Archive of Our Own

“Ahhhh!!”

“...Are you okay?”

“Does it look like I’m okay!?”

Yui winced but quickly waded back to help up the diminutive woman who had fallen somehow and was now soaking wet and sitting in the calf-deep waters of the marsh with an irritated expression. She sighed and pulled a towel out of her backpack to start drying her off with.

How did things end up like this?

It had all started a couple of months ago. Yui wasn’t sure how it had happened. She’d just been walking home after class one day, when suddenly, she’d found herself in an unfamiliar field in the countryside.

With absolutely no idea how she had ended up there and not a clue as to which way she should go to return to civilization, Yui figured that the only thing she could do was keep walking until she found at least a road.

That was when she’d run into....it.

“It” was hard to describe, but appeared to be a wriggling translucent shapeless blob. That wasn’t frightening in and of itself, but when she looked at the two black slits that might have been eyes, it felt as if she might go insane.

Unable to get away, Yui had ended up falling onto her back into a shallow puddle. She’d been stuck like that, paralyzed from the shock of glimpsing that somehow menacing blob, and was unable to get herself out of the water. It wasn’t deep enough that she’d sink, but she still needed to actively keep her head above the water and she was quickly running out of strength.

Just when she thought she’d die from hypothermia, drowning, or a combination of both, there was the sound of footsteps through the tall grass. Human footsteps.

The first thing she’d done was call for help, that was until she remembered the thing that had put her in this state and started crying out a warning instead. That seemed to be a mistake, as her sudden floundering caused water to enter her nose and mouth.

Bubbles filled her vision, and she’d thought that she really was about to meet her end, when she felt arms wrap around her body and she was scooped up and out of the pool that had been about to become her grave.

Yui coughed, blinking water out of her eyes. When her vision was clear, the sight of the person who had saved nearly took her breath away once more.

She was a girl around her age, with long dark hair. Her outfit consisted of an olive jacket unzipped over a black t-shirt and dark jeans tucked into lace-up combat boots. Even though she looked quite slender, Yui could feel the strength in her arms with the way she held her.

The girl smiled down at her, deep brown eyes shining with warmth. “I thought you were Ophelia.”

“Huh…?”

And that was how she had met Amaya Yuuki.

Yui hadn't known how to respond at first. It wasn’t every day that a pretty girl saved her from certain death. But then, she was reminded of what had put her in that situation.

“You can't look!” Yui had cried out in warning. “It’ll drive you insane.”

But Amaya had just calmly stood, and faced the blob. “Oh yeah, it does feel really weird to look at.”

“Don’t!” Yui tried to pull her back down and away from it, but ended up getting a glimpse again. She yelped and covered her face with her hands.
Through the gaps between her fingers, she saw a shiny white crystal sail through the air. As soon as it came into contact with the blob, it flickered and vanished.

What Amaya had thrown was apparently a chunk of rock salt. She’d heard stories that salt was effective against otherworldly creatures and appeared quite excited that it was true. After that, she had guided Yui back to the regular world and brought her to a cafe where she treated her to some food while they got better acquainted.

It turned out that they were both students at the same university, Amaya being one year her junior. She’d explained that the other world where they had met, the Otherside, she’d called it, was a place where strange phenomena occurred and was accessible through various special spots. Although it did drag people into it at random on occasion, which was likely what had happened in her case.

Amaya had seemed like a nice person, and Yui had been too busy to make any other friends at school, so she had happily exchanged contact information with her and agreed to meet up again sometime the next day when they had both finished class.

However, when they met up as promised, Yui was shocked to hear that she was planning on taking another trip into the Otherside later that very day. Amaya had insisted that she’d went many times before and that there was nothing to worry about, but Yui had adamantly refused to let her go back there on her own.

When she’d asked her why she would ever want to purposely go to such a terrifying place, Amaya had pulled out a small item from her bag to show her. It was in the shape of a cube and small enough to fit in the palm of her hand. Each of its facets were polished to a mirror-like shine, yet strangely, it reflected everything in its surroundings except themselves.

Amaya explained that she’d picked it up yesterday after dispelling the wiggle blob with the rock salt. She apparently knew someone who was researching the Otherside, and was willing to pay top dollar for strange artifacts like this. Now that she knew the blobs that they’d dubbed “Wiggle Waggles” could be defeated with rock salt, she figured she could go back and hunt them for more mirror cubes.

Yui was very much against her risking her life just for money, and from what sounded like a very sketchy source at that, but had eventually given in on the condition that she went with her. Although Amaya hadn't been too keen on the idea at first, she eventually agreed that having someone to watch her back was the smart choice.

They met up again the day after that at the elevator of an abandoned building, where Amaya explained that there was a stable entrance to the Otherside if the buttons were pushed in a certain order. Sure enough, after the elevator passed through about a dozen floors of bizarre spectacles, the two arrived at the roof of a hollowed out concrete building from which they climbed down some ladder rungs on the side until they reached the ground.

Yui was admittedly quite worn out at that point already, but was still determined to keep up with Amaya until the end. The surprises didn’t stop there though, since Amaya immediately pulled a handgun out of her backpack, scaring the living daylights out of Yui.

Amaya had tried to quickly reassure her that she knew exactly how to handle it safely and that it was just a precaution in case they ran into anything hostile. She’d also explained that you could sometimes find them lying around here and that she hadn’t obtained it by any illegal means whatsoever.
This did not make Yui feel that much better.

And if that wasn't enough, Amaya then produced a second identical handgun, her spare apparently, and offered it to her. Yui, obviously, had refused at first. She had never even seen, much less handled a real-life firearm before. However, she had reluctantly accepted it after Amaya pointed out that she needed something to protect herself with too just in case.

After a brief lesson on how to load the bullets and handle it safely, they set off for the marsh where they had first met in search of more Wiggle Waggles.
But of course, things went sideways. The good news was that they had no trouble finding one of them. The bad news was that the lump of rock salt Amaya chucked at it did absolutely nothing. She’d then tried shooting it, but that proved ineffective as well. Now out of options, the two could do nothing but cower on the ground with their hands covering their eyes as the monster’s gaze bore down on them.

Yui found it strange though, it had certainly worked the first time. So what had been different?

Eventually, she had figured out that defeating a Wiggle Waggle required that one person looked at it while another did the attacking. This had still turned quite dangerous since at some point after she’d started staring at it, Yui had begun babbling nonsense while pale blue threads sprouted from her face. If Amaya had been a second later snapping her out of it by pulling the growths away and shooting the thing, who knows what would have happened.

But luckily, the Wiggle Waggle had ended up eating lead, while Yui and Amaya were one mirror cube richer.

They had still immediately high-tailed it out of there as fast as their legs could carry them though. But even as they ran back towards the elevator hand-in-hand and collapsed on the building roof in an exhausted heap, Yui couldn’t help but think that no matter how scary things could get, she could face anything as long as Amaya was by her side.

And so went their first journey together into the Otherside.

However, neither of them had come out of the ordeal unscathed. Later, Yui had discovered that her right eye had turned an unnaturally brilliant shade of blue, while Amaya’s left hand was now partially translucent. It had been jarring to say the least and they now wore a contact lens and gloves respectively to keep their transformations hidden.

They’d also found out in subsequent adventures, that while Yui’s eye could perceive the true form of Otherside creatures and make them susceptible to physical attacks, Amaya’s hand could touch them directly and even open or close gates between the two worlds.

Soon after the Wiggle Waggle incident, Amaya had brought her to see the contact she’d be selling the cubes to. That contact had been a young woman of short stature by the name of Krul Tepes. She could be a little grouchy at times, but was in fact knowledgeable about various bizarre phenomena and would assist them whenever she could. Plus, she did pay them a hefty sum for their artifacts. As for specifically how much, let’s just say that it was many times more than what a broke college student like Yui had ever hoped to see in her lifetime. All cash too.

And for certain reasons, instead of Amaya, she was now the one beside her on this particular journey to the Otherside.

Yui sighed as she did her best to dry off Krul’s long pink hair which was tied in two low pigtails while she continued to mutter to herself.

“I swear, when we find her, she is so dead!”

For once, Yui couldn’t help but share her sentiments. When she found her, she was absolutely going to give Amaya a piece of her mind.

It had happened a couple days ago. The two of them had been making regular trips to the Otherside and had more than their fair share of life or death encounters. Still not understanding why exactly Amaya kept going back, Yui had tried to convince her to stop before they ended up making a trip that would be their last. Amaya still refused, saying that she didn’t have to keep accompanying her if she didn’t want to. Things had grown tense and that was the last time they had spoken.

Yui had still felt bad about leaving things like that though. She’d only meant that she didn’t want something bad happening to her. So she had tried calling her to apologize only to get no response. She’d then tried heading to Amaya’s apartment directly. Except when she got there, the door had opened to reveal nothing but a blue expanse and strange pictures had appeared on her phone showing her what seemed to be Amaya setting out on her own.

Now very freaked out, she had gone to Krul for help, only for a strange phenomenon to warp them both to the Otherside without warning.

Which led them to their current situation.

They had decided it was best to try heading for the elevator building so they would at least secure their way out. Not to mention, it was the most likely place where they could find Amaya since it would have been her entry point. But progress was slow since Yui had to keep checking to make sure Krul wasn’t falling behind. Unlike how she was fully prepared for the outdoors dressed in a light pink windbreaker over a cream sweater and jean shorts over thermal tights and hiking boots, Krul was still in her lounge clothes. Although Yui had to admit the oversized DANGER: DON’T TOUCH shark hoodie, leggings, and slippers look did look quite cute given her middle-schooler like appearance. Not that she would say it out loud.

Krul groaned as she paused to catch her breath again, leaning her weight on her shotgun which she had managed to grab in an attempt to blast the strangeness that appeared at her doorstep right before they had been transported.

Yui turned towards her again. She knew that Krul had low stamina since she hardly left her house, at which she always gave off the impression of a Queen ruling a castle. To see her so worn out was quite worrisome. “Are you doing okay? I’m sorry about this…”

“I’m not, but thanks.” Krul sighed as she looked over her observantly. “I’m just surprised how calm you are. And you’re really not tired at all?”

Yui shrugged. “I’ve gotten used to it I guess. And I was used to being on my feet a lot before this anyway for work.”

“Work?”

“Cashiering, stocking shelves...whatever would take me part-time. I have to, to make ends meet. And tuition is expensive...” Although Yui hadn’t needed to ever since meeting Amaya and getting her cut from the mirror cubes.

“Hard time at home?”

“It’s…complicated.” Yui looked up at the grey skies as she thought back.

“I guess it was during my second year of high school. My father had to go overseas for work, so he arranged for me to stay with some distant relatives. The address was for this huge mansion in the woods where these six brothers lived. It was really weird though…they said they were vampires and tried to take my blood.”

“Wait…vampires?”

“I got scared and ran, but couldn’t find my way out. I couldn’t stop though since I knew they were chasing me so I kept running. Then at some point, I ended up in the forest…”

Yui paused, her memories growing vague, but soon continued.

“I think I got lost and was wandering around for a while. Then I saw this woman in white…I think she might have been wearing a wedding dress? But it was all torn up… Anyway, she asked if I wanted to get away from them and I said I did. She came up and put her hand on my chest. I’m not sure why, but I suddenly felt so much…lighter. She disappeared right after that. Then the next thing I knew, I was standing in front of the mansion again but it wasn’t there anymore. Just some burnt down ruins. My suitcase was still there though, with a rose set on top of it. Except I was too scared to take it so I just ran…”

“…”

“After that, I couldn’t get in contact with my father so I started living in the basement of our church since I had nowhere else to go. I’d work part-time after school so I’ have money to get by. Then I graduated, took a gap year to save up a bit more, and somehow managed to get into university partially on loans. I actually had no idea how I was going to repay it, but then I met Amaya…”

Noticing that Krul wasn’t saying anything, Yui quickly stopped her story.

“I-I’m so sorry…I didn't mean to overshare…”

“Sorry…?” Beside her, Krul was looking at her with an extremely bewildered look in her eyes. “Yui, what in the world…How can you talk about it so casually?”

Yui shrugged. “That was almost four years ago. I was focused on figuring out how to support myself since I was suddenly on my own, so I hadn’t thought about it in a while. But…it really wasn’t normal, was it?”

Krul was still blinking at her in disbelief. “You…you really are tougher than you look, huh? Well, now I know how you can keep up with Amaya…”

Yui’s expression grew troubled. Her thoughts drifted back to their last conversation. “Um, can I ask… why does Amaya keep coming back here?”

Krul frowned. “She never told you?”

“I thought she was just doing this to make money… But there’s plenty of less dangerous ways to do that. And she should have plenty now...”

Krul let out an exasperated sigh. “She is so terrible at explaining things.”

Tightening her grip on her gun, Krul answered her question. “She’s looking for her parents.”

“...What?”

“Amaya was born in Canada,” Krul began. “And don’t look surprised, or else she’ll give you a lecture on how not everyone from North America is Caucasian. Her father is from Shirakawa up in Fukushima, he met her mother in Vancouver while he was studying abroad with his boyfriend. I don’t know all the details but she has three parents. Don’t think too hard about it. Anyway, Amaya came back to Japan for university. But when her parents were coming to visit her…”

Krul’s expression grew tense. “Their flight disappeared without a trace. Of course there was a huge search for months. There were hundreds of passengers. But nothing ever turned up. Eventually it was called off and presumed lost in the ocean. You’ve seen it on the news, right?”

“Flight 370…” It was one of the greatest mysteries in modern times. Yui had no idea Amaya would have been related to it.

“The thing is, Amaya couldn’t accept that they were gone. She researched every conspiracy theory you could imagine until she found an old paper I’d written on the Otherside during graduate school and tracked me down.”

Krul sighed, looking more solemn than ever. “I keep telling her to move on, but she won’t listen. She’s convinced that they’re lost in this world somewhere. I know she loved her family a lot, but even if they were here, it’s been so long. The odds of them surviving are just…” She shook her head.

Yui didn’t know what to say. Although Amaya’s insistence on coming back here finally made sense. She bit her lip regretfully. And she’d thought it was all for money. If it had been her father, she knew she’d have probably done the same…

“So why do you keep going after her?”

Krul’s voice pulled her out of her thoughts. “I guess you actually do need the money, but you know following her around is just going to get you in trouble, right?”

“I don’t know…” Yui said, unsure how to explain her reasoning. She kicked at the grass in uncertainty. “I know we haven’t known each other for that long. But, I’d regret it if something happened to her while I wasn’t there…so I just can’t leave her to do this alone.”

Krul grunted and shouldered her shotgun once more. “You’re both hopeless.”

Taking that to signal the end of their break, the two continued on.

Soon after that, they reached the elevator building. Yui decided that she’d climb up to get a better vantage point and see if she could spot Amaya while Krul waited at the ground level.

Yui clung to the iron rungs on the side of the building about half way up, her hands starting to cramp. She closed her eyes as the wind buffeted at her. How had this seemed so easy before? Was it really all because Amaya had been with her?

That girl had saved her, offered her hand in friendship, then showed her a whole new world. Yui gritted her teeth, frustration welling up within her. She was brave and always acted fearless in the face of danger, yet had been holding back something this important to her the entire time.

Before she knew it, Yui’s hand had started moving to grab onto the next rung.

Now she’d up and disappeared while trying to take on everything on her own.

“Really, you can rely on me a little bit…” Yui muttered to herself as she continued to climb. “We’re partners in crime, aren’t we?”

A few minutes later Yui had reached the roof, collapsing for a short while to catch her breath.

Partners in crime.

She thought back to when the two of them had rested here after their victory against the Wiggle Waggle. When Amaya had first described them like that, her mischievous smile shining in the light of the setting sun. When she’d told her it was the closest relationship in the world. When she’d said it meant that they’d always have each other’s backs.

“If you really meant that then…” Yui got to her feet and gripped the old rusted railing, the endless expanse of the Otherside spread out before her.

“Then hurry up and come back to me, Amaya!!”

Her voice rang out into the crisp late afternoon air. From her view up high, Yui looked around for any place Amaya was likely to have gone. She noticed a small city to one side, its buildings in complete disrepair.

Through a broken window on one of the houses, she caught a familiar glimpse of long dark hair.

“Amaya!!”

Yui called out to her then pulled out the handgun she’d given her and raised it up to the sky, firing it three times as a signal. She wasn’t sure if she had heard it, but she had to at least try.

Then, just as she was about to climb back down, Yui noticed movement at the ground floor. Leaning over the railing once more, she spotted Krul heading off in the direction of the city.

Alarmed, Yui hurried back to the ladder. Didn’t she know it was dangerous to wander off alone? Reaching the ground floor, she was even more shocked to see that Krul had left her shotgun behind.

Grabbing it without hesitation, Yui took off running towards the city.

Reaching the outskirts, her footsteps slowed. Now that she was closer, she could see through her right eye that the entire city was veiled in the silver haze that signaled a “glitch”. A spatial anomaly of the Otherside. They were almost always dangerous. Some could even vaporize anything they touched. But both Amaya and Krul had gone into it, so she had no choice but to go after them.

Yui picked up a small pebble off the ground and threw it in front of her. It bounced off the cracked asphalt of the city, seemingly unaffected. Well, it didn’t seem like the type that would kill her immediately at least.

Confirming that it was safe enough to enter, Yui stepped forward onto the pavement.

“Amaya! Krul-san!”

She’d slowed down now, taking her time to search each street to make sure she didn’t miss either of them. At the same time, she kept a finger over the trigger of the shotgun, on the alert for any danger.

Turning a corner, she finally came across a figure.

“Krul-san!”

Yui ran up to where she was standing spaced out in the middle of the street. Krul flinched when she heard her name, blinking her eyes in surprise.

“What happened!?” Yui asked. “Why did you suddenly wander off?”

“I-I don’t know…” Krul frowned a distant look in her eyes. “I was thinking about starting a fire to warm up while I waited for you...but then...I thought I heard Ashera…”

“Ashera…?”

Krul shook her head. “Nevermind. Did you see anything?”

Yui nodded. “Amaya was here. She’s close. I saw her.”

“You did?”

“Yeah, she was…”

Something behind Krul caught her eye. In the distance, a girl with long dark hair and an assault rifle hanging from her shoulder crossed one of the intersections.

“Amaya!”

“Wait, Yui!”

Not registering Krul’s cries, Yui took off in the direction she’d seen Amaya go, shotgun still in hand.

“Amaya!!"

Yui continued to call her name over and over as she ran through the dilapidated streets. The sun was beginning to set which meant they didn’t have much time before night fell and things got really dangerous. She turned her head this way and that, looking for any sign of which way Amaya had gone.

There was a slight movement and Yui barely caught a glimpse of the door to one of the buildings closing. She raced towards it, offhandedly noticing that although it was run down and covered in ivy, it looked uncannily similar to the apartment Amaya lived in.

Not stopping to think about it, Yui threw open the door and headed inside, quickly making her way up the stairs. She wasn’t sure how she knew which way she should be going, but she eventually came to a door marked 613. Amaya’s apartment number in the real world. Yui turned the handle and stepped inside.

The room was empty of furniture. But standing with her back to her and facing the open balcony doors was the person she had been searching for.

“Amaya!”

She turned around when Yui called her name, but she could already tell that something was off.

Her hands were relaxed at her sides, and the AK rifle that she had picked up on one of their previous adventures lay strewn on the floor.

Yui remembered vividly how it had come into her possession. It had originally belonged to a man named Richter who they had encountered during one of their earlier trips to the Otherside. He had claimed to be searching for the woman he loved named Cordelia who had disappeared, but was clearly unhinged since he’d mistaken Yui for her at first.

What was even stranger was that he didn’t appear frightened at all when Amaya had tried getting him to back off by pointing her gun at him. He’d almost just looked...amused. Plus he had been muttering something strange about having to rely on “human weapons” to deal with the Otherside’s creatures.
It had all been very weird.

They had journeyed together briefly after that, but Richter had ultimately been whisked away somewhere when they’d encountered a spirit known as Hasshaku-sama who had apparently tricked him with Cordelia’s appearance. If not for Yui’s eye, she and Amaya might have met the same fate as well, but they had managed to defeat her afterwards with their combined powers.

Yui could still clearly remember the enraptured look on Richter’s face before he had been taken, because it was the exact same look Amaya had right now.

“Yui…you came…”

“Of course I did! I told you I wouldn’t let you come here alone!” Yui grabbed onto her arm, relief washing over her now that she’d found her safe. But why did her voice sound so hollow? “Now hurry! We have to get back before night falls…”

“I can’t…”

“Huh…?”

“I found her…my mother…she’s right over there.”

Yui’s gaze followed to where Amaya was pointing out the glass doors of the balcony.

Sure enough a woman was floating in space there. She had the same black hair as Amaya although cut short to chin length and Yui could see the resemblance in the aura of confidence they both shared.

Except there was a different image reflected in her right eye.

Yui gulped. “Amaya, no…that’s…that’s not her…”

Overlapping with the façade of Amaya’s mother, was a giant black…thing.

It was made up of various spindly black parts. Vaguely humanoid in shape, it hovered unmoving outside some distance above. Two larger appendages that looked a bit like wings spread out on either side of it, swirling with psychedelic colors.

Amaya walked over slowly to the balcony doors and pushed them open, gazing fondly up at that unnaturally blue sky. “I finally found her…now she can take me to where my father and Wachi-san are…”

Yui watched in horror as she reached out her hand. Her skin started to glow faintly and her hair floated upwards until it started to look like she was being pulled in piece by piece by whatever horror it was that hung outside.

“No! You can’t!” Yui ran out after her and grabbed onto her arm. “You can’t go!”

Amaya turned back towards her and smiled faintly, her eyes still looking dazed. “It’ll be okay. I’ll go and bring them back…then we can all be together again…”

“No!! Don’t you see!?” Yui grabbed her shoulders to force her to look away. “That’s not your mother! It’s a monster wearing the guise of someone precious to you!”

But no matter what she said, the oddly spaced out look on Amaya’s face stayed the same. And all the while, her body continued to unravel as it was being drawn up into the sky.

Yui lowered her head against her chest, gripping at the fabric of her jacket as desperation took hold. Was there really nothing she could do?

Was Amaya just going to disappear?

No.

Yui's eyes flashed open.

She couldn’t give up. This was Amaya. Stupidly brave, beautiful Amaya. She’d saved her so many times before, so now it was her turn to save her. Whatever otherworldly…thing, she was up against, she didn’t care.

Because she was not about to be left alone again.

She grabbed Krul's shotgun off the floor and hoisted it up.

“You can’t have her!!” Yui shouted, propping the muzzle up against the balcony railing while still keeping one arm wrapped around Amaya’s head. She closed her left eye and took aim with her right, feeling as if its brilliant blue could burn a hole right through the monster floating above them.

“I won’t let you take her away from me!”

She pulled the trigger.

Yui gasped, stumbling back a step from the recoil. It was certainly more powerful than her handgun. She regained her footing and looked up again a moment later, focusing all of her eye’s power on the aberration in the sky.

The bullets flew upwards in an arc, colliding with one of the monster’s wings and tearing it apart in a shower of black feathers.

“M-Mom…?”

Beside her, Amaya was still staring upwards with a dazed look on her face, but the signs of her body unravelling and being pulled towards the monster were slowly subsiding. It was working.

With a renewed sense of hope, Yui ejected the used shell and took aim again. She fired a second and third shot, taking out the entity’s other wing and what might have been a leg. Yui continued to blast until the gun clicked empty. The shredded remains of the creature’s body then began to swirl together until it collapsed into itself and was gone.

Amaya blinked, confusion crossing her face as if she’d just been released from a spell.

“Wait...that’s not my mom! And why does my head feel so weird!?”

Yui lowered the now empty shotgun and turned towards her with a relieved smile. She was back to normal. “A monster tried to trick you and take you away somewhere. But I got rid of it.”

Amaya was speechless.

A second later, the apartment building disappeared and left the both of them in an empty bright blue void. They both yelped and grabbed onto each other for support, but relaxed when it didn’t seem like they would fall.

“Yui, what...Is that Krul’s gun?”

Yui nodded in confirmation. “You should know that she’s going to be very angry at you.”

Amaya winced and looked down, her expression turning guilty. “…I guess you heard from her? About my parents?”

“You could have just told me from the start."

“I didn’t want to guilt you into coming here with me…”

“And yet, I’m still here.”

“Oh, right…”

She paused, looking hesitant. “Are you going to tell me I should give up too?”

“Why would I do that?”

The bewildered look on Amaya’s face brought a smile to Yui's once more. “We’re partners, right? So we’re in this together. And even if it’s scary sometimes, it’s actually fun coming here with you.”

“Fun…?”

“Just don’t go running off on your own again, okay? And no more hiding important things like this.”

“I’m sorry…”

“If you’re sorry, then how about doing something to get us out of here?”

“Wha…?” Amaya stuttered as she frantically looked around the blue void. “I don’t know what to do about this…”

Yui smiled and pulled her left hand towards her. She then slipped off her glove to reveal her translucent skin that sparkled like the stars. “Grab onto the space over there?”

Amaya quickly fished her AK back by its strap from where it was floating around and did just that. Once she closed her fist around the air, it warped like a curtain and was torn away. Through the hole in the blue, they could see the abandoned city.

The two of them stepped out onto the street, still hand in hand.

“W-What is this…?”

After retrieving a very disgruntled Krul and returning home, Yui had been about to turn in for the night but decided that she should go through her phone and delete the strange pictures that had appeared when she’d gone to Amaya’s apartment. She’d considered keeping them since they were technically evidence of otherworldly encounters, but it was definitely creepy seeing them every time she looked through her phone’s gallery.

Except now, in addition to the photos of Amaya. There was one extra. It was time-stamped for May 14th. The day the two of them had first met.
The person depicted in the photo was a man wearing a dark coat with a shotgun slung over his shoulder and standing in front of the elevator building on the Otherside. He was facing away from the camera, but Yui would recognize him anywhere.

“Father…?”