𝐂𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐬 // 𝐌𝐇𝐀

3: 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐃𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦𝐬 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐓𝐫𝐮𝐞

LEGEND - Languages
╰┈➤ Japanese: normal text
╰┈➤ English: italicized text
╰┈➤ Tagalog/Filipino: bold text

.·:*¨ ¨*:·.

The sky was already fading into a brilliant display of oranges and pinks when Oboro gave them the address of a little cafe downtown. With a smile, the two girls agreed to meet them there the next day. Only Shouta seemed to be against this idea, but even so, he put in no effort to try and stop the four of them from making plans. 

"Alright that does it," Oboro concluded, tongue sticking out of his lips as he closed his pen. With a kind glint in his eyes, he handed the slip of paper containing the address to Hime, "We'll see you two tomorrow then!"

The two girls bid them goodbye as the three continued to walk down the street. They watched as Oboro paused momentarily to give them a cheerful salute before turning back to his friends. Keia and Hime stood still for a moment, waiting until the trio disappeared into a corner.

When they were finally out of sight, Keia spoke, "There's no way we're going home without talking about this,"

"Yep absolutely not." Hime followed, a blank expression taking over her features. After looking around for a bit, she spotted a sign that pointed to a park just nearby. It seemed as if Keia saw the sign too.

"You know what, let's just take a while to talk about all of... this," Hime took a deep breath, "Won't hurt right?" 

"Doubt it," Keia deadpanned, "We kinda just died anyway-"

° ° °

After managing to slip into the park, the two girls found an empty bench to sit on. With a sigh, they set their bags down and basked in a few moments of peace. Something told them they were going to need it for the next few days to come. 

"Tell me I'm not high and that we just met THE Eraserhead, THE Present Mic, and THE Kurogiri but alive," Keia said while staring into nothingness.

"You are very much sober and we indeed just met the weird, teenage, unfinished versions of the hobo-looking man you simp for and his friends," Hime sighed and patted Keia's back.

"Holy shit- Wh- What now..? Okay, I guess I should calm down first so we can take things slow-" Keia said, snapping back into reality.

"Yeah..." Hime agreed with a nod, "So how'd you die?"

Momentarily stunned by her straightforwardness, Keia's mouth parted in concern before answering, "I got hit by a truck on my way home, which I'm guessing explains the blood," She motioned to the now dry brown stains on her clothes, "Weirdly enough, I don't have any wounds on me. You?"

"I drowned," Hime shrugged casually, "Some idiots had too much fun at the pool and killed me by accident. I don't have wounds either, but my throat still burns," Her fingers lightly grazed over her neck, recalling the painful sensation that occurred a couple of hours earlier.

"Now that you mention it, my body still aches," Added Keia. 

"It's what we get for dying apparently," Hime crossed her arms and leaned back into the bench. Her head tilted upward to look at the darkening sky.

Was this really happening? Even Keia was having trouble digesting what they'd just seen, though it wasn't as obvious. All they could really do right now was hope that they'd be in good shape for tomorrow... 

"Tomorrow." Keia flinched as Hime frantically turned to face her, "SHIT, WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT TOMORROW?!" 

"Now that," Keia pointed, "Is something we should talk about." She opened her bag and started to take her phone and ID out, "But first, we should sort out our situation."

"What do we tell them? I'm pretty sure they want an explanation for all this,"  Hime stressed.

In reply, Keia merely shrugged, "Anything but the truth,"

° ° °

Keia and Hime both moved to either side of the bench to make more room. In the space between them lay their IDs and miraculously intact phones.

Hime was still looking through her notebooks for any useful information while Keia looked through the devices. By this time, they ruled out a couple of things. One of which was that they couldn't reach out to any of their old contacts despite them still being saved on their phones. 

"I'm just going to assume that this is the universe's way of telling us to deal with our new lives now," Keia raised her brows, clearly giving up on the phones, "Find anything?"

Hime closed the last notebook after quickly reviewing it a second time, "Nothing," a defeated sigh escaped her lips. 

"This is really weird," Keia frowned to herself, "Okay a quick rundown: We can both speak and understand Japanese properly, we have notebooks filled with stuff that we've written, but can't explicitly recall-"

"We somehow know how to navigate around the place as if we live here?" Hime questioningly added.

Keia snapped her fingers, "Yeah that too,"

"Huh, that's strange," Hime thought, "It's as if we already have a life here,"

Suddenly, her friend turned to her, "Yun." ("There.")

"What-"

"Maybe we already have a life here," Keia repeated. The more she thought about it, the more it made sense, "An alternate life or something. Then we just... I don't know, got isekaid after dying and replaced ourselves in this world,"

The look gradually dawning on Hime's face told Keia that she was beginning to understand where she was coming from. The girl glanced down at both of their IDs not long after, "So, this is us now?"

Taking both IDs in her hands, Keia nodded, "I guess so," 

"Damn... It's still not hitting me yet," Hime laughed. Keia didn't seem to blame her whatsoever. Until now she still couldn't believe that they'd encountered the trio earlier. Shouta specifically.

Keia smiled for a moment.

Just then, a question from Hime pulled her out of her thoughts, "Soooo... what do we tell them?" 

"Well, it's simple really," Keia's fingers intertwined as she set her chin on top of her hands, "Nothing." 

And so the two continued to converse quietly under the occasional flicker of a nearby lamppost. As a plan slowly came together, the two could only hope that it would work. Oboro's kindness could only go so far, after all. 

Picking their bags up from the ground, the girls agreed to part ways for now as it was getting late. Luckily, their "homes" weren't too far off from where they were. As for the next day, they decided to meet up again before arriving at the cafe together. 

But for now, here's to hoping that Keia can come up with a proper explanation for the blood stains when she gets home. 

.·:*¨ ¨*:·.