The bunny gently waved the umbrella in her direction, causing a mostly transparent wave of yellow wind to blow her way. As it turns out, there was a reason for stalling using the apparitions of bunnies before.
It was to prepare a rather strange attack.
Although Mia wanted to dodge the slowly flowing wind, there was not much she could do. As lazily as the wind traveled, it also covered an incredibly large area. There was frankly nothing she could do other than watch as it slowly came over her.
She furrowed her brows and braced herself, holding her arms out in front of her, as little of a chance it actually had of doing anything.
The strange wind appeared to wrap around her and seeped into her skin.
Before she could understand what was happening to her, every single one of her senses started to work against her. Before she could even understand what was going on anymore, she suddenly found herself in a familiar place.
While logically, she knew it wasn't possible for her to be here, everything else was telling her otherwise.
However, before she could think of the reason, she forgot about it.
Mia felt smaller, and her bare feet were against the cold hard ground. She could hear muffled screams coming from the distance, but despite being suppressed, they were still loud enough to hurt her ears. In fact, she could feel the heat along with the blood pumping in her ears, almost her heart was there rather than anything else.
She was sitting in the middle of a small dirty room, with nothing more than a pile of plastic bags laid out to act as a bed. The walls were made out of stone, and while there was technically a window, it would be more accurate to just call it a hole.
Mia could still smell the disgusting, but somewhat refreshing scent of rain that had just come down and the strong taste of trash stained in her mouth.
Out of instinct, she curled up into a ball in an attempt to persevere warmth, while using her knees to cover up her ears. Just as she was about to close her eyes as tightly as possible, they suddenly widened.
This was wrong.
Just like the fading memories of a dream, she quickly forgot the reason why it was wrong, but she knew for a fact that it was.
Ignoring her natural urges, she stood up. Almost immediately, her body began to shiver from the cold, however, she stood firm, despite how shaky her legs were. Then, she moved to the door, twisting the loose doorknob with all her strength and nearly ripped it off when she pulled it back.
The sound of muffled yelling disappeared entirely, and the only thing she saw was a void of white. There were a few yellow flowers floating about, as though this were some sort of space with no gravity.
Seeing this obviously nonsensical sight woke her up somewhat. Despite knowing that she wasn't in the water, it still felt as though she was rising up from something she was submerged in.
Though before she fully did so, she heard the sound of a bunny clicking its tongue before a flash of white filled her vision, disorienting her for a moment.
When her vision did eventually refocus, she found herself looking at a shocking sight.
"Emi?"
She was in the middle of a void, with the occasional yellow flower flying by. Strangely enough, there was still the smell of rain and a repulsive taste in her mouth. However, she could hardly process the fact that those things were all discrepancies.
All of her attention was instead focused on a child that was a few steps away from her.
It was a little girl, with bright hazel smooth long hair, and bright emerald green eyes. She was smiling rather cheerfully and waved at her.
"Hey, Mimi! Where were you all this time?"
She let out a playful giggle and covered her face with one hand, dazzling Mia. Unlike her short black hair and brown eyes, she always adored how nice Emi's long brown hair and eyes looked. Although there was nothing she could really do about the eyes, it was still possible to imitate the hair.
While it wasn't easy for her to dye her hair simply because of her financial situation, she could still grow it out.
But she didn't.
Because if she did grow out her hair, it would only be filled with dirt and have junk stuck to it. Not that it didn't do so already, but having it longer would've made it far clearer. Not to mention, she had a bad experience which was partially caused by her long hair.
As such, she always decided to cut it clean. Despite not liking how it looked, that habit stayed with her even after living conditions had improved somewhat.
Mia didn't even realize it herself, but she was moving forward, while tears formed in her eyes.
"E-Emi!..."
Though she was holding back for a moment, it all broke down in an instant. An ugly frown formed on her face as tears spilled out. She fervently tried running towards her, but gravity didn't seem to work properly, as she began to float, tilting forward slowly.
Not questioning it, Mia reached out to grasp with her arms, her actions somewhat resembling a person swimming.
While she did get closer, it was incredibly slow.
"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry for leaving... but I had to."
The girl that Mia called Emi let out another giggle, tilting her head to the side. For a while, she didn't say anything, seemingly thinking.
"Oh... it's ok Mimi. I forgive you... if you do something for me."
Mia was a mess, sniffling and rubbing the tears from her eyes and letting out strange groaning sounds in an awkward attempt to suppress her own crying. Just from seeing her face, countless different memories flooded her mind.
It was her childhood friend, and also her first crush.
Before her living situation had deteriorated drastically, she met with a girl called Emi. The girl was only one year older, but Mia always felt like she must've been some sort of wise sage, always guiding her in all kinds of things, both small and big.
Emi showed her how to play soccer, where the prettiest flowers were in the local park, and how to climb a tree.
She was the one that helped her become confident in herself, and was the only one that hugged her close and tightly. Even now, she still remembered how loving it felt.
And on top of that, Emi was the one that introduced her to games. While Mia wasn't able to play them at her home, Emi wasn't stingy in inviting her over to play at her house. Although it was a shame that she wasn't able to play all the time, that only made the times that she did play feel more special.
And more importantly, remind her of Emi even more.
One day, her family forced her to move because of their gradually depreciating financial situation. It had caused Mia to feel sad and breaking the news was heartbreaking. Though she didn't realize how bad things were actually going to get until she found herself rummaging through the nearby trash bins for food and drinking from muddy puddles in a desperate attempt to get enough to stay alive for another day.
While she did technically have a home to come back to, it didn't serve much better than a few cardboard boxes.
In reality, her parents were no longer supporting her, partly because they were incredibly poor, but also because they decided to stop. Still, Mia didn't know where else to go, so she would always go back to her room, licking her lips in the hope that she would be able to find some food that was only half rotten.
At some point, her parents died.
Mia wasn't sure if it was starvation that did it, or if the debtors had taken matters into their own hands. Regardless, she no longer knew what to do. Still, the debtors had gotten into the house and found her.
Despite the fact she was near death, they still forced the debt upon her, despite how unreasonable that was. Legally, it didn't apply, so she shouldn't have had to repay the debt. Still, she couldn't exactly resist the demands they had. Even if it were a normal child in front of her, her scrappy malnourished form would be taken down by a few hits.
But most importantly, they were people who were comfortable with working around the legal system whether it was through loopholes or bribes.
In the end, Mia simply wandered the streets as she had been, though the technical home she had before was confiscated, despite how little it was worth. Now, she didn't have anywhere to go back to.
Although her realistic situation had hardly changed, no longer having an anchor to go back to greatly deteriorated her already bad mental state. While before, she would be rapidly rummaging through trash faster than a raccoon would, she simply walked around the roads in a daze.
Even as she felt her lips and throat dry up, she didn't put any effort into drinking anything. She simply kept walking around, seemingly intending on doing so until she eventually died on the spot.