if she doesn’t live in a big city? That’d explain it for sure!

Ayano: It’s not a big city, but I live just outside Kashiwa City. That’s, uh… Chiba Prefecture, right?

Zero: …Blech. Name’s giving myself the creeps. One second.

Looking around for nickname inspiration, Akane Kurashiki noticed the old voodoo doll on her desk.

The one Junpei’d gifted to her. They’d named it ‘June’ together.

She’d get to see him again soon, after the start of her Nonary Game.

‘June’… Yeah. She’d call herself June.

User ‘Zero’ changed their name to ‘June’

June: Wait, ‘Prefecture’? You’re Japanese too, Ayano?

June: Hey! Wait a moment, there’s no Kashiwa City on my map! Grrr…

Ayano: Um… It is, on mine?

June: [img: A map of Japan. Kashiwa City is missing.]

Ayano: What’s happening??? Who gave you that map??? Were you scammed???

Ayano: [img: A map of Japan. Kashiwa City is present.]

June: Is this- could it be? Conclusive proof of the Many Worlds hypothesis?

Ayano: …Why do people expect me to know what they mean when they say things like that? I’m just a middle school student!!! And not even a smart one!!!

June: Oh, you’re fine. It’s pretty advanced, even for me.

June: The Many Worlds hypothesis suggests that, for every decision or event, the universe splits into multiple parallel worlds, each representing different outcomes.

June: So, at some point in my world’s past, something must have happened to prevent Kashiwa City from being settled. Stricter anti-development laws, perhaps?

June: Honestly, I’m surprised it doesn’t look even more different!

Ayano: My head hurts…

Carmen: I admit, I’m not familiar with that hypothesis. Which is, honestly, bizarre, given my education.

Carmen: But if it were true, then my world is very, very far off the beaten path. No other cities exist, but The City.

Carmen: Given how different my world seems to be, there’s no real point in explaining it. I’ll summarize things when they come up.

Carmen: That being said, if someone could create a method of travel that could convey one between those ‘Many Worlds,’ that’d be a technology on the level of a Singularity.

Carmen: …Now that I think about it, is that what the Purple Tear does?

June: Oh! ‘Singularity!’ Are you talking about the hypothetical ‘Technological Singularity,’ where technology reaches a point where it improves itself faster than humans can control it?

Ayano: *groan*

Carmen: Not quite. Singularities are technology indistinguishable from magic, capable of wondrous things yet understood by few.

Carmen: Stuff like, oh, infinite food. Or being able to create a living creature that matches your exact specifications, no matter how bizarre.

Carmen: They say there’s a Singularity behind the success of each Wing of the World. (‘Wings’ are big, world-shaping corporations. I don’t think I have time to go into a deep dive on them, sorry!)

Ayano gulped, brown eyes glued to the screen.
These ‘Singularities…’ Those didn’t sound like the result of technology.

They sounded like wishes brought to life.

Like how the Snakes that revived Kido, Seto, and Kano had been born from the Medusa’s wishes.

And how those wishes-in-snake-form had given her friends reality-altering powers. And their red eyes.

Ayano: Those ‘singularities’… don’t sound like technology to me. They-

Ayano: They sound like wishes.

Ayano: Someone would wish for that.

Carmen: I never thought of it like that! You’re pretty smart!

Ayano: I’m not. :-(

Carmen: You are, though!

Carmen: I should probably get back to work. The Cure isn’t going to research itself!

Carmen: Later!~

User ‘Carmen’ has left.

Ayano: …Can I call myself Zero if you’re not going to?

June: No.

Ayano: :,-(

User ‘June’ has left.

User ‘Ayano’ has left.

Chapter Text

Carmen ran the Relic through an analysis suite. After all, she couldn’t pass up the possibility to understand what might be the mechanism behind the signature ability of the Purple Tear - a Color Fixer, one of the strongest mercenaries in the City!

If she could travel dimensions, she could find a world where they’d already discovered a cure to the ‘Disease of the Mind’ that plagues the City’s denizens.

But Carmen wouldn’t dare take the Relic apart, given how nobody alive would know how to put it back together.

The results came in. The Relic read as a black void.

Black-boxed. Figures.

Perhaps, if there were more esoteric energies involved, they would be present during the Relic’s operation?

Carmen: Hello! Quick test here, seeing if I can figure out what sort of exotic particle this thing’s using.

Carmen: …

Carmen: Really? Nothing at all? Not even an electromagnetic discharge?

Carmen: Maybe if it has to send more data… Something like an image might do the trick.

Carmen:

Carmen: How’d those two figure it out so quickly?

Carmen: [img: It’s her. Long, dark-brown hair, tied up in a bun by a hair clip. A labcoat. Red eyes.]

Ayano: …Mom?

Carmen:

Carmen:

Carmen:

Carmen: Do I look like-

Ayano: …You do.

Ayano: [img: Ayaka Tatayama. Dark-brown hair, tied up in a bun.]

Carmen: Huh. I can certainly see the resemblance.

Carmen: She’s the spitting image of my younger self.

Ayano: …Oh.

Ayano: Carmen, your eyes…

Ayano: …

Carmen: What about them?

Ayano: …I’m sorry. For what happened to give you them.

Carmen: ?

Carmen: No, these’re all natural.

Carmen: Before you say anything: I’m not a Bloodfiend.

June: ‘Bloodfiend’? Long shot: Are you talking about vampires?

Carmen: Probably? I hear Bloodfiends all have inhuman strength, and an obsession with blood.

June: Yeah that’s close enough.

Ayano: Wait, you have real-life vampires?

June: You don’t?

Ayano: Um… Anyways. I had a whole speech in my head but now it’s… sorta useless.

Carmen: Well, what was it about? It was clearly important to you.

Ayano: Remember the Mekakushi Dan?

Carmen: The ‘superpowered’ not-a-Syndicate?

Carmen: (If I’m reading the etymology right, ‘superpowers’ are special abilities, correct? Like how the Purple Tear can cross dimensions.)

Ayano: (Yes!)

Ayano: The speech I had prepared… was about how my friends got their powers.

Ayano: I… don’t have any powers, but I’m the founder and they listen to me, so… I’m the leader.

June: You’re still in middle school, right?

Ayano: Yeah… I wish I didn’t have to worry about high school.

June: Impressive! Leading a criminal organization at your age is quite a feat!

Ayano: We aren’t criminals! We haven’t done anything illegal, not even being vigilantes!

Ayano: Hmph. As for what I was trying to say earlier… Everyone else, everyone with powers, has red eyes. Because of how they got their powers.

Ayano: They died, and came back.

Carmen:

Ayano: None of us are quite sure of the specifics. The most we’re sure about is that it’s related to an old folktale, the Legend of the Medusa.

June: The Greek myth? But, you’re in Japan? Why not some sort of Yokai?

Ayano: That’s… part of what we’ve been wondering, too.

Ayano: …

Ayano: Mom… died, yesterday.

Ayano: None of us could save her.

Ayano: When I saw your eyes, Carmen…. I couldn’t help but… no, ‘hope’ isn’t the right word. Too light, but ‘lament’ isn’t quite right either, ‘cause it’s too dark…

Carmen: ‘Desperately hope,’ perhaps?

Ayano: Yes!

Ayano: I desperately hoped that, in your universe… my mom came back to life.

June: Look at you!~ Already thinking with the Many Worlds theory!

Carmen: You think I might be an alternate-universe version of your mom.

Carmen: I’m not sure I’m qualified to raise a child. Especially not across worlds.

Carmen: You still have a parent left, correct?

Ayano: …My dad. I should see how he’s doing.

User ‘Ayano’ has left.

June: The cause of death would’ve been nice.

Carmen: AKANE. She’s still grieving! Give her space!

June: Oh! Oh now I feel awful… :(

June: …Did you get anything from your scans?

Carmen: No, nothing. The emissions control systems on this Relic must be something truly out-of-this-world.

June: Darn.

User ‘June’ has left.

User ‘Carmen’ has left.

User ‘Ayano’ has joined.

Ayano: Hello?

Ayano: Oh, everyone’s gone. I suppose that’s fine.

Ayano: …I think Seto and Kano are fighting again.

Chapter Text

June: I’m bored. Want to hear a thought experiment?

Carmen: I’m all ears. I’ve got a little time while I wait for this test to complete.

Ayano: *groan*

June: Oh, don’t be a baby. Even you can understand it.

June: Have you ever heard of the ‘river parable’? You might know it by another name, like the ‘upstream parable’ or something. It’s not very well-known, and there’s a ton of variations on it, but it’s… personally relevant, for reasons I won’t get into for the sake of time.

Carmen:

Carmen: It’s not quite a parable, more like a Canard.

Carmen: There’s been whispers that there’s a river under the City that’s never seen the light of day.

Ayano: …I just asked Seto. Apparently there’s a bunch of rivers buried under Tokyo?

June: Huh. I think I’ve heard of those underground rivers too, actually.

June: None of that was related to the Upstream Parable, but this similarity in myths is fascinating nonetheless.

June: Guess your world might not be that far off on the quantum level after all, Carmen!

Carmen: I really, truly hope that our worlds never meet.

Carmen: My world is not a kind place.

June: …mine isn’t, either.

Carmen: Are experiments on children commonplace there?

June: …I was an unwilling participant in one. I almost died.

Ayano: You both need a hug. I’m sorry I can’t do more for you.

June: This chat is helping me more than you know. I didn’t realize, until recently, just how socially isolated I was.

June: I have coworkers, sure, and subordinates, but I don’t really have any friends.

June: …I feel like I’m forgetting something.

Carmen: The parable.

June: Oh! I forgot to tell it, didn’t I?

June: So, the parable, as I heard it, is as follows:

June: Imagine you’re minding your own business, sitting by a river. Suddenly, you start noticing rabbits being swept away by the current.

Ayano: How horrible!

Carmen: Another thought experiment I don’t recognize. I remain astounded by the sheer variety your world has, that I am somehow not aware of.

June: Maybe you’re not looking hard enough? I’m sure there were some philosophy classes at whatever college you went to.

Carmen: Ha. No, philosophy definitely wasn’t a big focus. Nor was nature, apparently.

Carmen: For instance: I’m not aware of what a ‘rabbit’ is. I assume it’s some kind of frog?

Carmen: Y’know, ‘rabbit’? ‘Ribbit’?

June: I am astounded by how different your world is.

June: Rabbits are a sort of small, fluffy mammal. They breathe air, and they definitely don’t belong in a river.

Carmen: Like squirrels?

June: …

June: You have squirrels, but not rabbits? Don’t they occupy similar ecological niches?

Carmen: Some really rich folk like to have animals on their property. Squirrels are really visible, maybe I just never saw a rabbit?

June: …I think that sigh I just let out might’ve woken up my brother.

June: False alarm, he just turned over in his sleep.

Ayano: How late is it over there???

June: Wouldn’t you like to know. ;)

June: Anyways!

June: There’s rabbits in the water. They don’t belong there, and will definitely drown if you don’t help them.

June: And you don’t want the rabbits to die.

June: What would you do?

Ayano: I’d jump in and start saving them, of course!

Carmen: I’d begin work on a technology that could save the drowning rabbits. It would prevent further deaths while I’m traveling upstream to find whoever’s putting them in the river.

Ayano: There’s someone upstream???

Carmen: Well, there has to be someone putting the rabbits in the water. Why else would they be in there?

Ayano: I suppose that makes sense.

Ayano: I’m still not going to change my answer, but… Please remember that I’m dumb. Both of you.

Ayano: I might not see the things you think are obvious.

June: That’s fair.

June: The traditional answer to this is to ignore the drowning rabbits entirely, and go straight for the source.

June: But I really like your approach, Carmen. It’s a unique way of looking at it.

June: Turn it into a simple numbers game. ‘How fast can I design and build this technology?’

June: If you’re fast enough, you’ll end up with less drowned rabbits overall.

Ayano: But the poor rabbits that drowned before you were done wouldn’t see it that way.

Ayano: They’d see someone who stood by fiddling with tools and noisy machinery, and did nothing to help!

Ayano: I don’t want to be that kind of person.

Ayano: …Sorry, Carmen.

June: Well, I think that’s the moral of the parable. “Sometimes, you can’t save everyone.”

June: You have to choose who to save.

Ayano: Then the world’s wrong!!!

Carmen: It is.

Carmen: Ayano?

Ayano: …yeah?

Carmen: There’s nothing to be sorry about.

Carmen: If I were truly there, in person, and had to see them dying in front of me, I wouldn’t want to stand by either.

Carmen: But for the problem I have to solve, over here... I don’t have that luxury.

Carmen: To extend the metaphor further, think of it like I’m on a raft in that same river.

Carmen: And I can’t swim to shore.

Carmen: I only have so much room on my raft. I can’t save just any rabbits, I have to save the brightest and strongest of them, because then they can help me paddle.

Carmen: I wish, oh how I wish I could save everyone.

Carmen: But all I can do, is fight the current. And maybe, someday, I can reach the cause of all this.

June: You’re a pretty intense person, huh?

June: …Go to bed, both of you.

June: I’m sure you have things to do in the morning.

Ayano: It’s not that late. The sun’s still in the sky!

Carmen: It’s the middle of the day, here.

June: What.

June: …It’s too late for this, we can discuss it in my morning.

Ayano: Wait!

June: ?

Ayano: When you wake up, could you do something for me?

June: I’m all ears.

Ayano: Ask your brother for a hug.

June: …

June: I will. He’d appreciate the chance to be ‘Santa’ again.

User ‘June’ has left.

Chapter Text

Ayano: …I can’t get this question out of my head. Carmen, you called that river myth of yours a ‘Canard,’ earlier.

Ayano: What’s a ‘Canard’? It’s capitalized, so it’s a City term, which means the dictionary definition of ‘An unfounded or false, deliberately misleading story’ doesn’t mean anything and I’m rambling aren’t I…

Carmen: What happened to ‘not seeing the things we think are obvious?’ ;-)

Ayano: ???

Carmen: I’m not sure Akane’s made that connection yet.

Carmen: You’re smarter than you know.

Carmen: And, a ‘Canard’ is a potential threat to the City that’s not yet been given a rating by the Hana Association.

Carmen: As such, the potential danger of encountering it has yet to be evaluated.

Ayano: Wait, a river could be a threat to your wellbeing? It’s a river!

Carmen: Well, an underwater river could wear away the support structures of buildings, for instance. Or, perhaps, its water may have other, more sinister properties.

Carmen: I haven’t really thought about this before, if you couldn’t tell.

Ayano: So… What do you think a world that sucks in people that die on August 15th, and revives some of them with powers, would be rated as?

Carmen: I’ve never worked for the Hana, and I’ve never been a Fixer, so I’ll have to ask our resident Fixer about that.

Carmen:

Carmen: Ha! Transcribing for her… “Kali: First of all, that sounds absolutely ridiculous. What kind of idiot lets their prey leave with the bait?”

Ayano: Heyyyy… Tell her she’s mean. :(

Carmen: No. It’s her job. ;-)

Carmen: “Kali: Ratings’re assigned based on public perception of danger, not actual danger. I learned that the hard way.”

Carmen: “Kali: Like how Fixer grades’re about how often you complete your jobs, rather than straight power. Not Color Fixers, though, but they’re exceptions for a reason.”

Carmen: “Kali: Then again, something like that is the sort of thing that never actually gets a grade, ‘cause a Wing or Finger or whatever gets to it first and keeps it to themselves.”

Ayano: I dunno what all that means, though.

Carmen: In summary: That phenomenon you described likely wouldn’t even get the chance to be graded by the Hana Association.

Carmen: It’s the place that gave the Mekakushi Dan powers, isn’t it?

Ayano: Hehe… yeah…

Ayano: It’s called the Kagerou Daze.

User ‘June’ has joined.

June: Alright, I’m up. Hugged Aoi, checking in with you.

Carmen: That was most definitely not eight hours of sleep.

June: My sleep schedule is perfectly normal.

June: And that’s the problem. I’m fairly certain we aren’t operating on the same timescales.

Carmen: …I feel like I’ve heard of a technology like that before. Some way to affect how much time someone has in a day?

Carmen: Can’t be TimeTrack, that small company only has the technology to reverse time.

Carmen: Weird.

June: Maybe you’re accessing the morphogenetic field, and getting information that doesn’t exist yet?

Carmen: What kind of pseudoscience is that? Morphogenetic Field Theory was disproven ages ago.

June: That’s… fair, honestly. I keep assuming the laws of physics are the same between our universes.

June: Here, it’s been proven that telepathic communication via the Morphogenetic Field is possible, but not much else.

June: But, long ago… I was saved by a telepathic communication reaching backwards in time. It’s not much of a stretch to imagine that you could send information to your own past self.

June: I know I wasn’t imagining it, ‘cause it predicted some pretty major stock changes. Like Cradle Pharmaceutical developing Soporil.

Ayano: What’s ‘Soporil’?

June: Soporil β is a miracle drug; a sedative and anasthetic without a lethal overdose, that is gaseous at room temperature.

Ayano: …

Carmen: What she means is, it puts people to sleep where they don’t feel any pain. And there’s no risk of dying as a direct result of the drug.

Ayano: ...thanks.

June: Exactly! It removed the mere possibility of dying from an anasthesic overdose during surgery!

June: The worst that could happen to you as a result of the drug is simple memory loss!

Carmen: You mentioned a gaseous form, though. I can already imagine some… less-than-ideal uses of the drug.

June: Yeah…

June: …I don’t want to talk about it.

Chapter Text

Busy with her research, Carmen still kept an eye on the chat.

June: Ayano, are you here?

Ayano: Yeah?

June: We should talk about your Mekakushi Dan. About what might happen to them, if you were to die.

June: I know you’re keeping them on the straight and narrow, but, if you disappear… I worry about what will happen.

Ayano: Wait, why are you worrying about this now?

June: A close shave at a construction site. If that girder was just a foot to the right, I wouldn’t be here talking to you.

June: I can’t get the image out of my head.

Because, in another timeline, she’d died, right then.

Akane, being a certain type of Esper, is capable of “SHIFT”-ing her consciousness between timelines.

This is not the first time this Akane has experienced death.

(Of course, she doesn’t know that yet.)

Ayano: So, you work in construction?

June: Nope!~ I’m the head of a secret organization too, “Crash Keys.” Named after a pun on my last name.

Ayano: What’s your last name, then?

June: As if I’d tell you! ;)

June: I don’t know how secure this chat is, so it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Ayano: Hehe. Yeah… Someone who goes to my school got outed on national TV when she placed second in a huge videogame tournament.

Ayano: We were all like, “Wait, that’s TAKANE up there? The always-grumpy sleepyhead?”

June: Oh? What game was it?

Ayano: “Dead Bullet -1989-“.

June: Yep, I don’t recognize it. Guess that’s one thing the stories got right.

June: Anyways. Planning for the future, for your organization.

June: I haven’t been able to find much online, but the absolute minimum you should do is write a mission statement.

June: Get together with your friends, and figure out what everyone thinks the Mekakushi Dan should be.

June: Create a promise that everyone thinks must be upheld.

Ayano: …I will.

Carmen: I should do that too.

Chapter Text

Ayano took a deep breath, walking up the stairs to her school’s roof.

Ayano: Hello?

Ayano: Nobody in the chatroom, again. I suppose it’s for the best.

Ayano: It’s August 15th, today. The day of the Kagerou Daze.

Ayano’s dangling her legs off the roof. The ends of her scarf, draped over the railing.

Ayano: I don’t want to do this, honestly. I’m scared out of my mind. But it’s the only way I can think of to stop dad.

Ayano: Dad’s gotten it in his head that he can bring mom back, by killing people so he can gather all the Medusa’s snakes.

Ayano: My hope is, if I can get one and keep it out of his reach, by staying in the Kagerou Daze, he’ll give up.

Ayano: …The thing I’m worried about the most, honestly, is my body.

Ayano: Will my soul split from it, when I enter the Kagerou Daze, leaving it and you guys behind?

Ayano: Or will I just disappear, swallowed whole by the Daze?

Ayano: …

Ayano: I really hope it’s the second. Nobody should have to see my dead body.

Ayano: See you on the other side.

User ‘Ayano’ has left.

User ‘June’ has joined.

June: Ayano, what the fuck?

Ayano jumped, and never met the ground.

When the falling girl opened her eyes again, she was in her old classroom.

Sitting backwards in a seat to face her, Ayano’s paper-skinned mirror image stared at her with red eyes.

No, upon closer inspection, her reflection’s skin was comprised of scales of the purest white.

Those red eyes bore into her soul.
’I want… to tell them how much I love them,’ they seemed to say.

A proposal. A wish, which both parties share.

The snake in human form offered Ayano a hand.
’Don’t you?’

Smiling, Ayano took that scaled hand, uncaring of how the edges bit into her skin. “More than anything.”

She still had so many things to say to the Mekakushi Dan, after all. And Shintaro, the kid she’d had a crush on.

The wish in snake form smiled back.

Chapter Text

User ‘Carmen’ has joined.

June: Ayano, you had better come back to us, or so help me…!

Carmen: ?

Carmen: Ah. I just read the logs.

Ayano: …sorry. Getting a snake was the only solution I could think of.

Ayano: I still have the device, so that’s a plus.

June: Look. You shouldn’t have killed yourself, you don’t have my excuse.

Ayano: …what?

June: Did you even consider other options, first?

June: You could’ve gotten the police involved! Set up a scenario where they’d catch him in the act!

June: Or you could’ve tied him up for the day, so he couldn’t kill anyone - then you’d have the whole year to convince him to stop!

June: Even if YOU weren’t able to stop him, maybe one of your ‘Mekakushi Dan’ has a power that could!

Ayano: …Black Blindfold could’ve snuck up on him. Tied him up, like you said.

Ayano: White Liar could’ve pretended to be mom, come back from the Daze… but no, that’d be too uncomfortable for him.

Ayano: Green Druid… ha, no. One-sided telepathy wouldn’t get him very far. But he could help me convince the others.

Ayano: But I didn’t want to bother them with my problems.

June: DAMN your politeness! I know us Japanese folk are supposed to be polite and unobtrusive, but there comes a point you HAVE to speak up!

June: It’s your LIFE! When the end’s in sight, take every path you can, no matter how immoral!

Ayano: …I wasn’t thinking straight.

June: Damn right you weren’t!

Carmen: I believe, what she meant to say earlier was, “When you decided to die, without consulting us, I felt worried for you.”

Carmen: I did, too.

Carmen: I care about you.

June: Yeah. What she said.

Ayano: …Thank you, I guess.

Ayano: …But my plan worked. I’m in the Kagerou Daze, and I have a snake. So, surely he’ll stop, right?

Carmen: There’s a saying Kali likes. “If it’s stupid but it works, it’s still stupid.”

Carmen: I believe that applies here.

Carmen: But enough of what-could-have-beens.

Carmen: Out of academic curiosity, what does the Kagerou Daze look like?

Ayano: According to the story, it’s different for everyone. Time goes all wonky too.

Ayano: My Daze put me in my old classroom.

Ayano: Looking out the window, it’s like I’m still in the real world. But there’s a shimmer to the air, off in the distance.

Carmen: Hm… A world of Light, perhaps?

June: Oh! Is it a ‘Fata Morgana?’

June: They’re a type of heat-based mirage. They’ll appear off in the distance, distorting whatever it’s showing like crazy!

June: Rumor has it, Fata Morgana mirages are the source of all sorts of myths. Like floating castles, or the Flying Dutchman!

June: I have to go out to the desert often for Crash Keys stuff, and I see them all the time.

Ayano: That’s really interesting, but… I don’t think so? It’s more like, y’know, how the air shimmers above something hot.

June: Ha. Yeah, that’s a normal mirage. Nothing weird here.

Ayano: Except the fact that it isn’t that hot.

Chapter Text

Ayano: Wait, was that an EXPLOSION?

Ayano: Be right back.

User ‘Ayano’ has left.

June: She really does have the heart of a hero, doesn’t she.

There’s a lanky figure, cresting a nearby hill. She pants, hands leaning on her knees.
“Made… it…” The stranger smiles, relieved, before collapsing.

But what kind of hero would Ayano be if she wasn’t already there to catch her?

“Heavy…” Ayano breathes out, the stranger’s hanging gas mask pressing into her chest.

The girl she’s supporting starts snoring, newly-red eyes still open.

…Hold on. There’s only one person she knows who could fall asleep on a dime like that.

Ayano’s newly-red eyes go wide. “Takane!?”

User ‘Takane’ has entered the chat.

Takane: No.

Ayano: ???

User ‘Takane’ changed their name to ‘Ene.’

Ene: Learned my lesson last time. Never use your real name online.

Ene: …Stupid brats. Don’t they know I only get to be awake for 2 hours a day?

Ayano: Aww. You know you love us. <3

Ayano: But seriously how are you here??? You’re asleep!!! I can see your fingers, they aren’t moving!!!

Ene: Wait, WHAT?

Carmen: It may be too late. We’ve already heard of you.

June: Welcome, whoever you are!

Ayano: Ene, do you want to introduce yourself?

Ene: Yes.

Ene: I won’t give you my real name, but I’m a year ahead of Ayano in school.

Ene: Any more details, and I risk you two bugging me forever.

Ayano: Eneeee… It’s my phone you’re using. If anything, they’d have to go through me first!

Ayano: Speaking of… Your eyes are red. Which means…

Ayano: You got superpowers!

Ene: Hooray.

Chapter Text

Carmen: Out of curiosity - what are those powers you obtained? Actually, what are your friends capable of, too?

Carmen: They must be powerful indeed, to be able to claim Color Fixer titles without reprisal.

Ayano: Oh! Oh boy oh boy oh boy!!! I get to gush about my friends’ powers!!!

June: Horrible opsec.

Carmen: Hush. Who would we tell?

Ene: Me.

Ayano: So, Black Blindfold, no. 1, has the Concealing Eyes. He can divert attention away from him, and things around him.

Ayano: No. 2, Green Druid, got the Stealing Eyes. Well, it’s a lot closer to one-way telepathy than anything. He can even understand animals!

Ayano: And Silver Lie, No. 3, has the Deceiving Eyes. He can mimic the look, smell, and even touch of anything he’s familiar with!

June: And you’re Red Scarf, no. 0.

Ayano: ???

June: Hehe. You forgot, didn’t you?

June: The nickname you tried to take, back when we met.

Ayano: …Oh.

Ayano: Wait, you REMEMBER that??? That was so long ago!

June: ;)

June: Let me guess, you took ‘0,’ the ‘imaginary’ number, because you don’t have powers?

Ayano: Well, I didn’t. Now I do.

Ayano: They’re called the “Favoring Eyes.” I don’t know much about them yet. Something to do with “communicating my love.”

Ene: …Opening Eyes. “You want to stay awake and alive, yes?” they asked me.

Ayano: I still don’t get how you’re here. Maybe that’s part of it?

Ayano: Everyone else had a hard time controlling theirs, but so far… I’ve got no clue how to use my Eye Ability.

June: Those abilities you mentioned. They may have something to do with the Morphogenetic Field, given how they all affect the mind.

June: Green Druid’s ability, especially. It’s like he’s an omni-Receiver. Able to receive information from anything with a brain.

June: …Why do I have a headache?

June: Anyways. If your ‘Eye Ability’ works just like mine and Aoi’s psychic bond, it should be as simple as concentrating on the information you want to send.

Ayano: Hmm… Is this reaching you?

June: A giraffe? Why a giraffe???

Ayano: Haha! It worked!

Carmen: This is all awfully unscientific.

Chapter Text

Hmm…
Three nodes stretched out before her.

Beacons, in the otherwise empty expanse of cyberspace.

Ene reached out to one, and-

Hold up. Is that Sensei?

Upon moving to another device to get a closer look, no, the person talking to the spitting image of Ayano’s mom was not Kenjirou Tateyama, Ene’s teacher.

Wrong hair color, for one. Black, when Kenjirou had brown. Not to mention the lack of glasses.
Really, how could I have mistaken one for the other?

“So, about those creatures we found in the Black Forest…” He said, but Ene wasn’t listening.

Boring science stuff. Bleh.

This is boring. Let’s see where else I can go.

And, just as she thought that…

The door closes.

“You,” the spitting image of Ayano’s mom declares, pointing at the device Ene resides in. “Do you realize how much danger you’re putting yourself in? Not to mention us!”

Ayaka Tateyama’s lookalike begins pacing. “Stupid AI Ethics Amendment.” She growls. “Look. If you don’t leave, the Head will figure out there’s an active AI in the City, and stop at nothing to hunt you down.”

Ene co-opted the speakers of a nearby terminal.
“I’m not an AI, though? I’m a person!”

The stranger’s features soften. “Still. Leave, for our sakes if nothing else. I’d rather not lose this lab to a raid.”

“Fine.” Ene grouses, zipping over to the device she used to enter this world.

Where to now?

PoV: Akane (AKA, ‘June’)

Akane stared at the gas mask lying in her hands as they shook.
I need to do this. I need to do this. I’ll die if I don’t do this.

Tonight was the night.

Either she put on the mask, took the role of Zero, kidnapped nine people - well, really only three, me and Aoi are participating and Aoi’ll get half, her hysteric mind corrected - and put them into a Nonary Game, a death game, again just for the chance that Junpei could save her past self-

“Hey, whatcha doin’?~” Akane’s computer speakers crackled to life.

Akane shrieked, tossing the gas mask up in the air and knocking over the entire shelf of Soporil-based sleeping gas grenades.

“Wow,” the super-hacker in her computer teased, giggling. “Of all the reactions, I sure didn’t expect that.”

The hacker’s avatar was weirdly detailed. Long blue hair tied into huge twintails… Wasn’t there a character that looked like that in the app Aoi used to order pizza? Their name was ‘Hachune Miku,’ or something like that anyways. But… Since when was there a gas mask around her neck?

The super-hacker was taunting her. That was the only possible explanation. She’d discovered her plans already, and now she’s toying with her. Why else would she be wearing the same model of gas mask, if they didn’t already know what she was planning?

“Hey, you still in there?” The blue hacker lazed, laying down on nothing while looking around at her desktop.

When Akane didn’t respond, the intruder reached for a folder.
“Huh. ‘Nonary Game.’ Sounds like fun.”

Oh no oh no was that the one I put all my plans in???
If that’s the one with all the evidence, I’m screwed!

Pulled on puppet strings, Akane’s hand reached for the mouse in a futile attempt to stop this intruder.

“Hey, stop that!” The hacker’s avatar brushed away the cursor, already opening the folder.

As it opened, Akane sighed in relief, her hand releasing her deathgrip on her mouse just before her head hit her desk.

It was her research folder.

All of her research on the first Nonary Game, those hellish nine hours and everything leading up to them. The game she barely survived.

The avatar’s eyes were wide, as they opened file after file.

There’s no way that was an automatic reaction. You’d have to manually input the command to widen those eyes.
She had to be doing that on purpose. Who the hell would do that if not to taunt her? Pretending to be all innocent, when they already know exactly what she’s done.

The hacker stopped, having found an old news article. Her eyes flicked from the picture, back to Akane. And again.

“I’m so sorry.” The hacker bowed in a picture-perfect kowtow, head scraping the floor as she disappeared from view.

Takane ‘Ene’ Enomoto exhaled, returning to her body.
“You would not believe the day I just had.”

Ayano smiled a mysterious smile. “Did you go on adventure without me knowing?” She teased.

“And I’m not telling anyone a word about it!” Ene crowed.

Chapter Text

June: That was surprisingly easy.

Carmen: ?

June: Ah. I did *not* mean to send that. That was meant for my brother.

June: …wait. That shouldn’t be possible.

June: Trying that again. Broadcasting my thoughts to the device, just like when I broadcast to my brother…

June: Hello, World!

June: YES! HAHAHAHA!

Carmen: Communication is a function of the Morphogenetic Field, I assume?

June: You can’t see me, but I am having the TIME OF MY LIFE over here!

Ayano: Oh!

Ayano focused her eyes, intent on using her eye ability to send her chosen message to the chat.

Ayano: Does it work for me, too?

Ayano: !

Ayano: It does!

Carmen: I see! So it really is that simple. It may be an intended feature of this Relic, then.

June: Oh! Oh oh oh! This is the perfect opportunity to test a theory I’ve never had a chance to test!

June: My hypothesis is, the Morphogenetic Field is able to transmit information across timelines.

June: Thus, “If I flip this coin, and focus on sending the result to the other timeline, it should show up in this one.”

June: Flipping the coin.

June[1]: Heads.

June[2]: Tails.

June: [img: A coin, landed on heads.]

June: EEEEEEEE-

Chapter Text

Ene: Oh no.

Ene: Haruka!

Ayano: What about him?

Ene: How could I have forgotten? He’s surely dead by now!

Ayano: Maybe he isn’t! We’re in the Kagerou Daze right now, so time’s all wonky.

Carmen: Oh? That might have something to do with an odd phenomenon I’ve noticed using the Relic. The device I use to contact this chat. Could you elaborate?

Ayano: It’s like… have any of you had a really, really long vacation? Months long?

June: I got to take a 2-month long break once. But it was when I was really, really young, so I don’t really remember it that well.

June: Parents moved between Japan and America a lot, and I went to American school for a year. So I got to experience a Summer Break.

Carmen: A break that lasts an entire day? I couldn’t even begin to imagine that.

June: ???

June: Try two-ish months.

June: But, again, I was a kid. I don’t remember it that well.

June: Closest thing Japan has is Golden Week - a week off from school and work. But I doubt it’s anywhere near what Ayano’s thinking of.

Carmen: A WEEK!?

Ayano: Is the City really that hectic, Carmen?

Carmen: You work, or you starve. It’s a fact of life.

Ayano: …

June: Ignoring that! I can kinda get what you mean, but not really.

June: “An eternity that ends in an instant,” right?

Ayano: Yeah! According to the fairytale, time is effectively stopped outside the Daze. The person who enters it will re-emerge at the instant they entered.

Ayano: So, Ene, if Haruka’s dead, he’s somewhere in the Daze right now. If he isn’t, he’ll still be alive when you decide to leave.

User ‘Ene’ has left.

Ayano: …She’s run off.

June: Hold on. Aren’t you relying on time to pass outside, so your dad stops killing kids?

Ayano: Yeah…

Ayano: I have a good reason, okay?

Ayano: At the end of the tale, the Medusa enters the Daze alone. When she did, time kept passing in the real world, so time must still pass in the Kagerou Daze.

Ayano: Just… really slowly.

Carmen: Hold on a moment. You killed yourself, risking everything on the existence of the Daze, without knowing for certain how it’d affect the world outside?

Ayano: …

Ayano: You don’t need to remind me that I’m dumb.

June: You should stop calling yourself that. If you keep saying you’re dumb, you can’t grow beyond that.

June: The action was dumb. Not you.

Chapter Text

Carmen: I believe the Daze’s time dilation may be affecting us as well.

Carmen: Every hand on the nearby clock stops when I have physical contact with the Relic.

June: You’re still using analog clocks? I thought your world was super advanced!

June: (But yes, I’ve noticed that too.)

Carmen: Digital clocks cost more, okay! We try to save money where we can. It’s why we don’t have fancy computers here either.

Carmen:

Carmen: I am suddenly very glad our lab is in the Outskirts, outside the City.

Carmen: This has to be breaking some kind of tax law. Infinite time, for seemingly free?

Carmen: Oh! It’s not infinite. The second hand just ticked.

June: Within 1 second real-time, we seem to experience 1000 seconds. (1 minute: 60 seconds. 10 minutes: 600 seconds. Then, 5 minutes: 300 seconds… 100 seconds left over, I can fit another minute into that.)

June: I estimate that, within the space of a single second outside, we experience 16 minutes and 40 seconds.

June: Sorry, I probably shouldn’t clog the chat with math, but I don’t have paper or a calculator handy.

Ayano: So… what does this mean for you two?

June: Well, I certainly wish I knew about this earlier. It would’ve made the setup a whole lot easier.

Carmen: I can’t let anyone else know about this, so… I could try teaching you?

Carmen: It’d be good practice. Kali found some kids while on an expedition, and insisted we took care of them.

Chapter Text

June: I can’t put this off any longer, sorry.

Ayano: ?

June: I have to go away for a while.

June: My entire existence is bound up in a time paradox, so-to-speak.

June: I need to set in motion the events that lead to my survival all those years ago.

June: If I return, well, you’re lucky. You’re in the timeline where I survived.

Carmen: Akane, don’t you dare.

June: I’m sorry. I wish there was a way you could help.

June: But it’s imperative that everything goes exactly as planned.

June: Don’t worry about me. Please.

June: I’ll be fine.

User ‘June’ has left.

Ayano: Just after Ene left, too…

Carmen: You’d almost think she planned it.

Carmen: I hope she knows what she’s doing.