Chapter Text
The jostle of the train cars snapped Sadayo out of a restless, dreamless sleep. She grumbled under her breath, struggling to open her eyes and sit just a bit more upright – it was clear she wasn’t going to manage a proper nap here, even if she had miraculously snagged a seat for herself. It didn’t matter that she’d gotten so little sleep yesterday that she could practically feel the eyebags on her face, apparently.
Just as well, since according to the announcer, her station was just coming up.
Sadayo let out another grumble, fishing for her phone in her pockets and trying to ignore the dirty looks the people to either side of her sent her as she jostled in her seat. She regretted it immediately when she saw the several messages she had from an unknown number, causing a hateful sort of pit to open in her stomach. Maybe at any other point in her life, she’d have found it funny that her mother was paying attention to her now, of all times.
Today, though? Today it just made Sadayo angry and sad. She blocked the number and deleted the messages without reading them.
She stared at the icon for her usual reading app, some unknowable amount of minutes passing by as she wrestled with her tiredness to open it. It was only when she snapped out of the struggle that she noticed something strange. “What the…”
An app she’d never seen sat at the end of her home screen’s list, a square of shimmering blue with a white ‘0’ at its center. VLVT, it was called, though if that was a trendy way to say ‘velvet’ or some kind of acronym, Sadayo didn’t know.
She also didn’t care; whatever this thing was, it’d probably installed itself into her phone in an update, and she didn’t want whatever they were peddling. She dragged the app to her trash can without much more thought.
A giggle sounded over her shoulder, and Sadayo snapped her eyes up to find… well, an old salary man sitting next to her. Beyond him though, a group of girls in a vaguely familiar uniform chatted about everything and nothing.
“Hey, did you hear about Risette’s comeback tour?”
“I thought that was just a rumor?”
“I mean, she still puts some songs online, y’know.”
Distantly, Sadayo felt a familiar ache, the tug at her heart that urged her to try and insert herself into the girls’ conversation. It took her a moment to remember the way her hair was longer now, tied in a lazy ponytail over her shoulder; the way she was finally wearing a skirt in public. She… could get up and join them, couldn’t she?
The train lurched to a stop, jostling Sadayo into the man next to her once again, and she was reminded of the need to get up. Her legs protested, but there was nothing she could do.
Maybe once she started at her new school tomorrow though, she could finally make some friends.
(Maybe if she repeated that thought to herself a few hundred more times, she’d start believing it.)
Tokyo’s unfamiliar train lines had her turned around at the station from the moment she hopped off the train, sleep deprivation working alongside genuine confusion to make sure Sadayo took no less than ten minutes to emerge next to the Shibuya crossing. The crowds around her were… overwhelming, to say the least. It was more people than she’d ever seen in one place, and while that might be expected in a packed train car, the extra space of being out in the open just seemed to invite even more people to crowd around the street.
Which made it all the more unnerving when, as the signal turned green and people began to cross the… well, crossing, every single one of those people just stopped.
Except for… the girl on the other side. The one staring straight at Sadayo, seemingly engulfed in flickering flames of a sapphire blue. The motion drew the eye; finding her was easy. Recognizing her own face across the crowd was… harder. Sadayo didn’t really like to look in the mirror.
She blinked, and suddenly the world was in motion. It took less than a split-second for someone to bump into her and move on like it hadn’t happened, since she’d stopped to gawk at… well, nothing apparently – the flaming doppelganger was gone.
…Sadayo decided that no matter how hard it would be, she definitely needed to catch up on sleep.
The rest of the trip to her new (temporary) home was a lot less plagued with strange apps and hallucinations, at least. Yongen-Jaya was honestly pretty charming, with its cozy sort of cramped spaces and modest bustle. Even if the layout confused her enough that it took a second to find the house she was looking for – and then she had to retrace her steps to find where her host for the year actually was.
“‘Leblanc Internet Café & Curry’. Do… coffee and curry even go together?” Sadayo stood in front of the odd little place she’d overheard that delivery man mention. Well, at least it looked pretty nice, for how it was just sort of shoved in a side alley.
The inside was also blissfully warm as she stepped in… though the layout clashed, just a tiny bit. To her left were the booths she’d have expected from an internet café, four cubicles with a computer, some moderate privacy, and just enough leg room that you wouldn’t die if you sat there for more than an hour. Not enough room for futons, so she doubted they were meant for anyone to spend the night.
To her right though, was a counter, rows of stools set out, jars of various coffee grounds displayed on a shelf against the wall, above rows of coffee-making equipment. Which is to say, standard fare for a café, but certainly odd to see right across from the booths, as if someone had heard the words ‘internet café’ and decided to tackle each separately.
What Sadayo didn’t see, seemingly, was the person who was supposed to be here to meet her. Just two women, each at their own computers. One had pale skin and dark hair, and seemed barely older than Sadayo herself, sipping lazily at a coffee and simply staring intently at her screen. The other was an older woman, hair dyed orange and covered in a large set of LED-ridden headphones, which matched the vibe of the game controller she was furiously mashing away at, completely absorbed in whatever she was playing.
Sadayo didn’t particularly want to bother either of them, so after a moment’s hesitation, she just… sat down at the counter. She could get a peek of a kitchen toward the back; maybe the owner was just dealing with something and not expecting customers. It wasn’t as if Sadayo had a strict time to arrive at.
She pulled out her phone again, for want of something to do, and scowled. The app was back, in the same place as before. Was this one of those extra-annoying company apps that kept reinstalling herself when she didn’t pay attention? Or did she just… not actually delete it the first time? Maybe… yeah, no, that was probably it. If she was hallucinating random women that looked like her (or at least, what she wished she could look like), then she’d probably just thought about deleting the thing without actually doing it.
She could be sure she’d done it now, at least.
“Dammit!” The older woman behind her let out a sudden shout, startling Sadayo out from stewing in her annoyance. “Move-spamming son of a… ah, whatever. That’s me for now.” She threw the controller down on her chair as she got up, and only now did Sadayo take a good look at what she wore over her forest green sweater: a brown apron, the logo for Leblanc faded on the front. The woman’s eyes slid over to Sadayo, and she flinched for a moment. “Oh! Just in time, I guess… new customer!” She chuckled nervously.
She wiped her hands on her pants (which didn’t feel sanitary, but Sadayo wasn’t actually about to order anything, so) and flashed Sadayo a classic customer service smile: tired and a bit strained. “So sorry about that, kid. What can I get you?”
Sadayo… considered how to approach this, for a moment, but she was too tired for tact right now. “Would I be wrong in guessing you’re Futaba Sakura, then…?”
The woman’s eyes widened a bit, and then more. “Oh! You’re… oh sh– uh, crap, right, I knew you were coming today. Double sorry then, I can get… caught up in things.” She cleared her throat. “But yeah, that’s me! Here to help you get settled with everything. Though uh… one second.” She leaned away from the conversation, trying to get a good angle to shout over at the other woman present. “Hey, Takemi! You done?”
The girl hummed, eyes sliding over to Futaba’s, and then back to her screen. She let out a tired sigh. “May as well be. Nothing’s coming to me anymore. I’ll get out of your hair, Ms. Sakura.”
Futaba grumbled something about how that ‘still made her feel old’, and she and Sadayo both watched the Takemi girl pack up her bag and leave, with a quick nod as she passed.
Only when the door had opened and closed again did Futaba speak again. “Alright, that’s that. So… you got a name, kid?”
Sadayo furrowed her brow. “Didn’t they send you any documentation about that or anything…?”
Futaba rolled her eyes. “I got a lot of documentation about some annoying lady’s son. You can tell me his name if you want, but I dunno if that’s helpful for anyone.”
Sadayo… blinked. The tension in her shoulders let out a bit. She’d come in ready to… well, not fight anyone for her right to be herself, not with how tired she was, but she was very good at enduring other people’s abuse until they decided she wasn’t worth it. (Which meant nothing, and no future therapist of hers could convince her otherwise.) To have her host be so outright supportive was… well, it helped.
“...Sadayo. Kawakami, I guess.” She shrugged. That name change was a whole other thing to unpack.
Futaba nodded. “Just Sadayo fine, then?”
“...please.”
She nodded again. “Alright. So… full disclosure here, I’m flying by the seat of my pants a little. Feels like I can’t really even take care of myself sometimes, but… well, I heard about you and I– we’re here now, is the point.” She rambled on, eyes never quite meeting Sadayo’s as Futaba seemed to search for things behind the counter to fiddle with. Not exactly inspiring confidence, but then, that was a bit refreshing in its own way. “So, rule number one: you ever need anything, you let me know, okay? There will be times I forget something important, and my door’s always open… assuming I’m uh, not busy.”
Sadayo got the distinct feeling she meant ‘busy’ with very un-worklike things, but she nodded anyway.
“Cool. Remember that. Other than that…” She huffed. “I mean, you’re sixteen, you know all the common sense stuff. I’m not gonna get on your ass if you wanna bring a friend over to make out with, just try to let me know?”
Sadayo felt a light blush creep up her neck. “I-I guess…?”
“Yeah, sure. All your stuff already arrived, by the way, it’s upstairs. You’ll be staying there for now, I made it…” Futaba paused, hesitated. “Livable, just about, but you might wanna dust everything a bit. I have a spare room in the house that I need some time to clean out, but once I do, you’re welcome to move there or stay here, whatever you prefer.”
Sadayo pondered this for a bit. She was already dreading how much work she’d need to make the… attic of the café(?) an actually livable space, because she very much doubted Futaba’s cleaning skills. Which was maybe a bit of an unfair assumption, but the woman was too nervous to not be a bit self-aware about it. Still… it was her own room, in an entirely separate building from her host. It would be an interesting new experience. “Okay.”
“Great! School starts tomorrow for you, yeah? I won’t really be able to help you get there, but I’m sure you can find the way. There’s always maps on your phone and all that.” Futaba leaned forward on the counter, slowly. Her smile stretched at well-marked laugh lines on her face. “Think that’s it for me, so… you got any questions?”
Sadayo thought, for all of two seconds, before shaking her head. “I… think I’ll just get some sleep.”
Futaba snorted. “All-nighter before this?” Something like that. Sadayo shrugged. “I get it. Enjoy it while you can, kid, getting old sucks.” She stood up, turning to the coffee machines behind her. “I’ll be cleaning up here to close shop soon. I lock the door at night, but there’s a spare key under the mat for emergencies. You sleep well, yeah?”
Sadayo nodded, slipped off her stool. She couldn’t even evaluate how well that conversation had gone, mind already trapped by the prospect of getting to lay down and just not think soon enough. But at least she knew it… could have been a lot worse. So that was nice, right?
The stairs at the back of the café creaked under her weight, and she eventually found herself in a space that could charitably be called an attic.
Uncharitably, Sadayo recognized it as a thick film of dust covering just about every surface, hiding what might have been an attic beneath it.
The floor had been swept, but only nominally, shoeprints still clearly visible alongside the lines the broom had carved into the grime, or the trails of boxes that had been pushed aside and stacked against one corner of the space. One of the boxes had her surname scrawled on it, sealed with bright blue tape. Her stuff, then… not that she felt like sorting through that right now.
Overall, she was right in thinking she’d need to do more cleaning. Futaba was nice enough, but this was obviously not one of her skills.
Sadayo sighed, grabbed the broom from where it was propped near the desk piled high with yet more boxes, and did her best to make the place a little livable.
She must have managed to fall asleep while sweeping, because she entirely missed the creak of the stairs as Futaba came up behind her, some unknowable amount of time later. “Hey kid, I’m gonna– oh damn.” She blinked, still only halfway up into the room. “This is looking a lot nicer already.”
“Mmm.” It was the most intelligent answer Sadayo could manage in the moment. She was leaning on the broom for support at this point.
“Oh jeez kid, just… go lie down, alright. I’ll uh… I’ll try to get this place in better shape while you’re off tomorrow.” A hand landed gently on Sadayo’s arm, and she flinched away, snapped from her drowsiness.
“Y-Yeah um… yeah. See you tomorrow, Mrs. Sakura.” She didn’t meet the older woman’s gaze, but she could see the way she shivered.
“Ugh, please don’t, I already feel old enough from the back pain. Besides, I was never married anyway. Just… Futaba, yeah? Or whatever nickname feels right.”
They stood there for a second, neither entirely sure if the conversation was over. Sadayo just nodded. “...sure, chief. G’night.”
“Hah, yeah, there we go. Night, Sadayo. Rest well.” And off she went, the creaking stairs following her down.
Again, Sadayo stood in the middle of the room, unsure on what to do… before she simply waddled to the bed and dropped face-first into it. A light cloud of dust was kicked up in her wake, and she groaned.
Sleep took her before the thought of getting back up could even be considered.
The soft sounds of a piano stirred Sadayo from the darkness, and the strong voice of a woman snapped her to full wakefulness, somewhere in the distance.
Blue.
Wherever Sadayo was now, it was blue. The floor, the walls, the ceiling – all so blue it overpowered her first instinct to panic for waking up in an unknown location and allowed her to actually take it in.
She slowly sat up and recognized the room as a classroom, and a familiar one at that, since she’d spent the last year in one almost identical to it… just, with the obvious difference.
Blue-on-blue pictures and maps adorned the walls, the window outside giving way to a cerulean blue sky. Desks sat in a slight mess at the center of the room, like whatever students existed here had been too excited to leave and had jostled them all on their way out. Sadayo herself had been lying down on a group of four chairs clumped together near the back. The teacher’s podium was replaced by a full desk as well, sturdy blue wood posted right in front of a blank blue blackboard. Blueboard? It didn’t matter.
Because Sadayo wasn’t alone.
Sitting on the teacher’s desk, legs dangling over the side, was a girl around her age. She wore an unfamiliar school uniform, both in its design and the fact that it, too, was goddamn blue. Her hair, a stark white even lighter than her skin, fell in waves down over one half of her face, the back held up in a puffed up ponytail, and the other side pinned beneath a barrette shaped in a ‘0’. Her eyes were a piercing yellow that Sadayo struggled to look away from, for a moment, and her grin promised mischief.
“Welcome, dear guest!” Her tone was too upbeat, and if Sadayo had woken up under normal circumstances, she’d already be annoyed at someone being so chipper in the morning. “To the Velvet Room! This is a place between dreams and reality… mind and matter…” She trailed off dramatically, then giggled. “Kinda always wanted to say that. Anyway, hi!”
Sadayo pursed her lips, fiddling with the unfamiliar long sleeves she wore – looking down, she could see her new school uniform for Shujin. “...hi. Where… I-I guess you answered that. Um. Why?”
The girl chuckled. “That’s… very complicated. But don’t worry, you’re still in bed. Like I said, this place is kind of like a dream… and kinda not! It’s a place you’ll be able to come to as you go through your Journey, whenever you need a little extra help.”
“My… Journey?” Sadayo had had stranger dreams before, after long bouts of insomnia, but none had ever felt quite so… coherently incoherent. Or lucid, for that matter.
“Yeah! Long story short… fate has a lot in store for you in the next few months. Before you ask, no, I can’t say what, both because I don’t know all the details and because I have people above me on this that wouldn’t let me spill. Trust me, I hate their cryptic crap too, but…” She put her wrists together as if they were tied, shrugging apologetically with a ‘what can you do?’ sort of look on her face.
Sadayo processed this with all the speed of a sloth. “...okay. I can’t say I get it. Do I have a lot of exams coming up, or something? Is this a study room in my own head?”
The girl snorted. “I mean, you are going to school tomorrow, so yeah, I hope there’ll be exams. But no, it’s… weirder than that. It’ll make more sense soon, I promise. The room looks different for everyone; an elevator, a limo… honestly I’m glad this one isn’t moving under our feet.” She gave Sadayo a slanted smirk, to which her only response was to blink. The girl sighed. “Look, I just wanted to get a headstart on showing you that things are gonna get a little crazy. Keep your mind open to things, and I promise we’ll be meeting again soon, alright?”
“R-Right…” The aggressive blue of the room was starting to fade now, the end-of-day light through the windows dipping lower in the horizon at alarming speed. “Um.”
“Just means you’re waking up soon.” The girl waved a hand dismissively. “Any quick questions, before you go?”
Already, the seat under Sadayo felt less solid. She didn’t like it. “...who are you?”
“Oh!” The white-haired girl gently rapped a knuckle on her head. “Duh, sorry. Guess I was too excited to do the spiel, forgot that part.” She hopped off the desk, standing in full. “I’m Kotone! It’s great to meet you.”
Before she could respond, the floor under Sadayo gave out, and she found herself on the bed in Leblanc’s attic, heart beating fast at the horrible sensation of waking up from being dropped.
…a good start to the day as any, huh?
