Melody of the Holoverse

Episode 21: Sky Before the Eclipse

"Man, they really have everything in this subverse, don't they?"

We gawked at the inanimate object come to life.

"You can see it too, right?" I asked. "I'm not just going crazy?"

"No, I see it," Pluto assured me. "Freaky as hell, but I see it."

The teddy bear wriggled from the attention.

"Ladies, please," it said. "I know I'm fine, but you can't just stare like this. It's embarrassing."

Atop the bed, it struck a pose.

M-Maybe we've all lost our marbles.

"Could just be a really impressive toy," Selen suggested. She reached for the plushie. "Only one way to find out."

The bear leapt back.

"Ay, you better watch those hands," it growled. "You got me fucked up if you think I'ma let you touch me with your crusty ass fingers."

The dragon's eye twitched. "You know what? How about I just torch the little shit right here?"

"Relax," Pluto said. "No one's torching anything; not unless you want our cover blown." To the plushie: "If you're not a toy, then what are you? A soul that just got unlucky? They forget to put you in an actual body?"

"Actually, I did this to myself." The teddy bear held its chin high. "Name's Kyo. Kyo Kaneko."

My ears perked up. "Kyo? As in the one Miss Nina told us about? Queen Mori's other aide?"

"The one who likes being loud," Selen noted.

"It's called being expressive." The plushie dialed it back. "Wait, wait, wait, you guys know Nina? And she's actually talking to people again? Last I heard, Ren fried her."

"Had to jump through some hoops," Pluto explained. "As of now, she's back on her feet."

"But she isn't strong enough to free this place," Selen said, "which is why we're here."

Mr. Kyo cast his gaze down.

"Well, shit," he muttered. "Guess that hag hasn't given up on this city either, huh?" A hint of respect coated his words.

"You said you did this to yourself, Mr. Kyo," I said. "What do you mean? What happened?"

The bear took a seat and sighed. "It was the only thing I could think of. After Nina got caught, I assumed Ren would go after me next. Probably thought I'd try to get nosy myself, which, I mean, he wasn't wrong about. Think about it: Queen Mori dies in a place she knows like the back of her hand? Bullshit. She's the strongest woman I know, so much so that I can't imagine anything taking her down, especially some paper-ass Crooked.

"But now I'm just getting off topic. At first, I considered escaping to the World of the Living. But that wouldn't help me in the long run. Sure, I'd get to live, but Sincasa falls all the same. I wouldn't be able to face Boss again if I just abandoned this home of ours. Plus, above anything else, I had to find out what happened to her, because I believe—to this day—that she's still out there. So, I did what any sane person would do: I staged my own death."

Light gasps slid past our lips.

"I had Ren and his goons chase me across the city," Mr. Kyo continued. "That was the easy part. Dude may look nice, but he's fuckin' bloodthirsty. Couldn't wait to get his hands on me. We ran all the way to the Edge, where the border between Sincasa and the Beneath is. Nothing can come up, but anything can go down. So, making sure that psycho was watching, and with some prep beforehand, I jumped straight in. They all must've thought I'd lost my mind. That red dragon laughed her ass off.