Chase The Truth

Chapter 62: Teddie's Return

Begin

~Normal POV

That night, during a restless sleep, Yu found himself dreaming of the Velvet Room again. But this time, something was off. There was no sign of Igor, Margaret, or Marie. But there was a familiar face here. One he hadn't seen in days.

"Teddie?!"

The bear was sitting quietly on the cushioned car seats, looking miserable. He must have taken his bear suit with him when he disappeared, because he was wearing it again, despite him not doing so the last time they'd seen him. Yu didn't even really care why he was able to enter the Velvet Room, when Igor had only given such access to him before, but that didn't matter. Right now, he was just happy to see his friend was safe.

Teddie looked up at the sound of his voice and looked around. "Where... am I...?" He stood and turned his attention to Yu. "Sensei?! Why are you here?"

"I could ask you the same." Yu said, approaching him. The Velvet Room car must be bigger than he originally thought if they could both stand comfortably inside it. (Especially with the considerable height difference between them.)

"I see... How mysterious..." Teddie said, "There are so many things I don't know about. But I did realize something..." He looked sad again.

"What's wrong...?" Yu asked, gently.

"I've been thinking all this time... about who I really am. But I couldn't find the answer... I was 'no one' from the start... Humans live in the other world, and Shadows live in this world... From the beginning... That's all there was to it. I- I was just a Shadow in that world..."

Yu couldn't entirely say that surprised him. It explained everything. Like why he was able to just grow himself a human form inside his suit. Why he was suddenly able to exit the tv world. The fact that an x-ray machine malfunctioned in trying to look at him. He was most assuredly not human or animal of any description. And if it was true that he had been the only non-Shadow living among their kind in the other world, then the only logical conclusion would be that he was a different form of the same thing. Still, Yu could see why he was upset. He was one of the creatures they'd been fighting all this time. What did that mean for them?

"You're... a Shadow?" He said, quizzically, trying to get more details about how this came to be.

"I figured something out... That day at the hospital, I realized that I really can't do anything. As soon as I realized that, I lost consciousness... Then when I woke up, I was inside the fog. Shadows can't stay in the human world... They aren't allowed. I walked and walked, but there was nothing all around me... Just when I started thinking that I couldn't go anywhere, I heard the noise of a car... And then I was here..."

He sniffled before continuing, "I remember lots of things now... My world is a place shaped by human thoughts... One day, a Shadow living in that world awakened to human emotions. But humans and Shadows are completely different entities... So he made himself forget that he was a Shadow... He wanted to forget... He wanted people to like him... And that's how he came to look like this! I really am stupid... What the other Teddie said before... In the end, it was all true. No matter how much I search for myself, I have no self... There was no me to begin with... I'm just a Shadow that took a different form so humans would like me... It would have been better if I had never remembered, but I did..."

"I see..." Yu said, thoughtfully. "That does explain a lot..."

"I'll... probably turn back into a regular Shadow soon..." Teddie said, sadly. "Sensei... One day, when you see Nana-chan in heaven... apologize for me... Tell her... I'm sorry I couldn't do anything... Tell her I'm really sorry..." He was sobbing now.