Best Not To Think Too Hard About It

Well, this is a nice change from being stuck in bed with a horrible fever. I’ll admit that the ever–lovely, thick, colourful and fruit-rich forests and gardens that line the various walkways of this land are soothing, I have no idea why I’m here.

I get that it’s pride month, but I haven’t actually planned out anything, so my being here is extremely suspicious. So, I guess I’m not going to be stuck aimlessly wandering the woods and gardens of the intermediary realm, seeing as there’s no target in sight. Oh well, I might as well head to the refreshing waters of the central waterfall and pool for a cold, clear drink.

As the sole woman knelt down on the rocks at the edge of the waters which sat at the foot of the cliff and bustling waterfall which gracefully flowed over it, mercifully, the reflection on the surface of the water remains clear and accurate as ever. That’s new; while my glasses, hair and accessories are all still the same, I’ve now got blue eyeliner and noticeably larger lashes. Has it really been that long since I last looked in the mirror??

‘There she is!’

The woman at the water’s edge frowned. Oh great. Though I can’t honestly say that I’m surprised. ‘I should have known you lot had something to do with this. Before I banish you all back to your home realm, would you care to explain to me, A. How you got here and managed to drag me here as well. B. Why this grouping is so odd; Renka, Kasumi, Tsubaki and Hikari I can sort of understand, but the Saho twins and YHI’s head of security pair? This doesn’t make sense. C. Why am I here.’

‘You’re here because we’ve got an issue that needs clearing up and you’re the only one that can clear it up,’ the member of the group with purple hair ends quickly responded.

‘This group isn’t all that random, while they have complaints, we actually have some positive feedback,’ Aki quickly added.

‘As for how we got here and managed to drag you here as well; best not think too hard about it,’ Renka playfully added, finishing by sticking her tongue out and winking.

‘Good grief; that’s not how the intermediate realm is supposed to work,’ the sole woman stood opposite the group muttered. ‘Alright then, let’s get this over with; what’s this issue that you felt it important enough to break the mechanics of this land and summon me here?’

‘Well, uh, we found a copy of In Search Of An Oasis, read it and found that kinda fucked up on the translation on two of our names.’

Her voice having lost some of the firmness and harshness that it previously held, ‘Ah, right, I guess this day was inevitable, not that it excuses you running amok with The Land Beyond The Fourth Wall. Putting aside the issue of the story theoretically not existing in your universe (this exchange is so broken that it’s beginning to make my brain hurt), what should your names be?’

The group member with orange streaks in her hair hesitate not, ‘Um, my name has the kanji 火 and 原, so the correct readings would be ひ and はら, resulting in a family name of ひはら (Hihara), so, yeah; the Hibara translation is wrong.’

The peach-eyed member of the group chimed in, ‘Mine is also slightly off; 清 and 水, correctly read as し and みず, coming together to form しみず (Shimizu), so Shimisu isn’t quite correct.

‘While those weren’t too bad, you well and truly fucked it on my name; Terashi isn’t even close. I thought I’m the main character, yet you managed to spectacularly fail when translating my name.’

I see Hikari is still clinging to that sole main character idea. Maybe I should summon Koushou here, to put her in her place…

‘My name has the kanji 明 and 照, while there are other readings, for me, the correct readings are ミョウ and ショウ resulting in an uncommon family name; ミョウショウ (Myoushou). In other words, you were miles away.

‘Yeah, okay; you got me. I messed up on some of the translations; I did put them right in the final manuscript and the various public illustrations. Are there any other complaints?’

The women in the group exchanged glances with each other, ‘No!’ they synchronously replied.

The sole woman stood opposite them narrowed her eyes and her grew colder once more, ‘Riiight. But wasn’t there something else that you wanted to mention?’

‘Yep, we also checked out some of the P◯◯iv illustrations. While we could complain about the drawing quality needing many improvements, we get that you’re trying so we’ll not lay into too hard on that front. We just wanted to say thanks for showing off other items in our wardrobes and our recent style updates (hair and jewellery); it’s nice to not be known as one of those characters that remains stuck with one look for the entirety of their series.’

‘Hmm, you’re welcome, I guess?’ They’ve also found the P◯◯iv account? Any further messing with interdimensional boundaries and I’ll probably have a meltdown. ‘You’ve been very fidgety this whole time, Midori and you haven’t said a word, am I missing something?

‘Nope, if I’m honest, I only tagged along because doing it under a waterfall is on our to–do list and there’s an easily accessible one right here.’

‘Good lord. You’re doing a terrible job of getting her to calm down, Hikari.’

The woman with amethyst eyes shrugged and smirked in response.

The woman opposite the group sighed, ‘Whatever. Do what you want. I’ll be tightening the security measures on this land after you all depart. There are no hard feelings though; while my counterpart in their home universe would probably be disowned by all family and almost all friends for flying a flag with multiple shades of orange, pink and purple, I salute you all for not caring and flying your flag, directly or indirectly, with pride.’