112B&E (WIP)
Dec 13, 2023 18:31:16 GMT
Post by Hotaru Inoue on Dec 13, 2023 18:31:16 GMT
Hotaru Inoue
Nanami Hanabana
Honoka Nijimura
Rewards Requested: Posts for all
Shibuya, Late Afternoon of December 23rd
Hotaru’s window was wide open, despite it being late December. For whatever reason, it had yet to get too cold, and so Hotaru stared out into the clear afternoon sky, feeling a gentle breeze that was neither warm nor cold. Was this the result of that climate thingy everyone keeps going on about, but no one ever seems to do anything about? Hotaru briefly wondered how the human race managed to survive this long if they were this irresponsible of a species. Maybe it was better to just let everything die and have the planet sort itself out and try again. She was pretty sure the cockroaches would still survive, so it wasn’t like all life on the planet would die out.
But naturally, as she stared at the Xros Loader on her work desk, she began to think about what would happen to the digital world if humanity died out. Judging by certain Digimon’s appearances, they were directly influenced by human world trends, so was it some kind of symbiotic relationship between the two? Some Digimon needed humans to evolve, after all.
But before Hotaru could make any headway in that regard, her last thoughts being whether a cockroach could become a tamer or not, the tepid breeze carried in a foul odor, one she immediately recognized. Hotaru could already feel a headache coming on, not from the noxious stench, but rather in preparation for whom the smell belonged.
“Hotaru!” Matsuri, the human girl who wasn’t actually a human but still kind of was, half-greeted her Xros General, suddenly leaping up and landing on Hotaru’s windowsill. The small girl, no older than twelve or thirteen, took advantage of her small body to crouch her own frame within the window’s.
“I thought I told you never to stand downwind from me,” Hotaru grumbled with a frown.
“That’s why I’m crouching!” Matsuri answered, completely serious. “But that’s not important! I need a favor!”
“I’m not lending you any money,” Hotaru replied, already exasperated. “If you need something to eat or need to heat something up I can do it for you, but-”
“No it’s not that, though I am kinda hungry!” Matsuri shook her head, trying not to let a warm meal distract her, though it seemed to be difficult for her. “I gotta take a bath before it’s too late, or else everyone else is gonna be in a lotta trouble!”
Those were... words that Hotaru never thought would come from the trash goblin’s lips. Honestly, she wasn’t sure how to properly respond. “You’re not pranking me, are you?”
“I’d never prank about something this serious!” Matsuri insisted. “If I don’t get clean before it’s too late then I’ll be a terrible leader!”
“You already are a terrible leader,” Hotaru unhelpfully assured the child. “But everyone’s out at the moment, so if you’re serious, I guess you can-”
“Thank you so much, you’re the best!” Matsuri interrupted, leaping from her crouched position and into Hotaru’s lap.
“Hey, if you’re gonna be bathing, do that first before hugging me!”
Despite Matsuri’s eagerness, Hotaru doubted the girl’s aptitude at cleaning herself, so somehow she found herself sitting next to the tub as Matsuri furiously scrubbed herself down to the point her skin looked red and raw. The bathwater turned into an opaque myriad of colors from the many layers of gunk that covered the girl’s whole being. And Hotaru had the misfortune of trying to untangle the filth-ridden mess that was Matsuri’s long hair. Judging by the holosuited girl’s frequent winces of pain, it was obviously an uncomfortable ordeal for her, but she nevertheless took it without complaint, her stoic demeanor contrasting her usual conduct.
“If you’re gonna let your hair get this messy, you should do yourself a favor and cut it,” Hotaru complained as she ran her shampoo through Matsuri’s hair. Hotaru’s own long hair was straight and fine, and even that was kind of a pain to manage. But whether it was from her environment or simple genetics, Matsuri’s was especially thick and her homeless lifestyle lead it to being nigh-unmanageable.
“Don’t wanna,” Matsuri replied in an almost sulking tone. “I like my hair long so if I cut it I feel like I’ve lost.”
Hotaru wasn’t sure who exactly Matsuri would be losing to, yet somehow for once in her life she felt like understood the brat on some level. “I see,” she continued with the treatment in silence for a few minutes before finally asking, “So, not that I or anyone you know is complaining, but are you going to explain what all this is about?”
Matsuri was silent for a moment before muttering, “You’re really old, so you’ll think it’s stupid and laugh at me.”
Hotaru’s mouth twitched in anger as she suppressed her urge to move her hands from her hair to the girl’s throat. She took a deep breath and pressed on. “That’s probably true, but considering you’re in my home and using my bath, I think a laugh or two is a good form of payment, don’t you think? Besides, I was planning on ordering something to eat before you showed up. I might order some extra if I’m in a good mood.”
Matsuri grumbled to herself in frustration before caving. “‘Cause it’s almost Christmas...“ She finally admitted. “And I’ve gotta get more good girl energy.”
“‘Good girl energy’?”
“ Mama and papa said that Santa didn’t give me something every year ‘cause I didn’t build up enough good girl energy,” Matsuri explained like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “If you have enough good girl energy, Santa will give you something, but even if you don’t get enough, they said it’ll carry over to next year.”
“I see...“ Judging by what Matsuri was saying, Hotaru figured that her parents must have been pretty poor. Or judging by how willing Matsuri was to be homeless, absolutely awful. Despite the girl’s incredulous words, not even the miserly Hotaru could bring herself to mock her.
“So when I learned that good girl energy can be saved, I wrote to Santa saying that I didn’t want any presents until my very last year as a kid. That way I could get one super, ultra, awesome present, you know?”
“I can... see why you’d think that, yeah,” Hotaru worded her statement as carefully as she could. “And I bet your parents were pretty happy when they found out, too.”
“They really were!” Matsuri looked up at Hotaru with a surprised expression. “How’d you know!?”
“Just a lucky guess,” Hotaru dismissively retorted. “So you’re worried you didn’t get enough of these good girl points, and you’re trying to build up more by not smelling like a dumpster?”
“No, if it’s just me, then I’d definitely have enough good girl energy,” She responded with complete confidence. “I wasn’t always a good girl, but now I’m super adorable, and I’m always nice to people, so Santa will give me whatever I want for my last Christmas,” Matsuri looked back at Hotaru, a clear worry in her eyes. “But, the real, human Matsuri is probably gonna get all of that, not me, the fake Matsuri!”
Hotaru pressed her lips together, nodding along with Matsuri’s explanation. The Digimon in her army had their own issues, and she hadn’t even thought about how complicated this time of year could get for them. Hotaru wasn’t sure of all the details, but apparently they were all Digimon with memories of being a human. A human that still existed in this world. And it wasn’t like they could show up at their family gatherings and claim to be a long-lost twin. As Hotaru had learned ever since her accident, dealing with family was a pain in the ass most of the time, but not having one probably sucked more. And a lot of them were even younger than Hotaru, who despite Matsuri’s rude opinion, was still quite young herself. She couldn’t begin to imagine how terrified and confused they must feel at times, let alone find words comforting enough to ease them.
“That’s rough, dude,” Truly, her words were a beacon of light that would pierce through the deepest, darkest despair.
“It’s super rough!” Matsuri agreed, nodding along. “But if it was just me I was thinking about, I’d have no problems getting more good girl energy by myself, but everyone else has the same problem! So I figured that... maybe if I put in a little extra work, I could ask Santa to share all that energy to Elly, and to Miki, and everyone else! Even someone like Sakura!”
Hotaru stopped for a moment to put her hand on Matsuri’s head. She still considered the brat to be a terrible leader, but all things considered, her heart was in the right place. So for as insufferable as the girl could get when she was excited about something, Hotaru couldn’t bring herself to fully hate her. “Let’s get you rinsed off and dried. Any more scrubbing and you’ll end up bleeding to death.”
Hotaru rolled back into her room, watching Matsuri spin around in a pair of Hotaru’s jammies. Even her smallest, oldest pair was comically large for the little girl, so she flailed about with her sleeves wildly flapping around. “I put your clothes in the wash for the third time,” She explained as Matsuri took notice of her. “After that, we’ll see what can still be salvaged. We’ll call Misaki or Arisa tomorrow and we can get you some new duds in case the winter gets any colder.”
Matsuri nodded, continuing to move about. “I closed your window, but everything still feels so drafty,” She noted.
“That’s called ‘the air’. You’ve been covered up by so many layers of dirt for so long that you’ve forgotten what it feels like.”
“I see,” Matsuri said, going over towards Hotaru’s bed. “Hey, why is your bed shaped like a chair?” She plopped down onto it as she asked her question, making an additional comment. “Oh, it’s really soft...“
“My folks got it for me ‘cause getting in and out of a regular bed was a pain in the ass,” Hotaru answered. “This one spins around and folds up so I don’t have to roll around a whole bunch just to get vertical.”
A small glint of excitement entered Matsuri’s eyes and before she could even ask, Hotaru grumbled, “It’s not anywhere as exciting as it sounds,” She pressed a button on the side and the bed slowly began to rotate and unfold as Matsuri was still sitting there, and the little girl found herself in a horizontal position.
“Mmm. You’re right,” Matsuri acknowledged, listless. Hotaru put the bed back and as Matsuri slowly rotated back to face her general she asked, “Hotaru, do you hate Christmas?”
“I don’t particularly like or dislike it,” Hotaru admitted after some thought. “I used to like it a lot when I was younger, but now it just feels like a slog to get through, like sports festivals and stuff.”
“I think that I... hate Christmas,” Matsuri admitted. There was a strange conflicted sadness in Matsuri’s eyes that Hotaru had never seen before. “I think I always have.”
“That’s surprising to hear, considering what just went on,” Hotaru commented.
“I always tried my best to be a good girl, and I know that I did a good job, but all my classmates would always talk about how they got all this good stuff every year while I-” Matsuri’s voice broke as she briefly choked on some bitter memories. “So I always tried to be even nicer every year, but no matter what it always made me feel like I was never good.”
“Is that so?” Hotaru responded emotionlessly. Matsuri looked over to see Hotaru staring at her phone. “What toppings do you like on your pizza?”
“Pine-”
“No.”
“P-pepperoni...“
“Okay, done,” Hotaru looked up from her phone, looking back at Matsuri’s almost dazed expression and sighed. “It’s possible to both like and hate something,”
“Huh?”
“I’m saying that it’s okay to be jealous of people who can do stuff you can’t, or are just better off than you.” Hotaru commented. “And it’s okay to be pissed when you think things are clearly unfair. It’s not like you were mean to all those kids you were jealous of, right?”
“No, I wasn’t. But i was still mad and-”
“You were mad at Santa, right?”
“No one can be mad at Santa!” Matsuri insisted. “He’s Santa!”
Hotaru rolled her eyes and shrugged. “It’s not like he’s ever done anything for you. Quite literally, in fact.” Matsuri started fidgeting and began nervously looking around as if waiting for some divine intervention to come smite Hotaru and her blasphemous words, but none came. Matsuri silently wondered how much coal Hotaru was going to receive for saying such words.
Regardless, one pizza dinner later, despite all their misgivings towards each other both Matsuri and Hotaru spent an oddly pleasant time together. For all the time they spent together, Matsuri had never seen her general in such a way before. It turned out that she found Hotaru pretty cool when she wasn’t such a grumpy grumpypants all the time. She wondered if this was a one-time thing, or if perhaps the two of them somehow grew closer just by, like, talking and stuff. But such a pleasant day had to eventually come to an end, and it wasn’t long before night time. And once more Hotaru surprised Matsuri.
“If you don’t mind sleeping on the floor, you can grab a spare futon and spend the night here,” She told her. “Just promise me you won’t let any of my family see you, and you’ll go out the window first thing in the morning. I don’t wanna have to explain to my family why their daughter in high school is having a sleepover with a small child that’s also a big blue lizard.”
“That makes sense,” Matsuri agreed with a thoughtful expression. “I’m just so nice and adorable, if your parents meet me they might want to adopt me and start ignoring you,” Hotaru almost choked.
“You really don’t let stuff bother you, do you?” She muttered while letting out a brief chuckle. “I have no idea what I’d be able to accomplish, but I’d like to see the world through your eyes for a day,”
“That makes sense,” Matsuri repeated, albeit with a cheekier tone, only to have a pillow thrown in her face.
A couple of hours later, the lights were off and Hotaru was fast asleep almost instantly, while Matsuri lay awake. She got up, heading over towards the window, debating whether to just sneak out now. Matsuri just didn’t know how to receive the kindness from the one of the people that was usually the most unkind to her. Was it just because it was almost Christmas? Was Hotaru just secretly nice? Or did the fact that Matsuri took a bath remove the limiters of her awesomeness?
Usually, Matsuri wouldn’t have any issues with troubling Hotaru because she was such a meaniehead all the time. But now that Matsuri realized that Hotaru was both capable and willing to be kind, Matsuri wondered if she was even worthy of such kindness. She looked out the window and out to the glittering stars above. Closing her eyes, she put her hands together and whispered a quiet prayer.
“Santa-san, even if I don’t deserve anything good, please give everyone, and Hotaru, and I guess even Sakura,” She felt a bitter taste as she said that last bit, but continued. “Please give everyone a happy Christmas!”
As Matsuri opened her eyes, she felt her hair flap wildly about, as a strange circle of light appeared above her. It was like some kind of wormhole in the middle of Hotaru’s room! Matsuri grabbed whatever she could, including her own general. “Hotaru, we need to-” She looked over to see the young woman still asleep.
“REALLY!?!?” The two were flung upwards into the wormhole, but they weren’t the only ones. All throughout both the human and Digital worlds, beings similar to Matsuri were transported as well.
A group of girls staying up late at a local netcafe.
A group in an unfinished deck nearby Rosewood, wrapping presents.
A pair of monochrome cats roaming the Shibuya streets.
And two menacing figures clad in black armor doing god knows what.
But Matsuri, Hotaru, and all of their comrades weren’t the only major players in this story.
WC: 2888/6000
Nanami Hanabana
Honoka Nijimura
Rewards Requested: Posts for all
Shibuya, Late Afternoon of December 23rd
Hotaru’s window was wide open, despite it being late December. For whatever reason, it had yet to get too cold, and so Hotaru stared out into the clear afternoon sky, feeling a gentle breeze that was neither warm nor cold. Was this the result of that climate thingy everyone keeps going on about, but no one ever seems to do anything about? Hotaru briefly wondered how the human race managed to survive this long if they were this irresponsible of a species. Maybe it was better to just let everything die and have the planet sort itself out and try again. She was pretty sure the cockroaches would still survive, so it wasn’t like all life on the planet would die out.
But naturally, as she stared at the Xros Loader on her work desk, she began to think about what would happen to the digital world if humanity died out. Judging by certain Digimon’s appearances, they were directly influenced by human world trends, so was it some kind of symbiotic relationship between the two? Some Digimon needed humans to evolve, after all.
But before Hotaru could make any headway in that regard, her last thoughts being whether a cockroach could become a tamer or not, the tepid breeze carried in a foul odor, one she immediately recognized. Hotaru could already feel a headache coming on, not from the noxious stench, but rather in preparation for whom the smell belonged.
“Hotaru!” Matsuri, the human girl who wasn’t actually a human but still kind of was, half-greeted her Xros General, suddenly leaping up and landing on Hotaru’s windowsill. The small girl, no older than twelve or thirteen, took advantage of her small body to crouch her own frame within the window’s.
“I thought I told you never to stand downwind from me,” Hotaru grumbled with a frown.
“That’s why I’m crouching!” Matsuri answered, completely serious. “But that’s not important! I need a favor!”
“I’m not lending you any money,” Hotaru replied, already exasperated. “If you need something to eat or need to heat something up I can do it for you, but-”
“No it’s not that, though I am kinda hungry!” Matsuri shook her head, trying not to let a warm meal distract her, though it seemed to be difficult for her. “I gotta take a bath before it’s too late, or else everyone else is gonna be in a lotta trouble!”
Those were... words that Hotaru never thought would come from the trash goblin’s lips. Honestly, she wasn’t sure how to properly respond. “You’re not pranking me, are you?”
“I’d never prank about something this serious!” Matsuri insisted. “If I don’t get clean before it’s too late then I’ll be a terrible leader!”
“You already are a terrible leader,” Hotaru unhelpfully assured the child. “But everyone’s out at the moment, so if you’re serious, I guess you can-”
“Thank you so much, you’re the best!” Matsuri interrupted, leaping from her crouched position and into Hotaru’s lap.
“Hey, if you’re gonna be bathing, do that first before hugging me!”
Despite Matsuri’s eagerness, Hotaru doubted the girl’s aptitude at cleaning herself, so somehow she found herself sitting next to the tub as Matsuri furiously scrubbed herself down to the point her skin looked red and raw. The bathwater turned into an opaque myriad of colors from the many layers of gunk that covered the girl’s whole being. And Hotaru had the misfortune of trying to untangle the filth-ridden mess that was Matsuri’s long hair. Judging by the holosuited girl’s frequent winces of pain, it was obviously an uncomfortable ordeal for her, but she nevertheless took it without complaint, her stoic demeanor contrasting her usual conduct.
“If you’re gonna let your hair get this messy, you should do yourself a favor and cut it,” Hotaru complained as she ran her shampoo through Matsuri’s hair. Hotaru’s own long hair was straight and fine, and even that was kind of a pain to manage. But whether it was from her environment or simple genetics, Matsuri’s was especially thick and her homeless lifestyle lead it to being nigh-unmanageable.
“Don’t wanna,” Matsuri replied in an almost sulking tone. “I like my hair long so if I cut it I feel like I’ve lost.”
Hotaru wasn’t sure who exactly Matsuri would be losing to, yet somehow for once in her life she felt like understood the brat on some level. “I see,” she continued with the treatment in silence for a few minutes before finally asking, “So, not that I or anyone you know is complaining, but are you going to explain what all this is about?”
Matsuri was silent for a moment before muttering, “You’re really old, so you’ll think it’s stupid and laugh at me.”
Hotaru’s mouth twitched in anger as she suppressed her urge to move her hands from her hair to the girl’s throat. She took a deep breath and pressed on. “That’s probably true, but considering you’re in my home and using my bath, I think a laugh or two is a good form of payment, don’t you think? Besides, I was planning on ordering something to eat before you showed up. I might order some extra if I’m in a good mood.”
Matsuri grumbled to herself in frustration before caving. “‘Cause it’s almost Christmas...“ She finally admitted. “And I’ve gotta get more good girl energy.”
“‘Good girl energy’?”
“ Mama and papa said that Santa didn’t give me something every year ‘cause I didn’t build up enough good girl energy,” Matsuri explained like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “If you have enough good girl energy, Santa will give you something, but even if you don’t get enough, they said it’ll carry over to next year.”
“I see...“ Judging by what Matsuri was saying, Hotaru figured that her parents must have been pretty poor. Or judging by how willing Matsuri was to be homeless, absolutely awful. Despite the girl’s incredulous words, not even the miserly Hotaru could bring herself to mock her.
“So when I learned that good girl energy can be saved, I wrote to Santa saying that I didn’t want any presents until my very last year as a kid. That way I could get one super, ultra, awesome present, you know?”
“I can... see why you’d think that, yeah,” Hotaru worded her statement as carefully as she could. “And I bet your parents were pretty happy when they found out, too.”
“They really were!” Matsuri looked up at Hotaru with a surprised expression. “How’d you know!?”
“Just a lucky guess,” Hotaru dismissively retorted. “So you’re worried you didn’t get enough of these good girl points, and you’re trying to build up more by not smelling like a dumpster?”
“No, if it’s just me, then I’d definitely have enough good girl energy,” She responded with complete confidence. “I wasn’t always a good girl, but now I’m super adorable, and I’m always nice to people, so Santa will give me whatever I want for my last Christmas,” Matsuri looked back at Hotaru, a clear worry in her eyes. “But, the real, human Matsuri is probably gonna get all of that, not me, the fake Matsuri!”
Hotaru pressed her lips together, nodding along with Matsuri’s explanation. The Digimon in her army had their own issues, and she hadn’t even thought about how complicated this time of year could get for them. Hotaru wasn’t sure of all the details, but apparently they were all Digimon with memories of being a human. A human that still existed in this world. And it wasn’t like they could show up at their family gatherings and claim to be a long-lost twin. As Hotaru had learned ever since her accident, dealing with family was a pain in the ass most of the time, but not having one probably sucked more. And a lot of them were even younger than Hotaru, who despite Matsuri’s rude opinion, was still quite young herself. She couldn’t begin to imagine how terrified and confused they must feel at times, let alone find words comforting enough to ease them.
“That’s rough, dude,” Truly, her words were a beacon of light that would pierce through the deepest, darkest despair.
“It’s super rough!” Matsuri agreed, nodding along. “But if it was just me I was thinking about, I’d have no problems getting more good girl energy by myself, but everyone else has the same problem! So I figured that... maybe if I put in a little extra work, I could ask Santa to share all that energy to Elly, and to Miki, and everyone else! Even someone like Sakura!”
Hotaru stopped for a moment to put her hand on Matsuri’s head. She still considered the brat to be a terrible leader, but all things considered, her heart was in the right place. So for as insufferable as the girl could get when she was excited about something, Hotaru couldn’t bring herself to fully hate her. “Let’s get you rinsed off and dried. Any more scrubbing and you’ll end up bleeding to death.”
Hotaru rolled back into her room, watching Matsuri spin around in a pair of Hotaru’s jammies. Even her smallest, oldest pair was comically large for the little girl, so she flailed about with her sleeves wildly flapping around. “I put your clothes in the wash for the third time,” She explained as Matsuri took notice of her. “After that, we’ll see what can still be salvaged. We’ll call Misaki or Arisa tomorrow and we can get you some new duds in case the winter gets any colder.”
Matsuri nodded, continuing to move about. “I closed your window, but everything still feels so drafty,” She noted.
“That’s called ‘the air’. You’ve been covered up by so many layers of dirt for so long that you’ve forgotten what it feels like.”
“I see,” Matsuri said, going over towards Hotaru’s bed. “Hey, why is your bed shaped like a chair?” She plopped down onto it as she asked her question, making an additional comment. “Oh, it’s really soft...“
“My folks got it for me ‘cause getting in and out of a regular bed was a pain in the ass,” Hotaru answered. “This one spins around and folds up so I don’t have to roll around a whole bunch just to get vertical.”
A small glint of excitement entered Matsuri’s eyes and before she could even ask, Hotaru grumbled, “It’s not anywhere as exciting as it sounds,” She pressed a button on the side and the bed slowly began to rotate and unfold as Matsuri was still sitting there, and the little girl found herself in a horizontal position.
“Mmm. You’re right,” Matsuri acknowledged, listless. Hotaru put the bed back and as Matsuri slowly rotated back to face her general she asked, “Hotaru, do you hate Christmas?”
“I don’t particularly like or dislike it,” Hotaru admitted after some thought. “I used to like it a lot when I was younger, but now it just feels like a slog to get through, like sports festivals and stuff.”
“I think that I... hate Christmas,” Matsuri admitted. There was a strange conflicted sadness in Matsuri’s eyes that Hotaru had never seen before. “I think I always have.”
“That’s surprising to hear, considering what just went on,” Hotaru commented.
“I always tried my best to be a good girl, and I know that I did a good job, but all my classmates would always talk about how they got all this good stuff every year while I-” Matsuri’s voice broke as she briefly choked on some bitter memories. “So I always tried to be even nicer every year, but no matter what it always made me feel like I was never good.”
“Is that so?” Hotaru responded emotionlessly. Matsuri looked over to see Hotaru staring at her phone. “What toppings do you like on your pizza?”
“Pine-”
“No.”
“P-pepperoni...“
“Okay, done,” Hotaru looked up from her phone, looking back at Matsuri’s almost dazed expression and sighed. “It’s possible to both like and hate something,”
“Huh?”
“I’m saying that it’s okay to be jealous of people who can do stuff you can’t, or are just better off than you.” Hotaru commented. “And it’s okay to be pissed when you think things are clearly unfair. It’s not like you were mean to all those kids you were jealous of, right?”
“No, I wasn’t. But i was still mad and-”
“You were mad at Santa, right?”
“No one can be mad at Santa!” Matsuri insisted. “He’s Santa!”
Hotaru rolled her eyes and shrugged. “It’s not like he’s ever done anything for you. Quite literally, in fact.” Matsuri started fidgeting and began nervously looking around as if waiting for some divine intervention to come smite Hotaru and her blasphemous words, but none came. Matsuri silently wondered how much coal Hotaru was going to receive for saying such words.
Regardless, one pizza dinner later, despite all their misgivings towards each other both Matsuri and Hotaru spent an oddly pleasant time together. For all the time they spent together, Matsuri had never seen her general in such a way before. It turned out that she found Hotaru pretty cool when she wasn’t such a grumpy grumpypants all the time. She wondered if this was a one-time thing, or if perhaps the two of them somehow grew closer just by, like, talking and stuff. But such a pleasant day had to eventually come to an end, and it wasn’t long before night time. And once more Hotaru surprised Matsuri.
“If you don’t mind sleeping on the floor, you can grab a spare futon and spend the night here,” She told her. “Just promise me you won’t let any of my family see you, and you’ll go out the window first thing in the morning. I don’t wanna have to explain to my family why their daughter in high school is having a sleepover with a small child that’s also a big blue lizard.”
“That makes sense,” Matsuri agreed with a thoughtful expression. “I’m just so nice and adorable, if your parents meet me they might want to adopt me and start ignoring you,” Hotaru almost choked.
“You really don’t let stuff bother you, do you?” She muttered while letting out a brief chuckle. “I have no idea what I’d be able to accomplish, but I’d like to see the world through your eyes for a day,”
“That makes sense,” Matsuri repeated, albeit with a cheekier tone, only to have a pillow thrown in her face.
A couple of hours later, the lights were off and Hotaru was fast asleep almost instantly, while Matsuri lay awake. She got up, heading over towards the window, debating whether to just sneak out now. Matsuri just didn’t know how to receive the kindness from the one of the people that was usually the most unkind to her. Was it just because it was almost Christmas? Was Hotaru just secretly nice? Or did the fact that Matsuri took a bath remove the limiters of her awesomeness?
Usually, Matsuri wouldn’t have any issues with troubling Hotaru because she was such a meaniehead all the time. But now that Matsuri realized that Hotaru was both capable and willing to be kind, Matsuri wondered if she was even worthy of such kindness. She looked out the window and out to the glittering stars above. Closing her eyes, she put her hands together and whispered a quiet prayer.
“Santa-san, even if I don’t deserve anything good, please give everyone, and Hotaru, and I guess even Sakura,” She felt a bitter taste as she said that last bit, but continued. “Please give everyone a happy Christmas!”
As Matsuri opened her eyes, she felt her hair flap wildly about, as a strange circle of light appeared above her. It was like some kind of wormhole in the middle of Hotaru’s room! Matsuri grabbed whatever she could, including her own general. “Hotaru, we need to-” She looked over to see the young woman still asleep.
“REALLY!?!?” The two were flung upwards into the wormhole, but they weren’t the only ones. All throughout both the human and Digital worlds, beings similar to Matsuri were transported as well.
A group of girls staying up late at a local netcafe.
A group in an unfinished deck nearby Rosewood, wrapping presents.
A pair of monochrome cats roaming the Shibuya streets.
And two menacing figures clad in black armor doing god knows what.
But Matsuri, Hotaru, and all of their comrades weren’t the only major players in this story.
WC: 2888/6000
