Onestop Shop: Daily Short Stories

Day 5: Memories Come Rushing Back: Part 4

Cronia had searched for the bramblechilde for a month but had not found it. She had, however, not come out of her search entirely empty-handed, she had learned about her redo spell as well as some information about the bramblechilde.

Many of her days were spent asking students around if they knew anything about the bramblechilde. When she received awkward stares, she reversed time before she ever asked the question. More and more, Cronia found herself relying on her powers for remembering to drink milk before it spoiled and fixing scrolls after crumpling them to use as ammo for launching into trash cans.

What was similar each time was the way the powers were activated was thinking on her past regrets. There was one other similarity, getting sleepy afterwards. The amount of time she slept, however, was unknown. How far she went back in time and how many times went back in time seemed to influence her sleep, but the consequences remained unpredictable.

Cronia tried bribing others by accumulating winnings on small bets, but it yielded no results. She thought about earning enough to hire entire armies or private detectives to help her search, but the attention from that would be unprecedented. She just wanted to find a silly forest creature, not cause a global phenomenon. Besides, there was no guarantee of that being a success, she needed a small-knit group whom she could trust.

Her smaller bribes eventually led her to the school's gem-stone lit underground halls. The school's punks, the Lurkers, had eyes and ears in lots of places and had apparently seen the bramblechilde.

Cronia sat at a wooden table with a small summoning circle in the middle, purple cards, some face up and others face down, lay strewn about on the table in an orderly grid. On the opposite side of Cronia, a grizzled ruffian, Johnny, sat, keeping his hand of cards in a fan pattern and close to his face.

Where Johnny sat, several knives were stabbed into the table, she presumed each one represented a win in his streak of victories, he had said something about being undefeated before Cronia challenged him, or something like that - she forgot.

"No first-timer ever made me sweat. You're either lucky or a liar," Johnny said. Little was an understatement, the brute's sunglasses seemed permanently fused to his face with sticky sweat. The moisture clinging to the basement air, the single, overly bright, light dangling from the ceiling, and the ring of thugs breathing down his and Cronia's necks didn't help Johnny's perspiration problem either.

"My turn, harvesting stage," Johnny said, swapping the positions of his various cards, though Cronia didn't know which ones got to flip and why. He then flipped them around some more and slammed a card from his hand onto the field. "I cast Dust Storm. Bleak wind surges through the arena! Now, all monsters are wiped from the board. You'll see why this card is my favorite soon enough; rage on Dust Storm!"

Then, Cronia and Johnny swept away their front row of cards. Cronia had to get rid of her three Chimera Cake themed monsters. Johnny cackled as he placed down a card from his hand "That was the setup; here's the payoff! I summon Dragon of the Dilapidated Classroom, and now I attack for game!" Johnny said. He pushed his card to the summoning circle in the middle of the table. "Since I'm attacking for the game, I push Dragon of the Dilapidated Classroom into the Ritual Circle."

The glyphs of the Ritual Circle began to glow. Cronia began to cough as the dust in the room streamed through the air, gathering on top of the card Johnny had just moved. A miniature vortex swirled on the card's surface, and as it subsided, a palm-sized dragon made of scroll paper appeared. Its three heads, each with beady, ink-drawn eyes glared at Cronia.

"Well, what's your move? Or do you forfeit your remaining HP and the match?" Johnny said. Cronia fanned the air with her hand, gagging from all the dust. She looked down at her hand but didn't have anything usable. The only card that could save her was Engraged Chimera Cake, however, it could only be summoned by sacrificing 3 Chimera Cake type monsters and if she was being attacked.