✧ Chapter 53 ✧

Overnight, the team hatched a new plan which was focused not only on exposing Cat, but to potentially find out what part she played in Ararima’s death.

That is, if she was to begin with.

Styra would also later learn after sharing about the orange ballerina shoes she saw, that they were a special collector’s item. A Candiere’s Cafe character known as Tangerina normally wore them in-game during a performance for the audience. Her significance to the overall murders was currently unknown. Still, it was clear that Cat‘s obsession for these particular shoes meant she would have known at some point about the game’s dark history.

By midnight, Styra, Eternika, and Kade were the only ones remaining awake in the dining room downstairs while everyone else had went to sleep. In between that time however, a strange discussion began to take place.

“Styra, do you mind if I ask you about something,” asked Eternika.

“Sure, ask away.”

“Why were you about to dance with Otodo?”

Kade immediately turned his attention toward the conversation with a frustrated expression.

“Dancing? I thought you said you were focused on finding out what Cat and Otodo were up to?”

Caught in a tense situation, she decided to let go of the emotions that were weighing in on her.

“I did try my best to get as much out of the experience as possible. To be fair, I did hear some sort of classical music. If I had to guess, maybe it has just as much of a connection to the murders as the shoes I saw did.”

“As much as that may further confirm that the Candiere’s Cafe character that we previously talked about may have a deeply symbolic meaning behind it as well, that is not enough evidence. We needed to catch Cat in the act and you wasted most of it by making poor choices,” replied Kade.

The rough part about Kade’s analysis of what happened was that it was true. Worse than that, the camera was meant to help capture the evidence that Kade was talking about. She was worried that Cherry would be upset at her for having badly spent that time which she entrusted upon her.

Hope was all she had left for what would come tomorrow.

“I apologize. It won’t happen again,” said Styra in a more serious tone.

∗ ∗ ∗

The next day, when dawn touched every corner of Centreplex City and its distant neighborhoods, the cold crispy snow could be seen covering the sidewalks and streets.

Chelbie woke up bright and early at six in the morning as she tugged on Cherry who was in bed wearing her cherry-themed pajamas.

“Heya girl. So I was thinkin’ about something last night… Do you have any jackets I can wear for today? I normally wouldn’t but Hisa freaks out a lot when I do that. Plus, we kinda didn’t plan for weather like this while we were travelling here so…”

Cherry woke up tired, putting on her vanilla-colored house slippers before searching through the closet to their right. After swiping a few hanging clothes out of the way, she found a navy blue puffer coat with honey yellow cuffs.

“These look like they’d match you. What do you think?”

“Whole lot better than those pair of rocker bottom shoes I ran in. During my last race I mean.”

Sitting down beside Chelbie who was rocking her legs back and forth in the air for a bit, Cherry gave her the jacket before starting to get a bit curious.

“Last race?”

Nodding yes to her question, Chelbie tried on the jacket while further explaining what happened.

“Yeah. Ya know, yesterday felt a whole lot like that. Back then, I had one rival in all of my sports competitions. Lucila Vanderhilt. She tried to beat and even trigger me a lot. Just like how Mr. Trash Bag Head kept arguing with Styra before flying away.”

“I see… Continue,” said Cherry to Chelbie as she squinted her eyes in interest.

“Point is, I’m hopin’ that you can find that in yourself. Not let anyone push ya around the way we’ve been treated. Those bullies? They had no right to terrorize ya like that. When ya see them again, ya have to show them who you are. Is this helping?”

“I think so… I mean I do have a suit now like Styra does, but I still have no sort of training to handle what we might do next. In fact, I’m actually a bit scared that I will mess it up.”

Empathy struck Chelbie’s heart. She already knew the feeling so well. Recovering from something like this was not entirely easy for her to digest either.

“I know I’m gonna sound like Hisa right now but, she always tells me it like this. There may be more times you will be a mess than times where you will impress. To handle that stress you must find your finesse… She never told me where she got that quote from but I think she’s kinda right.”

Reflecting on the poem that was shared with her, Cherry nodded in agreement as she knew the only way she could any sort of help with that was from Styra.

Right after this conversation, The Judgment Warriors met downstairs in the living room. Eternika proceeded to host a meeting there to address everyone about what was to come next.

“Today is the day we attend the holiday event at The Paradise Park Convention Center. Our new task, after observing what Styra did yesterday, involves orchestrating a scenario where we can genuinely catch Cat and Otodo in the act.”

“What exactly is the scenario in question?” inquired Flight.

“The scenario is to add a fake UVOCA agent into the mix. Kade has heard many of their names so we will choose the one he selects. A majority of us will be invisible to spy across the area for the other five people on our list. Without Compass to map the surrounding location, this will require us to be more observant than we’ve ever been.”

During the discussion, Cherry (who was sitting in an armchair) quickly raised her hand.

“Do I have time to train with Styra before we get started? The event doesn’t start until noon. That is approximately six hours from now.”

Eternika could hear a rough groaning noise coming from Kade as he was rubbing his forehead. The weapon could tell he was upset about more than yesterday.

In fact, he looked more annoyed than anything.

“You know Styra, this is time we could have used when it was really necessary. The weather outside is a lot worse and I’m unsure how you are going to train someone, in six hours mind you, when you haven’t even answered my question concerning The Star Sense.”

Everyone stared at Styra who stood pretty distant near the stairway. Although she had been listening, it was becoming tougher to acknowledge the problems accumulating against her. The best thing she could do was be honest.

Even if it was going to hurt.

“I haven’t mastered The Star Sense yet. Eternika and I have been at it for a while now. Neither of us have been able to figure out how to use it. If Cherry wants to be trained though, I can teach her other ways that I’ve been taught from being a guardian of Perenorbius.“

“How do I know I can trust you after what you did earlier?” asked Kade.

“Eternika can set me straight. We are inseparable in that sense, so it will be a lot different compared to last time.”

Kade could see the potential in her proposal. The only thing more problematic than that was how she would attempt to resolve other factors related to it

“A fair deal, but where will your training grounds take place?” he questioned further.

It was then that Styra could see her idea failing to make sense.

The eerie quietness of the room began to irritate Peppie. She couldn’t stand having to wait more longer to solve another problem that would likely take an ample amount of time to fix.

“How about we go to wherever we originally planned to go and Cherry can just have another role to play besides possibly tussling with those five imaginary goons everyone keeps talking about?!”

Impatience collectively took a toll on most of the group, causing them to try and coerce Styra out of the previous plan she had tried to jigsaw together.

“I’m sorry Styra, but Peppie has a point. I think you and Cherry can spar when there’s more time for us to do that,” said Flight.

Hearing the first person she ever met on Perenorbius tell her this, made Styra’s heart break. She would have to accept the fact that almost everyone would disagree with the idea. In a way, they weren’t approving of Cherry’s proposition either.

Did that justify how she secretly felt about everything after coming here?

Disguising herself amongst the other people in Animearth changed her perspective. She was beginning to consider the one thing she had asked Citrinion to herself:

Do you fight what you were born to be or accept what you really are?

Being who she currently was seemed to test that identity in itself already. With The Guardians Of The Omniverse gone missing because of her blind-sighted behavior, it made her wonder if having stayed a normal human without any powers would have been better.

She was born that way after all. At least, that was what Cherry seemed to imply.

Why was she fighting to become something she wasn’t originally? When she was around Otodo, it sparked a desire to remain in that moment. Such a feeling couldn’t be ignored, yet there was no option allowing her to go back and change a confusing past.

No matter how painful it was, she couldn’t keep dwindling on the negative. Perhaps it was better to let loose and give everyone else a chance to handle what she clearly had a hard time processing.

“My mistake everyone. Kade is right. Now is not the time to wait.”

Of all the people in the room, Hisa was the most shocked to see Styra going through so much trouble with her brother. He certainly wasn’t the same one she remembered but, that maturity Kade displayed about the situation spoke volumes to her.

However, seeing Styra forgo a similar mental crisis she had gone through herself made her want to help.

Everyone was preparing to leave while Cherry, Eternika, and now Hisa stuck by her side to tell her something.

“Don’t stress over it. I know much if anything at all about losing it over being forgetful. You’re not actually like that, it’s just a small incident. You are under too much pressure for someone your age.”

“I don’t really have an idea of how old I am at all to be honest with the time disconnect and everything. I can’t really see that being a valid excuse unfortunately,” remarked Styra.

“There you go again. I get it. It’s not that great what you went through. For everyone involved though, ask yourself this. What is really defining your purpose? The ideas you construct around you or the identity you have created within yourself? Think about that one for me.”

With most of the team already outside in the backyard ready to go, Styra walked toward the back door with Cherry clinging near her right shoulder while looking over at Snowflake who was whining with sadness. A wave of guilt came over her from feeling responsible for what happened to her best friend.

“This is all my fault,” Cherry whispered to herself.