Cosmogyral

Chapter 5: In which Rhyme and Neku appear.

"So..." Sora began, hands behind his head.

The scenery around them shifted slowly, bright colours glowing all over the district they found themselves in. Emerald green banners flagged the light posts, with one on each side lining the flagstone walkway. At further inspection, it would seem that Nemurin would need to redact her initial thoughts of the town appearing near-permanent late sunset, though the lights still warmed the area in a similar array of colours, shadows falling wide across the corners of buildings distant from the lights, which still glowed a dim orange, as did the windows despite not seemingly being inhabited by anyone, the only sounds that fringed their ears being the tap of their footsteps against the ground and the little bleats and uptight grumbles Sheppy and Morgana would make here and there.

Tilting her head, Nemurin answered, "Yeah?"

"How did you do all of that?" Sora asked. "Like, with the beam you shot out, and how you got here...!" he added.

The clouds surrounding Nemurin's head as constant companions floated alongside her as she tilted it in thought. Obviously, she could say she was a Magical Girl - but there was the explanation about it, and what it entailed. It was a little surreal to her, to be honest; most people in the Dream World never really questioned anything about her apart from her name, likely just assuming it to be part of the illusion - yet the boy with her now didn't seem to, he seemed to be taking it as seriously as he would the real world. It reminded her of an encounter she had with a Magical Girl, a few months ago; back then, she still had been weakened by her real body's death, and the Magical Girl had been dubbed in bright colours and the apparel of a superhero from across the sea. She hadn't thought of her for a little bit, what with the time that had passed since then; she wondered what she was doing now.

Giving it a thought, Nemurin settled for something simple; "Let's just say...I'm a Magical Girl." she stated.

"Heh, guess that's true," Sora agreed contentedly, giving a sunny grin. "You sure are a magical girl, Nemu, being able to purify Nightmares like that. It kinda reminds me of these old posters Kairi and Selphie would look over when we were kids, of these girls in flashy costumes who would come from magical kingdoms to fight evil. Riku and I always called it girly, but it's probably supposed to be, right?" he trailed off as they walked along.

Letting out a quiet laugh, she replied, rather relieved that she didn't need to go on any spiels about what she actually was and all the details that came with it. "Yeah, that sums it up,"

Besides, going off on some long lecture about how she became a Magical Girl and the game that led to it and where that game led her in the end, it was all rather complicated and rather needless, if you asked her. The stories of other people were always more fascinating anyhow.

"Say...is Riku here with you too?" Nemurin wondered - her mind rewound to the scene of the sea she had floated through, of the silver-haired boy dubbed in yellow, assuming at least for the moment that had probably been this Riku person.

"Well..." Sora's hands fell from behind his head as he spoke, his blue eyes falling to the floor instead. "He was. And I'm sure he's still somewhere around here, and I'm sure I'll find him. But when I got to Traverse Town, I couldn't see him anywhere," he admitted, the perplexion he felt over the matter simmering in his voice; clearly he wasn't as aware of the workings of all of this as she suspected he would have been.

"Is he a friend of yours?"

"Oh yeah!" Sora declared, the enthusiasm bubbling back up in his voice again, his eyes turning from the flagstone floor and back to Nemurin. "He's my best friend! Him and Kairi...I wonder how they're doing. Riku and Kairi, I mean,"