Chapter Text
Timeline: 6th May
The clock was ticking, the sound of the second hand of the clock was clear in the room. The room is quiet, the curtains are drawn. A young girl sat in front of her desk, staring at the laptop screen.
A soft thud rang out. A pen fell from the desk.
The young girl sighed as she bent down to pick the pen up.
"Petal?" a soft voice can be heard from the laptop's speaker. The young girl, now referred as petal looked at the laptop screen.
"What is it, Kiyu?" she asked. Her voice was cold with no emotion. Kiyu went silent for a few seconds, seems like she was trying to think of something to say. "Are you okay?" she finally asked.
"I'm fine" Petal responded nonchalantly. She stared at the member list, 'Petal, Kiyu', just the two of them. Last night, Jufu said that she will be late because there's school work, Usagi said that she will be late because she's attending an event.
In real life, Petal stared at the wardrobe. The door is wide open, her casual outfit, school uniform and other clothes inside are either hanged by a cloth hanger or folded neatly, 'Kamui Flower' written on her school uniform's name tag. Well, it isn't her wardrobe. In fact, it's not even her house. She's actually staying at her boyfriend's house for some days, a conflict arose between her and her mother. Her boyfriend had left the house a few hours ago for his part-time job, so she's currently alone in his room.
Suddenly, someone broke the silence. "Hey, anyone heree?!?!" Jufu is here. The same annoying voice as always.
Petal called her name, her voice made Jufu shiver. "Uh... What is it, leader?" her voice was filled with nervousness. "What school work were you working on exactly?" "Um... I was... Preparing for the school festival!" She laughed awkwardly.
"You're 22." The last member joined, it was Usagi. Jufu froze. She started explaining(lying) as much as she can. "I found your instagram account when we went out last time. You don't go to school or college." Creep. Jufu and Mayu started arguing.
"I just got a message from Kanade. She's called us to go to sekai" Kiyu interrupted the conversation by sending a message in the chat. Kanade is one of the virtual singers in their sekai, she's the calmest compared to the others. The argument finally stopped, everyone reacted a thumbs up emoji to her message.
In sekai.
The four of them arrived one by one, but Kanade and the others are nowhere to be seen. Flower just stared at the woman with black, white and rainbow hair, Fuiro, also known as Jufu. She crossed her arms, her gaze made Fuiro feel annoyed. Mayu(Usagi) stood there silently, admiring her nails. The youngest, Kaai Yuki(Kiyu) suggested to find Kanade, surprisingly, all of them agreed.
The sekai isn't very empty, but not very full either. The colors are dull, and there's kid's drawings everywhere on every wall in the sekai. Flower walked in front, carrying Kaai Yuki, while the other two walked behind them.
Suddenly, a shadow appeared in front of them. The shadow had very long bluish white hair, just like Kanade. Flower called her name tentatively, just like what she expected, it was just an hallucination. Hallucinations like this were very common in their sekai, since Mizuki usually pranks them for fun.
They continued walking, walking, and walking. Finally, they saw the real Kanade. She was sitting beside the lake alongside Mafuyu. "Kanade!" Fuiro called out. Kanade looked back and saw the four of them. She smiled at them and gestured at the lake, telling them to come look. There were many fishes in the lake. "...Were they here yesterday?" Flower asked. Mafuyu shook her head. "It may be because this sekai is built from your feelings, one of you probably thought of fishes lately!~" The pink haired girl with a smug smile came out of nowhere. "Mizuki, that's not how it works... And since when was thinking about fishes a feeling..?!" The brown haired girl followed her.
"Ooo... This fish is so colorful!" Yuki pointed at one of the fishes. It had black, white and rainbow scales. "Wait, isn't that Fuiro's hair color?" Mayu looked at the fish, then back at Fuiro. Yuki nodded, "what if these fishes represent us?" "That's a good theory" Mafuyu said. Fuiro was staring at another fish that moves slower that the other fishes. "Hey, is that one supposed to represent Flower?" She pointed at it. "What is that supposed to mean?" Flower frowned. Fuiro just rolled her eyes.
There were other fishes in the pond too, each representing people they know. Guessing by how Flower had an argument with her mother, the fishes were spawned by her. it's too calm for feelings after an argument, no? "Hey, this one's your boyfriend?" Fuiro hanged her arm on Flower's shoulder while pointing towards the red fish. "Don't talk about him with your dirty mouth" she slapped her hand away. Fuiro laughed and let go of her.
Suddenly, Mizuki gasped, "look at the purple fish and the white fish!" Everyone looked at the pond. The white fish and purple fish had a dark aura. The white fish swam towards the white purple fix. The white purple fish followed it to a secluded spot. Suddenly, it opened its mouth, showing its sharp teeth. It bit the white purple fish's tail forcefully, to the point it started bleeding. Yuki couldn't watch anymore. No matter how many horror films that included blood she watched without her dad's permission, she still can't stand this happening right in front of her, even though it's just a fish.
The white purple fish's tail didn't fall off, but was badly damaged. The white purple fish swam to the purple fish, but the purple fish just ignored it.
Mafuyu stared at the purple fish, her emotion can't be told by her face but they all knew she felt uneasy. The white fish continued doing the same thing over and over again, until it suddenly disappeared. "I... I'll be back soon..!" Mizuki ran away. "I'll go with her.." Ena followed behind her.
The others stared at the pond, watching what will happen next. The purple fish swam to the white purple fish and started hitting it violently with its tail. The white purple fish tried escaping, but failed every time. After the purple fish left, the white purple fish stopped moving for a while. When it finally did, it swam to some rocks and started hitting the rocks, over and over. Its scales started falling off, blood started to dye the pond into a dark red color.
They all looked at Flower. Her grip was tight to the point that her nails dug into her flesh and blood dripped down from her fingers. Her whole body was shaking.
"Flower, does this mean something?" Fuiro asked, genuinely concerned. You can tell by her tone. "I.. I have to go" she left the sekai as she said that.
The others just stood there, as if they were stunned. Mayu's face was dark, she had seen bloody scenes like this, but for some reasons fishes out of everything possible made her uncomfortable. Yuki looked at the pond, it was already back to normal. The white and purple fishes weren't here, but the white purple fish was still badly damaged.
Real world.
Flower was panting, still haven't recovered from what just happened. She leaned on the gaming chair that belonged to her boyfriend, who is still not home yet even though his work hours are already over.
She looked at the clock, 7:23pm. It's been almost 15 minutes and he still isn't back. She was starting to get worried, he'd usually arrive at around 7:10pm.
Suddenly, someone knocked on the door. She dragged herself to the door and opened it. She saw her sweet boyfriend Fukase standing there, with a small cake in his hand.
Turns out, he noticed how unhappy she sounded in the message she sent. But she didn't even send him any messages. Well, she sent the message to the wrong person. It was supposed to be sent to the STATIC:4rea_0509 chat, but she typed so fast she didn't even double check the contact.
She never acted like how she did to the STATIC members in front of him. She was scared that he would leave because of her attitude, he is the only one she has. Her mother hates her, her brother is living in his own house and her sisters are studying in another state, living with their aunt. Their mother refused to let them get in touch with Flower. After all, she(mother) still believes that her husband was captured because of her.
"You can tell me anything if you want to, you know? I won't judge you" he hugged her. She froze. It seems like he meant it, he didn't show any signs of wanting to let go. Slowly, she lifted her arms and wrapped them around the shorter boy. "How could you not leave when you have a girlfriend like this, Fukase..?" He hugged her tightly. "Nonsense. It's normal to feel sad, petals. You don't need to change for anyone, not even for me."
She sobbed. Fukase just patted her on the back, staying silent.
In the sekai.
"We must find a way to somehow help her!" Fuiro sat on the ground, pulling her hair out of frustration. In the pond, the fishes were swimming calmly as if nothing happened. "Wait... Something is changing" Kanade said. They all looked up.
Hydrangeas started growing near the pond. "Hydrangeas..." Mayu whispered. Yuki stood up, "that means she's feeling better now, right?" Mafuyu nodded. Hearing this, Fuiro finally calmed down. "Hey, I thought you didn't care about her" Mayu said. Fuiro just turned her head away, hiding her face.
In the real world, they're just standing there hugging each other, while one of them is sobbing. Nothing else, boring.
"Thanks for staying... I really appreciate it. But... what would you do if you never get to see me again?"