The Puppeteers

Chapter 13: Layers of the World

"Miku?!" The two shouted, looking at the huge screens with her smiling menacingly on them.

"Haha, did I scare you two?" She teased, "You did say you wanted answers so..."

"How convenient. Miku immediately came for help the moment we said it out loud." Kanade observed.

"Hey, if you don't want me to say anything I can just leave!"

"No, stay. Tell us how to get out of here."

"Nopeeee, I won't explain how to get out of here." She laughed.

"Then what are you here for?" The white haired girl questioned.

"No reasonnnn...To annoy you two." 

"Great. We really needed that right now." Tsukasa facepalmed.

"I'll definetly say though, you two have gotten closer than anyone else to finding out the truth. But you're still missing a few things."

"For example..." Miku continued her speech, "Have you ever thought about where you are right now?"

"Nene's Fragment SEKAI, right?" 

"Yes, that is correct," She replied, "But, there's something else you're not seeing. Where are you right now?"

"In the Overlapped SEKAI? I'm not sure what you're trying to say here." Tsukasa answered, confused.

"Where is the Overlapped SEKAI?" Miku asked them again.

"Somewhere on Earth." Kanade said.

"Are the SEKAI's not on Earth? Are we in outer space right now?" The boy scratched his head.

"Kanade is right. The SEKAI's exist on your home planet, Earth." She approved, "But they can only be accessed through your phones with a song. Why?"

"Because Miku works with people who are interested in music and invites them to these worlds through those songs?" 

"Correctomundo! But is it even possible to teleport somewhere else by listening to a song?"

"Shouldn't you know the answer to that?" The white hair presumed.

"I should. But I'm asking this to you two."

"Kanade, what was the name of that phenomenon you told me again?" Tsukasa turned to the girl.

"Dimension Jumping."

"Yeah, that." The boy nodded, "So if we assume that this is the case, it definetly should be possible to enter the SEKAI's through a song."

"Which should've been obvious since we're here already..." Kanade deadpanned.

"So, these SEKAI's exist on Earth, just on a different dimension?" He asked.

"Mhm. Now my next question, how deep down are you right now?"

"There's deeper layers to SEKAI's?" Kanade blurted, "Ahhh, my brain hurts..."

"Would the Fragment SEKAI's be the deepest levels then?"

"Mhm. Just imagine the SEKAI's like small planets. If you dig straight down, you'll get to the Fragment SEKAI's. And when two planets overlap, they look like a Venn Diagram, and slowly become one big planet instead of two small ones."

"So the Fragment SEKAI's for each person still exist even after they become one big planet?"

"Yup! Just think of it as other places you can enter through Earth with a song and these places can also overlap with eachother so..." Miku paused, "Haha, this seems like too much information now. Is it getting confusing yet?"

"Even I'm getting tired now. And Kanade seems like she can't keep up with all of this information anymore."

"Yeah...But we can't just stop here, can we?" Kanade scratched her head, "Nene could still be in danger."

"Nene's in a deeper level than both of you currently. But if you want a break, you can go back up from the hole you've dug yourself in and return to the Wonderland and Empty SEKAI's."

"That seems like the best option right now." Tsukasa voiced his opinion, "What do you think, Kanade?"

"Yes. I need a break from all of this. But will Nene be okay?"

"She is with someone else there, so she'll be fine." Miku assured them, "Look at the sky. Can you see where you've fallen from?"

They stared at the big patch of darkness in the sky.

"Woah, what's that?!" Tsukasa screamed in fright.

"Relax. It won't hurt you." She giggled, "If you want to go back up, I'll give you a lift up there, and you'll be back in the circus like how you were a while ago."

"Yes, please." Kanade said, "I want to go back."

"Alright!" The Miku extended her hand through the screen, and in an instant, they were back in the circus where they made the show...

Except, there was no one there again besides them.

"Where's Emu and the others?" Tsukasa looked around, "Weren't Ena and Rui arguing with Miku here?"

"They were?"

"Yeah, but they're probably somewhere else now. Let's go outside." Tsukasa commented.

"Okay." Kanade nodded and they both made their way towards the exit and walked outside, to which they saw Rui, Ena, Emu and Mizuki discussing something very seriously.

As they walked towards them, Emu noticed, and immediately ran over to Tsukasa to give him a big hug.

Surprised, Tsukasa blurted out a "Ah! E-Emu?!" and got the attention of the others aswell.

"Tsukasa? Where did you go?" Rui questioned him. He looked so serious, it was clear he wasn't going to let anything slide.

"I accidentally got sent to Nene's Fragment SEKAI." He replied, the pink haired gremlin continuing to hug him tightly.

"Don't get sad because of Rui's behavior, he started acting like this towards everyone suddenly." Mizuki explained, "I guess he really is eager to find the traitor now."

Kanade looked around. Out of everyone here, someone was missing, and it wasn't Nene as they already knew she got teleported to somewhere else.

Emu stopped hugging Tsukasa and went back next to Ena.

"Huh?" Kanade left a small gap between her mouth, "Mafuyu isn't here."

"She ran off crying, and Mizuki went after her, but we don't know what happened after that." Ena stated.

"And she isn't with you two either, so..." Emu said dejectedly.

"That leaves us with Mizuki. She's the suspicious one here." Rui pointed.

"H-hey! No way you just accused me of doing something to my bestfriend!" Mizuki fought back.

"That...isn't really a convincing statement." Tsukasa commented, "Mizuki, can you explain to us what happened after Mafuyu ran away?"

"Yeah, sure." She replied, "I ran after her, but after a while of running I got sidetracked, and when I looked back she was gone."

"Sidetracked by what?" Tsukasa interrogated further.

"Your mom." Mizuki stuck her tongue out teasingly.

"Mizuki! Be serious!" Ena lashed out.

"Sorry, it's just that the thing that happened doesn't really sound believable, and you're going to continue finding me suspicious anyway so..."

"I think you should still tell what happened, whether it's believable or not." Kanade commented, "If you're really innocent, we'll find a piece of evidence that'll prove it eventually."

"Yeah. You should tell us." Emu agreed.

"..." Mizuki avoided their eyes, looking hopelessly at the circus walls besides them.