Momo & Gigi

The fantastical city of Neon Nebula. Colorful neon lights glowed at every corner, and the thick fog all around gave the scenery a magical air. Drones playing holographic advertisements swam between buildings like migratory fish, casting unearthly shadows on the alleys. Those alleys were dotted with warm lights from food stalls. Countless shouts of joy and anger came from all over, as if to compete with the lights in the sky.

"How can they make all this racket every single day?"

She looked down at the ground from the balcony of a certain building. She held a glass in one hand and sat at a gaudy metal table—in a palm-sized swivel chair placed on top. It was a boisterous place, an unending jumble of lights and noises, but she was awfully fond of it.

Just then, the ice in her glass made a faint noise. Next followed the sound of creaking metal that told her a guest had come to visit. Security on the top floor was strict, and no one was permitted entry. All except one person.

"Momo."

"What's the word, Gigi?"

There stood a black and white mechanical doll in the shape of a woman—Gigi. The woman called Momo spun around in her chair to face her and prompted her to continue.

"A report. Three strong heat sources were detected in the mountains at the edge of the city."

"Heat sources, eh?" Momo said, her big round eye distorting in displeasure. "It's gotta be that Ibis up to another experiment."

"Negative. We are always closely monitoring Dr. Ibis's movements. Dr. Ibis has been devoted to a personal study for several years, and has not carried out any experiments outside of the laboratory."

"Hmm, it's not something that musclebrained Fangsta could pull off. Then...maybe a mutant species."

"Affirmative. Reports are growing of mutants with corroded bodies. We must carry out a large-scale investigation."

Gigi bowed her head, awaiting the order.

"Gigi, get to the observation point. If it's not in Ende's interest—and Neon Nebula's in turn...well, you know what to do."

"Understood."

"I doubt you'll fall behind, but take care out there."

"As you say."

Gigi nodded at Momo's final words and left the balcony. Momo spun back around in her chair and once again looked down at the city full of bright lights and loud sounds.

"Now then. I'll have to observe whether these heat sources will disrupt the order of things," she muttered to herself. Her words melted away into the sound of drums.

"—iam, William!"

William regained consciousness to the sound of someone calling his name. The first thing that caught his eye was Irene's face, gently illuminated in the pitch black by the soft glow of her silver hair. It was hardly the time, but he thought it was quite beautiful.

"...Nn... Irene..."

"Oh! William... Thank goodness," Irene said. From the sound of her voice, she might have been crying. "When you weren't waking up, I—I thought you might have died... I was...so scared..."

She must have been on edge the whole time. The feelings she had held back came spilling out at once in great big teardrops, perhaps out of relief. She seemed quite exhausted. It was perfectly understandable. After being chased by enemies through the desert world, she had teleported to this strange dark place, just when she thought she escaped. With William collapsed silently at her side, it was no wonder she was so shaken.

"Sorry to worry you," he said. He sat upright and flashed her a gentle smile, hoping to ease a little of her anxiety. "I'm fine now. Thank you, Irene."

She sniffled. "Yeah...I know..."

Seeing that William was safe, she slowly regained her composure. After checking that there was nothing abnormal about each other, the pair tried to understand their situation.

"Where are we, anyway?"

Using Irene's teleporation, they should have jumped from the desert world of Wasteland to William's hometown of Megacity Libra. However, not only could they not see Libra's signature aurora, they couldn't smell the salty air of the harbor district or see the glow of buildings in the skyline. What was more, it was rather chilly. They couldn't tell how much time had passed, but the harbor district was warm enough at this time of year that it was fine to dress lightly at night. In other words, this was neither Wasteland nor Megacity Libra.

"Do you know this place, Irene?"

"No, not at...wait. Is this not the place you told me about?"

"It's different, somehow."

"Then...where are we?"

They looked up at the sky, but saw no moonlight or starlight. Instead, something dark red and cloudlike hovered far above.

"I think we're lost somewhere... Right! Irene, have you seen that guy!?"

"Huh? Who...oh! No, it's only us here.

'That guy' referred to the man they faced off with in Wasteland. His face was identical to William's, and he needed Irene for some purpose. They had been fighting for their lives moments before waking up here, but now he was nowhere to be seen.

"I see..." William muttered.

There were still many other things to worry about, but they were both relieved that their biggest threat was gone. Instead, the most pressing problem was their current predicament. They needed to investigate where they were and what kind of situation they were in as soon as possible.

"William, look at that."

"Hm...?"

Irene suddenly pointed to a distant band of light in the sky that seemed to stretch into the heavens. With nothing else noteworthy in sight, that light felt like a guidepost to heaven.

"This is just an assumption, but...I think we might be lost in another world," William said.

"Another world..." Irene murmured, putting a hand on her stomach. "But my stomach's not growling."

"What?"

"What? ...Oh."

She told William how she had discovered that using her teleportation made her hungry.

"Umm, basically, I'm not just trying to say I'm hungry! I mean...!"

She flailed her hands about as she tried to explain, getting embarrassed and talking in circles. William gently interrupted her by placing a finger to her mouth.

"Hold on. A stray dog or one of those sandworm monsters might come out if they hear us. Let's be careful."

"..."

"What is it?"

"Nothing really," Irene blurted, and leaned in close to him. He felt just a little bit warmer.

"It might be dangerous, but we've got to get over there," she continued.

"Yeah. I'm sure we'll learn something. Where we are, or what this world is. We'll deal with our problems one by one, and eventually, we'll be able to keep moving."

Those words were deeply reassuring.

"Let's go, Irene."

"Okay, William."

Hand in hand, they set off together for the base of the band of light. They had no way of knowing what awaited them there. Even so, they felt no fear or anxiety. The warmth they felt through each other's hands would repel any negative emotions.

Luckily, William's self defense keychain had a flashlight about the size of his index finger attached to it. It wasn't very large, but without a proper light source around, it was a light of hope. They checked the area and found they were on a hill surrounded by plants. At least, one might call them plants, but they were far taller than William and Irene. Elliptical leaves big enough to wrap around Irene's petite frame grew high and dense, blocking their view. The shrubs had even thicker leaves, with striped patterns that made them look like some other living thing entirely. If one were to encounter them in the dark, it would be shocking enough that they wouldn't escape unscathed.

"I'm pretty curious about these plants, but...we should keep moving."

Their exploration of this unknown world was going unexpectedly well. Maybe it wasn't their active time, but they hadn't seen any wild animals or bugs.

"...William."

"Hm?"

"I thought I heard something just now."

William followed Irene's example, closing his eyes and cupping a hand to his ear to listen closely. He couldn't hear it well at first, but the sound gradually became clear.

Fshh... Shhh...

It sounded like the babbling of a stream. There was water nearby. That fact made the both of them breathe in relief.

"Maybe if we walk along the river, we'll find someplace inhabited."

"Let's try it."

They felt light, like their footsteps until now had all been a lie. As they began closing the distance, the sound grew louder and louder, until it was quite intense. Then, their view suddenly opened wide. At the same time, cool droplets splashed onto them, as if it were raining sideways. The pair stood atop a steep cliff. The view that spread out below them was—

"It's a dam," William said.

A huge dam stood there, big enough to fit a whole block of Megacity Libra inside. Illuminated by evenly spaced lights, a great volume of water surged downstream from six gates in the curved wall.

"What's a 'dam'?" Irene asked.

"Basically, it's an important place that holds back water like that and controls the flow to turn it into electricity. Well, I guess we don't really know what they use it for in this world..."

"I didn't know people could make something so big..."

Irene was speechless at the gigantic structure's grandeur. Her eyes were full of wonder and curiosity, as if she were seeing a magical castle from her picture books for the first time. As William watched her expression, he spotted the band of light rising from the downstream side of the dam. He hadn't had a good sense of its distance on the way here, but it looked closer than it had from the place he awoke. It seemed it was closer than he thought.

"That path might be a shortcut from where we are," he said, pointing to a curved path running edge to edge along the upstream side.

They found a spot where it seemed they could descend and worked together to get closer to the path. The air got chilly as they approached the rushing water. They wouldn't be able to stay here forever.

"No one's here," William said. "Let's cut across now."

"Okay."

They walked along the center on the off chance that they fell from the guard rail, when...

Zlp, zlllp...

An indescribably strange sound came from behind them. Hurriedly, they turned around to see three uniformed men who appeared to be dam personnel.

William and Irene had encountered men who seemed to be personnel of the dam. Their low hats and bulky uniforms made their faces unreadable, exerting silent pressure. Just as William said, the dam seemed to be an important facility. In that case, William and Irene must have looked like intruders to them. Since William didn't know their rules, he had to let the men know they weren't hostile before they did anything.

"Please excuse us, we've gotten lost!" he pleaded, holding both hands above his head as he walked toward them to show he had no intention to fight. "...Hm?"

Suddenly, William noticed that their bodies seemed to be wet. It seemed suspicious to him for a moment, until he realized that they were the suspicious ones for walking here as the water poured out. It was only natural for them to prioritize dealing with intruders, even while soaking wet.

"We just want to go that way! Would you tell us the right path?"

"Please!" Irene added, posing the same way and imploring the men.

"..."

No matter how long they waited, the men wouldn't reply. Then, William remembered this was not their own world. He was able to communicate with Irene, so he failed to consider that they might not even speak his language.

"What do we do...?"

William spoke to the men once more, adding gestures this time.

"We just...want to go...that way!" he repeated, speaking loudly and making exaggerated motions. Even so, the men showed no reaction, instead swaying side to side as they dragged one leg forward with a zlp...zlp. Something was clearly wrong.

"Irene."

"Yes?"

"We might need to rely on your power here."

When she moved closer to try and grab his hand, William felt unease from looking at the men's faces and took a step back.

"William?"

"H-How...?"

Meandering lines ran across their faces, from the bridge of the nose to the jaw. Furthermore, the skin on the left half was translucent and gel-like, somewhere between liquid and solid.

"Don't tell me...it's a glitch!?"

That was what William's instincts told him. A glitch triggered phenomena that defied the laws of physics, like William had discovered in Megacity Libra. Everything he had encountered or observed thus far occurred in the air, not integrated with a person. The men with glitches covering half their faces opened their mouths, all at once.

"""Aa...aAA...aaaAa..."""

"William!"

"...!"

William snapped back to his senses when he heard Irene's voice, and the men leapt at them before he could shout, "Run!"

Even William had no way to fight the men closing in from three directions at once. He readied his self-defense keychain, hoping to buy time until Irene could jump, when—

Someone appeared between William and the men.

The person who suddenly appeared mid-fight was a small child wearing a big blue ribbon on their head. No one there even registered the child's presense before the men who attacked William were knocked to the ground of the path.

"What...just happened?"

Irene hadn't grasped the situation yet and blinked rapidly.

"It was that kid...no, it was that hair," William explained.

"Huh? You mean you saw what happened?"

"Yeah, more or less."

William's eyes had just barely caught what happened. That boy—or maybe girl?—had manipulated the long tufts of blue-green hair growing at the nape of their neck and brushed against the men behind the head. They had fallen to the ground, unmoving, in an instant. Only their chests still slowly rose and fell, and there was no sign they would attack again. Its job done, the blue-green hair floated softly in the air, oblivious to the tense situation.

"Did you...just save us?"

The child reacted to William's words and turned toward him. Their petite frame wasn't much different from Irene's. A gray jacket in the wrong size slipped off their shoulders, somehow balanced in place by a suspender around their neck. They were androgynous, with a strange aura about them.

"..."

The child said nothing, looking back at William with a somewhat confused smile.

"Oh, I see... You can't understand us, can you?"

"I'd like to say thank you, but that won't come across, will it?" Irene said.

Because the child only smiled instead of speaking, it wasn't easy to begin the conversation. William and Irene were at a loss for how to get their thoughts across when the child's expression suddenly brightened, and they spun on their heels and walked toward the men. They had a peculiar gait—together with their floating hair, it was as if they were underwater.

"Um, William, maybe the kid is a fairy who protects the forest!"

"Fairy?"

"Right. I had a lot of picture books about fairies in my room. Fairies have hair that floats like that...oh, and they float in the air like that too! It's really wonderful."

"A fairy, huh...? When you put it like that, I can kinda see it..."

This world was unknown to William and Irene. It wouldn't be so strange for fairies to be part of the ecosystem.

The child turned back to them. They seemed to be holding something, and had pulled their gray jacket up to chest height. With the long sleeves hiding most of their body, and the ribbons all over the jacket, it gave the illusion that they really were a fairy. The child handed something to each of them. Two small earrings sat on the jacket. Their design was very plain, resembling an ear cuff that clipped onto the earlobe.

"— — — —"

"...Um, you want us to wear these?"

"— — — —"

The child nodded.

"Wow...they shine rainbow. How pretty!" Irene remarked.

"It feels strange, like looking inside a seashell... It's so thin, but it's like the rainbow could swallow me up."

William and Irene put on the ear cuffs and turned to the child—

"Can you understand me?"

"!?"

They both reacted in shock. They could now plainly understand the words they couldn't before.

"This is an interpretation device," William guessed.

"But the fairy isn't wearing one," Irene said.

"Fairy?" the child asked, then laughed, amused. They wore no ear cuff, but had clearly understood Irene's words.

"Uh, well, why did you save us?" William asked.

"You were in trouble."

It wasn't the most helpful response, but the child may have been just the help they needed when they were struggling to communicate.

This kid's odd, but I don't think they're all that bad, William thought.

"Thank you for your help," he said. "I'm William. And this..."

He looked at Irene, urging her to speak.

"Yes, I'm Irene. And, um, what is your name?"

"Name? None."

"It's...nice to meet you, None?"

"No, not like that."

Irene stared at the child blankly, not expecting them to have no name.

"D-Do you think they really don't have a name?" she asked William.

"Maybe they grew up without getting a name from their parents," he suggested.

"Huh?" Irene frowned, then turned to William with pleading eyes. "Does that kind of thing happen?"

"I don't know their circumstances, but it's possible this world has a culture of not giving names. Or, maybe they call people something else unique to identify them...in that case, I wouldn't know what to call anyone here."

"Then..." Irene said, straining her voice, "why don't we come up with a name?"

"Oh, I get it. Hmm..."

Though he got to name fictional characters in video games, giving a name to a real person wasn't something he expected to do without becoming a parent.

Whenever I try to name a game character, I get so indecisive I just end up picking the default name...

"Um, what do you think?" Irene asked.

The child only replied with, "Sounds great!"

It was a bit of an odd reply, but there was no loneliness in their narrow-eyed smile. William turned to Irene for name ideas, and she nodded confidently.

"I always imagined the kind of friends the people in my picture books would have," she said. "I gave them names, too."

"Whoa, you've already got an idea?"

"Yes! How about 'Happy Floaty Fairy'?"

"...Come again?"

"Happy Floaty Fairy!" she repeated. "Wait...is that weird?"

When she looked up at him, William couldn't help but avert his gaze.

"Ah—it's just, um...it's a really interesting name, is all."

He decided to keep that in reserve and look for other suggestions. However, none of her other proposals called a real person's name to mind—they were more like titles from a novel or a picture book.

"William, is there a name you like?"

"You want me to pick?"

Caught between Irene whose eyes glittered with confidence, and the fairy whose smile never faded no matter the suggested name, William was suffering.

It'll be terrible if they pick one of those names... What kind of picture books did she grow up on, anyway? Think, William. Picture books, picture books... Oh, that's it!

Finally, William thought of a way to break the deadlock.

"Irene, I think the names you came up with are great," he began, "but I think they would be better off with a name that's a bit shorter."

"Shorter?"

"Right. So, I was thinking, what if you used the name of the picture book's author?"

"Ohh, like that... Umm... Oh, I've got one! How about Rinne?"

"Rinne...yeah, I like it! I think it fits them perfectly!"

"Me too! Rinne the fairy. Hehe, it's a good name!"

"Then it's just a matter of whether or not you like it."

William and Irene turned their expectant gazes to Rinne.

"Rinne. Rinne. Rinne..."

Rinne repeated the name they were given several times, then smiled their happiest smile yet.

"Rinne!"

They smiled wide with narrow eyes, exuding the innocence of youth. After a while of them all smiling at each other, Rinne asked, "So hey, where are you two going?"

When William explained that they were heading down the mountain for the base of the band of light, Rinne replied, "I know it," and pointed out the way forward.

"You know that place, Rinne?"

"Yep. 'Cause I used to live there."

"If you lived there, then...there must be a town under the light, right, William?" Irene offered.

"Yeah. Maybe we'll find some clues there."

"Lemme lead the way," Rinne said.

"Wow, really? Please do, Rinne!" Irene replied. She thanked Rinne once again for agreeing, then bowed her head slightly to the unconscious men. She must have felt bad for taking the interpreters without asking. William followed Irene's example and bowed his head, and then, for some reason, Rinne copied them as well.

"Oh, right, Irene. Can I ask you something kind of weird?" William asked.

"What is it?"

"Do you see anything off abose these guys' faces?"

"Off how?"

"Like, their faces are transparent...something like that."

As he waited for Irene's answer, he realized he probably looked crazy for asking. Irene, however, didn't seem to question it, and answered honestly.

"I don't think there's anything too strange."

"Okay. That's good."

"Should we get going?"

"Yeah, let's go."

As they walked behind Rinne leading the way, William stared in silence. He thought. About this world, about Rinne, and about many other things. He had a mountain of questions he wanted answers to, but Irene took priority over all else. She was doing her best to stay calm through the exertion, but they had been walking along unpaved mountain paths for some time. Her physical strength was probably nearing its limits. They would definitely need to make sure Rinne helped as well to find a place she could rest as soon as possible.

Even if Rinne was a similar kind of being as those men.

It was only for the blink of an eye, but he had caught the flash of Rinne's tentacle-like hair when they intervened. He looked at the men's faces one more time. Even unconscious, half of their faces had turned to some kind of gel.

Right now, Rinne's just a kid, no different from us. Maybe I was mistaken earlier. It's just...

Once doubt crossed his mind, it wasn't so simple to erase it. For now, he would keep that question on the back burner. After reaching that conclusion, William followed after the other two.

Meanwhile...

The mechanical doll Gigi landed at the coordinates where the heat sources were detected on the mountain, closed the crimson attitude control umbrella in her hand, and activated the sensors in her head to scan the surrounding area. There was no response. However, Gigi spotted two sets of footprints at her feet.

"Identified. This shape and size belong to the 'Human' species."

Gigi continued her analysis. The footprints went back and forth through the empty mountains, as if searching for something. Then, they continued on to the dam.

"Question. Why are there only footprints in one direction?"

All the answers she could think of were absolutely preposterous, but there was no other explanation. Gigi transmitted her analysis results to her master Momo, then took off down the mountain, following the footsteps projected in her eyeball.

Thanks to Rinne, William and Irene made it safely to their goal. After passing through a culvert several times the size of a person, they came out into a huge, bizarre city crammed full of high-rise buildings.

"This...might be even bigger than Libra," William said.

"It's so bright, I can barely see in front of me," Irene remarked.

The entire city gleamed with a dazzling light that ate away at the dark clouds covering the sky. Some kind of gas emanated from the city's gutters, diffusing light all around and setting the stage for the city's magical atmosphere.

"—cheers for Dr. Ibis. Let's—"

"Waugh!?"

In the sky far above the three of them, a hologram of a woman passed by, large enough to rival the high-rise buildings. As she gave her sales pitch, it turned down an alleyway and disappeared somewhere.

"Wow..."

William shouted in excitement, feeling like he was seeing giants and kaiju poking their faces out between the buildings.

"Haha, this is awesome—feels like we're at a theme park!"

As he looked every which way, another hologram of the same advertisement looked down at them from a billboard on the wall. She was an old woman with her arms folded and a coat hanging over her shoulders. She didn't match William's image of a typical old woman—instead, she held her head high with a fiery passion in her eyes. As if rivaling her, two others stood side by side. One was a bear wearing sunglasses and a stern expression, and the other was a mascot-like one-eyed creature.

"Why do I feel like I've seen that shape somewhere...?" he wondered. As he stood transfixed by the advertisement, he suddenly heard a voice call his name.

"William!"

It was Irene. That wasn't good. He had forgotten himself. Hurriedly, he turned around, and, at the edges of his fog-blurred vision, saw Irene pointing somewhere and waving her arm back and forth. Words were spilling out of her mouth too excitedly for him to comprehend.

"You found something?" William asked, rushing over her and urging her to continue.

"Look at those people! Well, maybe not people exactly... Just—just look!"

Irene was pointing to a chaotic building with a different style of architecture on each floor. William hadn't noticed it because of the gas obscuring his view, but there appeared to be a restaurant there. There were many tables lit by paper lanterns, and countless squirming shadows.

"What's so surprising about it...?"

William was speechless. On the chairs outside the shop, people who looked like cats and birds laughed together. He looked around at the other seats to see that the customers all consisted of bipedal beast people. There was no one who resembled himself there. The closest match was the old woman on the poster.

"Am I...dreaming?"

"This must be a world from a picture book!"

A picture book world. The townscape and residents were so outlandish, he couldn't help but agree. When William saw the giant sandworm, he thought he understood that such a world existed, but he felt like his view had been completely overturned, and instinctively lowered his gaze. The clamor of the city overwhelmed his ears. Just standing there made him dizzy, even nauseated.

What an unbelievable world we've come to...

"William, what's wrong?" Irene asked.

"Are you sad?" Rinne added.

William answered the two of them with a quick "no" and looked back up, smiling with his entire face. "Everything I see is new to me—I'm having fun."

Fun. The city was certainly chaotic, but the enthusiastic lights and sounds filled it with an atmosphere of fun.

"Hehe, I know how you feel!" Irene replied.

"Rinne," William began, "what's this city called?"

Rinne didn't reply. Their smile had disappeared. They stared down the beast people—the beastmen—and quietly readied to fight.

"Rinne?" the two asked.

"Watch out."

"Huh?"

Shadows of various sizes emerged from the fog. They slowly spread out as if to surround William's group—and before they knew it, all their escape routes were blocked off.

"Kh..."

"Thought I'd come check out a little rumor I heard—we got Humans around here, eh?"

The first to step forward from the pack was a crocodile-headed beastman, holding a sake bottle to the sky with one hand. After him, carnivorous beastmen like lions and tigers closed in on their group, menacing grins on their faces. They were all large in stature, twice the size of Irene and Rinne. If they were to strike with all their force, the mere humans of William's group wouldn't stand a chance. William reached for Irene's hand without taking his eyes off the crocodile man for a second.

"Huh?"

It wasn't forceful, but Irene buried her face in William's chest as if sucked in.

"Irene?"

She ignored his concern and brought her face closer to his ear, then whispered, "Should we jump?"

"No, you should stop. I'm worried you'll hurt yourself—and we don't know what'll happen if we jump in this situation."

If the same thing that happened when she teleported in Wasteland happened again, they might put everyone here in danger. More importantly, they didn't know what would happen if she failed. It would be better not to use her power recklessly.

"Worst case scenario, we become the bad guys," he said.

"But..."

"And Rinne, whatever you do, don't start a fight here."

"...Okay. Following you."

Rinne seemed a bit disappointed, but lowered their arms. William sighed in relief. With Rinne's power, they could probably get out of a sticky situation, but there was no guarantee he and Irene would be safe. As he thought about how to get through it without aggravating things, he heard the crocodile man's heavy breathing.

"Ya sure got guts for a Human. But! This here's Fangsta's turf. This ain't a place to show off, kid!"

"I apologize for entering without permission," William said. "We only just arrived here—"

"Whoa, whoa, that's some shady shit. Ya came from outside Nebula? A soft-skinned, hairless Downy? Ha ha ha! Even we'd freeze out there. This is the only place we got to live!"

Jeers of "yeah, that's right" came from the other beastmen. From the way he spoke, it sounded like there was no place for humans to live outside the city. It was certainly true that it would be difficult to survive in that environment without significant countermeasures. That was common sense in this world.

"...Could that really be true?"

William wondered if he could use that common sense to his advantage, and decided to bluff against the men before him.

William's group had come face to face with a group of beastmen led by a crocodile man who called himself Fangsta. From the center of the circle, William talked about what he had seen in the outside world—a place even these huge, swaggering men feared.

"In the mountains far away from here, there are monsters that mimic striped plants," he began.

"S-Striped wha...? I don't believe ya!"

"Irene, you know what I'm talking about, since you saw them up close with me, right?"

"Huh?"

Irene jumped with a squeak when the conversation turned to her. "Th-That's right! It had a tongue way bigger than all of us and I got licked—it was like a long, thin leaf..."

"It licked ya...?"

"It was too scary to say anything more..."

She made a show of looking down sadly, and listened to the beastmen's sympathetic voices. Irene went on to include her experiences from Wasteland in her tale. When she greatly exaggerated her encounter with the fearsome merchant, it stirred up their terror.

"Th-There's a merchant out there makin' us into hairless Downies and eatin' us!? Just stop! I don't wanna hear any more!"

William hadn't expected them to be so taken in by their bluff. He could feel humanity from them, and began to hope that they would be able to get through it. However, his hopes were quickly shattered.

The crocodile man wiped a tear from the corner of his eye with his arm and said to William, "I get it, the outside world's real scary. But ya don't exactly look strong enough to survive out there. Prove your strength and I'll letcha go free instead of eatin' ya whole."

"If you promise me you won't lay a hand on the two of them, I'll prove it," William said.

"Oh, ya don't say?"

"I'll bring you to your knees with my bare hands."

"Ka ha ha! Let's do this! No weapons. No complaints, all right!? You lot, get back!"

At the crocodile man's order, the beastmen surrounding William's group backed away.

"Let's get into it," the man said.

He took a stance as if he were ready to pounce on a meat-covered bone. It seemed there was no escaping this fight.

"William..."

"You got this, William!"

He would handle it. As he told himself that, he shifted half his body behind him and faced the crocodile man. Even William had learned some technique. The crocodile man had a similar personality to the man he had confronted in Wasteland. That meant his chances of winning weren't zero.

"Let's go, let's go, let's go!" the man shouted to psych himself up, then charged forward,, when—

Someone carrying a crimson umbrella swooped down from the sky to interrupt them. It was a black and white mechanical doll in the shape of a woman. She folded the umbrella with an elegant gesture and raised her cold, mechanical voice so everyone around could hear.

"Warning. Interspecies fighting is prohibited. Lower your fists at once."

The crocodile man suddenly stopped in front of her, and glowered at her instead.

"Gigi!? No one asked you to butt in!"

"Analyzing. Citizen ID Number 03-0187092...Dino. Any further disruption of public order will be met with punishment."

Gigi's detached demeanor was fuel to Dino's fire, and he howled.

"Stay outta my way, tin can bitch! I don't like sinkin' my teeth into you meatless types!"

"..."

"Hey, say something!"

"...Attack on character detected. Short term memory deleted," Gigi said, tilting her head. Her mouth, painted in blue lipstick, drew an arc as if to mock him.

"Aaaaargh, shit! I really can't stand you!"

William's group was taken aback by the movements of her form, which seemed impossible for a machine. Just then, Dino fell for Gigi's taunt and rushed forward, roaring. They could feel the ground shake slightly. If his massive form were to collide with her, she wouldn't escape unscathed no matter how mechanical her body was. However, Gigi sidestepped his charge with ease, and used that momentum to slam Dino with a spinning kick. The fight was decided in an instant. Gigi pulled the leg she had kicked Dino with closer to her body, and spoke matter-of-factly while standing on one leg.

"Warning. If you strike back at me, I will exercise my delegated authority to maintain public order."

"How could yooouuu!?" a tiger beastman roared, leaping at Gigi from behind.

But his claws never reached her. Jiji's foot jabbed upward as she leaned forward, hitting him squarely in the stomach and sending him flying back into the other beastmen. The beastmen who had been so boisterous before now wordlessly pulled the unconscious Dino by the tail and disappeared back into the fog-filled streets.

"Verifying. The shape of your shoes and the shape of the footprints left on the mountain—complete," Gigi spoke as she calmly strode toward William's group.

"No way...you came here for us?"

"Affirmative. That is my assigned task."

For now, there was no hostility in her attitude toward them. Still, the moment she deemed them a hindrance to public order, she would pose their greatest threat. No matter what William did, he couldn't imagine a future in which he could defeat her.

"I am to determine whether you are allies or enemies. Please know that hostile behavior is an unwise decision," Gigi continued.

"We don't want to fight," William said. "We'll cooperate however we can. In exchange, I'd like for you to give us a place for her...for Irene to rest."

Irene's face had gone terribly pale. After all, she had been through quite a lot.

"Pending. I do not possess authority to make such decisions. My master Momo must decide how to deal with Irene."

"Momo?"

"Momo is one of Neon Nebula's three governing chairmen. William, please choose carefully."

"My decision hasn't changed. Please, take us to that person."

"Thank you for your cooperation, William," Gigi said, bowing her head. "I shall arrange for a transport drone."

Her eyes flickered off and on. "It will arrive at once. A medical team is on board for Irene."

"Thank you so much!"

As William waited for the drone to arrive, he looked at Rinne smiling silently nearby, and muttered "oh" as if remembering something. Rinne had only said they would lead the way to Neon Nebula, so he hadn't expected them to get involved in the fight with the beastmen.

"Thanks for getting us this far, Rinne."

"...Rinne, I'm sorry that was so scary," Irene said.

"No, no, I had fun."

"What're you gonna do now?" William asked.

"Now..."

Rinne smiled forlornly. It seemed to be a habit of theirs. Whenever they couldn't find an answer, Rinne always made that face. Perhaps it came from a desire not to hurt anyone else, or perhaps they didn't know any other expressions. William didn't know the circumstances, but it seemed they had nowhere to go.

"...Um, Miss Gigi?" Irene asked.

"What is it?"

"Could Rinne come with us?"

"...You sure?" Rinne asked.

"We never would have made it here without you."

Rinne, who never expected to hear such words, stared wide-eyed at Irene. Their red eyes trembled.

"Negative," Gigi replied. "My task is only to take you to Momo."

"But..."

"I've got an idea."

"What is that, Mr. William?"

"What if we considered Rinne our 'possession' we brought along? Should be fine then, right?"

Irene gasped and looked up at Gigi, pleading.

"Please, Miss Gigi!"

"...Acceptable," Gigi replied after a short silence. Then, she turned to Rinne, her red eyes flickering. "In that case, Rinne, can you answer just one question?"

"Yeah, ask away."

Gigi spoke.

"Where did you come from?"

If you hadn't already guessed, Rinne is not gendered at all in the original text and their gender is meant to be ambiguous—this isn't easy to pull off in English, however, so I opted for they/them pronouns. Rinne uses speaks bluntly and uses boku, a polite masculine pronoun sometimes used by young women as well (especially in anime) that further adds to the ambiguity.

Rinne's introduction also contains a nod to Nai, a popular Relation label character from DRE4M1N9 and definitely no other songs. When Irene asks their name, Rinne responds with "nai," literally meaning, "I don't have one," but Irene mistakes it for a name.