The Puppeteers

Chapter 1: My new purpose

"When did you become so troublesome?" Her parents would ask.

If she were honest, her parents always knew, from when she joined that dangerous troupe and got on the police wanted list, to when she started getting more and more into her interesting character roles with creative scripts.

She had no idea how her parents found out, but that didn't matter.

She didn't care if they didn't accept her, or wanted her to leave the troupe.

Nene Kusanagi, the quiet girl who suddenly turned mischievous, turning her back on the things she loved most. That's how her parents saw her.

But for Nene, she hadn't changed one bit. Infact, she thought that her joining this dangerous troupe was for the better.

After all, this is where she felt safe the most. She felt accepted for who she was, and knew she didn't have to fear anything here.

A place where she wouldn't get judged for her interests, nor her personality.

As she thought about those things, she realized it was after school, the time she would usually meet up with her troupe.

She and the other members were keeping this a secret from the entire school, because, if anyone knew, they could get expelled for breaking several laws that include: making unsafe experiments onstage without proper equipment that ended up burning some of the walls and "lightly" hurt one of their stage members, Tsukasa.

But when they think of it as "lightly", maybe they were minimizing it, because ever since then, Tsukasa had a burn mark on his finger that he had to cover up with foundation everyday.

Even then, they continued playing their life, pushing away the unspoken rules of society that everyone else had already ingrained into their brains.

It was not just hard, it was also a bit scary for them, but knowing the amount of times they had  managed to run away from cops, there was no doubt they would find a way to get out of expulsion, too.

Every meeting, all members of the troupe would head to their usual meeting spot, a place hidden in plain sight, yet hard to spot -

- the SEKAI.

A special place made out of feelings, accesible through just the click of a button through your phone.

This SEKAI was the reason they were always able to run away, since nobody besides the troupe could access it.

Nobody really knew how the SEKAI worked, but since it came to use, they never bothered trying to figure out anything.

Nene opened her phone, and pressed on the song "The World Hasn't Even Started Yet", the song that took them to SEKAI.

In an instant, she got teleported to the Wonderland SEKAI, a place that reminded her of Phoenix Wonderland - maybe because it was similar to it in a way - and looked around, her eyes trying to find the other troupe members.

"Nene-chan, you're quite early today!" Len's head perked up like a little dog as soon as Nene came, as if he was waiting for this moment.

All of Nene's worries faded away as she saw Len's silly dog face.

"Ah, did I arrive too early?" She replied, greeting Len with a shy but awkward smile.

"No worries!" Len waved his hand, gesturing that it was fine, "I didn't know you were the type to be so punctual, did something come up recently?"

"Huh? No, what makes you think that?" Nene shook her head in confusion.

"It must be just me, then." Len continued, "It seemed like you were feeling happier than usual."

"Hmm, maybe...?" She replied, "Well, I suppose I do feel a bit excited for our upcoming show." She recalled, "I doodled some of my ideas for it in class."

"Oo, really?!" Len said, his eyes shining, "Can I see, can I see?!"

"Ofcourse." Nene answered, taking off her backpack to take out the notebook she usually doodled on in class.

She handed the notebook over to Len.

"Since Halloween is coming soon, I thought it would be a cool idea if we did something like this."

"Mm..." Len mumbled, reading through the scribbled notes and ideas.

"So-" Nene felt slightly hesitant in asking, but decided to do it anyway; "-what do you think?"

"This is really good!" Len praised, making Nene sigh out of relief, "I think you should show this to the others."

"Really? Would they like it?" Nene asked again, still not feeling fully confident about this idea.

But Len was insistent.

"You don't need to worry like that when you're with us, y'know!" He said in an attempt to cheer her up, "We'll never judge you."

"Mm, right." Nene smiled, imagining the rest of her troupe.

"Hehe, you really love them a lot, don't you?" Len smiled back.

She nodded.

"Nene-chan," Len said, "Never lose this feeling, okay?"

"Huh?" Nene looked at him, not expecting such a response.

"If you keep loving them, you might be able to save them all."

"...What?"

"Sorry, I can't say any more than this," Len apologized, "I know you must be confused."

"What are you talking about?" She asked.

"You'll understand soon enough."

"No, don't leave me here wondering like that!" Nene pleaded, "Tell me what you meant."

"...Can't." Len apologized a second time, "Sorry."

Nene couldn't find words to say. Her gaze was fixed on Len, who seemed to be done with the conversation.

He slowly walked away, leaving Nene alone with her thoughts.