Deep Dive

Carol gasped as she snapped out of the illusion. She was no longer at the lake, but resting beside a tree with Yuni as Astrid and Serika stood watch.

"Well you sure took your sweet time snapping out of that. You were screaming and flailing all the way here," Serika grumbled.

"S- Sorry."

Carol clutched her head and warily rose, getting a better look at the surroundings. Julius was nowhere in sight, nor was the lake everyone had arrived at. Astrid decided to fill her in on what happened while she was out. The group was planning to take refuge in the town to fight back against Julius, however, the fierce rain had led them to take refuge under a big tree.

"Here. Feel you're the type that wouldn't mind running around naked, but probably not best to head into town nude," Astrid chuckled as she tossed Carol her soggy clothes and sneakers.

"So we're making a mad dash?"

"Pretty much. And I'm not carrying you again," Serika grumbled.

Once Carol was dressed, everyone made a mad dash for the town, with Yuni riding on Serika's back. While Serika didn't mind, she did hope Yuni's stamina would return quickly as her own stamina was beginning to run low.

As they reached a the town, Astrid began scowling as she realized it wasn't like the town in the game.

"Did that bastard cast a minor illusion? Well, I guess this means we're in uncharted territory.

As the four walked through town, Serika went on guard as she noticed numerous unsavory customers staring at them. "We come to a bandit town or something? Everyone looks like they want to mug us."

Yuni quickly huddled close to Serika as she correctly surmised most were zeroing in on her, likely due to her appearing to be the weakest looking of the group.

Despite the tense atmosphere, the girls managed to find their way to an inn and get a room with a fireplace. There, they once again stripped, but this time all huddled under the blanket together. It seemed like this would lead to another round of awkward silence, but Serika managed to break the ice and ask about what Carol was screaming about when she was under Julius' illusion.

"Well, to put it bluntly I had a lousy past. Basically, I was beaten into to submission by my peers at the request of my family in order to become the woman they wanted me to be. It sadly worked for a few years, but then I managed to snap out of it thanks to someone really special to me setting me free."

Serika somberly looked down before apologizing to Carol. "Sorry about earlier. I actually can relate a bit. The piece of shit that raised me was the same, though she did all the beating and brainwashing herself."

"What about child protection laws?"

"She took precautions and was a powerful politician."

"Wait, you said you and Yuni had the same mother. So what's going on?"

"I was separated from my mother shortly after birth and raised by a piece of shit that claimed to be my mother, but in actuality was technically my biological half-sister."

Carol quickly went pale as she began to grasp what Serika was alluding to. "I'm sorry. You don't need to continue."

"Nah, it feels better to talk about it. Anyway, with a hopeless situation before me, it felt like I'd succumb to it sooner or later. But one day, my mom hijacked a television broadcast and exposed the piece of shit's misdeeds. It showed me there was a chance to beat that piece of shit, and in that moment, resolved myself to escape that hell no matter how long it took. It meant acting exactly like that piece of shit wanted me to act, but it eventually paid off when I was 15 years old. There, I finally got an opportunity to escape and took it, destroying that piece of shit for good and earning my freedom."

Carol somberly smiled. Compared to her, Serika sounded so much braver and more determined. Though one key question remained on her mind; who exactly was Serika and Yuni's mother?

"Our mother is Fubuki Dakota," Yuni stated, causing both Carol and Astrid to gasp in shock.

"I heard about her. Everyone always called her a conspiracy theorist, but she was actually spitting straight fact!"

"Thanks, it means a lot to hear someone compliment Okaa-san."

"So then you were raised by Fubuki?"

"Yes, but only for the first 3 years of my life. Fearing for my safety, she had me move in with my aunt when I was 3. Though she always made sure to visit me every year on my birthday."

"Yuni actually has really bad stamina because of me, or I guess it's more accurate to say it was due to the piece of shit that was my biological father ripping me out from my mother's womb and messing it up in the process," Serika sighed.

"It was honestly a miracle I was born, so I've been told. My biological father, was actually Okaa-san's partner in her line of work, and was apparently so paranoid, he left behind an entire fridge of his sperm in case something happened to him. It was thanks to that Okaa-san was able to have me, though it apparently took a lot of tries," Yuni stated.

That statement reminded Carol of something her late-boyfriend had done. "Chrisitan did something similar. In fact, I had to pay extra to bring his sperm onboard as carry-on when I moved to Japan."

"Uh, you what!?"

"Par for the course in terms of my wacky antics. But I guess now I understand why you're so protective of your little sister.

"She wasn't always like this though. Before we knew we were related, we hated each other more than anything. She once nearly pulled off my twintails with that brute strength of hers," Yuni smirked.

"I'll yank em out for real if you tell that embarrassing story again," Serika grumbled.

"Well anyway, I've always had bad stamina, but thanks to some ninja training I got, I managed to mitigate it a bit."

"Ninja training? You two are ninjas?" Astrid asked.

"Oh, I'm a ninja too! In fact, I just recently learned I'm descended from a really famous clan, known as the Kirikawa clan," Carol smiled.

Yuni and Serika both stared in shock.

"Uh... Something I-"

"THAT'S THE SAME CLAN AS US!"

"Heh?"

"We're both descended from that clan. But which branch are you from? We're from Sanari's line."

"Sanari... Ah, you mean Jijiji's line. I'm actually from his sister, Minii's line. And believe it or not, Iori's from Roichi's line."

"I thought Roichi didn't have children."

"No, triple-ji mentioned there was an incident with some psycho nurse. Oh, guess that means you're both related to Miku as well since she's our cousin," Serika grumbled.

"'Miku'?"

"Kumi."

Now it was Carol's turn to stare in shock as the revelation hit her. Astrid meanwhile, was beginning to feel left out. But before she could jump in, the door to the room suddenly creaked open as a hooded figure slowly hovered in.

Everyone went on guard, but instead of it being Julius, the figure instead revealed themself to be... a person in an old yellow diving suit.

However, everyone but Yuni recognized the figure.

"You gotta be kidding me. It's Deep Diver."

"Deep what?"

"From the mobile game, The One's under the bed. You know, the AR game where you catch bed monsters. This guy's practically the mascot of the game."

"Oh right, that game you sometimes play with Emeri at night. I think Madoka plays it too."

"Uh, hate to cut short the sibling bonding, but I think we need to focus on how to get out of this," Astrid scowled as Deep Diver began moaning and slowly hovering towards everyone.