Act 1, Scene 8
"-ke up."
My first coherent recognition is the sound of cicadas. Then, the feeling of hard pavement beneath my back.
"Hey, wake up," A voice I don't recognize says.
What just happened? Putting aside that encounter with Louis - what the hell just happened? There was that face, and then… did I rayshift?
The sound of cicadas… the humid summer air… the distant honking of horns… All of it points to-
"If you don't wake up… I'll tear you to pieces."
My eyes snap open, and I sit up. "Wha-!?"
Fists raise. She falls easily into the stance of a martial artist, glasses glinting in the fluorescent glow of a nearby streetlamp. There's something strangely enchanting about it, the same way that the practiced stances of people like Lancelot or Hercules catch the eye. And also something else, a feeling I can't name…
She's a girl, about my own age, wearing a dull brown school uniform I don't recognize. Brownish-black braided hair and wide-rimmed glasses give the impression of a class president-type, and as she blinks and drops her stance, I detect an obvious hint of social awkwardness. "T-that came out wrong. I meant, 'if you don't wake up, you'll be torn to pieces'. Because there are… monsters around, apparently."
There's only one natural response to that. "Who taught you Japanese!?" No, that's not important right now. "Who are you, anyway? Where are we?"
She opens her mouth to shout back at me - and then, catching herself, she coughs, and stands upright. "...Aren't you obviously the suspicious one? With that weird uniform of yours… you go first, and then I'll answer."
Well, she's fallen prey to the classic blunder of asking me to introduce myself! Time to burn all the credibility I have left! "Me? Glad you asked! Not only am I clueless, I'm also lost beyond compare! Na-!" As I begin to strike an iconic pose, a thought occurs to me.
"I could eat your name, if you want. That'll make things easier on you."
"-Flugel. My name is Flugel." In a moment of hesitation, that's what leaves my lips.
Her eyes narrow slightly. "...Then, I'm Arima. Please take care of me."
"-The CCG!?" I take a step back. A Manga that fell off appears!
"...No, it's written with the character for 'interval', not 'horse'," She says - she picked up on the reference, but I can't quite parse her reaction. Her glasses are catching the light again, and I can't see her eyes.
"But anyway, Arima-chan, you said-" I start.
"I'll tear you to pieces," She says.
"-Arima-san, you said there are monsters? Don't worry! This type of thing is our-" Ah, right.
{"Hey, what's everyone's status?"} I call out telepathically.
-But, what follows is only silence. Not a single voice responds.
"Everyone in Chaldea's already been killed," the thing that looked like Louis Arneb had said.
I close my eyes, and breathe deeply, before concluding my statement, pointing at myself with my thumb. "-This kind of thing is my specialty!"
-Something changes about her, in that moment. Her eyes widen, taking on an almost predatory air as they seem to drill into me. Arima vibrates with a sort of overwhelming tension, as if she's about to spring into action. "Okay. You're dressed strangely, so I'll believe you for now. If you don't know where you are, then how did you get here?"
"Ah… I think I rayshifted, but I'm not sure… This whole situation is a bit anomalous," I mutter. "But looking around… this is definitely the modern era- ah. Ahhhhh, that sign is-!? Inokashira Park!?" At this point, I can't help but scream. "Tokyo!? We're in freaking Tokyo!?"
I turn back to look at Arima - oi, she's even more freaky now! Those green eyes of hers are almost glowing, and her hair seems to be moving on its own! "Era… so you're confused about time and space? That 'rayshift' thing you just mentioned, it's not just teleportation, but time travel too?"
I take a nervous step back. "Ah, Arima-san, are you-?"
"Ah, look! They're here! Zombies came! Get them, Flugel!" She shouts with… excitement?
But before I can process that, I turn, and - yeah, sure enough that's a couple of zombies wandering up the street towards me. I might as well show off, though! "Alright, take this! [Minya]!"
Purple crystals are fired from my hand, and hit the two shambling corpses, which crystalize and shatter.
Grinning, I turn back, and - "Oi, where did all that energy you had go!?"
"...You didn't transform?" She asks with a strangely neutral tone.
"...Transform?" I repeat dumbly.
"You've… got that weird watch, so… no, never mind," She suddenly clams up, and once again her glasses seem to be hiding her eyes.
"...Did you think I was some kind of tokusatsu hero?" I ask after a moment of thought.
"No, of course not," She says. "I'm not a kid."
"No, but you seemed so energetic before, and now-"
"I don't know what you're talking about," She says. "Anyway, that was clearly magic or a sci-fi gadget, so I guess you might really be some kind of supernatural secret agent."
"Secret-? Uh, sure, we'll go with that," I say. "...Uh, to be clear, Arima-san, you're a normal person, right? Not a mage? Or, you haven't had red tattoos like these pop up on your hand, right?"
"I have a perfect attendance record," She says, in a strangely practiced fashion.
"R-right… But seriously, no mysterious ghosts talking in your head recently? No shadow of a dead god haunting you?" I ask.
"No…?" She says with obvious confusion. "Does that happen often?"
"Uhhhhhh…" I think for a moment. "Not often…"
…No, focus. Why am I getting sucked into this kind of pace!?
"-Shit, I need to-!" I fiddle with the communicator on my wrist - but no response comes. "Lost communication again? Or is everyone already-!? Dammit, what do I do?"
I don't have any guidance. I can tell this is probably a singularity, but it isn't one of the seven. Think, think-!
"Ah," I realize. "...Sub-singularities. Nobunaga did mention that."
"...Nobunaga?" Arima says. "Like… no, you can't mean-"
"Uh, yeah, we summon ghosts of past heroes to solve problems in the timeline," I give a quick synopsis - and then I turn towards her. "Speaking of problems, I don't suppose you know where those zombies came from? That's probably my best lead."
"Yeah, they were on my subway car," She says, a slightly queasy look crossing her face. "I'm not really sure how they got there, it was normal when I boarded… Luckily, they weren't that strong or fast so I was able to get away at Kichijoji station."
-Oh shit. "Doesn't that mean that there's a zombie horde in Kichijoji now-!?" That place has to be crowded around this time of night! "People are going to be in trouble!" But on my own, what can I-
"No, that's just it," Arima says. "Since I got off the train, the only thing I've seen have been monsters, and you." She pauses, curling in on herself a bit. "To be honest… I think I've been spirited away or something. Just like-" Her voice stops, and she grimaces, looking away.
"Then that makes two of us." I say with a sigh. She said something suspicious there, but there's no chance she trusts me enough to share.
Dammit. There's no clues, only a scared girl who might know martial arts. That's not enough. I'm so completely lost. I know the city a bit better, but this is still almost as bad as that tumultuous first day in Lugunica.
But then… I know this city.
"Alright then," I snarl. "Let's do this. I've got my deadline - let's solve this before sunrise." After all, if the sunrise arrives, I'll have to die. "We'll start with the obvious, right? Tokyo skytree, here we come."
And with that, I begin the walk to Kichijoji station - and then I pause. "Arima-san… If you want to stay here, it'll probably be safer, but… this 'place', if it is something separate from the real Tokyo, will disappear when this is over, and if you're not with me at that point, there's a pretty good chance you'll die."
"Do you think I'm going to let the only other living human out of my sight?" She mutters as she walks up to stand beside me.
"Heh," I chuckle. "Alright, let's do this, then."
And so we proceed down the road - rounding a bend, past a building, where the form of Tokyo's largest tower becomes-
Oh.
"...That's not the Skytree," Arima says.
Oh no, no, no, nononoNONO!
"Why…" is it here? My voice fails completely as my heart pounds in my ears.
My eyes, disbelieving, shaking, as they widen in dread, gaze at the city center, where the familiar sight that I had always known - has been swapped for something larger. A stone megalith that rises all the way above the clouds.
A familiar hell, where twenty lives of 'Natsuki Subaru' met their end.
The Pleiades Watchtower.
-!
Adrenaline surges through me, and I grab Arima - she raises a fist, not yet understanding - [Emergency Reinforcement]! If I'm wrong, it'll be fine, but-!
I throw us both back behind the building that had obstructed the tower's line of sight, just as two gleaming bolts of light shatter the ground where we stood.
"...Hell's snipe, huh?" I mutter. I don't know whether to grin, or scowl, but I do know one thing. "That… stupid… fucking… scorpiooooon!"
***
Author's note:
This is a Melty Blood crossover now.
...You guys read the short-lived spinoff manga "Hana no Miyako", right?