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Tanabata, a human tradition that just so happened to line up with her birthday. A fragment of a legend that she got to live.
And now, the one that described her life, for the past five years that passed.
What do you see when you look at the sky?
A question she’s heard a thousand and one times before, one that be it her dream or mind keeps presenting her no matter whether she closes her eyes or if she keeps them open, not being able to tell the difference between the fantasies that her subconscious constructed for her and the reality she was awake to witness every time she heard it.
And yet it was one that she answered each time as if it was her first.
…
Probably the same as you
She wanted to let it be known, more badly than even she herself thought about it, because no matter what context, it was true.
I still want to know, even if it’s the same
Even if in the end, she was unable to do it in the first try, however that never saddened her on the contrary, it was endearing for her in ways that she couldn’t describe with words, a language spoken solely by a beat and a glow.
She always chuckled, but she never heard it.
Fine, fine
…
She was never able to properly continue right away, always remembering the truth that carried that statement, sometimes the words never even left her mouth and yet they were said nonetheless.
I see them, looking back at us, from the other side of theirs
Sometimes she heard her voice, sometimes she heard that of the others, she was never sure who said what at what point, which line, sentence or word. Their voices mixed in an interposition of one another to the point that sometimes she wondered if she was talking with herself or if the conversation ever took place.
Then…
Nothing.
Silence gave way to many things; concentration, serenity, comfort.
Noise.
Particularly the one that Lala had gotten used to waking up for a while now, that being her best friend snoring very quietly and yet ever so close to her ear, which was only a bother every now and then contrary to normal circumstances.
After all that was the reason she asked her to sleep with her, kind of.
With one free hand she rubbed one of her still fully awoken eyes and then the other, but not without letting out a particularly high pitched yawn, one that was somehow enough for her friend to listen.
“Mmmmmmm”
“Good Morning -lun”
“HmmmHmmHm”
Yuni hummed back to her, which she guessed was a good morning of some kind, probably the only one she managed to let out in her current state of dizziness, then she squeezed her even more than before like a big pillow, resulting in a rather comical and yet familiar position.
One that Lala had grown rather used to for a year.
One that she couldn’t sleep without anymore.
“We need to get going -lun”
“Mmmmmmmmm”
“...Yuni”
Without another word the cat girl rose from their bed, releasing Lala from her hold and stayed sat at the edge of it for a couple of minutes before she did the same, mostly to check she wouldn’t sleep sitting.
Again.
Lala pouted when she saw her previous attempts had only gotten her as far as ‘still in the bed, but not on it’. So she extended one of her antennae to her, touching her shoulder.
“I can wake you up if I need to, you know? -lun”
Yuni just let out a yawn that almost seemed like a ‘nah’ in response.
“You’re too nice to do that -nyawn”
With that final remark the Rainbownian finally got up and headed straight for the kitchen. Meanwhile Lala also got up, cracking several bones from her legs to her back all the way to her arms and neck in the process, a thing that was becoming more and more frequent as time went on.
Well, if anything it was always helpful to fully shake off sleep.
Once she arrived at the bathroom like every other morning she took a look in the mirror and therefore, to the tangled mess of hair she currently had to deal with, one of the many many things she decided she was going to grow used to if she wanted to keep it that way.
And she really wanted to.
Once her eyes managed to focus enough she reached out for the hairbrush to her right and started to do her routine while brushing the messed up lines of teal hair. It was a good exercise for the sleepy mind and she found that it really helped her keep her focus. After all, it made her think a lot.
“Lala Hagoromo, 17-”
No, she stopped mid sentence, that wasn't the right number anymore.
“-18 years old, Samanian, former Precure, Planetary Inspector of The Galactic Starscape Alliance”
The pride on that last one was felt with every fiber of her being, one big step she’d taken in her long way back, even if she still had just as long of a way ahead of her.
“5 years 7 months and 7 days have passed since the Precures saved the universe from the Notraider threat and their subsequent split up…-lun”
She ignored the hole in her chest and continued.
“Since then each of us has gone their separate ways in life-”
She stopped for a second, suppressing the -lun that wanted to come out of reflex and tried her best to recall, this was the mental exercise that Lala needed.
“Yuni has gone back to Planet Rainbow with Aiwarn to find a cure that can remedy the petrification of the planet so that the Rainbownians are able to rebuild their society”
She noticed the slight shuffle of feet that was close to her but apparently wanted to give an otherwise impression, even with all of her skill in stealth Yuni could do very little when she wasn’t a morning person.
Not that Lala could say she herself was one, but the point was there.
“Prunce went back to the Star Palace with the Star Princesses and Fuwa, to take care of her in hopes of someday recovering her full powers, Miss Yanyan also went with him”
A hope that had yet to die in any of their hearts, nothing to push Fuwa for but something that all of them still held out for in the end.
“And finally, I decided to work with The Galactic Starscape Alliance as a Planetary Inspector, which was only possible with the help of Leader Toppa and our friend Officer Mary Ann”
She heard Yuni shout lazily in the background ‘No one asked her’ and giggled at the added comment.
“I’ve been performing work for the Alliance in hopes to honing my skills enough so that I may be allowed to participate on the a mission to earth”
Something that I’m still ways away from, but that won’t stop me for long
“A few days ago we received a message from Prunce stating that Fuwa has been experiencing strange dreams that have been noted to be similar to a warp feeling, no more information than that was provided”
A spark of hope, one that managed to light itself like wildfire in more ways than even Lala herself expected, she thought that this would be something that the Princesses would look into themselves and they would be left waiting anxiously for the updates.
Then the dreams started.
“2 days after Yuni and I started to experience repeating dream sequences out of the ordinary that Aiwarn theorized had to do with Fuwa’s, in order to test this theory we’ve travel to the Star Palace and have conducted 6-”
Again, that wasn’t the number anymore, so she retracted.
“-I mean, 8 days worth of research -lun”
She silently cursed her own fumbled -lun and proceeded.
“Running experiments on a device invented by Aiwarn dubbed “The Dream Walker MK7”, with no information of what happened to the previous six versions”
Once again, she heard Yuni shout from the Kitchen ‘You don’t want to know’ and continued.
“With no significant results…until a day ago, at exactly 3:24am when during one of the experiments, we managed to attain a strong connection, enough for a small spatial anomaly corresponding with a warp to start forming, however that was the whole extended of it”
At least physically, but the experience inside the shared dream was something else entirely. It was so real, so jarring that when they were pulled out from there, she was afraid of not knowing whether she was really out of the machine or if this was also part of the dream.
Which is why this time around, as the very first instance of it happening since they arrived here, Lala managed to stay awake longer than Yuni, not a good sign in any way imaginable.
Plus, even if she didn’t fully understand it herself, she was sure that while inside she could hear a voice…her voice, guiding her.
Yuni said that she only heard the usual whispers, but even so, all the more reason that it meant something, right?
Well, she was going to find that out today.
“Aiwarn has been analyzing the data as best as she can with the help of AI, and they believe that they’ve found the answer, which will be applied in today’s test”
Then Lala took a very deep breath before shouting at the top of her lungs-
“-LUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!!!!!!!!”
Only to then flop backwards to the floor with a slight thud.
Feeling way better and completely awake now, Lala took another look at the mirror, seeing the handy work at transforming the unintelligible mess of teal in her head, into a pair of well kept, and very cute if she may add, pair of long twintails.
Reviewing it one more time making sure that everything was in order, she nodded to her reflection with an audible -’lun!’ before making her way to the kitchen.
The moment she crossed the door frame, a familiar voice spoke to her.
“Good Morning Lala-sama”
“Good Morning AI, though I already told you that you can drop the ‘sama’ -lun”
Lala said, making her way to the table where Yuni was already sitting, with a mug in hand, reading some sort of holographic report.
“It would be inappropriate for me to referrer a such someone of your importance Lala-sama, both as an Inspector and as a Precure”
“But I’m no longer a Precure though, and right now I’m not on duty so I’m just regular Lala -lun”
She took a seat and from the table a milk cup was dispensed for her to take.
“Besides we’re friends -lun”
AI hummed for a little bit after her remark.
“I’ll keep it in mind, Lala”
She nodded with a smile and grabbed her cup, stirring it a little bit so that it would cool down enough for her to drink.
“You know that you’re not giving a report, right?”
Lala lifted up her gaze from her morning drink, her attention now focused on her friend talking to her.
“-lun?”
“The thing you do in the mirror, you don’t have to go that hard on it, almost makes it sound like mind numbing exposition -nya”
“It helps me focus -lun”
“I heard, from here all the way to Saman”
And that wouldn’t still be long enough
“But seriously, it’s kind of unnerving hearing you talk that long without a single “lun” -nya”
“But there is one -lun”
Lala answered pouting while doing so, she knew it was weird that much was true, but it was also something she felt necessary so being openly criticized by her best friend like this made it feel rather silly.
Yuni probably picked up on this, changing the subject to something that both of them were eager to ask but avoided doing so for the sake of having a normal morning, at least as normal as they could possibly get.
“So…did you sleep well?”
Lala drank a sip of her cup before answering, buying herself a little bit of time to word correctly her answer, not to hide anything from Yuni, but rather because it was becoming increasingly difficult to find a detail way to describe the same sequence they’ve been seeing for over a week without calling it “faint voices” that either of them couldn’t make out completely.
Plus, there was no sign of her voice today, a fact that had Lala down even before starting the day.
“ -lun, I think the voices are becoming clearer for me, I could definitely tell I was the one answering this time -lun”
“Really?”
Lala nodded.
“I’m about 88% sure -lun”
“That is higher than other times -nya”
Yuni remarked before taking a sip of her mug and diverting her attention briefly back at what she was reading before, which from what Lala could make out now that she was closer, was indeed a report of Aiwarn, however this was about the depetrification process along some other updates on returning vegetation to the planet.
With a side glance to her finger Lala could see the ring of her friend adopting a luminescent yellow.
“Good news -lun?”
“Mhm, we finally got some vegetation growing around, at this pace it won’t be long before we can see water in the canals like before”
“That’s great -lun!”
Yuni nodded and continued looking at the report for about maybe another minute before leaving it again and turning to face Lala, part of her felt her pain and frustration, it’d been 5 long years that she had worked with Aiwarn to finally restore her home planet, nevermind the rest of the time she spent doing it alone. And just when it was starting to bear fruits they had to pretty much halt all processes to turn their attention here.
Again, even if this could lead to some sort of breakthrough with Fuwa’s powers it still hurts.
Don’t worry Yuni, I know you’ll be able to show them how all of our efforts resulted when we meet again -lun
“More importantly,-” she said with a sigh before continuing “-there’s no change on my side, expect that maybe this time I heard us talking with Madoka, but I don’t know who said what -nya”
Lala nodded in acknowledgement, without a clear reason or casualty for whatever had happened with her they were stuck, hopefully Aiwarn could solve that issue today.
Even if Lala already had her own hypothesis on why that was.
“I don’t think you should drink too much coffee -lun”
Said Lala once she noticed that the contents of her friend’s mug were indeed of the brown substance, in other circumstances she wouldn’t have said a word, this situation however called for it.
“You think so?”
“-lun, It may affect today’s test -lun”
Yuni opened her mouth to dispute it until she thought about it better and decided to instead just leave her coffee on the table while mumbling ‘Whose brilliant idea was to wake us in the morning just to go back to sleep’.
And as if to answer her question, the speakers came to life with the voice of AI.
“Lala, Yuni-sama, Aiwarn-sama is requesting your presence in the testing area, the final calibrations are complete”
“Right…”
She said simply as she stood up from her seat and started to make her way out of the kitchen.
“Let’s go -nya”
Lala quickly gulped on her cup of milk as quickly as she could, maybe even a bit too quickly, and followed her friend the same way trying not to cough too much in the process.
“Hey, slow down, we’re not in that much of a hurry -nya”
“Oyo-...”
Was the only thing Lala could muster in response as she finally stopped her attempt on her life at the hands of milk…she really wished she could say that this case wasn’t that frequent.
When they arrived at the entrance, the door opened letting in the light of day invade their senses for a minute, until they finally got used to it enough to instead bask in the sensation.
Even after all this time the scenery still left them just wanting to gaze at it more and more, like a beautiful painting you could stare all day to, there was just more to see and enjoy with just the tiniest detail the eye could fall upon; whether it was the tall greenery surrounding them up to were the the line of the horizon was drawn marking the beginning of the sky, one that unlike many she had visited before left leeway for those who wanted to gaze upon the starry sky as they didn’t only showed themselves at night, a beautiful stellar firmament only rivaled by its own mirror image, reflected within the bodies of water big or small that laid scattered along the landscape, some of them serving as perfect places to display the innumerable rainbows hovering above them gently as if to say hello to anyone looking up or coming down from the clouds.
Truth be told, Lala liked this place a lot.
“Oh, and before the rest of the day gets in the way-”
“Oyo-?”
“-Happy Birthday Lala”
Yuni warped Lala with one of her arms in what the latter guessed was going to be a hug and later turned out to be a hold that facilitated her the task of messing her hair, and beret, with her other hand.
She struggled for a little while trying not to trip until she was released, finding that mercifully most of Yuni’s affection was received by her beret which was a little wrinkled now, leaving her carefully done hair intact.
“Thanks Yuni -lun”
She nodded in response at the same time that Lala fixed her headwear to look as presentable before.
“Maybe after all this is over we can celebrate it properly with everynyan, what do you say? -nya”
A memory came back to Lala as fast as one of Fuwa’s warps, it was a fond memory, she held on tight to it, keeping it vividly in her mind.
“That would be wonderful -lun”
Going down the small hill they parked the Rocket in, they found themselves closing in on a rather small round house of about two stories with few windows and decorations outside, it was nothing special really just a modest house for one of their most modest friends and his family. Surrounding the house however was the real reason they came here, a collection of tents and makeshift stations with different types of apparatus sticking out of them, mostly cables, plenty of cables.
A small crowd of people had already gathered near Aiwarn’s rocket, who was actually among the individuals herself holding some sort of tablet very similar to the one Yuni had before and with visor over her eye, it took her a moment before spotting them. As in, she didn’t, at all, she was too busy looking at was probably the state of the Dream Walker to pay attention to the things around her.
So as always, the first one to spot their arrival came to them like a fluffy and adorable projectile.
“You’re here -fuwa!”
Lala hugged her small friend, putting behind her thoughts about how much her strength was really gone if she couldn’t even tackle her like before, instead choosing to greet her with Yuni.
“Sorry for the delay -lun”
“What delay? You’re just in time -puruns”
Prunce hovered closer to the both of them with his parent’s not too far behind him, Lala still had in the back of her mind the idea of preparing some sort of thanking gift for all their generosity, she just had to find the right thing in her spare time.
If that was still a thing she had.
“Did you sleep well dears?”
“-lun, it’s a little bit different since it happened, b-but nothing to be concerned about Miss -lun”
“Besides, we’ll be put back to sleep really soon by the looks of things -nya”
Yuni glanced past the small family to the machine and the one eyed crazy scientist that was in charge of it, only to realize that there were two other figures still in that same place, one of them being Yanyan who was actually in a conversation with the other humanoid person.
“Great, what’s she doing here?”
Everyone immediately turned to where she was looking and upon immediate visual contact Prunce’s Dad turned back to her to answer the question.
“Ah, Officer Mary Ann has come in official business with Yanyan-san, but she said that she wanted to stick around for the test”
“So we have an audience now -nya”
“Technically we’ve always had one -lun”
Besides, it’s not like they can actually see what we do -lun
“You know what I mean”
“Well, if you want to get done with it faster then let's not waste more time -puruns”
Yuni nodded with a few ok’s coming out of her while walking along, Lala on her part followed behind them while engaging in a conversation of her own with Prunce’s mother.
“We’re really grateful for taking care of Fuwa, even before all of this happened -lun”
“Ah, nonsense dear it’s a pleasure for us, she’s such a joy to be around and I can see how close she’s with my little Prunce, all of you really”
Lala noticed out of the corner of her eye the second hand embarrassment coming from the face of Prunce while hovering ever so slightly more ahead of them.
She smiled softly, some things never changed.
“We’ve been through plenty together -lun, he’s always been there for us like a voice of reason and encouragement -lun”
“I’m glad to hear it”
Lala noticed some hints of pride displaying in her when she turned to look at her son and couldn’t help but feel the same on her own way, after all he was, for a good part of a year the caretaker of not just Fuwa but to all of them in some way or another, Lala specially felt that way towards him since they’d been together the longest.
Part of her still couldn’t help but look back at the first time they met and be amazed at how much things had changed moving forward with that singular encounter.
The more she petted Fuwa’s soft fur while in her arms, the more she had to steer herself back into the right here and now, the next part was about to start, and she’ll need to have her wits about if she hopes to find something this time.
“Ah! There you are! I was wondering when you were going to show up!”
Even after 5 years of extensive work as an Officer of the Alliance, Mary Ann still held that upbeat and optimistic tone and energy that defined her for so long, much to Lala’s delight and Yuni’s annoyance it seems.
“Eventually, we are the ones required for this, you know?”
“So I’ve heard! Inspector Lala’s reports have stated as much!-”
“And since when does she have permission to read those -nya?”
Yuni turned to Lala, suddenly bringing her back completely by surprise alone catching her off guard, she squeezed Fuwa a little bit, enough to get an audible squeak and then scrambled for an explanation.
She was instead outsped in her response by the officer in question.
“Since I was assigned to deliver a special item to your efforts in hope to help expedite the process!”
Mary Ann made a salute enthusiastically at the two of them, something that she’d been doing since her rookie days 5 years ago and probably something that wouldn’t go away any time soon like her perkiness.
Even if it brought her it's few problems from time to time.
“I thought you came here for Yanyan-san”
Yuni turned to look behind her where she saw the small hermit crab-like friend of theirs holding a small stack of official looking papers that she was going through with the help of Prunce’s parents who made their way to her.
Once she realized she was being watched, she gave a friendly wave with one of her pincers.
“Hey girls! Best of luck today -yan!”
Lala returned a ‘thank you -lun!’ with Yuni instead waving back with a slightly awkward smile.
“Wait, a special item -lun? Are you referring to-”
“That’s right Inspector! Presenting-”
She dug through her pockets until finally, she brought out the familiarly shaped pink device.
“-a Miracle light! A present from everyone back at HQ to help in your efforts Inspector!”
She handed over the small light to Yuni uncharacteristically careful, the motion nearly weirded her out however she instead focused on receiving what was possibly the first chance at success in over a week of continuous failures and dead ends.
“I-I can’t believe it -nya”
“You can thank the high command later Blue Cat!”
Yuni perked up at the mention of her former moniker, clearly going from deeply moved to somewhat comically annoyed.
“You’re still calling me that? I already told you, call me Yuni, Yu-ni”
She used her free hand to do a few motions emphasizing her point as she spoke.
“It’s not that hard to say -nya”
“I’ll reserve that for when you’ve paid your sentence due Blue Cat! Even if you helped save the Universe!”
“Exactly, I was pardoned, I’m not even in your wanted list anymore”
“I stand by my reasons!”
Yuni facepalmed herself with a sigh in defeat, maybe they should check the records of the Association just to check how long exactly was her sentence before, maybe then they could know for how long Mary Ann was keeping this up. And possibly if they could do something about it.
“So like, are you two done with your bickering or what? We still have some tests to conduct”
Aiwarn’s voice broke through the crowd, apparently she had decided to look up from her tablet the moment Yuni’s banter with Mary Ann became too much for her, that or she had finally finished checking whatever she was looking at.
“We’re, in fact we have something for you -nya”
Aiwarn tilted her head to the side and looked at Yuni intrigued.
“This will give us a big hand today”
She handed over the miracle light to Aiwarn who looked at the thing more intrigued than perplexed, and it was at that time that Lala questioned herself if she knew what a miracle light was or if they were going to have an explanation in their hands. By now she had just assumed that it was common knowledge, at least to everyone within the Starscape Alliance.
“How did you get a hold of one of these?”
Lala let out a sigh of relief.
“Thanks to Miss nosy over there”
Mary Ann’s face lit up with her signature enthusiasm and gave a salute at her acknowledgement. Aiwarn quickly eyed her up and down before determining that she was worth the trouble to poke at and moved on with full focus.
“Great, well I’ll see where I can hook this up where it won’t blow us away to the next galaxy”
Lala gulped audibly at the throwaway comment, even if that were to happen it wasn’t the way she wanted to see her friends again, she’d rather just stick to her original plan.
“I’m going to ignore that and trust that you know exactly what you’re doing -nya”
“But of course I do, like who do you think created this?”
Aiwarn turn to Yuni with a confidently maybe crazy looking grin as she pressed some buttons in a console and then lowered a lever on the side that emitted some sparks accompanied with a low hum that eventually became higher and higher in pitch until it faded, lights sprung to life marking the activation of the machine’s main systems.
“...Hey, since when did turning on that thing was that concerning?”
Lala shrugged to Yuni’s whispered question before they both saw Aiwarn walk to the side of the machine fiddling with something that resembled the compartment of energy where Lala had seen her jam some of those tubes like batteries, this one however held a different interior, one rather more spacious and with different components. Once she put the miracle light inside which left it floating in place, the function of said components became clear.
Yuni loosened her shoulders and took a deep sigh at the sound of cracking, it wasn’t as severe as the Saman firecracker that was Lala, but the sound was audible enough.
“Welp, we better get going unless we want to get an earful out of her -nya”
Lala nodded and immediately handed over Fuwa to Prunce, not without cuddling her one last time though, and started walking towards the interior of the machine.
“Good luck -fuwa…”
“Take care -puruns”
Was the only thing they both heard before the noises of several different components inside the machine occupied their ears, Lala always hated the over stimuli that this place brought her and could only imagine Yuni’s own grievances on the matter having enhanced hearing, even if she never voiced any of them.
However the part that she disliked the worst was when that cacophony of hardware slowly left her ears until there wasn’t even her breathing to hear anymore.
Before the two of them laid two metallic reclined seats, each already molded and customized into their height, shape and frame, after lying down in them Lala extended her antennae into some special slots made for them and waited until the screen above displayed the word ´calibrated’. Yuni did something similar but with her right hand where she wore her rainbow ring, which was magnified into a screen shaped crystal where its color was displayed along some other readings.
Glancing to her side Lala locked eyes with Yuni, who gave her a reassuring smile and a nod, as if saying that everything today will be alright, she chose to give a smile of her own back with a determined look on her face.
Once she straightens her head out of the low corner of her eyes she can make out all Prunce and Mary Ann saying something, whether it’s to them or to each other she doesn’t know, nor what exactly is it but she knows that at least part of it is them cheering for their success.
Then the speakers in their stations spoke with Aiwarn’s voice.
“Alright ladies we’re about to start, close your eyes, take a deep breath, relax and have sweet dreams”
And so they did, the darkness arrived as soon as their eyelids finished enveloping their eyes, from here on out they will be on their own, no amount of times doing this helped make it any easier making the only thing actually pushing her being her determination.
She wanted answers, they wanted results, overall some sort of conclusion would be welcome, and if hearing her voice last time was an indication that she was getting closer to any of those? Then she would find it again with all her will.
I’m going in, please help me one more time, Hikaru…
Seconds later, the noise became silence.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Silence gave way to many things; peace, quietude, pondering.
Recollection.
Lala opened her eyes and she found herself in a familiar yet unknown location that she couldn’t quite make out, it made sense though, that’s how it had always gone with the other times they attempted this test. Thrown into an amalgamation of the places she’d been to, the locations her memory still could describe down to the detail and the relative areas her mind could piece together semi convincingly with her imagination, all squished together into a disarray so chaotic that the possibility of getting lost here was very real.
Normally they’d just have to find the point where the voices would be loud enough for them, that was both the only way to not stray and to get out of their dream, even if that was getting them nowhere.
Welp, that was another matter entirely, first she had to move and retrace her steps from last time. So she walked in a straight line until she saw the buildings start to change and shift, so of them she recognized like the Mihoshi plaza or one of the research buildings in Saman, others however were as foreign to her as a distant thought that she entertained for a second and then let go, never to be remember it again.
She checked her hands just to be sure that there was a notable change in progress, and indeed there was, just like the other times now she found herself looking like she did 5 years ago, small, short haired, with her favorite shoes, skirt and jacket, and of course AI’s glove in her right hand. She felt no changes however, not until after she had noticed the transition, just a few moments ago she never felt like everything else got taller, how she suddenly was free from the two long tails of hair on her sides only to be covered by a slightly short curtain of it on her back neck, not even when she was no longer under the heat that brought her uniform as opposed to the freshness of her old attire.
The changes would keep happening, that wasn’t nearly close to a reason to stop, it never mattered if she changed here, she was still Lala and she would find her voice again.
Eventually she arrived at a slightly less warped location, she immediately recognized it, or more like there was no way that she could forget this place. It was the benches by the lake, close to one of the bridges that led to the plaza she just got out from, and it wasn’t alone.
A ghostly figure sat in her lonesome on the left side of said bench, mostly obscure from view but her silhouette was clearer than daylight, Lala could never confuse that pair of twin tails.
“I don’t know why it made the sound, so I went to Star Donuts in the shopping district, hoping for a hint, they hear all sorts of rumors…And when she told me about the firefly, I thought that might be it”
She almost melted from the memory, she couldn’t believe that she managed to find one from so long ago. This was as far back as the very beginning, when only Hikaru and her were Precure, when they were learning how exactly to use their pendants to track down the pens.
When they fought about it and nearly broke up.
She knew that it wasn’t necessary for her to answer her, it was just a memory after all, even with the freedom of a dream it would still repeat the same lines at her, no matter what her answer was.
Still she couldn’t help but get close to her, almost kneeling until she remembered that they were about the same height now.
“That’s right, thank you -lun, you helped me to open myself to other things and not zone into one way of doing things, to think outside the box instead and understand different perspectives instead of just sticking to what I was taught, I can now say that I have my own way of doing things and I hope to show you soon enough -lun”
It nodded back at her, the resolution between them complete, even if that wasn’t really her, the feelings that Lala held as she spoke were true, and so was every word that came out of her.
So she continued her path, ignoring the next line that the silhouette said in response, knowing it by heart. After that interaction she walked until an area looking like the path of the forest to the rocket fused with some snow and ice presented itself for her to tread, each step taken until then had the whispers finally start to make her company, nothing too bothersome or intense yet just slight fragments of their voices speaking random words from conversations no longer present.
The cacophony made for a good distraction from the cumbersome that it was to continue her path with this frozen winter land covering everything, even if it was trying its dangest to make her slip and fall that was all it could do.
After managing to climb to where the clear was supposed to be, instead she found herself inside one of the spacious buildings in Saman, one where they held out conferences and announcements. It was like the one her brother was in when they went to Saman that time, except that it was infused with a piece of the candy store of the shopping district, the counters displayed an array of things that didn’t belong there and some where even too big to fit conventionally on them and so they phased through it like a badly coded videogame.
Then the silhouettes confirmed it for her, this was indeed the award ceremony of her brother for his work with the Princess Star Color Pen, all of them were there, her parent’s, Leader Toppa, Chief inspector Kuku, even the rest of her friends were there.
“In recognition for your achievement of locating the princesses power, as representative of the Galactic Starscape Alliance, I bestow upon you this medal”
Toppa’s voice boomed throughout the room, making his words heard even more than she remembered at the time. She watched as the silhouette of his brother accepted the prize and turned to look at the ‘crowd’ gathered there, looking back at this made her think like she hadn’t for a while.
I don’t think that I can ever forget this day, it was both good and bad for me -lun, I remember coming back home after spending a good few months on earth, even through all of the unpleasantness of it I still was glad to see my family again, especially you Onii -lun
She unconsciously gripped her fists with more strength that she could’ve possibly used.
…even if a part of me couldn’t help but feel that envy and jealousy that always haunted your presence for me, you are still my brother -lun and I wanted to feel happy for you in spite of my own issues…
Then, her grip was released.
Now, after all that’s happened I feel like this time, I can truly clap for you with happiness -lun
So she clapped, honestly and sincerely proud and happy for what was back then the greatest achievement that her twin had done, she didn’t realize that when her hands began so did the ones of the others, making that thunderous applause just as loud and energetic as she remembered.
Accidentally looking at a mirrored surface however showed her the reflection of Cure Milky, not Lala Hagoromo, however when she looked at her hands and clothes they weren’t the distinctly brightly colored ones of her old Cure form. So she walked towards the surface, it was a wall, so shining and smooth as only Saman could manage to pull off and realized that the closer she got the more Cure Milky faded, leaving instead a path like that of a corridor but with gaps and openings replacing the walls but not the ceiling.
Like if it was always there.
The whispers got louder, now she could pick them up but never what they said, Lala braced herself thinking just how long she would need to tune them out yet again so that they wouldn’t chip away at her sanity, she’d rather sleep early today thank you very much.
Lala tried to open some of the doors that were on the sides of the corridor, but she couldn’t, each time she did her attempts were met with nothing but a lock, a seal, a refusal to just let her deviate from the path straight ahead.
Finally without any other option she went to the final door, the only one willing to give her access to the rest of the path, this one had a console much like the ones in Saman, after the compartment opened with a pair of antennae like devices Lala made her own touch them illuminating both sets of yellow orbs on them, with that done the door opened side to side and the devices retracted to not be seen again.
The other side of the door surprised Lala a little bit, it was a mash up between her old classroom at Mihoshi Middle School with a room she hadn’t seen in a while, one that she hoped to never see again. Out of reflex she checked herself for any change and found that her attire was now that of Mihoshi Middle School, a fact that she found comfort in if she was right about what this place, what this moment was.
Off in the distance, close to what appeared to be the front of a classroom combined with a podium like the one of the previous room she was in, she saw a small crowd of silhouettes that she recognized as her family along with some other important figures of Saman.
Lala hesitantly got close, the slight mishap in her step being caused by the memories this day brought on her as an involuntary response, she had grown past this day, past the feeling of worthlessness that it caused her, past the small role given to her that made her feel even smaller. Where she stood now was no place that Mother’s AI algorithm could’ve ever predicted and she was going to show that prowess with pride.
Gradually her steps became more relaxed, casual, even if it was a conscious effort on her part, the gradual shift was real, eventually having no trouble whatsoever by the time she reached her family.
The speakers crackled to life with Mother AI’s voice.
“ID 90862772: Lolo”
Following her cue, her brother walked away from her into the podium where he was surrounded with floating camera drones that proceeded to analyze him from every angle possible, while undergoing that process Mother’s voice reverberated in the speakers still.
“Optimistic, collected, intellectually gifted, creative, rational, prone to taking initiative, with a significant ease handling complex systems and a natural sense of curiosity. These traits are a statistical scarcity to possess in a single individual, given role calculated: 1st rank investigator”
Everyone awed at the statement, first ranked inspectors where a huge deal after all, as a minimum they where the best of the best in Saman handling a mastery of the widest array of disciplines one could think of, with the exceptional ones being great figures of renown that had changed the history of their planet in their time.
So for her brother to be recognized as one of those geniuses, it was a big deal overall.
“ID 90862773: Lala”
She heard the voice of mother utter those words and walked up to the podium like her brother, not out of a sense of obligation or because it was needed for her to continue, after all these sequences were just fragments of a play that was always repeating itself for them to stare at. No, she walked with the same confidence that built up before this, knowing the words, the lines that she was going to hear yet again, deciding, describing, devaluating her and her alone.
But it had been long enough since she let those things be her truth.
So she stood at the center, just in the same place where her brother was, and extended her arms, welcoming the clutter of camera drones that started to envelope her with their scanners, hovering around her like a swarm waiting for the right moment to fully enclose her, leaving no visual trace of her person.
“Lala Hagoromo-”
“Pessimistic-”
“-18 years old, Samanian-”
“-Short-tempered, intellectually average-”
“-former Precure, Planetary-”
“-diligent, adept at following orders-”
“-Inspector of The Galactic Starscape Alliance-”
“-prone at emotional outbursts-”
“-5 years 7 months and 7 days have passed-”
“-with a significant affinity for realizing tasks in a single track minded focus-”
“-since me and my friends saved the universe from the Notraiders-”
“-and a natural stronger body structure capable of dealing with most physical tasks-”
“-and we had to say goodbye to each other-”
“-few notable traits owned, statistically reaching the average-”
“-we’ve all gone our separate ways…-”
“-given role calculated:-”
“-And even knowing better, after spending all those wonderful moments together-”
“-8th rank investigator”
“-I still can’t help but feel-”
The sudden murmurs and whispers of the crowd in the speakers did little to quell her anxiety, even in the obscure silhouettes of her family, their facial features of concern were still as clear as her mind allowed her to recall.
“-so, so-”
Suddenly the whispers shot up, drowning out all the murmurs that she may have been able to make out, just as the drones decided to stop hiding her behind their curtain of a swarm, letting her bare and out in the open for everyone to see, the worthless child before her genius brother, two sides of the same coin.
“-stuck -LUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!”
When she opened her eyes there was no other figure standing beside her, not her family nor the drones, everything was just empty.
The whispers were gone as well.
She started to panic slightly, had she messed up? No, if that was the case then she would start to see the space around her decaying like that one time Aiwarn had to pull her out forcibly, but there was no headaches, no sort of sign that something around her was going to fall apart, she was just alone truly and surely alone.
Had she just discovered a new thing? Should she still continue with things as they are right now?
All of her questioning was single handedly silent the moment her eyes managed to spot a spark in the distance, like the warmth of daylight coming through a keyhole Lala’s eyes narrowed and focused solely on it and the sensation that it caused her, the familiar sensation that is. One that she felt that time everyone got sucked into the Miracle Light Factory, and the time they had to deal with the whole ordeal with UMA.
The light of hope, guiding my way like a miracle -lun
Lala noted just how much the Miracle Light earned its moniker and without thinking about it twice she decided to follow it, after all there was only one possible source, and just like always there couldn’t be a possible better time for it to show up and light the path.
She thought all of this, ignoring the almost grayish color saturation that the glow had adopted in stark contrast with its light intensity that characterized it.
Once she got close enough for the light to envelope her senses she was blinded by it before suddenly banishing, leaving Lala alone in some sort of void where there was nothing at all, no ground to stand on, no sky to look up to, no trace of any sort of land let alone anyone or anything else. It was just her left alone with her thoughts, and said thoughts ran rampant.
She didn’t know why but ever since waking up she’s been acting weird, letting all this little things get to her more than usual, get hung up on the small things that reminded her of her earthling friends, letting old wounds long healed start to become sore again dragging her down like before, and she couldn’t placed why.
Where was her pride back there? Her composure, her self confidence, all that was her melted so fast and hard when those words reached her ears once again, it made Lala feel so frustrated with herself, it was almost like she was throwing away all her growth in the past 5 years, all the experiences the lessons, the support from her friends.
All the while that question kept nagging at her, why?
Why?
Why?
No matter how many times it bounced inside her mind there simply was no answer
Stuck.
That’s what she said out loud back there, but it wasn’t quite that after all, instead of staying still, immobile in one spot where what was and what is stood she felt more like growing backwards, like somehow for some reason, that little girl who was destined to nothing and let nothing inside with her never really changed, she was sad, she was scared, she was alone.
She wanted her family.
She wanted her friends.
She wanted-
“This line is the most important part of the movie”
Another voice finally managed to snap her back into reality, no not reality just out her mind echoing growing concerns back at her like feedback. But still though, she knew that voice, quite gruffled and firm as it spoke, giving clear instructions to follow, it was one that she hadn’t heard in a long time but she had yet to forget it, or better said him.
Immediately examining her surroundings Lala found herself in her normal attire, and form for that matter, in the middle of the forest, it wasn’t the same one from Mihoshi Town but rather the nightly lit luminous one from the planet Scenedream, the one she showed the others when they went to Saman for the first time in the recreation dome, one of her admittedly favorite places.
And yet the sequence playing in front of her wasn’t one she wanted to particularly remember right now, frankly it could arguably be the least one she wanted to think about in this situation.
A silhouette nodded in affirmation and immediately made its way towards her, its movements wary but still, portraying emotion with all the naturality of someone about to have their heart jump out of their mouth. It really was just like back then, and yet even at that moment they understood what this scene meant, it was why it carried as much emotion as it did, why even P.P. Abrahams decided to keep the scene as raw and unrefined as it was.
“It feels weird looking at this again -lun”
For a moment she wondered why there was only who she guessed was Hikaru’s silhouette in front of her when Elena, Madoka, and plenty of other people where present at the time, however she decided to chalk it up to the dreamscape being funky again, specially since she didn’t exactly had much time to dwell on it.
“I’m sorry you have to see me like this -lun, Honestly not even I know what’s happening anymore, not here-” Lala pointed with her arms around her to point at the entire scenery.
“-or in here -lun” She then pointed at her chest.
“It’s all a mess so disorganized that I don’t even feel like the usual me -lun, and no matter how much I try there’s no way I can make sense out of it on my own -lun”
She allowed herself to be too absorbed into her own words, trying to untangle the complex web that had become her current self, trying to find the rhyme or reason, maybe even the cause of all of this.
So much so that she didn’t even notice Hikaru letting her continue despite having said more than her two lines.
“And it’s not just me, Yuni’s in the same situation and we don’t even know how to help each other, so far she’s been able to endure it thanks to her own work finally paying off, but that hasn’t been consistent -lun”
There were times, fewer than she would like to admit outloud, but she thanked her surviving conscience that there were, when she stopped for a second in between her dreams and wondered just how exactly Yuni was doing in her own dreams. It stood significantly for her because if they were displayed in the same vein as hers and taking into account the amount of trauma and grief she had to overcome from her own past alone, not even including recent stuff they shared, it really was a great cause of concern for her.
However she didn’t seem that worse for wear, unlike her.
She didn’t know if she was just better at hiding it or dealing with it, but the times where they spoke about what they saw inside and just how much it shook them Yuni always seemed to recount it, not detached but yet nor over dramatic as well so she could never tell how much was the impact on her.
“...I think that what I want to say is…we miss you, I miss you, all of you, and I really wished you could be here with us, so we could figure it out together…”
…
“But I guess that is too much to ask right now, you’re…not here and I need to learn to deal with that, for my sake and for Yuni’s -lun…”
If only I could do it as easily as I saw it -lun
She felt a hand touching her, the sensation of the texture was so alien to her and yet as familiar as it could be that she jolted backwards from the surprise, when she saw what it was Lala found that Hikaru’s silhouette had changed, now it was something that she couldn’t make out, it was taller, with shorter hair and the outlines of shapes as clothes she couldn’t even begin to recognize.
“It’s ok”
She stared in disbelief, this…she didn’t remember this, was this a thing that ever happened? The voice…it sounds like Hikaru’s but not quite, she had never heard something like that before.
“Everything will be alright, no matter what, ok?”
Wait a minute…this sounded really similar to .͟.͟.͟s͟ᴉ͟ ʇ͟ɐ͟ɥ͟M͟ ?͟ɥ͟n͟ɥ͟ ,͟ǝ͟ɥ͟ʇ͟
⫣N͞⊫ ⫣O͞⊫ ⫣N͞⊫ ⫣O͞⊫ ⫣T͞⊫ ⫣A͞⊫ ⫣G͞⊫ ⫣A͞⊫ ⫣I͞⊫ ⫣N͞⊫
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lala stared blankly at her plate full of nutritional gummies not really feeling like eating them right now, even if the protests of her stomach said otherwise. Among the things that she dearly missed from earth one definitely had to be the cuisine, it was really telling the level of skill of earth’s dishes that not even in 5 years worth of training and work as Planetary inspector had Lala found anything that even came close to it, even if Saman was working very diligently to do so after her own introduction of it.
So for now she contented herself with poking at the colorful jello and watching them wiggle while thinking before she was allowed back in again.
It’d been a couple of hours since Aiwarn had to pull the plug on her again, which halted not only her own excursion but also Yuni’s, who apparently had been doing pretty decently until they had to be let out.
She still felt responsible for it, even if everyone else told her otherwise.
“You’re not eating -fuwa?”
Her small fluffy friend came floating from above while peeking from Lala’s head, using her beret as a makeshift cushion. Lala patted her a little before giving her answer.
“I’m not that hungry -lun”
“You should still eat”
Lala looked across the small table to find her friend munching on her own meal, extending one small piece of it in the air for Fuwa to go and snatch it since she was no longer restricted to eat from dishes of the twinkle book exclusively, specially since they no longer had the book anyways.
“6 hours straight dreaming means that your body’s bound to feel hungry -nya”
Lala’s only response was a lazy ‘Oyo-’ while she let herself rest on the table using her arms to accommodate her head.
“In a minute -lun”
Yuni hummed in response probably debating whether to keep insisting or to just trust her friend and let the subject rest, eventually she settled just for glazing into the distance to where the machine was, spectating the current argument that was going on between Mary Ann and Aiwarn, the two surely made an interesting combination when speaking like an immovable object meets an irresistible force, it was a total mystery which would give in first or if anyone would for that matter.
“I’m still thinking about it -lun”
“Hm? About what you saw?”
“Mhm, I’m sure that was the Miracle Light -lun”
“And we believe you, but like Aiwarn already confirmed that wasn’t ours -nya”
And Lala believed that as well, but it still didn’t make sense for her, if their Miracle Light wasn’t the source of the one she saw in there, then what was it?
Not only that, but there was also the thing that happened right at the end.
"It almost sounded like her -lun…"
"Maybe it was -nya"
"But that wouldn't make any sensei -lun, even if it's a dream intertwined with Fuwa's Powers and Precure Magic or something, why would it be right now? -lun"
Even while stating her reasons Lala's voice sounded like she was the one trying the hardest to convince herself, not out of rejection of the idea, she would never do that. However-
"What changed in between these last 5 years to make this happen, what made this possible now -lun…”
Yuni sighed and moved closer with her chair so that she could pet Lala from her head all the way to her hair.
“I wish I could tell you -nya”
“Same here”
Both of them looked up to see the pair of friends making their way to them, Aiwarn held her tablet as she spoke and Lala could notice that her gaze was shifting between them and the contents of it.
“So instead I can give you an approximation”
“What do you mean?”
“Aiwarn-san managed to find the real source of the light Inspector Lala saw!”
Aiwarn coughed before interjecting herself, something that they both picked up on as a sot of bad omen since she would normally take a compliment in her work like that in stride, with extra confidence to boot.
That is, unless there was something wrong.
“Ahem, yes I did, but like…” she sighed in defeat after foregoing to come up with a decent explanation “here just, take a look”
She handed the tablet to Yuni, who held it in a position where Lala was also able to see it. Fuwa, who was playing a little with Prunce in the background until they saw the group of 4 forming, also peeked from above them, hovering.
The device displayed data regarding, not one but two signatures that were marked as ‘Unidentified Miracle Light’ probably by Aiwarn, most of it was actually so scarce that Lala had to restrain herself from making a face at the blatant lack of information besides what was assumed from a standard Miracle Light, never in her life, not even when she was barely starting as an 8th rank Inspector in Saman, did she saw a data compilation such as this one.
And yet a key piece of the information that was displayed managed to grab her attention.
When she looked at the distance approximation that was calculated of both, she found that the first one was less than a meter away from distance, and the other was light years away from them.
A specific amount that she had calculated years ago, before she even became a Planetary Inspector, it was the final stretch of distance she’d have to cross to reach her objective.
“T-this is-”
“It is, you did it, for as brief as a few seconds but you actually did it”
Lala basically let all the stress from the past couple of days melt away in a stream of tears that she didn’t even know she was shedding while still under the shock of the news. Yuni was both the first to notice and to do something about it, holding her head with one of her hands while using the other to wipe away her tears.
“Wow, wow, hey, take it easy -nya”
Prince got a hold of the tablet to look at the readings himself while Fuwa just went into the arms of Lala, who hugged her almost like a reflex upon contact.
“W-we did it…Yuni we did it -lun…”
“I know Lala, I know…”
She held her tight in an embrace with their small white fluffy friend getting caught in between them, not that any of them minded though after all this was a hug for them and Prunce too if he so wished.
“I-I talked to her -lun…”
Her voice barely came as a whisper between her voice barely having the ability to raise itself to such a degree by this point and because she kept burying her face in Yuni’s shoulder even more and more due to their slight but still present height difference. Not that either Yuni or Fuwa had any issue listening to her even in spite of all of that.
“Hmmmm”
“Is something bothering you, Prunce-dono!?”
“Yes there is -puruns”
“What? Like, what is it?”
“One thing I haven’t been able to put together is, how is that even possible to begin with -puruns”
“Look, I’m not too sure either, but this is what the basis of my whole theory was about, like if the Precure’s dreams synchronize then the powers of fluffy over there might get unlocked, which is more or less exactly what happened”
“No it didn’t -puruns”
“What do you mean -nya?”
Yuni was still in the middle of hugging Lala even while asking, something that she was actually doing consciously as the Samanian had tried to break free from it to give more space for her friend to talk, however the answer to her protests was met with actual resistance, she was holding her in it no matter what almost as if she let go then Lala would disappear in that very instance.
Lala couldn’t tell how much Yuni truly believed that notion, but either way she decided to let herself be surrounded by her affection and Fuwa’s for that matter.
“Fuwa’s effort while using her warps was always very visible, but not only did she not reacted at all when everything was happening, but also your device here says that one of the sources is Lala herself -puruns”
What.
She’s what?
“I know, which is why want to try something for the next test”
“What is it -lun?”
Lala finally emerged from within the hug that kept her, with Yuni not resisting this time as she took a more comfortable position beside her, one that actually allowed her to face the people she wanted to speak with.
Aiwarn coughed a little to clear her throat, probably to recover herself from the surprise that was Lala addressing her directly after she assumed that she wasn’t going to be part of the conversation.
“Is rather simple, you’re going in again but this time, she’ll be going with you”
Aiwarn’s finger was decidedly placed before her, directly pointing on a still laying in Lala’s arms Fuwa, everyone immediately jumped with surprise.
“I will -fuwa?”
“Aiwarn are you crazy?!”
“That’s completely out of the question -puruns!”
“As one of the two current representatives of the Galactic Starscape Alliance I cannot allow that! Fuwa-dono is too important to be exposed to such risk!”
Lala wanted to say something, but immediately bit her tongue after seeing the determination behind her eye, even in the face of everyone else’s concerns and disapproval. Even as she spoke that spark never died down in her.
“Look, the way I understand it is that you gals basically got your powers from the Star Princesses, all of you” She said while making sure to look at Yuni, Fuwa and Lala herself as they were all bunched up on the table.
“Your ability to transform and the powers that came with it, the warp thing you could do, and many others that were out of your reach, both physically in the form of the pens and metaphorically in the form of having to reach a certain stage in your development to use them”
“Yeah, all of it was originally the power of the Princesses -nya”
“Well, you used the same powers to both restore that little fluff ball and the whole universe again, didn’t you?”
“I mean, when you put it like that …”
“Well, like, even if you did lose those powers when restoring her, you still gave them back to her and not only that but to the whole universe as well, which is why I don’t think that is too far fetched that, like you also got to keep some of that power as well”
The moment she said that something flicked on in Lala’s mind, a memory from that time that gave them hope of performing their miracle even in the face of indisputable absoluteness.
“We did end up with powers that surpassed that of the Princesses -lun…”
“There! You see? My theory’s backed by a credible source”
“She didn’t say that though”
Aiwarn took a deep breath and clasped her hands together, straightening them in the process as she tried to get everyone on the same page about her plan. Everything about her practically screamed seriousness and concern, as if she had gone through abnormal lengths to make this work and she would still be willing to go further.
“Look, the calculations are sound, if Fuwa can be there with you then she can either catalyze or amplify your connection, and with that it may finally work”
Everyone stood in silence for a few minutes considering their options before Fuwa herself spoke up.
“I…I wanna try it -fuwa”
“Fuwa but-”
“If I can help to improve our chances to see our friends again -fuwa…T-then I wanna give it a try -fuwa!”
“I’m afraid I must protest Fuwa-dono!”
Mary Ann immediately tried to get closer to Fuwa, only for her path to be blocked by Yuni standing up from her sitting place.
“Blue Cat!? Are you going to get in the way!?”
“Nope, you are”
“Huh!?”
Mary Ann was confused by Yuni’s statement enough for her to take a few steps backwards, almost as if she was trying to mend the same mistake she didn’t fully understand.
“Once Fuwa’s made her choice, there’s no one who can stop her -nya”
“Why are you suddenly on board with this!? You voiced your disapproval as well!?”
“Mhm you’re right, I still think that this plan is absolutely dangerous, and not only that she’s crazy for suggesting this in the first place-”
“HEY!”
“-but also she’s even more crazy for going along with it -nya”
Yuni then made her way towards Lala and Fuwa again right after pointing towards the latter to make an emphasis in her point and wrapped her arm in Lala’s shoulders once she was close enough.
“Which is why is a good thing that we’re going to be there to look after her”
And just in barely a whisper loud enough in the most gentle way possible for everyone to hear, Yuni spoke something that held far more than some of them could begin to fathom.
“Besides, it’s not like we can stop her as well, we couldn’t before and we won’t now”
Both of them looked at their Rainbownian friend who in turn just winked at them and nodded with determination.
“That’s right -fuwa”
“If Aiwarn-san believes this to be the way to do it, then I’m willing to keep my trust in her -lun!”
Aiwarn had to cover her face with the tablet in her hands to hide away the slight blush of embarrassment that became present in her face, just as Mary Ann was about to protest once again, Prunce took a deep sigh.
“There’s no way we’re talking you out of this, is there? -puruns”
They smiled at him, a clearer sign than a worded answer.
He smiled back.
“You’re going to allow this Prunce-dono!?”
“Yes, I think I will -puruns”
“Well, you’re out voted, what are you going to do Mary nyan?
The Officer looked around her, directly at the individuals that had somehow managed to get convinced by the madness and briefly lowered her head in defeat…before lifting it up again with a salute accompanied by her endless stream of energy in her voice.
“I guess I have no option but to comply with the majority!”
“Holy stars she has common sense, I never would’ve guessed -nya”
“HOWEVER!”
Suddenly both Lala and Yuni found not only Mary Ann more than a few meters closer to where they were in relation with where she was standing, but also one of her fingers specially pointed even closer directly at the latter.
“If something goes wrong then I’ll add it to your record Blue Cat! And that is something that you still have!”
Yuni’s eyes practically screamed ‘uh oh’ as she said that before Mary Ann finally put her finger away.
“You don’t have to worry about a thing, like I have already taken everything into account, the little one won’t be suffering anything at all”
“I guess I’ll take your word for it!”
Lala could only look at her friends while still cradling Fuwa in her arms, thinking about both the new information and situation they had in their hands, as she let Fuwa be caressed by one of her fingers she couldn’t help but to think, maybe even pray.
Thank you for finding me, this time it’s my turn to find you -lun
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“Don’t worry too much while in there, I made it so that she literally cannot be touched by anything inside”
“And you only bring this up seconds away from going in? This could’ve calm Mary’s objections down!”
Yuni argued with Aiwarn over the details of Fuwa’s own custom station, it was very different than their own even leaving aside the difference on size, for instance rather than a small looking chair similar to theirs like Lala envisioned there was a single pillar looking thing that had a small seat at it’s top encased in a sphere of glass, Fuwa laid inside there with her rings connected to custom sensors that did the same thing Yuni’s ring and Lala’s antennae did for Aiwarn.
Lala knew that her best friend couldn’t help to be nervous at such a sight, after all Fuwa was nearly stolen from them in a similar encasing deceive if memory didn’t fail her, which is why in spite of being the most supportive out of this operation, the nervousness also invaded her which is why she could understand perfectly Yuni’s actions.
“Because she was never entirely wrong, even Fuwa cannot be hurt inside there doesn’t mean that she’s completely risk free going with you, so don’t enter thinking that she will be fine regardless of what you do”
“...tch, understood -nya”
“Yuni…”
Her friend in question turned her head to look at Lala as she was finishing to slot her rainbow ring into place, waiting for her station to calibrate it.
“...let’s find Hikaru -lun”
Yuni’s face soon went from being surprised to housing a determined smile in it.
“Yeah, let’s”
Both of them nodded at each other before straightening themselves and closing their eyes, while in the middle of that process Lala always kept an eye close eto Fuwa and her own experience with her station, which is why she could see how she shared their sentiment with a small nod and the moment she closed her eyes, following them straight into the silence.
When she opened her eyes Lala found herself in yet another familiar place, it was the festival of Mihoshi town, this was hers, Yuni’s and Madoka’s first festival so it had a special place in her heart, it also happened not too long after Yuni had joined them officially as Cosmo, she still remembered how much trouble she had at adapting at life on earth.
Or maybe at a semi normal life now that she looked back on it.
The place wasn’t purely the festival however, this one was also smushed together with what Lala recognized as the courtyard of Yuni’s home in planet rainbow, however this one had more vegetation and semi intact infrastructure, almost like if it was straight out of the report she accidentally peeked at this morning rather than her memories of it.
She thought it was weird, but quickly had her attention taken away from it to her clothes, it was her yukata, well Hikaru’s yukata but she was allowed to keep it so in the end it was technically hers, still thought this sure took her back it’d been a long time, she twirled around just to get a better look at herself and soon noticed another thing.
She was alone, yet again, she wasn’t sure how exactly Fuwa was supposed to factor into the dreams but she was pretty sure that Aiwarn told them that she would be present with them, so where exactly was she?
Lala hoped it would only be a matter of looking around.
She had traveled about half of the festival grounds by that point and was starting to feel the rising tinge of anxiety from inside her stomach, until she finally found the sequence, the grouped up silhouettes of her friends all grouped up together enjoying the festival like back then.
Then she looked at Yuni, and she looked back at her.
She wasn’t a silhouette, it was an honest to lun vivid image of Yuni in her yukata 5 years ago, but that shouldn’t be the case. Was this something new? Was she real, as in the actual Yuni? Was this Fuwa’s effect inside the dreams?
Both of them stared at each other for a solid couple of minutes until Lala spotted something small and almost ethereal perching on Yuni’s arm with the form a fluffy-
“Fuwa! Yuni -lun!”
“Lala -fuwa!”
“Holy nyan, it’s really you”
Fuwa immediately flew from Yuni to Lala expecting a big hug, which was instead met by disappointment when Lala’s own fingers went through Fuwa, something that surprised Lala enough to jump a little bit.
“So this is what Aiwarn was referring too -lun”
“Yep, could’ve been more specific with us about it, nearly gave me a heart attack when we discovered it for the first time -nya”
“Wait, how long have you two been here? -lun”
“Not as long, look at where we are”
Lala did so and found that this place was when they had barely started to explore the festival before, they hadn’t even gotten to what became Madoka’s favorite stand.
“Ohhh, I see -lun”
“Me and Fuwa appeared in what I think was the rocket and pretty much followed the exact chain of events all the way to here and now, your blonde and boy friends already talked to us -nya”
“It must’ve been fun -lun”
Yuni poked at her forehead, seemingly snapping her out of her half distracted state.
“Hello? Have you heard anything that I’ve been saying? We’ve barely scratched the festival as a whole and I’ve had to relive the glare that Himenojo shot at me, plus your friend Tatsunori calling me that nickname again…besides”
Yuni’s tone suddenly changed, it was less playful and more serious, the sudden shift almost shook Lala and by extension Fuwa.
“The moment I didn’t saw you in with them I knew something was wrong, and when the sequences started to continue playing without you it didn’t only felt weird, it felt wrong”
“Yuni -lun…”
Lala noticed Fuwa hovering over her arm in a similar way that she had done with Yuni before, when she thought that she was perching on her, and out of reflex wanted to pet her but was quickly discouraged when one of her fingers showed how transparent Fuwa was just by mere comparison.
“But, now you’re here, I ignore how or why out of all times we’re in this one together, but I don’t mind it, not completely one bit -nya”
“I think the same -lun”
They gave each other a nod in solidarity and started to move when the others did, on the way Lala saw just how much Fuwa did like her translucent ability in this world, she didn’t like seeing her small friend like that, even less the fact that she only had one way to help with it and that was a whole process in on itself.
Lala briefly wondered about them being together like Yuni said, maybe she was jumping to conclusions a bit too early but if she had no idea as well then it was safe to assume that this wasn’t Fuwa’s doing. However if that was truly the case then, why were they together here? It’s not the first time that they experience significant memories for both of them apart, so why was this one special?
“So, what do you think we’ll-”
“Yes, I accept the challenge”
With next to no prompt or cause of any kind, Madoka’s ghostly voice came from her silhouette answering to an unseen stand owner, seconds later a rifle materialized for it to use against the targets, so she took it and went into position.
“I guess that answers the question -lun”
“Alright, alright, this is something I don’t mind going through again -nya”
Fuwa let out an excited cheer before they carried on with what was all things considered, a very pleasant memory.
They did everything like before, they shot the prices with the rifle, tossed rings, fished for some water balloons, got some cotton candy, acquired some masks, but nothing was working. It wasn’t until they finished fish scooping that Yuni’s frustration was starting to show.
“Yuni? Is everything ok -lun?”
She took a few seconds to answer, almost like sincerely pondering the question before just saying-
“Lala, have you heard anything unusual, something like before?”
Lala decided to pay attention to her surroundings a bit just to make sure she wasn’t passing anything up but she found nothing.
“Not yet -lun”
Yuni sighed and motioned for her to go with her.
“Come with me -nya”
Lala looked hesitantly between her and the rest of their group, obviously worried about how the sequence would continue without them just like Yuni herself said happened before she arrived.
“Don’t worry about it, we’re supposed to go away, remember?”
“I know -lun”
But it isn’t time for that yet -lun
“It’s ok, it's about time anyways -nya”
After consulting it with Fuwa she ultimately decided to go with her, while going away they heard the ghostly voice of Hikaru say something to them, probably Lala’s cue to go look after Yuni when she ran off back then. Speaking which she could swear that the place Yuni brought her to was that exact same spot she found her in, just that this time they didn’t climb all the way to the tree branches instead being content by just staying under the tree itself.
“What’s wrong Yuni? -lun”
“Nothing much, I just…needed to breathe a little”
Yuni let herself lay on the tree trunk, putting all of her weight in it, almost looking like she was going to sit down sliding off it at any second, but she stayed standing regardless. Lala and Fuwa both looked at each other before going to stand next to her in a similar position.
“It’s ok -lun, we are here for each other, remember -lun?”
Lala placed her hand over Yuni’s and Fuwa did the same, size difference and translucency aside.
“...I’m scared…”
Lala nodded with a ‘-lun’.
“I know you’re too, probably even more than me, but even so I’m scared of all of this -nya”
Yuni’s hand slowly intertwined with Lala’s, she could feel it shaking slightly but couldn’t tell exactly why even though she had an idea, it was almost frustrating.
“Of how much we’re risking with what few we have”
Lala nodded again, since the beginning even Aiwarn herself had warned them about the inherent dangers of doing something like what they were attempting, all the unknown science behind it, the various ways they could lose themselves and that was not even taking into account if Fuwa’s powers were really involved in this.
And apparently, theirs too now.
A gust of wind somehow blew moving the grass and tree leafs among other things around them, making Lala realize that all this time even before she reunited with her friend, she had been walking in a metaphysical manifest reminder of what she lost, what she was building, what she fought for.
And now, what she could lose all over again, she guessed.
“Yuni…can you tell me?”
“Tell you what? -nya”
“About your planet -lun, I have vague memories of when you told us back then, and I’ve read some old reports about it, but I want to hear it from you -lun”
Yuni looked around them, contemplating the scenery presented before them as ironically enough a good enough representation of what her home world was once upon a time, even if it was missing people it was enough for her to visualize it clearer than any sequence this place could offer them.
After all, it was something she kept close to her heart.
“Colorful…there’s no other way to describe it, my people chose the name for a reason you know?”
“So I’ve read -lun, finding it was a real miracle -lun”
“It really was, so much of our history was written being persecuted,wandering aimlessly without a home to call our own” She stopped for a second, briefly musing the bitter sweet realization that in a sick and twisted way of fate, she was following tradition, reliving history as long as Rainbow remained a desert.
She hated that thought.
“ ‘A rainbow always appears after a thunderstorm’, those were Olifio’s words of encouragement for my people, and why rainbow as the name of our home was not only fitting, but almost fated in a way -nya”
Fate huh? Lala didn’t often mused on fate, not after what Hikaru taught her anyways, part of her always thought that Yuni didn’t believe in it either, so to hear her speak about it so strongly was…she couldn’t find a word to describe it.
“It didn't matter if it was before or after we arrived, this place has always remained as rainbow, shining its own colors throughout the starscape and taking in ours in our hour of need”
Lala followed Yuni’s gaze as she looked all over the area, while she couldn’t exactly see what she was seeing, it was still a good enough grasp of it thanks to the context provided.
“The crystals made everything more colorful, more alive, the majority of us used our shape shifting to express ourselves, showing our ‘different colors’ so to say, I…always liked that interpretation -nya”
“It’s a wonderful way to look at it -lun”
“Mhm, and despite being bad at it, I still gave it an honest try, even if I found my own special way of doing it”
Yuni looked at her with a slightly proud smile while she held her free hand on her chest, just as she did often when she was about to sing. Lala smiled back, she missed seeing her like this.
“And I wasn’t the only one, eventually plenty of people did the same and we wanted to show everyone else”
“So that’s how your festival was formed -lun”
“Mhm, it wasn’t quite like on earth, sure there were some games and food too, but mostly? It was full of people showing their own way to say ‘this is me, this is my own special miracle’, stalls and stands were set up with a variety of all the things you could ever imagine and more”
Yuni pointed with her finger various places within the courtyard as she spoke, Lala noticed that even though some of them were indeed in the same places a stand from the Mihoshi festival was already occupying, there were also some other places that she pointed that were vacant or just straight up empty, she briefly wondered what kind of stalls would need that specific space to set up in.
“Did you have a favorite, out of everything you saw -lun?”
“Hmmmm, that’s a tough question, everyone was so talented and there was just so much to see…”
Yuni stopped entirely right when her eyes landed on a familiar piece of paper hanging in a nearby wall, announcing the fireworks show that was going to happen, it sent her a flashback then and it definitely didn’t fail to do it now as well. The mere memory of gazing upwards at the splashes of color and wonder that decorated the sky and made it the home of their loudness.
She always thought those were voices, spirits of the people behind this wonder laid bare for everyone to look, shouting loudly and reaching higher than anyone else ‘this is us, this is our own special miracle’ just like everyone else, their voices carried everyone’s just like one day she aspired for her songs to do.
It was a sight to behold.
One that was somehow surpassed by the one she shared with her friends that day, atop the rocket.
“Fireworks”
“Fireworks -lun?”
“Mhm, the first time I saw them was just, magical -nya”
Lala could see it, not what Yuni meant but what she saw, right in the reflection of her eyes, where the light bounced off her iris almost as if it were refracting . Colors, weaving themselves together in sparks within sparks that filled the space in its entirety leaving one beautiful sight in its place.
A rainbow.
“They stood above everything else, more colorful and louder, they were almost like someone’s stars”
“Someone's stars -lun?”
Yuni nodded before giggling a little.
“I know it sounds silly, but I always felt that whoever made them had a miracle that wanted to reach the stars but never could, so instead that miracle became their own stars -nya”
“I think it sounds pretty -lun”
“Thanks Lala…”
Yuni let go of her hands and took a few steps forward, looking over all the surrounding architecture not with sadness, or hope, but with melancholy.
“The world that only I can remember, the home that is confined to my memories, that is the world we’re trying to rebuild out of this desert, my- our determination hasn’t wavered, but I wish I really do wish I could say that it was getting easier after all this time”
Lala walked close to her with Fuwa on her shoulder, she couldn’t stop staring at her in awe and deep admiration, the amount of strength, of will to maintain herself so unwavering like that for so long that this was a very rare occasion where she’d seen Yuni being overwhelmed by the pressure after 5 years. And not only that but, that wonder and beauty that she talked about, those miracles that she witnessed, Lala could see them alive and well.
Shimmering in all their splendor, just by looking at her, probably the biggest miracle for Rainbow and its people.
Not to mention one of the biggest ones that Lala had ever seen herself.
“Yuni, that world you’re trying to restore, those miracles that you described, all of that sounds not only worth fighting for, but also beautiful just from the way you talk about it alone -lun”
“It is…and it will be -nya”
“-lun, I can’t wait to see it -lun”
Yuni’s hand trembled for a moment before calming down, then she took a deep breath and looked up, the stars were out even if the warped sky didn’t allow for full visibility of them in their totality, there was still plenty to gaze at.
“I want to show them, I really really want to…”
“I know -lun…”
“You guys were the first family I got after losing everything I knew, but being separated from everyone, with so many light years of distance away and no longer living in the Rocket with you, Prunce, Fuwa and AI, I feel as if we’re starting to become not as close as before”
Lala turned immediately to look at her, dead in the eyes.
“That would never happen -lun”
“I know, I know, but I can’t help it, not when we barely have time to see each other, and being apart from all of you with everything else in front of me…I’m scared to be as alone as I was before you guys, and it’s slowly been feeling like that again”
Lala acted on reflex, it’d been a while since she’d done that, not a word was uttered, not a huge bigger than life gesture, not even something that she could think of doing before just doing it .
She just hugged her, saying everything that she needed to say with that simple action and much like her before, Yuni’s stress and heavy weight melted into streams of tears, a single sob escaped her lips but just that and nothing else.
“I’m here -lun…”
“I’m glad…”
A high pitched whistle invaded the air and a small projectile was shot upwards into the endless sky, the shower of colors that appeared when it exploded ironically painted their perspectives all white.
Then like the same flash it appeared as, it banished.
And so did Yuni.
Lala opened her eyes to find that she was no longer holding anyone in between her arms, nor did she feel the presence of her small friend on her shoulder.
So she kicked and stomped harder than ever in her life, curses and frustration stuck in her throat with only the highest scream she has ever mustered in her life coming out instead.
It wasn’t fair.
It was never fair.
Yuni was scared, she was resting, finally having a break from having to shoulder her responsibilities and woes as much as she had until now, they were finally together after days and days of going into this in their lonesome.
And then they were just ripped apart, as easy as an insignificant whim.
They were all they had in here and that still meant nothing to whatever forces orchestrated all of this.
Lala was screaming her heart out, her antennae started to give off sparks.
Once she noticed she needed a few minutes to calm herself down, if she allowed this to continue it would surely have repercussions on the outside as well, and that was the last thing they needed after coming this far.
After finally taking enough air to steady her breathing she was able to reason that if Fuwa wasn't with her then it also meant that she could be with Yuni, after all she appeared with her so it wasn’t that impossible to believe it.
For the time being she needed to get her bearings, she was too busy screaming at the world to even care at the moment. She looked at her surroundings but they were too nondescript to pinpoint any sort of particular place just by looking at them, she briefly wondered if the streets of Saman looked as generic as the ones on earth to the point that if they were fused she wouldn’t be able to tell.
Lala discarded that thought and concluded that she was going to have to move around a little if she wanted to ascertain her current location in its entirety.
Then she looked at herself and the shock from it nearly made her lose her balance, she was Cure Milky once again but not her regular form, it was her twinkle imagination form, the long and overly stuffed dress that she wore during their final battle against Ophiuchus…
How did she not notice something so flashy and extravagant like this until now ???
Well at least it’s as easy to move around in as she remembered, part of her was worried that while in some of their more elaborate Cure dresses would make movement fairly difficult in here. She was more than glad to be wrong about it.
An idea quickly came as it was disproved when she tried to check if being in this form meant that she would also get her powers, but alas it seemed that her only power was that of not having inconveniences moving in sophisticated clothing as this.
So she started to walk around, it was actually refreshing in its own way, to take it easy and let herself process everything that had happened so far, strolling in the streets semi mindlessly was good every now and then.
She didn’t even notice when she was no longer alone.
“So I was shopping with my mom the other day-”
“OYO-!”
She nearly had a heart attack when the ghostly voice of Hikaru interrupted the calm quiet that she had surrounded herself with.
“Yo!”
Yet another ghostly voice made them look forward to the group of silhouettes that was clustered in front of them, where if not for their outlines Lala would’ve had trouble recognizing all of them bunched up.
Ah, I remember this now, this is the day Hikaru awakened her Twinkle Imagination -lun
“It’s been ages!”
The cluster of silhouettes got closer to them with Lala being the center of attention, or at least where she was supposed to be, a few awkward side steps and a really long step was all that she needed to get out of the crowd.
If Lala had to be completely honest with herself, having the opportunity to witness this from the outside was a completely different experience than being part of it, she could see how much everyone was enjoying each other’s company and of course there was no way that she’d ever forget the joy that brought her talk with her classmates with everything out in the open. Even Hikaru who wasn’t actively participating in the conversation was looking over smiling.
Everyone in class 2-3 were friends, their sense of unity is one that has managed to stand out for me even to this day, no matter what we did, we’d always do it together, It’s one of the things that I miss -lun
“I wonder how much you’ve all changed -lun, I hope you’re still as close as ever -lun…”
Lala held onto this feeling making home inside of her and used it as resolve to keep going, not only for the friends that she had left behind but also for the ones waiting for her and suffering with her.
She turned to look at Hikaru expecting for her to give her next line that told her to go on ahead, then she would go to the rocket and talk with her friends in there if memory serves her right, somewhere along those events after all it didn’t seem like there was anything important to gleam from there like it was the case in the other sequences.
However before that cue was delivered Hikaru’s smile banished for a second.
That was weird, she didn’t remember that happening, was she forgetting it? Or perhaps this was some sort of alteration to the sequence, like what happened at the end of her last dream.
No wait, that wasn’t quite right, could this be related to her twinkle imagination at the time?
Whatever the problem was Lala never got the time to conclusively identify it, because indeed after Hikaru’s silhouette said her cue everything around her stopped and with one step from her, the scenery changed.
With everything that Lala got from there being that she didn’t really understand Hikaru as much as she thought, not back then at least.
Then what about right now? -lun
“Happy Birthday, Lala!”
The words came like a meteor, coming as fast as light and leaving just as fast.
“And welcome back, dad!”
“Congratulations!”
The voices repeated echoes of sentences once said in a past long gone, but never ever forgotten, etched into the corners of her mind, even as rattled as she was by the accuracy of the words and the voice of whomst it belonged to, she immediately knew where she was.
7th of July, 2020, a Barbecue at Hikaru’s house.
Tanabata.
The irony was as subtle as a punch to the face.
Oddly enough she wasn’t where she expected to be, if the transition to this sequence was as warped as it was spot on then she thought that she’d be sitting down at the table with the rest of the guests. Yet instead she found herself at the edge of the entrance close to the mailbox.
Wearing her Hagoromo costume from when they made that movie.
Now this was getting ridiculous, at least with her twinkle imagination it was easy to move, but this was just as troublesome to use as she remembered, of course at the time she didn’t care, the Kimono was pretty and she was willing to put up with it for the sake of the movie and to not be deported back to space.
But now her only solace was that she was in a dream, because only the stars know how using this again in real life would’ve been.
She then remembered something important and looked up at the house roof in hope that Yuni was brought back here like before, however her gaze was just met by a darkened silhouette of her friend from 5 years ago, sitting still in her spot looking down on the group.
Yuni truly was lonely back then.
“Stars are really beautiful in this town”
Hikaru’s dad echoed for the others to hear, making Lala’s attention turn to the lack of her friend to the Hoshina’s lookalikes, except that much like her their gaze was fixated upwards.
“You’ve seen stars from all sorts of places in the world, right?”
“You can see stars everywhere”
Lala got close enough for them to hear better what they were saying and took the chance to gaze at the stars as well.
“Yeah, no matter where, the sky will always lead one back home”
Back home.
…
Lala looked back at the stars hoping that Hikaru’s dad's words were true, by this point everything else seemed too disheartening or too long for her, she hated feeling like this.
She just wanted to be together with her friends again.
She just wanted to hold Hikaru again.
And tell her what she couldn’t the last time they saw each other.
“...Tanabata is a day that comes once a year, when you see your love ones -lun”
The words came to her as natural as if she was speaking them for the first time, except that this time she wasn’t asking, the truth in her words came with such a strong sense that anyone that heard them would know instantly that it wasn’t all that it meant for her.
Either way Hikaru’s Grandpa still answered her in the background, right in the spot he was in that day, next to the spot she occupied back then.
“Hikaru looks…happy -lun”
Sadly she couldn’t say that she knew for real, knowing her it was the safest bet however if that day affected her as much as it did then…
No, she shook that thought out of her head, Hikaru is Hikaru, sure she was going to miss her, miss them , but she wasn’t going to let that stop her from smiling just as much, or maybe even more!
None of them would, she was sure that Elena, Madoka and everyone from class 2-3 was much the same.
She sighed.
Then what does that make us? -lun
Everyone that stayed in space was carrying the same load, the same amount of baggage when it came to their earthling friends, it was always obvious however the past couple of days just accentuated it even further.
They missed them, yet they suffered because of it, were they truly unable to live without them by their side? Even if they knew that eventually they’d see each other again?
Lala’s mind wondered about this and many other things, her thought process a mess preyed on by the hole she felt on her chest and her senses stolen from her as the spiral grew and grew even wider, The moon became so big, so close, so…mesmerizing.
She felt a pull from the outside.
The Moon pulled harder.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Silence gave way to-
Lala woke up in her bed dizzy and light headed, she had to wipe her eyes with her hands just to manage to see well enough to get out of bed and make her way to the bathroom. Once in there she saw at the mangled mess of teal hairs that had her head and decided to not care for it today, after all it was a special day and she was it’s special girl, if she didn’t allowed herself a couple of treats like these in occasions like this one then when?
After all, her hair was short enough to pass as neat with just a single stroke of a hair brush
“Good morning -lun”
Yuni answered back with a good morning of her own as she made her way to the kitchen, with one of her catnip cookies on her mouth, she still found it amusing how of all things her friend had decided to use her proficient skills as a master thief to scatter as many cookies as possible for the exclusive use of her own cravings.
After making sure that Yuni hadn’t tripped with anything lying around on her way, Lala proceeded to comb herself only once and admire her handiwork in the mirror. Whose reflection blinded her for a second there with that of light.
“Sorry mirror, but not today thank you very much -lun”
She then grabbed a towel and put it over the mirror, blocking it from view in its entirety.
“Today’s an important day, enough for you to not ruin it -lun”
She started dressing for the rest of the day, struggling a bit in the process but getting it done anyways, after all it was kind of difficult getting ready for her day while saying her daily routine, especially now that the mirror decided not to be cooperative today.
“Lala Hagoromo, 18 years old -lun”
She proclaimed with a confidence that was only worthy of one other person and all the joy in the world.
“Samanian, former Precure, Official Ambassador of The Galactic Starscape Alliance -lun”
She gave a quick salute like her friend and senpai had taught her to do so.
“5 years 7 months and 7 days have passed since me and my friends saved the universe from the Notraider threat, and things have been peaceful ever since -lun”
She smiled as she recounted the events in her head. That was by far the best memory she had with her friends and the best moment in her life easily.
“Since then everyone’s been up to their own thing, of course we still do our duties as Ambassadors between the Alliance and Earth, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have personal lifes -lun”
She managed to put on a good part of her outfit before she heard Yuni shout through the kitchen that last time she checked those were mutually exclusive, especially with her.
“ Well they aren’t for us -lun!”
She heard Yuni answer her that thank the stars for that.
“Yuni moved in with me and now we are roommates, just like the old days -lun!”
From the kitchen Yuni let out a woohoo with half faked excitement and half sincere.
“She’s been compiling all of the relevant information that planet rainbow will need in order to join the Galactic Starscape Alliance for real -lun, It shouldn’t be too difficult seeing as there's 5 of us already in it as ambassadors -lun”
Yuni answered that she’d think, but the mountain of paperwork said otherwise. She simply shrugged and continued.
“Elena is currently traveling the earth so that she can put together a comprehensive catalog of all the cultures, languages and all other sorts that this planet has to offer, everyone is helping out but Madoka has been the most involved in it out of everyone”
Yuni wondered why with sarcasm.
“Speaking of Madoka, she’s been hard at work as well now that she’s been appointed as the head of extraterrestrial affairs branch of the Alliance on earth, meaning that she has to look out for the safety of everyone from beyond that wants to pay earth a visit, just like us -lun!
Yuni said that it was way more fun to sneak in though. She couldn’t help but to half agree with her, the first time was indeed fun.
“And finally Hikaru has been determined to become an officer in the Alliance, always saying that someday she’ll get her own cruise ship to command, so that AI can experience what is like to be on a ship instead of being one -lun”
AI chipped in saying that there wasn’t that much difference either way only for Yuni to answer her that she thinks that it doesn’t matter to Hikaru, Ai couldn’t help but agree.
“Fuwa became an ambassador as well, but for the Star Palace same as Prunce, so they come and go every now and then for official business, sometimes they even stay in the rocket -lun”
AI remarked that Fuwa also always managed to find some of Yuni’s cookies, Yuni answered that it wasn’t always , otherwise they would have banned them from Fuwa’s presence a long time ago, AI then said that they did.
“Now, when it comes to me I’ve been keeping myself busy but not too busy with ambassador duties, but eventually I do want to take the charge of chief inspector, I feel like that way I can oversee the different worlds in this part of the galaxy and ours -lun”
Yuni shouted that she was going to be the best boss ever, AI couldn’t help but agree, she just giggled in response.
“Today however is a special day for me, because today it's the day I’m finally doing it, today I’m going to finally tell Hikaru what I wanted to for this past 5 years”
Yuni said that it was about time, maybe a little too loudly.
“But in the meantime, I just have to get through today, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do”
She nodded towards the covered up mirror and walked out of the bathroom completely changed into her uniform, when she went quickly to the kitchen where her friend was in the delicate process of eating the absolute stars out of a fried fish.
“Be back in a few -lun”
Yuni only answered with indecipherable noises coming from her mouth that in other circumstances would’ve been words, she quickly took and ate one of her nutritional gummies and set out of the rocket into the streets to begin her day.
The Sun was shining, the stars were out, and there was a noticeable pep in her step that had her in a magnificent mood, maybe because of Hikaru, definitely because of Hikaru. Everything was easy for her today, from crossing the forest without getting herself lost or tangled, to doing the right combination of sequences to pass the broken part of the path that connected Mihoshi town to the head embassy, she even remembered that today was wear your tie backwards instead of upside down.
Although she still had some problems of getting blinded by that pesky light that the mirror had shone at her earlier, she was going to have to check if she needed to take care of that herself or if the weather newscast had lied to her, again.
However that wasn’t going to stop her, maybe just inconvenience her but never stop her.
Mary Ann managed to sneak her way to her back and give her a surprise hug, accompanied with a very enthusiastic congratulations.
“Thanks a lot Senpai, but I’m still doing something that deserves better those congratulations -lun”
Mary Ann got surprised and backed away from the hug with curiosity, she took the opportunity to turn around and properly greet her canine Senpai. Who on her part asked what exactly was that?
“It’s a surprise -lun, one that I’ve been planning for a while now -lun”
Mary Ann answered that the answer still didn’t mean anything for her.
“ Don’t worry, if everything goes according to plan then everyone will know very soon -lun”
She remarked with a very wide smile almost leaking her own anticipation. Mary Ann, while still a little confused and endlessly curious, ended accepting the situation and telling her that she’ll look forward then, but that for now they should return to work.
“Understood, right now there’s nothing I want more -lun!”
They shared a salute initiated by her and then Mary Ann proceeded to walk to her own desk station while she resumed her work on her own. However before that, Mary Ann’s voice called her attention once more.
“Oyo-?”
With a very knowing smile she informed her that she should probably expect many other congratulations from the others, even those outside of the staff today.
“Thanks, I’ll keep it in mind -lun!”
And with that said she was off, making her way through the wall and the access on the ceiling, leaving her ready and focused entirely on getting today’s workload utterly done so that there was nothing else obstructing her path.
She giggled at the silly comparison her mind made to being at the final boss of one of those games they sometimes played, ever since Madoka got hooked on them thanks to Hikaru and Elena.
Other than that nothing interesting happened during the day, sure like Mary Ann said more people came by to say happy birthday and/or congratulations and today she found that someone had brought a cake for everyone to celebrate her as well, but outside of that it was mostly normal.
And of course, if being harassed by the mirrors light wasn’t enough, today they also had a flood of stardust leak into the building so that stumped their work for about two hours while they waited for it to clear, it was pretty worrying to be delayed for so long by the little particles of fading stars, but she was determined to power through today for the sake of her afternoon so she dealt with this setback just as well.
Once out of work she went straight to the shopping district and got her package that she had ordered ahead of time and one small box with probably the most valuable thing of her life inside of it.
When she received her order of a special kind of star donuts, the shopkeeper made small talk with her, mainly asking her about how things were at work.
“Livelier -lun! It was also pretty heavy, but I managed to finish everything today -lun!”
The shopkeeper said she was glad, also that she hoped her and Hikaru enjoyed those special star donuts, she blushed slightly with a mental image of it before dispersing it with her hand.
“We will! Thanks again for having these ready in such short notice -lun”
The shopkeeper remarked that it was no problem, anything for the number one couple of Mihoshi town, a comment that once again made her blush a bit more noticeable, even more so once she noticed the giggle coming from her.
Eventually, she bid goodbye to her with a hearty, have fun you two.
“We will -lun!”
With those two things in tow she made her way to the Mihoshi Observatory, where she had a date with destiny, making sure that she was more than ready for it.
Maybe it would’ve been better to do this on a day that the observatory was actually open, but she still thought that it was fine, she had a plan to make up for that after all. So she sat in that familiar bench over the tophill and waited, watching the sunny starry sky in the meantime.
Then one of those stars started to glow bright pink.
Lala had to squint her eyes to manage to see the color for a little bit, comes with the disadvantages of having a pink colored sky…
Wait what?
Pink sky?!
“Wha- what is going on -lun??”
When she opened her eyes even wider she felt the traces of what she felt almost like a slap to her face, waking up slowly but surely.
“ What happened -lun ? What did-”
Then the whisper shot up, louder than anything she had heard at that point. Her head hurt, her ears wanted to blow up or tear down, a couple of tears escaped her eyes, mercifully her electricity was under control.
She had to think of something and fast, but thinking was difficult with her head currently ripping itself apart, come on there had to be something, a reason for why the whispers are as loud as they are here, of why they suddenly decided to show up all at once and yet they didn’t make it into any of the other sequences before this one.
Wait a minute, sequences…
Was she…
Was she still in one?
Was this even a sequence?
She managed to steel herself enough to stand up while clutching her head from all the pain auditive overload was causing and shouted at the top of her lungs.
“None of this…NONE OF THIS EVER HAPPENED -LUN!”
A crack was formed, the sound of its creation being the loudest thing in the world, managing to drown out every other noise and leaving nothing but silence.
Well…sort of.
The noise from everywhere had stopped for sure, but that didn’t mean everything was quiet . There was a phantasmal, almost ethereal sounding effect in the air, it was about the only thing that was audible at all, like two or more fragments of glass where either breaking with echo, reverberating into everything. Or shards already broken being moved together ever so slightly.
She tried to speak to voice her concerns, only to find that her voice too had disappeared.
She looked below her feet, only to gaze fittingly at the fragmented parts of the ground that now constitute this would be sequence, cracking, diving and splitting the scenery around her, if this was reality then it would be better said to be the dimension.
She really hoped that this wasn’t reality, she still wasn’t completely sure.
“Even after what you shouted with all your strength -lun?”
She quickly turned behind her, and there right in front of her, standing in the front of the observatory, was a ghostly looking kid version of her, staring straight back.
She quickly noticed that Lala didn’t have the star color pendant like she expected.
“Y-you, you’re- !”
At her shocking reaction Lala pulled out an object from her pocket from which her voice was coming from, revealing that Lala indeed possessed a star color pendant, however this one had a slightly teal glow coming from within.
“Don’t worry -lun I brought this with me so that we can talk”
When she tried to reach out for it, Lala backed away some steps towards the observatory.
“Give it back -lun!”
“No, not until we’re done talking -lun! Otherwise you won’t hear me out -lun”
She was confused, in more ways than one, but she decided that pressing the issue wasn’t going to help anyone, so she took a deep breath and calmed down.
“I don’t even know what’s going on -lun”
“Well, that’s a bit hard to explain -lun”
She looked around at everything with a deadpan expression on her face.
“It can’t be more difficult than how I arrived here to being with -lun”
Lala wanted to dispute that, it was obvious in the way she cut herself off for what she knew was far too long for her liking. Eventually, Lala just sighed in defeat.
“Ok, that’s fair -lun”
Lala gestured behind her to take a seat, which she did in the bench she was previously sat in.
“Ok, do you remember the last sequence you were in -lun?”
She closed her eyes for a second, now that she was semi conscious again it was no problem for her to remember.
“I was in Hikaru’s house -lun, when all of us celebrated Tanabata -lun”
Then…something about the moon. She didn’t quite remember it well enough.
“-lun After that you were swallowed into the dreamscape, molding and creating a reality that wouldn’t cause you as much distress as the ones you had experienced -lun”
“How is that even possible?? I don’t even know how to do that -lun”
“This place is yours -lun” Lala said while pointing at everything with one of her arms.
“Shaped with your experiences and emotions, no one but you has control over it -lun”
Lala explained as the reflective surfaces of the ‘glass’ they were standing on suddenly glimmered from a split second, showing in them different angles and views of various places she remembered, not only from the sequences but from her life in general.
“And I’m not referring to just here -lun I’m talking about everywhere”
“So the sequences as well…-lun”
“-lun especially those, you delved into a plane where thoughts and emotions manifest in a same level as you, being exposed to them constantly for 9 days straight would only end up by amplifying them -lun”
Lala drew her attention from a small handful of grass that she ripped from the ‘glass’ only to throw them away in the direction of a crack that went straight through the middle of the observatory and up to the sky.
“Even if you don’t know how to do it consciously, the intensity of your heightened state would be enough to cause it, think of it like a meltdown or when you faint…”
She was about to say that it didn’t sound like a good thing, completely ignoring that Lala’s tone had changed from a pretty neutral one to a more severe one.
“Which if you haven’t realized by now, isn’t a healthy thing -lun”
“Wah- I- you- what???”
Was all she could utter at the face of indignation she felt, receiving a lecture from a younger looking her in something that was so obvious it made her look very bad by comparison.
“Don’t act like you don’t know -lun! Is no secret that you haven’t been well ever since all of this started, but instead of slowing down or talking it through with Yuni you chose to just keep going and going, not caring for the damage done to either of you -lun!”
“But we do talk -lun! We’re the only ones we can talk with about this, even if the others try to listen to us and Aiwarn-san has most of the science in her grasp, we’re the only ones that lived through the experience, so we go to each other -lun!”
“You call that talking? You’ve barely had a conversation let alone some words between each other! the only thing that has even resembled one as a minimum is the one that you had a few moments ago, when you were together in a sequence -lun”
She was about to retort again furthering the argument admittedly more than she’d liked, but she was defending her bond with her best friend in general, especially in the last couple of days dang it!
That is, she was , but suddenly another thought came to her mind.
“Wait, about that, does that mean that Fuwa wasn’t the one that brought us together? That was really us -lun?”
“Like I already told you, no one but you has control over this place, the only thing Fuwa’s presence did was what Aiwarn had already theorized it would do -lun”
She looked at Lala with an inquisitive look.
“Not even you -lun?”
“Of course not -lun! Do you really think I would’ve waited this long otherwise -lun?!”
“I don’t even know who, or what are you -lun!”
Lala’s body language then shifted, from her aggressive anger to that of a sad and crestfallen one.
“...isn’t that obvious -lun?”
…
“I mean, the logical assumption would be that you’re a part of me -lun, but I’m not a child anymore, nor do I consider myself one in anyway -lun”
“Exactly, I’m everything you left behind -lun Everything you grew out of, your fear, your inferiority complex, your close mindedness, everything that made up that sad, scared and lonely girl that you moved on from -lun”
She was speechless, just that, speechless. No matter how many times she tried to utter something resembling a sentence nothing came to her, because what exactly are you supposed to say in a situation like this? Lala took this as a cue to continue.
“Yeah I know, pretty crazy isn’t it -lun? But not nearly as crazy enough as everything you did 5 years ago -lun”
As if, or thinking back on it, definitely on cue the surfaces of the glass reflected just about everything she had done; back on earth, as a Cure and none of those as well, just herself doing things that before becoming stranded on earth didn’t think she was capable of.
Plenty of things she had seen before in the sequences, many of other things she hadn’t.
“But do you want to know what I think the craziest part is? The fact that even after all of that, you still went ahead and back to all the things that you left behind, everything you grew out of -lun”
Are…are those tears?
“I was actually happy to see you go, you know? I knew you were miserable, more than you let on to anyone, so when Fuwa and Prunce happened…when earth and Hikaru happened…and everything started to fall into place…I was happy, because you were finally happy -lun”
Lala walked closer to the observatory and just observed it with a hint of fondness and melancholy, reflecting that it was just as if she herself would have if she had the chance to.
Then she realized that Lala had no reflection in the reflective surfaces of the observatory, even if in their current state, they still managed to show just about everything else.
“It was slow but gradual, each time you made progress or you chose something different, or found something that you genuinely enjoyed outside of your comfort zone, every smile that Hikaru’s antics, Elena’s silliness or Madoka’s genuine self brought out on you, It was all a delight to watch -lun”
Lala turned back to her with one of the most genuinely saddest smiles that she had ever seen in her life, which only made it partially weird when it came from someone who look and sounded exactly like her younger self.
She felt a tinge of sadness at that though, because in retrospect, this smile may be the last one she gave her friends before saying goodbye.
“Which only stung more when the separation happened, and you started to leave yourself just to search for a way back -lun…”
Ok no.
“But I didn’t -lun! Searching for a way back may have been my long term goal, but it’s never been my obsession, let alone a reason to forget myself -lun!”
“...Maybe…”
Lala mindlessly strolled all the way next to her, but didn’t take the right side of the bench that remained unoccupied, instead she stood next to her looking for a brief second to the view of the cracked sky before them, down to the height of the precipice that marked the height of the hill they were in now looking like a bottomless abyss and finally placing her gaze on her.
“If you’re referring to before the past 9 days -lun”
…
“I wasn’t sure you know? If you were actually going to keep on hurting yourselves in your quest to find a shortcut back to the others, or if maybe among all the mayhem and turbulence of emotions you’d actually find the way to not let it get to you, to overcome them and have that feeling of warmth they left you close to your chest -lun”
The hole felt tighter in her, she couldn’t help but feel it calling for attention.
“But now, you’ve gone back in yourself enough, for me to hold your word over everything, literally -lun”
She said so, as she held the glowing star color pendant with her voice still in it, but she could feel that it was more than that, literally in this case. This was a plane were abstract was manifested on a more direct level for her, and now that she was fully aware of what that entailed the teal colored luminescent trinket felt to her like on Lala’s hand made it so that she couldn’t even refer to herself by name.
Or something like that.
“Had I let this continue any further, you’d eventually go back into me fully, and that didn’t sit right with me, so I decided to use this fracture to talk before things get any worse -lun”
Lala extended the star color pendant back to her, feeling all of the glow that emanated from it like if it was a heat source, but not in the sense that it burned her more like it enveloped her, a piece of the puzzle close to being in the right place.
“And now, I’ve done it, all I can do now is believe in you and hope for the best -lun”
She accepted it, holding it in both of her hands and looking at it like a weird piece of machinery, one which she didn’t know where to put it or what to do with it.
“...So am I supposed to stop? Even after making so much progress -lun?”
There was a genuine tone to her question, not indignation, nor aggressiveness, just honest wondering, in reality asking another question entirely than the one she uttered.
Do I have to let her go to be happy -lun?
“That’s not what I’m saying, I just need you to understand that just as you hold tight to her, you have to also do it with yourself -lun”
She opened her eyes in astonishment, like a simple and basic enough concept delivered to her was the equivalent of witnessing the birth of a new universe or finding a groundbreaking discovery.
“I think that she’d like it if when you make it back to her, there was still some you left for her to see -lun”
“-lun, I think so too -lun…”
She stared blankly at the glowing trinket in her hands not really looking at it, her mind was for the first time in a while, not lost wandering around her thoughts, no this time it had a way, a purpose and direction, things that she had indeed discarded a long time ago when she decided to tunnel vision this for as long as necessary.
A smile curled up to her face, she was right.
Everything was going to be ok now.
“You’re right -lun”
“Oyo-?”
She slapped both of her cheeks using her hands, hyping herself up and focusing for the step she was going to take, then she picked up the pendant with one arm and stood up.
“It’s about time I start picking myself up -lun”
A thought then came into her mind.
“...And I’m not the only one -lun, Say!”
“Oyo-?!”
“Is Yuni by any chance in a similar situation to mine -lun?”
Lala sighed with predented exasperation.
“You really don’t listen to what I say -lun…If you want to know just check -lun”
She was about to say that she didn’t know how to do that as well, until she realized that Lala was right, seconds ago she just learned that this world was under her control and hers alone, same thing with Yuni. So in other words, if she did want to check how she was, then she’d have to indeed just check.
The form probably didn’t matter, just her willing it should be enough.
So she closed her eyes and focused, holding tight to her heart to find that connection that binds them together. Seconds later she felt a strand graze against her cheek, the feeling was familiar yet new, every other thing she could feel faded into the background, she followed it with her shut gaze finding that it indeed lead back to someone with her being able to see them just as well but more than her eyes it was like she was using her mind, a picture as perfect as the scenery she was just in before mere seconds ago.
She didn’t know if it was because of her inability to tell apart this realistic dream from reality itself or because they were in the dream world affecting the quality, she chose to believe it was the latter rather than the former.
There she was, at the other side of the blue strand, her features and details colored over with the same blue against the black space that her focus brought about, looking almost like a very realistic blue lineart. She wasn’t looking at her, but the way her ear twitched let her know immediately that she felt her presence in some form of capacity.
She briefly considered reaching out and talking to her, however upon seeing another silhouette of someone else with her she decided against it, if Yuni was in the same situation as her that meant that this was a talk too important for her to interrupt, so instead she decided to do something else.
Good luck Yuni, I know you can do it, I’ll see you once we’re out -lun
Before cutting the connection, she felt it become warmer and that feeling translated into a message that she was able to somehow make out into words.
When she opened her eyes, she felt a finger clean one small tear that had somehow made its way out of her eye.
“Thank you -lun”
Lala nodded with a soft ‘ -lun ’.
“How is she -lun?”
She smiled at the question, the answer was more than obvious for her.
“She’s better now -lun”
Lala gave her a knowing smile, while the other silhouette was as indistinguishable as the ones from the other sequences, with the darkness making it even more harder to make out who it belonged to, what little she could actually recognize gave her a good idea of who she was talking with.
And that someone eased her worries by a mile.
“I have to go now, I’m still not done dreaming yet -lun”
Lala looked worried for a second before she grabbed the hand that had wiped her tear seconds ago in an effort to ease her too. Their talk had opened her eyes, or should it be better said that it had finally made her face the problem head on instead of ignoring it.
And she wasn’t about to let all of the words that were spoken, the tears that were shed go to waste simply moving on like this as simple as that.
“...Ok, be safe -lun”
“I will, I promise -lun”
With that said they let go and she put on the star color pendant, maybe she could will her voice back into herself just like she had done to check on Yuni, but that didn’t mean that she didn’t want to put it on again for nostalgia sake. To have it back hanging from her neck still felt as the most natural thing in the universe for her, even after all these years.
She tried to focus again to will a way out but stopped mid way, feeling yet another strand of connection, unlike Yuni's, this one grazed her sensors in her antennae with the most delicately thin small parts of it, if it weren’t for the butterflies in her stomach maybe she wouldn’t have noticed it.
It was warm, it was old , and it was calling to her.
She looked up, towards the direction she felt it was going, only to find that very same star shining brighter than any other thing surrounding her, as if it was trying to stand out from the cracks that covered the sky making the rest of the lights dim.
Walking further towards the edge as she tried to reach out for it she suddenly stopped, words from her conversation with Lala replaying in her mind bit by bit, bouncing around her head like there was something annoyingly wrong that she couldn’t quite piece while in the middle of it.
Until now that is.
I don’t agree with that, it doesn’t sit well with me -lun
“Hey…”
Lala perked up slightly, she turned making sure that eye contact wasn’t lost between the two of them.
Then she outstretched her hand.
“What are you doing -lun?”
“I…don’t think that it's ok to leave you here -lun”
…
“W-what?”
“What you said before, how you were happy to see me go, maybe it was good for me to move, but I don’t think abandoning you like this is -lun!”
Lala was shocked, quiet, for her it didn’t seem like that much of a big thing, after a little thinking it was just the natural thing to do. But maybe for Lala it was, maybe the idea of coming with her was never considered as a possibility, and right now the words coming out of her meant so much more than she could ever grasp on her own.
Regardless, she knew what she had to do.
“You said it yourself, you’re that part of me that is everything I used to be, the sad, scared and lonely girl that I was, which means that you’re still part of me -lun, and I’ve decided that every part of me is important -lun”
Lala blinked a couple of times, she could see how those recently watery eyes were starting to fill themselves again.
“Which is why I want to take you with me, to wherever I go next -lun”
“B-but, I’m not good for you -lun If I stick around you, everything that’s been going on for the past days is going to keep repeating, I can’t do that to you -lun…”
Lala was shaking slightly, taking little steps forwards and backwards with one foot. She wants to go, that much is clear to her, but she truly believes that doing so will be detrimental to her in the long run, well maybe she was right or maybe she wasn't, there's just no proper way to find out without trying.
Besides, this was her choice after all.
If this was truly for her sake, then she had a say in it no matter what Lala thought in the matter.
“It’s just for the best if I don’t stay close -lun”
“You’re wrong -lun, it's because of that you’re irreplaceable for me -lun”
She felt as if with each word, each step she took towards Lala was akin to putting more and more cracks in a dam, ready to let go of the flood it was holding inside.
“You were my starting point -lun, it was thanks to you that I was able to grow, that I evolved into someone that we can both see that is happy, brave, loved…and able to love as well”
She gave her the brightest and biggest smile she had to offer.
“I want that little girl to see that too, not from far away where I can’t even see her in the distance”
She finally reached a close distance, enough for her to kneel down and do as she did before for her and clean away traces of a tear that marked the beginning of a stream of them.
“But hand in hand, by my side, close to see for herself how many good things came to our lives, because I love her…”
She suddenly felt how the glowing of her star color pendant disappeared, making the next words she said come directly out of her mouth.
“I love you, like I love myself, because you’re special to me -lun”
The little one closed the gap between them, not trying at all to hide her cries and sobs from the Samanian one bit, her embrace felt strong but gentle at the same time, she knew that she wasn’t going to let go anytime soon.
And she would have it any other way.
“...Thank you…so much… Lala ”
Those were the last words Lala heard from her before transforming into a sort of teal particle cloud that was immediately absorbed into her being, she felt whole, complete, like a warmth she hadn’t felt so genuinely in quite some time had made itself home inside her heart.
When Lala checked her star color pendant, she found that it was illuminated once again, but with a different kind of light, not in color but in nature.
“You dummy…and I’m supposed to be the one that doesn't listen…”
I should be the one thanking you -lun…
When she stood back up, it felt like it was something she hadn’t done in some time, so it felt refreshing enough for her to stretch her legs, finding it very weird for a moment when they didn’t crack like the crunchiest thing in the universe.
A very familiar part of her was grateful however, so Lala decided to just look past it and continue.
Gazing back at the star she found no more cracks in her way, no more pink to obstruct her view, not even more lights that tried to outshine the one she was looking for.
It was just her and her twinkle star up above in the sky.
She reached her hand towards the horizon, and pulled herself to the grasp that managed to grab it.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Silence gave way to many things: certainty, breakthrough, contemplation
Revelation
Lala opened her eyes to find herself in yet another place, this one however was one that she recognized dearly. It was the library of Mihoshi Middle school, in the evening if the sun was to be believed, right in her favorite reading spot, a small desk looking directly at a window to the outside.
She was resting her head on her arms, as if she was taking one of her ‘power naps’, and weirdly enough she had no book laying under her open. If this was a sequence like she figured was the case then why was that missing? It had become a habit of her to always wake up with one in those circumstances since she just simply wasn’t without a book within the library, ever.
By the look of her long sleeves and her reflection in the window Lala was still her current self, so at least that part hadn’t changed.
Then she felt the warmth of another body embrace her from behind.
It was tall, long arms wrapped her in a very comfortably familiar hug, like a pleasant dream Lala was never able to forget no matter how much time it passed, a strand of short pink hair found itself peeking into her vision, enough for her to notice the light pink bits that stuck out with it.
Lala closed her eyes, letting herself take in everything.
It felt real.
It is real.
“Found you -lun”
The embrace tightened, one of Lala’s antennae poked the nose of the one behind her.
“This…is this a dream??”
Lala hummed out loud for a moment.
“I’ve been wondering the same for a while -lun”
With her same antennae she moved to pat the head a couple of times, it was gentle, soft, full of happiness that was transmitted slowly, with the receptor getting the message as clear as day.
“If it is a dream though, is it a pleasant one -lun?”
Her answer came with no hesitation.
“Yes, definitely”
Lala smiled, she already suspected it.
“Confident and without a doubt, that’s just like I remembered from you-”
She took the opportunity to nuzzle with her before slowly and slightly hesitantly lifting the arms embracing her with her own, then she turned to see the very same face that she had missed for so long. It was older, more defined and experienced, but the smile in it was the same as always.
Just like the pair of pink eyes Lala never forgot about.
“-Hikaru -lun”
“Lala!”
Hikaru rushed in for yet another hug, this one was far more emotional seeing how she effortlessly picked her up and spun once in place with her in her arms before finally putting her down.
Lala couldn’t stop giggling but she could stop her tears.
“It’s been a while -lun”
“It sure has!”
They stayed hugged for even longer, just feeling the moment for both of them yet again, now that there was no veil, no ambiguous situation or anything else that brought uncertainty, it was just them enjoying the company of each other after long years of being apart.
Just as it was meant to be.
“You’ve gotten stronger -lun”
Lala commented absentmindedly while she felt Hikaru’s arms.
“Astronauts have to be strong”
“And really tall -lun”
Hikaru giggled.
“You can blame basketball for that stretch”
…
“I thought you’d have many questions -lun”
“I do, but it doesn’t matter”
“Not even how this is even possible -lun?”
“Nope”
…
“Why -lun?”
“Because you’re here, and that’s what matters”
Lala’s embrace became tighter, she was quick to bury her blush in Hikaru’s neck, the height difference had perks after all huh.
“Besides you’ve always been extraordinary like that, so it’s no wonder you found a way”
“Geez, Hikaru -lun”
She giggled again when it was more obvious that her attempts were met only by failure.
“...we”
“Huh?”
“ We found a way back -lun, this is us, it’s our power reuniting us from light years beyond of distance -lun”
Hikaru let out a soft yet full of amazement and awe ‘Twincool…’, which earned a delightful laugh from Lala, she missed hearing her say that.
Then she felt Hikaru grab one of her twintails and rub it a little bit.
“You let your hair grow”
“I wanted it to be like yours -lun…”
“You cut yours -lun”
“I even added a light streak”
Lala nodded with a soft ‘-lun’, while reaching out with her hand to feel the line of lighter pink that cut through all the uniformly usual pink tone she had previously seen, the sensation of it between her fingers was something she wouldn’t confuse with any other.
Hikaru stood quiet for a moment before failing to suppress a laugh.
“What is it -lun?”
“Nothing, it's just funny…I was just thinking how I had so many things to tell you about; how we’ve been, what are we up to, how’s everyone else, all the new and old that I wanted to tell you about”
Hikaru’s giggle was so joyful, so infectious that Lala couldn’t even resist, even if she had tried at all.
“And yet the moment I finally get to see you again, there’s nothing I’d rather do than just stay like this”
Lala understood, it was much the same for her, plenty a time she had always come up with something new she wanted to tell Hikaru and/or the others about; Yuni’s planet, Fuwa’s progress, Prunce’s new life, the Notraider’s new home, Aiwarn’s successful new inventions, Mary Ann’s promotion, her own new position, the list was 5 years worth of length.
And yet, unlike her there was something that she wanted to tell her, the one thing she had waited enough to say and she was going to use this chance to do so, after all they didn’t know for how long this could last or if it would happen again.
Lala’s antennae slowly made their way to Hikaru’s hands, who didn’t even hesitate to touch them with her fingers as natural of a motion for her as breathing. Following the sensor's motions keeping her tact in them at all times Hikaru unwrapped her arms from Lala, who did just the same with hers, placing both of them face to face just like before.
Her slightly blush in her face Lala knew that she didn’t need to arm herself with any courage to take this next step, even before all the years that passed away from her she was ready to do it.
She wasn’t going to let even the universe separate them in any meaningful way again.
“Hikaru, I have something to tell you -lun”
“What is it?”
“Remember the last time we saw each other? That day in the star palace -lun”
“I don’t think I can ever forget that”
Neither could she.
“I wanted to tell you something, before our powers were lost and we no longer understood each other -lun”
At that exact moment, not a second sooner or later, Lala noticed a same kind of blush coming from Hikaru, had this been another moment on another time in her life she would have questioned if she already knew, if the thing she wanted to tell her was so obvious that there was absolutely no need for her to say it outloud.
Now? She knew, they both did, so the only thing left to do was say it.
“Hikaru, I love you”
Her whole body jolted from the sheer emotion of saying those 4 words to her, in another time Lala would’ve worried about giving Hikaru a small shock discharge by accident. Her heart was now bare for her to see, the only person she felt like it could be seen by in the entire universe.
Lala’s soul was at ease, a familiar part of her was cheering her on.
“I wanted to tell you, for a long time -lun”
Hikaru wasn’t shocked or surprised at all by the revelation, if it could even count as one by this point, instead she looked relieved, satisfied completely, almost as if she no longer had to hold back something that she had been for some time now.
Even without her own sensors, her feelings were transmitted to Lala as clear as crystal before her first letter had even left her mouth.
“Me too”
Her eyes illuminated, as sparkling and shining as that same star that had guided her all the way here, it made sense too, that Hikaru’s power would be that twinkling that not even light years would prevent her from seeing it.
It was something that not only belonged to her, but to Lala as well too, she was as sure as being able to feel that same glow in hers.
“I love you Lala”
Bliss.
That was all that Lala felt for the remainder of her time with Hikaru, from the newfound intimacy they discovered after admitting their feelings, to just any sort of gesture they did for the other, everything just felt so magical, so beautiful, so right, like life had finally clicked together for them. No grand gesture was needed at all, on the contrary it was the smallest of things that held just as much emotions behind them in something akin to a language only they could understand.
Hikaru patting her head, Lala resting on her shoulder, Hikaru reminiscing about the school library, Lala sharing a seat with her while revisiting one of her favorite books, Hikaru telling her stories about things that happened in town in the time she was away, Lala recounting to her every planet she was able to visit in her new job as Inspector. They could stay like that forever, just chatting their time away.
Everything seemed to flow so naturally that over 5 years worth of things they wanted to tell to each other passed away in what felt little more than an hour.
At some point thanks to Lala’s keen observation they had discovered that the clock of the school was indeed working as intended, with the hypothesis that it was indeed a way for them to keep track of the time they had to be together. A conjecture that was eventually proven right when the clock hit closing time and the bell started to ring, slowly turning the scenery around them to white.
However, when they felt like it was time to part ways, neither of them was sad nor did they make an effort to resist it.
Hikaru’s reason was more than known, she had made a promise and as of today she successfully kept it to her most precious shining star, something that furthered fueled her resolve to do so with the rest of her friends.
On the other hand, Lala’s reason was just as personal, but in a different way.
Because Lala had realized something very important, after all this time of worrying about letting go of Hikaru to be happy like some sort of obsession slowly chipping at her, it turns out that she never really left her in the first place. She had always been with her, even before the dreams, not a second was spent without both of them together, in ways that the universe had little understanding of.
Before disappearing completely from each other Lala heard Hikaru utter something, it was akin to a promise but with the difference that in a sense it was already fulfilled, like a memory of a pleasant time in her life encapsulated in a couple of sentences.
The last thing she felt was the touch of Hikaru in her sensors.
It would take more than 5 years for her to forget that feeling alone.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The moment Lala opened her eyes once again, she instantly knew that she was awake, not like the other times when she felt half asleep and half awake unable to completely convince herself if this was reality or if the place she just woke up from was.
The others were gathered around them, Prunce, his parents, Yanyan and Mary Ann where all saying different things in different states of worry, the only one still calm and trying to properly disconnect them from the machine was Aiwarn, who reminded Lala very much of a doctor focused on her job while being yelled at by various different people demanding an explanation.
However no matter what they said Lala couldn’t pick up a single thing that was otherwise supposed to be a somewhat understandable crowd of sentences.
When she turned to see Yuni, she found her in a much similar state that she was in, like she had experienced something pleasant beyond any description or reaction she was able to conjure up, the light in the monitor that was connected to her ring was an all hue of rainbow with even colors that were outside of the normal 7 showing up in the spectrum.
When she turned and their eyes met, it was instant mutual understanding between the events that each of them had lived, so Yuni simply smiled to her one of her most genuine and soft ones that Lala had ever seen in her and mouthed a ‘thank you’ to her.
Lala smiled back at her, once they were properly out of this maybe they could do something together for a change.
Yuni then looked over her in Fuwas direction, which Lala immediately did as well once she realized what was in that way. To the collective relief of the crowd she was fine, just looking a little tired and after being grabbed by Prunce in an attempt to help her off her station the rumble in her stomach also made apparent the little bit of hunger.
Thinking about it made Lala hungry too, just how much had she skipped during her sad girl hours?
A few snaps close enough to her eyes for her sinapsis to react as well brought Lal’s senses in their entirety back to the present.
“Hey, are you good? Like, you’re not brain fried are you?”
“I’m ok -lun, just a bit out of it I guess”
Aiwarn nodded with semi visibly relief, then just as quickly as she finished unhooking Lala to her chair and the sensors she turned to Yuni.
“What about you Yuni, still with us?”
“I dunno, give me like 5 more minutes of sleep, then I can think of an appropriate comment to waking up to your voice for like the who’s keeping count time -nya”
Yuni actually held out her hand with her 5 fingers stretched out to emphasize her statement, however she left it up long after her comment making Aiwarn decide to high five it, effectively going back down afterwards.
“Great, because I don’t know what you lot were thinking overwriting my shutdown, like did you really try that hard to give us a heart attack or something?”
Both of them perked up slightly at her comment.
“What do you mean -lun?”
“What do I mea- look around you”
Lala did just that and she realized for the first time since waking up the reason why there was space for the crowd of their friends in the otherwise narrow interior of the Dream Walker.
It was wide open, split in half and fried to the next planet and back. She realized that the only reason she was able to see the color of Yuni’s ring on the screen was because it was magnified into it by design without the need for electronic sources. But outside of that everything else was either destroyed, fried, broken or a combination of those things.
Luckily there was no sign of an explosion, so the machine probably suffered an overload and broke apart without harming the others, or themselves for that matter.
Actually, how was it that they were unscathed despite this much damage around them?
“Whatever happened in there was bad enough that your vitals reached concerning levels, so I tried to pull you out but you didn’t let me, like whatever you did managed to activate our Miracle Light for real this time and it only ended up breaking the machine in the struggle”
Aiwarn glanced at the direction in which Lala remembered her placing the Miracle Light in question, only to find it not only exposed but broken down to a nearly unrecognizable state.
“I mean like, just what were you trying to pull??”
“Hey, it’s not like we did it on purpose, frankly I don’t even know exactly what we did or how we did it -nya”
“Great”
She turned to look at Lala.
“And you? Like, any ideas?”
Lala hummed for a second, trying to organize the ideas in her head so that she could give an answer that could satisfy Aiwarn.
“Long story short, the test was a success -lun”
“H-huh? No wait, really?”
While Aiwarn was busy trying to process the information that Lala had given her, she noticed from the corner of her eye Yuni in the back giving her a knowing smile of satisfaction.
“I’ll compile a report for you later -lun”
For a second there she looked like she wanted to protest against it, until she thought about it deciding instead against it.
“Whatever, I’ll have to do something about this huge chunk of toast metal anyway, just make sure that it’s the best dang report you’ve ever written”
“Count on it -lun”
Lala answered with a small salute at Aiwarn’s pointy finger with a unnervingly familiar joyful and optimistic tone of voice, there was a mix between surprise, disgust and relief in her face not knowing exactly how to react at first before simply saying to her-
“Don’t do that”
And going away to survey the damage with her tablet while mumbling ‘I can’t believe she’s multiplying’.
She could feel Mary Ann proud in the distance.
When Lala stopped looking at Aiwarn, deciding to check back on Yuni she was met with an amusingly smug smile worthy of her cat features.
“Someones looking pretty happy -nya”
Lala was caught of guard for a second before managing to recover her composure and give her something she probably hadn’t seen from her for a while, a genuine happy smile.
“I am -lun!”
Yuni nodded, putting on a more genuine smile as well.
“That’s good to hear”
“How about you? -lun”
And it was Yuni’s turn to be caught off guard, with her just having time to scratch the back of her head in response.
“I think so too -nya”
“LALA, YUNI!”
Both heard a bunch of voices coming from out of the machine where Aiwarn had managed to relegate the small crowd that had formed in the process of waking up, now that she was done and moving to the next step of her work though? There was no longer anything that was holding them back.
They only managed to sit before the group spearheaded by Prunce holding Fuwa in his tentacles made their way back in, far too concerned for them to care about the precarious state of the giant device.
“You’re ok, thank the stars -puruns”
“You had us worried sick dears”
“Are you really ok? Do you need anything? Water? Food? Maybe some first aid kit?”
“That was a real spectacle you guys made it through, with all them lights and sparks flying around -yan”
“We’re fine, it’s all fine, see? Still in one piece -nya”
“Still, that was some horrific miscalculation!”
From the outside of their broken chamber they managed to hear in echo ‘Who are you saying miscalculated?!”
“However, I trust that just as we managed to recover the Miracle Light intact, you also found success in your operation!”
Lala nodded.
“I already told Aiwarn-san that I’ll compile a report later for analisis -lun”
Mary Ann gave her a salute, between this one and the one that Lala gave before there was still a significant difference.
“Understood, I’ll review a copy of it and submit it to HQ, good job Inspector!”
Lala smiled at her and gave her a salute as well, with both of them breaking them out after a couple of seconds.
“Well, if you two are truly feeling good I’ll let the others take care of you and start helping clean this mess!”
Prunce parents came floating close to them.
“Don’t worry dearies, we’ll get you back to your rocket and take care of you until you feel better”
“And you’re sure that your help is needed here instead of some other assignments?”
“But of course! Aiwarn-san may be incredibly smart, but my nose will be helpful for her regardless in identifying which components are still salvageable and which aren't!”
Yuni shrugged while starting to get up with the help of Prunce’s dad.
“Alright then, have fun sniffing away at burnt hardware”
“Thanks! Rest well Blue Cat!”
Mary Ann gave her a salute and sprint out of the chamber before Yuni could get a witty retort, leaving her to only shake her head and mumble something that Lala couldn’t quite catch.
“Here, let us help you -yan”
Yanyan pulled out something from her shell as Prunce’s mom hovered over to help Lala stand up, a couple of seconds later it turned out to be a collapsible crutch from the first aid kit that they had close by for emergencies. Even if it could make itself smaller, for a second Lala wondered how the in stars did Yanyan managed to get it to fit in there.
“Thank you Yanyan-san -lun”
“Don’t even worry about it, now come on we have to get you home -yan”
“Some down time sounds nice, doesn’t it dear?”
Lala nodded with a ‘-lun’, she wasn’t tired per se, but it was still a good idea to take a breather while everything was taken care of.
She did have a report to write after all.
“-so she hasn’t woken up -nya?”
“Not since I got her out of there -puruns, but don’t worry she’ll most likely- oh, hey Lala”
After getting out of the chamber and making it past the banthering voices in the background of the wonder-how-those-two-keep-ending-up-together-duo, they managed to catch up with Yuni, Prunce, Fuwa and his dad, who had seemingly stopped for a second to talk about Fuwa.
Made sense though, so far they hadn’t had an opportunity to ask about her since they woke up, so Yuni probably saw her chance and took it without hesitation.
“Hey -lun”
“We were just talking about little Fuwa here”
“I heard, how is she? -lun”
“Well, I was just saying to Yuni here that she’s still deeply asleep -puruns”
“W-”
“BUT! It’s nothing to be concerned for -puruns, she’s just tired and nothing more, she actually woke up when I got her out of that machine and passed out from the exhaustion a little later -puruns”
Lala looked at Fuwa, still soundly asleep within Prunce’s tentacles like there wasn’t a care in the universe a couple of moments ago, she wanted to pat her but decided to do it once she was actually up and about instead of bothering her well deserved nap.
“Thanks for always looking after her Prunce -lun”
He shrugged nonchalantly, modesty wasn’t one of Prunce’s strong suits most of the time, but even still it was obvious just how much he cared just by the tone of his voice.
“It’s my job, remember? I wouldn’t even dream on letting anything happen to her under my watch -puruns”
“That’s reassuring to hear -nya”
“Right, now come on, Fuwa isn’t the only one in need of rest -puruns”
The walk back, just like the way forward at the beginning, wasn’t that long to tread, eventually making their way to the rocket without much fuss, which was something that Lala found nearly weird. She had expected for her to be bombarded with various different questions about what happened there, what they had done, among other things.
But that just wasn’t the case, everyone just kept their questions to themselves, instead focusing on helping them reach their rooms and their beds so that they could rest properly.
Prunce’s announced that he was going to be keeping an eye on Fuwa while she slept with Yanyan while his parents would be in the kitchen making something for them to eat in a little bit, so if they needed something they would be just a couple of rooms away.
And with that, they left them alone once again.
Lala laid on her bed looking at the ceiling, thinking about everything she just experienced in the span of a couple of hours and sighed with the widest smile she’d ever worn in her entire life.
Everything felt so light to her, she completely basked in the feeling.
“So you saw her”
“I’m that obvious aren't I? -lun”
“Even if you weren’t I had a hunch anyways -nya”
Lala turned her head to look at Yuni, who was doing much the same in a similar position in her bed.
“A hunch -lun?”
“Hunch, gut feeling, call it whatever you like, but when I felt you in there, I knew exactly that you were close at least”
She gave her the look , that one that Lala knew from various conversations they were involved in where Yuni already knew what someone was going to say and wanted for them to say it anyways.
“So?”
Lala kept her soft smile, unburdened and undaunted by anything that could face her right now.
“She’s still Hikaru, brilliant, caring, full of life-”
“Still annoyingly endearing -nya”
“Oh! She is taller now -lun”
Yuni’s smile tensed for a second.
“H-how tall are we talking about?”
“Tall enough for her to have a whole head head of me -lun”
Yuni’s expression was indecipherable, it was something akin to concern, astonishment and…fear?
She decided to move on from that for her sake.
“She also told me a little about how the others are doing -lun”
“O-oh really? How are they?”
“They’re doing well -lun, Elena is not in Japan right now and Madoka is all over it -lun”
“So they managed to follow through with their plans…good for them”
Lala didn’t even need to glance at Yuni’s ring to know that the color it had was the very same rainbow that had stayed with them since getting out of the dreams, her smile told all that needed to be said. She couldn’t be more happy for them, finally reaching their objectives or at the very least taking steps to reach them.
Speaking of objectives though.
“I also told her about how you were doing rebuilding Rainbow -lun”
“You did what?!”
“Calm down, I just told her that it was finally starting to show, I didn’t go into too much detail…”
Now it was Lala’s turn to give her the look .
She’d be lying if she were to say that she hadn’t waited for this moment for ages.
“I know you wanted to do that yourself -lun”
“It’s official, you’ve spent too long around me”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about -lun”
“I can only shiver in fear of the monster I’ve created”
“Maybe I’ll start to eat some of the fish ~nya”
The sound of a pillow hitting Lala in the face was the only thing muting her own giggle, she really missed talking with Yuni like this, just the two of them sharing a room in the rocket. It had been far too long.
Then Yuni’s eyes lit up, like she had remembered something important.
“Speaking of which I wanted to ask you”
“Oyo-?”
“At some point, when we were still inside, I had…a sort of special talk with someone, did the same happen to you -nya?”
Lala nodded with a soft ‘-lun’.
“I talked with myself -lun”
"Same here actually"
"Really? -lun"
That's not the silhouette she remembered seeing, perhaps she was wrong after all? The dark did make it harder to identify accurately.
"Well sort of, I talked with many someones, it kind of felt like I was going down through memory lane -nya”
Lala hummed in contemplation for a moment.
“I didn’t really get to do that, I just spoke with myself -lun”
“You too? -nya”
“-lun, it was a me from 5 years ago, she came to me because she wanted me to stop hurting myself so much for the sake of the tests -lun”
“Hmmm, sounds like we had the same kind of conversation -nya”
“I thought you said that you spoke many someones -lun”
“Oh I did, and one of them was myself from 5 years ago, just like you -nya”
Yuni wiggled into a better position in her bed, more comfortable to sleep in.
“And the entire conversation with everyone was just about the same, to take better care of myself, or ourselves I should say”
Lala felt that same warmth Yuni’s connection brought her when she touched it, back there it was something more physical, or at least that was how she was able to interpret it in the dream. Here though, it was a bit more…emotional by comparison.
But still just as real all the same.
“Of course -lun”
“Good, because I think that our first order of business is to finally have a nap without any whispers or repeating conversation -nya”
“Do you think that they finally stopped -lun?”
Yuni shrugged slightly.
“I mean, you finally got to see Hikaru right? Us longing for the others was what caused all of this according to Aiwarn, now that you’ve finally talked to each other that should be enough, don’t you think?”
Lala wiggled as well into a more comfortable position while hearing Yuni out, her reasoning was technically sound, the logic was there, however there was one part that bothered her.
“But you didn’t get to talk to her -lun, and we don’t even know if Elena and Madoka were affected as well -lun”
“Hmmmmm, well I still remember Aiwarn’s instruments only detecting two sources for the ‘Miracle Lights’, and I sure wasn’t one of them -nya”
Lala blushed for a little bit before she noticed Yuni turning again to face her.
“Lala, its ok”
The words reverberated in her like they were passing through all of her being.
“Everything will be alright, just…allow yourself to sleep and then we'll worry about the rest if it comes, ok?”
She didn’t have to think twice to believe in those words.
“Ok -lun, sweet dreams Yuni”
“Sweet dreams Lala -nya”
Yuni returned to her sleeping position and closed her eyes, allowing herself to fall into a restful slumber for a change.
Lala on the other hand stayed awake for a while longer, she had yet to fully assimilate the events that transpired in her journey, especially the last two talks which to her were the most significant of them all.
She looked at her hand, unable to forget the feeling of how her younger self grabbed, using it to pull her into one of the most satisfying hugs she had ever received, or did that count as her giving it too? No, that didn’t make sense.
However she also remembered the thing she told her, having her close hand in hand so that they could see what life had for them first hand, she was pretty sure that she’d done a good job today on that front with Hikaru.
But she still wasn’t done, not even close, and going by Hikaru’s words neither was she.
That was the other thing that kept her up, the last thing she said to her, to think that she was able to make it out even over the fading noise of that place.
‘....Wait for me….I’ll be there with you….so we can finally hold each other again’
“I’ll always be waiting for you, but not idly -lun”
Lala held both sensors in front of her face, and slowly put them together, making miniscule sparks of electricity come out of them.
She managed to grab a little blanket that could be used to put over her and slowly but surely closed her eyes.
It felt like ages since the last time she felt like resting.