Anomalice (Mystical Travels Multiverse Novel)

World PY-6102: Things Heat Up in the Rebelling Hearts AU

"You think you know where I became an Anomalice?" Yuga asked Mona as the two stood over a cliff.

"It's a hunch," She answered. "I don't have much to go off on, honestly, but the only person who can confirm this is currently unavailable right?"

"Refuses to tell me, more like. I've tried, Mona-san. She just laughed and asked if I felt like a monster," He answered, his fists clenching. "I've been looking for months after the Keketmon thing. I have no clue who else can confirm this!"

Mona bit her lip. She... She had ANOTHER option in mind, but... She refused to get involved with her. Not after what she had done...

"You... You just thought of another option, didn't you?" Yuga suddenly asked. Mona would have jumped but she remembered that they shared the same body. Right, she was still getting used to the entire thing.

... She was growing old. Dang it.

"Whatever the idea is, tell me, please," he said, his eye glowing amber. "I am losing it inside. I..."

He faltered. "I can't go back to the others and pretend like nothing happened. I've known about Gangsan for a long while yet I couldn't tell them. I can't stop thinking, why can't my dads remember them? Why can't Aunt Kuguru... why can't she remember that she had TWINS? She HAD us in her for nine ****ing months. What... what the **** happened nearly fourteen years ago? I can't wrap my head around it. I can't... I refuse to act like everything is fine when it's not."

That... sounded familiar.

Mona chuckled. "That brings back memories. You and I share similarities, Yuga."

"We... we do? Outside the entire artificial Anomalice thing?" He sounded surprised.

She snorted. "Acheel would tell you that not knowing things drove me NUTS. Before I met Pascatmon, I was a journalist working to find out the truth behind Hawk Moth, and boy did I do my best at it. So when I found a possible lead in the form of an informant, well, I took it."

"And that informant... it was..."

"You guessed it. I was a real idiot back then. Naïve to the world, really." She scoffed.

"It's better to be optimistic about the world, though. It does help in most cases."

"In most cases, keyword. But..." she got his phone out and stared at the reflection of their face. "Why aren't you optimistic? Being the Ace of Games and all that, you know."

The silence that followed...

Suddenly realizing this could be a sore spot, she tried to salvage the situation. "Not that it's my business anyway! We're just sharing a body until we get the Miraculous, so-"

"I... I'm not," he mumbled. "Mona-san... I haven't been okay in a long while. Being Nanana Yuga, it was... When the lies slapped me on the face, I was speechless. All my life, I had wondered why we looked so different. She had tried to encourage me to get into Buddyfighting, but I always refused because it felt... wrong to do it just because someone asked me to. It was only when... when I found the Gargantua Punisher card somehow, that things changed."

He closed his eye. "Ace of Games... someone gave me that name and it stuck. Ace of Blackmail, though... Ranma was the one to give it to me all those years ago, Mona-san. We both agreed to never tell anyone he thought of the title, but it stuck in my head. I had only wanted those bullies to stop teasing Ranma for his parents being so busy all the time... even that came crashing down on him because he turned out to be Uncle Rouga's son, but... but at least he had Banjoe as his half-brother, and his father did come through. I..."