Cross Worlds

Chapter 3-2 (Side- Fantasy)

"Hey, Reality, are you alright? I just got a weird notification saying you got badly hurt. Didn't I warn you not to go into town dumbass?! What were you thinking?!"

"Dude, the notification says you're critically hurt, not dead! You'd better not be ignoring me!"

"Riku Reality! Answer me god dammit!"

I text my alternate in 30 minute intervals as Emica leads me to the location of Artemis. I try to sound angry, but I'm worried as hell about him right now. I want to tap on this notification to see if I can get some more info out of it, yet I can't risk letting someone else see it. I'd rather not go through the hassle of someone finding out that I've switched bodies with myself from an alternate dimension, much less give them any clues to figure that out. Instead, I'm going to put my worries at the back of my mind and focus on the nuisance going on right now.

"Alright, you said this place was within walking distance no? We've been walking for over an hour now!" I shout to the woman leading me.

"I lied because I wanted to take a walk and get some fresh air. It's been a while since I've gotten to do something like this, since I'm always so busy. Even when I do get time to do stuff like this, I have to have a bodyguard with me. The only alone time I get is when I'm in my bedroom." She chuckles and nods back to the woman from before, who's been following us this whole time. I assume she must be some vip member of Artemis if she has to have at least one guardian with her outside of what she does in her resting area, but I'm not going to ask about that right now. "Besides, haven't you been trying to exercise this weekend? Walking is a great way to workout your body, and you're getting tons of sunlight to boot. Two birds with one stone, no? Three if you're one to take in the great atmosphere like me." She sighs happily and brushes her hair out of her face.

"...How did you know that..? I've only been doing exercise in my apartment..." I narrow my eyes with suspicion. "Has she really been watching me even in my apartment? If so, then she would already know about..."

"Well, I could hear you doing exercise in your room. The walls in that place are pretty thin, so it wasn't hard to tell what you were doing when you were counting out loud, panting, and movement could be heard. That or you were counting to see how long you could last..."

I immediately yell to get her to stop talking. "Exercise! Yes, I was doing exercise!" I can feel my cheeks turn a light red from the embarrassment I feel. I hate drawing attention to myself, but letting her say something like that in public would be worse. "But how do you know all that? Were you listening in through the doors or something..?"

"Gosh no!" She laughs. "It was hard not to hear with you talking so loudly all the time. It got to the point where I even got annoyed and started yelling at you to keep quiet so I could sleep at night."

My eyes widen a little bit when she says that. Is she the neighbor Riku was telling me about before? "He even said she had moved in recently too..."

"From the look on your face, I'm guessing you've figured out that I became your temporary neighbor to learn more about you." She glances back at me to give me a playful smile.

"Yeah, I did... Someone high class like you moved into a crappy apartment just to see if I was worthy of recruitment?" I know it's not that big of a feat, but in my world, someone moving down from a higher class is almost unheard of.

Emica stops walking to laugh for a moment. "You think that's a big deal Riku?" She turns to look at me and smiles placidly, yet charmingly. "There's nothing I wouldn't do to help someone in need. Doesn't matter if I have to be on the street or take someone on in a fight."