Asher awoke to the smell of damp dirt and crisp leaves. Composting dirt tickled his nose, creating an earthy, soothing sensation on his skin.
Where was he?
"Mmh... System?" He remembered the series of strange blackouts, but nothing afterward.
Before the System could respond, Asher attempted to stand.
[Careful.]
Too late.
"Ugh-!" The boy grit his teeth as a sudden lance of pain dug into his shins.
Asher's strength left him as he collapsed to the floor once again.
[I'm sorry, Asher. An unexpected series of events has occurred.]
His eyelids shivered as he read the prompt, facedown on the floor. Why was it apologizing to him?
[My attempts to awaken you have failed.]
"Nah, it's-" With a single twist, Asher pushed himself onto his back. "-Fine!"
A groan of pain escaped his lips.
"But tell me," he took a deep, shuddering breath, "what happened? And why does everything hurt?"
[Let me answer your second question first.]
The System gave him a prompt in the form of an aerial projection of himself.
Wrapped around Asher's neck was a glowing pentagram. The hollow pentagon in the middle was barely wide enough to accommodate his neck.
Each time he moved, the seal would brighten and constrict, inflicting a lash of whip-like pain onto his senses.
"So that seal that I saw on the moon really was the issue. Who's behind it, though?"
The System went silent, debating whether to reveal the culprit.
Finally, it responded.
[...It was Yesterday's Promise, Pluto.]
"What?!" Asher clenched his teeth, staggering to his feet. "Are you serious?"
But there was no need to answer that question.
[Its authority is slightly greater than mine at the moment.]
Harsh pants filled the forest as Asher forcibly calmed himself. He shivered, wincing as even that small movement filled him with pain.
"Hey... What do you mean by 'authority'?"
Asher had never heard the System apply the word 'authority' to anything other than itself.
[It originated from the Ruins. As did I.]
"Dang..." He didn't know what else to say.
[Focus on what matters at the moment.]
The System pushed him away from the topic.
Reluctantly, Asher began to take a look at his surroundings. Verdant green trees surrounded him with a dense weave of luscious forest.
Asher was reminded of the 'Black Forest' in Little Red's Punishment Mission. Though obviously less black.
[Correct, this seems to be a prototype of the Black Forest. An earlier timeline.]
The prompt was quickly switched with another as the System discovered a shocking fact.
[Strange. Three days have passed in the real world.]
The System seemed to be as surprised as Asher was.
"That long?? So what made me wake up now?"
[I suspect either the seal has weakened, or an outside force has allowed awareness of your conscience.]
Asher closed his eyes, his body swaying lightly in the damp air.
"I see. If three days really have passed, then I don't remember anything about them. It's a complete blank spot in my memory. Is that the case for you, too?"
[Indeed. And theoretically, your future self had control over your body during this time.]
"Seriously?"
Again, the question was purely rhetorical. Asher slouched, wondering just how much his future self messed up his life in the short period he was gone.
[Yes. The souls of Abnormalities are never allowed to take full control of the Host's body, as a precaution.]
[However, the Host's body must always contain a soul to control it. Your future must have used that fundamental property to break through his shackles.]
[...He finessed my limitations.] The System added, as almost an embarrassed remark.
"But how could Pluto's interference mess with you so badly? Pluto is only an Urban Nightmare, according to the Hana app."
[Yesterday's Promise doesn't reveal itself often, yet it is easily as dangerous as any other Star. There was a reason your future self chose it as his right hand.]
[It also created 6th Street. We made a mistake by entering its domain.]
Asher struggled to wrap his mind around the System's words. If the entire 6th Street was under its control, perhaps Pluto really could give trouble to the System.
[Don't worry. My potential authority is much greater than it.]
"Sure. But what exactly is 'authority'?"
[...Authority Insufficient.]
A tic formed on Asher's forehead.
Suddenly, he sensed a presence behind him.
He pivoted with his heel.
In front of him was a little girl, dressed in a frilly red cloak. She held a wood-woven basket in her left hand, and her right was clenched in a fist, placed over her heart.
Curiosity gleamed in her luminous emerald eyes.
"...Who are you?" A sweet, nectarine voice broke the silence.
Asher instantly recognized the girl's appearance.
Coupled with the circumstances, Asher found his lips drawing into a wide, wide grin. He figured it out.
The 'outside force' that the System hypothesized allowed his consciousness to come back temporarily, Asher was sure it was Sophie's [Nostalgic Room].
[Indeed, the circumstances seem remarkably similar to the time you used it in the Punishment Mission.] The System confirmed his theory.
Asher silently thanked Sophie as he took a wincing step forward.
The little girl's eyes fell upon the constrictive seal around his neck. She could see it.
Her lips quivered, almost fearful.
Asher took great care to avoid any sign of pain in his voice or expression, and he interrupted the girl before she could question him.
The question would have probably been about the thing on his neck, anyway.
"Where are you heading to, miss?"
Seeing the boy in front of her completely ignore the pentagram seal on his neck, the girl ignored it as well.
She was childish like that. Or, just a child. With a sidenote, Asher wondered how many years younger the girl was compared to him. Five years? Seven years? She still had traces of baby fat on her cheeks, plump and fair-white.
A little bit of Asher melted inside as the girl split into a radiant smile.
"I'm going to my grandma's! See," the girl flipped open her basket, "Mama even got cakes for her!"
While Asher nodded, his mind was somewhere else. He remembered the plot of 'Little Red Riding Hood', the version Mei told to him. If there was to be any difference between the two, it would happen at this part, from the girl's trip to her grandmother.
Because right now, the two stories seemed pretty identical.
"...Mister?" The girl waved her hand in front of Asher's eyes. She flinched as they sharpened with alert.
He rounded upon her with an inquisitive gaze, just barely holding back a twitch in his expression as Pluto's seal lashed him yet again. He let out a muffled hiss of pain, letting it fade away into a totally not suspicious attempt of a whistle.
"Ssss... Have you seen a Wolf around here? How far are you to your grandma's house?"
If the Wolf was the same size now as it was in the punishment mission, the girl stood no chance. It would eat her straight away.
Little Red Riding Hood quivered with fright. She had been raised well(?).
"N-No way, wolves are big and bad and mean!" Her thoughts shied away from the topic instinctively. "Um, grandma's cabin is maybe ten minutes away, I think..."
Asher sighed a breath of relief.
With some twisted leap in logic, Asher decided that if he was by the girl's side, he could protect her from whatever fate twisted her into Little Red.
He couldn't remember, or perhaps refused to remember, just how integral of a role the System's skill played against the Wolf last time.
"That's good; I was just curious. Oh, and what's your name again?" Asher smiled inwardly as he spoke. Asher was afraid of asking Little Red her real name, for obvious reasons. But this girl, he could talk to her just fine.
Suddenly, the girl's eyes shone with excitement. She promptly forgot his question, pointing at a patch of grass behind Asher instead.
"A doggy!!" Her voice turned Asher's head with a magnetic adorableness.
"-!" The blood drained from Asher's face.
As the girl waved toward the patch of empty grass, Asher's gaze slowly trailed upward.
That was not a dog.
The Wolf leered as it matched Asher's gaze. Cobalt glowing orbs pierced the boy's soul.
It spoke.
"You can see me, hm?"
Its voice was like flint against stone, gravel against rock. Its pelt was unmarred and midnight blue, entirely different from what Asher expected.
Regal. Cold. Calculating.
Asher stumbled backwards as the girl rushed past him.
Protect her? No, no way.
The Wolf split into a wide, wide grin. A terrifyingly human grin.
Its maw showed every one of its teeth as its skin stretched and distorted like rubber.
"You aren't from here." The Wolf stated with spine-chilling certainty.
The constricting seal on Asher's neck felt like cotton tissue as his knees gave away beneath him.
"Let's have a nice... talk."
The inflection in the Wolf's voice filled Asher with dread.