Is your Desire the real thing?

[Skyswimsky]

Home sweet home. Yuuko finally stood in front of the small house that her mother was actually able to afford, though before taking a step into it the girl had to regain her composure first. After all, her mother was mostly satisfied with how Yuuko behaved, and why she actually cared was beyond her. Wasting a few more minutes outside to make sure she wouldn't break the imagine said mom had of her, Yuuko finally unlocked the door and stepped in.

It was quiet, too quiet, Yuuko was not a fan of blatantly yelling 'Tadaima' through a household where you usually knew if someone was home or not. Oh well, a quick glance into the kitchen quickly gave her an answer to her not asked question. Something obvious about being out of the house for longer today, food in the fridge including instructions how to warm it up, some housework she was supposed to do and so on. Nothing anyone has ever seen somewhere before. 'Yaaay I have the house completely for myself' would have been something one or another person would have said, including those who spend 99% of their time inside their own room just like Yuuko, but her mother wasn't annoying her that much in the first place and if anything she had now more work to do, which equaled less free time. Whatever, for now, Yuuko would just go into her own room and start writing that blog post that she totally planned for around 3 weeks since she stepped foot into her home.

No sooner said than done, Yuuko was also in front of her booted up computer, ready to share a totally useless 11/10 glorious funny writing of todays happenings for everyone who followed her! Because what the girl saw in the Lawson today, and especially her punishment for stealing, as she saw it by now, was not something that even she witnessed every day. Punishment for stealing, eh, all that was left for Yuuko to start was some sort of fuel, fuel in form of some Pocky! She just had to stand up again, get to her school uniform and grab them from one of the pockets. "Eh?" Of course, first guess was always wrong, just like with USB Sticks, no reason to panic, a quick check on the other side and they would surely be there! Or so she hoped to think, well well, just like those nasty USB Sticks who reversed themselves as the person in use turned them around it could only mean her lovely sweets were surely where she checked first. "..." But again, nothing. Spending roughly another 10 minutes through all of her clothes she had or maybe hadn't in use today, including her shoes, Yuuko came to the fatal conclusion: Somewhere along her run they must have dropped out. But how?! Realistically speaking this was something that couldn't happen, she wasn't in some sort of anime that tried to be funny and failed horrid at it after all.

Whatever the case, her motivation for anything was now in the negative, especially regarding her blog post, or anything for her internet persona in that manner. The only thing left then was to bury herself sulking into one of those great boy love novels. For. The. Entirity. Of. The. Day. At least until evening where Yuuko got hungry.

And evening it became. Sure, eating in her own room all alone like a true no lifer was certainly an option, but being the japanese model daughter that someone required her to be, Yuuko still ate in the living space while totally not watching TV and not saying 'itadakimasu' like the rebel she was. After that, it would have been time for more homework dating sim! "The fuck?" Alas, her plans slightly changed upon having yet another, but real as fuck, delusion. Throwing her hands up in a surrendering fashion she sighed. "But this is my mental fortress! And even if I could certainly do with a new mobile phone, the design totally sucks." She was way too annoyed about her lost pocky to think too deep into the message nor the mobile phone, at first she considered throwing it away, but ultimately curiosity took the better of her and instead the girl searched through its content.

 

[ERode]

Evening melted into midnight, the heavy rain and winds never ceasing in intensity. Windows shook as the winds howled dramatically, rain splattering heavily on the streets. The sewer systems of Kirisama couldn't keep up, and soon, large puddles of water, enough to reach the ankles of whomever was unlucky enough to be caught out in this weather, rose upwards. A minor case of flooding that only expanded as time passed. Despite the heavy weather, though, most slept peacefully, or, at least, could ignore the rainstorm raging just a few inches away.

It was heavy rain, but it wasn't heavy enough to disrupt the daily lives of those that lived in Kirisama. Those who partied late into the night paid no heed to the weather, pushing through the winds that buffeted their drunken bodies, while those of Lawson's and other late-night stores simply enjoyed the fact that they were being paid for doing nothing other than standing at the counter of a shop that wouldn't be getting any employees. A peaceful, stormy night it was, for all but a few select individuals.

It was crawling in their sleep-fatigued minds, the figment of an unnatural dream, infecting their reality with images of things that could not be understand. In the delirious boundary between consciousness and unconsciousness, fantasy and reality, they were struck by a sudden image.

The mysterious skyscraper complex of Kirisama, the glass-and-steel building that towered above the rest of the town like a pillar. It lingered in their minds like the afterimage of a lightning bolt, and just as it began to fade away, something happened.

The red flip phone that they may have tossed away, placed in their desk, destroyed, discarded, dismantled, sold, or whatever else, began to ring, right beside their face.

It rang, and it called for them to answer, its insistence hypnotic, clogging their ability to think until they picked it up.

A male voice was on the line, a gentle, sadistic voice that sounded like he was speaking behind them.

"This is a challenge issued by the Land's Mandate. Go to the tower. The world awaits you, child of man."

 

[Mglo]

Jun had been absentmindedly flipping the phone open and close as sleep began to pull at him. Thoughts of regret over his dry behavior during dinner lulled him to sleep as he resolved to fix things in the morning. The phone laid open and forgotten by the side of his pillow as his body turned to its side, Jun's mind well into the dreaming world.

In his sleep Jun yawned. He walked along with his usual confident stride, rubbing his right eye as he went. Hadn't he just gone to sleep? He briefly wondered as he caught a glimpse of something round to his left. In an instant he was next to it without even noticing he hadn't taken a step. The thing was translucent. An egg. Compelled by an unknown force more akin to following a script rather than motivational action, Jun touched the soft and cold jell-like surface as he watched its reptilian-esque contents. The thing pulsated in his hands giving Jun a sense of unease. Nevertheless, though he wanted to pull away the thought was just that, a thought, a feeling, rather than a desire to move. As his unconscious mind closed in upon the thought of questioning the reality of this event, the translucent shell began to crack through his fingers. The being inside it stretching outwards as if pushing Jun's hands away before he could pull them away himself in derision. The thing crawled forward at the same slow rate that Jun crawled away, his nose wrinkled in unbelieving awe. Before Jun, the slimy and skeletal reptilian stood up, appearing to grow with each attempt to stretch its body, testing itself. In Jun's eyes this was a thing a nature. Horrifyingly beautiful and yet normal; much like a child's birth. Both repulsed and drawn, Jun made no move to reduce the distance and yet reached out for it with one arm. Before he could come to touch it the thing's shadow squirmed and twisted about, hungrily crawling its way around its owner. Jun watched, with his outstretched arm paralyzed in midair, as the squirming shadow wrapped itself round the newborn morphing it as it did so. By the time Jun's fingers had reached their initial target he was touching not the skeletal and tender thing, but a dragon. Beautiful. Terrifying. Alive.

Jun stared at it. Looked at its eye and in it he saw himself reflected. In the blink of an eye his reflection was gone and in the dragon's glassy eye he saw the mysterious skyscraper complex of Kirisama. That glass-and-steel building that towered above the rest of the town like a pillar. The dragon shifted and the reflection began to fade away when-

With a start Jun felt he'd jumped an inch off his bed. He was sweating and fumbling for the stupid phone caught somewhere between his blanket and his pillow. Without much thought he answered the call and lifted the phone up to his hear in the darkness.

"This is a challenge issued by the Land's Mandate. Go to the tower. The world awaits you, child of man."

Jun's semi-working mind had barely registered the words. With a flip he closed the phone and let it fall over his blankets. Both palms of his hands covered his eyes as he struggled to fully wake up. The caller had been a man. The odd thing, now that he thought about it, was that it had seemed like he hadn't talked through a phone at all... The sudden thought sent Jun to surveying his room as if he half expected someone to be in it with him, but no. He was alone.
"... a challenge, by the land's mandate?" he whispered to himself in disbelief. "The tower!" With a shiver Jun recalled the reflection in the dragon's eye. With a trembling hand he pulled himself off the bed, momentarily unsure of what to he would do next. How stupid, this made no sense, he thought to himself in a false attempt at encouragement.