Vol Chapter 2 (2/2)

Suddenly, a bipedal cat in a hood appeared before us.

“Haven’t seen you before. h.e.l.lo, Alice. I’m the Ches.h.i.+re Cat. How you doin’?”

“…? My name’s Letty. I’m not Alice,” she denied, tilting her head curiously.

“Nah, you’re Alice. You there, too. ‘Cause I said so!” The Cat did a creepy laugh.

“Found what you were looking for over there. Looked pretty tasty, so I aaalmost ate 'im up. But it wasn’t quite time yet.”

“Um, I’m looking for Rick, though? Rick isn’t food.”

“From your perspective, maybe! Ooh, and I get two helpings. Whatcha ma call that… one rock two birds?”

This cat was a wizard at making people uncomfortable. I grabbed Letty’s hand with some force and walked past the Ches.h.i.+re Cat.

“Ooh, that’s cold. Well, if yer cold, I recommend the fireplace. Mweeheeheehee!”

The Cat’s laughter echoed off the trees. I walked quickly down the path with Letty until we couldn’t hear it anymore.

“Something smells sweet…”, Letty remarked. Focusing on my nose, a faintly sweet smell like candy was wafting around.

“This way!”

“Ah! Letty!”

She brushed me off as I tried to stop her, and Letty ran off once again. I ran as fast as I could, determined not to lose sight of her this time. I was worried I might not last if I had to run for a long time, but her destination was closer than I was fearing.

“…It’s a candy house…”

Letty’s eyes sparkled. Before us was a house made entirely of candy, just like the one in Hansel and Gretel. The sweet aroma was strong here, and I found myself drooling a little.

Letty’s throat gulped, and she proceeded ahead. I followed as she approached the ominous-feeling house.

The front door was made of chocolate. When she put her hand to it, it started to melt slightly from her warmth. Letty stared at it curiously and licked the chocolate off her finger. I put my hand on the biscuit doork.n.o.b and tried to open the door.

“…Huh? It won’t open?”

All the doors in the World seemed to be like this, never just opening from a single turn of the k.n.o.b. I thought I might have to get rough with it again, but a candy house was much more carefully constructed than a normal house, so it was hard for me to get the resolve. In the meantime, Letty turned the k.n.o.b instead, and with a click, the door opened easily.

“Hey, what? It’s not locked! Let’s go inside! I wonder if we could have just a few bites…”

Letty headed right into the house, smiling and wondering what she was going to eat. She’d been looking awfully sad, so maybe it would be good for her to take a nice break here…

Oh, but if only the truth could be that sweet.

Letty immediately came to a stop, and her body froze up. I looked to her to see what was the matter. Her big eyes were opened wide, and the ribbons on her chest shook again. Following her gaze, I saw something in front of the fireplace, humanlike, black from head to toe, watching the fire burn.

“…Why did you come back?”, the black figure murmured without any movement.

“I always put you far down unknown roads. At this point, I can’t care for you. You’ll only get hurt more. So then… why even come back?”

“I… I don’t… like this. Rick… h-hel… p…”

Letty’s face turned pale as she intermittently repeated Rick’s name; she seemed terribly afraid of the thing in front of her.

The black figure slowly turned around. I thought it was completely black, but an old woman’s face was eerily there among the black ma.s.s.

“That name again. Rick, Rick… Who is that you keep talking to? There’s no one here but me, my husband, and you.”

The old woman narrowed her eyes and glared at me, spitting out a low “…Disgusting.”

“! He exists! Rick definitely exists! Why - how can you…”

Letty fell over and began to shake. I reached out to support her, and as I touched her back, Letty stopped shaking at once.

…Letty’s skin and eyes were turning purple. My body naturally stepped away from her.

“Evil witch… Why are you always, always doing these things?! I’m… going to protect Letty!”

The one who stood up looked like Letty, but their voice and tone could be none other than Rick’s. …He’d come to her aid.

“…! Why, you!”

The woman deemed a witch raised a large knife and brought it down toward Rick. I immediately pushed Rick out of the way, and shoved the witch toward the fireplace.

The fire engulfed the witch, and her body swelled red. Her shrill scream nearly blew out my eardrums. I covered my ears, but it felt like it was infiltrating my whole body.

“…Rick? …M-Moth… er…”

The swollen-purple Letty approached the fireplace as if to chase after the witch. The fire seemed to be growing. I reached out, worried for Letty’s safety, and was. .h.i.t with a ma.s.sive headache.

“The woods were dark, and she didn’t know her way back. The girl closed her eyes and thought.”

“”Why? Is it because I was weak? That’s why there’s no food for me?”“

”As she mumbled to herself, a lone boy talked to the girl.”

“…”I’ll be strong, so you can be weak.”“

”The girl was terribly surprised. And she said ”Yes, that’s right,” before falling asleep.“

”…The girl renounced having to face up to herself.“

…When I came to, the witch, Letty, and Rick were all gone.

All that was left were giant, howling flames flying about like fish in water.

”Why…”

Unable to process the situation, I just stared blankly. A small object gleamed at my feet, red in the light of the flames. It had the shape of a key.

And it had been so hard to find when I was looking for it. Something akin to disgust welled up from my heart. The flames had spread from the fireplace to consume the candy house - to bake the whole thing.

If this was a dream, I wanted to wake up. Praying for it, I touched the key at my feet.

“Oh, Allen. Bringing a book to your room again?”

“Yeah, I’m at a really good part right now. I’m not going to be able to sleep if I don’t know what happens.”

“Heehee… My, my. You’d better go to bed early, or you won’t wake up in the morning. …Good night, Allen.”

My senses were gradually sucked up, and my body was flung into darkness again. Was that a memory just now? I knew that woman who said good night to me and kissed me on the cheek.

That’s right… She was my ___.

2

There didn’t appear to be any hints toward destroying the dream here either. I smelled a burnt aroma.

“Is this the memory of my first meeting with her?”

The place I had been earlier seemed to be a World further in the past than this. If I wasn’t careful, I would have seen that scene again. That incident happened when she was still young. She surely couldn’t face up to it.

My meeting with Letty Amery took place in this forest.

I was walking through this forest on the way to the house of my mentor, Mrs. Revis. Sensing an unusual burning smell, I looked around and saw a huge plume of black smoke up ahead. The typically-calm forest was unusually noisy, I recall. Having a terrible feeling, I ran toward the smoke.

As the smoke thickened and became more visible, I heard crying that got gradually louder. When I found the source of the smoke, that was also when I found her sobbing.

The house in front of her was engulfed in fiercely-burning flames. It transferred to the nearby trees, gradually spreading. Thinking that she might soon be swallowed up as well, I called to her, and decided to bring her to the facility for the time being.

After calling the police and fire department back at the facility, I told Mrs. Revis I wouldn’t be able to visit for a few days.

The police reported several days later than she was the only daughter at that residence. But they also said that no one’s remains were found among the wreckage. So then where did the parents vanish to? I tried to ask her about it, but overwhelmed by the situation, she was in no condition to talk.

However, when I went to check on her one night, she seemed very different from the way she was during the day, and claimed to be a different person.

“Letty doesn’t like the dark. So I let Letty say good night and take her place.”

That was when I first learned her name, as well as Rick’s. Rick readily answered all of my questions. From what he told me, Rick seemed to be a split personality Letty had created to protect herself from her mother’s abuse.

Yet when I asked Letty to confirm this, she strongly denied it, insisting he was a different person who existed separate from her.

“…Rick protects me when mother bullies me. But while Rick was saying good night, she took me out into the forest. The first time, Rick brought me back home. The second time… he wasn’t there. The sun was starting to come up, so I decided to take Rick home instead this time. But when I got home… the house was burning.”

She spoke to me slowly, but as she recalled it, her face tensed up and she was overtaken with fear. When I held her shaking body, she blinked with relief, and slowly started talking again.

“When I came back home after the first time, lots of things started going missing from the house. Though my and Rick’s things were never taken…”

“Were they big things, or little things?”

“All kinds of things. Food, and rings, and frying pans…”

Her family seemed rather poor. Perhaps they were selling off things they didn’t need to make ends meet?

Summing up the story from her and Rick, the conclusion that the parents had abandoned their child and fled in the night seemed plausible.

Letty, though, claimed her mother had always been kind to her, even if she wasn’t her biological daughter - and then suddenly became cold, a changed woman. Could someone’s att.i.tude truly change like that with no impetus?

…Or maybe she had always been dissatisfied with her?

“Oh yeah… I feel like I heard this strange laughter. Something like ”weeheehee.”“

…Laughter?

”Was it a slightly hoa.r.s.e voice that burned into your brain?”

“Sort of like that. I remember it pretty clearly,” she replied blankly. Then she yawned, so I let her borrow my bed to take a nap.

This timing was almost too good to be true. But I still had a small bit of hesitation. What should I do…?

“Teacher! I wrote in my notebook!”

One day, she lept on me from behind. It was a forceful leap, so I yelled a little.

“…How about Rick’s?”

“Oh! Um… Here! It’s in my pocket!”

She handed me the two burgundy notebooks with a wide smile.

“Thanks. It’s almost time to sleep, so don’t get too overexcited.”

“Okay! Don’t stay up too late either, Teacher!”

I watched Letty as she dashed out of my room. Her parents were never found, and no other relatives ever came for her, so I ended up taking Letty in at the facility indefinitely. Letty was slowly regaining her cheer. However, judging from the notebooks, Rick seemed the more brooding one.

I know why. I know why mother, and father, and our home burned. But I won’t say it. Because it’d only make Rick more sad.

That was written on the first new page of Letty’s notebook. The paper was warped in places, the letters blurred. I hadn’t yet told her that rather than burning down with the house, her parents had gone missing.

…I still had no reason to do so.

Letty told me that Rick had taken revenge in her place, burning down the witch and her home for her. But when I heard Rick’s side of the story, I realized there were some misunderstandings between them.

The second time Letty was deserted, he woke up during the night and returned home, and by that time, there was no one left at the house. If Letty woke up then, like it or not, she would realize her parents had abandoned her. As that would make her sadder than anything, he decided to set it all aflame and obscure the truth.

When he told me this, I became convinced of my theory that her parents had left her and fled somewhere far away. And the one who had set it all up, it had to be…

I walked carefully on the unpaved, uneven road. There seemed to be nothing more I could do. I sat down on a particularly good-looking stump.

Rick was born to protect her from her mother’s abuse. But her mother wasn’t around anymore. The reason his heart was starting to fall apart had to lie there.

I recalled the first page of his notebook.

If I take everything on myself, she can smile all the time. I like her, I really do. But why was I born?

Teacher, you prepared two beds, and clothes for me too. But is this right? Is it wrong for me to exist?

Teacher, she may be her, but then who am I?

“…How should I have answered?”

He must have feared that his existence would mean she wouldn’t have to face herself. I clutched my hair. If we got back safely, I would have to give him a proper answer. Yes, if…

As my thoughts turned, I suddenly heard a beast-like howling.

“…Hm? Is the World starting to break apart?”

Strange. The World starting to break indicated that its creator had broken. Before coming here, I met Rick and told him, “Don’t move from this spot. It’d be dangerous for you and her to move around too much.” He didn’t seem the type to break a promise. So had something caused him to switch to her, and see that scene once more?

The ground split, and a black haze came from it and wound around my feet. I leaned my body toward it. I couldn’t stop his… and her, ruin.

I sunk into the darkness. There, my whole body was swallowed up.

3

“Ah, you made it back. …Why are you crying?”

I didn’t even know the answer to that. I felt like I’d even forgotten the name these emotions had.

“You appear to have recovered a key. Well done. Hm…? Is it only the one?”

“…Che… Er, that guy said he put one key in each World.”

Just as I was about to speak the Ches.h.i.+re Cat’s name, the White Rabbit glared daggers at me, so I quickly stopped myself.

“One World at a time, is it… What a bother. Why such stalling…?” His eyes narrowed with gloom.

“Well, fair enough. You recovered one of them. That’s something. I’ll use this to open the door to the next World.”

I heard a door unlocking in the distance. He wanted me to go to another one of those places, huh. I stood there for a little bit, and he started to tap his foot impatiently.

“Don’t worry. It’s just a dream. It’ll all be back to normal when you wake. Those emotions and the scene you witnessed were all illusions. That was your first instinct too, was it not?”

Not coming any closer, the White Rabbit spoke with the most gentle voice I’d ever heard out of him. I had thought of it as a dream, but those feelings, that spectacle of flames, were burned in my mind in a very real-feeling way. Could dreams be like this?

Still, the moment I touched that key, I regained a small memory of my past. The one who said good night to me and kissed me on the cheek - it was surely my mother.

If I found another key, maybe I could see a slightly later memory. That hope invited me toward the next World door.

“Come to think of it, White Rabbit, what do you do here?”

“…I don’t do anything here. That’s my normal. Because isn’t it too much bother? Time and events are predecided, and I just live in that flow. It’s much too much of a pain to go against the grain. Hardly necessary.”

So he was just standing here for hours on end. I thought to myself that that seemed like much more of a pain and bother, but the denizens here were all very strange, I recalled.

“Well, I’m counting on you once more.”

I nodded, and headed for the next door.

“He came up with all the rules of these Worlds, y'know. If the one who made the World goes under, so does their World.”

As I was about to open the second door, the Ches.h.i.+re Cat appeared before me and started talking. I nearly crashed into him, which gave me a chill. Cras.h.i.+ng into that bizarre body of his… just thinking about it made me shudder.

“I wouldn’t make nothin’ like that. But just give it time, he says! Makes all these dumb rules, he does! Bah! But we just gotta follow 'em…”

The Ches.h.i.+re Cat whined and covered his face with his paws. But his grin was so wide, nearly reaching his ears, that it appeared to jut out from behind his hands.

“'Cause if we don’t, we get punished.”

“…Do you want anything, or?”

I figured he might keep talking forever if I didn’t stop him. Trying to hide my disgust for him, I tried to speak mildly.

“What! Can’t a guy talk about what he likes? Cats die when they get too lonely, y'know. …Wait a sec, or was that people?”

As he joked, I considered my next move. If I said anything serious, he would dodge it and find a way to tease me again. It would definitely only exhaust me.

“Boy, you look like a wreck. Don’t need to get so worked up about somebody you just met. Or, hold on… Did you forget all your emotions and such, too?”

I had no response. I still didn’t fully understand myself.

“Oh, and how would I know about that? Well, that’s 'cause I stole 'em.”

I was speechless in the face of the Ches.h.i.+re Cat’s sudden, outrageous confession.

“I know everything that happened that day, and before it too. Not planning on giving it back, 'course… but you can have bits and pieces as cherries on top of finding the keys. You know the rest, right?”

As the Cat became more and more c.o.c.ky, I sunk deeper. He must have delighted in seeing this happen to people.

“Tell me, is it really empty inside ya? …Well, prayin’ on high you don’t crack too quick. Sweet dreams!”

Before I knew it, he was gone. I began to sweat. But I had to get to the next World. Now I could feel like it wasn’t the White Rabbit, wasn’t the Ches.h.i.+re Cat who was hurrying me along most - it was me.

What happened that day? What did I see, and what did I lose? I just wanted to know the truth. I wanted it back. I’d pushed my doubts about whether this was a dream or not out of mind.

I steadied my breathing. And I opened the door to the second World.

My house is deep in the forest.

There are lots of animals, and the air is really nice. It’s a wonderful place.

My family is mother, father, and one more.

He’s always with me. Always there for me. From good morning to good night.

But it’s too bad he can’t play tag or anything with me.

My mother isn’t my real mother.

I heard my real mother pa.s.sed away from an illness.

The mother I have now often teases that girl.

So I take the brunt of it for her. I’m responsible for all the hurtful things.

But when she’s beaten, I can’t protect her.

One day, mother said we’d go for a walk.

I didn’t want to, but she dragged me by the hand into the forest.

Like usual, after walking a long way, mother said we’d take a break.

You stay here, she told me, and I sat there the whole time.

It got dark. I was scared. It was pitch black.

I was so, so scared. So I closed my eyes and talked to him.

What’s your name? What’s your favorite food? What don’t you like?

I was surprised. He wasn’t like me at all.

Is this the deep forest?

I should go back. I’m fine, but she doesn’t like dark places.

Will she say she disgusts her again?

Why does that witch have to tease her so?

I have to do away with that evil witch.

I’m so hungry. If only my house and my clothes could be tasty sweets.

Then everyone in my family could have a good meal.

…Oh, but I guess chocolate melts really quick. That won’t work.

It all burned up.

If I take everything on myself, she can smile all the time.

I like her, I really do. But why was I born?

Teacher, you prepared two beds, and clothes for me too.

But is this right? Is it wrong for me to exist?

Teacher, she may be her, but then who am I?

<script>