Archive of Our Own

For what she felt was the ten millionth time, Naruko tried to free herself. For what she felt was the ten millionth time, she failed. Even if this was a digital world, everything still felt real. Ropes tied tightly could still keep her in place. There was no getting out.

She just had to wait for the Go Home Club to free her. If they would free her. The more time that passed, the more doubtful she was of that. She didn’t want to think her friends would fail, but…

Whatever glimmers of hope she was holding onto died a death as she saw the doors of the gym open once again, revealing Wicked behind them. Wicked, Marie Mizuguchi. Someone Naruko had considered a friend just as much as she did the Go Home Club. A friendship that was betrayed.

Wicked seemed to notice the expression on Naruko’s face, because she giggled. “Awww, what’s wrong?” she asked, patronizingly. Naruko gritted her teeth. Of course Wicked knew what was wrong. She was enjoying the situation for exactly that reason.

“I still think of you as a friend, you know. While we wait for all those other friends of ours to lose hope, we could do some normal friend activities, if you want.” Naruko didn’t want to know what Wicked thought normal friends did together. Unfortunately, Wicked wasn’t done with that thought. “I never had any friends in the real world. No real friends. It was all so shallow and fake. Of course, that might be my fault… But as you might expect, I don’t know what it is that normal friends do.”

Suddenly, Wicked was holding a knife and Naruko was doing everything she could to get away. Of course, everything she could do amounted to nothing, so it didn’t help. But Wicked wasn’t doing anything with the knife— at least, not yet.

But she was waving it around in a way that made Naruko think she wanted to.

“Friends play games together, right? A lot of my classmates liked video games. But we can play some games of our own. For example, we could play around with the nature of the world. I can’t kill you or anything, but I can hurt you and it will be fine.”

Naruko wanted to shout something like “Leave me alone,” or “Stop that,” but she knew that both would be pointless. It would only provoke Wicked further. So she just stared at her and hoped something would happen soon.

Wicked gestured the knife at Naruko. “You never know. Maybe you’ll like it. Maybe you’ll like it so much that you’ll defect.”

Naruko glared at Wicked for that comment. Many such offers had already been made, to no avail. Wicked seem to have some kind of affection for Naruko. At least, enough affection that she wanted her on her side.

Well, she had also threatened to brainwash Naruko with mindphones, so it wasn’t as though she was being consistent. Perhaps her only true goal was to mess with the poor girl.

But that wasn’t what really mattered at that moment. What mattered was that Wicked had a knife in her hand and she was threatening to use it.

Wicked took the knife and pressed it against her opposite palm. She didn’t press hard, but it was enough to draw blood along an arc. Once she was done, she turned her palm to Naruko with a grin. “What do you think? Is this a fun game?”

Naruko stared at her while trembling. She didn’t know what to say, so she said nothing at all. But after a few moments of silence, she realized that Wicked was waiting for her to respond.

So after a few more moments, she managed to choke out something. “N-no! Leave me alone!” Many nightmarish things had happened since she realized the true nature of Mobius, but this had to be the worst.

“It doesn’t even hurt. Trust me. It’s kinda fun.” Wicked stared at her hand. “It’s interesting, isn’t it? We can do anything to our bodies here. As long as we don’t die, µ can keep us safe. Isn’t that great? We don’t need to worry about reality at all in here.”

“Please,” she pleaded, “I don’t want this.”

“Really?” Wicked seemed genuinely disappointed. “But it could be so fun, couldn’t it?”

Naruko’s expression wasn’t one of someone expecting fun.

Eventually, Wicked shrugged and moved on. “Maybe I should have used the mindphones on you, after all. I think you would be a lot more fun to play with, that way.” It was spoken in the same tone as a child frustrated that they couldn’t have a toy they wanted. She threw the knief away halfheartedly, then started walking off. “I need to go check in on our dear Go Home Club, anyway. Maybe they’re finally at their breaking point now. Don’t you think that would be fun? I’m sure you’re looking forward to that.”

Naruko wasn’t. She really really wasn’t. Like every time that Wicked left the gym, she dreaded what might happen when she came back next.