A Fleeting Utopia

Chapter 8

A yawn escaped Tsumi's mouth. She desperately wanted to sleep, but she was afraid there would be no time for this tomorrow, when she and the others would be tasked with more Aloi-smashing.
After a trip to the supply store in the building (which was undoubtedly longer than 15 minutes, to Tsumi's dismay) Tsumi had successfully obtained a small, spiral bound notebook with a mountain scene on the cover. It turned out the shop did have notebooks after all. She had made Nova buy it for her on a 25% off discount from the exhausted cashier.
Once she had gotten back to her room and made sure Nova was asleep, she rummaged through Nova's desk drawer to find a flashlight and a pen. This really better be worth my time, because if Nova finds me taking her stuff...Tsumi cringed a little at that thought, but tried to push it far back into her mind. She sipped on the bottled water that Nova had put on both of their nightstands. For the first time, she felt empowered, and hopeful. She knew after just a taste of this feeling that she would constantly be hungry for it from now on. But in a place like this, it was hard to feel any happy emotions without thoughts crashing down, telling her since this place wasn't real, nothing good here could be either.
She opened the notebook, running her hands along the smooth cover. Taking the purple pen she had taken from Nova's desk, she wrote at the top of the fresh first page, "Plans to Convince the Others That This Place is Evil!" She knew that was kind of a dramatic way to put it, and laughed at her own stupidity. She began to write again; I know I need to convince all of my friends that my story is true, and that I'm not the only one that isn't from this universe. But I still need to know how, and what works best for each person. At those couple sentences, Tsumi was reminded she still didn't know much about what her and her friends were up to before all of this, nothing that could possibly trigger memories of before. Though she knew enough about this place to know she didn't want to be in it, she still didn't know that much about her past.
In addition to all that, the memories she had gotten with VR thing over her eyes while she was in Roka's maze were too vague and scrambled to be of any assistance. The people in the memories may not even be any of the 3 others that were here with her.
She considered taking them to the places Roka recommended, like the school, and the Nothingness at the beach, but it wasn't going to be worth her time. Though Nova did seem confused and suspicious at the Nothingness, she didn't seem to have any restored memories.
Key word: seem. Maybe it was possible Nova knew about all of this when she saw what happened at the beach, but was hiding the truth because she was too scared to give up the illusion of perfection!
Yes, that could actually make a lot of sense. It was worth a shot anyways.
Instead of planning out how she was going to convince all of her friends, she needed to make sure that Nova wasn't hiding something. Under the title she had previously written she wrote in all caps "INVESTIGATE NOVA!!!"
After tucking the notebook under her pillow, she flicked off her flashlight, put the pen back in Nova's desk, laid back on her bed and stared at the ceiling until sleep washed upon her, sending her into a trance of countless dreams.
Throughout the next day, Tsumi was all over Nova. When she had first woken up, Tsumi immediately looked for Nova to find she had already gotten out of bed. The fact that she and the others had to deal with the Aloi today dawned upon her. Nova probably already was downstairs eating breakfast.
After hastily changing and rushing down for breakfast, Tsumi constantly made references to the situation they were in right now, hoping the constant reminder would spark some emotion on Nova's face. But she didn't react, other than acting confused and slightly annoyed. During their fighting session with some Standard Aloi (in which Tsumi used her brand new spear she had ended up getting with her notebook at the weapon shop) she tried to talk to Nova again, but almost got both of them smashed under the beast's huge legs. Tsumi noted not to take the "Standard" part of Standard Aloi too seriously, because they definitely attacked just as well as the other two kinds.
Tsumi told herself she wasn't going to give up so easily, but time blurred together. Days turned to weeks, and Tsumi was losing sight of her main goal. She decided to try one more thing to try to get Nova to spit out the truth, and if she didn't, Tsumi was just going to have to accept that she was wrong, and that she still needed to find a solution. She couldn't just stay here doing nothing about what was happening on Earth.
On a hazy Friday evening, Tsumi took out the phone Nova had given her and sent Nova a quick text while enjoying the breeze on the balcony she had discovered on the 35th floor. She tried not to obsessively check her phone as she waited for a reply, but it only took around three minutes for Nova to reply.
Tsumi: What do u think about this reality?
Nova: what do you mean? are you trying to be deep or something? cuz it isn't working.
Tsumi: I mean what I literally just said. just answer my question.
Nova: fine, fine. I don't really know what you mean by "reality" but I'll take a wild guess and say it means my life right now. It's fine, I guess? I do wish there weren't any Aloi beasts, but we do all we can to protect people from them...
Tsumi thought about her reply. It really didn't seem like she knew anything about what was really going on. She felt a little disappointed, but at least Nova wasn't lying to her this whole time. But more than anything, she felt embarrassed that she had jumped to a conclusion like that so quickly. What had come over her?
She felt a jolt of surprise go through her as she saw her phone light up with another text from Nova.
Nova: well, am I done here? I'm going to my parents' house for an hour.
Tsumi reread the message, trying to process what Nova was saying. Though her suspicions of Nova were diminished, it might be interesting to see Nova's parents in this fake world. Did the person who put them here really take people's siblings or parents here? It must be some simulation of them or something, it probably wouldn't be too safe to do that. But it might be good to know what it was like.
But of course she couldn't just ask Nova to come with her-that would be a little uncalled for. She would have to follow her into the city to wherever her parents lived if she was going to pull this off. She assured herself this has NOTHING to do with her previous speculation, and that she just was taking the chance to figure out how this place worked while she had the chance.
Tsumi: When are you leaving?
Tsumi hoped that message didn't seem too weird or intrusive.
Nova: why do you need to know
The lack of punctuation irked her, but Tsumi gritted her teeth and sent another message in reply. Of course she had taken it the wrong way.
Tsumi: Geez I'm just curious. Why are you getting all defensive?
Nova: In like 10 minutes. you happy now? I'm going to shower so don't bother me anymore. thank you
Tsumi didn't bother responding. Since she and Nova shared a room, she didn't even need to try to be sneaky when she went into the room. Though knowing Nova, she would probably suspect something with her recent texts and the fact that she was choosing to go into their dorm now, but she didn't have time to care about that. She took one glance at the lit up city lights clashing against the dark blue sky as she went back inside, closing the balcony door behind her. She walked across the hall and found the door to the dorm all the way closed, but not locked. She peeked her head into the door and saw that the bathroom door was closed, and she could hear the sound of the shower running and the sound of someone singing.
Hoping that Nova would be taking a lengthy shower, she sat down on Nova's bed, taking her phone from beside her. She inwardly groaned at seeing the words on the screen probing her for a password. She tried hitting the number five five times in a row. The phone easily opened up, the phone's approving ding a little louder than Tsumi would have wanted. She had gotten lucky with that one. She immediately went to the Maps app and looked at Nova's past locations. There was only one address on the list, on Dry Creek boulevard. It looked like you could only take the bus about halfway there, and then Tsumi's heart started to beat rapidly. This must be it!
She took out her phone and took a picture of the address on Nova's frowning at the quality of the image on the old thing. But this would do. She was going to closely follow Nova anyway, but it was a little safer if she at least knew where exactly she was going.
Suddenly, Tsumi noticed the singing and sound of the water pouring in the shower had stopped. Uh-oh. She tried to place Nova's phone back in place and grab her own, but she heard the doorknob creaking. She ducked under Nova's bed, pressing herself against the wall. Her short hair caught on the scratchy underside of the bed. She heard a clicking sound, but she wasn't sure if it was the closet door or the lock to the room. Tsumi was beginning to feel a little light headed. She couldn't see Nova's legs from under the bed, so she had probably gone into the closet. But it wouldn't be smart to try to get out now, even if she might need to run a little to catch up to Nova, it wasn't worth it to risk getting caught.
She shouldn't even have to be worried about getting caught in the dorm she now lived in, even if she shared it. But with her previous texts, it would seem too suspicious. Otherwise, she'd already taken the chance to make her escape.
She heard a door open and the sound of shuffling. Tsumi guessed she was getting what she needed for her trip. She heard the sound of footsteps, and Nova was out. Tsumi peeked out from under the bed to confirm, and then got up. She was lucky the door locked from the inside and outside, or else she'd have no way out. Quickly, she grabbed a backpack that Juno had bought her and placed her phone inside. Just in case, she decided to include her spear, which was retractable, in the bag. Stepping outside the room she made sure she had the spare key Nova had given her a while ago, so she could lock the door back to make sure she didn't leave any evidence of what she had done. She followed Nova down the stairs, stopping when she got to the elevator to go down to the first floor.
Tsumi realized she'd have to wait until Nova came back up, which meant she was going to be more behind than she would have wanted. She still didn't know exactly where everything was in this city, and had never taken a bus before. As she waited, she thought about how sneaky she'd need to be. It would be a lot easier if Nova had been taking the subway, but taking the bus would get her closer to her parents house. Tsumi just hoped she would be able to catch the same bus as Nova without her seeing.
Once Tsumi got off the elevator and arrived at the first floor, Nova was nowhere to be seen. Tsumi shivered in her thin white hoodie as she stepped outside, pulling the hood over her face. She spotted Nova walking down the street ahead of her. She was wearing a warm looking yet short black sweater dress and boots. She really should have worn black, it would make her less noticeable against the dark night sky. But if she kept her face covered, it wouldn't matter as much.
Tsumi followed Nova around for what seemed like days, but in reality was probably only a 10 minute walk. Finally, Nova arrived at a bus stop with a small bench, which a group of younger teenage boys were crowding around, laughing and playfully hitting each other as they waited. Tsumi hopped into some nearby shrubbery as soon as Nova arrived. The whole time, Nova hadn't seen her because she was focused on the road ahead, but if she was now stationary, it wouldn't be so easy to hide in plain sight as she did before.
Instantaneously, the bus appeared, puffs of smoke coming out from the underside of the back. Nova got on before the group of boys, which made it easier for Tsumi to hide herself. She waited until the last one of the boys went in to sprint over to the bus, just barely making it inside the bus. She sat on the window seat at the very front of the bus, resting her head on the cushioning on the back of the seat. She kept her face covered, but just enough so she could still see when Nova was getting off at her exit.
Tsumi was jolted out of her sleepy, pointless thoughts when she saw Nova's boots exiting the bus. She leaped up to get off, but the doors had already shut. Tsumi turned to the bus driver desperately. "Please, sir, I wasn't paying attention, and this is my stop. Can you open the door again?"
The bus driver just sighed like he had encountered this same situation many times and pressed a button to open the door again.
"Thank you so much." Tsumi leaped off the bus and watched it zoom away. She discreetly followed Nova until they reached a small neighborhood with even smaller houses, the paint peeling from the sides. It was now pitch black outside. Tsumi planned to just watch from a window, but now she would actually have to sneak into the house, and get out at the same time as Nova, or risk having her possibly brainwashed parents see her in their house.
She watched Nova walk up to a house with what seemed like blue paint-not that Tsumi could see it very well- and rang the doorbell. Tsumi crouched down on the poarch and took out her spear. When the door opened and Nova walked in, Tsumi slid her spear, blocking the door from closing all the way. Tsumi hoped with all her heart that Nova or her family wouldn't notice that the door hadn't closed all the way. Once she was sure they had moved away from the door, Tsumi waddled awkwardly into the house, put her spear back in her backpack, and softly shut the door behind her.
Under her feet was a soft blue rug. In front of her was a kitchen island, big enough to hide behind. The whole house smelled like cinnamon, but something was off about the scent. It seemed like it was trying so hard to be a comforting, soothing scent, like it wasn't really cinnamon at all, but some chemicals acting like it was. Tsumi heard talking from what looked like the living room, and peeked out from the side to take a look.
Nova sat on a small brown couch with an older couple next to her. The woman was stroking her hair. "How have you been, Nova? I do hope you are staying safe while fighting."
"Yeah, I've been fine. How have you guys been?"
The man, Nova's dad, now spoke. "We've been doing well too. Though some of those Aloi attacked the market we were at the other day, but luckily everyone got out safely." He chuckled.
Nova's face looked unsettled, but she didn't say anything. "Well, we should be able to wipe out the Aloi beasts faster now. A lot of new people are joining us, including a new girl that joined our team. Not that she's very good." Tsumi gritted her teeth. Did she really need to say that?
Tsumi didn't stop listening, but the words Nova and her parents were saying didn't really register in her brain. At first glance, this seemed like a normal family, but Tsumi was sure these weren't Nova's actual parents. Even Nova seemed a little bit uncomfortable, even if she didn't know exactly what was off. These were probably just simulations programmed into this world to act like Nova's parents. Tsumi thought about if simulations of her own family were implanted into this world. She seriously doubted it though. It would be pointless for whoever put her here to create that if she already knew what was going on here.
She didn't really feel the need to stay any longer. Making sure the coast was clear, she dashed out the door, not bothering to close it all the way. It's not like they would suspect it could be her if any of them did see that the door wasn't closed. Tsumi started walking back to the bus stop to catch a ride back, but uncomfortably realized Nova was probably somewhere behind her. By the time she had left, Nova was already starting to say her goodbyes.
Tsumi picked up the pace but realized that it probably looked suspicious. She just hoped Nova wouldn't say anything when she realized that she and who she thought was a random person were going to the exact same place.
Tsumi was contemplating all of this when she heard a loud screech from behind her. She whipped around, and to her horror, she saw Nova being attacked by a Standard Aloi beast. Panicked, Tsumi forgot about the whole undercover thing and practically tore open her backpack, grabbing the spear she had brought. She guessed it would now be useful in more than one way.
The edge of the empty street was lined with trees, and lucky for her, the Aloi beast was entangled in the surrounding ones, leaves littering the floor. Nova squirmed in the tight grip of the Aloi's human-like fist, but was dropped when Tsumi slashed the bot down, red liquid spurting everywhere. Unfortunately, Tsumi's small streak of luck didn't stick around for long. She wasn't able to get to Nova in time, leaving her plummeting into a pile of leaves. Great, Tsumi thought selfishly. Now I have to answer questions about why I was here and hear Nova complaining about being hurt.
She walked up to the pile of leaves and began to pull on Nova's right arm. "I know you have a lot of questions, like why I was here, and how amazingly I just saved your life, but that'll have to wait-" Tsumi stopped talking, hearing a groan and seeing the wince on Nova's face as she pulled her arm back.
Tsumi smirked. "Oh please, you're so hurt, aren't you. Come on, let's just go back and I promise I'll tell you what I can on why I'm here."
A moment of silence passed, and now Tsumi was starting to feel tense. Then Nova spoke.
"My arm. I sprained it." Her voice wobbled, getting softer at the end of her sentence.
"What?"
"What's there to ask about? You heard what I said. I don't care. I don't care about why you were here. Just get me help."
"Do you want me to call the ambulance?"
"No. The service is bad on this side of town."
Tsumi put her hands on her hips. "Then what do you think I can do to help you? I'm no trained nurse."
"I don't know. I just need help, now."
"What do you want me to do, carry you? That wouldn't even help the situation anyways, it's not like you broke your leg or anything."
Nova didn't reply. This conversation was going nowhere, and now that she had done her little investigation, she needed to force herself to find a way out of here before she forgot that this world wasn't even real. It was shockingly easy considering all she had gone through, and though she hadn't completely forgotten, during these past few weeks she had blended into the daily routine of life in this world, and scarily so.
Since Nova wasn't going to tell her anything else, she started to look around at some of the plants nearby, a lot of them covered in red liquid or robot parts. She was able to find a thick, long dark green weed that just might suffice as a cast for now. She had a feeling it wouldn't satisfy Nova, but it didn't matter if she liked it or not, only if they were both able to get back to headquarters safely. She brought the plant back and held it out for Nova to see. "Will this work as a makeshift cast for now?"
Nova sighed, her voice ragged. "Okay."
After Tsumi had got her situated, they had started slowly walking back to the bus, which Tsumi didn't understand. It was her hand that was injured, not any other part of her body. But of course Nova claimed she had also pulled a muscle in her leg. Sooner than later, Nova asked the dreaded question.
"Okay, so I take back what I said earlier. You better tell me why you were following me! Is that why you asked all that weird stuff earlier? And how did you even find the address?"
"Hey, if I didn't follow you here, you could have died! So maybe you'd let me just keep this little secret to myself for once?" If Tsumi told her why, she would sound suspicious. But that could possibly be a good thing. If she seemed more suspicious then maybe at least one other person would know about this place and its twisted lies. But she should present it in a way that would be more relatable to Nova.
"Please? You at least have to tell me how you got the address. Unless you follow me the whole entire way..." Nova side-eyed her.
"Did you see anything weird when you were with your parents?"
"Excuse you for changing the topic." Nova snapped, but she looked nervous. "And why do you ask, anyways?"
"I don't know. Maybe that has a little to do with why I followed you." Tsumi knew immediately after the words left her mouth that this wasn't the right thing to say, but it was too late.
Tsumi could practically see Nova connecting the dots in her head. "Are...are you saying you're stalking my parents? You think they're suspicious! What are you trying to accuse them of? First you started acting weird around me, and I thought that was over, but I guess I was wrong!"  
"I guess you were."
"What kind of answer is that?"
"I know you felt it." Tsumi said, not elaborating further. If this went the way she wanted, Nova would at least be a little easier to convince about her beliefs about this world later, if not convince her completely. But Tsumi knew that though doing this would help if executed properly, this universe, or the person controlling it probably won't let Nova realize the truth so easily. Tsumi wondered if they were even trying to stop her anymore.
"Felt what?" Nova asked, not looking Tsumi in the eye.
"That something wasn't right when you visited your parents."
Nova's face paled. "How do you even know that? Did you sneak into my parents house?"
"Possibly..." At Nova's look, Tsumi jumped back in before Nova could speak again. "Tell me, what specifically did you notice?"
"I...I don't know. Everything they did and said felt like my parents, but I could tell something was off. If it makes sense, it felt like they were too much of themselves, like an exaggerated version of their own personalities."
"But I'm sure they just...maybe had a little too much to drink before I came, or something. Though my parents were never big on alcohol..."
A moment of silence passed as the two continued walking.
"We're almost at the bus stop," Nova commented awkwardly. She plopped down onto the cold, blue seats that were around the bus stop, but Tsumi didn't sit.
"Even if you didn't acknowledge it, I think you have noticed that something here is weird, even if you try to convince yourself otherwise."
"I thought we were off this topic!"
"How does a couple minutes of silence indicate a change in subject?"
"It doesn't, it's just..." Nova looked down at her shoes for a moment. "I guess I do kind of get what you're talking about. Something does feel a little bit weird here. But how do I know that's not just you?"
Tsumi, taken aback, blurted, "What?"
Nova stared down at her dully, like she was stupid. "Well, aren't you from another universe or planet or something weird like that? Maybe something about you is disturbing our world.  Or maybe you're doing something on purpose." Nova's eyes narrowed.
Oh, so now she wanted to accuse her of things? She guessed for someone who barely had an idea of what exactly was "weird" here, it was the first reasonable thing to think of, but it still was intensely irritating. Luckily, the bus pulled into the stop before either of them could say anything else. Tsumi realized it was there first and hopped on, taking a seat next to a random person near the front so she didn't have to see Nova, just for the 10 minute ride back.
Resting her head on the uncomfortable rest, she drifted into a state half between sleep and daydreaming. After a while of being in this state, she heard a voice calling out for the next stop and began to get up, only to be suddenly yanked off the bus, hitting her head on the top of the door. She let out a shriek as she felt the concrete under her palms.
"Sorry," Nova said sheepishly.
Head pounding, Tsumi started running back to headquarters. She was getting sick and tired of this. What a waste of time and energy. She decided that when she got home, she would start on her real plan to convince her other two friends. If they wanted to tell Nova, they could go ahead, but she was done with this hyperfixation, this stalling she tried to convince herself was helpful. She needed to focus before it was too late.