Chapter Text
Tsukasa stared, dumbfounded, at the wave of new Tsukasa Tenma’s standing a little bit away from them.
Some of them were even doppelgängers of the original doppelgängers!
In the middle of them all was Nene, an exasperated look on her face. She turned to look at Tsukasa, pointing behind her.
“TSUKASA. WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS.”
Tsukasa resisted the urge to break down in tears. “I WISH I KNEW.”
“Goodness, there are more?” Rui crossed his arms, curious. “How peculiar. Though, I suppose the experience of alternate universes implies that there are infinite alternate universes, as the theory goes, so this really isn’t too surprising..”
Tsukasa looked over to Rui, his expression absolutely horrified. “Do you mean there’s gonna be INFINITE ME’S in my SEKAI?!”
“PLEASE NO.” Nene yelled out, storming up to Tsukasa. “Dude, those guys are actually so traumatized it’s insane. I literally just came here and half of them started YELLING, some of them just looked confused and one of them-” The diva shuddered, “He tried to fucking kiss me, dude.”
A vine boom sound effect reverberated in Tsukasa’s mind.
“WHAT” Tsukasa cried, horrified. “KISS.. HUH-?!!”
He looked over to the new set of Tsukasa’s, trying to discern what.. Any of them could possibly be.
A lot of them.. Looked relatively normal, actually. Well, some of them were complete copies of the other Tsukasa’s he already met- there was a knight, a lily, another Torpe, another Timekeeper, and even another jester and oh god why are there two jesters now.
“Huh, sweet. Double chaos.” Tsukasa heard Jester mutter from behind him.
Respectfully, he wanted to punch him in the face.
Tsukasa turned to Miku, exasperated. “Miku?”
“Miku doesn’t know how they got here!” She cried. “B.. but these ones came with a list!!”
“A.. list-?” Tsukasa repeated.
“Mhm!”
Miku took a piece of paper from her pocket. “Uhh, it just says a description and then.. Database name?”
“Database?” Rui repeated, looking back to the first gang of Tsukasa’s. “Is everyone on the list?”
“Uh, I checked, and nope!” Miku chirped, “There’s no Tsukasa that has super duper big and cool dragon horns so..”
“Thank you!” Qilin chirped.
Tsukasa sighed. “Well, at least it’ll help in identification..” he muttered, “Can I see that list?”
“Mhm!” Miku handed him the piece of paper. “Here you go!”
The blond scanned through the list of names, his eyes widening in horror just a bit more for every description he read. And no, it was not just because the fact that there were so fucking many of them and Tsukasa just wanted to fall asleep already, but it was because these ‘descriptions’ were just a fucking trauma dump.
For example, one of the descriptions read the following: ‘Tsukasa that got hypnotised and was forced to kill a bunch of people but then committed arson and burned to death’
“What the fuck.”
“What’s the matter?”
Tsukasa handed Rui the list. He hardly had to look at it for five seconds before he realised exactly what the matter was. “Ah.”
“Yeah.”
Nene walked up to the two, nodding. “Yeah, what the fuck is wrong with these guys. Also, who are they? ” She asked, pointing towards the better dressed Tsukasa’s with actual occupations rather than.. a murderer and arsonist, apparently.
The actor looked towards Nene, an exasperated look on his face. “I’m not explaining all of that.”
“Fair. This is the most tired I’ve seen you in like..” The diva paused for a moment, “..Ever.”
Tsukasa shook his head, sighing. “Is it?”
He took the list back from Rui, scanning over the descriptions while becoming more thoroughly disturbed at what had happened to the alternate universe versions of him.
Seriously, what the hell were these?
“Should we.. do a roll call?” Rui offered, looking from the paper to the new Tsukasa’s. “We should get this done as quickly as we can without any more chaos.”
Tsukasa sighed. “Yeah.”
The blond cleared his throat, calling out to the new wave of people. “Okay, all new Tsukasa’s over here! We’re finding out your names.”
That felt weird to say. He did not like that.
“Uh, okay-??”
Jesterkasa pouted, looking at the other new Tsukasa who looked exactly like him. “Man, why the hell do I have a copycat? This isn’t fair!”
Jesterkasa 2 did not pout. Jesterkasa 2 was incredibly excited, pointing to the other and back to himself and quietly exclaiming how “Someone there looks just like me!”
So there was a clear difference in terms of personality there.
Meanwhile, there seemed to be a strange contrast between Knightkasa and.. The other one as well. It wasn’t as obvious as the Jester situation, but while Knight was staring at his counterpart with a calm curiosity, the other was just staring at the ground, almost dissociating. One of the other new Tsukasa’s kept glancing at him with a worried look.
The timekeepers and Torpe’s mostly looked the same, though, which was a good thing. Maybe, hopefully.
Tsukasa cleared his throat, looking down at the list. “Alright, let’s.. just get started with this. Which one of you is… ‘Tsukasa that was kidnapped into a cult, killed two people, became self aware, and blew up the island’?”
Jesus fucking Christ.
There was silence for a few moments. Shocked, surprised silence. All of the Tsuaksa’s, each one of them, all looked at each other in pure horror because who the fuck would do that.
“..That’s me.”
Holy fucking shit, he would do that.
Tsukasa internally cringed, “Uh, you shall be.. Offline. Welcome..??”
Offline nodded, pressing his lips together. “..Thank you.”
“Next one up is.. Jesus. Who’s ‘Tsukasa who had to revive several people after they were murdered and now has a phobia of fountains’?”
“..Why fountains..?”
Another one of the Tsukasa’s stepped up. He had a strange necklace around his neck, and was gripping it tightly. “Uh, that’s me. And to answer your question-” He looked over to Nene, “Because half of them, uh, died there.”
Nene inhaled sharply, “..Oh. Lovely.”
She leaned towards Rui, forcing the man to level with her height before whispering into his ear. “What the fuck is wrong with these guys?”
Rui simply chuckled, shaking his head. “Good question, Nene, good question..”
“God, I need Emu here right now..”
Tsukasa sighed. “We all do. Your name is Online, fountain guy.”
“Uh, neat.”
“Next up.. Oh.”
Tsukasa winced, looking back at Nene and Rui for a split second before reading the next line on the list. “Tsukasa who was.. (willingly) kidnapped by the American government along with 5 (unwilling) others due to the existence of SEKAI and was experimented on until he had amnesia.”
See, what made this one even worse was the fact that it was actually the least bit plausible.
Everyone was silent. Literally, nobody spoke for that one. Even the Tsukasa who fit the bill just.. raised his hand.
“..Hybrid.”
Hybrid nodded meekly, looking around the SEKAI with a strange childlike curiosity.
“Next, we have.. Tsukasa who.. Saved all of SEKAI from a ‘Happy infection’ with the H capitalised, caused by.. Evil Hatsune Miku named Anonymous M?”
The Tsukasa who spoke up had a prop sword strapped to his belt, as well as a gymnastics ribbon tucked in beside it. “That’s me, hi!”
He seemed.. Normal. Tsukasa recognized both those items from the prop tent in his own SEKAI.
“Hi,” Tsukasa muttered. “Your nickname is Offload.”
“Cool!”
The next Tsukasa was the one who’s description had caught Tsukasa’s eye first. His name was Lineoff. He was covered in burn scars, and was also staring at Rui with a burning hatred. Nene said that he was the one who tried to kiss her.
After that came ‘Tsukasa who got his ear bit off by a Doppelganger version of Ena Shinonome, and was beaten up by like 2 others’, whose name was appointed as Reflect. He was the one with the prosthetic ear. Then there was Reboot, who.. ‘Has actual SEKAI lore but the SEKAI lore fucked up so bad that he was absorbed by a monsterous entity and tried to kill himself inside said monsterous entity (named the Entity, how original)’.
Next up was Virus, or ‘Tsukasa who’s body was taken over by a parasite that tried to fuck up his life, landed him in the hospital several times, and hated salt’. He was followed by Jesterkasa 2, revealed to be named Circuit, who was described as ‘Tsukasa who got kidnapped by Gumi as a child into a circus where he had to murder people, and also has magically induced selective amnesia’.
Seriously, why did so many of these variants have amnesia? Why did most of them even have HIS LIFE? It was normal then something fucked it up and it was scary because technically, that could totally happen to HIM TOO.
Next up was Graphics, who was ‘Stuck in a weird liminal space and got shot by Minori then went delirious and said some crazy things and now he has to be extra mega careful or else he will bleed out and die’. That Tsukasa raised his (safe) hand, waving with an awkward chuckle. “SEKAI has a first-aid tent, right?”
KAITO immediately nodded and ushered him away.
Tsukasa watched as the two left before turning back to his list. “God, you’re all messed up.. okay, next up is-“ The blond blinked. “..Tsukasa who got stuck driving on an endless road and was shot after Rui went insane.”
A Tsukasa with a GAPING HEAD WOUND raised his hand. “Me.”
“...Are you okay.”
“Not really.” He laughed nervously. “I still feel betrayed.”
“Uh. You are Auto. Next one,”
“‘Tsukasa who was also experimented on, but not because of SEKAI, he was just experimented on for fun.’ What the fuck?”
“That’s me.” Another Tsukasa muttered. When he raised his hand, his sleeve fell down, revealing a star carved into his forearm.
Tsukasa stared at the scarred star in horror.
He was too stunned and horrified, and many other things to speak.
“..Software.” Rui spoke for him. He pat the blond on the back, asking if he wanted him to take over.
Tsukasa nodded slowly, handing the list over to the director as he attempted to compose himself.
Rui looked down at the list. “Tsukasa who’s a prince and is trying to form an alliance with a neighbouring kingdom, while also trying to find a cure to magic corruption.”
“That’s me!”
“Your name is Shiro.”
“Nice to meet you!” Lilykasa yelled out, waving.
Shiro gasped, “Oh! Hi other me!”
“Tsukasa who.. Indirectly starts the AI apocalypse.. And has rejection sensitive dysphoria. And.. attachment issues..?” Rui read next, his face slowly contorting into one of horror, just as Tsukasa’s had.
“..I have that?” One of the Tsukasa’s muttered. “Huh.”
“You.. are Squipkasa.”
Said Tsukasa’s face fell.
“ Seriously..? ”
Rui nodded. “That’s what the list says.”
“Can.. I have another name..?” He asked. “Please?”
“What other name could you call yourself?” Rui questioned in return. Not-Squipkasa paused, taking time to think about the question.
“Bmckasa.”
“Where did that come from?”
Not-Squipkasa shrugged. “I don’t know.”
Rui blinked, sighing. “Okay, sure, you can be Bmckasa. The.. letters.”
“Okay, next is-” Rui’s eyes flickered back down to the paper. “Tsukasa who.. Is a knight but is actively being manipulated and abused by the king and his whole identity has been destroyed and has tried to kill himself more than once and..”
Rui trailed off.
King and Knight both looked equally horrified as the other Knightkasa raised his hand, “That’s me.”
Rui stared at him. “..Do you need help?”
Fucked up Knightkasa shrugged. “I don’t know. What’s my name?”
Rui blinked. “..Chevalier.”
“Okay.” Chevalier nodded.
Knight and King exchanged worried glances, then nodded to one another. They would definitely be talking to him later.
Timekeeper’s double came next, who was described as ‘Tsukasa who keeps time but went down to earth when he was lonely and became attached to an emo boy’. His name was Time.
“YOU CAN DO THAT?!” Timekeeper yelled out, his jaw dropped in surprise and wonder.
“You can’t? ”
“Well, we aren’t supposed to.”
“Oh.” Time snickered, “It’s the same for me, but I just threw all that aside.”
“Oh..!”
“Next up-” Rui coughed, “Tsukasa in brackets Torpe, who befriends some random guy in the forest and takes him in but turns out he’s the evil sorcerer but he can change him.. trademark.”
“That’s me..!” Second Torpe piped up, smiling softly. “It.. looks like there’s another Torpe, so what’s my name?”
“You are Pianist,” Rui replied.
Pianist nodded, “Okay..!”
Knightkasa cringed.
After him came Alienkasa, who seemed to be the only actually happy person so far, with a description reading ‘silly little alien boy who came to earth and knows how to speak in emotes.’
“And the final one is..” Rui spoke up, sighing in relief. “Idol Tsukasa. That’s all it says. You are Idol.”
Huh.
“Man, all these guys got a whole trauma dump but all I get is this..” The last Tsukasa sighed, raising his hand. “By process of elimination, that’s probably me.”
Rui’s eyes widened.
Oh.
OH, he was..
.. Wow .
“That’s everyone?” Tsukasa muttered, looking back at the list. “..What do we do with them now?”
Miku shrugged, “I dunno! KAITO took one of them away, sooo.. I guess we can all hang out! Tsukasa party time!! Happy birthday!”
Tsukasa groaned, leaning against Rui.
He did not want to party with his fucked up doppelgänger copies. What happened to spending the rest of his birthday resting? But no, he had to deal with THIS!
It wasn’t like he was mad or anything. He just wanted to get a good night's sleep, but then this happened, and now he had to make sure a bunch of other him’s didn’t absolutely destroy SEKAI.
“If you want, I can bring you to the plushie tent,” Luka piped up, practically spawning from behind. “We can sleep there together, hehe..”
Tsukasa sighed, nodding. “Yeah. That would be great, actually, Luka. Thank you.”
“Rui, Nene, can I trust you guys?”
Rui nodded happily, whilst Nene just shrugged in response. Still, Tsukasa would take it.
He was really fucking tired.
Luka led Tsukasa away, leaving the two remaining troupe members and VIRTUAL SINGERs to take care of all the Tsukasa’s. Some of them had already began to talk to one another- specifically, Knight, Lily, and King going to talk to Chevalier and Shiro, while Jester was being bombarded with questions by Circuit.
“..So what do we do with them?” Nene whispered, leaning over to Rui.
“That’s.. a good question. Perhaps we could- oh-!”
One of the Tsukasa’s had attached themself to his side.
This one was Hybrid, Rui recognized. He was the one that.. was experimented on. Poor little guy.
“Uh, hello there..!” Rui looked down at Hybrid, smiling awkwardly. However, he got no reply, other than a quiet little mumble from the blond.
“Is he, like.. okay?” Nene whispered, raising her eyebrow.
Rui looked over to Nene, shrugging.
Probably not. He didn’t.. none of them seemed very okay, actually. Except for like.. three of them.
Well… now Rui had Hybrid attached to him, then. He doubted he would let go any time soon, either.
It wasn’t exactly a bad thing, though. His hair was long, long enough to braid, at least. It was fun to play around with.
Meanwhile, with the other Tsukasa’s, King and Knight were learning even MORE disturbing shit about Chevalier and his life at the castle, which he assured “wasn’t that bad” (lie), and it really “wasn’t a big deal” (also a lie).
“You can’t be serious,” King muttered, “Abuse is not okay , no matter what your status is!”
Chevalier looked towards the ground, “But he’s the king,” He replied. “It’s always for a reason. And it’s not like I can fight back..”
“You should!” Knight cried out, “I know damn well I would! You can’t let him treat you like this!”
“Last time I fought back I got beaten,” Chevalier shrugged. “So I don’t have another choice.”
“Good lord..”
“That’s not okay,” King spoke up, shaking his head. “You know that, right? You know that’s not okay. From everything you’ve been saying, the king has been manipulating you. He’s just been stripping away everything from you, just so you’ll be who he wants to be. But what do you want to be? Tell me this.”
“I..” Chevalier inhaled, “I don’t…”
He frowned. He still didn’t know the answer to that question. He was supposed to be the perfect knight, he wasn’t supposed to want to be anything else.
He wanted to be dead. He didn’t know if that counted.
Why did everyone keep telling him this? The sorcerer told him the same thing, but he couldn’t believe him. He couldn’t believe in Rui’s words, no matter how much he wanted to , he wasn’t allowed to. Rui was a soldier, a magic user, an enemy.
He wasn’t even allowed to be in contact with him, he was already breaking that rule. And selfishly, too. He wasn’t in contact with Rui to gather intel for the king, he was in contact with Rui because he wanted to be in contact with him.
And that was.. bad.
Bad?
He was.. He was bad.
He was doing something bad. That wasn’t good, that wasn’t right.
“Hey, are you okay?” He felt someone put a hand on his shoulder.
No, no, he wasn’t okay, nothing about this was okay. It didn’t make any sense.
Chevalier pushed the hand away, frowning.
“..Don’t talk to me anymore.”
“Eh?”
Knightkasa narrowed his eyes. “Hey, come on, you gotta listen-”
“No, stop.”
Chevalier shook his head, taking a step back. Then another, and another, until he turned around and ran away.
“Hey-!”
King frowned, watching him run away from them. “Leave him for now,” He ordered.
Knight clenched his fists angrily. “But.. I can’t just let him live his life like that, it’s not fair…!”
“I know.” King nodded, “But we may have overwhelmed him too much. We can find him later, but let’s give him time alone for now.”
Knight sighed, pressing his lips together. “..Okay.”
——
“Oh hey! I kill people too!”
Jester’s eyes widened. Well, looks like his warning flew right over this kid’s head. Surprising, too. From his personality alone, Jester thought this guy would just be some stupid goofy little kid who performed at a circus. Then again, he wasn’t really listening to what everyone’s descriptions were.
“Huh, you do?”
“Mhmm!” Circuit nodded, his hands on his hips. “It’s fun, isn’t it?”
Well, how interesting. Jester wasn’t expecting a sudden little plot twist like this.
He nodded, shrugging. “..Yeah, it’s pretty fun.”
“Right?!” Circuit grinned.
“What’s your story?” Circuit asked, “Do you just do it for fun, or is there another reason to it?”
Jester shrugged. “A mix of both. Sometimes it’s for a reason, sometimes it’s just for the hell of it~! What about you?”
“My mom is the one who tells me to do it,” Circuit replied, bobbing back and forth. “She taught me how to when I was a kid!”
Jester raised an eyebrow. “So you’ve been doing this since the start, huh?”
“Yup!” Circuit nodded, “Mama’s done a lot for me.”
“Like what?”
“Well… my parents abandoned me,” The second jester explained, “And she found me and took me in! Then she let me perform at the circus, and she gave me some friends, too!”
“She gave you friends?”
“Not like that!” Circuit exclaimed, “Like I met them, and she let them stay with me!”
“So.. kidnapping.”
“...No?”
Jester nodded slowly. “Yes?”
“No, cause they chose to stay, they wanted to! Just like I wanted to, so it’s not kidnapping!”
“Oh, so consensual kidnapping. A bit better.” Jesterkasa nodded. “Nice.”
“Yeah!” Circuit smiled. “Consensual!”
He didn’t know what consensual meant, but it was probably a good thing!
“Weird to see a preppy version of you,” A voice from behind the two piped up. It was Nakayama, his arms crossed. “Even more so getting along, hm?”
Jester snorted. “Nah, this guy is chill. Average murderer.”
Nakayama looked up and down at Circuit. He seemed innocent enough.. But there was something in those eyes, something he couldn’t exactly discern. He wasn’t sure if that copycat jester himself knew it, either.
How strange. He wanted to find out what was up with this kid.
He felt like he wasn’t getting the whole story.
Well, he wasn’t like Detective. He didn’t know the exact questions he could ask that would lead him towards the answers he wanted. If Nakayama didn’t know any better, he probably would have just started probing him repeatedly until Circuit spilled it out. But unfortunately, he could not do that. What a shame.
Shame indeed.
————
“..So you’re dead?”
“I am.”
“Yeah, me too.”
Auto and Lineoff stared at each other awkwardly. Both of their bodies were somewhat transparent, yet still tangible.
“Who killed you?” Lineoff asked, pointing to the wound in the middle of Auto’s forehead. “I doubt you did that to yourself.”
Auto chuckled awkwardly, “Uh. Rui.”
“Oh, fuck him. ”
“..Pardon?”
Lineoff scoffed, crossing his arms. “Hate him. Fucking.. little bitch.”
“.. Rui? ” Auto clarified, his eyes wide in horror.
Lineoff nodded, “Yeah. Him.”
“Why do you hate him?” Auto asked.
“Do you not ?”
“No.” Auto shook his head, “I don’t think I could ever, really.”
“But he killed you.”
“I know.”
Lineoff raised an eyebrow. “He killed you, and you don’t hate him?”
“No.”
“.. Why? ”
Auto shrugged. “I mean, it goes way deeper than that. I know he killed me, and there’s no excuse for what he did. But.. yeah, I don’t know. I just don’t.”
Lineoff hummed. “Why did he kill you, then?”
“Well.. we were stranded on this road, and there was no way out, and there were these figures, right?” Auto explained. “Long story short, someone told him that if he killed me, he could go home.”
“And he actually did it?” Lineoff asked, to which Auto nodded. “Huh. Asshole move.”
“What about you?” Auto inquired curiously, “How did you.. Get here?” He gestured to the scars and burns across Lineoff’s body.
“Killed myself burning down Rui’s cult.” Lineoff answered bluntly.
“…Oh.”
Auto took a moment to process his words, before jolting upwards, gasping. “HE HAD A WHAT??!!! ”
“A cult? Yup. And he brainwashed a bunch of people into it.” Lineoff added coolly, “Which included all our friends from Kamiyama and Emu. But he made me kill Emu before the cult actually started.”
“...Why?”
“HELL IF I KNOW. She did nothing wrong!” Lineoff cried out, “Nothing! And he forced me to chop off her head on a guillotine anyway!”
“A GUILLOTINE?!!”
Lineoff nodded. “She wasn’t the only one, either! Mizuki got their head chopped off, several people were strangled , Nene was poisoned, An was thrown against the wall..”
“JESUS CHRIST..! Did.. did anyone survive..?!”
“Three people. Akito, Ena, and this little kid named Gin Ibushi. Not.. sure where he came from, but he was there, too.”
“How little.”
“He was like. Twelve.”
“WHY.”
“GOOD QUESTION SIR.”
“Do you mean it was only those three who survived?” Auto asked, his face contorted into an expression full of absolute, genuine terror.
“Yeah. Everything else burned down.” Lineoff scoffed bitterly.
“That’s.. wow.”
Auto shuttered. “Your Rui is crazy.”
“Yours shot you.”
“Well he didn’t start a CULT!” Auto countered. “Or brainwash anyone into MURDERING people!”
“Yeah, fair. I guess I had it worse, then.”
Auto nodded. “Yeah, I guess.. Uh, hey. Question.”
Lineoff raised an eyebrow. “What is it?”
“Do you perhaps know how to escape a weird endless road without killing yourself?”
“..What?”
“Is that a yes or a no?” Auto asked, grabbing onto Lineoff’s shoulders with a shaky grin. “I don’t want to go back there.”
“I thought you were dead, though.”
“You don’t leave when you die,” Auto explained, “You’re still there. As some weird.. Shadow creature thing. The same ones that apparently told Rui to kill me.”
“Oh.” Lineoff blinked. “..I have no idea.”
Auto breathed out, closing his eyes. “Goddamn it.”
“But we can try to figure something out?”
“YESS YESYESYESYESYES”
————
“So, what’s your story?”
“Evil Hatsune Miku,”
“Huh, me too!”
“Really?” Offload hummed, playing around with his prop sword. “What was yours like?”
“I never actually met her,” Reflect explained, “But apparently I accidentally created her, then she made some weird cult and tried to enter my world.”
“Your world?” Offload repeated, “Why, do you have.. Multiple in your universe?”
“Well, there’s like..” Reflect paused, setting his hands atop one another to help visualize his explanation. “Our world, right? There’s this one, but then there’s also a mirror world, and between that is some weird.. Void place thing. That’s where my world’s timekeeper lives.”
“Timekeeper?” Offload repeated. “Like.. those Tsukasa’s over there-type timekeeper?”
“Sort of?” Reflect shrugged. “I think they’re about the same.”
They looked over to the two Timekeepers, who were excitedly chatting with one another about.. The wonders of the human world (which apparently Time got to participate in, and Timekeeper did not). Reflect hummed, “Yeah, they’re probably the same thing. But mine is a black and white floating woman who looks my age.”
“Huh,” Offload nodded to himself, “That’s cool! I guess we’ve all had exciting experiences, haven’t we?”
Reflect nodded. “Exciting, sure. Probably more terrifying, though.”
Offload clicked his tongue. “..Yeahhh..”
“I wonder what everyone else here had to face,” Offload muttered to himself, “I’ve seen a lot of.. Cults and experiments.”
Reflect winced, nodding in agreement. “I hope they’re all okay. Especially the one that had the bullet in his arm! Should we go check on him?”
Offload nodded. “Sure. He’s in the.. first aid tent, right? I didn’t know SEKAI had a first aid tent..” He clicked his tongue. “That would’ve been great information to know about when I was playing M’s game.”
“I guess not many plushies or Vocaloids get injured that much, then!” Reflect suggested, “That’s a good thing, isn’t it?”
“I guess, yeah.” Offload looked off to the side, “I think they went that way- let’s go!”
“Got it!”
————
“So you’re an idol?”
Idol nodded. “That I am.”
“Cool..! What’s it like?”
Idol grinned, striking a cute pose. “It’s great! Of course, there are a few ups and downs, but it’s worth it to see everyone’s smiles and hear them praising my name!”
“I’d imagine,” Shiro hummed. “Is it a bit overwhelming, though? And there’s tons of restrictions.”
Lily snapped his fingers, nodding in agreement. “Yeah! It’s cool, but there’s a lot to be expected from you.”
Idol sighed, “Yeah… you guys are right about that, at least.”
“But,” He put his hands on his hips. “I get to do what I love! So it’s okay. What about you guys, what’re your stories?”
“Well, there are two kingdoms, right? There’s the white lily kingdom, and the black lily kingdom…”
Shiro immediately launched into a big lore drop on his world, and how the opposite kingdom was hated and seen as dangerous due to their magic- dark magic, while the white lily kingdom had pure, light magic as opposed to theirs.
“But- then I met some guy from that kingdom! He had his eye covered, though, and we could only meet during night at the border. And turns out, the other kingdom isn’t bad! The only reason they were separated from us was because their magic is corrupted, and that guy I met wanted to find a cure! So, I’m helping him!”
Lily gasped, “Wait, other kingdom- you got to meet someone from the other kingdom?!”
Shiro nodded, grinning. “Uh-huh!”
“Lucky! What was he like?”
“He’s really nice,” Shiro explained, “That’s the Rui from my world, actually! I don’t know if he’s also a noble, but his clothes look really nice, too. And he has a big hat.”
“Ohhhhhh…”
Lily nodded, humming. “So that’s why I haven’t met this Rui guy. He’s probably from the other kingdom… I’m sure I’ll meet him soon, then!” He looked towards Idol, “What about yours?”
“My Rui?” Idol asked, to which Lily nodded. He hummed. “He’s nice. He’s a thief, but I like talking to him.” Idol smiled. “He treats me like a person, at least. A normal person, not like someone who should be put on a pedestal. I missed that when I became an idol.”
Both princes nodded. They got that. Nobody knew why what someone was spoke louder than who they were as a person.
“It’s nice being an idol, but there are a lot of bad things that come with it as a sacrifice,” Idol explained, “It gets really hard sometimes. But Rui actually helps me with it instead of just telling me to suck it up or whatever.”
Lily smiled. “That sounds nice. Your Rui seems like a good person.”
Idol nodded. “..He is. At least, I think he is, I don’t know. He’s a good person to me.”
“Right, you said he was a thief, didn’t you?” Shiro pointed out, his arms crossed. Talking about morals was a really interesting thing. After all, nothing was black and white, nothing ever was.
“Yeah. Steal from the rich to feed the poor type thief, you know?” Idol asked. “That’s what he’s like. At least that’s why he said he steals.”
“That’s fair.” Shiro nodded in understanding. “I think that’s a valid reason!”
“Yeah.. he’s pretty cool,” Idol grinned, shooting a thumbs up to the first prince. “You’ll like your Rui, Lily. I’m sure you will.”
—
Torpe the Pianist..
Torpe and Pianist. How ironic.
“So… what’s your world like?” Torpe asked awkwardly, sitting down beside his doppelganger by the fountain. “Most things would probably be the same, right? Talking animals, band auditions and stuff?”
“I, uh.. Think so.” Pianist nodded, humming. He looked downwards at the flowers, all singing softly as they swayed from side to side. “What kind of stuff do you have?”
Torpe took a few moments to think, before replying. He felt a bit more comfortable near someone he should.. Probably know, but it was still kind of awkward either way to talk to your own.. Copy. He wondered why there were two of them if their worlds were pretty much the same. He’s heard the conversations between some of the other copies, like Jester and Circuit, though, so if they were both here, then there had to be something different, right? “Uh, either than the talking animals, Danchou being Rui, magic.. Not much.”
“Rui is the director?” Pianist asked, “Ohh, I think I get what’s different now..”
“Hm? What’s different?” Torpe asked, curious.
“The Rui in my world is a sorcerer.”
“Oh, like the knights!”
Pianist nodded, “Yeah, he was.. He was nice. I liked him a lot.”
Torpe’s eyebrows raised curiously. “‘Was?’” He repeated, “Did something happen?”
Pianist paused for a moment, before nodding. “Uh, yeah. He was.. Caught, and executed.”
Torpe’s eyes widened in horror.
“..Oh.”
“I’m..” Torpe gulped. “I’m sorry about that..”
“Mm. It’s fine, I just..” He chuckled sadly, bringing one of his knees up and hugging it to his chest. “..I miss him.”
Pianist took a deep breath, sighing. “He.. yeah. He helped with a lot of stuff, and now that he’s gone, it’s just really lonely.”
Torpe frowned. He didn’t know what to say- he wasn’t sure if he should say anything.
“I’m okay though, don’t worry.” Pianist looked over to Torpe, smiling. “Even though he’s gone now, things are getting a bit better. I’m even writing a story now.”
“A story?” Torpe repeated.
“Mhm.”
“What’s your story about?”
“It’s just a self projection,” Pianist explained, “There’s not much to it. But a lot of the kids in the village like it when I tell them stories, so I decided to write my own.”
Torpe smiled. “I think that’s nice. You’re making people happy.”
The other nodded. “Yeah.. at least they can get an idea of the Rui I knew instead of the one they were warned about. Without actually calling him Rui, of course, then I’d be executed, too..”
“It’s still nice, though.” Torpe hummed, “That’s really admirable. I haven’t been able to do much yet, even after I joined the band.”
Pianist shook his head. “That’s not true,” He pointed out, “You still managed to get over your fear, right? That’s still a great thing, and even more so if there’s an entire story based off of it in this world.”
Torpe chuckled. “Well.. if you put it that way, it sounds a lot cooler than it was.”
“If it’s a big accomplishment to you, then it was a big accomplishment.” Pianist smiled. “Getting over fear can be.. hard. So managing to is admirable. Even if you don’t think it’s all that cool.”
Torpe nodded, smiling back. “Thanks.”
“Anytime,” Pianist looked around, leaning back a bit. “This place is kind of nice, isn’t it..?”
“Mhmm- oh!” Torpe suddenly stood up, reaching his hand out towards his counterpart. “I found a tent with a piano in it earlier,” He recalled, “Do you.. Want to go?”
Taking his hand and standing up, Pianist nodded, “Sure..! Let’s go.”
—
“Did it hurt?”
“Did what hurt?”
“Your arm, that star. Did you do that?”
Software looked down at the scar on his arm, carved into the shape of a star.
“I don’t really know,” He admitted, “I don’t remember much of it. I think there was a lot of blood, though.”
Offline winced. “Oh. Uh, if it makes you feel better, I have a scar too. We can be scar buddies..!”
Software tilted his head to the side. “Where’s yours?”
Offline lifted up his sleeve, showing Software the scar on his arm. “Here! I got.. stabbed.”
“Oh.”
“See? Scar buddies.”
Software hummed, “That is kind of better. Can I ask how?”
Offline paused for a moment, inhaling sharply. “Well, uh- it’s kind of a long story, but.. Let me try and shorten it as best as I can..”
“Okay so somehow we all got kidnapped into a cult and brainwashed right but Mizuki and Akito were safe because they had a little magic charm also yeah we have magic for some reason it gets really confusing anyway so because they weren’t brainwashed like everyone else was they tried to undo the brainwashing on us and it worked on Toya only at first but then I shot Toya and Akito and killed them so then Mizuki and I talked and the brainwashing spell broke on me so now I was safe so we tried to get everyone else to remember like An and Nene but Rui’s brainwashing was too strong so we couldn’t do anything but one night I found a secret underground base for the cultists and I found Ena there and she was also safe but she was in jail or something so then I left but then I got hit was something and passed out so when I woke up turns out I was caught and now I was gonna be executed and originally I was gonna get burned at the stake but then it changed and the cult leader who turns out is Ena and Akito’s dad decided it would hurt more if I fought Rui and he was sure that Rui would win even though he had a knife and I got a gun and I didn’t want to kill Rui so I just kept blocking his attacks but then he slashed my arm which is where I got the scar and then my had slipped and I shot him.”
Offline took a deep breath. “Yeah!”
“..That’s the short version?”
The former chuckled sheepishly, rubbing his neck. “Yeahhh, there was a lot more that happened.. but at least there was a happy ending!”
“Oh,” Software blinked once, twice– “That’s.. good, I guess..?”
“What about you?”
“We’re staying at Chad’s house,” Software muttered. He paused for a moment, before piping up once more. “He’s a security guard- helped us out of the place.”
Offline hummed, “So you guys got out?”
“Yup.”
“That’s good! At least you guys are safe!”
Software nodded. “Mm. Right now we’re just trying to get back to Japan.”
“You’re not in Japan?”
“We’re in America.”
“WHAT”
————
KAITO frowned, “You’ve had this bullet in you for.. a week?”
Graphics nodded, “Yeah. I can’t move my arm because of it, it’s really annoying!”
“How did this not get infected..?”
Graphics shrugged. With his good arm, at least. “Mizuki got the letter people to send us medicine.”
“..Letter people?”
“Right, I forgot to explain that!” Graphics exclaimed, gasping. “Sorry- sometimes we get random letters. For some reason, mine are really weird, but Mizuki always gets cool gifts from the person sending them letters!”
“Do you know who sends them?” KAITO asked curiously.
Graphics shook his head, “Nope. It’s pretty easy to tell that they’re from different people, though, depending on how the letters are written. Rui and Asahina get weird letters- I dunno how to explain them, Mizuki gets nice letters, and Minori and Shiho..”
The blond trailed off, frowning. “Whoever sends them their letters aren’t very good. Like, they aren’t a good person.”
KAITO raised an eyebrow. “Not a good person?”
Graphics shook his head again. “They got Minori to shoot me, and..” He paused, lips pursed. “..They got Shiho to kill An.”
KAITO’s eyes widened. He didn’t know who those three were, but he remembered Tsukasa speaking of them very fondly at times.
“Oh.. I’m so sorry about that.”
“No, it’s..” Graphics sighed. “I don’t want to think about it.” He looked over to KAITO, smiling awkwardly. “..Topic switch, please!”
KAITO sighed, frowning. “Well.. I’ve stabilised your arm, so you shouldn’t have the risk of bleeding out anymore when you move it.”
“You didn’t remove the bullet?”
“I’m not a doctor.. I’m not equipped to do that.”
Graphics hummed. “Oh.. well, thanks anyway! I didn’t know you could do this type of stuff, KAITO.”
KAITO smiled at the blond, “Well, as the chairman, I should at least know some first aid, right?”
Graphics nodded, “Of course!”
“Well, I think you’re all good, then. Would you like to go back to the others?”
“Yup! Let’s go!”
————
“Goopy alien thing?”
“You too??”
Virus nodded, laughing weakly. “Uh.. yeah.”
Reboot hummed. “Huh. That’s… wow.”
“What’s the story with yours?” Virus asked.
“Took my memories. Yours?”
“Uh.. possessed me?” Virus explained, grinning sheepishly. “In fact it’s still… in me right now.”
Reboot inhaled, “...Oh.”
“I always know when it’s going to do the.. possession thing, though,” Virus quickly clarified. “So right now we’re good.”
“Oh, okay.” Reboot sighed in relief, “What does the parasite.. Do?”
Virus hummed, taking a deep breath before speaking again. This conversation was strangely taking up a lot of his energy. “Uh, I don’t remember some of the times it took over but.. It’s said a lot of rude things, I think.”
“Huh.” Reboot tilted his head to the side. “Does it have any, like.. side effects?”
“The parasite?”
“Yeah.”
“Ah..” Virus chuckled awkwardly. “A.. few, yeah.”
“Like what?”
“Uh, I guess so,” Virus replied, shrugging. “I haven’t been feeling that well lately, so I guess that’s apart of it. What about you?”
“I just forget huge parts of my life,” Reboot shrugged. “Right now I’ve got my memories from middle school and nothing else.”
“Oh. That.. those aren’t very good memories..”
“I know.” Reboot mumbled, “It’s.. whatever, though. Kind of confusing to see all this stuff I can’t remember, but I can make do.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah.. I survived once, I can survive again.”
Unbeknownst to the two boys, a strange creature had crawled up behind them while they were talking. It made a little noise, startling the two.
“Huh-?”
The two looked behind them at the little.. slime. Creature. Thing.
“What is..”
“Oh!” Virus snapped his fingers. “You’re the alien, right? Probably? I haven’t.. seen something like you in SEKAI, so..” He paused. “..Are you the alien?”
“(≧∀≦)ゞ”
“...What?”
“(๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)”
“I don’t..” The other two Tsukasa’s looked at each other. “I don’t.. know what that means, I’m sorry.”
“How did he emote verbally..?”
The alien goober thing stuck its tongue out, before glowing and.. Shifting into a humanoid creature, like how they originally saw him. In his hand was a small Perry the Platypus themed band-aid.
“Hi! :3”
“Oh!” Reboot blinked. “You are the alien!”
Alien nodded, grinning widely. “Yup!”
“I didn’t know you could transform like that,” Virus piped up, “That’s pretty cool.”
Alien nodded once more, turning to stare at Virus intensely for a few seconds, leaning closer with furrowed brows.
The blond blinked nervously. “Uh..?”
“Hurt?” Alien asked, tilting his head to the side. “You.. hurt?”
“Huh-?” Virus’ eyes darted from side to side. “Am I.. hurt?”
“Mm! Hurt?”
Virus shook his head. “No, not.. Really.”
“Oh.” Alien pouted, before turning to Reboot. “ You hurt?”
Reboot looked over to Virus, before deciding to shrug. “No-?”
Alien hummed, nodding. “Kay!”
He turned around, walking off in search of.. I don’t know, probably someone to give his bandage to.
“Oh- okay, bye..”
Virus snickered, “That was weird.”
Reboot nodded in agreement. “Yeah. I mean, at least he has good intentions..?”
————
“So you’re.. a timekeeper?”
“Yeah!! What did you do, you’re the one who doesn’t like fountains, right?”
Online inhaled sharply. “..Yeah.”
Time grinned, taking a bite out of the cotton candy in his counterpart’s hands (that Online had gotten for them to share). “What’s your story?”
“A lot of people died.” Online muttered. “And I revived them.”
“Ohh.. but they’re all okay now?” Time asked, tilting his head to the side.
Online shrugged, doing a so-so motion with his hands. “Uhh.. most of them are. Rui’s in the hospital, though.”
“Oh!” Time gasped, “Is he okay?!”
“Kind of? He’s getting better, at least,” Online muttered. “But there’s still more to do to make sure everyone stays safe.”
Time rocked from side to side. “I never knew necromancy was a thing,” He muttered to himself, “It’s kind of against the laws.”
“Laws of what?”
“I dunno. The universe.”
“I did find that out,” Online grumbled. “The fucking.. grim reaper or something appeared at one point.”
“The what ?” Timekeeper stared at Online, dumbfounded.
“Grim reaper.” Online repeated. “Dragged Rui back to the depths of hell, I don’t know. That wasn’t a fun day.”
“It doesn’t sound like anything was a fun day..”
“It wasn’t.”
Time winced, “Right.”
“So, what about you, then? What do you do?”
“Keep time!” Time chimed. “Look at the timeline, keep track of anomalies, the usual! Just like him!” He gestured to Timekeeper, who nodded.
“But I kind of..” He chuckled sheepishly. “I broke the rules.”
“Huh?” Online’s eyes widened. “You broke them? Why?”
“Well.. we’re not supposed to go down to earth, or interact with people,” Time explained. “But I did. But he just looked so sad, and I wanted to help him..!!”
“Who’s he?” Online asked.
“Rui!”
“Oh,” Online hummed. “So you broke the rules to.. make a friend? Are timekeepers not allowed to have friends?”
“Well, we’re not not allowed to have friends,” Time replied, “But we’re not allowed to go to earth, cause they’re not supposed to know we exist! But Rui was sad and depressed, and I wanted to help him so I decided to go down and help.”
Online nodded. “Thats nice.”
“What’s he like?” Timekeeper piped up curiously.
“Rui?”
“Yeah, what’s yours like?” Timekeeper repeated, “I never met a Rui.”
“Huh,” Time hummed, taking a moment to think. “Well, my Rui is a writer! But he’s depressed. And in a writers block, but he also likes making shows and little inventions!”
Timekeeper nodded. “He sounds cool!”
“He is pretty cool! At least, I think so. He’s my first friend!”
“You’re not on good terms with any of the other timekeepers?” Online asked curiously.
“Well I am,” Time shrugged. “But we don’t hang out very often. They have their jobs, I have my job.. so we don’t really see each other, you know?”
“Oh,” Timekeeper pouted. “I’m on pretty good terms with Miku, at least. We hang out together a lot!”
Time smiled. “That’s nice. I wish I knew Miku better, she seems cool.”
“Then talk to her! It’s not like anything is stopping you,” Timekeeper offered.
“Alright, then!”
Time took another chunk of cotton candy, humming. “This stuff is really good,”
“Isn’t it?!”
————
“So..”
Rui looked behind him, at the two Tsukasa’s. Hybrid was still attached to his hip, and Bmc was braiding his hair.
The director cleared his throat. “What are.. your dimensions like?”
Bmc inhaled sharply. “Uh… There’s.. technology?”
Nene raised an eyebrow curiously. “Like a cyberpunk type of thing, or..?”
“Nnno.” He mumbled. “Not.. really, no.”
“Then what, AI or something?” Nene guessed.
Bmc hummed, doing a so-so motion with his hands. “Kind of. Technically, yeah, actually.”
He took a deep breath, willing himself to not think of his own Rui. This Rui wasn’t being manipulated by a SQUIP, this Rui was fine. Right?
He didn’t hate him. He didn’t even know him.
He didn’t..
…
He didn’t hate him. So it was okay, he was fine. He was fine, he was fine, he was good he was great!
“You seem conflicted,” Rui piped up, looking behind him and noticing the look on his face. “Is something wrong?”
“Uh- no, it’s fine-!” Bmc quickly explained, his eyes widening. “It’s, well..”
He sighed, shaking his head. It was stupid. He was being stupid. He didn’t hate him, so why was he worrying so much about it?
This was another universe. A completely different universe, and yet he was afraid for some reason. He should know better than this, he should trust Rui. He trusted Rui, did he not trust him enough?
…He didn’t. Despite wanting to stay by him, he never trusted anyone enough.
God, why was he even thinking of this?
“You okay?” Nene asked, “You’ve been zoning out for the past minute. Also this guy—” She gestured to Hybrid, “—is waiting for you still.”
Said Tsukasa nodded, grumbling as he looked at Bmc with a pout. He wasn’t really listening to the conversation, he just wanted to stay with Rui. And have his hair braided, it felt nice.
Oh right. He didn’t finish braiding his hair yet, Bmc realized, blinking. “Right, sorry.”
He cleared his throat, continuing the braid.
Stop thinking about it, just stop. You’re not.. there. Nobody hates you here, you’re fine.
“It’s hard to explain,” Bmc muttered, looking off to the side. “What.. happened in my world. A lot of stuff went down.”
“Like what?” Rui inquired.
“Uh..” He bit his lip, hesitating. “I indirectly started the apocalypse. And my friends hate me.”
Nene and Rui both glanced at one another, then over to Bmc.
“...You what? ”
“I didn’t mean to..!” Bmc cried out, shaking his head frantically. “It wasn’t me who started it, it’s a long story-”
“So then who actually started it?” Nene asked.
“...Rui.”
“Oh of fucking course. ” Nene groaned, rolling her eyes.
Meanwhile, Rui was in even more shock. How and why would he ever.. Start the apocalypse..? “..Oh.”
“How did that even happen?” Nene muttered, “Was it like, an AI apocalypse- some rogue AI of him? Did NeneRobo start like, taking over the world with Rui’s help??”
Bmc chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck with a sheepish grin. “Not really- I kind of, uh, gave him the AI..?”
“Wow no wonder your friends hate you”
“ Nene! ”
“What?” The diva shrugged. “It’s true, I’d be pissed, too.”
“Well you don’t have to say that..”
“No, it’s,” Bmc sighed. “I mean, I get it. But I never meant for any of this to happen! Some guy cornered me in an alleyway and gave me a pill that he said had an AI in it or something, so I brought it over to Rui to check it out!”
“Oh, so you just fell for some stupid stoner’s trick?”
“..I’m friends with a stoner”
“You BEFRIENDED HIM?!” Nene screeched.
“A DIFFERENT ONE! He’s helping me!” Bmc exclaimed hastily. Man, he was just saying bad things over and over..
Nene sighed, running a hand down her face. “Jesus fucking Christ, man, that doesn’t make anything better.”
“I know..” Bmc muttered, “But he’s actually helping. He knows how to deactivate the SQUIPs.”
“SQUIP?” Rui repeated, raising an eyebrow.
Bmc nodded, “Yeah, that’s what they’re called.”
“Is it an acronym?” Rui asked. “What does it stand for?”
Bmc paused. “..I don’t think I learned.”
“Huh.” Rui hummed, nodding to himself. “And it was in a pill?”
Bmc nodded. “And my Rui took it, I’m assuming.. He never actually admitted it. But after that, things started to get messy.”
Rui hummed again. “Strange.. do you know how to fix it?”
“I have an idea. It’s just the execution that’s the problem.”
“What is it?” Nene piped up, “Also, is it just you and stoner boy 2.0, or is there more helping you guys to.. Stop the apocalypse or whatever?”
“Uh.. mostly everyone except Asahina and Toya were squipped,” Bmc muttered. “So they’re helping.”
“Just the four of you guys,” Rui thought for a moment, “I can’t imagine that. It must be difficult.”
“It is.”
Rui smiled, placing a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sure it’ll work out. Everything will be okay, you can fix everything.”
“…”
He started crying.
Rui’s eyes widened, and Nene almost choked. “Are you..?”
“N-no, I..” Bmc sniffed, taking his hands out of Hybrid’s hair for a moment to wipe his eyes. “Sorry, I don’t know why I’m crying…”
Hybrid whined quietly, looking up at his counterpart and frowning. Why was he crying, what happened? Did something make him sad?
Bmc took a breath, rubbing the tears off his cheeks. “Sorry. Sorry, I don’t.. know what happened..”
Hybrid pursed his lips. If he was crying, how did he not know why? That didn’t make sense.
“Do you need a tissue?” Nene asked, digging into her pocket.
He sniffed again, shaking his head. “No, it’s okay,”
“You SURE?”
“Yeah, I-”
THWACK
Suddenly, the crying boy yelped, a bandaid being slammed down onto his eye. “Wh-?!”
The bandaid was followed by another Tsukasa running over to them and sitting down. “Hurt?”
“Huh-”
“Feel better!” The Tsukasa exclaimed, grinning as he picked up the bandaid. It was the alien Tsukasa.
“...Huh?”
Alienkasa unwrapped the bandage, sticking it onto Bmc’s cheek. “Better?”
“..Uh…”
Bmc blinked, chuckling awkwardly, “Uh- yes..? Thank.. You??”
Alienkasa gasped, cheering as he squealed and let out a happy.. Noise thing.
“☆*: .｡. o(≧▽≦)o .｡.:*☆”
Hybrid suddenly gasped, looking up at the Alien with wide eyes.
Alien blinked, looking back at him.
“（・◇・）/~~~?”
Hybrid nodded.
“*･゜ﾟ･*:.｡..｡.:*･'(*ﾟ▽ﾟ*)'･*:.｡. .｡.:*･゜ﾟ･*”
Nobody else knew what was going on.
“Are these, like, Emu noises?” Nene mumbled, looking over at BMC and Rui.
The latter shrugged, while Bmc raised an eyebrow. “It- sounds like it.”
Nene nudged Rui’s arm. “You speak Emu, what’s he saying?”
“I don’t speak alien, Nene.”
“Right..”
“ε=ε=ε=(~￣▽￣)~” Alienkasa.. said(?), hopping backwards and grabbing another Perry the Platypus themed bandage from his pocket.
And off he went in search of someone else to slap a bandaid on.
..What a silly guy.
————
“Hmm..?”
Luka cracked an eye open, smiling lazily at the Tsukasa that had just entered the plushie tent. It was Hina, waving shyly as he stepped inside. Tsukasa was sleeping on Luka’s lap, his chest moving up and down in a slow, calm rhythm with his breaths.
“He must have been tired,” Hina whispered, “Is it alright if I stay here for a little?”
Luka nodded, humming as she patted an empty pillow beside her. “Of course, stay as long as you’d like to, hehe~”
“Thank you,”
Hina sat down, looking around the tent. “I never imagined this SEKAI place would be so big,” He muttered to himself, “Is there even an end to it, or does it just wrap around itself?”
“Usually it does,” Luka mused. “But there is an edge.”
“There is?”
“Mmhm! We just never go there,”
Hina blinked. “Huh. Wait, but if it wraps around, how come there’s an edge?”
“It only appears if you look for it,” Luka replied, humming softly. “It’s where all of Tsukasa-kun’s memories stay, safe and sound, hehe~”
“His memories?” Hina repeated, curious.
“That’s right. Thousands of pretty little balloons, each representing a moment of Tsukasa’s life,” Luka giggled sleepily. “It’s quite the sight to behold.”
“Huh,” Hina looked up at the ceiling of the tent. “That sounds nice.”
“It does, uu..” Luka mumbled, closing her eyes. “Thinking about it makes me feel sleepy, hehe..”
“Eh..?”
The next thing Hina knew, Luka was sound asleep, snoring lightly with that robotic tone of hers.
“...” Hina paused, chuckling softly. How cute.
He slowly stood up, carefully taking a step back, then another, and another.
He would let those two sleep in peace.
————
Chevalier panted heavily, his hands on his knees.
Was he far enough..? Were they following him?
He took a breath, looking around.
He didn’t know where he was. That was good. That meant nobody else knew where he was, either.
This place… it was so bright. And loud, bright and loud and Chevalier hated it. How could someone like him (Like him? No, it was him) make a place like this? It was too much, way too much.
He didn’t want to be here. He didn’t want to be here anymore. He wanted the world to shut up, he wanted everything to be quiet, he didn’t want to stay here.
Chevalier grumbled to himself, sinking down to the floor and covering his ears. Why couldn’t everything just shut up, he wanted to get out of here.
How did he get out, he wanted out, he needed out-
“...Are you alright?”
Chevalier tensed.
God, now someone else was here. He couldn’t even be alone. How annoying.
He was staring down at the ground, he couldn’t see who it was.
There were a few more moments of silence, before he heard the grass beside him rustling a little. “I hope you don’t mind if I sit here for a bit.”
He did mind.
He didn’t say that. He didn’t say anything.
But strangely, neither did the boy beside him. Chevalier had assumed it was one of the.. Other him’s.
He didn’t really care. The other versions of him just confused him, he didn’t want to talk with any of them again anytime soon. He didn’t need to be reminded that things were bad, he knew things were bad , but he couldn’t change anything.
He couldn’t change anything, so why should he even try? Things would never change.
..Things would never change. He was stuck, he was stuck like this, there was nothing he could do.
It would be so much better if he forgot about it. What the sorcerer had told him, if only he could forget about it all. Then, he would go back to being a perfect knight for the king, for the kingdom, and he wouldn’t have to worry about any of that again.
But he couldn’t. And it wasn’t fair.
“There’s a quieter place we can go to,” His counterpart piped up, “It’s fairly dark, too. Not bright like everything else. Do you want to go there?”
..Quiet. Quiet and dark, he liked that.
Chevalier narrowed his eyes slightly, finally looking over at the person who’d joined him.
Indeed, it was one of the Tsukasa counterparts. This one was… Pianist? He was pretty sure that was his dubbed name.
“Hi.” Pianist smiled gently. “Is that a..”
Chevalier nodded, “Yeah, sure.”
“Oh,” Pianist blinked. He didn’t expect a verbal answer, that was a plus. He hummed, pushing himself to his feet and offering his hand to Chevalier.
He did not take it.
“...That’s fine too,” Pianist muttered to himself, suddenly embarrassed by the one-sided gesture. Chevalier had just stood up by himself, dusting himself off. A few times, he looked around with narrowed eyes, as if paranoid.
“Where is it?”
“Where is-?”
“The place you mentioned.”
“Oh!” Pianist cleared his throat. “Right, it’s just in a tent a little ways in that direction..”
Chevalier nodded. “Lead the way,”
“Uh, alright..”
Pianist nodded, motioning for the knight to follow him. He wanted to help him, but.. This turned out to be more awkward than he thought.
Admittedly, Pianist had seen him run away from the other knight and king. He was a bit curious to see why he had run off, so after he talked with his own counterpart, he decided to search for him. And then he found him, curled up on the ground with his hands covering his ears.
He didn’t seem like the most.. mentally stable Tsukasa..? So he hoped that he could help make him feel more comfortable here.
Pianist led the knight to the piano tent. It was the darkest and quietest place in this entire SEKAI place, or at least, he thought it was.
“Here it is,” Pianist muttered, looking over to Chevalier. “Is this better?”
Chevalier looked around, frowning when he saw the piano. “..Yeah, it's good. Thanks.”
Pianist sighed, relieved. “No problem..!”
Chevalier walked to the middle, weaving in between the seats. But instead of sitting on them, he opted to lie down on the cold, hard floor, closing his eyes.
Pianist parted his lips slightly, blinking rapidly. “Oh..”
That.. was..
…
Well, honestly, he wasn’t expecting that.. he didn’t know what he was expecting, really, but it wasn’t. That.
Pianist sat down in the row in front, turning around so he could face Chevalier.
“..Why’re you looking at me?”
“Huh-?” Pianist blinked. “O- oh, sorry, I didn’t.. mean to stare..”
Chevalier looked away, covering his eyes with his arm. “No, it’s.. Fine, I guess.”
Pianist inhaled shakily, nodding. “Uh, okay..”
“You can leave.” Chevalier muttered bluntly, “I’m not keeping you here.”
“No, I’d.. like to stay here for now, too,” Pianist replied awkwardly. “It’s more comfortable here in my opinion.”
“Oh. Alright.”
“Is.. that-?”
“It’s fine.”
Pianist nodded. He wasn’t sure what to do now, but.. he wanted to help him. Just like how Rui helped him, Pianist wanted to do that, too.
But it didn’t look like he wanted to talk.
He didn’t know how to.. Get him to. He didn’t know if he could. It was easier for Rui to help him, because he actually talked, but-
Chevalier.. Didn’t.
“..What’s your life like?”
Chevalier uncovered his eyes, looking up at Pianist. “…Nothing much.”
“Huh? But you’re a knight-“ Pianist paused. “Ah… well, I didn’t really think mine was a lot, either.”
Chevalier narrowed his eyes. “Like what?”
“Well, I play piano,” Pianist chuckled. “Obviously, there's that, but.. It was hard to actually share my music with others until I met him.”
“Who?”
“Rui.” Pianist whispered, smiling nostalgically. “He was.. really special to me. A sorcerer, too.”
Chevalier’s eyes widened. “A sorcerer..?”
“Yeah,” Pianist nodded. “Everyone always said he was dangerous, but I didn’t think so. He encouraged me to play for more people, taught me how to get over my fears.. I owe a lot to him.”
“..But I couldn’t save him the way he saved me.”
Chevalier frowned. What did he mean..?
“He was caught… and lied about not knowing me to keep me from being executed.” Pianist whispered, his hands digging into his sleeves as he remembered the memory. “He died.”
..Died?
Chevalier sat up slowly, brows furrowed. “..I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s..” Pianist took a deep breath. “I mean, I miss him, but.. it’s okay.”
“Were you two.. good friends?”
Pianist laughed softly. “That and more.”
Chevalier tilted his head to the side. “What does that mean?”
“We were dating,” Pianist hummed, “Like.. boyfriends.”
“Dating?” Chevalier repeated. “What is that like?”
“Well… I don’t know how to describe it,” Pianist muttered, “It’s just.. we were really close. And we wanted to be together, in a way that was more than just friends.”
“So you.. kissed and stuff?” Chevalier asked.
Pianist blushed, “W-well… yeah..”
“Oh.”
Weird. How did you know when you felt like.. that? Like you wanted to be more than friends? He’d hardly ever wanted to be friends with anyone, nevermind more than that.
“Even if you’re both guys?”
Pianist looked down at Chevalier, nodding rapidly. “Well- of course..! You can love whoever you want, no matter their race or gender. What matters is that you both love each other equally and treat the other well.”
Chevalier hummed, looking off to the side. The king didn’t like that kind of stuff.
“Do.. you have someone you love?” Pianist asked, smiling awkwardly.
“Someone.. I love?”
Pianist nodded. “Yeah.”
Chevalier thought for a moment. He didn’t.. think he did.
What was love supposed to be? What was it supposed to feel like?
How do you love someone? How do you know..?
“I don’t know.” He admitted. “How are you supposed to know?”
“Know.. when you love someone?” Pianist clarified. “Well.. I’m sure it’s different for everyone. But for me, I’d always just.. feel really happy around them. Good and confident and.. well, safe.”
Chevalier’s eyes widened just a bit.
He felt.. safe?
Well… he did feel safe around Rui… and there was always that feeling in his chest whenever he was with him. That warm, fuzzy feeling. Was that love? Was that happiness?
Was love… the right word to use?
He didn’t know. What if it was.. too strong of a word, too extreme? What if it wasn’t really love, because Pianist said that love can feel different to different people, but-
Weren’t they the same person, essentially?
If they were, then shouldn’t they feel the same things…?
No, no, he didn’t think that was right. That wasn’t right, he didn’t think so. That wouldn’t.. make sense.
Because they weren’t the same person, not really. Everyone else seemed to be happy in one way or another, every other him seemed to know what they were feeling and what it was called, but he didn’t. He never did.
Maybe it was just him. Maybe there was something wrong with him. There had to be.
“…I don’t know.” Chevalier whispered in response.
Pianist shrugged, still smiling. “That's completely fine.”
“Is it?”
“Mhm! You don’t have to know everything right away, and you don’t have to experience everything that everyone else did. People are unique, and they have unique experiences.”
Unique… like different.
People were different…?
Chevalier grumbled, “But how am I supposed to know?”
“That’s for you to find out.” Pianist explained, “You’re the only one who’s you , so you have to find out yourself, and it can take however long you want it to.”
“I want it to be quick.”
“Then.. it can take however long it has to. But there’s always something at the end.”
The knight frowned. Was there..?
He didn’t think there was. The only end he saw for himself was death.
He supposed that was everyone’s end, but everyone else had some goal they wanted to accomplish along the way.
Chevalier didn’t have any goal. All he did was work for the king. Live for the king. He did everything for the sake of the king. He never had any personal goal, all he had to do was obey.
Obey, obey like the pretty little doll he was. The perfect little knight, for the king and the king only.
…He hated the king.
He hated the way the king made him feel. He hated the way his life revolved around the king.
He hated the way the king trapped him.
…But he couldn't have anything else.
He didn’t have anything else.
“Are you alright?”
Chevalier heard Pianist ask softly. Despite his slightly awkward tone, the concern laced into his voice was evident. “You’ve been.. zoning out for a bit.”
The knight looked up at his counterpart.
It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair that he was happy. His Rui was dead, he died, he was executed, how could he be okay like this?! Was he not sad? Did he not care?
Why was it that everyone else seemed okay, and happy, and content in their lives? Why did everyone else seem to have everything turn out okay?
Even if it didn’t, too. There were people who died, and they were okay with it! They were fine, they weren’t like him, it wasn’t fair!
Chevalier grumbled, shaking his head. “How come you’re okay with it…?”
“Okay with it?”
“Yeah. How are you.. happy? Your Rui died. He died and you can still.. smile.” Chevalier frowned. “I don’t get it.”
Pianist’s eyes widened, thinking for a moment before replying, a faraway look in his eyes. “Well… it took a long time for me to.. ‘get over’ it. In fact, I don’t think I ever have. You can’t really get over it, you know what I mean…? It takes time to heal. After he died, things were…” Pianist bit his lip, his voice breaking just the slightest bit. “…They were really hard.”
As he continued speaking, Pianist took a deep breath. Thinking about Rui made him want to cry, especially when remembering his death. But despite that…
He knew that he wouldn’t want him to be sad. Rui would want him to be happy and live his life. To remember the good memories they made together and hold them close.
“But I had to keep going,” Pianist whispered, his smile wavering. “I had to- I know Rui would have wanted me to. Just because he’s dead, doesn’t mean that I have to get over it, but rather… remember all the good times we had together.”
“And that’s.. enough?”
“No,” Pianist admitted. “But it’s all you can do, isn’t it..? So it.. has to be enough.”
Chevalier frowned. It didn’t feel like enough. But then again… how would he know that feeling?
Strangely, he didn’t feel anything when his parents died. He didn’t feel anything, not a single drop of remorse or sadness or longing as he stared down at their caskets, their graves, marked side by side as their bodies were lowered six feet under.
He wasn’t very close to his parents, though. He’d stopped caring about them soon after they made it clear that they no longer cared about him. Pianist and Rui were close, so it made sense that he’d feel that way over the sorcerer's death.
That was their difference. Pianist had someone he cared about dearly. Chevalier… didn’t.
Did he…?
He narrowed his eyes, thinking about his own Rui. Did Chevalier care about him? If his Rui died, then what would he do…?
He knew that he hadn’t liked the idea of Rui being dead when it was first presented, when the king gave him the mission to kill him.
He didn’t want Rui to die.
He wanted to be with Rui. He liked staying in his cabin.
Did that mean he cared about Rui? Or was it something else?
Emotions and feelings were so confusing, Chevalier thought to himself. Feelings are stupid.
Feelings are stupid.
Pianist hummed quietly. He wasn’t sure if what he was doing was helping Chevalier. He couldn’t help but worry that he wasn’t doing the right thing.
He’d seemed interested at first, but now he just seemed.. confused. That wasn’t what he was hoping to accomplish.
“What are you thinking about?” Pianist murmured, “Maybe I can help.”
Chevalier shrugged limply. “I dunno.” He mumbled in response, “I doubt you can.”
“I’d like to try, though.” Pianist encouraged softly, “I want to help you.”
“Why?” Chevalier muttered. “It probably won’t do anything, it hardly ever does..”
“I’m sure it does something .” Pianist argued gently, “It gives you things to… think about? I guess? After all, experiences and interactions with others help shape who you are.”
“‘Shape who you are?’” Chevalier repeated, raising an eyebrow.
Pianist nodded. “Exactly! You learn things about yourself through conversations with others. You better yourself when you’re around people who may know things you don’t. Our relationships shape what kind of person we end up being.”
Relationships… with others?
“Even something small? If you aren’t close to them?”
“Of course!” Pianist confirmed, “Just interactions in general, from strangers, to your own family and friends.”
“I don’t have any friends.” Chevalier blurted out, “And Saki is…”
He frowned. “She.. I’m not in contact with her anymore.”
“Oh..”
“Is there anyone else you talk to?” Pianist asked, “You have your Rui, right? Is there anyone else?”
“Well..” Chevalier thought for a moment. “I.. talk to Mizuki sometimes. Or Akito. And the…”
He pursed his lips, trailing off.
Pianist raised an eyebrow. “And the..?”
Chevalier shivered, “The king.”
“The king…” Pianist mused to himself. “Is it just a business relationship?”
Chevalier shook his head. “No, no, it’s…”
He frowned. “It’s different. I don’t like it.”
“Do you want to talk about it?” Pianist offered quietly.
Again, Chevalier shook his head no. He didn’t.
He didn’t.
He wished he could forget it. Everything about it, every conversation he ever had with the king. Every uncomfortable interaction and strange comment.
Every touch, every slap and hit, every single one of his words, everything, everything- he wished he could forget it. Forget everything.
Forget everything and disappear.
If he stayed here forever, would he disappear?
Maybe that would be nice. Nobody would even know what happened to him, nobody would stop him.
“Well…” Pianist piped up softly, “I think.. You should try and talk to people more, at least. I don’t know what your situation is or how you feel about different things, but.. I’m sure everything will turn out okay in the end.”
Chevalier huffed, “How d’you know that?”
“I don’t.” Pianist replied, shaking his head. “But… nothing will change if you don’t make an effort to. In the end, it’s all up to you. It may be hard to decide what you want, or who you are, but… it’s worth it in the end. Others can influence you, but only you can make the decision and put in the effort.”
“…”
Chevalier hummed, looking down. Worth it in the end. Would it really be worth it in the end? Would everything really turn out okay for him? He didn’t know what the future was like, or what he wanted for it. What choices would make everything.. Fine?
“Think about it, alright?” Pianist offered, chuckling. “I hope.. I hope I’m able to help you in some way, at least.”
“..Yeah.” Chevalier muttered. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.” Pianist smiled.
He hoped he helped him, in whatever way he was able to.
———
KAITO had gotten Rin and Len to round up all the Tsukasa’s back in the main area so that it would be easier to.. try and figure out to send them back to their own dimensions. So now there was just a sea of like. At least 20 Tsukasa’s surrounding them.
Honestly, it was weird to think about it, and even weirder to see it.
Tsukasa himself was still sleeping. MEIKO was currently piggybacking him, the blond’s head lolled over her shoulder.
Rui looked over to Luka, who was standing beside the brunette. “Thanks, Luka.”
The Vocaloid nodded, chuckling sleepily. “Anytime, hehe~ his hair is so fluffy…”
Rui smiled and nodded before turning to Miku, who was shuffling from side to side with an awkward smile on her face.
“Miku, have you made any progress on getting everyone back home?”
“Ah.. yes!!”
“Great!”
“It didn’t work the way it was supposed to..”
Nene’s face fell. “What does that mean?”
“Weeellllll…” Miku laughed awkwardly, “Emu-kun came while I was trying, so we were doing it together but then BAAMMM!!! Something happened and- well, Emu is taking care of it right now but–”
“HWEEHHHH???!!! MIKU-CHANNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!”
At the sudden startled scream, everyone whipped their head towards the source of the noise. Even Tsukasa snapped awake and turned his head over to the side, muttering to himself.
“...Something just happened.”
“Jesus.. Miku, are there more Tsukasa’s?”
Miku tapped her fingers against each other, lips pressed together. “Umm.. nooo…”
Rui frowned. “Then who are they-?”
Miku shifted from side to side. “Uhhhmmmm…”
“Oh my god what the FUCK is this?”
A sudden voice cut through the awkward tension, and everyone looked towards the person who had called out.
…
“Who the FUCK ARE YOU?!” Tsukasa screamed, MEIKO having to lean back from his volume.
“Who are you looking at, Tsukasa-?!” Nene narrowed her eyes, following where Tsukasa was looking. “…What the fuck.”
…And what the fuck, indeed.
“Hi guys!” Emu exclaimed, waving. “Look, my dad is here!”
And both Tsukasa and Chevalier’s faces dropped .