The Puppeteers

Chapter 10: Glimpse into the underworld

"Congratulations to Nene!" A cute voice said, "You're the first to enter your own Fragment SEKAI!"

"My...Fragment SEKAI?" She looked around, "How did I get here?"

There were a bunch of buildings and shops surrounding her, a lot of them having advertisements on them.

Yup, this was her Fragment SEKAI alright. But those "advertisements" didn't quite seem like actual ads.

Are those...screens?

"Huh? Why are there so many screens with Miku on them?"

The girl smiled upon hearing her name, "I'm glad you noticed. Have a little look around, won't you?"

All of the shop lights were off, the only light you could see was coming from the several screens Miku had been placed on. It was creepy, because everywhere you went, there would be a Miku on a huge screen watching your every move.

Ofcourse, these screens had to be where that cute voice was coming from.

Despite being in a horrifying situation, Miku's smile never seemed to fade away, it was almost as if she had altered herself to not show a single emotion besides her uncanny happiness.

As Nene slowly walked around, she noticed one of the street lights and the lights of the store next to it being turned on and flickering slightly, beckoning it towards her.

She went towards it in a hurry, but right as she did...

"Ah!"

A bear trap? No, what was a bear trap doing out in the streets like that?

Pain filled her entire leg as she started panicking. She couldn't move at all.

"What's wrong, Nene?" Miku asked playfully, "Someone bit your leg?"

"Miku...What's-oww..What's going on?!" Nene flinched.

"You're being executed." Miku replied simply, "Everyone in the group believed you to be the traitor, so you were sent here."

"What?! No, that's not possible. Tsukasa, Emu, Rui and Kanade would never! Even Mizuki wouldn't..."

Miku's smile became larger.

"Is that so?" She answered, "I'd like to see you prove it to me, then."

"There are a total of 30 stores inside this place, and one of them has a key that when you touch, it sends you and everyone else back to reality."

"A...key...?" Nene tried to calm down, but the pain and her fear combined kept giving her shortness of breath.

"Puhu, that's right, if you can just find that for me..."

"I'll...I'll find it," She said, "Then...I can leave...right?"

"Ofcourse. That's my promise."

She pulled her foot out of the bear trap. She flinched as a bit of blood gushed outside, but quickly put her hand on her chest to calm herself down.

(Okay...Okay...I can do this...)

She dragged herself to one of the stores and began investigating.

...

"What the hell is going on?!" Ena said as they all started panicking.

They looked at the screen Miku supposedly placed before them.

"She's being...executed!?" Tsukasa raised his voice in fear, "But, why...?!"

"No! I don't wanna do this anymore! Miku, stop this please...!" Emu's face was melting from crying so much.

"Nene!" Rui uttered the girl's name.

"Huh..." Mafuyu stared blankly at the screen, a bit shocked, "When Miku said to get rid of the anomaly, I didn't think she meant it literally..."

...

Shop number 15.

At this point, Nene's leg is so numb from the pain that it's getting harder to drag her leg through the stores. It's sore, and the limb is close to not being felt at all.

"Are you giving up yet?" Miku asked her.

"No...never. I'll never...give up..."

"I see." Miku answered, "But it is getting a bit boring now, you've just been exploring mindlessly for 30 minutes."

Nene put her hand on the wall to hold herself.

"Why don't I give you a little surprise to speed this up?"

"A...surprise?"

Suddenly, a sharp claw on the wall impaled her hand.

"Ghah...!"

"If you want, you can keep searching in hopes that you'll free all your friends and yourself, or you can die peacefully here, without stress or-"

"No..! Shut...up!" Nene pulled her hand out of the claw and fell on the floor.

"I want to...I want to keep fighting...If I don't do anything...It's not...dying...peacefully."

Miku looked slightly disappointed, and then started smiling again.

"Wow, look at you go, Nene! You're rocking this."

"Shut up!" She started crawling on the floor, desperately trying to find this dumb key that would get her out of here.

But every drawer would lead to emptiness, even the spots you could easily hide a key in were empty.

Nene was getting so hopeless that she had even started to see keys in the corner of her eye. She had forgotten that just a second ago she was playing a role on stage with her friends and having fun.

Alas, no key was ever found. But a few minutes before her conciousness slipped aswell, she found something...

A note. It looked like the handwriting of someone she knew, but in that state, she couldn't understand at all.

Even the writing on the note itself looked like gibberish for a few seconds. But after repeatedly blinking, the note became as clear as day.

"Save Yourself."

...

"And how do you expect we go there?! There's a chance she could be already dead right now!" Ena shouted.

"Miku said she was being executed, didn't she?" Mafuyu answered coldly, "If she's being executed inside her Fragment SEKAI, that means somebody needs to 'become Nene' and be executed like her too so they can go in."

"What? Can't we just send someone without making them become her?" Tsukasa asked.

"No, it will probably send them to their own SEKAI and kill them there instead." Mizuki replied.

"I'll become her! I just want to save her! Please!" Emu cried.

"I think we should send someone who can carry her out and heal her injuries while looking for that key." Kanade said, "Is anyone here strong enough to do that?"

They all stared at the girl.

"It should be Kanade." Rui replied, "You'll be able to help her, right?"

"Yeah, Kanade's really helpful."

Kanade's face expression became determined.

"Right. Vote me out as if I were Nene, then."

Everyone closed their eyes besides Kanade and felt their feelings inside their heart.

As silence engulfed the entire place, Kanade's heart began beating faster out of fear. She was going to be the sacrifice to help Nene.

She quickly calmed herself down. This had to be done after all. It was urgent.

Everybody opened their eyes.

"Ah...Kanade...!" Emu weeped.

"She really is gone." Rui muttered, "We can only hope she went into Nene's Fragment SEKAI now..."

Mafuyu turned around to look at the screen.

(I believe in you Kanade. Please, be okay.)