“I wonder if Hibiki and the others are doing okay...” I whispered to myself as I stared up at a night sky. It was more amazing than anything I’d ever seen on Earth.
“Mmmph...”
Mio began tossing in her sleep as she lay next to me. She seemed uncomfortable, but she was curled up in a ball like a tiny animal as she slept.
“...”
Maybe this whole thing was harder on her than anyone else. I still didn’t know what her story was, but she seemed normal enough. And now here we were, lost in another world somehow. I guess that part was my fault, really, but she had to have been scared. She’d barely said a word since we’d gotten here, too...
If nothing else, the idol known as MIO who I sometimes saw on TV was cheerful. She was always giggling and loved to talk. She looked young, but when she sang, she seemed like a grown-up. Yet the Mio sleeping next to me was nothing more than a petite girl. And an introverted one at that. Maybe it was because of everything she’d been through, including losing her memories. Maybe that was why she refused to leave my side. Maybe it was bad enough that she couldn’t sleep unless she was next to me...
“...Mmph.”
Suddenly, she sat up.
“Can’t sleep?”
“No...”
She shook her head a little, then inched over and leaned up right against me.
Just like you’d expect from an idol, she was incredibly cute even without her usual outfit and persona. But perhaps because of her size and the way she was acting, she looked more like a child than someone my age. It didn’t really bother me, but Tsumiki and Harissa hated it.
“Hmm... I honestly thought you were a lolicon, Rekka. Perhaps this is just some sort of paternal instinct?”
I want absolute silence from you, R. Absolute silence.
I flashed an infuriated smile at R as I put the jacket I’d been using over Mio’s shoulders. For a while, both of us sat there in silence as we watched the flames of the campfire together.
“Um, Rekka...”
“Hmm?” I turned around.
“I was an idol, wasn’t I?” Mio said, sounding a little upset.
“Yeah. I mean, not ‘was.’ You still are.”
“Am I? It doesn’t feel real...”
“Yeah, I could see that.” I’d already told her that she was an idol. “You can’t remember anything about your career?”
“Um, I... think I remember singing,” she said with a hesitant nod.
Similar to how hearing my name had caused her to remember that she was pushed off a roof, I’d learned that certain stimuli could trigger memories for Mio. While we’d been flying on Lea’s back, Tsumiki had started talking to her about her job as an idol, and it seemed she’d started to remember it.
“Is being an idol as hard as it looks?”
We were mostly just making small talk before bed, but I was also hoping I could jog her memory a little.
“It was hard, I think. Practice, singing, recording, the interviews... Every day was busy, I think. I still can’t remember most of it, though.”
“I see.”
“But there’s one thing in particular I do remember...”
“Oh, yeah?”
Mio’s voice suddenly got softer. It was like the voice you use when you’re talking about something unpleasant, but something that has nothing to do with you.
“I... I wanted to stop being an idol.”
“What?”
That certainly wasn’t what I’d expected her to say. Mio was an idol at the peak of her popularity. Music programs, in stores, commercials, even people’s ringtones when I was out in town... I heard her songs at least twice a day. That was how popular she was. But apparently she wanted to quit?
“Do you remember why you wanted to quit?”
“No...” Mio shook her head. “All I remember is that I didn’t want to do it anymore. I don’t remember why, or what happened then...”
Hmm... Something about this felt odd. It was like my gut was telling me that this was the core of Mio’s story. But a popular idol wanting to quit her job? It was a big deal, but not exactly anything world-shattering. So why...
She’d known my name even though we’d never met. She’d said she’d been pushed off a roof, but she was unharmed. Why were there so many mysteries in her story that not even Satsuki could figure out? Did her amnesia and the reason she wanted to quit being an idol have something to do with it? Right now, there was no way to know.
“I don’t think it’s that I wanted to stop singing...”
“No?”
“No. I still love singing, I think.”
Mio then started to sing softly. It was a lullaby, and the gentle melody was relaxing. It seemed like she was right. She must have worked hard to have that kind of talent. She really must have loved singing.
“...”
Corona’s eyes opened a little. She must have heard the lullaby, too. She still seemed to be sleepy, however. She was staring into space, but I could hear her humming softly. She seemed to know the song well enough that she could sing it even while half asleep. I guess... songs can cross the boundaries between worlds then, huh?
I started to hum along with Mio and Corona. Before I knew it, the tension had drained from me and everyone else around. They all seemed to be sleeping peacefully now, including Corona. I guess that was the power of a real idol.
“It’s nothing that special,” Mio said.
“You have a really pretty voice. It was a little different from the songs I hear on TV, but it was a wonderful song.”
“Th-Thank you.” Mio seemed a little embarrassed.
The idol MIO only sang happy pop songs that fit her girly image, but I guess she was talented enough to sing any kind of song she wanted. It felt rude to say that, though, so I didn’t.
“I think singing that lullaby made me sleepy,” she said, her eyes already half closed.
“We’re going to be on the move all day tomorrow, so get all the sleep you can. I’ll keep watch, so don’t worry.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
Mio laid her head back down on a balled-up jacket serving as a pillow, and she curled up like she had been before. I threw another branch on the fire as I listened to her fall asleep.
▽
Dawn came on the morning of what would’ve been July 21st on Earth, and Corona finally woke up.
“Mmmph...”
“Corona, how are you feeling?”
“Still a little out of it, but I do feel better.”
At the very least, she had her wits about her now. She seemed a lot better off compared to yesterday.
“Come on, you can pester her all you want later. If she’s up and about now, we’re going to take her to go get a bath.”
“I-I know.”
Tsumiki and Harissa shooed me away and helped Corona head down towards the river. Lea was currently overhead, flying around and trying to figure out where we should head next. It seemed like the girls had everything covered, so I decided to take a stroll.
“Rekka...”
Just as I was about to head off, Mio came up and grabbed my waist again.
“Want to go for a walk?”
She nodded silently, so the two of us headed out of camp together. We tried getting closer to the forest, but there was still no sign of any wildlife. No animals, and not even an insect... This was a pretty weird world.
“Wait a second...”
Something I’d learned about the natural world in elementary school suddenly crossed my mind. If there were no insects, how did the flowers pollinate? I mean, there were other ways it could happen, I guess, but didn’t flowers mostly depend on insects for that kind of thing? But there wasn’t a single bug to be found here.
And without them, how were these trees growing fruit? I suppose maybe they’d developed in some special way, but one question quickly led to another. For example, how did the food chain work here? Plants were pretty low on that ladder, but they weren’t on the bottom. That di
stinction belonged to corpses and the like. The bodies of dead bugs and animals turned into nourishment for plants. At least, that was how things worked on Earth.
Maybe dead branches could fill the same role, I guess. Either way, I couldn’t be sure. If I’d paid more attention in school, I probably would have had a better idea of how things worked... Maybe once we got back home, I’d get straight to doing my summer homework.
The real question was how these plants got their energy, but I had no way of knowing. This wasn’t the world I was from, and I barely knew how things worked there. In short, there wasn’t much point in wasting too much brainpower on it.
“I’ll just keep it in the back of my mind for now...”
Mio seemed confused by what I’d said aloud. I thought about explaining, but then saw Lea overhead flying back towards the camp, her long, red hair trailing behind her.
“Lea!” I yelled and waved to get her attention.
Was Corona about done with her bath?
“I guess we should head back,” I said.
“Okay.”
Mio and I turned around and headed out of the forest back toward the others.
▽
“A town at the bottom of the valley?”
“Well, it’s hard to even call it that, but it certainly looks like someone lives there.”
“I guess that’s where we’ll head, then.”
Even if she was awake now, Corona still wasn’t at full strength. I thought about asking her more about Aburaamu, but I didn’t want to push her until we’d gotten her to a doctor. Even if there wasn’t a doctor in the village, they should at least know where to find one, so nobody objected to us heading there next.
“...!”
When Corona saw Lea transform into a dragon to carry us, her eyes suddenly went wide. Come to think of it, though, she was unconscious before. Go figure she’d be surprised seeing Lea transform for the first time.
“She’s not dangerous, so you don’t need to be so worried,” I said.
“I’m not scared or anything, but...”
It seemed like there was something she wanted to say, so I motioned for her to continue.
“Anyone else would be terrified of a beast like that. If you’re heading into the village, it’s probably smarter not to go straight there.”
“I see.”
She had a point, so we decided to have Lea carry us to the edge of the valley, out of sight of the village, and walk our way into town from there.
▽
The valley itself wasn’t that deep. It took just a little over half an hour to reach the bottom of it by foot, and we found ourselves entering a tiny village of just a few houses standing in a row. But...
“So, this is it, huh?”
“We’re here, yeah.”
“Nobody’s here, are they?”
Tsumiki, Harissa, and I all drooped our shoulders in disappointment at the same time. I didn’t expect the village to be abandoned...
“I’m sorry. I got your hopes up for nothing.”
“No, it’s not your fault, Lea. This feels like the cabins at a campground, actually.”
Basically, there were buildings, but no open gathering spaces, fields, or anything like that. The houses themselves were surrounded by trees, so you could only see their roofs from above. There was still a gentle breeze blowing through the area, rustling the leaves and brushing the roofs of the cottages.
“I noticed this when I was coming down, but the wind just keeps blowing here, doesn’t it?”
The wind swept down into the valley where it formed an updraft. I could see the leaves on the trees being blown upwards.
“A valley where the wind never stops, huh?”
Since the cottages seemed to be uninhabited, we decided to stop in one so Corona could rest. The inside was a bit dusty, but it wasn’t that bad once we opened the windows to let it air out.
“I’m glad this is cleaner than I expected.”
“Yeah, they seem a little too clean, really,” Harissa said. She was the one who always did the cleaning at our house.
“It’s dusty, but not that bad. This village... If nothing else, it hasn’t been uninhabited all that long.”
So, there were people here up until recently? Why did they leave, anyway? Was it just temporary, or permanent?
“And that strange feeling has only gotten stronger since we arrived...”
“Are you talking about how the air feels different again?”
“Yes,” she said with a nod.
If that feeling was getting stronger, did it have something to do with the valley being empty?
“No rest for the weary, huh?” Lea sighed a little and stood up. “I’m going to take a look around. I’ll see if I can figure out where everyone went.”
“Okay, I’ll go with you. I want to get our washing done.”
“There should be a lake nearby. We can head there.”
Lea and Tsumiki left the cottage, carrying the laundry with them. The rest of us stayed behind to look after Corona.
“Corona, did anything hurt while you were walking?”
“No... I still feel sluggish, though.”
Harissa brought a chair next to where Corona was lying and started to ask her about how she was feeling. Mio and I sat on the other bed and watched.
“I’m not sure, but I think you’re sick. Do you have any idea what it might be?”
“I couldn’t say. I was never sick before I was sealed away.”
“So, you’ve got no idea?”
“I feel like I’ve seen other people with similar symptoms, but unfortunately, I can’t remember where. It was several hundred years ago, after all.”
“I-I see.”
Harissa’s glanced awkwardly around the room like she didn’t know what to say. She wasn’t exactly a doctor. If she was out of questions already, that would make it hard to help her. Of course, I didn’t know what to do, either. It would be different if we could give her some kind of physical exam...
“Corona.”
“What?”
“You were suffering pretty badly yesterday, but you feel better today, right? Do you have any idea why?”
“Why I feel better, you mean?” Corona looked down and thought about it for a moment. “Come to think of it, I heard a song.”
“A song?”
“That’s right. While I was slipping in and out of consciousness, I remember hearing it. It was like it soothed my pain and my heart.”
Was that...
I looked at Mio. She was looking back at me.
“Was that my lullaby?”
I was certain it was, but Mio didn’t seem sure. Sure, it would be a miracle if songs could heal sickness, but...
“Mio, can you sing that song again?”
“Huh? Um, but...”
“Please.”
“I don’t think there’s any way my songs can heal sickness...”
“I’d agree with you ordinarily, but....” I let my words hang for a moment. “We’re in another world right now. It’s possible things don’t work here the way we would expect them to. Maybe it is possible for songs to have healing effects.”
“Huh?” Mio said, clearly confused.
“Corona thinks that’s what made her feel better, so I think it’s worth a try.”
“U-Um...” Mio just looked down and mumbled.
I kept asking her, and she eventually relented and agreed.
“A-All right...”
She took a few deep breaths and then glanced over at Harissa and Corona. Her cheeks were a little red.
Was she reluctant because she was embarrassed? Was there some reason she was okay singing in front of me last night, but not the other girls?
“I know things are a little out of the ordinary with Mio, but when she leans on you like that, you’re still the same as ever, aren’t you?”
R was lounging on top of Corona on the bed, scratching her head and talking her usual nonsense.
“Here I
go...”
And so we had our own little mini concert with just us—including an awfully laid-back girl from the future—as the audience. Mio’s beautiful voice filled the cottage. I could feel tension I didn’t even know I had leaving my shoulders. Her singing really was relaxing. I looked over and could see that Harissa and Corona felt the same way.
“Um, that was the lullaby...”
“Let me hear more.”
“O-Okay... Here I go, um...”
Cheered on by Corona, Mio began her next song. The next thing we knew, we were all humming along with the rhythm or singing the lyrics softly to ourselves. All her songs were calm and warm. Even if she couldn’t remember anything else... No, maybe the words just came to her naturally as she sang. There was no hesitation in her singing voice.
“Oh...!”
Suddenly her song stopped.
“What’s wrong?”
“Um, as I was singing...”
“Did you remember something?”
“I think so...”
Apparently singing had stimulated something for her.
“What did you remember?”
“That I couldn’t sing freely.”
“Freely?”
I didn’t quite get what she was saying, so I had to ask what she meant.
“I wanted to sing all kinds of songs once I became an idol. But because of the way I look, they only let me sing certain types of songs...”
Mio looked down a little as she explained. But it made sense. She was saying that she couldn’t sing what she wanted to. It was true that she looked young enough to be paying the kid’s fare on the bus, and her image as an idol played off of that. All her songs I’d heard sure sounded like they came from someone with a bright, young personality. Really, she seemed to live up to her reputation as the top lolita idol. But from what we’d heard just now, she had an incredible voice and could probably sing anything well. That’s what she wanted to do, but she wasn’t allowed to... That must have been stressful.
I Saved Too Many Girls and Caused the Apocalypse: Volume 7 Page 9