Chapter 175: The Theatrical Grievance
The woman wearing the wide-brimmed top hat bolted faster than a startled rabbit, her silhouette blurring into the neon-drenched backdrop of the Dreamscape without leaving so much as a shadow behind.
Stelle swung her baseball bat in a vicious arc, smashing the heavy metal barrel into the pavement. A web of cracks splintered across the illusory ground.
"She ran! She just slipped away like that!" Stelle gripped the handle of her bat, her golden eyes narrowing at the empty street. "Is she part loach or something? Ugh, forget it. Catching her isn't the priority."
Dropping her aggressive stance, Stelle closed the distance to Firefly in three long strides. She grabbed the smaller girl by the shoulders, her gaze frantically scanning up and down for any signs of injury. "Firefly, are you okay? Did that bad woman do anything strange to you? Are you hurt anywhere?"
Firefly was shaken back and forth so vigorously by Stelle's panicked inspection that her boots nearly lifted off the ground. She blinked rapidly. The originally clear, focused light in her eyes was now veiled beneath an impenetrable layer of utter confusion. She looked at Stelle's frantic face, then glanced over Stelle's shoulder toward Rekka and Delta, who were standing a short distance away, watching the spectacle unfold.
Her delicate brows furrowed. "Stelle? Why are you here?" Firefly hesitated, her voice soft and uncertain. "What are you all talking about? What bad woman? Um... did you misunderstand something?"
"She is a Memokeeper," Stelle stated bluntly, keeping her hands firmly on Firefly's shoulders.
"Uh, I know. Constance is a Memokeeper."
"To be accurate, I am your partner this time!"
A sharp, theatrical voice cut through the air. Sparkle popped into view, dramatically flourishing a digital data-pad. She shoved the glowing screen forward, displaying the encrypted proof of identity provided by Silver Wolf.
Firefly stared at the screen, then gave a slow, hesitant nod. "But... just with this, I don't think it's very convincing."
Sparkle froze. A massive, invisible question mark seemed to materialize above her twin-tails.
"For heaven's sake!" Sparkle threw her hands into the air, her face twisting into a mask of deep, exaggerated agony. She felt incredibly aggrieved. The sheer injustice of it all was suffocating.
Could it really be that busty women were just inherently easier to trust?
Why did her completely valid, cryptographically secure proof have to be questioned by this naive little firefly, who clearly had nothing but the tall, gray-haired girl occupying her mind? Why couldn't she question that shady woman in the top hat who looked like a walking red flag right from the start?
Abandoning all pretense of dignity, Sparkle collapsed onto the pavement. She lay flat on her back, kicking her legs wildly in the air and wailing like a toddler denied candy at the grocery store.
"I don't want to live anymore!" Sparkle sobbed loudly, pounding her fists against the ground. "This universe is rigged!"
Ignoring the tantrum entirely, Stelle leaned closer to Firefly. "Firefly, listen to me. That woman is not your companion. She is a Cremator. She tampered with your memory, implanting fake data to make you think she was your ally."
Firefly's gaze wavered. The confusion in her eyes slowly dissolved into absolute trust as she looked at Stelle's serious expression. "Yeah! Since you said so... I believe you, Stelle."
Sparkle stopped kicking. She lifted her head from the pavement, her expression flat.
"Rekka. Hey, Rekka, did you see that?" Sparkle pointed an accusing finger at the two girls.
"I saw it," Rekka replied, his tone dry and thoroughly amused as he leaned against a nearby lamppost.
Sparkle suddenly laughed. It was a hollow, utterly defeated sound. She submitted to the absurdity of the universe. Right now, she felt like she needed a tragic, sweeping orchestral soundtrack to properly convey her deep sense of betrayal.
"It's okay, Firefly," Rekka said, pushing off the lamppost and strolling closer. "Since you are Stelle's friend, and also everyone's friend, you are a friend of our Astral Express. Rounding it up, we are all family. When family gets bullied, our Astral Express will naturally help you seek justice."
To punctuate his statement, Rekka raised his hand and flashed a highly specific, exaggerated gang-style hand sign.
Sparkle instantly scrambled up from the ground. She patted the non-existent dust off her short skirt, her chaotic energy returning in full force, and immediately mirrored Rekka's ridiculous hand gesture, joining the ranks of the makeshift gang.
"...That said, I saw you two having quite a fun time earlier," Sparkle noted, tilting her head at Firefly.
Earlier, when Rekka was still sitting on a bench casually chatting with Delta, and Stelle and Firefly were busy stuffing their faces with Dreamscape street food, Sparkle had perched on a rooftop, casually observing the duo for a little while. Then, Silver Wolf had sent her an encrypted ping, warning her that someone was tailing them.
"Your intuition is quite sharp," Sparkle continued, crossing her arms. "Although that little bird's hiding technique was absolutely terrible, but..."
"What little bird?" Firefly asked, tilting her head.
"...? It's Robin~ That particularly fierce little bird." Sparkle leaned forward, a mischievous glint in her eyes. "I thought you were just being super cautious, planning to deal with a little bird that was trailing you."
Firefly fell silent for a long, heavy moment.
"The person I sensed following me at the time... was you."
Sparkle froze again. "What do you mean you sensed the person following you was me?!"
"I... I didn't know you were brought by Silver Wolf at the time," Firefly admitted awkwardly, rubbing the back of her neck. When Silver Wolf had initially sent her diving into the dream, the signal interference had been terrible, and the communication channel had suddenly cut off before Sparkle's involvement could be explained.
Sparkle tapped her chin, pondering this new piece of information. "Oh no. Did I hit the wrong person then?"
Stelle's grip on her baseball bat tightened. "What do you mean by hit the wrong person? What did you do?!"
"I~ uh, me? I just assassinated that big celebrity, that's all."
The air in the alleyway suddenly went dead quiet.
"...What did you do?" Stelle asked, her voice dropping an octave.
"Just a little assassination!" Sparkle waved her hand dismissively. "After all, I thought for a moment, what if that little bird following you two saw something she shouldn't have? So, I, Sparkle, just stabbed her right in the chest and faked it as a murder wound. Clean, efficient, dramatic!"
Seeing Stelle raise the bat ominously, Sparkle quickly held up both hands. "Don't be anxious yet! Dying in a dream doesn't mean you're really dead in reality. This is also part of the script!"
Sparkle paced back and forth, her boots clicking rapidly against the pavement until her legs were almost a blur.
"Are you sure?" Stelle narrowed her eyes. "Silver Wolf didn't tell us that first-degree murder was part of the script."
Hearing this, Sparkle spread her hands wide, putting on an expression of extreme, exaggerated innocence. "Oh my, little gray-hair, what kind of person do you think I am? Although I like to have fun, I wouldn't just kill people for absolutely no reason~ I'm not some crazy serial killer. Besides, things like scripts are meant to be taken one step at a time! Her being killed will trigger a massive series of chain reactions. It will help us attract the Family's attention and make it so much easier for us to act in the shadows."
"So you stabbed her just to create chaos?"
"No, no, no, this is called tactical diversion!" Sparkle put her hands on her hips, looking entirely righteous. "Look, the Family's Bloodhounds are definitely going to be swamped investigating a high-profile murder in the dream. How would they have any time to deal with us stowaways? And that chicken-wing boy must be super angry right now. He'll be completely distracted!"
She spun around, gesturing grandly. "Besides, aren't we going to settle scores with Constance? If the Family's security forces are patrolling everywhere, how annoying would that be! Robin won't really die, so is there any need to be so worked up over a little stab wound? Anyway, it's already happened. If you're not happy, you can go complain to The Tavern about me. For now, let's focus on the real business."
A few blocks away, the atmosphere shifted from chaotic to deeply unsettling.
"Re-really... just by being poked by this thing, we can enter that place called Dreamflux Reef?"
March 7th stood trembling, her hands clutching her camera tightly as she stared up at the massive, multi-eyed monstrosity known as [Something Unto Death]. She swallowed hard, her throat clicking audibly in the quiet space.
"Yes. Its nickname is Sleepie," Rekka explained casually, gesturing to the terrifying creature as if presenting a luxury vehicle. "Think of it as a very aggressive bus driver that travels between two different dimensional areas. It just makes you feel a bit strange when you take the bus."
"So it will skewer us, and then pop... send us over?" March 7th asked, her voice squeaking.
"Yes, exactly like a kebab," Rekka confirmed with a cheerful nod. "Last time Stelle and I got in like this. The experience was okay, just a bit of motion sickness on the way down."
"Um... can we change the method?" March 7th took a slow step backward. "Like taking the stairs? Or a hidden elevator or something?"
"This is a bus, March. Not an elevator," Rekka corrected patiently.
"But I'm scared just looking at its face!"
"It's fine, just close your eyes."
"That's not the issue of closing eyes or not! It has giant blades for arms!"
Sleepie seemed to have reached the limit of its patience, letting out a low, vibrating hiss that rattled the surrounding memory bubbles.
"I'll go first," Delta announced, stepping up to the front.
Without a second thought, Delta leaped high into the air, diving straight toward the creature. Having already survived the experience once before, Delta easily shattered through the pile of liquid Memory residue that erupted upon impact.
After a brief, violent bout of spatial dizziness, Delta relied entirely on her superhuman physical fitness to keep herself from vomiting or fainting on the spot.
However, as the dimensional rift swallowed her whole, she had to admit—the bumpy, gut-wrenching ride on the way down to Dreamflux Reef really did feel quite uncomfortable.
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