A Village Roleplaying a Ghost lead to smashed cakes!?

Snores and snores and snores trickling.

Rippling—a droplet, trickling after all others of its kind, barely reaching the roof. The weak snores come to an end.

Miteki Bless rolls over in bed.

Her arms stretch and her throat silently vibrates, gulping.

"Mm..?" She rubs her eyes. Kwink, skoink, skoink.

Eye boogers scratch at the corner of her eyes.

She sighs, sits up, and straightens her posture like a ballerina.

She looks forward, then around, processing her environment. In a miracle, she had teleported from her mother's atrium to her shelled up room.

"Ma, was she that strong?" She whimpered and hugged herself in terror. The way mere fingers attenuated her and left her body sore… Those horrendous tickles… it was dumb to question the validity of her mother's strength when her strength leveled that of the demon lord!

Whoever the demon lord was.

A random politician? Some candy-stall seller? … A certain idol named Lydie Heung.

"Falling asleep on your mother… If sleep feels that good afterwards, then everyone should do it."

Granted, her mother had lifted her up and tucked her into bed.

She'd dispute: Not only was my sleep good because I fell asleep on my ma, it was EXCELLENT because my ma carried me to bed!

Miteki Bless didn't believe she had powers, neither believing that they'd come to life this late when she didn't need them.

She'd be a fool in wonder, to believe more in magic than her mother carrying her to bed.

She yawns and stretches again, her arms that missed out on tickling her mother heading up in the dark.

She brings them back to her lap, eyes not adjusted to the void yet, her hands blend into the covers.

Skin creases pink strawberry covers, covers wrinkle crimson yukata.

The crickling sounds like it always does, this time tinged with time-blindness and less light—not being able to see something emitting sound in 100% ultimately made it sound different.

She squints into her room that carries no material of light.

The crowd of night calls king to her, and her curiosity becomes royal.

She does a pirrouette into the air, eager to answer to her subjects and peasants—her brain and restlessness.

"Mm." She lands blankly.

The cheap wooden floor dips slightly, under her bent knees and flat feet, whose blood gets swished around by the gaps in the tatami.

She crouches, drilling her eyes into the floorboards.

"Am I floating?" Because the floor looks like the black sky, Miteki Bless ignores the ice-feeling scurrying across the soles of her feet.

"Why is it so cold!?" Or she doesn’t.

Her entire room is cosmically taken.

Overhead, her medals and trophies cry mutely, chime mutely.

They pendulate, nothing new.

This morning, her name on her medals and trophies is censored by the black fog. She can't read it.

Notedly, a name she's proud of.

On gold and off gold.

She stiffly outstretches her arms, looking like a zombie, blind and limping, using them as sensors to figure out where she was.

She brushes against a straw.

She stops.

She tries blinking harder and more frequently to get accustomed to the darker morning.

She slides forward a few inches. "Last time…"

Any further and she'd be walking into one of her mirrors inside her dressing station, held together by various hand-painted screens, crafted by who knows which, who knows who.

"This spot feels familiar." That goes without saying—this is her room.

"Yesterday, I stood here and said…"

Miteki Bless tried her best to imitate the scoff she did, scooping her hand up to her cheek.

Her twilight brown hair blanketed the hand, clothing over it with its long, strands whose straightness were distorted by the platform of fingers blocking their trajectory under gravity.

"'Should I ask ma if my birthday has passed yet?'"

"'Do I check the calendar?'"

"'But where is it?'" Her voice carries the lilt of her amassed dialects.

She stood in place, wandering where she went from here, her eyes unknowingly looking into one of her five mirrors.

The "bullseye!" medal from yesterday was slightly to her left because Miteki Bless surprisingly didn't walk straight.

"I forgot to ask the council."

She wanted to spit on the floor, at the same time, she hated people who spat on the floor.

"Like, why?"

She frowned at where her thoughts were going. "So stupid!"

What a catty soul.

It's playful.

"I can't even ask ma."

"But I'm 14."

Bless crossed her arms, abandoning her zombie posture, lifting her back.

"I'm still 14. I used -senpai, a lot, didn't I? If I turned 15 and became the same age as Lydie-chan, I know with my pride I'd stop instanenously."

"Yes, that's how it works…" She didn't seem to believe it herself, unconvinced by her own words.

She raised her voice just a touch, smacking the air in front of her. She didn't expect nothing to be there, overswinging made her breath hitch and it snuck sheepishly into her voice. "The levels of uncertainty are insulting to me…"

"Uh, Moreno Bless!"

She made up an alternate version of herself spontaneously. She'd make do talking to herself without mirrors. "Moreno Bless!"

She struck a pose, placing a foot back. She was attempting… martial arts?

"Grovel before me!" Her whisper-yelling almost made her self-aware of how idiotic she sounded.

She comforted herself instantly. "Moreno Bless, don't look at me that way."

She coughed, still in the dark. "I cannot strain my vocal chords on the likes of you. You're lucky to even be hearing my breath!"

In reality, she didn't want to wake her mother up.

"Moreno Miteki… as one of the night and the black order, can you use your shadow powers to help me find my phone?"

Miteki Bless was pointing at Moreno Bless, an imagined body of darkness built on the grounds of an imagined contour.

She didn't know what object or piece of furniture she was hallucinating as a person, but play-pretend she would.

Her face crinkled up, her nose peculiarly rising.

What she was going to do was much more boring.

She was going to sit on the floor and meditate.

She'd wait for her eyes to adjust to the dark, or for a digital interaction on her phone to light its screen up.

"Moreno Bless, why aren't you listening to me? Standing there as I sit, aren't you insubordinate? Yes, yes you are! Grovelgrovelgrovel—grovel! And don't you dare laugh at me. As I've told you…"

Sitting legs crossed, she acted as though the floor was her throne.

"You're lucky enough to graze my feet!"

That is not what she said.

"Muahahaha!"

"Remember every mishap in your life… It was all part of my master plan."

"You think you've won now, but wait for tomorrow! I shall show you ultimate defeat!"

Even the supposed Moreno Bless, who was only a shadow, realized what Miteki Bless was doing.

She just wanted to spout out cliché lines.

Her plan worked, though. Near the water bucket, she saw a flash of light.

Not to mention, she could see further ahead now and the greenish tatami took a sage tint inside the dim atmosphere.

She hopscotched, inadvertently quickening her heartbeat.

She became greatful for SleepyTalk, so many digital interactions kept her screen lit up for so long.

Her room was too big for the light to spread out that far, she could only see her immediate surroundings and the corner properly.

She cheered ferociously, fastening her phone to her hand.

"4:15 AM!"

All the notifications were from Lydia Heung.

"It's evil on my phone!"

Her eyes glared into the open illumination.

If she was one of those deep sleepers who slept with their phones next to them, being spammed like this, she would definitely wake up!

But she wasn't a deep sleeper, and she didn't sleep with her phone next to her.

There was no problem, she was getting angry at hypotheticals that would never apply to her!

Acting like the victim and spiteful, she marked the messages as read and kept the message tab opened, watching as Lydie Heung sent her message after message.

LydieHeung: oh, you're here.

LydieHeung: why aren't you replying?

Miteki Bless snickered, scrolling to the messages above.

LydieHeung: I woke up an hour ago. I hope you slept early and the schedule isn't bothering you too much.

LydieHeung: I mean, I'm used to it. So, I'm okay. It's worrying when it's you.

LydieHeung: Actually, you seem like you're the type to regularly stay up all-night and work hard. If you're awake, answer me.

LydieHeung: I realize how that message sounds. I am in no way accusing you of being awake and ignoring me.

She definitely was.

Miteki Bless really was a victim!

"You!"

Not only did her texts become less enthusiastic when Miteki Bless' online status came on, she was accusing her of things that weren't even true!

"Haha! If ma hadn't used sleep magic on me, I would've stayed up all night to ignore you!"

"Ahem, but I'm dutiful. Obviously I'd sleep like a princess to wake up for my people."

'My people,' and it was just Lydie Heung, her agent, her staff, the people at the venue, the-

"Hey, that's a lot of people."

Lydie Heung was already at the venue, sitting in an uncomfortable seat and getting herself styled.

She was gritting her teeth, pitiful eyes glaring at a chatroom.

If she was able to hear Miteki Bless right now, she'd ride up to her bedroom's window on one of the village's mopeds and snap at her: "Don't use that snarky tone with me!" a finger tapping at Miteki Bless' collarbones.

"Don't frown so much after getting your makeup done." Her stylist stopped manipulating her hair to smooth out the crease between her eyebrows. "There, pretty."

As her stylist fawned over her, Lydie Heung grumbled inwardly. "Are you dumb, blind, deaf, or dumb!?"

She felt wronged. Why is everyone harming her so early in the day? She should at least have peace for the first 3 hours of her day, 1AM through 4AM, but no. No.

But then, she had a mood swing.

"Sister," she said coquettishly, a quivering voice with a quality so sultry her stylist's cheeks flushed. "You're so smart!"

"Huh? Why are you saying this?" She questioned sheepishly.

But Lydie Heung was too focused on her phone.

The stylist sighed… Boyfriend? One of her girl friends?

She didn't think it was possible for someone as acclaimed as Lydie to be with a boy at her age. She shamed herself for the thought.

In the meantime, Lydie took a selfie.

This would get her to reply to me, right?

Confident in herself, she hastily sent it.

In a split second, Miteki Bless clicked on the picture to enlarge it.

Lydie Heung looked like a mermaid.

Zoom out, and she was out of water.

Zoom out again, realize she was sent on a phone, and she was a mermaid sat atop the pointy tip of a snowy mountain.

Her eyelids were kissed by the deadly snowflakes, the eyeshadow varnishing them looking like achromatic, psychedelic scales.

They were a silver so pure, it reflected the world in front of her.

The assistants circulating, the mirror unable to capture her beauty, the blush brush gripped tightly in the hands of her stylist…

“Silver scales on her eyelids…” Miteki Bless’ thoughts scattered, the words walking off her tongue into the sea, like pirates sacrificing themselves off of planks.

More than her head knew, more than her heart knew, her words had the greatest of needs in sacrificing themselves.

As Lydie Heung planned, Miteki Bless texted her.

BlessMiteki: Is it normal to look this pretty for a concert?

BlessMiteki: Is it okay if you call the concert off?

Lydie Heung held her breath.

Should she feel anger or astonishment?

She knew now that Miteki Bless had never seen any of her concerts before. But she also knew now, had she seen them before, she’d probably have a permanent stay inside a hospital, her eyes constantly rolled back, avalanches of foam at her mouth.

LydieHeung: this is how I usually look

Her fingers trembled so unsteadily, she wasn’t able to add punctuation on time when her thumb had already pressed sent.

LydieHeung: want another?

BlessMiteki: Are you O.K? How does your mother let you go out like that?

Miteki Bless’ words were still sacrificing themselves, endlessly, her brain hadn’t even bought up its stat points to be as fast as her fingers.

Her heart hadn’t even caught up to her feelings of awe, exasperation, worry and possessiveness (?).

BlesMiteki: If I had a daughter as pretty as you, sorry, but I wouldn’t ever let her go outside. Lydie-chan, you have the type of beauty that should be hidden from the world.

LydieHeung: I’m confused.

Meanwhile, she was screaming and kicking her feet in her chair.

Her assistants and stylist who collectively glanced at her in their peripheral vision: ???

BlessMiteki: When I get there, I’m wiping that makeup off!

BlessMiteki: Are you supposed to look like a mermaid?

LydieHeung: No.

She shamelessly lied, waiting to see what else she would say.

It was like watching someone dig themselves further into shame, not knowing their dignity was being trampled.

She covered her mouth as she laughed.

BlessMiteki: You know in those SCI-FI movies when mermaids appear randomly? You look so out of place, otherworldly!

BlessMiteki: Sent a Voice Message

What did I do?

“Oh!” She rolled onto her back.

Never using her phone much, she didn’t know these were a thing.

She pressed play on her accidental voice message, and heard the static of her empty and lonely dark room.

Oh, isn’t it more sincere if I tell her these words with my voice?

She wasn’t a fan of texting. It would make things much more easier.

Lydie Heung had accidentally dug her gave, being so mischievous actually had karma!

BlessMiteki: Sent a Voice Message

Transcript: Yanno, I actually have it pinpointed now! I didn’t know what it was before, but you really, really, really got me!

Since Miteki Bless was in her room, her voice didn’t sound cold and emotionless the way it did at school.

Lydie Heung listened to it in a daze, a new feature, to her favorite thing.

Transcript: You gave me the same feeling as watching one of those c-list dramas, where everyone doesn’t know how to act, melon seeds, melon seeds, blah blah blah. Yanno? Yanno? The plot is boring and nobody onboard knows how to write, but suddenly, on ep5, a beauty appears out of nowhere! It’s embarrassing to admit, hehe, but I suddenly get motivated to watch those in full… I even tell my mom about how beautiful they are and tell her to vote 5 stars, 10 stars, 20 stars, three million stars!

Is she saying she’d tell her mom about me before the first date!?

Her cheeks were red as she furiously sent a voice message back.

“What are you saying! Who knew you could be so shameless out of school, so early in the morning?”

“Shameless? What are you talking about! Look at you, wearing such pretty makeup when you already stand out!”

The two continued bickering without Lydie Heung realizing her reputation had gone down the drain.

Her volume was at full-blast.

She’d rip out a few strands if she knew the staff was using her “intimate,” “private,” “provocative,” "perplexing," IPPP deluxe conversation as background noise to move more efficiently.

Miteki Bless sent one final voice message before deciding she'd leave right this instant.

"Little mermaid, all I hear is 'blub, blub, blubba'! You're not lasting in the real world—which is me, once I come to you!"

She did the equivalent of hanging up. Closing her phone as it buzzed.

Lydie Heung kept yelling into her phone. "Why are you making fun of the way I pronounce things?"

"You let some country accent slip twice!"

"You're whisper yelling!"

The staff members laughed at her.

She looked around the room, frustratedly ignorant. "Laughing? Why?"

Most of them chanted a newly made sutra:

See no mermaid.

Speak no mermaid.

Hear no mermaid.

An extra one added for good measure, laugh at no angel.

The stylist calmly explained, "The whisper yelling you speak of… it was louder than the wailing in a palace drama… hehe."

*Hehe? Did I have to add that awkward laugh?* She cowered with a whimpish smile.

"Okay." Lydie Heung said.

"Okay." Lydie Heung smiled.

"Okay." Lydie Heung rubbed her temples.

"Okay."

Miteki Bless laid on her floor.

She pressed her lips together.

Should I send her a picture too?

It was too dark to do it now.

That wasn't to say she was without options.

She had many.

She could light up a candle, with her vision accustomed to the dark.

She opened the camera app on her phone, taking a stash of scented candles out of her closet.

She chose the hojicha leaf scent.

She used dried pinewood splinters infused with sulfur to light the candle.

She reclined, her hair splayed out on the floor in a flower petal pattern.

She used her elbow to nudge the candle closer to her head, watching herself in the camera.

She didn't take a picture, observing her distorted features on the lens.

"Muraoka Rii."

"Haha," she makes weird faces, her face acting as moldable clay. She even pushed her cheeks up with her hands, hiding her eyes with her facial fat. "I'm glad you're Muraoka Rii."

"We talk much, now that you're the second person I talk to the most. You're after my mom if… you're wondering."

"I have much to say about you. I rather say it to your face." She clarified.

"I remember saying I would make the world a better place for you, but haven't you done that for me? I feel really naive."

"I'm going to ask you to be my bestfriend tomorrow. Maybe, you'll reject me. That's okay."

She snapped a picture.

She smiled lightly, her head was the yellow center of a daisy-like flower.

Her neck a thin, sickly stem.

She sent it to Lydie Heung, never checking her phone again.

"I don't want to see your reaction."

At the tiny, square-shaped paper-slide door, Miteki Bless started cleaning her teeth.

Tilted at an unobvious angle, it was the height of Miteki's neck area.

She slid it open with two hands.

A long, vast farmer's land gradually unfolded before her eyes adjusting to the foreign, outside dark.

Everywhere within the radius of a fifteen minute trudge was empty. The only life was inside the house, in her mother's room.

She twisted her arm out the window-sized, window-shaped door.

Rusty metal was gripped by skin.

The tap attached outside on the wall beside the window launched the filtered water out of itself, pooling the water into a pond-well.

Miteki Bless thought, "Why get koi fish when I can kidnap that mermaid?"

"I'm sure she can bless these waters."

She grumbled. "Actually! That is a demonic beast, she'll poison our entire courtyard!"

Flop, flop, flop, the mermaid would go.

Blub, blub, blubba, the mermaid would go, trying to anger her.

Miteki Bless nodded to herself, proud of her genius. "Yes, yes. Once I get that pet mermaid, I'll keep her trapped in my room and clean her everyday, brush her hair, wash her face, teach her how to speak properly and use her words, and quarantine her away from my mother. That mermaid is trickster and cunning, as strong as mother is, I can't let her near her. Venom… vexes, jinxes… incontonations… Wuwuwuwu, devil devil, what a devil Lydie Heung is!"

Acting as if she weren’t speaking crazy, she moved on with her routine.

Perhaps she wasn't acting, only considering this behavior casual and a part of her.

Going quiet with the sticks and minerals cupped in hand, Miteki Bless let the water fill up her hand, rising up thanks to her closed finger gaps.

Raise—spill into mouth—chew minerals—chew sticks—gargle.

She closed the tap water.

Swishing while speaking, "Did I think of mom?"

She wasn't truly asking, she was just passing the time.

"Yes…"

So that she would delay saying: "And I thought of Lydie Heung while brushing my teeth as well…"

Her routine with the countryside's perfect dirty teeth remedy had been ruined afterall. She thought of Lydie Heung alongside her mother… if she thought of Lydie Heung tomorrow, her wake-up routine would need adjustments.

Ignoring how her weekend routines were disordered and a giration of unpredictability.

She swishes thirty more times, then swallows the mix against her mother's recommendations.

"Beauty on the inside, something Lydie Heung…" She couldn't lie, even when no one but herself was around. "… has."

"Hmph. But she could never dispose these properties as efficiently and hygeniacally as me."

She took a short bamboo out of the bucket.

It itched against every corner of her mouth, from her teeth to her tongue.

She didn't care about being gentle today, going a tiny bit faster.

She dropped the bamboo into the pond without care.

She slid the paper door closed, using one hand and a back arch.

Teeth-Theatre performance over, world, please keep looking.

She grabbed dolphin hem running shorts and a forest green bunny hoodie out from a chest. In the veil of night, she could get dressed then and dare-fully there dare, but for respect of tradition, she went behind her dressing room and began to change.

She took a shower last night and didn't think it was neccessary to shower again.

She lifted the balls of her feet past her odd and long, spiralling and ceiling-extending conception mathingy-contraption.

She twirled, her eyes sparkling.

"I don't know what I'll look like!"

"It's like buying a mystery box… but I'm the prize!"

The medals and trophies chimed in the ceiling space, a choir of wind and pure earthy materials, the wind singing through the strings hanging like saliva between lips, the 'earth' singing by sending vibrations through the transparent cotton strings.

She propped her phone up on the paper walls.

She placed the hojicha fire next to her.

Fire is truly important.

She clicked, crouching down in a squat.

The picture came out blurry, the frame fringed by her in-action body.

She didn't mind, since it was enough to check out her outfit.

If she was performing, these clothes weren't going to be on her for awhile.

"Mouth clean…" She looked in the phone camera, preparing to brush her hair.

She brushed her hair once a week, usually on the weekends unless something came up.

She detangled her hair using her fingers first.

She sectioned her hair by clamping down on it with her hand. She'd lift up the section through a barrel-like fist, hair running through her palms, then rake her fingers through, moving bottom to top.

She put her hair into a double bun, to protect it from the train. The buns would be undone once she arrived to the concert, the same way they would when at school.

She scrunched the buns up a couple times.

She poofed them and wiggled them.

The sensation of her hair balls smacking against her scalp felt good.

Time!

She was ready for her lucky charm ritual!

She navigated her way to her straw contraption.

She blew into the spiralling straws.

It was ironic that this day was involved with a science fair, utilizing the Venturi Effect.

Her blown breath accelerated through the big tube full of purposeful flaws.

Ching!

A deafening gust flew out the straw's thin opening, causing the trophies and medals to clack into each other

Her lucky charm.

It was time to head to Lydie Heung’s forced concert to bring her into mischievous captivity.

Hehe.

First, visit ma's bedroom.

She didn't work on weekends.

Inside Miteki Amafuu's bedroom, Miteki Bless stood over her.

She bent down and kissed her forehead.

"I love you, ma! I'll see you later!"

She didn’t forget to bring the packed cakes with her.

During Bless' walk, the horizon didn't exactly let up. The darkness was adaptable, but the 15 minute walk couldn't adjust to it properly.

She reached the daily pole. At this time, the rubber ducky she moved had its spot replaced by an unnatural inward curve in the dirt.

17 minutes into her walk, and the playground emerged out of the darkness.

Miteki Bless was disappointed for a second but shook her head.

She couldn't stall and stay idle for too long, or else she would disrupt Lydie's schedule. And she didn't know when the train would pass. One missed passage and it would be over.

Though, had she gone into the playground, she would've puked. Shame, she wouldn't realize this crucial information.

… Screw it.

She entered the park anyway.

She was wondering if what she wrote yesterday was still in the sand.

Before even her toe got within the vicinity of the park, she tumbled over, barely managing to break her fall with her arms.

The packed cake crashing into the borders of the sandbox.

She wretched without a break.

Her spine cracked as it raised.

She wretched.

She wretched.

She wretched.

She wretched.

She stumbled back before she could vomit her guts out.

… Being stupid, she tried again.

One second in that hell, and she didn't want to go back.

She stumbled out, clutching her chest, clawing at the dirt.

She finally puked.

What came out was red saliva.

How many minutes had gone by?

Lydie…

She ran out of the playground without looking back, leaving behind the cakes, leaning out of their smashes box on the ground.

The bugs could scavenge them, Lydie’s fans didn’t need them anyway.

As her feet dug into the farmer's ground, she heard the sound of chains sleighing back and forth.

She didn't have to look back to tell that those were the empty swings in the black smog.

Her face turned purple.

She didn't stop at the tree house—an unknown thing weighing down on her—running past it urgently, her body felt lighter.

There was nothing drastic about missing the cranes this morning, she rarely visited them on the weekends in the first place.

There was an invisible pressure flowing over her, wrapping her up and tying her down, she couldn't miss this chance.

This chance to embarrass herself on stage with Lydie Heung was an experience she couldn't pass up.

It gave her a bad, stubborn feeling that wouldn't go away.

"Yes." She rationalized the feeling in the park, the feeling while running past the treehouse.

"I'm just nervous."

"Nervous."

"This is all psychogenic."

Miteki Bless was disappointed in herself.

She thought she was fine when she woke up, being so cheerful and energized.

She couldn't think about nothing in particular on the swings anymore.

She looked at the veins on her hands, so vivid and strong from the strain she just went through.

She panted to a stop.

She was walking on a trail of ghost villages.

The things that kept her company in Hanayaga’s empty trade routes, roads and dirt trails were snores and sleeping bodies.

She zipped on by, blurring them to streaks.

She flopped on the cemented train station floor.

She was breathing so deeply, it felt as though the floor was raising her and her belly itself… putting it simply, it felt as though the floor had a belly, in illusion it was really the force of her belly sucking in, pushing out.

Luckily, a train honked in the distance.

Black chugging, screeching to halt.

The train relented its speed and released its movement.

It froze.

Miteki Bless boarded the phantom train.

There was no one in the cart, though she heard faint voices in the others.

Her presence turned her cart-section from a ghost-cart to a Miteki-cart.

Dear conductors, she'd successfully exorcised a part of your train.

She was a blessing.

Bless you.