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“STOOOOOOP!!!”
Darumi screeched, prompting the bus to, in turn, screech to a halt.
A flustered Tsubasa quickly stammered in a rush, “What!? What is it-”
“Look! Look there! Found the entrance! Kyohoho~”
Darumi was pointing out the window at an ornate, rusted-over metal gate with ivy fixing it in place. A large, plaster sign hung over it with words in a language neither could read. It looked like it might’ve been colorful once, but any vibrancy had long-since been left in the past. A row of turnstiles lied in wait just a little further down the paved road locked behind the gate. This was…
“A real amusement park…” Tsubasa exclaimed, unable to stop herself from squealing.
“Told you it was worth it when I saw that big-old rollercoaster track! Now, come on!”
Darumi grabbed Tsubasa by the forearm and pulled her out of the driver’s seat. Darumi had been the one in the metaphorical driver’s seat, though…She and Tsubasa had made arrangements to let Tsubasa take the wheel whenever Darumi was feeling blue at the Academy. That way, she wouldn’t wreck the bus with her terrible driving skills…
The two approached the gates, both with piqued-curiosity peaking. The TRC didn’t have anything like this…only rooftop amusement parks with baby coasters and small rides meant for families. So it was natural that Darumi wanted to see the setting that proliferated in old horror flicks. And Tsubasa…well, she said she wanted to examine the machinery, but in truth, amusement parks are a romance staple! How could she resist seeing one for herself?
“We probably shouldn’t spend *too* long here,” Tsubasa sighed, trying to reign herself back in. “I mean, it’s already afternoon, and there could be Invaders.”
“No! I wanna stay until night; the horror happens when the park is closed and the mascots come to life!” Darumi barked in protest.
“But…it’s always closed.”
“Oh, yeah…Right. Well, come on!”
Darumi jostled the gate; the lock had rusted and broken, so it came right open. Together, they hopped the turnstiles; Tsubasa felt a twinge of guilt for a moment, like she was skipping on paying subway fare.
“Where should we go first, Tsu-ba-sa? You gunna find a breaker panel and whack it ‘til it works?”
“No, that sort of thing…” Tsubasa ruminated, “There’s no way I could get anything running, that’s pure fiction. Besides, I wouldn’t dare use percussive shock!”
Darumi pouted, unable to hide a hint of disappointment, but tilted her head and played it off. “Percussive what? Are you a drummer? That’s kinda hot, the drummers are always the crazy ones!”
“Wh-What? No, I’m not in a band. If I was, I’d be a keyboardist, anyway, since I used to play the piano…”
The park was unlike any place Tsubasa had ever been, right from the jump. The painted cobblestone pavement lead to a wide, open plaza with kitschy, dilapidated buildings surrounding it. The corpse of an old fountain was laid to rest in the middle of it, its body reclaimed by rainwater and pondlife. Somehow, just looking at the cartoon-like environs, Tsubasa could almost taste the memories. They tasted bittersweet, but she was sure they used to be nothing but sugar.
“So, where to first?”
—TEACUPS—
The pair found a curious old attraction: giant teacups transfixed to a circular plate. Darumi hopped the queue and ran over to one of the cups, hiding herself inside it.
“Darumi, what are you doing? These aren’t going to spin anymore.”
“Shhh…I’m pretending I’m a drink.”
Tsubasa slowly approached, walking the queue in the intended way. Ah, there was a breakerbox. She said there was no way it still worked…but she couldn’t help but be curious about the mechanical engineering here. She forced it open, and took a peek, her eyes beginning to sparkle with an electricity missing from the dead box. She grabbed a screwdriver from the attendant’s stand and plied the panel off.
“Tsubasa. Where are you!? I’m waiting for you to come drink me!”
“Um, just hold on a second!” Her brain was too enraptured by the circuitry to even process the strange thing Darumi said. She wasn’t an electrician, but it was still fascinating to her brain for some reason. She drew a map in her brain, trying to figure out what each of the switches could be for, and where the circuits lead.
“Mrrrrrrgh…” Darumi growled some weird noise, growing impatient.
“S-Sorry, be right there!”
She shut the box, but kept the screwdriver, and finally walked over to the teacup Darumi’s whiny voice had come from. There she was, laying on the floor of it with no regard for how unsanitary it could be.
“What are you doing, Darumi?”
“Boo, hoohoo…” She made a dramatic sobbing noise, “Since Tsubasa didn’t want to drink me, I’m filling the cup with my tears instead.”
Tsubasa got in the cup, and knelt beside her, gently lifting Darumi upright. Sure enough, she had big, fat droplets of saline dripping down her face.
“You’re really crying!?” Tsubasa’s hand flew to her chest. She felt so bad; she hadn’t meant to neglect Darumi…was she staring at that box for long? It felt quick, but sometimes her sense of time gets distorted when she’s enraptured. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to not drink you-”
“Heh.” Darumi smirked deviously, and wiped her tears.
“Wait, hey! What are you making me say!?“
Tsubasa helped wipe another tear off Darumi’s face, too. She couldn’t help but wonder…could Darumi cry on command? Where’d she learn to do that?
“Darumi, you can fake tears?”
“Hanh? No, it’s not like that. I’ve just got so many cries stored up, that if I tell them to come out, they come sprinting!”
“Oh…”
It was a silly answer, but she couldn’t help but feel a pang of sadness. But tea should be bitter, not salty, so it was time to find a better place to cry.
—BUMPER CARS—
“Look! Look, Darumi!” Tsubasa squealed with excitement, sprinting over to another attraction under a gaudy, checkered roof, with no walls. It was a bunch of miniature cars attached to rods, in a flat ring. No mistaking it: this is bumper cars!
“Whoa, hold on, car freak!”
“Look at this one! I wonder what it’s modeled after? I don’t recognize it at all!”
Tsubasa flitted between the miniature cars like an indecisive butterfly being choosy about her nectar.
“Too much energy…can’t keep up…”
As if the energy levels had to be balanced between them, Darumi suddenly seemed drained; is Tsubasa an energy leech!?
“Ugh, I wish we could turn it on. Even if they’re fake, it’d be fun to drive them around…”
“Yeah…I wanna be run over by Tsubasa’s car…” Darumi quietly sat in one of them, and hugged her own legs.
“Well, yeah, that’s how bumper cars works. I mean, I wouldn’t be running you over, just banging into your car.”
“Car crashes as entertainment? That’s the fucked up human nature I know…” Darumi put an interesting spin on it, still in her negative state.
“Darumi…?”
“I’m just gunna sit here and recharged,” she groaned, “So take your time looking at cars.”
She knew this was just how Darumi was…but she wished, just a little, that Darumi would share in her interest a bit more. Well, with two girls with such different hobbies, maybe it was just natural they wouldn’t always jive. Still, just having a silent presence while she gets enraptured in cars…that’s honestly nice too. Did Darumi go quiet because she didn’t know what to say? Was she just trying not to distract Tsubasa from the cars?
The high-low duo spent about 30 minutes raving and resting at the Bumper Cars.
—STAFF ROOM—
“I gotta go pee…” Darumi complained, as if Tsubasa would be able to do anything about that.
“We passed a bathroom a while back. The plumbing won’t work, but there’s the privacy, at least…”
“It smelled gross! I’m gunna go tinkle over there, be right back!”
Darumi ran off to a building labeled “Staff Only”. Well, it shouldn’t take long, and Tsubasa doesn’t really want to wander alone, so just sits on an old, faded-green plastic bench.
Today had been nice, Tsubasa thought. Maybe traveling and spending time with Darumi like this wasn’t so bad at all. She couldn’t say it’s a slice of normalcy amidst the chaos of war, but…well, it’s a reprieve in its own way. Darumi was nothing like her friends, and she had trouble understanding her, but she thought maybe she could get used to being around her somehow.
But just as she began thinking that, Darumi’s absence became more apparent. It had been about three minutes…where was she? Did something happen? Tsubasa’s head began to fill with thoughts of accidents, invaders, and…worse. She balled up her hands into fists, and ran into the Staff Building. Her quick pace was slowed immediately after when she realized how dark it was in here. A break room, with only a single window, with old belongings scattered all over the floor. Did Darumi trip and get hurt…?
Slowly, she made towards a dark, windowless hallway. She wishes she had a flashlight, right now…it’s seriously scary in here. And completely quiet, too, aside from her own heart beat. She rounds the corner, and…
“BWEGHRRRRR!”
A strange, bipedal, reptilian creature leaped into the hallway from some hiding spot. It didn’t look like an Invader, but it certainly wasn’t human.
Tsubasa let out a shriek loud enough that it wouldn’t have been surprising if the window in the break room shattered. She ran out the way she came, then hid against the wall just outside the door, catching her breath. What was that thing? But…Darumi’s still in there, right? With that creature…She can’t just leave her!
She steeled herself, and reached for the door again, when she hears a giggle from inside. …That was just Darumi in a costume, wasn’t it? She opened the door, and looks around. Sure enough, the shedded skin of that giant lizard were pooled in the center of the breakroom. Very funny, Darumi; Tsubasa clicked her tongue. But…where’s Darumi? She’s nowhere to be seen here; did she already run off? Another prank…?
Tsubasa hurried back to the hallway, and continued down to a dim and dark locker room. Where could she be…? She took deep breaths, expecting Darumi to pop out of a locker and try to jumpscare her.
But instead…Darumi was hiding in the corner of the room, limp and lifeless, with some strange, pink fluid on her head and clothes. Wait…no; did she trip and get hurt!?
“Darumi!?” Tsubasa, suddenly panicked, ran over to her, and started shaking her.
“Waawawawawa!” Darumi sprung to life; she chuckles, stifling a laugh.
“You…You idiot! I was seriously worried about you for a second!”
“Chill ooout, it’s not like I’m seriously hurt. I just put this old congealed lotion on me, see?”
“That’s gross…yuck.” Tsubasa felt the urge to vomit, for a surprisingly normal reason. “D-Don’t toy with me like that. I mean, the jumpscare was one thing, it’s not like I liked that, but, seriously, when I thought you were hurt…”
“Hanyaa…? What, I don’t get it…?”
“It seriously upset me, Darumi! I d-don’t know what I would’ve done if you really got injured…” Even Tsubasa was a little surprised at how emotional she was getting…
Darumi stared at her, but with how dark it was, she was sure neither could get a good read of the other’s emotions.
“Okay, let’s get out of here. Let’s head back to the academy…”
“What!? No way! I’m not going back yet!”
“Darumi…This just reminded me, if we really get hurt out here, we could be…goners, for real…” Tsubasa had forgotten about the real danger they were in, thanks to how fun their surroundings seemed. But, no matter what, they were still in a war, and they were isolated and alone out here.
“Grrrr…” Darumi growled, even as Tsubasa helped her onto her feet.
But…in truth, Tsubasa didn’t really want to leave yet. It was just her fear speaking. And all that awaited her back at the academy was…more fear, and more dread.
“Fine, a few more minutes of exploring before we go home…”
“Yesss! Tsubasa’s the best!”
They would stay for far more than a few minutes.
—STALLS AND STANDS—
“Look! I won a prize!”
Darumi ran up to Tsubasa with an oversized stuffed bunny. Admittedly…it was adorable. Despite being abandoned, it still seemed fluffy and soft, and only a little dirty. She felt…a bit jealous!
“By won, you mean…you took it from that stall, right?”
Darumi made a big smile, and pulled on her cheeks while holding the bunny by the neck in the crook of her arms.
“It’s kinda cute, though. We should remember to come back for it before we leave…”
“Oh, look over there!” Darumi drops the bunny on the pavement, and runs over to a roofed wagon.
Curious, Tsubasa peeks behind the cart, and finds it stocked with unblown balloons and spools of string. A balloon stand!
“Tsubasa! I want a balloon,” Darumi asserted, grabbing a dirty old rubber balloon and putting it to her mouth. She tried to blow air into it, but it didn’t even fill a lick. “Yeah, I got nothing. My lung capacity’s kaput.”
“Ew, why would you put that to your mouth!? It’s probably been sitting here for years!”
“Awww, you don’t wanna try?” Darumi dangled it before Tsubasa’s lips. “An indirect kiss…I’m getting worked up!”
“Not. A. Chance.” Tsubasa sighed, but her eyes caught a glimpse of something. Was that…a helium tank? Nah…it’s probably not safe to mention it to Darumi. Her mind trailed off, just picturing the thing exploding somehow…It’s time to move on; Tsubasa started to walk away.
But Darumi didn’t follow. Tsubasa looked back over her shoulder; Darumi was still staring at the balloons, lost in thought.
“Hey, c’mon; I think I see an arcade.”
“Whoa!”
That snapped Darumi back, and the two hurried over to a dimly lit building; thankfully, enough light filtered in to let them examine the cabinets. But it was so dusty, Darumi started to hack up a lung.
“See? You shouldn’t have sucked on that balloon.”
“Sucked on~?” Darumi cackled, and coughed, at the same time.
“Or blowed, I mean!”
“Kyokkyokkyo…”
“Ugh, Darumi!” Tsubasa’s eyes rolled, and she accidentally walked into an arcade cabinet in her flustered distraction.
“Ooh, that one looks fun. Fighting game…retro. Wanna play with the joysticks?”
“Stop that.”
“Tsubasa, did you ever go to arcades? I can see you on the score leaderboards for one of the racing ones!”
“A little, but mostly just for the photobooth with friends…I never really got to game much. My parents weren’t a fan of that stuff.”
Darumi went quiet for a moment, but it was too dark to make out if she was having another serious moment or not.
“Well, it’s dusty, and not light enough to really get a good look at the guts of these cabinets. Wanna go?”
“Can we linger a little longer…?” Darumi twirled a lock of her left twintail. “You know, there was an arcade across the street from where I worked. I never went in, but sometimes customers would come in with their prizes. So I wanna see if I can win more prizes.”
“More prizes to…drop on the ground?” Tsubasa grimaced a little at the incredulousness…but she couldn’t help but think Darumi was pretty…cute.
—FOOD COURT—
“I’m sorta hungry…” Tsubasa held her stomach, seeing the empty food court.
“Oh? Have a seat, I’ll go whip you up something~”
Tsubasa did take a seat at a table, just to soak in the ambience. It was nice, and calm, and the food court had good shade. But…
“There’s obviously no good food left. And…do you even cook? All you eat is candy and liquid.”
“Of course…I don’t! Kyohoho!” Darumi laughed, but still ran off to the kitchen.
After a few minutes, she returned holding a tray, and a little plate atop it. She’d prepared a full entree of pebbles from the side of the road, and an old piece of cardboard she folded into the shape of an omelette.
“Here you are, mistress~”
“Huh? It’s…” Tsubasa blinked. She was kinda stunned by how unapologetically weird and..adorable this behavior was. But, wait, did she just call her mistress? “It looks delicious, but don’t call me that…”
“Aww. So then, you don’t want me to write daisuki in ketchup?”
Wait, Darumi mentioned that her job had customers…was she, maybe…
“Darumi. Your old job-”
“Grrrgh! My old job! I don’t wanna talk about it!” Darumi slammed the tray down, then grabbed an old ketchup bottle from the table, and started squirting a message onto the ‘omelette’. She was better than you’d expect…but the word she wrote, was, of course: ‘DeAtH’.
What a lovely little worker she must have been. Tsubasa smiles to herself, imagining what Darumi must’ve been like in the world before this one.
—OUTDOOR STAGE—
Darumi ran off again, this time to a small open-air theatre. Tsubasa couldn’t help but wonder what sort of shows this place used to hold. Were they performances for kids, or bands, or…?
“Look! LOOK! Tsubasa, it’s a piano!”
Neither, it seemed. There was a lovely grand piano on the stage. It was cherry-colored, though the varnish was ruined…and surely it was completely out of tune. Darumi ran back, grabbed Tsubasa’s hand, and started leading her to the stage.
“W-Wait, what are you…!?”
“Didn’t you tell me you used to play the piano!? C’mon, I wanna hear it!”
Tsubasa pulled her hand away, just before stepping on the stage. Darumi turned around, and shot her a scary-looking glare with an empty smile: it was her idea of intimidation, surely.
“No, I mean, I haven’t played since I was young, and…” Tsubasa’s chest was getting a little tighter with every step they had taken closer to the stage. She continued, “It’s not a keyboard, so it’s definitely out of tune. It’d sound terrible anyway.”
“Don’t care! Play for me!” Darumi gave her a playful push on the back, urging her onto the stage.
Tsubasa looked out at the empty crowd. That’s right, empty. There’s nobody here but her and Darumi. Nobody’s been here for a long time. No eyes trained on her, no expectations, not her teacher nor her parents…It should be fine. She took a large breath that felt more like a gulp, and approached the bench. The keys are caked in dust, but she couldn’t help but feel a bit of nostalgia looking at the ivory. What is nostalgia but sweet-smelling dust, anyway? Her hand shook, more and more, as she brought them to the keys…and hesitantly, she pushed down C5…
Oof. She didn’t have perfect pitch, only relative, but she could still tell that wasn’t a C5 at all. She turned it into a chord, and it sounded terrible. If only she knew how to tune a piano; her mechanic’s urge to “fix the broken thing!” was growing stronger, overpowering her nerves. She tried to play a few warmups, but it just sounded so…gross. She sighed, and swallowed again, and that’s when she felt it: her stomach acids slowly rising. She looked back at Darumi, who was watching expectantly with sparkling, pink eyes, then at the empty crowd.
For a moment, she thought she could see twenty Darumi’s out there, watching her. Then more, and more. Their faces changed, and they morphed into a full audience. There were her parents, watching with serious, grim expressions…as she played such discordant sounds. Her hands completely froze, and she couldn’t stop herself from vomiting all over the lovely antique piano.
Darumi quickly ran to her side, pulled her off the bench, and dragged her back stage.
“I’m sorry, Tsubasa…!”
But Tsubasa couldn’t respond; she wasn’t here at all, at this abandoned amphitheater. She was a child again, crying backstage at the concert hall, on the worst day of her life. The day it all started…the day her body decided it wouldn’t listen to her, and would embarrass her at every turn.
Darumi slowly kneaded Tsubasa’s back, like a cat tearing apart a nice, knitted blanket. Tsubasa could barely feel it, at first…but after a few minutes, the sensation of rubbing under her shirt, warming her skin, started to bring her back to reality. The taste in her mouth was terrible, but the calm, quiet air and the silence, only broken by Darumi’s breath…it reminded her that her old life was already long gone. Just like the patrons of this park’s theater.
It was just her and Darumi. All the nausea and dizziness slowly drained away. If it’s just her, then…
—CAROUSEL—
“Feeling better now?”
“Y-Yeah, I’m fine.”
“You sure you don’t wanna head back? I thought we weren’t going to stay much longer. Like, it’s going to be sunset soon~”
Tsubasa and Darumi walked side by side, with Darumi clinging to her arm, rubbing it as though that comforted her.
“I don’t really wanna end it on a sour note. I’ll be thinking of it the whole drive back, so…”
“Great! Then, let’s go to that big wooden coaster next. I wanna drop a bunch of stuff from the top to see how it splats.”
“But,” Tsubasa glared at Darumi, already predicting how this would go, and continued, “Then we’d have to carry ‘a bunch of stuff’ all the way up there.”
“Gross. I’d rather die!”
“But it still might be kinda nice for the view!” Tsubasa giggled, with a soft smile.
Darumi, however, wasn’t smiling alongside her. She’d stopped walking, and Tsubasa felt her hand slowly fall away from her arm. She looked back, and saw Darumi staring at something to the left.
It was a carousel; an old fashioned one, with a bunch of rideable horses. Darumi’s gaze was transfixed…but her pupils were dilated, and her stance felt…drained. Not her normal low-energy mode, either; she just looked like an inanimate doll.
“Darumi?”
“Horses…”
“Horses…?” Tsubasa couldn’t help but wonder…is Darumi afraid of horses?
“I hate them…”
Darumi stood, glued to that spot, even as she eventually averted her gaze and began to stare at the yellow cobblestone beneath them.
“Well…we can keep going…”
“I just need a second…” Darumi kneeled down, and started drawing shapes and patterns with her finger, along the creases and cracks in the roadway.
Darumi’s request was earnest, and Tsubasa herself had just needed a while to collect herself. But she didn’t seem to show any signs of moving…Tsubasa wanted to comfort her, like Darumi had for her, but she seemed a little…cagey.
A weird sort of feeling suddenly revved up inside Tsubasa. This weird sort of…could she call it anger? Rage? A drive to act, really…She didn’t know what it was about horses that upset Darumi, but…she walked up to the operator’s box, and whacked a rusty pipe, breaking it loose. She grabbed it, then walked up to one of the horses, and…
WHAM!
She bludgeoned its head clean off!
Hoo…She wasn’t sure why she did that. She just had some urge to protect Darumi well up in her. She wasn’t even sure if that’d make Darumi happy; and she wasn’t even sure if that’s why she really did it. But Darumi was staring, from a few meters away, with rapt attention.
“Is…Is that better?” Tsubasa panted, a little self-conscious of the somewhat-violent display she just showed. Of course, she’d never act this way to a real horse, but…
Before she knew it, she found herself bringing the pipe down on another horse’s neck…and then a third. She felt kind of bad, even though they were inanimate…but if it would help Darumi…
Darumi got up, and walked a little closer.
“Can I…try?”
“Um,” Tsubasa blushed, and scratched her cheek, then held out the pipe. “Please do.”
Darumi suddenly started wailing, and screaming, and flailing the pipe around. She beat at all the horses until their ceramic bodies were crushed to dust, and Darumi was left a sweating, panting mess. She collapse by the central pillar of the carousel, and Tsubasa went to sit beside her, rubbing her shoulder.
“I wish I could offer you a bottle of water. I really need one, too…”
“Nah, I’m okay!” Darumi’s voice sounded a lot more chipper, even after all the screaming. “I feel a lot better now, actually.”
“Really? Because, um…”
“It wasn’t like, a violent urge, or anything. No, it was just so sexy seeing Tsubasa do it, I thought i should try!”
“Really…” Tsubasa said flatly, unamused.
“…Really, the horses just made me think of my dad. He used to always go to the horse races,” Darumi spoke calmly, and level, and leaned her head back against the column, staring at the dim, painted stars on the roof of the carousel.
“I see…and your dad was…?”
“He’s a terrible man. I mean, everyone’s terrible, right? After mom died, that became really obvious to me.”
Tsubasa placed her hand on top of Darumi’s, and gave it a little squeeze. She felt like her own heart was being squeezed, right now, and she needed to pass it along somehow.
“And yeah, so, he’d always lose at the horse races, and then he’d come home and beat his anger out on me.”
“I’m so sorry, Darumi…”
“Whaaat? I don’t want you to say sorry! I told you, I feel better now. Not because I got the anger out, but ’cause…”
Darumi paused, and stared into Tsubasa’s eyes.
“It didn’t feel good at all. So now I know I’m not like him.”
“I know…I felt really bad for the horses…”
“I could tell. You looked really pained, even when you were bringing the pipe down. I felt bad too…I wonder why? I always hated those things. But I guess they weren’t really the issue.”
“Yeah, it was just…your family.”
Darumi flipped her hand over, and wove her fingers between Tsubasa’s, then gave a little squeeze back.
“The weirdest part,” Darumi continued, “is that I almost miss them, I think. And it kind of hurts my brain, when I start thinking that. That’s why I froze up.”
“I was thinking of my parents too. Back at the stage…”
“But, I’d way rather be here, then back at home. Can we stay a bit longer?”
The sky was slowly turning from a bright, brilliant blue, to a toasty yellowy-orange. It formed almost the same gradient that their hair had, mixing together as they sat shoulder-to-shoulder.
“Okay. We can stay a little longer…”
—TUNNEL OF LOVE—
The two stumbled upon a curious fixture; a manmade river, winding through the concrete jungle. Or…river was the wrong word, really; the water was stagnant, and various shades of green-and-brown from all the algal blooms. If Yugamu was here, maybe he’d want a water sample, for some sort of ‘testing’, but Tsubasa had no intention of getting anywhere near it.
“Swan boats. Yuck! Too gooey and soft and romantic!”
“Really? I think the swan boats are cute. It’s the water that’s gross…”
“What!?” Darumi leered at Tsubasa, a psyched up glint in her eyes. “It looks like the perfect place for a Swamp Thing to live! Let’s go swimming!”
Darumi started lifting up her shirt-
“W-W-Wait!” Tsubasa’s face turned to a burnt sienna that was a perfect match for the sky. She rushed to Darumi’s side and grabbed her forearm, stopping her from stripping.
Darumi just lightly grinned and stared at Tsubasa, a mischievous gleam poorly-hidden behind her small smile.
“Why are you so worked up, Tsubasa?”
“Because I don’t want you to swim in that water!”
“Because you didn’t want me to strip!”
“Ugh, that too! You can’t just…take your clothes off, like that!”
“Whatever…Hey, let’s check out the tunnel! Maybe we’ll find some hidden bodies, though I guess they’d be skeletons by now.”
A long, tube-like structure was just before them: the ‘river’ flowed into it, but there were little walkways along the sides of it, presumably for maintenance. A sign marked the entrance with cutely drawn hearts and sparkles, and though neither of them could read it, it was clear that this was a ‘Tunnel of Love’.
“It’s going to be completely dark. Even if there was a…b-body, or skeleton, we wouldn’t be able to see it.”
“Come ooon! Let’s check out the creepy dark tunnel!”
Darumi ran ahead, into the darkness. Her eagerness hadn’t abated since earlier, but her steps were slower than before. This girl wasn’t made for a whole day of activity, and it was starting to show in subtle ways. She was just…ever so subdued compared to when they first arrived.
It was odd…the way that Tsubasa noticed.
But once they were alone inside the tunnel, she couldn’t notice anything about Darumi. It really was completely dark. It seems the entrance of the tunnel was curved in a way to minimize the amount of light that leaked inside…The lack of sights made it easier to focus on the sounds of Darumi’s light steps…but also the hideous stink of the stagnant water. Gross.
“Darumi, slow down…it’s slippery.”
“Here,” Darumi traipsed a bit closer, and reached for Tsubasa’s hand…or, she probably meant to.
“Eep!?”
Darumi had missed, and accidently grazed Tsubasa’s stomach with her nails.
“Are you ticklish?”
“Don’t you dare.” Tsubasa took the lead and grabbed Darumi’s hand before she could do anything more nefarious. She couldn’t read Darumi’s face in the pitch darkness, but she was certain there was some sort of perverted look on it.
They walked together in silence, careful not to slip; if they landed in the water, or hit one of their heads on the concrete, it’d be really bad. But once Tsubasa got past those thoughts, and successfully fought her gag reflex at the smell…it was kind of peaceful.
The subtle dripping of water from the ceiling. Their footsteps, which had completely sync’d up…Darumi’s were lighter than Tsubasa’s; she found herself noticing the differences. It was…nice. She could swear she could even hear Darumi’s gentle breaths…They were shallow, and weak, but…kind of cute.
If this was back home, on the TRC…a tunnel of love…She’d come to a place like this with a partner, right? Probably a man, an older man, she thought. Or, at least, that had been her ideal…But right now, when she was picturing it, she couldn’t see that ‘ideal partner’ anymore. It was more of a shapeless, unformed blob…What sort of things would they do here? Hold hands, like she and Darumi were doing.
Then they’d probably draw closer, and…
Kiss.
She hadn’t realized what she was doing. She stopped walking, and tugged Darumi’s body a little closer. She was so caught up in her head, that she was seconds away from enacting her fantasy in reality…but the sweet, cloying, candy-like scent of Darumi’s breath snapped her out of her stupor.
“Hanyaaa?”
“Sorry!…I-I-” Never had Tsubasa been more glad to be invisible. “I-It’s nothing!”
But this moment in the dark wouldn’t last forever. The light at the end of the tunnel approached.
—ROLLERCOASTER—
Night would be upon them soon.
If they didn’t head back soon, everyone would be worried. But the sunset was too beautiful to say goodbye to. Darumi had convinced Tsubasa to walk up the manufactured-hill of an old wooden rollercoaster. They didn’t carry up anything to drop and see how it’d splat…instead, they just sar there, their legs hanging off the edge, and stared at the sun setting on the horizon. That strange, fake-looking moon hung over their heads, reminding them how far from ‘home’ they really were.
Back in the TRC, even the sky was fake. The day-night cycle was manufactured, and sights like this were…unbelievable. Tsubasa had gotten used to the sight of the setting sun, and the stars at night, back at the academy, but…here, high in the sky, away from that ever-present wall of fire…
Things felt…natural.
She wondered if Darumi was feeling the same way. Neither of them spoke. The moment was too perfect; Tsubasa was sure she must be searing this sunset into her brain, too.
“I really wish I had that balloon, now.”
Or, perhaps not; Darumi’s thoughts, apparently, were still down on the ground at that old balloon stall.
“Why…?”
“You think, if I let go of a balloon from here, it’d make it up there?” Darumi lifted her head, and pointed at that looming, white satellite.
Tsubasa looked up too. Could a balloon make it all the way up there…? Of course not. It was a nice thought, but a childish one. It was strange…before today, Tsubasa would have thought innocence was nowhere to be found in Darumi’s brain. Of course she was wrong about that. People are complex.
“It’d be nice, wouldn’t it?” Tsubasa bit her tongue, stopping herself from going on a tirade about physics, and why that could never happen.
“I’ve actually been to an amusement park before, you know,” Darumi suddenly looked back to the horizon, and spoke, “One of those rooftop ones. With my family.”
“Really?” Tsubasa shifted the upper half of her body, twisting it so she could look at Darumi’s face while she talked. Those brilliant eyes…there was a little bit of the sun reflected in those pink gems.
“I don’t really remember it. I was too young. But it was back when mom was live.”
“Right…”
“I wish I could, you know? Remember it. But the only thing I know about that time, is that mom and dad bought me a balloon, and I was really happy.”
“Oh, so that’s-”
“But then my stupid, dumbass brother got jealous and popped it. And I cried so loudly that we had to go home, early…”
It wasn’t the happiest memory. It started sweet, and turned a little bitter. It was the same sense Tsubasa felt when she first looked around at this park.
“Mm, and then my brother was extra mad. He said I ruined everything by being such a crybaby, and then he started crying about how he didn’t get to go on any rides.”
“He was a real piece of work, huh…?”
“Yeah. And then, I think my mom started consoling him…But, you know, that memory’s fading. I was just thinking, I wanna let it go. That’s why I wish I had a balloon.”
“Then let’s come back here, sometime. I’ll bring helium, or clean balloons from the Gift-o-Matic!”
Darumi finally turned to look Tsubasa in the eyes.
“Nah, ew…That’s way too sentimental, I hate it.” In spite of her words, she smiled, warm, and bright, matching the sun in her eyes. She was still a cold and frail girl, underneath it all, but Tsubasa wanted to cherish this view.
Not the view of the sunset, or the park below, or the moon above.
This view of a beautiful, complex girl: hot-and-cold, high-and-low, happy-and-sad. She could see all these colors on her painted skin right now. It was a memory Tsubasa would never want to let go of, and she hoped Darumi would hold onto the string tightly.
The day had been a rollercoaster. But it was the best ride Tsubasa had ever ridden.