We arrived at the plaza somewhere near midnight. I would say, from a stray clock I saw inside a shop, that it was 11:30. The plaza was crowded already, if we were to be followed here--and if they were to attack us, we would have a lot of civilian casualties.
I can't accept that. I let those thoughts out, and it seemed that Yuki heard me, "I cannot accept that as well. That's why we're meeting up with my…" She paused, as if she was trying to find the right words to call them, "Posse." Posse. They were her posse, I suppose I should just leave it at that.
"Where are they anyway? Are they just going to show themselves to us or something?"
"No. But it'll be apparent."
We stopped in front of the giant christmas tree in the middle of the plaza. From the looks of it, everything was normal. Children played around with their parents, shops surrounded the plaza, and inside were the workers in overtime.
One shop in particular, a cake shop across the plaza, still had one more customer to serve. I saw it plainly, a girl there, beautiful and fair-skinned. Yet her eyes were wrought with a fire of determination. It's not as if she's relevant to the story, rather just an astute observation, that there are people in this city, and not a bunch of stock puppets waiting to be ascertained. I suppose that's when I came to realize that this place really was like the outside world, and yet terribly divorced from it. That, no matter how close it is to normalcy, it will never quite achieve that level as the outside world. Here because they were abandoned, taken out of society, made to simply not exist. It's a world of rejects.
I need to pop out of my own soliloquy, "So, the Night Parade. What do they do?"
"We're a private investigation and commission agency. We help the people of the city. Though our rate varies."
"Varies, you say? Then I suppose you saving my life might fetch some pretty hefty penny from me. But I tell you now, I have nothing to my name. Not here, not from the outside."
She rubbed her chin and put on a self-satisfied grin, "Ah, but worry not. For you have something else that you can use to pay back!" She stepped ahead of me as the quiet snow started to fall once more.
They land on the leaves of the tree, at the base of it, at her shoulders. She looked up, right into the star at the very top of the christmas tree. Beyond it, the moon stared, full in its glory, bright in its splendor.
"Huh? What do you mean? I mean, I'm basically a nobody at this point. I can only do the simplest of projection magic too! I'm not at all useful."
"Sure you aren't!" She said, with such enthusiasm that I found unfathomable, "In the Night Parade, we have a total of five members, me included. Typically we divide it into teams of two. And do you see the problem?"
"You're… missing one for an even six?"
She hummed and nodded, that was the correct response, "So, I propose to you now, John Zegrus." The snow ceased, the crowd halted, the cake-maker seemed to stop in its tracks. The world stood still. Even light--which is supposed to move for all eternity, ever speeding until it hits the surface and even beyond--ceased its movements and bathed the world in a terrible red glow.
"--To join the Night Parade as its sixth member, my assistant."
I stood there and witnessed the world cease before my eyes. Nothing from the outside world ever prepared me for something like this. It was a field of pure, concentrated mana that can only emerge from total domain control. For this to exist would mean one would need to tap into every particle in radius and manipulate them efficiently. Furthermore, everything, and everyone that ceased to move eventually disappeared. I don't suppose they're dead, rather, the mana field is starting to take form as its own spatial dimension separate from the real world.
Thus, it is a space where only Yuki and I, as well as anyone else she invites can exist in. It's beautiful. I've never seen magic of this scale.
I laughed-- I can't help but laugh. To think that something like this could exist in this world. Something of this magnitude was unforeseen before. Is this why they threw me down here? Is this where the most powerful of the world lay?
Did they wish for me to exterminate this place of all pests?
"I know you're not who you say you are, John Zegrus. 'The man from Taured'. That's why you're here, isn't it? You don't exist, or rather, you're not supposed to exist. And yet you persisted in your existence. You fought for it in ways unfathomable. And now you arrive here from Ame-no-Ukihashi… What's your purpose here?"
A heavy air grew around her. Mana concentrations that she gathered were like deep breaths of relaxation. And by the speed at which she casted her previous spells, it seemed that she was ready to fire them all off at a moment's notice.
"As my purpose was in the outside world. To keep the peace." I responded bluntly.
"And yet you were thrown here. A place with no relation to the outside world, in fact utterly divorced from it. Are you aware that those brought down here are never to return?"
"Aware." Far too aware, and now that I'm here, it feels as though I've been mercilessly thrown into the wolves for my simple needs of existence. But that's neither here nor there now.
"So, what do you wish to do now, if not aid me, and I shall help you survive this land." She spoke with such conviction that it almost convinced me. Though I suppose it's my cynicism, they rang hollow to me. They were words I heard from people from the outside. Words repeated in my head over and over, until a wave of acceptance simply washed over me.
They wanted me to exist, "Yuki. Are you helping me exist?"
"It is useless to falter your existence in the world of inexistences. That you are here means the outside world doesn't need you. But you are always needed elsewhere, you are needed here."
Is that it? This is a world where I can exist? Where I can safely live as someone who I want to be? I found it hard to believe. I looked at my hands; one that was once cut, and one that has seen nothing but battle. Battle for myself, battle for a world that didn't care for me. But this was such a world that would accept me for who I am. What kind of world...
"Yuki. You claim to help the people of…"
"Takamagahara."
"Takamagahara. And you wish to recruit me into your little night parade?" I had to agitate her. I had to understand the extent of her evils, the extent of her suffering. Such that I can understand her. How can I understand a person that never once suffered? Suffering is all I know.
"Little? I assure you, dear friend. The Night Parade is not simply a little organization." She spun her wand around her fingers and pointed it at me, "I carry their will in the palm of my hands. Do you wish to experience it firsthand, Knife boy?"
I scoffed and cracked my bones, warming up my system before I can fight to my fullest extent, "Try me, witch."