Chapter Text
“You’re..not real?”
KT asked, combing through the branches for the source of the voice. Her eyes danced too close. Time to go.
“Not in any way that counts,” Neutrino responded from the river. No, she was in the tree again, her voice glitching and moving mid-sentence. “I’ll tell you all about it, KT. I’m sure you have questions, and it’s the least I can do.”
Terunosuke still couldn’t understand the conversation that was going on. But something inside him told him that this strange, ephemeral girl was only revealing herself because she was confident enough. Because she could finish the job at any minute.
Oh, yeah, he had brought something useful with him. Unloaded, of course, but a good tool for bluffing—an American ritual object used to signify you’re ok with killing. In one smooth, practiced motion, he reached into his pocket and unfolded his Beretta APX. He found it in the closet of his room and was waiting for a chance to brandish it.
“If you come any closer, I’ll shoot!”
She probably couldn’t understand him, but he was caught up in the moment. KT, however, could definitely understand him.
“Hey!! Where the hell did you get that?!” She whipped around with such speed that beads of water flew off her hair.
“I found it in my closet. Don’t fear, it’s unloaded.”
Her face remained tense.
“How deep did you dig in there to get that?”
He shrugged. “I was curious. You sure have a lot of empty shoeboxes and old blankets. No ammo though.”
For a second, things felt inappropriately normal. And then the awful dread returned, and something wispy purple and paradoxically tangible grabbed the gun out of Terunosuke’s hand and slammed him into the ground.
“You see what I mean?” Her voice was stronger, more confident. It emanated from the opposite direction of her…displacement which was holding Terunosuke’s face in the dirt. He tried to fold himself up and escape, but the displacement sandwiched his folded form between its nonexistent palm and the ground. “I’m so inconsequential, so ephemeral, that even my enemies will start to forget me as soon as I hide from them. In fact, the entire world has forgotten me. And then I can do things like this.”
KT took a step back, not just a little horrified by the situation she’d found herself in.
—-A bit of context—-
4 years ago, after a night of hoping and praying and begging the universe to just disappear, a 14 year old girl woke up to find her house totally empty.
In the present moment, that girl pinches Terunosuke Miyamoto between her displacement’s fingers and can’t hear him crying. She can hear his best friend’s protestations, and see her stand trembling with rage, but as long as her real body is hidden, she’s in the clear, so she tries not to care or fear.
4 years ago, the girl was calling the cops, scared out of her wits, only to be told that the house she’s in is is currently being sold and no one lives there, but they’ll check it out anyway.
Then she ran onto the steps to meet the officer they sent over, teary eyed, but the moment he saw her, something deep inside her broke.
Her heartbeat slowed down, and she couldn’t move a muscle.
She’s dizzier than she’s ever been.
Inexplicably, she knew that she’s going to stop existing if he stares too long.
When he blinks, she dashed back inside, and in an instant found herself in her once-inhabited bedroom.
—And back in the present moment, she teleports the young man to her real hand, and uses a binder clip to keep him folded up tight. Hopefully it doesn’t hurt. Given that shes obviously not being perceived by him right now, she guessed that he wasn’t even conscious of the world outside.
Meanwhile, KT was tearing up the grass, disturbing various bugs in her frenzy.
“LET HIM GO! LET HIM GO, OR I’LL REALLY KILL YOU!”
“You won’t even find me.” Her voice was a mirthless smile.
“I’m just too ephemeral. Barely there. Like… a neutrino particle. For years now, no one has been able to find me. I’ve been living in a women’s shelter, but they don’t even know I’m their client. I sleep in the unused bunks and such.”
Tauntingly, her displacement tapped the girl on her shoulder and watched as her stand fruitlessly attacked. She had to make it fun, or the guilt of what she was doing would set in.
“Because of this…ability, I didn’t have a single friend, a job, a girlfriend, any of the hallmarks of a normal life. I didn’t even have a chance. Until Cilicia found me.”
The action displacement struck again. In a split second, Touch Tone dropped to the hard ground and linked it to KT’s backpack, creating a sufficient (and dry) shield. She couldn’t block the first hit from the figure, but the resultant plume of dust created enough of a visual for her to dodge hits 2, 3, 5, and 6.
Damn it.
Well, she’d be nothing if she wasn’t persistent, so Neutrino teleported into the reeds at KT’s six and continued. It was nice to talk.
“Well, I found her. I was on a night walk, a noise scared me, and I accidentally teleported right into her living room…she said it was fate. She told me that this curse holding me down was a “stand”, and she named it Moon Rocks. Most importantly, she told me she could take it away with her own power….if I only did her a favor.”
“S-so that’s why I have to die?!” KT shouted furiously, “So you can live?”
“Exactly! Don’t worry, your friend won’t be hurt. I’m only taking him because there’s someone who really misses him, and he could probably use her support when he finds out you’re dead.”
Despite the early August sun, a chill ran down her spine.
“Someone…who misses him? Who?”
“Does it matter to you? You’ll be gone soon.”
And, with the full force of Moon Rocks, she once again shoved KT into the river.
——-TO BE CONTINUED—->