“Why is everything so hard for me?” I moaned and kicked a rock across the blackened pavement. In the scuffle at Kaneiji Temple I had lost everything. My sister, my cousin and aunt, my backpack that had everything I needed and most importantly... My mother. I felt small and incapable of anything as I walked through the game world’s streets alone once again, it made me frustrated that Mama had even named this place ‘heaven’.
”This is the very opposite of heaven!” I pouted quietly.
That didn’t do anything to help my situation. I was still lost and didn’t know which way to go, it would’ve helped if I could get back to Shibuya or the karate place or maybe even Jude’s apartment. I started to realize I hadn’t really thought about him much since we’d met, things had been pretty crazy since I’d gotten Tengoku so far. I think I liked Jude because of his cool personality and the way he treated everyone with a kind and relaxed attitude. I hoped he liked me too, but for the most part I just felt like a little kid trying to impress his older cousin.
Something brushed against my ankle and made me shriek in surprise. I looked down to see a black cat with giant green eyes looking up at me, it’s face looked perpetually annoyed as it went in and out between my legs.
“Mango?! Is that you?” I exclaimed as I reached down to pet the silky dark cat. She mewed in reply, but abruptly left my side and trotted down the street.
“H-hey! Where are you going?!” I said as I stumbled after her.
I chased her as we ran passed many stores and buildings while the bright sun shined above us. I put my hand over my forehead and squinted, whining, “Where is this cat even taking me!?” To myself. As Mango turned a corner behind a brick building I cut my shoulder on it’s hard edge and wailed, the sharp pain cut through my skin as I hollered at Jude’s cat to slow down. Once I had gritted my teeth long enough to regain my composure, I saw where the cat had led me. Down an abandoned ally behind two tall shops was a girl huddled beside a garbage can, she seemed to be my age, though logically taller. Her beautiful golden-blonde hair was under a grey baseball cap as she stifled a sob under her breath.
“Kitty,” She whispered as she reached out to pet Mango. “Why did you run away from me? You’re my only friend here.”
I wondered how she had even gotten in this place, considering background characters didn’t talk or move like that. How did Mango even get out of the apartment anyway? Was she supposed to roam the streets of Tengoku alone? And on top of that, why had she led me here? My mind still wanted to do it’s usual tornado of questions but I only managed to say:
“Um… are you okay?”
The girl tilted her head upwards and looked at me, her giant blue eyes were more beautiful than two lakes of shimmering water. She wore tiny diamond earrings that glinted in the sun and a pale blue sweatshirt with white lettering stamped in another language.
“I’m trying to find my um… aunt?” She seemed disoriented as she questioned her own words. “I got lost and I don’t know where to go and the only other living thing I could find in this ginormous place was a cat!”
“That’s funny, I’m lost and trying to find my aunt too. Do you want to come with me? We can maybe look together i-if you want.” I fidgeted my fingers as I tried not to be shy, trying not to blush every time I looked at her. I hoped we could stay together for a little bit longer, and I was glad the both of us had one thing in common... timidness.
The girl sat up from where she was scratching Mango’s chin to the cat's delight. She held her hand out shakily to greet me as we stood in the shadows behind the two stores. “Alright… I think I’d like some company anyway. My name is Eva by the way.”
“Haru… Motoyo.” I returned her handshake.
Though we were both still lost, it felt so much better to have a new friend in my mother's game. We walked down the street I’d come from in search for our aunts though I didn’t know who exactly Eva was looking for, Jude's cat trotting at our side.
“So,” She murmured just as softly as I usually did, tucking her hands inside her dark blue jeans. “You’re a Motoyo, huh? I heard that my aunt doesn’t like you very much.”
“Well gee, I know enough people now that hate me as it is,” I shuddered. “How’d you even get here, might I ask?”
Eva studied the ground like she was reading a book. She sighed a deep breath, her voice had an accent I felt I’d heard before. Somewhere deep in my heart I knew I shouldn’t have asked that question, but... It was too late to take back the words I'd said.
“I came to help my aunt, I got spawned into Tengoku in the wrong place and now I have to find her.” Eva said as she began to tell her story. “In my country, they call me a prodigy. My family is known for being amazing at coding, wether that be for websites or robots or even games. I’ve won many competitions at it too and have loved it ever since I was little, so when my aunt who lives in real Japan needed my help to reprogram something, my father flew me out from my homeland country to help her. I was supposed to be in Tokyo early but my flight was late and I didn’t make it in time to help Aunt Wren-”
I had been listening as best I could until I heard the last thing she had said. The words “aunt” and “Wren” hit me like a ton of bricks as I halted on the side of the street with Mango next to me.
“W-wait… You’re Wren’s NEICE?” I began to shuffle backwards away from my friend, protectively holding my hands close to my chest. It didn’t hit me until now but suddenly I saw her blonde hair and crystal blue eyes from a different prospective, her appearance could look almost as threatening as her aunt’s if it wanted to.
“Please, please don’t tell me you’re related to her…” I murmured to the girl. “Do you have any idea what she’s done to my family?! TO MY PARENTS?!”
Eva looked hurt, she started stuttering and tried to calm me down, but there was no undoing what I had just learned. “Haru, I’m sorry… I’ve never met you and I’m not like her, I swear!” She said.
“Why should I have any reason to believe you?! Wren Nilsen is a lying, cheating, horrible woman that has an obsession with my hurting my family! She’s trying to take Motoyo Inc away from my father, didn’t she tell you that?!”
“NO!” Eva’s face scrunched into a confused and desperate look. “She didn’t!! My father said I was simply helping her reprogram someone’s game, I’m really good at that kind of stuff! My aunt is known for being crazy in our family but I didn’t know she would try to steal an entire company!!”
In the mess of our yelling, I didn’t have time to notice three figures standing just outside my vision. One of them was shorter than the others and wore a pink jacket more vibrant than the sun. She ran towards Eva and I and squeezed me tight, so happy to see me she started to cry.
“HARU!” Her relieved scream echoed throughout Tengoku as I realized it was my sister. “How did you get here!? We were wandering around just when Aunt Tora said we should go back to Kaneiji to rescue you!”
So many things were happening at once, I felt dizzy and panicked from talking to Eva but relieved to finally see my twin again. I shoved the urge to tell her about our mother's disguise in the back of my head and watched as my aunt and cousin crowded around to hug me.
"Child, I am never going to let you leave my sight!" Tora sounded like she was reprimanding me, but she kissed my forehead instead and ruffled my hair gratefully.
"You guys have no idea what happened back at the temple," I told them as I was gasping for air. "I got lucky enough to escape, I have no idea what they were planning to do to me! T-then I found this girl who's Wren's niece and-"
“She does look like a tiny Miss Nilsen!!” I heard Jude say as turned to Eva, holding his cat who had crawled into his arms. It was true indeed, she looked exactly like the Norwegian who had placed a bomb in my hand but maybe a little kinder and meek like me.
“You won’t hurt us, right...?” Millie asked hesitantly.
Eva shook her head fanatically. “I don’t want to hurt anybody! I just want to go back home to Norway and finish helping my aunt with this mess...”
”We’ll get you back to her sweetie, no matter how many terrible things she’s done to us... I know that's not your fault.” Tora’s usual welcoming smile laid on Eva’s face as she patted her back gently. I knew how my friend felt for sure, she probably wanted her relative as much as I wanted my mother in the moment.
”I promise we'll take care of you till you can get back to Wren,” I said to the little Norwegian girl. “Maybe if you’d like you can even help us defeat her with gentleness, and get us out of here... For the sake of my family's company.”
Eva beamed under her baseball cap, her cheeks were red and flustered but she couldn’t look any happier.
”I want to show my aunt that revenge isn't the way to fix things,” She said. “So yes... I think I’d like that, Haru Motoyo.”
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