"Puppet Show" | KanaMafu

< A visit to that museum >

"Third person pov"

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In the morning, Kanade got a notification. She woke up, and looked at the time. Around 3:30 pm

The notification was a reminder to start getting ready to search for Mafuyu. Kanade got up from her desk and went to the kitchen to eat some instant noodles before she went out. She needs the energy

In the kitchen, she took out a bowl of cup noodles, poured water in it and put it in the microwave to cook. A few seconds later, it was done, so she took them out and started eating them

~Timeskip~

When Kanade was ready, she went out to check out the museum. She was a bit late, but the rest didn't mind. Ena and Mizuki were already waiting outside

"Hey! Kanade, over here!!" Mizuki yelled as she waved over to Kanade. Ena was already taking pictures of the outside of the museum. Kanade walked up to them both

"..Sorry I'm late" she said, with a bit of an apologetic expression on her face. Mizuki smiled

"It's fine! We should really get going though. If Mafuyu isn't here, we'll need to find a different place to look for her" Mizuki sighed. Ena then turned back and put her hand on Mizuki's shoulder, showing her the pictures

"Hey, what do you think of those?" Ena said, looking up at Mizuki

"They look alright. Although, I'd edit a few of the details in the back like this.."

Kanade didn't listen to their conversation. She wanted to desperately find Mafuyu. While Mizuki and Ena were talking about the pictures, Kanade decided to walk into the museum by herself...

The interior was dark, and had lots of elegant-looking decorations. There were lots of puppets with name cards and descriptions attached to their little cages. Kanade noticed that there were no staff around...which was definitely weird, because what if a child got lost in there for example? That didn't really matter for now, but still

Some of the marionettes looked realistic, and some of them didn't even look real at all. One of them caught the girl's attention though. There was a puppet that looked somewhat familiar...wait..

Kanade got closer to the puppet. She put a hand on the glass cage, and read the text and backstory of the marionette that was written on that cage. She then looked up. The puppet...moved? Her eyes were closed at first, but now she was looking directly at Kanade. What is going on? Was that supposed to happen?

"Kanade..." The marionette spoke with a soft yet weird voice. Kanade got startled, and looked up at her. "...Mafuyu?!"

"Mafuyu, what happened? How did you get here? Are you-"

"Kanade..."

They both went silent. Mafuyu got as close to the end of the cage as possible, so she could get a better look at Kanade's face. She was silent, but her eyes were glowing. It's almost as if her eyes lit up the dark museum in which they were now both trapped

"What happened? How did you get here?" Kanade asked, her voice sounding a bit nervous. The amount of questions she had was almost overwhelming

"...After school.." Mafuyu said, putting her head down in an almost robotic manner

"After..school? What happened after school?"

"..."

"...Hello?"

"..."

"Is..everything okay?"

Mafuyu then turned away and went back into her old pose. Kanade got confused. She didn't know what happened after school, but since Mafuyu didn't want to talk about it, who else could know something?

Kanade kept trying to talk to Mafuyu about it, but she just stayed silent. Mafuyu didn't want to say anything else, no matter what happened. That was, until a familiar voice was heared in the distance, followed by footsteps

"Kanade! Are you there?" It looks like Mizuki and Ena went searching for Kanade. But Kanade didn't want to go yet. She needed to help Mafuyu...That was her intention from the start

"Ah, Kanade! There you are!" Ena ran up to Kanade, as Mizuki followed. "Did you find anythi- wait, is that..Mafuyu?"

Kanade nodded and looked up at the now isolated puppet again. Mafuyu's eyes seemed even more emotionless than they were before. The only thing in them was the familiar glow...Her dress looked old-fashioned, yet beautiful. Looks like the staff were trying to make her look as unrealistic as possible to keep the suspicions away

Mafuyu seemed lifeless. She just kept spinning around slowly, as a puppet would. It all seemed unreal to the girls. They really needed to do something about it

"Mafuyu. How do we get you out of here?" Kanade asked. She seemed desperate to help out her best friend, but she stayed silent. No words came out of the purple-haired girl's mouth

They were slowly losing hope. They were trying to get at least the tiniest bit of information out of her, but didn't succeed. It was slightly frustrating

They kept searching for all possible clues around the museum, until closing time came. They were all forced to leave the building, leaving Mafuyu alone with her thoughts

As they left the building, another "investigation" began...