Author's Note:
Hello, once more, dear readers!
Thank you all for your patience. My schedule is really not helping, despite how badly I wish to write.
Good news is that there is a high possibility of me releasing another chapter very soon – tomorrow at least, next Thursday at most.
This chapter is one of the ones I had been looking forward to writing most.
As usual, thank you all for your support. Especially the reviews – I read every single one, and they pretty much make my day.
Hope you enjoy the chapter~
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The hug with Mila ended almost as soon as it began—she pulled away first, avoiding my gaze. Her glasses came off, revealing smudged tear traces she hastily scrubbed at with her sleeve. A flush crept up her neck, pink and telling – no doubt the aftermath of her earlier breakdown.
"Seriously?" I raised one eyebrow, half-teasing, "I was gone, what, twenty seconds? Tops?"
"Like hell you were!" she was quick to exclaim, "You were stuck in there for so long! No matter what I did, you wouldn't budge!"
What?
"That's unusual… Could it be…?"
Let me guess, some kind of localized time dilation phenomenon?
"Read my mind, will you?"
Quite ironic coming from you.
The little exchange internally resulted in a giggling Kind Mita and me thinking of what a time dilation could mean for this world. If true, then that was something huge.
For some reason, I felt like I had some suppressed knowledge of the subject. Knowledge that had me in an internalized awe.
"Say something!" Mila exclaimed once again, breaking me from my reverie.
"Oh! Sorry, sorry – I was caught up in my thoughts," I responded somewhat sheepishly.
"Ugh, seriously? You jerk!" she cursed before leaving the kitchen, most likely heading to her bedroom.
Well, that could've gone better.
"You think?"
Is it just me or are you getting sassier with each interaction?
"It's just you."
I stood around for a moment before eventually deciding that I should go after Mila.
As expected, she was in her room, lying on her bed. Her gaze was fixated on the ceiling, her expression was one that suggested she was contemplating something.
"Mila?" I spoke, grabbing her attention. Though, her response was limited to barely moving her head in order to inspect me.
"I think we need to speak," I suggested as I stepped further into the room.
"About what?" she responded in a tone that betrayed none of her emotions.
"Look, I'm sorry about earlier. I promise that I wasn't ignoring you on purpose."
"Yeah, whatever," she said, "you were probably speaking to whoever's inside that thing on your hand anyway."
"What?" I uttered in surprise, "you were aware?"
"Of course!" she exclaimed promptly as she lifted her torso from the bed, "did you think I wouldn't be?"
"Can you blame me for thinking so? I don't even know the specifics of this… device."
"Looks like whichever Mita is inside there didn't explain much to you about this world, or rather, how entities here function."
"Not like she had the chance to…" I responded as a memory of what I saw back in that cubic chamber flashed in my mind.
Honestly, I winced at the image.
And Mila noticed it, given how she rose one brow at the act.
"So, uh, are you going to explain it to me?" I asked.
"If the one in there is fine with it, I see no reason not to educate your ignorant self," she responded somewhat conceitedly.
"Tell her to feel free to do so."
"Permission has been granted, oh-wise-one," I joked with exaggerated arm motions.
"Very well, my pupil. Take seat before me," she spoke with an odd grandiose as she gestured in front of her.
Does she want me to sit right in front of her on the bed?
"Where else would she mean?"
I just wanted to be sure.
"A rather odd thing to seek reassurance for, don't you think?"
You wouldn't get it.
Following that, I climbed onto the bed and sat on my knees, which resulted in my legs sinking into the comfy material.
"All right, first lesson – Imbuing Designated Objects with Data as a Backup for Future Access!"
"Was that… a title? The title of your so-called first lesson?"
"Why, yes."
"Sounds a bit too technical, no?"
"That's only natural."
Oh boy…
"All right. I'm all ears."
With that said, Mila began her very long clarification of how entities could be partially or fully embedded inside in-game objects. The reason behind it being that it was meant for archival and technical purposes.
I was a somewhat lost with why such a thing would be required as a functionality, until Kind Mita mentioned something.
"Do you recall the shadow you encountered in that room earlier?"
Yeah?
"That was a Mita whose self was almost fully imbued into other objects."
But… why?
"You'll figure that out yourself when dealing with her and her troubles."
It was apparent that Kind Mita knew what was going on. Something to be expected, given how she had the experience of multiple loops.
Still, I wasn't sure how to feel about her not providing me with complete information. Did she have a reason for doing so? I was skeptical but kept my thoughts to myself – in the literal sense, considering that she could hear them if voiced internally.
In any case, with the explanation over, I thanked Mila before spending time with her by discussing various shows and such, while at the same time looking for other glitches to deal with.
It just so happened that the next one was in the bathroom.
That glitch ended up being one that was solved with me moving a ball from one pillar to another. The way I did so was by pressing an adjacent pillar after moving the ball to a point within its range. A connection would form with the pillar I pressed.
This went on until I reached the last pillar.
And just like that, another glitch was dealt with, and I had gained a new Distortion.
"Node Creation…" I muttered at the name Kind Mita suggested.
As the name implied, I could create nodes that were basically imperceptible and intangible to anyone except myself. The range at which I could manifest them was limited to a few meters, and it was possible for me to create them as fixed ones in the air.
But what's the point of this Distortion? I don't see it being very useful as it is right now…
"That's the case for now."
For now, huh?
"Now then…" I muttered before I exited the bathroom. Mila was nowhere to be seen.
Where is she?
Curious, I began looking around for her. Once I was done with the bedroom, I moved on to the living room, and then the kitchen.
Seriously?
I found myself standing at the doorframe staring at a slightly protruding foot from underneath the dining table.
What is she even doing?
As amusing as it was, I knelt down before swiftly grabbing her leg. That got quite the reaction out of Mila as she attempted to kick it free from my grasp.
Unfortunately for her, my grip was firm as I pulled her out from under the table, eliciting a cute, muted shriek from her.
The texture of her soft leggings felt nice against my palm. It felt especially nice when I began to tickle the bottom of her foot.
Her reaction was an immediate one as she began laughing and her attempts to break free intensified.
A small smile adorned my lips as I continued to mess with her.
"You really don't change."
Now, that made me halt. What did she mean?
Care to elaborate?
"No."
I sighed, wondering why I even bothered to ask. Then, I got back to tickling Mila, who had found solace in the few seconds of break she had gotten from the tickling.
A long while later, I was standing in the kitchen a bit awkwardly as I faced a very flushed Mila.
"So… next glitch?" I voiced.
"Just go!" she exclaimed as she pointed at the door.
I did just that, while internally wondering why I enjoyed messing with her so much.
Oddly enough, the moment I stepped out of the kitchen, I noticed something abnormal to my left.
"A glitch?" I muttered to myself.
It's safe to say I was pretty confident that it wasn't there earlier. Either they appeared arbitrarily or something else was going on.
Talk about suspicious…
"You caught on quickly."
Of course, you were aware.
"Yes…"
So, are you going to explain to me what's going on or is this going to be another case of you being all cryptic?
I could've sworn I heard her sigh in my mind before she responded.
"These glitches aren't here by chance. You are meant to deal with them."
Huh? Are you saying that someone or something set it up that way?
"That would be the case, yes."
Who?
"I would tell you if I knew for certain."
For certain, huh? That means she has an idea but isn't sure of it. Well… now I'm starting to understand why everything feels so… linear and convenient.
For a moment, I thought back to when I was on the platform during the second confrontation with Crazy Mita. The fridge and the chair… How did those things appear and seemingly work in my favor?
I'm sure Kind Mita heard my internal statement, yet she chose to remain silent. It felt like she was keeping something from me – as for whose sake she could possibly be doing it? That, I wasn't sure of.
All that aside, I got to work with the artificial glitch. This one was a pretty straightforward one similar to the other two.
There were a lot of three types of shapes, three of which were larger than the rest, which were orbiting said larger shapes.
It took me almost no time to figure out what needed to be done. Simply put, I had to swap around the shapes in orbit such that the same shapes were orbiting a larger one that was of the same variant.
Once I was done, I found myself standing in the living room.
What did I gain from this?
"Try using creating a node far from you."
I manifested a node behind the couch and was taken aback by some sort of connection I was feeling with the node.
Upon focusing on the connection, I felt a force pulling on every point of my body. The next moment, my vision blurred for a split second as I noticed a change in my surroundings.
I had moved. No, I had teleported.
"Unbelievable…" I muttered in awe.
Words couldn't begin to describe the excitement that was brewing within me at that moment. While my other Distortions were cool and all, this was a notch above them.
My excitement didn't last for long though, as I felt slight discomfort in my abdominal region.
"I highly recommend that you don't overuse this Distortion during short periods of time."
Duly noted.
At this moment, the door leading to Mila's bedroom opened as the girl stepped out with a confident gait.
"You dealt with another one?" Mila asked curiously, "I'm still surprised you haven't exploded this place already."
"Hey now–"
"Whatever," she interrupted smugly, "I challenge you to a duel!"
"What?" "What?"
Both Kind Mita and I were caught off guard by her sudden declaration.
"A duel!" she said, as if it was the normal thing, before she reached behind her then pulled out two katanas.
She keeps those things in her inventory…
And I was thinking Cappie's inventory had odd items.
"I'm being serious when I ask you this – why?"
"Because it's fun, duh!" she said before moving closer and handing me a katana.
For a moment, I was lost in thought as I wondered just what the hell was going on through her mind. Then, I examined the katana in my hands.
"Hold on…" I uttered dubiously, "Isn't this Virtuous Contract?"
"Aha!" Mila exclaimed excitedly, "I knew you'd recognize it!"
"Well, of course I would," I replied.
Now that I took a good look at her katana, I realized something. Hers was a bigger one.
"You're going to use Virtuous Treaty?"
"Of course! Bigger and stronger will always be the winner!"
"I very highly doubt that statement," I remarked, but she paid it no heed.
It appeared that Mila was deadest on this "duel" of hers. She told me how the living room was the best place for it – that is, after we move some things out of the way. Mainly, the table and sofa that were in the center of the room.
Mila suggested we move them together, but I simply went ahead and made use of my Vanishing Distortion.
"Woah! What was that!? You've got a storage too!?"
"Uh… kind of?" I responded as I made a duplicate of Virtuous Contract and stored it.
"Say…" I said as we got into position, "are these things safe?"
Mila stood in place as she silently stared at me, as if judging me, before she said, "Of course not. They're katanas."
"Pffft."
Kind Mita was having a blast. She was clearly enjoying the absurdity of the situation and how quickly it had come to be.
On the bright side, I get to practice with my new ability.
"Remember – don't overdo it."
Kind Mita so kindly advised after momentarily stopping herself from laughing.
How much is overdoing it?
"Hm… The way you are right now, no more than six swaps, including the one you did earlier."
That should be plenty.
And that was how I found myself facing an anime girl with a katana in hand while dressed as Lelouch. Truly, the definition of epic.
Since the two of us hadn't settled on any way to signify the start of the "match", we only stood there silently.
I took this chance to ask something that I had been wondering, "Before we start, I wanted to ask you something – how long was I in there?"
Clarification of where I meant was unnecessary, as Mila was intelligent enough to figure it out on her own.
"You were there for hours!"
Hours? Just how big of a time dilation is there between the two regions?
"Focus!" Mila suddenly exclaimed as she got into a stance. One that appeared to be practiced.
Does she do this often or something?
Seeing her, I felt compelled to do the same, but I highly doubt my posture was a good one.
"Ready, Mila?" I asked.
She gave a small nod, though her gaze felt a bit distant for some reason. "Yeah, let's do this."
We started off awkwardly, a slow shuffle as we adjusted to the space. Predictably, Mila was fast. As a Mita, she was also pretty much a superhuman.
In a moment's notice, Virtuous Treaty cut through the air in a swift arc. I quickly stepped aside to avoid it.
Holy- is she trying to kill me!?
"I doubt that's the case…"
In my mind, Kind Mita's voice was one of contemplation. It made me think as well. Such as, why was Mila having us do this? It felt random. Very random.
"No, no," Mila exclaimed as she stepped back, "don't just move out of the way!"
Her voice was somewhat strained and there was some odd pressure. Not only that, but I could sense some sort of urgency in her tone.
I narrowed my eyes at her actions but kept moving. I used my newly gained Distortion to set a small node behind her. Then, I swapped position with it, which surprised Mila, however, she reacted swiftly.
Mila immediately spun in place, swinging her blade as she did so.
At this point, I pulled the cheapest move I could think of – I used Vanishing Distortion to remove her blade. Memories of my confrontation with the Player that hurt Tiny Mita resurfaced.
I pushed down the intense emotions I felt as I positioned my blade against Mila's neck.
"I win."
She had frozen up.
"Mila?"
Tears began to well up in the corner of her eyes before she finally uttered one word: "Why?"
"Why what?" I asked, confused.
"Why now? Why not then?"
"Mila, I don't get it. What do you mean?"
"No… That can't be. I'm sure it wasn't the case before!"
What? Not you too, please. I'm confused – what's going on?
"If only you did this before, you would've been fine!" Mila suddenly exclaimed, her tone laced with frustration as she stepped toward me, resulting in my blade pressing against her neck.
But she didn't care. Her eyes were locked onto mine.
Oh.
I realized what was going on.
"You…" I muttered slowly, "remember me from before, don't you?"
Mila stood in place silently, not saying anything. That pretty much confirmed it. That answered some questions I had, but it also gave rise to other ones.
"Why did you pretend otherwise?"
She didn't respond.
"Mila, please answer."
The tears that had welled up in her eyes began to flow down before she suddenly collapsed onto her knees.
"Mila!" I urgently said as I kneeled in front of her and placed a hand on her shoulder.
Following this, Mila began to sob as she spoke, "What should I have said? That you were here again after you died here once? Right in front of me? Because of me?!"
Shit. Something had happened in one of the previous loops and she blames herself for it.
I hadn't known her for long, but based on my understanding of Mila, I doubted that she was capable of truly harming anyone intentionally.
This meant that whatever had happened was either beyond her control or she was forced into it one way or another.
"I should've realized it sooner. As a corrupted Mita, she already met a part of the requirements to keep her memories."
What are the rest of the requirements?
"I'm not sure exactly."
Based on what Mila said, I deduced that my death had to do with something sharp. So, probably a knife or a long blade like the katana I was holding.
Perhaps, the reason I had died in that particular loop was because I didn't have Vanishing Distortion.
"Look," I spoke steadily as I shifted my hand over from her shoulder to her cheek, "I don't know what happened before, but it won't happen again."
Mila laughed – not in a good way.
"Do you know what you had told me minutes before your death? You claimed that you would take care of everything and be back for me."
"That's definitely something I would say."
"Yet, look at what happened!"
Mila continued to sob for a minute or two, and I let her be. Once she was done, her expression was a neutral one. The only proof of her breakdown being the tear streaks on her cheeks.
In any case, she was now relatively stabler than earlier. Though, that's how she seemed on the outside. I had no idea what she was like internally.
An awkward silence ensued as neither of us said anything. I genuinely had no idea what to do.
Ultimately, I sighed before hugging Mila, which she quickly reciprocated.
That went on for a while before we broke it off.
I knew that Mila probably had a lot to say. Maybe about how she was feeling or why she hid the fact that she had her memories.
But despite waiting for her to tell me and even encouraging her to do so, Mila in the end didn't speak.
And that was how the sudden "duel" came to an end.
Eventually, not knowing what else to do, I got up and left Mila be for the time being, opting to go into the bedroom instead.
To my surprise, upon entry, there was something very noticeable.
Yet another glitch.
I wasted no time as I quickly approached it and inserted my hand into it, resulting in me once again finding myself in a void.
This time, the "puzzle" was one that reminded me of a very old game. Some distance away from me, there were palm-sized "enemies" that moved from side to side and shot slow bullets at me.
As for me, wherever I pointed my finger, a blast of concentrated energy would be released from the tip in the form of a laser.
The "battlefield" was riddled with obstacles that could be broken by neither my shots, nor theirs.
I barely took any time to completely wipe out all the enemies, and thus ending back in the bedroom again.
"What is it this time?" I muttered as I looked down at my hand.
There was no input from Kind Mita.
"Hello, you there?" I asked but still got no response.
I still wasn't going to give up though, "Hello~?"
This time, Kind Mita did respond.
"Wh- huh? Did you do something?"
You didn't see what happened?
"No… I was thinking of something."
How does that even work? You have no body, so what would thinking be for you in this state?
"Do you want the long answer or the short answer?"
Neither. I was just asking for the sake of asking.
"In any case," I said before she could say anything, "I dealt with another glitch. What does this one give me?"
"What? You did?"
"Yeah."
"Then it must be Blast."
At that moment, all I could think of was how straightforward Kind Mita was when it came to naming things.
"I assume I can shoot stuff using it?"
"Pretty much."
Curious about this new Distortion, I pointed my finger at the wall before willing for what I imagined should happen to happen. Just as expected, some sort of energy converged in front of the tip of my finger before it struck the wall almost instantly.
Looking at the spot it had struck, there was now a freshly made hole.
"Awesome," I muttered. It would be pretty useful when dealing with Crazy Mita and her accomplices.
"That's not all."
"It isn't?" I asked with wonder.
"Try doing the same but with your palm."
I did as she instructed me to and the result was a pulse of energy that didn't damage the wall, but did push things aside. It was a pretty strong one. Perhaps, it was something I could use to thrust someone or something from a distance.
"And that's it. We're done here."
"You mean…"
"Yes, we need to move on to the next region through that glitched wall."
For a moment, I wasn't sure what to do. Should I really be leaving so soon? Could I take Mila with me if I wanted to? Would she even want to come with me?
In the end, I decided to do the most logical thing, which was to go on ahead and come back later once everything was dealt with.
The moment I stepped out of the bedroom, I noticed that Mila was still on the ground. She had not moved even a tiny bit.
As concerned as I was, I pushed down my sentiments as I walked closer.
"Mila…" I began, "I'm going on ahead. This time, I'll actually deal with everything and come back for you."
Now, one might say I was doing something very cruel by uttering the same words that could probably be associated with the trauma she had. But my intentions were to simply replace those words with new ones that were actually kept.
Unfortunately, I had miscalculated – badly.
"No…" Mila muttered in a very voice, but I managed to hear her, "I refuse to accept this…"
As concerning as her state was, I simply settled on patting her head a few times before beginning to walk toward the kitchen.
"What are you doing!?"
Huh? Why are you shouting?
"Behind you!"
The next moment, I felt something tightly clasping both of my shoulders before I was pushed down face-first into the floor.
A surge of pain spread through my body and face as I felt added weight on my back.
"Don't leave," I heard Mila whisper.
At that moment, I realized something I hadn't been paying heed to. According to what I knew, Mila had had no Player prior to me. That meant that she had spent a damn long time all by herself.
And then I appeared before her and gave her a taste of something new and different. But then I had gone and died right after making a grand promise.
Her loneliness was bad enough that it had corrupted her already, but those events must've dug even deeper into her psyche.
The result? A pitiful girl that can't handle her emotions well. She was confused and her mind most likely wasn't syncing up with her body well enough.
Now, with all that happening and me pretty much triggering her possible PTSD by uttering the very same words, it's only to be expected that she would have an extreme reaction.
"Get her off! You need to run for it – use your Distortions!"
No.
"Mila, I am not going anywhere," I said steadily as I manifested a node distance away just in case, "we can talk about this, okay?"
"No…" she responded, "no, no, no – you're not leaving. Stay with me!"
Okay, that didn't work.
"Really!? How surprising!"
Stop distracting me, will you!
"I will, I will," I spoke reassuringly, "but if I do so right now, there could be trouble coming our way and separate us in a way we wouldn't want."
My statement was based off of Mila's previous experience. Whoever it was that killed me previously, Mila would think of them and consider my current point.
The fact that she said nothing cemented the notion that I was right, so I continued, "Unless I deal with it, we can't be together properly. Do you get me?"
Once again, Mila said nothing. This time, I began to wonder if she could even hear what I was saying.
Since talking didn't help, I could only sigh before "teleporting" to where I had placed the node in order to escape from the position I was in.
The discomfort in my abdomen increased, but I ignored it as I approached Mila and immediately hugged her from behind. I then began to gently stroke the top of her head.
What I wanted to do was to comfort her, but I wasn't sure if that was the proper way to go about it. Still, it was what came to my mind at the time, so I did it.
"… time…" Mila spoke almost inaudibly to the point that I only heard one word.
"What?" I asked slowly, hoping she'd repeat what she just said.
Fortunately, she did so, "This time…"
As I began to wonder about what she might be thinking and wanting to say, Mila did something I definitely wasn't expecting.
"Seriously!?"
My eyes locked with Mila's behind her glasses as my brain processed what had just happened.
Despite how brief it was, the soft and warm sensation lingered on my lips.
Funnily enough, despite Mila being the instigator, she appeared to be even more shocked than me, given how her expression had frozen into one of shock.
Well, that confirms her body and mind not being synchronized, I guess.
"Why are you just accepting what just happened so casually!?"
Kind Mita sounded very annoyed and frustrated. Well, it didn't take a genius to guess why that could be the case.
So, I did the most logical thing, which was to completely ignore her.
"Uh, Mila," I spoke, but that did little to break her out of her stupor. It made me wonder just how overwhelmed she had been feeling in those moments.
Earlier, it appeared like there was nothing wrong with her. Everything felt so normal, so unsuspecting. Though, I suppose with the way things ended up, she was merely bottling it all up. I could only imagine how it must've felt for her to wait for my return.
I took a moment to think about what to do. Stay longer until she fully stabilized or go on ahead and let her be?
After a while, my decision was made – no need for further dallying.
And so, I patted Mila's head one last time as I rose to my feet. Then, I walked in the direction of the kitchen and successfully made it there this time.
As I stood in the kitchen, to say that I was feeling conflicted at that moment would be quite an understatement. I really wanted to stay with her longer, but I couldn't afford to. Not when Crazy Mita and those on her side were out there.
Emotions will have to wait.
With my thoughts and intentions resolved, I focused my sight on the wall in the kitchen. Specifically, the one that led to another version.
Let's do this.